Today, June 6th

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Today, June 6th

• 930-1100 Creative Writing (Me)
• 1200-130 Literary Studies (Davin)
• 130-300 Composition Rhetoric (Steve)
• 300-400 Afternoon Workshop (Jade)
• In Creative Writing today
• Well share and talk about our favorite
  quotations from Skittish Libations.
• Well dive into the whole enterprise of Creative
  Writing with questions and no answers. If you
  actually think you have answers, I hope to set
  you straight.

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Lets sort of start by just yapping a bit about
the whole creative enterprise.What quotation
did you select in Skittish Libations, and why?
What, for you, is art? What is creative
writing? What is the process one goes through on
the way to creating fabulous poetry and fiction?
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A confrontation with reality facing reality
Note that some types, such as satire, mock or
interrogate reality
The invention of reality
Formalist
Creative Writing
The improvement of reality (art as a hammer
An escape from reality a sedative or distraction
Formalist
Defiance of reality reality as it ought to be
A magnification of reality
Formalist
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Process
Something produced solely for others a means of
pleasing an audience
A mysterious inborn talent
Formalist
A commodity
Expression that is shaped and crafted
The honoring of tradition
A pile of crap a hoax excuse for not having a
REAL job
Creative Writing
Art
Formalist
A learnable skill
Emotional or psychological therapy
The subversion of tradition
Expression that is wide-open and free
Self-expression solely for self exploration
of ones unique vision
Formalist
Product
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Maybe writings a constant NEGOTIATION of
binaries

SELF
OTHER
Artist
Audience
Past
Present

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Speaking of Past and Present, here are a couple
of competing claims

• Creative Writing (Literature) is the art of
  language in the present moment. The live,
  unstable, mysterious evolution that is happening
  continually and right under our noses. Brand new
  poetry, fiction, creative non-fiction,
  script-writing, and genres we dont yet know how
  to name.
• Creative Writing (Literature) is the art of
  language as an ancient activity. Something weve
  been doing since we first opened our mouths to
  speak, write on cave walls, and sing around a
  fire. Some theorists say that the impulse to
  create poetry is at the root of the human impulse
  to communicate, period.

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Ok.

• So nobody knows how to define it.
• Or theres no final definition.
• Then how do we learn it?
• How does it get taught? Should I, as a teacher,
  emphasize process or product? Craft or free
  exploration? The work of antiquity or the work of
  the future?
• How is it distinguished from any other kind of
  writing and so whats its place in the schools
  at any level? In other words

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What is Creative Writing with a capital C and
W?

• the branch of English Studies that involves
  teaching and learning how to write creatively,
  right?
• Yeah, but

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• Isnt all writing creative? Why call it
  Creative Writing?
• Can it really be taught? Isnt it about talent
  and a mysterious ability to summon the muse?
• Whats it doing in a university? How do you
  evaluate it?
• How does it relate to Rhetoric and Composition,
  Literary Studies, Linguistics, Technical Writing?
  Isnt writing in these fields creative also?
• Whats more important the writing of literature
  or the study of it?

Isnt all language creative, really? Why even
have a distinct field called Creative Writing?
Cant business reports, department memos,
shopping lists, Facebook status updates, even
check-writing all be creative?
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Did you know

• In some of its earliest appearances in higher
  ed, Creative Writing was offered to help students
  understand literature better. I.e., it was in the
  service of literature studies.
• The idea was that by writing some fiction,
  poetry, or drama themselves, students would
  better understand the masterpieces of literature.

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But also

• a bunch of teachers who were also writers wanted
  to get together with other writers and blab about
  their work
• in a college setting. (Couldnt hang out in the
  bistros of Paris or Gertrude Steins salon
  anymore, so had to get together somewhere)

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Its always been a bit of an outlaw

• Not scholarly like other disciplines. The MFA is
  a studio degree. Very different criteria.
• Not really academic. Considered to be even a
  spiritual discipline.
• A soft subject. Workshop approach is considered
  by some to be whimpy writers who want to talk
  with other writers sit in a circle and
  read/discuss their stuff, while a
  teacher/published writer chimes in.

