Web publishing internship. I announced that there will be a web publishing internship offered as a course through the English Department for Spring, 12. This is the link for what students are doing this term. Mia Zamora is the person to contact if you are interested.
Feedback for Draft 2. Along with your draft you posted some specific requests for what you wanted from your readers. In addition to your requests, I asked the class to:
Feedback for Draft 2. Along with your draft you posted some specific requests for what you wanted from your readers. In addition to your requests, I asked the class to:
1. state or "sayback" what the essay is about
2. identify the emotional high point(s)
3. any suggestions for organization
- focus + what needs to come first to set up what the essay is about
- story arc
- emotional arc
4. anything else you might like to say.
Feedback groups:
Jameelah, Lewis, Arlette, Jay, Andrea
Sara, Laurelle, Paris, Claudia
Luis, Maria, Ashley, Midiyna
Heather, Allyson, Roshell, Andre
Jameelah, Lewis, Arlette, Jay, Andrea
Sara, Laurelle, Paris, Claudia
Luis, Maria, Ashley, Midiyna
Heather, Allyson, Roshell, Andre
You got a good start on this, and we had some follow-up talk about giving comments. Finish writing to your group members for homework.
You have scheduled conferences to talk over how you would work further on this draft = and to discuss which essay, 1 or 2, you are going to revise for a grade.
Lies. The writing prompt was about lies. We listed the kinds of lies we are told and classified them, and came up with the observations that while we tell lies for many different reasons, there are certain clusters of reasons for lying to others.
1. to manipulate or get a person or group to do or support ideas or actions (usually associated with the liar's interest); these include enabling lies.
2. to preserve freedom (for the liar); as we discussed in class these lies can be self affecting - or the deception can have concrete consequences on the autonomy or well being of the person lied to
3. to create/get others to support a worldview that the liar wants to believe in
These lies are all done with the purpose of deceiving others - although the last one - often not so much..
We also noted that there were lies where the liar didn't necessarily consider what they were doing as lying. These included:
Delusional lies were lies where the liar cannot accurately interpret what most people agree upon as "fact;" (we included supertitions in this one). Ideological lies are lies that are true in one set of assumptions (as in religious or political beliefs) but considered untruthful by individuals who have other beliefs. Ideological lies can shade into manipulative or freedom preserving lies - depending on the liar's level of awareness. Playful lies would include the kinds of embellishments and exaggerations in storytelling; and unintentional lies are simply when individuals do not have enough information; as our discussion unfolded it became clear that sometimes unintentional lies could shade into manipulations associated with enabling => when individuals are not really aware of the ways they are perpetuating/misrepresenting what an outsider might see as "really" going on.
So while we got a classification system up there on the board - it was clear there were overlaps among the categories.
Lies and power.
This led to a discussion of who has the most power = the liar or the truth teller? the lie or the truth?
We had proponents for both sides of this discussion - and again it was not clear cut. Liars have the advantage that they are not bound by reality - they can "invent" support for their position. Truthtellers have the advantage that they will not get "caught" in a lie.
At the same time - if we consider the case of President Obama's birth certificate => these two principles do not seem so clear cut. Who got caught? Who proved what? What counts as proof? Is anyone INTENTIONALLY lying in this situation. . . ?
We also raised the ideas that "truth always comes to light" and that truth's power is in its Truth (once you see it you recognize it. Again - in real life examples this gets messy.
James Frey and the responsibility of CNF writers. This conversation provided some background for our talk about James Frey. We listed all the different lies that he told, and you observed that the majority of his lies were directed toward (re)creating his life so that it matched a larger than life literary genre = the bad-boy with a heart of gold = James Dean in Rebel without a Cause, John Wayne in The man who shot Liberty Valence, Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights, and countless other stories of criminals, gang members, and outlaws who are larger than life examples of self destructive behavior and being outsiders, but are there for their loved ones or "do the right thing" in terms of "what really counts."
We also noted in class that these changes were about $$$ => about selling a book. And that is certainly true.
The last part of class discussion was about doing some reflection on the temptations of telling such lies - even when it is not (intentionally) about making a better story.
The last writing exercise was to make a list of the kinds of lies you are (tempted) to tell. We didn't get to spend as much time on this as we needed - but one quick generalization is that we want to tell lies to assure ourselves that we are OK, that the world is a "good" place, that the people we love are all right (and good people, and will be there for us). And this set of self deceptions sounds if not the same - at least similar to the class of lies Frey was selling => even very bad people are, inside, "good" = they will be "there" for you (if you are the right kind of person = some one special).
