10.30 Writing journals as documentation of an automatic self, more (un)truth and short essays

We started class with an exercise where you read through what you've written in your journal from two different perspectives.  You started out looking for patterns in content: what did your write about the most in terms of focus? were there repeated words? did much of your writing come back to the same places, people, ideas, actions?  Next you looked through your writing in terms of dominant emotion: was the writing predominantly curious? happy? sad? angry? grounded in a sense of loss?  Once you had a sense of these to features of your journal so far, you looked for correlations= how does the dominant subject material connect to, support, interact with, play out in terms of (etc) the dominant emotion?

This exercise was about looking at the snapshots of yourself on the page (your writing self, the self you have written onto the page) and looking for patterns in who that self is.  Noticing those patterns can give you information about strengths, interests, (unconscious) tendencies and overlooked possibilities associated with your writing, and it provides an opportunity to consciously step into a new perspective, writing style, emotional frame, or. . .. We concluded this exercise by writing something different.  You could write about the dominant content from a different emotion, or vice versa, or anything else. 

The rationale for this exercise comes from psychological research both about "loops" or "ruts" (as we discussed last week) and findings that we can "language" our way out of those loops by consciously noticing our language patterns, and amending/adapting/revising/opening them to something else.  Research has shown that in many ways, we become both who and "how" we say we are.    So see what you want to do with that one.

The great debate: When is it OK to alter the “truth” in CNF
.You were arbitrarily assigned as advocates of truthtelling and wanton lying in creative nonfiction.  The debate played out in terms of the following issues (which I have paired).

On the side of artistic license and bending the truth:
1.Liars: CNF by definition includes the use of art and dramatic presentation; this will necessarily deviate from the literal "truth" of "what happened".
Truthtellers: CNF as a genre identifies itself as accountable for what happened; when it cannot be accountable, it obliged to acknowledge (rather than cover up) its shortcomins. That is the contract with the reader for this genre, and genre matters.

2.Liars: Innocent + appealing "untruths" are harmless: CNF centers on a core truth= a central event /idea that the author experiences/explores.  This "truth" is the basis for the CNF contract, not the "details".White lies don’t hurt anyone because they do not change the bigger picture.  The truth of the experience remains true + the same even when details are changed.

Truthtellers: if changes are necessary, they need to be acknowledged because changing details DOES change the core truth.  The truth is in the details.

3. Liars:Truth is always partial:something always is edited out, and something is always added.
Truthtellers: intentional misrepresentation is different from necessary partiality.

4.Liars: Truth is never "T"ruth, but truth; it is always invested in someone's perspective.
Truthtellers:  Telling small "t" requires truthfulness about perspective.  Altering or obscuring the source of information violates the CNF contract.

I didn't get all of this - but that is the idea.  I think our conclusion is that where a writer stands with respect to telling "truth" to her/his readers is a personal decision, and is about how a writer defines his/her integrity.  We did not get into the standards of "truth" expected for different subgenres of CNF, such as literary journalism, travel writing, and so on.  Within these subgenres I am guessing, as readers and writers, we would have had specific, genre driven expectations about what should be literally true, and what could be artistically true (the Daisy piece raised many of these questions).  So I think that is that.

Short essays and Long essays
The assignment sheet for the short essays is posted to the right, so you can get started on that.  We will be workshopping/talking about some of your ideas for short essays in class next week.  Long essays, final revised drafts, are due by next class.

For next week

Read:  Lord, "I met a man," p. 115; Braner, "Soundtrack," p. 29;  McNight, "Mother's Day," p 120;  look around Mike Steinberg's blog http://www.mjsteinberg.net/blog.htm (don't forget to read the comments), Bresland, "Les Cruel Shoes," p. 31 (read it first in your book - and then check out http://www.blackbird.vcu.edu/v4n1/gallery/bresland/shoes.htm  you will need realplayer - free downlad) 

Blog 9: Final Long essay

 

Thanks for the good class.  Your debate was awesome.  See you next week.

short essay

short essay assignment sheet

Blogs and heads up for class this Wednesday

If you posted your draft long essay to your blog you get 10 points.  I will give you feedback at your conference (or by email if you requested it).

We will be working on titles for your long essays.

We will talk about the short essays.

10.23 Lies, finishing up the long essays, and moving on to the short nes

The James Frey story.  I think one reason I keep his story in the course is that classes bring so many different perspectives on how/whether his work goes over boundaries for ethical creative nonfiction.  I imagined he was a particularly egregious example of self-serving, exploitative, damaging to others use of purported truth for commercial purposes, and what is interesting is that while I didn't really hear too much disagreement with what he did, it seems relationships to those moves cover a broad range of responses.  And then there I Mike Daisy - when journalism gets into rounding the corners, embroidering facts, and compressing/fabricating events. 

At the beginning of class we created a list of different kinds of lies, and created a loose classification of which kinds of lies were "worst" and which didn't matter so much.  The list looked something like this.  Although our classifications weren't exactly mutually exclusive, they suggest the different motivations and functions for lies.