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Since the 80s, though,

• It has been influenced by postmodern theory,
  composition studies, and English education.
• The way it is taught is changing here and there
• You can now study the teaching of Creative
  Writing as a subject itself. Or Creative
  Writing Studies which examines
• Creative writing pedagogy
• The culture of creative writing/creative writing
  in the culture
• The history of creative writing in the
  university.
• You can get an MA and PhD in Creative Writing
  Studies.

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Me? What in the heck do I do as a teacher of the
stuff? When I go into the creative writing
classroom
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• I teach genres. Poetry, fiction. Creative
  nonfiction. Some script writing.
• I encourage wide-open, glorious self-expression.
  Go for it.
• I encourage self-denial and disciplined attention
  to the needs of audience. Craft.
• I encourage demented new ways of thinking about
  the world.
• I encourage thoughtful appreciation of very old
  traditions.
• I try to do everything.
• Thats why Im burning out.
• Thats why Im insane.
• Dont tell my boss.

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• ok

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Poetry
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PoetryGoing Back to The Very Beginning

• Playing with language Kenneth Koch, The Luminous
  Object
• Surrealism
• Worst High School Metaphors
• Harmonious Confusion

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Maybe it starts with just loving words.
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Whats figurative language?

• How do you say that someone is drunk?
• How many animal metaphors do we use everyday?
• Where did most worn-out metaphors come from, and
  how do we keep the language alive? Look at Lorrie
  Moore

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Worst High School Metaphors

• 1. Her face was a perfect oval, like a circle
  that had its two sides gently compressed by a
  Thigh Master.
• 2. His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and
  breaking alliances like underpants in a dryer
  without Cling Free.
• 3. He spoke with the wisdom that can only come
  from experience, like a guy who went blind
  because he looked at a solar eclipse without one
  of those boxes with a pinhole in it and now goes
  around the country speaking at high schools about
  the dangers of looking at a solar eclipse without
  one of those boxes with a pinhole in it.
• 4. She grew on him like she was a colony of E.
  Coli, and he was room-temperature Canadian beef.
• 5. She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like
  that sound a dog makes just before it throws up.
• 6. Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever.

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• 7. He was as tall as a six-foot, three-inch
  tree.
• 8. The revelation that his marriage of 30 years
  had disintegrated because of his wifes
  infidelity came as a rude shock, like a surcharge
  at a formerly surcharge-free ATM machine.
• 9. The little boat gently drifted across the pond
  exactly the way a bowling ball wouldnt.
• 10. McBride fell 12 stories, hitting the pavement
  like a Hefty bag filled with vegetable soup.
• 11. From the attic came an unearthly howl. The
  whole scene had an eerie, surreal quality, like
  when youre on vacation in another city and
  Jeopardy comes on at 700 p.m. Instead of 730. 
• 12. Her hair glistened in the rain like a nose
  hair after a sneeze.

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• 13. The hailstones leaped from the pavement, just
  like maggots when you fry them in hot grease.
• 14. Long separated by cruel fate, the
  star-crossed lovers raced across the grassy field
  toward each other like two freight trains, one
  having left Cleveland at 636 p.m. Traveling at
  55 mph, the other from Topeka at 419 p.m. At a
  speed of 35 mph.
• 15. They lived in a typical suburban neighborhood
  with picket fences that resembled Nancy
  Kerrigans teeth.
• 16. John and Mary had never met. They were like
  two hummingbirds who had also never met.
• 17. He fell for her like his heart was a mob
  informant, and she was the East River.
• 18. Even in his last years, Granddad had a mind
  like a steel trap, only one that had been left
  out so long, it had rusted shut.
• 19. Shots rang out, as shots are want to do.

