What an awesome debate on "truth". My head was spinning. So many ways to think about what writers do with the truth in their writing. That was the best! (Even the shouting.)
For next class: Final drafts for the long essay are due April 1.
Conferences for Wednesday, 3.26
2:00 Michele; 3:00 Megan; 3:30 Kyle
If you would like a conference - send an email or stop by my office.
Journal mining
You looked at the journals you have been keeping for the last 9 weeks and noticed patterns in ideas/themes, positioning (language moves), emotions, content (what/who keeps coming up as a topic?). Most of you found something that surprised you, all of you found patterns - dominant positionings, recurring emotional attitudes, and people, places and things that turned up on more pages than expected. You also noticed patterns in which topics/people evoked positive emotions - and which were less positive.
After talking and reflecting on these patterns, you wrote a scene which opened up/wrote into one of the dominant patterns in your joural.
More about truth
After break - we reviewed the arguments/confessions Talbert makes about not sweating the details, and Moore's reply to the particular details she "revised". Then we had a very short debate where you took a position on whether and how much literal truth should direct creative nonfiction, which is - as Moore points out - always already - at least in part=> fiction.
The great debate!
Point made by the it's OK to bend the truth group.
1) CNF needs to retain authority over rpresentation
2) there are alwyas 3 sides to a story => eveyrone will have their own perspectie and no one can write the truth
3) all writers have diffeent perspectives ; they are not bending the truth they are creating it
4) definition of CNF incloudes opinion
5) you probaby won't get caught
Nothing but the truth
1) Definition => facts + reality
2) Adding facts makes better writing
3) Lots of room for perspective that does not involve changing facts
4) you will lose readers by betraying trust
Rebuttal to Truth tellers
It is OK to=
change facts
make up material
fill in what you are uncertain about
disguise your (the author0's) relation to the material as kibg as the essential story is there
pbulic perception determines genre (what counts as nonfiction)
Rebutal to liars
Use craft/writing to make truth
Why not acknowledge the parts that are uncertain or not remembered or supposed
the integrity of the author is at stake + the relationship to the reader
Truth teller's conclusion: genre distinctions matter. The art of the genre is what makes CNF.
Liar's conclusion: CNF gives writers the liberty to blur distinctions between truth &
For next week.
I know this looks like a lot of readings - but they are short - and reading a range of the different kinds of short essays that are possible will give you some ideas.
Read: handouts Accident + The Indian Dog; 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 download)
Blog 7: Final Draft long essay
Tuesday, March 25, 2014
Monday, March 17, 2014
For class 3.18
You do not need to physically attend class, but:
1. your draft needs to be posted by the beginning of class on 3.18
2. Some time before the end of class - you need to provide comments for your group as outlined on the 3.5 Lies post under "for next week 3.18"
Have a great week and see you next week.
Wednesday, March 5, 2014
Conference schedue for Long Essay Draft 2
Note: discussion of class 3.4 + class plans for 3. 18 & 3.25 are in the previous post.
Monday, March 24
10:30 Jennifer, 11:00 Bri; 3:15 Brandon
Tuesday, March 25
11:00 Bri, 3:30 Joanna, 4:00 Danielle, 5:00 Adrian, 5:30 Becky; 8:45 Alexis
Wednesday, March 26
2:00 Michele; 3:00 Megan; 3:30 Kyle
If you need to schedule a conference - send me an email. (David, Joanna, Ashley, Graig, Sharyn)
Available times:
Monday 11:30, 2:00
Tuesday 11:00 & 1:00
Wednesday 2:30
If none of those times work, send me some possibilities and we will work it out.
Monday, March 24
10:30 Jennifer, 11:00 Bri; 3:15 Brandon
Tuesday, March 25
11:00 Bri, 3:30 Joanna, 4:00 Danielle, 5:00 Adrian, 5:30 Becky; 8:45 Alexis
Wednesday, March 26
2:00 Michele; 3:00 Megan; 3:30 Kyle
If you need to schedule a conference - send me an email. (David, Joanna, Ashley, Graig, Sharyn)
Available times:
Monday 11:30, 2:00
Tuesday 11:00 & 1:00
Wednesday 2:30
If none of those times work, send me some possibilities and we will work it out.
3.4 Lies
You wrote through a series of scenes associated with your experience of lies: the setting/surrounding circumstances when you when you believed the lie; the revellation; the fallout. Whether you choose to use it or not is up to you, several of you had material that looked like it could set up an essay.
Some observations:
These patterns (admittedly from a small, unrepresentative data base) suggest that lies of betrayal told in (important) relationships (friendships, love relationships, w/in family connections) "trouble" us the most (draw our attention). These are "personal" lies - told (mostly) by people we wanted to trust.
James Frey discussion: after counting up and classifying Frey's lies, we came up with the following classification:
As written here, they are approximately in the reverse order of the ranking the class gave them in terms of seriousness.
Mike Daisey
The class as planned included discussion of the difference between Frey's lies and Daisey's lies, but that did not seem to be in the cards last night. Here is what we would have talked about.
