Week of April 21

I've moved the due-date of the paper until Friday, the 25th, but no later than that, so get it done. Remember that you must turn in all work, including any notes you might have taken, research you might have printed out (along with a bibliography), outlines (you should all have them) or mind-maps--anything that contributed to the process. Remember, no matter what your level of skill, you can potentially earn 100 as a test score on one component--the process or effort component. In order to get 100, however, I will expect to see research. If you look at my blog, you can see how important research is to me as a writer, and I've been writing for many years and have more years of experiences from which to draw. In spite of this, I find research even more important than I ever have before. It's important to know what things are called--not just as writers--but in terms of your future careers. Great writers are also great observers and great listeners and mostly, great learners.

Other than the papers, there will be no homework this week. There will also be no homework next weekend, so that you can turn your papers in and take a deep breath all weekend long.

Bring your grammar books and workbooks to class on Wednesday/Thursday.

Monday/Tuesday

Take 1/2 hour to peer-edit or work individually. Get Norton Anthologies from the back of the room and start reading about Aristotle (pp. 842-847).

Know the following information from that:

Dates of birth and death and place of origin

Name of his school

Areas of research

From Poetics:

Definition of tragedy

Constituent parts of tragedy and what they mean

What are two natural causes of actions?

What are the six constituent elements of tragedy?

Which elements make up the media?

Which elements make up the manner?

Which elements make up the objects?

"...tragedy is not an imitation of men but of __________ and __________."

"...without action there could not be a tragedy, but there could be without ______________."

What makes a thing whole?

"...the poet's function is not to report things that have happened, but rather to tell of _________________________________."

What is the difference between the poet and the historian?

Which type of plot does Aristotle consider "the worst"?

What is peripety?

Give an example.

What does Aristotle mean by "recognition"?

Give an example.

"...good men ought not to be shown passing from prosperity to misfortune, for this does not inspire either pity or fear, but only revulsion; nor evil men rising from ill fortune to prosperity, for this is the most untragic plot of all--it lacks every requirement, in that it neither elicits __________________ nor stirs ________________________."

Why shouldn't wicked men be seen falling from prosperity into misfortune?

What is "hamartia"?

What, then, really makes for a good plot?

What is the chorus' role in a tragedy?

Next: Read background of Euripides (pp. 741-743).

Know the following information:

Dates of his life and which war was occurring around the time that Medea was produced. The year that Medea was produced.

How does Medea have "an attitude characteristic of modern literature"?

How was Euripides like "so many of the great modern writers"?

What makes Medea different from many other Greek tragedies?

What makes Medea different from others in her world?

Who is Medea's husband?

What is the purpose of the play? What is it intended to do to the audience?

What makes the play "more than a feminist melodrama"?

"The play creates a world in which there is no relation whatsoever between the powers which rule the universe and the fundamental laws of ____________________________."

"The play dramatizes ____________________________."

After students have finished this, they may go back to working quietly on Infernos. Remember to bring your grammar books and workbooks on Wednesday/Thursday.

Wednesday/Thursday

Take out your grammar books / workbooks.

Turn to chapter eight in spiral books. Read pp. 84-92. Do exercises 8-1 & 9-1 in spiral books.

Do exercises 8-1, 8-2, 8-3, 8-4, 9-1, 9-2, 9-3, & 9-4 in your workbooks.

If you finish early, you may work on your Infernos or consult with classmates on that work.

Friday

Placing the newest work on top--to the oldest, first work you did on the bottom, place your Infernos in a file folder with your full name on the outside front and on the tab and turn it in.

Students may choose to share what they have done before doing so, but I'll leave that up to Ms. Lyle and students.
No homework this weekend.

Draft 1 of Canto II--the Atheists

We have just arrived at the Tottenham  Court tube station and we find ourselves standing in front of some three-story Georgian mansions.

"Virginia," I find myself saying, instantly regretting the lack of formality.

