56 analogies & Hemingway homework for 10/29

As we transition from writing poetry to writing fiction,  let's practice by starting a short short of about half a page to one page, single-spaced, based on one of the "56 Worst/Best analogies of high school students." 

Scour this list for an analogy that inspires the beginnings of a plot to you. Focus on using the analogy to extend -- and demonstrate -- the five elements of plot.

Also, consider the humor (for some, accidental) inspired by the writing style used by the high school author. Try to mimic the analogy's sentence structure (syntax) in drafting your story, as well as the overall voice created by the analogy. For some (only some) clarity, look at these examples

Examples:

9. Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever.  --> This writer mocks, or satirizes, the "her" for a lack of eloquence with, like, "California Girl" dialect!

10. She grew on him like she was a colony of E. coli and he was room-temperature Canadian beef. --> The humor in this analogy is different from the above in that the writer does not mock, but does use a hyperbolic and grotesquely inappropriate image. In short, the image is a negative way of "growing" on someone -- which I don't think the HS writer intended!

Reading Homework for 10/29: Hemingway's "Hills Like White Elephants."    (Also, same story is linked here in a different format.) We will use EH's story to discuss more fiction elements. Answer the following questions:

·      What are our characterizations of The American and the girl?

·      How does Ernest Hemingway use exposition to help shape his characters?

·      Where does most of the action take place in story? What about the lack of physical action is significant to our understanding of these characters?

·      What are some of the ways the reader finds meaning in the dialogue – both what is said and how the characters speak to each other?

White Space | NoSpace example

Richard Siken is the author, and here is a link to the poem in its original form: http://undertowmagazine.com/scheherazade-richard-siken/

For quick background on who Scheherazade: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scheherazade

White space | NoSpace example

Emergence and Emergency (by Brian Russell)

It was a simpler time then when  

We were simple things   alone in the world we  

Performed the rote tasks of our singular

Existences   once a week I walked a block

To the laundromat with my sad sack

Of used clothes while you pushed a sorry cart

Piled high with frozen food   

We were two planes on the same path at

Different altitudes   we were two trains leaving

Union station at 3:17 on different tracks bound

For the dusty towns of someone else’s past 

We weren’t meant to meet but did

My hand already charting a careful course

Up your blouse   you warned me

This is going to get complicated

You were right

I don’t know what’s going to happen

To you next   I hardly

Sleep   I can’t

Develop a routine   I want you to live

Forever or at least longer than

Me   which is the only child

Of forever   I don’t regret

Anything   our complexes   our love

In the face of certainty.

Literary Magazine Reviews

Below are a few places to review for...how to write a review of a literary journal, including examples of how to cite lines. However, there are some different expectations and considerations for you when citing lines within the MLA, academic format. For instance, you will need to incorporate line(s) citation and you may want to save space in your essay by citing 2-3 lines using the / to indicate linebreaks or // to indicate stanza breaks. Also, you will not want to drop quotes, just like in any other college essay.

Line break example:  "Let us go then, you and I, / When the evening is spread out against the sky /

• from TS Eliot's "The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock"

Stanza break example:  "...fearing the chronic angers of that house, / / Speaking indifferently to him,"

• from Robert Hayden's "Those Winter Sundays"

Here are the actual journal review links:

1. http://www.newpages.com/literary-magazine-reviews/2012-09-18/#Assaracus-7-July-2012
2. http://www.thereviewreview.net/reviews/reader-prepare-fall-love
3. 
   

Ekphrasis Poetry, 10/1

Poems that respond to or describe a piece of another art form are called ekphrasis poetry.  Beyond personal memory or current events, the art world can serve as a healthy muse for writers.  

• Perhaps you may respond to themes in the work that strike you
• Does the piece deal with a familiar topic (such as elegy or ode, love or hate, ...)?
• Is there a striking image?
• Does color or another element in the piece strike you?
• Language use that strike you?
• Melody in a song inspire you (Ever listen to classical music and envision a scene in your head?)?
• ...

Here are two general links to ekphrasis poems:

1. Poets.org 

2. Poetry Foundation


Here is a link to a famous Peter Blume piece at the Art Institute of Chicago: "The Rock"

• Let's read the copy that goes along with this piece, but then practice our own responses through a poem draft.