Watching our unconscious selves. We started class with an exercise to access "unconscious" material. This exercise was not meant to get a list of ideas for an essay on the page, it was meant to introduce you to one practice for accessing feelings, intuitions, and dream thoughts in a way that you can "watch" them - and then describe them. By describing what you see/experience during the kinds of brief meditation we did in class - especially if you visit this thinking/feeling/nonverbal space regularly and write what you see - you can document patterns in the images, feelings, obsessions, ruts for thinking, and so on that come into your mind. Some of you may have taken the exercise to the next step by "speaking to" the dream figures that you invite (or that come unbidden) into your mind. These kind of exercises open us up to what we don't know that we don't know. For more on watching your mind (a zen based approach) you might look at Mindfulness in Plain English by Bhante Gunaratana, and for more on exploring your dreams you might read Robert Johnson's Inner work: Using dreams and active imagination for personal work (both on Amazon).
First assignment. The assignment sheet for the first essay is posted to the right under Assignment sheets. We talked through the criteria. I pointed out that we hadn't talked about segmented essays yet (we will be reading about them for next week) and suggested that you do your brainstorming for next class without worrying too much about that requirement (see prompt for Blog 3). The requirements for undergrads and grads are slightly different so pay attention to your classification.
We then did a little talking about how some of the topics/stories you brought up in our discussions from the first two classes might be turned into CNF essays. Probably the most important consideration was to make sure you had both a conceptual focus and a "story" that could be presented using the "techniques" for CNF (narrative, character, scenes, dialog, literary moves similar to what we observed in the sample texts, and so on), and that there be movement between the concept and the narrative. As we observed in our discussion of Lott - a CNF essay can "fail" if it hammers us too hard with its point (as with Lott's story), and if there seem to be narrative elements that are not central to the essay's development of its concept (as some of you found with the presentation of the blond woman who called for the CNF police) the essay weakens as well. For your writing for Blog 3, you may find yourself more able to produce lots of stories or lots of reflections - and for this week just go with whatever comes to you. Hopefully the class workshop will help you write into and integrate the two components.
Lott & Gutkind: You raised many thoughtful observations about how CNF works - and about how these two authors "defined" the genre. You noted that Lott's essay was a little idealistic - in that it emphasized the art and interactive/experiential and mission (see the responsibility section at the end) features of CNF to the extent that CNF writers may seem as if they belong to a cult (yeah that's a little exaggerated - but I found my self thinking that as we came to the end of the discussion - it was like Lott was pushing a set of beliefs CNF writers needed to buy into to be "real" CNF authors). At the same time - Lott's essay also articulated a concrete series of things that CNF did or engaged readers (and authors) in doing. On that list were significant considerations about telling the truth => which leads into Gutkind's piece. While his essay was more narrative (and for some of you more enjoyable) - the body did not provide some much "how to" (though the the list at the end does when it warns about not creating incidents or characters, not harming innocent victims, remembering your own story but thinking intently on how it impacts your reader...). Rather it raised questions (at least it seemed to for us) about the authors repsonsibilities to truth-telling - and what (T)ruth is. I'm not sure I can sum up this discussion because it seemed there were different perspectives. We will definitely be continuing this talk as we read about Stephen Frey.
First assignment. The assignment sheet for the first essay is posted to the right under Assignment sheets. We talked through the criteria. I pointed out that we hadn't talked about segmented essays yet (we will be reading about them for next week) and suggested that you do your brainstorming for next class without worrying too much about that requirement (see prompt for Blog 3). The requirements for undergrads and grads are slightly different so pay attention to your classification.
We then did a little talking about how some of the topics/stories you brought up in our discussions from the first two classes might be turned into CNF essays. Probably the most important consideration was to make sure you had both a conceptual focus and a "story" that could be presented using the "techniques" for CNF (narrative, character, scenes, dialog, literary moves similar to what we observed in the sample texts, and so on), and that there be movement between the concept and the narrative. As we observed in our discussion of Lott - a CNF essay can "fail" if it hammers us too hard with its point (as with Lott's story), and if there seem to be narrative elements that are not central to the essay's development of its concept (as some of you found with the presentation of the blond woman who called for the CNF police) the essay weakens as well. For your writing for Blog 3, you may find yourself more able to produce lots of stories or lots of reflections - and for this week just go with whatever comes to you. Hopefully the class workshop will help you write into and integrate the two components.
Lott & Gutkind: You raised many thoughtful observations about how CNF works - and about how these two authors "defined" the genre. You noted that Lott's essay was a little idealistic - in that it emphasized the art and interactive/experiential and mission (see the responsibility section at the end) features of CNF to the extent that CNF writers may seem as if they belong to a cult (yeah that's a little exaggerated - but I found my self thinking that as we came to the end of the discussion - it was like Lott was pushing a set of beliefs CNF writers needed to buy into to be "real" CNF authors). At the same time - Lott's essay also articulated a concrete series of things that CNF did or engaged readers (and authors) in doing. On that list were significant considerations about telling the truth => which leads into Gutkind's piece. While his essay was more narrative (and for some of you more enjoyable) - the body did not provide some much "how to" (though the the list at the end does when it warns about not creating incidents or characters, not harming innocent victims, remembering your own story but thinking intently on how it impacts your reader...). Rather it raised questions (at least it seemed to for us) about the authors repsonsibilities to truth-telling - and what (T)ruth is. I'm not sure I can sum up this discussion because it seemed there were different perspectives. We will definitely be continuing this talk as we read about Stephen Frey.
Next week we will start in the computer lab (CAS 202) where you will workshop your brainstorming. We will then spend some time thinking about the different ways CNF writers use segments as "meaning making" elements of their essays - and you can develop ideas about how you might use segmenting in your writing.
Read: Root, 318; Schwartz,
p. 194, Kahn, p. 95
Blog 3: invention
writing for Long essay 1. This posts should explore "episodes" or "scenes" associated with the idea you want to write about. Or it can be writing about the ideas or points you want to make. If possible, try to hold off on composing coherent, edited prose. Rather do some in-depth describing and speculating that circles around your "story" and/or your "idea." Go as far as you can - and do not "marry" your prose - you are going to be moving on. Also, the more writing you post the stronger position you will be in to benefit from the workshop during the first part of class. Have fun!
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