Writing Experiment (Week 5)

Here are this week's writing experiments:

1. Write a serial poem (numbered or clearly separated parts within a whole), or else a short fiction with distinct movements or transformations (see the Myung Mi Kim poems and the Carla Harryman story in your packet for examples). Consider how pauses, changes, and silences (stoppages) interact with your movements or segments. Consider how association or disjunction might help you to find creative "threads" or themes between parts of the whole. Consider how (re-)ordering and (re-)placement creates differing trajectories, associations, meanings.

OR

2. Write a poem or short story excluding one (or two!!, or three!!!, or four!!!!) of the five vowels ("Mars Cheese Castle" uses only an 'a' and an 'e' - see more substantial examples below). Any word containing an unselected vowel must be excluded. (A desk dictionary may help you in this quest for expressivity in the face of constraint). Consider how constraint both hinders and helps the writing process. Consider how the absented letter(s) affect expression, sound, tone, mood, visual surface, word choices, and meaning.

I would like you this week to devote some portion of your note taking to observations and commentary on the writing process and the end result of the creative writing you do (whether you attempt this week's experiment or not).

examples:

• Christian Bök’s Eunoia , a book of poetry where each chapter only uses one vowel (clickable chapters on the left, clicking on poem turns page)
• Georges Perec's A Void , here's a teensy excerpt of a full length novel written w/o the letter 'e' (try to imagine writing just this last bullet w/o an 'e' ?!

*** I've decided to cancel our Tues. class before Thanksgiving on Nov. 21st. Please make note on your syllabus or day-planner ***