Most harmful
self serving (blame others, take credit, appropriate others' stories. . .)
preserve/cultivate a self image (connects to self-serving lies)

Depends
prevent/avoid conflict (avoid hurting others, social lies)
preserve autonomy (lies typical in conversations across power differentials, like the kinds of lies adolescents tell to parents, workers to bosses [sick days] etc)
preserve someone else's frights/freedoms (similar to preserving autonomy but for someone else)
avoid getting into  trouble (withhold information, don't tell more than necessary - some people didn't even consider this lying)

Harmless (but of course it depends)
teasing (can be playful but also can be bullying)
playful lying

Some general observations about why writers, especially creative nonfiction writers need to think about lies include the following.
1. All of us almost always lie in our writing /thinking, so being familiar with the kinds of lies you tell is important.
2. Different genres have different relationships to truth; so it is important to make sure you are within the "truth frame" for your genre.
3.  Telling a story is always inherently inaccurate - since it involves interpretation=> the imposition of a narrative line which strings what otherwise are unassociated events to make "sense" of unorganized experience.  As writers, examining our relationships to the kinds of stories we tell can tell us not only about the events we write about, but about ourselves.

Discussion of writers who include "lies" in their work. We then talked about Frey and Daisy, and the perspectives were pretty much all over the place, which was wonderful.  Most perspectives fell between either:

 they produced their work to make money and they were successful, and "lying" (strategic representation of truth) is more or less part of the "work" of producing materials that sell;

or these two writers betrayed their readers/audience, perpetucated "lies" that can do damage to real people in the real world, and exploited real people by appropriating and misrepresenting their stories within genres that purport to you true.

We did notice that most of Frey's lies were of the kind at the top of the list (the damaging categories). 

We also noticed, though I didn't spend much time on it, that much of the untruth in Frey's narrative was a good match for "stereotypes" or cultural stories about the "criminal with a heart of gold," "bad cops," "corrupt legal systems," "struggling adolescent boys," "crime bosses with a heart  of gold" and tragic love relationships (the story about Lily).  In other words, part of what made his story believable was that is a good fit with worn out storylines from pulp fiction and romance = which may well be why it was not published as a work of fiction.  Something to think about.

Before the workshop on your long essays, we finished class with a list of observations about the place of lies/truth in CNF.
1. If it can be proved wrong, don't write it (the don't get caught approach).
2.Don't write material that will jeopardize reputation (yours or others)
3. Write your own truth; stay in your own story.
4. Be mindful of the world=> your truth is not the only truth out there
5. embellishment is not bad, but there can be a fine line between embellishment and lying=> be faithful to the central truth of your story
6. Be as truthful as you can be. Don't take liberties for the sake of the story. Your truth is in your perspective.
7. Writers should not plagiarize, slander, or state facts without evidence

There were several more observations, but I couldn't read my handwriting.  Sad but true.

Finishing long essay. I am hoping you got lots of good feedback on your drafts, and have the beginning of a plan for revising your long essay.  We changed the due date for the revised long essay to November 6.  You signed up for conferences (or requested written feedback).  The conference schedule is as follows.

Thursday, 10.24
10:30 Kristen, 4:30 Maria

Monday 10.28
7:00 Tobey

Tuesday 10.29
12:30 Filip,  3:30 Robert; 7:15 Alessia

Wednesday 10.30
1:00 Angelica; 2:30 Sara; 3:00 Nikki; 3:30 Kristi

Thursday 10.31
3:15 Dave

If you have not signed up for a conference or requested written feedback, send me an email and we will set something up.

For next week:
Read:  More about truth!

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/

Short fiction handouts: Fallout by Seamus Deane, and Accident by Dawn Marano  (f you did not get one in class, there are extra copies in my mailbox, next to CAS 301 in the English Department).

Blog  8:.  Brainstorming for short essay.  Think about a focus that can be explored/opened up in terms of a single scene/story - or a set of tightly connected events.

The revised long essay will be due November 6.

Have fun writing, and see you next week.

10.16 Family stories and Draft 2

You started by writing a list of stories your family tells- about you, about each other, at family gatherings, when company comes, or in response to certain events.  We then characterized these stories in terms of how they felt and what they did.  Our list looked something like this.

Funny
Precious
Providing family history - telling about the past + providing information about members who might not be there
Characterizing family members
Describing relationships

As we continued to talk (and you continued to add to, write about and think about the stories on your lists) we noticed who told the stories, in what contexts, and to what effects; whether the same story was told by more than one family member or only by one; how the stories were received.  And we began to think about the family dynamics (not necessarily the ones narrated in the stories) that these stories enact. 

You then went back to your lists and thought about how you might use a set of stories - juxtaposed, or told in a sequence or in parallel - as a way to portray something about something about the family/people who tell them.  Good work on this!

Workshop.  You spent the rest of class working in groups.  The volume of discussion was a sustained hum (sounded good to me) and I'm hoping you all got what you need to take with you.

