Writing Experiment (Week 7)

You may test your mettle with the following experiments:

1. Write a poem or short story with one or more other people, alternating words, lines, sentences, or stanzas, writing sequentially or simultaneously, perhaps collaging, rewriting, editing, supplementing the version handed to you. This can be done in person or via e-mail. Write with a friend, family member, congress representative, dentist, or stranger.

OR

2. Thinking Backwards: Write a two page poem or story. If a poem, reverse or alter the entire line sequence bottom to top, or for the more daring, reverse the entire word order. If you're writing in prose this week, rewrite all the events so that they occur in reverse chronology, beginning with the end and ending with the beginning.

*We are indeed readin Last One Out by Deborah Richards
**Please do not forget to bring in an anonymously written mid-term evaluation of course

Week 6 experiment

.....
Walks to town, but seen all before
Sleepy towns never change
Still never standing, but
Never standing still

formal acrobatics

This book contrasts with War and the Activist by having a personal and not a general subject. In Activist, the subject was the relationship between the media and the public, activists and each other, and activists and the government. In war, the subject was society. In taking on such subjects the writers immediately take on the burden of working conceptually, of generalizing their knowledge to comment on macroscopic entities. On the other hand, Eleni takes her personal experience with her father, emotions, and writing process, to create a picture of herself. These book share the quality of "formal acrobatics" (b.flis freestylin in the classroom) which allows for a more dynamic presentation of the subject. Shit, I've only got five senses, and they all work simultaneously exept when one or more are impinged. This medium is constant. Text that changes to account for the varying morphology of the mind is pretty cool. Text that changes in order to fuck with perception is fun for some people but is kindof exclusive and novel.

BOOK OF JON NOTES

Reflection question: What specifically makes The Book of Jon seem more personable/relateable than War, the musical, or than the Activist?- In my opinion, The Book of Jon is far more relatable than the others because of the mere nature of it. It is a daughter's memoirs of her dead heroin addict father; there are few things more depressing. The author, however, depicts her father in such a human way that, as a reader, I am able to connect with the person that he was. On the complete other hand, War, the musical and the Activist keep the reader at a distance. The paranoia that sits in the style in which they are written keeps he reader afar, looking for something more concrete. Sikleanos has a style of writting in which the form is similar, however, the content grabs you and takes a hold of your emotions. It makes you think about yourself in reflection of the book, and you come to know this person Jon who in a way touches and inspires your heart. It's refreshing to read a piece of literature so rewarding.

Class Workshop Project

On a clear night I decided to leave my far too familiar room. I tied up my boots, put on a new shirt, and pulled my favorite jacket tightly around myself. But when I got to the show, something cause my eyes to turn quickly away and stair at my weathered shoes. A boy with silent lips and screaming eyes made me dream of snowflakes and yarn. I wanted to hide myself along with my doubts and fears and just steal glances all night long. Too many opportunities to speak, far too many to count.

Every time he passed by my breaths became coarse and felt like pennies falling down my rib cage. The waves caused the echoes that played in tune with the butterflies in my stomach. They drummed on their rag doll cages like the slamming doors on a train. That’s where I wanted to be as the minutes packed their bags and left, on a train, away from the words sticking to the roof of my mouth, and the fears wrapped like a scarf around my throat. Where the old seats carried me past the people I watched for so long. Past the houses I’d never enter, and the stairs I was never to climb. Away from the boats I’d never sail, and the museums I’d never visit. Away from the imaginary worlds where I’ve lived in, and away from these eyes that hardly ever cry. But then the lights turned back on and a new band took the stages. And he still stood there lost in the hive with his back towards my eyes hiding behind a curtain.

I could even talk during the ride home. The car was filled far beyond capacity with kids squawking about the music, the set lists, and the bands. They pondered questions about the music. All the while, I could only as the question: How could I have been so cowardly? I could not even manage the courage to look in my window’s reflection’s eyes.When I had arrived home,

I waited to hear the car door shut before I could even look at the stars. I couldn’t find any of the constellations, so I opened a book and found a fraction of the known ones. More questions flooded my mind. Was I broken? Where my eyes that clouded from sorrow and uncertainties. I cleared my thought, rubbed my eyes, and shouted “Good Night”. I wasn’t sure to who it was for. The boy, the stars, all those doubting questions. It was for all of them. I was ready to head in side, but I turned and looked up again, to find a constellation of my own. I traced a leaf, falling from eyes that could hardly cry....

Discussion Questions (week 7)

Here are questions to consider for this week:

• We talked in brief about Sikelianos' source texts, where she locates or finds information about her father. Can you trace and identify the variety of sources (texts, persons, objects, etc.). Can you comment on how these sources reflect, conflict with, question, or inform the representation of Jon himself? How do these sources enlarge/limit our understanding of Jon? of the narrator? How does perspective here contribute to meaning?
• What specifically makes The Book of Jon seem more personable/relateable than War, the musical, or than the Activist? Between these three books, can you compare tone? style? perspective? voice? arrangement? narrative? time/chronology? In what ways are these three books similar? What concepts, questions, ideas, or frustrations from the previous two books might actually help enlarge your understanding/appreciation of The Book of Jon that would have been otherwise unnoticed/unappreciated?
• Katie mentioned an earlier ambiguity of the narrator's gender in the book. What role do you think gender plays in the representations of Jon? Where in the book might questions of gender roles play importance? Can you make any connection between the formal arrangements of the book and the way gender roles are revealed/portrayed within the text?

Here are some additionally interesting nuggets:

• An eclectic interview with Eleni Sikelianos in Here Comes Everybody
• Eleni Sikelianos reading her work (please be patient through the small introduction)
  
• Another interview with Sikelianos in Chicago Postmodern Poetry

Reminder *1*: Please read (both above and below this post) the work labelled as for workshop this Thurs., and try to bring in to class some brief notes for each of those writers. They will bring in (20) copies of their work for us to look at.

Reminder *2*: Please type up an anonymous mid-term evaluation of the course to bring in for next Tues. You might include all that you're enjoying thus far, what you're not, ideas for change or revision in class format, comments on my teaching style/practices, what you've been learning, how your ideas about writing, texts, books, creativity have been engaged or altered. The more feedback the better. I don't want your name on them so you can speak frankly.