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• 20. The plan was simple, like my brother-in-law
  Phil. But unlike Phil, this plan just might work.
• 21. The young fighter had a hungry look, the kind
  you get from not eating for a while.
• 22. He was as lame as a duck. Not the
  metaphorical lame duck, either, but a real duck
  that was actually lame, maybe from stepping on a
  land mine or something.
• 23. The ballerina rose gracefully en Pointe and
  extended one slender leg behind her, like a dog
  at a fire hydrant.
• 24. It was an American tradition, like fathers
  chasing kids around with power tools.
• 25. He was deeply in love. When she spoke, he
  thought he heard bells, as if she were a garbage
  truck backing up.

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• Sometimes it helps to take a really unusual
  perspectivesay, that of an animal.
• Once a student wrote a piece from the point of
  view of a deer. It described a hunters gun as a
  branch that barks.

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• Poetry
• Focusing on particular traditions
• The private, inward-directed lyric poet.
• The community bard.
• The craftsman or maker.
• The mad or divinely inspired visionary.

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Spoken Word Poetry

• The Oral Tradition (the Bard)

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This stuff is really old
Hey, Daddy-o

• Homer 800 BC
• Old English poetry 400 AD
• Native American 8000 BC to present
• The Beats 1950s
• Slam Poetry 1980s to present

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The Beats (1950s,60s)

• Getting poetry out of the classroom
• Poetry read to jazz accompaniment

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• Ferlinghetti
• http//www.ndsu.edu/instruct/cinichol/CreativeWri
  ting/323/MiscPoemsFerlinghetti.htm
• Ginsberg
• http//www.ndsu.edu/instruct/cinichol/CreativeWrit
  ing/323/MiscpoemsGinsbergHowl.htm

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Rap and Hip Hop

• Came of age alongside the poetry slam phenom.
• Hyperbolic, gymnastic, inventive
• Heavily end-rhyme based rhymes often funny,
  clever, silly
• Distinct prosody

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The Poetry Slamand Open-Mike Coffee House Reading

• Harks back to the Beats
• Again, desire to get poetry out of the classroom
• Emphasis on anyone can write poetry
• Tends to be political
• Theatrical, sometimes mixed-media

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How do slams work?
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check these out!
www.nuyorican.org/
AND
www.poetryslam.com/
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What makes a good spoken-word or slam
performance?
Listen to Spoken Word selections, plus Beat
poems with jazz accompaniment
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• Blurring the line between poetry and theater
  performances are like one-person, one-act plays.
• Aggressive, clever, sometimes funny rhyme, not
  in any strict pattern (triple rhymes, internal
  rhymes, slant rhymes, repeated words, etc. In
  video, Lazarus, Lazie, Lazy).
• Projection! Loud broadcast.
• Number of unstressed syllables dont matter,
  maybe. Success depends on how cleverly you get
  the four stresses in (rap).
• Getting into a groove.
• Memorizing the material adds interest.
• Mixing genres insert singing, use accompanying
  sound, etc.
• Ritual presence of performer.

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Ok. So.

• Describe what you see on the table. REALLY LOOK.
  The thing. The thing itself.
• Make the object

luminous
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STOP ! !

• Are you being dull?
• Are you being predictable?
• Are you thinking too much?
• Try a thesaurus

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Try Being Surreal
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Surrealism
Surrealism
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1924 Andre Breton

• The Surrealist Manifesto
• I believe in the future resolution of these two
  states, dream and reality, which are seemingly so
  contradictory, into a kind of absolute reality, a
  sur-reality.

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• The idea of surrealism aims quite simply at
  the total recovery of our psychic force by a
  means which is nothing other than the dizzying
  descent into ourselves, the systematic
  illumination of hidden places and the progressive
  darkening of other places, the perpetual
  excursion into the midst of forbidden territory
  (Breton).

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Between WWI and WWII

• Surrealism
• the principles, ideals, or practice of
  producing fantastic or incongruous imagery or
  effects in art, literature, film, or theater by
  means of unnatural juxtapositions and
  combinations. An attempt, through these random,
  irrational juxtapositions and combinations, to
  make make a new reality or a new whole.

