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
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