While much of the untruth in Frey was outright untruth, Daisey's work drew more from the moves we read about in Gutkind: rounding the corners, compression, re-casting facts in ways which (as Daisey put it) represented the "feeling" of the truth, but were not literally true. This is a different kind of lying and as pointed out in the interview where Ira Glass rakes him over the coals, if this were "art" and not journalism, it might have been held to a different standard.
So our question as CNF writers, is are we creating art? And if we are, is our obligation to truth literal or figurative? Are we obligated to the particular facts? Or only to conveying the 'essence' of what happened?
The readings we will discuss 3.25 will examine the fine points of this. We will start with a review of Daisey and Frey, and then jump into the middle of a dispute about truth between CNF authors.
For next week (3.18):
Blog 6: Draft Long Essay 2. Your post should include (at the top) an indication of what kind of feedback you are looking for from your group.
During class time, workshop your draft with your group by providing comments your group members' blogs in terms of the following rubric.
1. Say-back/rephrase the essay's focus - so the author gets a feel for whether s/he has gotten the ideas across. Point out (if you can) which parts of the essay led you to your interpretation.
2. Point out what works for you in terms of the essay's content, organization, and development.
3. Reply to the author's requests for feedback
4. Ask questions about any connections, content, backstory etc which you need more information about or which felt unclear.
5. Discuss any other issues associated with focus, organization, development which work well or which could be developed. In particular, review the criteria for the assignment, point out and features the author might want to attend to (e.g. segmenting).
Groups:
David, Brandon, Adrian, Bri
Jennifer, Ashley, Graig
Danielle, Michele, Alexis, Joanne
Becky, Sharyn, Megan, Kyle
For 3.25
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 7: In light of comments from your group, indicate which of the two long drafts you plan to revise for a grade, and indicate what kinds of revisions you expect to make.
Have a great break and I will be checking through your blogs.
Some observations:
- all stories involved being lied to rather than telling a lie
- a number of stories involved the internet/texting/some kind of not f2f communication as a source for discovering the truth
- many stories involved betrayals/ manipulations within friendships and relationships
These patterns (admittedly from a small, unrepresentative data base) suggest that lies of betrayal told in (important) relationships (friendships, love relationships, w/in family connections) "trouble" us the most (draw our attention). These are "personal" lies - told (mostly) by people we wanted to trust.
James Frey discussion: after counting up and classifying Frey's lies, we came up with the following classification:
- lies that steal/appropriate other people's identities/lives (placing him self within other people's experiences)
- lies that mess with other people's interpretations of what happened (claiming a relationship to the dead teen placed her friends/parents in a confusing position)
- lies that contribute to "bad" stereotypes, may damage a real person's career (lying about police brutality)
- lies to cultivate a stereotyipcal for some reason "desirable" representation of self (the bad boy with a heart of gold lies about how f*cked up he was, yet how 'good' he was to individual people)
- creation of imaginary, stereotypical characters (the heart of gold mafia murderer, the frail girlfriend who tragically dies from the need of him, the convict who wants to be read Russion novels)
- lies about his relationship to drugs (exaggerated his use + claimed if you want to quit you can do it on your own - all you have to do is make up your mind + active disparaging of AA and psychologists/therapy)
- lying about lying (this book is true)
As written here, they are approximately in the reverse order of the ranking the class gave them in terms of seriousness.
Mike Daisey
The class as planned included discussion of the difference between Frey's lies and Daisey's lies, but that did not seem to be in the cards last night. Here is what we would have talked about.
While much of the untruth in Frey was outright untruth, Daisey's work drew more from the moves we read about in Gutkind: rounding the corners, compression, re-casting facts in ways which (as Daisey put it) represented the "feeling" of the truth, but were not literally true. This is a different kind of lying and as pointed out in the interview where Ira Glass rakes him over the coals, if this were "art" and not journalism, it might have been held to a different standard.
So our question as CNF writers, is are we creating art? And if we are, is our obligation to truth literal or figurative? Are we obligated to the particular facts? Or only to conveying the 'essence' of what happened?
The readings we will discuss 3.25 will examine the fine points of this. We will start with a review of Daisey and Frey, and then jump into the middle of a dispute about truth between CNF authors.
For next week (3.18):
Blog 6: Draft Long Essay 2. Your post should include (at the top) an indication of what kind of feedback you are looking for from your group.
During class time, workshop your draft with your group by providing comments your group members' blogs in terms of the following rubric.
1. Say-back/rephrase the essay's focus - so the author gets a feel for whether s/he has gotten the ideas across. Point out (if you can) which parts of the essay led you to your interpretation.
2. Point out what works for you in terms of the essay's content, organization, and development.
3. Reply to the author's requests for feedback
4. Ask questions about any connections, content, backstory etc which you need more information about or which felt unclear.
5. Discuss any other issues associated with focus, organization, development which work well or which could be developed. In particular, review the criteria for the assignment, point out and features the author might want to attend to (e.g. segmenting).
Groups:
David, Brandon, Adrian, Bri
Jennifer, Ashley, Graig
Danielle, Michele, Alexis, Joanne
Becky, Sharyn, Megan, Kyle
For 3.25
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 7: In light of comments from your group, indicate which of the two long drafts you plan to revise for a grade, and indicate what kinds of revisions you expect to make.
Have a great break and I will be checking through your blogs.
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