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• Instead of
• I saw the rabbit, as soft as cotton, his eyes
  bright, munching the grass.
• you get
• I saw the rabbit, ripe as a hammer, his eyes
  boiled, baptizing the grass.
• (random words from carpentry, religion, cooking)
  
• or
• I saw the rabbit, as Monday as Van Goghs ear,
  eyes in search of Harvard, document the grass.
• (random words from stuff on my desk)

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Early Surrealists Valued

• random CHANCE and the seizing of accident
• convulsive beauty, the marvelous, the uncanny,
  the disruptive, and the unexpected
• strange and unexpected juxtapositions
• defamiliarizing the everyday so that it once
  again appears strange and new
• liberation of mind from bourgeois modes of
  thinking
• the oblivion ha-ha silly brain
  brillo stain

The names of Aztec gods were on one
page, serotonin uptake inhibitors on the other.
Here, you said another baby avocado tree. You
threw your shoe. I broke the refrigerator and the
fossil fish. I broke my shoulder blade. I tried
to make jambalaya. To relax the organism, the
cookbook said, pound with a mallet on the head or
shell.
I love you. This remarkable statementhas
appeared on earth to substantiate the clams.
Here's your fire extinguisher, welcome to
the glacier.
Don't think I wasn't shocked when you were a
traffic signal and I a woodpecker.
I can't make it any clearer than that and stay
drunk.
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D u e n d e
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Lorca

• intelligence is often the enemy of poetry,
  because it limits too much, and it elevates the
  poet to a sharp-edged throne where he forgets
  that ants could eat him or that a great arsenic
  lobster could fall suddenly on his head
• The duende...Where is the duende? Through
  the empty arch comes a wind, a mental wind
  blowing relentlessly over the heads of the dead,
  in search of new landscapes and unknown accents,
  a wind that smells of babys spittle, crushed
  grass, and jellyfish veil, announcing the
  constant baptism of newly created things.
• Duende is the melancholy demon of
  Descartes a demon who was small as a green
  almond and who sickened of circles and lines and
  escaped down the canals to listen to the songs of
  blurry sailors

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• "The Guitar
• "Lament for Ignacio Sánchez Mejías" 1, 2, 4
• "Casida of the Lament," p. 91

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Elvis
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you know it when you hear it
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Some responses to Skittish Libations by previous
students
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Deven
Yes! Absolutely! Except

• Creative Writing is any writing that isnt
  done for someone else. Creative Writing is for
  the writer. The same I would say holds true for
  any kind of art. An artist creates a painting
  for his/herself, and the folks walking around the
  gallery are privileged to see it. A musician
  creates an album about something personal in his
  life and the listeners are simply along for the
  ride.

Is the audience really that irrelevant? Is this
the kind of art you/we typically spend our money
on? CDs? Big budget films?
NOT !
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Erica

• Creative writing is without restrictions, or
  not many of them. Individuals are free to
  express themselves and be original. Too many
  rules and restrictions suppress creativity since
  individuals are so limited. Creative writing can
  be described as freedom of writing where emotions
  are not concealed and the creator is present
  within each piece of work.

Yep, completely true!
except, um, what about form? Craft?
And, again, how come this isnt the art that most
of us actively support?
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Brian
Rhetorical component of any piece of writing

• Creative writing is one of the most powerful
  ways to expel and express feelings, thoughts, and
  ideas. Writing and all art is meant to affect and
  influence the minds and emotions of others. The
  needs of the audience are important and writer
  should make some compromises, however a writer
  should never compromise their message.

Or is it something we do for its sakewithout any
exterior purpose?
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Heather

• Creative writing is something that I want to do
  because it helps me feel connected. It is a way
  for me to tap into my subconscious thoughts and
  desires. Its a way for me to express those to
  others.

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Adam
What did Plato say about this?
Ethical purpose of art?

