This Week (6/21)

This week in our creative writing class, we finished writing our fiction packet, read fluorescence and read more goldburg material. Also, we read Bird by Bird.

A lot of the material from fluorescence is out there - pretty hard to interpret. Even though this is true, there is certainly a sense of depth to all of the writings. I feel like the author is writing about her life, from her point of view as well as trying to throw in others' points of view as well. This can make it difficult to understand where she is trying to go with some of the poems because you never actually know where the point of view is coming from. It definitely makes for an interesting read, and puts your mind to the test.

Goldberg's writing continues to teach me more and more about writing. There are many things that I have learned from those readings, and many things that I can see in my own life. It makes things easier to digest when you can relate to them, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who can relate to a lot of the things that Goldberg says. There isn't a lot of concrete reading in this class, which can be fun sometimes, but I really like how Goldberg is down to Earth and clear. It makes it so trying to learn how to write isn't just a mess of a process. It's even, and it makes sense. I've gotten a lot of my best work out of following the instructions of Goldberg, and this last packet continues to teach me things that I would have never of thought of.

This Week (6/14)

This week, we looked over each others' short stories, read the 3rd fiction packet, and read more of Bird by Bird.

Going over each others' work was good, and probably one of my favorite parts of class. It's the only time when we get direct help from various people to better our writing in this class. The two stories that I wrote were intertwined with one another. The first shows a teenager named Ray (real name: Spencer) who shows no respect for his parents. Because of this, he is transferred to a different region, a different dimension which tries to make him see his actions as wrong, but instead, he refuses to look at his own life, so he is killed.

The next story that I write is connected with the first one. It has the same character, but instead of him causing the problems, the ones causing the problem are his parents. It takes place in a "parallel universe" of sorts, if you will. In this scenario, he is taken the same outside region, but instead of it trying to cause difficult thoughts, it comforts him. Once he is well, he goes back.

The people in my group were very good at giving me some other advice - I think we should spend more of our class time doing this. The one major remark I got told again and again was to be more clear, which is hard to do when you want the story to be quick yet complicated.

The fiction packet was very hit and miss, with more misses than hits. The first story is awful, and I cannot stand how the writer talks. It's extremely difficult to get through (like I'm shoveling snow with my eyes) and a very boring, repetitive read. The next story, The Falling Girl, was definitely a relief and had a very interesting plot - a girl who jumped off of a building, not because of suicide, but because she was in a hurry. As she falls, many people invite her to their parties and what not, but she declines, and keeps falling and falling... Then other girls start falling with her, girls she envies due to their good looks. As they keep falling, she grows older and older... It's just a really good, interesting read that I'm quite fond of. The one other story that I found worthy of mentioning was August 25, 1983. It'd be very strange to meet a version of yourself that knew more about you than you do - and even weirder to meet a version of yourself that was about to die. I was expecting more panic in this story, and I'm glad I didn't find as much as I was expecting. It's a pretty straightforward story, and easy to digest, so the only thing I really have left to say is that it's good work.

I'm getting a little bit tired of reading writing about writing. Bird by Bird is still going mostly in that direction, and while it seems to be a good book, I've just done a lot of reading about writing, not JUST in this class, but other places as well. Although the girl along with her family are very interesting characters, I don't have the drive to read this particular book like I would normally have for a book that I choose to read on my own.

This Week (6/7)

This week, we were assigned multiple readings. I am going to write about the 2nd Fiction Packet, which includes Brian Evenson's "Internal" as well as Thalia Field's "Point and Line."

The first story, "Internal," is about a man who seems to be interning for different psychologists. Although most people in class have disagreed with me, I believe that this story is really just as it seems, and is only trying to tickle the thought of insanity. Although I can see why many of my classmates believe that this guy has gone bonkers, and really has no internship at all, I believe that he is just a bored intern. Boredom can lead to many apparently crazy things (key word: apparently) and can definitely cause some off the wall writing. I feel that this story is not a progression of insanity, but rather just a progression of tedious tasks which build up to some crazy thoughts. I have definitely thought of some really strange things while bored, and if some people knew those thoughts, I'd probably be put in the looney bin. He seems too intelligent of a person to be crazy. His writing is clear, he is obviously well educated, and seems very proper.

Another thing which may play into the thought of him being crazy is that he acts like a psychologist. I know this may sound like a joke, but really, psychology is a bit crazy - Recording people's activities, making large assumptions at times, looking for specific, odd patterns... It's all a bit odd. The character in this story seems to be doing a good job of what the doctors are asking him to do, no matter how strange the task may be, no matter how many lies the doctors are telling. He appears to be doing well with all of this. He takes this work seriously, but seems to add some humor to prevent losing it, and I think he does a good job with retaining sanity - Some experiments that Psychologists have conducted have really messed with some people, sometimes permanently. He seems to have found a healthy way to prevent that.

In the story "Point and Line" there is quite a bit of  confusion as to where they characters actually are and what relationship they share. At first, I thought it was a secretary working for a business man. Even though the language was violent, I still thought that this language was supposed to be metaphorical, not literal. After a few pages, however, I had a feeling that this relationship was between a criminal and an investigator. The violent language, the strange relationship, the craze circling around the narrator, the suspense, the paranoia, the whole picture just seemed like what would take place after a homicide.