"You may call me Virginia," she says, and her eyes twinkle and her mouth widens into a Cheshire-cat grin.

"Virginia," I say, only half-believing the word or my senses.

"Not to be mistaken with the Commonwealth or the Virgin Queen," she says, her eyes full of mischief. She opens her arms and enfolds me in them.

"I know this must be a shock," she says. "It was for Dante too, but look what he did with the experience. The Woman Upstairs, the one the earth has called God for centuries--and 'God' is appropriate still--just felt that the process needed an update, that new times called for new interventions. After all, a woman is now running for president of the United States!"

"Woman Upstairs," I repeat. "Woman Upstairs?"

"A rose is still a rose by any other name," says Virginia. "Woman Upstairs. God. Allah. The Big Cheese. It's all the same. I don't know why people make such a big deal about the nomenclature. It's one of the problems with the human race, I suppose, that thing you call 'Free Will.' First, one takes a bite of some forbidden fruit, then another one kills his own brother, which angered his mother to no end, mind you. Boys will be boys. Whatever. It made his earthly mother mad but his divine one even angrier. She sentenced him to wander, with a mark upon him so that he would not be killed. I guess it was all part of her plan, something I still don't understand, but all that did was cause him to tell others about how dangerous women were, how they needed to be controlled."

"Does Hillary eventually win?" I ask. "Does she even win the primaries?"

"I can't tell you that. Well, actually, I could, but I won't," she says.

"Besides," says another voice, and I recognize the figure as none other than Kurt Vonnegut, "you have bigger fish to fry."

"Kurt--Sinead, Sinead--Kurt," says Virignia. [My narrator got christened Sinead because of my bald head, like 1980s pop-star Sinead O'Conner. I hope you like it.]

"Pleased to meet your acquaintance," says Kurt. He extends his hand like a banker about to close a big deal.

I am speechless.

"We are here in Bloomsbury," says Virginia, "because this is a place where we atheists thrived back in the 1920s. If we had time, you'd get to talk to the likes of artists Duncan Grant, Dora Carrington, Roger Frye, and my own sister, Vanessa Bell. Or you could hear John Maynard Keynes talk about current economic policies and why the world is in such a mess. Or, since you will be teaching his novel, A Passage to India, this year, you could engage in a discussion with my friend E. M. Forster."

"I wouldn't know where to begin," I say.

"Just ask questions. That is why you are here," she says.

"Is it painful," I ask.

"No, it is fitting," says Virginia. "Look about us. We are in a beautiful setting, in these elegant homes and we are surrounded by the best and the brightest of our generation and even other generations," she says, nodding at Kurt.

"What about God?" I ask.

"God is God," she says. "I know She's there and I know I'm supposed to be in despair because I can't be with Her, but I'm not. The experience is very much like what it was when I was on earth, except that now I no longer have to suffer those lengthy bouts of depression or mania."

"It's more like the Greek underworld, neither here nor there," says Vonnegut, which makes me remember that Vonnegut's master's degree was in anthropology. "It's like being a perpetual student, one that never graduates. And you have all these cool people all around you all the time, fighting and arguing and having a good old time. What could be better than that?"

"You have a point," I say, though I am tempted like Eve to go further. In deference, however, and because I have no wish to make them consider their own situation undesirable, I say nothing.

More Preparation for Canto II

Since I am going to start Canto II with the atheists, I am going to place in Bloomsbury, a part of London where Woolf lived and shared ideas with other brilliant minds of her generation. Besides, I thought Vonnegut might enjoy this area too.

I always picture the setting of the Virtuous Pagans as being like the Harvard University campus--not such a bad place to be. That is why I think Bloomsbury will be fitting. It will not be a sad place, but a place that Woolf and others enjoyed while they lived on this earth and a world that she can continue to enjoy in the afterlife. Creative pursuits are often done in private but they need to be nourished with public discourse. Ideas bounce off other ideas; surrounding yourself with bright people (especially if they are bright in areas that you are not) is a way of enhancing your own intelligence and creativity.