• All art should be educative (assuming theres a
  way things should be that there is a right
  way), for what possible value could art possess
  if it did not lead us towards what is ultimately
  good? This leads us to the point that we must
  first know what is good. Im not so sure we (as
  a people/collective consciousness) actually do
  know what is good (though we often assume we do).
  Fortunately, creative writing allows for the
  opportunity for each individual artist to search
  (however they so choose) for what is true and
  good through a process of self-expression, and
  thus, self-realization. I could go off on this
  for hours, but I hope this gives a general
  outline of why I write.
• P.S. Sorry this is so late, I was at the RNC and
  then went to a musical this weekend. But I cant
  wait to meet you all later

Ok, the REAL truth comes out. Arts an excuse to
be a slacker! Plato was right
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Chris
Who judges?

• Creative writing is for writing very
  creatively. It is for fun, enjoyment, and school
  type people. Art is for those people who enjoy
  art. It is hard to say if the writers or
  audiences needs are more important because, when
  juxtaposing them, only an english teacher could
  determine whose needs institute more need. It
  should be determined on an individual basis. All
  students should take creative writing so they can
  learn to write better.

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Ancient DNA a History Lacey L. Locket (Sam
Schanhaar)

• The extraction and amplification of ancient DNA
  (aDNA) is a recent discovery in the history of
  science. The concept of ancient DNA has eluded
  scientists within the Cretaceous epoch,
  reportedly also yielded authentic DNA (Cano et
  al. 1993). DNA retrieval was also not limited to
  y and epidemiology. The field of ancient DNA is
  constantly growing with the advent of new
  techniques concerning extraction and
  amplification in conjunction with individuals
  such as Savante Pääbo and Russ Higuchi. There
  have been numerous tissues that have been
  subjected to aDNA research including Neanderthal
  remains, King Tut, and Otzi.
• Ancient DNA is genetic material that is
  recovered from historical and pre-historical
  specimens. Ancient DNA can be obtained from
  archaeologically or preserved in a museum
  environment. Ancient DNA can be retrieved from
  skeletal material, mummified tissues, and hair.
  Viable samples can be obtained from dry, wet, and
  frozen specimens. Samples of ancient DNA can be
  extracted from plants, animals and insects

Exploitation of Accident!
the oblivion ha-ha
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Carl
Notice how little attention in these items on the
work itself
genre
Forget all these questionscreative writing is
the writing of poetry and fiction. Duh. The end.

• Creative writing, in my opinion, is poetry,
  prose, really its anything that you dont need
  to do extensive research to write and doesnt
  need a bibliography. Creative writing can be
  something totally new, or something ripped off
  from one of the greats, just a little different
  different enough, at least, to not get sued. It
  can be a way of expressing yourself, resolving
  inner conflicts, or just killing time.

therapy (back to the self)
Does/can the work have a mind of its own? Some
artists have spoken about it in these terms
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Eric
the life rights of the work itself!

• I dont think I can answer all of these
  questions in a single paragraph (or a single
  page) so Ill focus on one of them. As to the
  question of whose needs are most important the
  writers or the audiences, I believe that once a
  particular piece of writing is set down, that the
  author in a sense ceases to exist. The writing
  takes its place among all other forms of writing
  and is organized and categorized based on the
  work that has come before. Once the writing is
  set down, it becomes an entity onto itself, an
  artifact of a specific time and environment.
  Asking whose needs are more important is like
  asking who gets the most value from a relic
  unearthed in an archeological dig, those people
  who originally used it in their daily lives, or
  those scientists who use it to gain a glimpse of
  that daily life hundreds or thousands of years in
  the future. The artifact meets both groups needs
  in completely different ways and remains ready to
  fulfill other needs in whatever situation is
  brought to bear. As a writer, I try to remain
  focused on this belief, as I think it helps me
  distance myself from the work, and allows me to
  approach it from a vantage point other than one
  of self interest and vanity.

the very broad view
the cultural and historical dimension
where did eric go? who was eric was there ever
an eric eric o eric
losing ones self in the work?
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By the end of GS, wed like you to submit work
for our local buses!
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