Saturday September 16, 2006 For the Faint of Heart
Saturday night and I'm hanging out on the pomo blog...I suppose that makes me either an incurable geek or an anxiety-ridden grad student...Be that as it may, I really wanted to call on (or, in support group lingo, reach out to) other uncreative people who want to talk, exchange thoughts, or just vent about the Creative Paper (yep, that's a capital C for me.) My ideas have been variegated enough to include conspiracy theories involving jam, late-night calls coinciding at an answering service, and a board game that requires participants to go to jail and read "Crab Nebula."
Any thoughts?
Posted by dnewlan ( Sep 16 2006, 10:11:55 PM EDT ) Permalink Comments [7]
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Since comments don't seem to be forthcoming, I can suggest a kind of last ditch effort. Write a 5 page critical paper the way you usually do, complete with title, intro, thesis, body and conclusion. Proceed to cut that paper up, and make the thesis your title, put the title on the side of the paper...jumble paragraphs (throw in unnecessary parenthesis that tell a completely different story). This project keeps you in your comfort zone (i.e. you get to write the standard critical paper) but also allows for everyone to do the same "project" and still come up with radically different papers. Ultimately, it doesn't require much "creativity" as it does anarchic spirit.
Posted by Gordon on September 19, 2006 at 09:46 AM EDT #
Thanks, Gordon! I did have an idea which at least borders on the creative, but I am bookmarking your suggestion. I think your "anarchic spirit" hits the nail on the head (if that's how one says it...)
Posted by Daniela Newland on September 19, 2006 at 03:28 PM EDT #
Gordon, I think I might be in awe of you as a teacher. I feel somewhat inferior. Good idea.
Posted by Lindsay S. on September 19, 2006 at 10:11 PM EDT #
Why don't you write a simple narrative (maybe about coming to PoMo class and then getting a ride home?) and then go back and incorporate things from the works we've read. Puke up a bunny. Shoot heroin in the boys' room, and give the bunny a crustucean shell. Notice a huge balloon above Hillsborough street. Observe that a piece of your notes is not in your handwriting, and _exactly the same_ as your neighbor's notes. End it all with Seconal. (Read that last sentence out loud.)
Posted by Kate McKinney on September 20, 2006 at 02:30 PM EDT #
Kate, you are a Poetess of the Very Best Kind! Lovely suggestions, all. I'm planning to do a sort of homage to Italo Calvino's _If on a winter's night a traveler_. If you haven't read the book, it's almost all first chapters. My paper will be all introductory paragraphs. It will be critical, but it won't go anywhere. Maybe a critical paper a'la Joan Didion might work, with the criticism inserted via a mysterious other voice, as in Didion's text. Or maybe you go to see a Postmodern play (on a winter's night, as a traveler) and so you record the play and your reaction to it (maybe it's a guy with a bunny-vomiting problem) in a manner like Thomas Pynchon. Or even better, you make a character representative of the entire class (_Beloved_) and make that character do all the speaking. Although I'm thinking now that might be a little tough, but you're all really Smart so you could pull it off. Cheers!
Posted by Melissa C. on September 21, 2006 at 10:06 AM EDT #
I haven't much to offer in the way of creative suggestions but I've very much enjoyed reading those who have.
Posted by Kimberly Wine on September 25, 2006 at 04:18 PM EDT #
Thanks, all, for your suggestions. I've been working on my very own conspiracy theory and am actually enjoying it...if I start seeing muted posthorns everywhere, I know it's time to stop. I cannot wait to read everybody else's paper!
Posted by Daniela on September 25, 2006 at 06:51 PM EDT #