Since I want to describe what is around us, I have had to do some research--not only on Bloomsbury and its history but also on architectural terms so that I can adequately and simply describe it.

Creative writing goes way beyond pulling stuff out of your head. In order to bring it to life, you need an adequate vocabulary. The other benefit to this, is that you become more knowledgeable about the world at the same time.

Brainstorming for Canto II--and Some General Rules

Since this is now the second canto, I will probably use some of the transitional material I have already prepared in the original second canto--now the third, so forgive the repetition. This will also mean that I will have to change the beginning of the third canto, however, so you will have new material there.

By the way, notice how I do quotes. I rarely write like this:

Virginia said: "Let's go to the party."

Instead, I will usually write like this--when doing prose. If you are doing poetry, it's another story. You may take such liberties, especially if they contribute to the meter or rhyme scheme. You are also braver than I am. Poetry requires a great deal more editing, as you know. 

"Let's go to the party," Virginia said.

OR:

"Let's go to the party," Virginia said, "because it will be so much fun."

OR:

"Let's go to the party," Virginia said. "I know lots of people there."

Note that there is no period after "party." It's a comma. 

Style-wise, if I'm having a character ask a question I'll do it as follows. First, I'll never say "questioned." Remember George Orwell. Keep it simple. Just say "said" or "asked" as follows:

"Should we go to the party," she asked.

OR:

"Should we go to the party?" she asked.  

OR:

"Should we go to the party?" she said.

Do not say "queried," "requested," or anything else like that. Keep it simple. Simple is good. 

And please remember that different speakers have their own paragraphs. It's easier to keep track of which character is speaking that way.

And also remember that I want you to paint a picture for me. That is why research is important for all students. You need to know what things are called. 

Use my work as a model for yours if you are doing prose--at least in terms of its picturesque qualities, the way it follows the rubric, and the punctuation. I recommend that you read your own work aloud. As an experienced writer, I learn a lot about what isn't right with my own work, just by the way it sounds. 

General and important comments about outlines

I have been going over your outlines and have seen some common issues that need to be addressed.

1. Your narrator has to be a living human being--not a god and not a deceased person. The narrator may be mostly you or a composite of you and others that you know that have qualities that you like. The narrator may also be a well-known person, someone that you admire. It is important that your narrator is likable, though flawed in very human ways.

2. Even if the narrator is someone else, you must write in first-person voice.

3. Make the guide a real person that has died, preferably a famous person so that I will have a frame of reference. That way you will have to do research to get accurate information.

4. Research is part of the process part, which is part of a test grade. I want a bibliography, or pages you might have printed out. I use research also to learn what things are called. If I am trying to describe a particular building, for example, I might need a particular vocabulary in order to describe it.

5. Do not have you narrator wake up at the end. That is a cliche and I hate cliches.

Kurt Vonnegut (1922-2007) Quotes

Since I plan on meeting Kurt, I thought I would include some of his quotes. Again, this is part of my process.

• Any person who expresses rage and loathing for a novel is preposterous. He or she is like a person who has put on full armor and attacked a hot fudge sundae.
  
• I want to stay as close to the edge without going over. Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can't see in the center.
  
• If you can do a half-a_ _ ed job of anything, you're a one-eyed man in a kingdom of the blind.
  
• Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion. I myself prefer laugh, since there is less cleaning up afterward.
  
• Say what you will about the sweet miracle of unquestioning faith, I consider a capacity for it terrifying and absolutely vile!
  
• Those who believe in telekinetics, raise my hand.
  
