Savich and Prevallet

Savich
In Zach Savich's Crumbling Expectations, he talks about a book his father had tried to write by the same name. It was to be about the owner of a resort that was crumbling into the lake. But, he had to stop writing it due to having to recover from cancer. In this way, his father's book is the resort - he had hoped to write this novel, but, just as the resort did, it crumbled under the weight of an unfortunate event. Savich later states "I didn't realize a book is itself an embrace." Books are indeed an "embrace" - they are a comfort, something we can relate to. They are everything we are and everything we want to be.

Prevallet

In Kristin Prevallet's Mythology and Homonym, I most thoroughly enjoyed the play on words. For example, "I" and "eye" were compared. Essentially, there were always two words that looked different but sounded the same. They are words that sound exactly alike, but hold entirely different meanings. I thought this was an interesting choice for her to make.

Essay Packet 1

Creative essays are often described as having both the elements of poetry and prose. In our essay packet 1, there are several examples of this. One example is the first segment of Halls of Fame by John D'Agata. In this section, there isn't a plot; there aren't characters. Instead, there are what seem to be stanzas; the section looks more like a poem than any kind of "essay".

On the other hand, Annie Dillard's Total Eclipse shows more characteristics of the prose side of creative essays. There are settings, characters, and plot. This essay also represents creative essays in that it seems to consist mainly of memories. Most creative essays are narrated versions of the author's childhood.

Both of these essays from our first packet show many of the characteristics of creative essays, including the poetry/prose ideas and the fact that they incorporate the authors' memories.

In "Say Cheese", a section of Bernard Cooper's Maps To Anywhere, he discusses the idea of photography. How photography, above all else, has survived through many years. Decades. Why?

Perhaps it is the need to remember and be remembered - photos allows us to immortalize ourselves forever more. "Take a picture, it'll last longer," they say, and it's true. While we may die, pictures last forever. And perhaps this caters to a desire to live forever or to be forever remembered; we want future people to look back at photos and see us and know we existed.

Photography is also displayed as a connection between peoples - it is used all over the world. People in all kinds of countries utilize photography or, at the least, know what it is. Everybody shares this desire to turn our memories into something tangible so we can hold onto them forever.

Maps to Anywhere

In class we have been discussing the idea of the creative essay. Something real told in the form of fiction, with immense detail and imagery. The stories are memories of the authors - they are real, they are things that you can't make up.

Bernard Cooper's Maps to Anywhere is like that. In my mind, the book is merely a series of creative essays - each one with its own title and story. My current favorite is By Any Other Name. This section tells of Cooper's childhood shenanigans with his friends, in which they would prank call names they found in the phonebook. Cooper discusses their obsession with syntax and alliteration - says they were more "poets than pranksters". This, I think, is true of all people. Language is the root of everything - we get a thrill from words being arranged a certain way. Some words sound funny, some sound serious. Most jokes are told with language in mind - there's always a pun or a twisting of words. We are human, and I think humans are poets above all else - even if they don't realize it.

Goldberg: Claim Your Writing

In Goldberg's Writing Down the Bones, there is a section on claiming your writing. In the first part, entitled Use Loneliness, she discusses literally using your own loneliness to write. She suggests writing with the purpose of connecting to another human being - and I find that to be good advice. Oftentimes we think that writing is therapeutic if we only write it for ourselves - but are we truly getting it out of us if no one else is reading it? Similarly, if we have certain feelings, we won't be rid of them unless we talk to someone about them. There is no release, no catharsis, if no one is there to listen.


In another part called A Story Circle, Goldberg suggests getting some friends together and having a writing circle, where you suggest a prompt such as "tell us a story you love to tell," and write about it. I really like this idea, and plan to utilize it in the future. Also in this segment, Goldberg says to "write how you talk, nothing fancy." I feel that this is important, as the stories I enjoy most are the ones written in a believable voice. The ones written in a voice I can relate to, casual and real. I think that is an important piece of advice.

The Singing Fish

In our third fiction packet, we received a few excerpts from The Singing Fish by Peter Markus. In each of these excerpts, there is a different, surreal narrative. Each narrative describes a different situation, but always involves "us brothers," a term the narrator uses more than the term "I".  These narratives all have a "creation myth" feel to them; that is to say, they are all reminiscent of Native American creation myths. The type of language, simple and straightforward, along with the different stories, such as the story about creating "Girl", all point to this.

In my opinion, the second to last excerpt, also entitled The Singing Fish, describes the evolution of man and language. The narrative describes "made out of mud walls with these things - words - written on them." The narrator goes on to say "We close our eyes and let our hands do this seeing. This is what they see. They see mud and fish and river. ..... they become bones. No, they are fingers. No, no, they then become: tongues. No, look again: they become fish." To me, this signifies the creation of language. It is a description of how man came to communicate certain things to one another. To me, this is a description of how drawings on mud-caked walls first became words.