The point of the evening was to;
think about the kind of damage misrepresentations can do (we needed to spend a little more time on this with our list from Frey = but should catch up on this one next week)
think about the kinds of lies/misrepresentations that tempt us to tell them (and why)
and begin to decide on the stance we will take with respect to "truth" in our writing (each one of you will have your own individual position on this).
Great discussion!
Next week will be one more class on truth and lies.
You have scheduled conferences to talk over how you would work further on this draft = and to discuss which essay, 1 or 2, you are going to revise for a grade.
Lies. The writing prompt was about lies. We listed the kinds of lies we are told and classified them, and came up with the observations that while we tell lies for many different reasons, there are certain clusters of reasons for lying to others.
1. to manipulate or get a person or group to do or support ideas or actions (usually associated with the liar's interest); these include enabling lies.
2. to preserve freedom (for the liar); as we discussed in class these lies can be self affecting - or the deception can have concrete consequences on the autonomy or well being of the person lied to
3. to create/get others to support a worldview that the liar wants to believe in
These lies are all done with the purpose of deceiving others - although the last one - often not so much..
We also noted that there were lies where the liar didn't necessarily consider what they were doing as lying. These included:
- "delusional,"
- ideological,
- playful,
- and unintentional lies.
Delusional lies were lies where the liar cannot accurately interpret what most people agree upon as "fact;" (we included supertitions in this one). Ideological lies are lies that are true in one set of assumptions (as in religious or political beliefs) but considered untruthful by individuals who have other beliefs. Ideological lies can shade into manipulative or freedom preserving lies - depending on the liar's level of awareness. Playful lies would include the kinds of embellishments and exaggerations in storytelling; and unintentional lies are simply when individuals do not have enough information; as our discussion unfolded it became clear that sometimes unintentional lies could shade into manipulations associated with enabling => when individuals are not really aware of the ways they are perpetuating/misrepresenting what an outsider might see as "really" going on.
So while we got a classification system up there on the board - it was clear there were overlaps among the categories.
Lies and power.
This led to a discussion of who has the most power = the liar or the truth teller? the lie or the truth?
We had proponents for both sides of this discussion - and again it was not clear cut. Liars have the advantage that they are not bound by reality - they can "invent" support for their position. Truthtellers have the advantage that they will not get "caught" in a lie.
At the same time - if we consider the case of President Obama's birth certificate => these two principles do not seem so clear cut. Who got caught? Who proved what? What counts as proof? Is anyone INTENTIONALLY lying in this situation. . . ?
We also raised the ideas that "truth always comes to light" and that truth's power is in its Truth (once you see it you recognize it. Again - in real life examples this gets messy.
James Frey and the responsibility of CNF writers. This conversation provided some background for our talk about James Frey. We listed all the different lies that he told, and you observed that the majority of his lies were directed toward (re)creating his life so that it matched a larger than life literary genre = the bad-boy with a heart of gold = James Dean in Rebel without a Cause, John Wayne in The man who shot Liberty Valence, Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights, and countless other stories of criminals, gang members, and outlaws who are larger than life examples of self destructive behavior and being outsiders, but are there for their loved ones or "do the right thing" in terms of "what really counts."
We also noted in class that these changes were about $$$ => about selling a book. And that is certainly true.
The last part of class discussion was about doing some reflection on the temptations of telling such lies - even when it is not (intentionally) about making a better story.
The last writing exercise was to make a list of the kinds of lies you are (tempted) to tell. We didn't get to spend as much time on this as we needed - but one quick generalization is that we want to tell lies to assure ourselves that we are OK, that the world is a "good" place, that the people we love are all right (and good people, and will be there for us). And this set of self deceptions sounds if not the same - at least similar to the class of lies Frey was selling => even very bad people are, inside, "good" = they will be "there" for you (if you are the right kind of person = some one special).
The point of the evening was to;
think about the kind of damage misrepresentations can do (we needed to spend a little more time on this with our list from Frey = but should catch up on this one next week)
think about the kinds of lies/misrepresentations that tempt us to tell them (and why)
and begin to decide on the stance we will take with respect to "truth" in our writing (each one of you will have your own individual position on this).
Great discussion!
Next week will be one more class on truth and lies.
Read: Jill Talbert http://brevity.wordpress.com/2012/04/18/border-crossings-fiction-and-the-literature-of-fact/
Dinty Moore http://brevity.wordpress.com/2012/04/20/what-is-given-against-knowingly-changing-the-truth/
Blog 8: Discussion of how you would work more on Long Essay 2 + discussion of which essay you are going to revise.
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