• Beware of the man who works hard to learn something, learns it, and finds himself no wiser than before....He is full of murderous resentment of people who are ignorant without having come by their ignorance the hard way. --Cat's Cradle
  
• Thanks to TV and for the convenience of TV, you can only be one of two kinds of human beings, either a liberal or a conservative. ''Cold Turkey," In These Times, May 10, 2004
  
• There is a tragic flaw in our Constitution, and I don't know what can be done to fix it. This is it: Only nut cases want to be president. --"Cold Turkey," In These Times, May 10, 2004
  
• Here is a lesson in creative writing. First rule: Do not use semicolons. They are transvestite hermaphrodites representing absolutely nothing. All they do is show you've been to college."--Man Without a Country
• Humor is an almost physiological response to fear. --Man Without a Country
  
• I think that novels that leave out technology misrepresent life as badly as Victorians misrepresented life by leaving out sex. --Man Without a Country
  
• 1492. As children we were taught to memorize this year with pride and joy as the year people began living full and imaginative lives on the continent of North America. Actually, people had been living full and imaginative lives on the continent of North America for hundreds of years before that. 1492 was simply the year sea pirates began to rob, cheat, and kill them. --Breakfast of Champions
  
• The chief weapon of sea pirates, however, was their capacity to astonish. Nobody could believe, until it was too late, how heartless and greedy they were. --Breakfast of Champions
  
• New knowledge is the most valuable commodity on earth. The more truth we have to work with, the richer we become. --Breakfast of Champions
  
• Charm was a scheme for making strangers like and trust a person immediately, no matter what the charmer had in mind. --Breakfast of Champions
  
• I can have oodles of charm when I want to. --Breakfast of Champions
  
• Maturity is a bitter disappointment for which no remedy exists, unless laughter can be said to remedy anything. --Cat's Cradle
  
• Here's what I think the truth is: We are all addicts of fossil fuels in a state of denial, about to face cold turkey. --Cold Turkey
  
• Another flaw in the human character is that everybody wants to build and nobody wants to do maintenance. --Hocus Pocus
  
• During my three years in Vietnam, I certainly heard plenty of last words by dying American soldiers. Not one of them, however, ever had illusions that he had somehow accomplished something worthwhile in the process of making the Supreme Sacrifice. --Hocus Pocus
  
• Well, the telling of jokes is an art of its own, and it always rises from some emotional threat. The best jokes are dangerous, and dangerous because they are in some way truthful. --Interview, Mcsweeneys.net
  
• We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful what we pretend to be. --Mother Night  (He is speaking of the novel's tragic hero, Howard Campbell, an American playwright who moved to Germany, married a German, and eventually became a talk-radio guy who speaks hateful words about Jews while encrypting Nazi secrets to the Allies)
• Just because some of us can read and write and do a little math, that doesn't mean we deserve to conquer the Universe. --Hocus Pocus
  
• A purpose of human life, no matter who is controlling it, is to love whoever is around to be loved. --The Sirens of Titan
  
• Like so many Americans, she was trying to construct a life that made sense from things she found in gift shops. --Slaughterhouse Five
  
• All time is all time. It does not change. It does not lend itself to warnings or explanations. It simply is. Take it moment by moment, and you will find that we are all, as I've said before, bugs in amber. --Slaughterhouse Five
  
• How nice--to feel nothing, and still get full credit for being alive. --Slaughterhouse Five
  
• And so it goes. --Slaughterhouse Five
  

Revising my outline

I just realized that I did not have a place for a Virginia Woolf or Kurt Vonnegut--the brilliant writers who are atheists. Besides, I want to use Vonnegut's voice as well as Woolf's. I think they would have fun and that I will have fun with them.

I'll put the Atheists in the first canto because I do not want them to suffer. I want them to have a kind of life that they would have had on earth, to be surrounded by other brilliant minds. Even though Woolf committed suicide, I will not assign her to a lower realm because she had a biochemical disorder that could not be properly treated back then.

This will mean, of course, that I will have to eliminate another canto. I have not yet decided which one but I will keep you posted.

I really hope that by going through the process myself you get a better idea about what I expect from you. Writing can be fun and rewarding, but it's hard work and it's always a good idea, even when writing fiction, to start with research. Fiction, after all, has to tell the truth....