For next week: 
Read:  Smoking gun expose of A Million Little Pieces
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/celebrity/million-little-lies
Mr. Daisey and the Apple Factory http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/454/mr-daisey-and-the-apple-factory =>Read the overview at the preceding link, and then follow the link on that page and listen to the retraction episode  http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/460/retraction

Blog 7: Due Draft long essay 2

10.9 Writing a path to the final scene and brainstorming for Draft 2

Tonight's focus was on creating an essay that knows where it is going from the first word of the title:  An essay that drops readers into carrying metaphors that evoke the feelings and ideas central to its contemplation. 

Brainstorming to mental flash shots.  For the brainstorming activity you let yourself settle into a relaxed state, and watched the images that flicker through your head.  As best you could, without interrupting the flow of the picture show, you wrote down key words to call back that image when you finished the exercise.

When we shared lists, you looked to see if there were patterns in the sequence or focus of your images.  Did their sequence suggest any kind of chronology?  Are all these images related some how? 

Then you wrote the scene evoked by one of the images, both as a narrative, and as a description (just the details of what you can see).

You also did some freewriting, followed by some focused freewriting.  We didn't do much with that, but it is there in your notebook.  Something that came into your mind.

The Patch and Silent Dancing
.We talked about these two essays using similar processes (though I belabored the structure a little more in McPhee's essay).  First we generated a list of what the essay was "about" = the ideas or feelings that operated as a kind of center for the stories/material the author presented.  Then we puled out some of the recurring images or metaphors the author resorted to in his/her telling of the story.  And finally, we looked at how the author used the sequence, juxtaposition, repetition, and so on the "build" an overall felt response - the reader's takeaway for the essay.  We also noticed how these two essays lead us to a final scene which calls upon much, if not all, of the material the authors have placed in our way, as if, they are orchestrating an experience of reading an essay which will allow us to see the thoughts and feelings evoked by their writing  both in terms of our own experiences, and theirs.

For next week:
Blog 6:  Brainstorming for draft 2 for the long essay.  Try listing some of the feelings/ideas you want your essay to be about, identifying "scenes" to create the experience of those feelings/ideas, listing some metaphors in your feelings & ideas that will "carry" your concept.  This may not be the way you usually write - but see what you can do with it.

Next class will be devoted to work on drafting long essay to, so come to class with some material to work with.

10.2 Workshop for drafts + Search for Marvin Gardens

Tonight's prompt was to write a list of topics you would not write about.  Even though most of you indicated you would write about most everything, we generated a list of the categories of material which seemed to characterize the kinds of topics we might be reluctant to write.  This list included the following.

material that was not yet processed
experiences connected to cultural taboos
stories about illegal actions
experiences where we (the author) behaves badly or does not come off well (feels ashamed)
stories that belong to someone else

If we think about CNF's objectives - as set forward by Lott, Gutkind and other CNF authors - in some ways they seem to direct us toward exactly the kinds of materials authors might be reluctant to take on.  As we discussed toward the end of this section of class, if CNF seeks to "explore" or make sense of what it is to be human, these topics certainly direct us toward some of the unresolved, not talked about and "forbidden" areas in human lives. 

While our class conversation was much more convoluted - that is the heart of it.

Workshops
You spent the middle of class workshopping your drafts.  Your list of what you wanted feedback on included:
Was my essay a good read?
what should I add/delete?
how does the organization/segmentation work?
is it CNF?  (Does it include incessant questioning/deepening exploration of an idea?  does it present rendered experience => shown not told?)

You kept notes on what you learned from your talk, and we talked about some of the realizations you had about what you wanted to do with your essays.


The Search for Marvin Gardens. 

This discussion identified the three threads/narrative lines in McPhee's essay: walking through Atlantic City, noticing the urban decay, on a search for Marvin Gardens; playing the game Monopoly with comments on the strategies/practices/objects of play; historical commentaries on how Atlantic City was built (and by whom).  While these three strands were broken up into segments that were interspersed among one another - I suggested that we might think of them each as making the same point/contemplating the same idea from a different perspective - like the three successive stories in Stripped for Parts.  The point they were contemplating is set up in the title (also as in Stripped for Parts), metaphorically, and although the essay is about the middle class, and all three threads lead to a contemplation on the importance of economic and political and social structures associated with the middleclass, McPhee accompanies us in that contemplation but does not preach to us or argue with us. Rather, he tells us stories that take us there.





****One important thing to notice in McPhee's essay is that his idea/contemplation - the role of the middle class in creating sustainable communities - is at the center of his essay. That idea, not the stories themselves, drives the essay's organization and selection of material. CNF certainly includes powerfully rendered scenes, characters, and settings, but at the center of the essay is its idea.

As you think about how to revise your essays, give some thought to what idea you are exploring.  How did this story make you grow/feel/see the world differently?  What idea(s) does your story embody?  Use those ideas/themes/contemplations to focus the way you tell your story: the particular material you select, the organization, and the way you portray it.

For next week:
Read: Cofer: p.54, "Silent dancing"; "The Patch" by John McPhee
Blog 5: write about your plans for revising Draft 1