The Falling Girl

Dino Buzzati's The Falling Girl is a strange, surreal tale. It depicts, sure enough, the journey of a girl named Marta as she falls from a sky scraper.

I interpreted this story as a representation of young people who want to grow up too fast. In the beginning of the tale, the girl is eager, self-assured. She often tells the people she passes on the way down that she can't talk, she's in a hurry. Meanwhile, the ground always seems very far away. This is much like life, especially for young people: we want to grow up fast. We can see the future, but it seems too far away.

"Down there opportunity was waiting for her, fate, romance, the true inauguration of her life." We always imagine what our lives will be like as adults; we hope for the best, for a family, a grand life. This is symbolized by the "party" Marta is trying to get to in such a hurry.

The closer Marta gets to the party at the bottom, however, the more she seems to regret her decision. "Marta now felt a tremor growing inside her; perhaps it was just the cold; but it may have been fear too; the fear of having made an error without remedy." Here we see the point where Marta begins to realize that there's no turning back; that she skipped all of her life just to wind up late to the party. In other words, she wasted her life trying to grow up; trying to reach the future.

I suppose the moral of the story would be this; live in the moment. Don't go through life looking to the future, or trying to get there faster. Slow down, because there's no turning back now.

Burroway: Writing Fiction

I enjoyed this reading the most so far. I enjoy writing fiction as a hobby, and take to heart things like this passage. I am almost always trying to find more ways to make my writing more appealing, make it easier to relate to.

In this part of the book by Janet Burroway, she discusses detail and how to make your writing more interesting with the use of detail. To illustrate the difference, she uses a passage from a book by Thomas Mann. In the excerpt, the author uses vivid imagery to illustrate both the room that the character is in, as well as the specific traits of the character. Burroway then rewrites this passage in a very dry, boring way in which the traits are merely stated, rather than described. This is helpful to my growth as a writer, as I sometimes have problems using detail to convey the characteristics of somebody.

Burroway also talks about how you shouldn't simply describe the character's appearance and expect them to be liked. An example she gives is a blue-eyed, tanned, friendly, twenty-two year old man. The description is very boring and stereotypical - something an author wants to avoid. Unfortunately, this is the type of character description I encounter in lots of modern-day fiction.

The book discusses how, instead of simply stating that someone is in a hurry, you should use the action to show this detail. I personally find that this tactic makes fiction much more interesting to read - it gives it a certain flow.

Burroway's book on writing fiction is incredibly helpful, whether you hope to write professionally or just as a hobby.

Some poems

.... in response to some of Jennifer K. Dick's poems

THREE

Can you hold me?

No

Because I am only color; blues and yellows

Verdigris on my tongue

Soft yellow light

I see you and wonder how you can be so solid

How you can give form to the color

How you can be solid and here and not disappearing, like I am

(I have already disappeared)

You are visible and you are here

Am I here?

FOUR

His voice: “What is”

The air gone out of the train so that, like fish, our mouths open-shut

in a spasmodic desire to

speak

Tell you what it is

            The train

is on fire

with feeling

with fear

Wild-eyed on every side

A wing-flutter snapshot

                                                sinks

                                                            to meet

the ground.

Fluorescence

In the second half of Jennifer K. Dick's Fluorescence, a lot of the poems seem to take on an almost "Alice in Wonderland" type of theme. A lot of the poems are surreal and paint pictures of strange occurrences  One poem that is an example of this is Looking Glass.

In this particular poem, the word surreal almost seems inadequate. The poem details a town where an alligator roams free, and a man is vomiting up entire fish that proceed to flop around on the ground, somehow still alive. The other townspeople then try to catch the fish with the hopes that they may eat them. This is a very strange, fantastical image; and not only that, but the people depicted in the poem seem unconcerned by these events!

I feel like this could almost be a commentary on the real world - where people want things and don't care how they come to acquire these things, even if it means taking them after a man vomited them up!

Poetry Packet

I greatly enjoyed the poetry packet - there was so much variety, so many different types of poems - there was no strict guideline. I like that about poetry - everyone thinks that poetry has to follow the rules, but it doesn't.

One of Ted Berrigan's sonnets illustrates this perfectly - sonnet XV in the packet. It is a fascinating piece of work - and when you first read it, it makes absolutely no sense. That is, until you read a little closer and realize that the poem is like a mirror; the first line corresponds to the last, and on from there. In the middle of the poem, the "last line", Berrigan says "and the sonnet is not dead". This may illustrate the idea that poetry doesn't necessarily have to follow a strict set of rules - it can be whatever you want it to be.

Hello!

Hi, my name is Shelby Taylor. This is my blog for Creative Writing class.

My major is in English, with a minor in Communications. I intend to become a copy editor in the future. Presently I copy edit for the Eastern Echo.