Even though the picture had eventually settled in my head, there is still a fog around this writing that hasn't settled for me yet. I'm still not sure what the crime is, I still don't know what feelings are being felt and I definitely don't know if the person who is being interrogated is innocent or guilty. I read over this story more than once, and that fog still hasn't started to fade.

This Week (5/11)

This week, we were assigned the fiction packet, containing several different short stories by different authors. I feel that this packet was very hit or miss: some of the pieces were quite powerful, and others were very weak and confusing. I will be discussing one of my favorite passages, and then one of my least favorite passages, just to show how this packet was very hit or miss.

The Colonel by Carolyn is a great example of what is good about this set of short stories. It is clear, precise, has lots of detail, intriguing and powerful. It starts by saying "What you have heard is true" which makes the reader wonder "What have I heard that is true? What are they talking about?" And the author answers those questions in a really interesting way. Instead of giving away an answer right away, he gives a lot of detail, truck loads of it, so you can really feel what's going on. It takes quite a while to get to the answer, but this builds suspense. Towards the end of the story, the answer creeps up on you, and passes you before you realize it and forces you to read those sentences a few times, to make sure you read that correctly. It's a very powerful ending, and offers a great metaphor at the end.

Now, along with the good, there is some bad. Sharon Krinky's Mystery Stories are quite awful, as they are all way too short, confusing and bland. I feel like these "mysteries" are just random sentences thrown together in a scrap book, and are given titles. I've been looking for some sort of symbolism, some sort of idea, some sort of clue to tell me what the purpose of these stories are, and I keep getting nothing. The small amount of detail given provide no sort of clear picture of the scenario - these may as well be blank pages of annoyance.

All in all, I liked the fiction packet. When things were good, I was interested, and when things were bad, it provided a good small laugh at how strange some of these writers really are.

And just a quick word about fiction and writing: Lunar Park is the best book of all time.

Re: Ed Roberson's Idyll

Roberson's poem "Idyll" was one of my favorites in the book "City Eclogue." It is a poem about how the noise of the city can add up to silence, which is an interesting thing to think about. Sometimes there is so much of one thing that you can barely even notice it's there. For example, if you take many different high class meals, put them in a blender and consume it, you're not going to be able to enjoy each little bit at a time - it's going to be too much to handle and it's going to end up being a putrid experience. There are also times when we keep feeling good, and our expectations keep rising, so then when we feel good, we don't care, and when we do feel alright, our world falls apart. Here is my poem to respond to Roberson's "Idyll."

Stand up, stand out; that's what we were all taught.

No matter alone, no matter united, just stand.

Isn't that a bit silly? Isn't that a bit usually now? Haven't we all fell in line?
When we stand now all we are really doing is sitting down.
To attempt unique is to be a disaster
To be usual is bland
To be indifferent is to not exist
To stand out is to be the rest

It comes to a point where we need to be we, not we plus a thousand motives

Just be.

Please.

Stop.

Being "different"

Start being you.

This Week (5/22)

This week in creative writing, we turned in our first two poems, read City of Eclogue and also graded others' poems.

The poems which I decided to turn in were "Stay Away, My Rest" and "A Diseased Poem." "Stay Away, My Rest" is a poem about how sleep can act as a detriment to some people, yet the lack of rest can also be a major problem. If you sleep, you are wasting precious hours of your days. If you stay awake, you will start to slip away from reality, sometimes too far. "A Diseased Poem" is really more about how infectious thoughts really can be. If let alone for too long, they can grow wild and do just about anything. The poem is supposed to act as a being itself, as strange excerpts continue to enter themselves onto the page, eventually driving the poem to sorrow.

The book "City Eclogue" by Ed Roberson was a book full of different poems. In class, we picked apart some of these poems. The book can be quite confusing sometimes, but can also be really deep. My favorite parts of the book were the entries of "Beauty's Standing." There was a lot of anger going into different places, and many different (mostly political) issues that were raised in this section. The writer also included some insight on what to do with some of these issues.

Another part of "City Eclogue" that grabbed my attention was the way every poem was formed: with spaces thrown all about in sometimes seemingly random places. I believe that these white areas on the page were made to give an emotion to the reader. Since the blank spots are foreign to the average reader, we become somewhat confused, upset, irritated and even feel a bit of distress. The book spends most of its time describing the city, and big cities can be very irritating and stressful, so I think he did this to make us feel the tension in the streets.

It was really interesting reading others' poetry in class. Everyone else' style differs so vastly from the last. In our group, there was a girl who wrote very descriptive, very "human" poems, another who wrote scenery-like poems, a man who wrote poems about the nation and women, and then there was me, the one who writes the stuff that makes no sense. It was a breath of fresh air hearing what others' had to say instead of just listening to myself write all the time.

This Week (5/17)

This week in CW, we've read over some new material, wrote some poems and also have discussed both greatly in class. Out of everything that we've done, I'd have to say that my favorite 2 things were the Goldberg readings as well as the poems we wrote using 25 words from the poetry packet we were given,

The Goldberg readings we're helpful, and made me realize that in my writing, I need to sometimes just relax and let the first thoughts in my mind take over for a little bit. Also, the writings were humorous sometimes, which kept me interested, and the writer made it very easy and fun to understand.

The poems we wrote using 25 different words from the poetry packet were really fun, because we had certain restrictions, but we could also still do just about anything. It was interesting seeing all of the different things I could do with just those words for a bit.