Blog Entry Four

The introduction for Melanie Thurnstrom's book as well as the excerpt from Deborah Tall's lyrical memoir could be considered versions of the "Essay of Ideas," where the author is less interested in telling a story, and more interested with probing a problem through imagery-rich language and highly philosophical lines of inquiry that often link ideas, concepts, and cultural artifacts that don't immediately appear related. Often times, these essays have names like "On Idleness," "On Cruelness," or "Of Deformity" and "Of Superstition." Think of a similar title regarding a subject that genuinely intrigues you. Then, in, at least 400 words, attempt a lyrical meditation of that subject. Within your mini, lyrical Essay of Ideas, attempt to connect at least two concepts or subjects that might not appear related at all, but are linked within the world of your thinking on the subject at hand (it could be as random as a Twinkie and a Yeats poem, if you like).

Option for Tayari Jones Reading

Blog Entry Three

Many authors, such as David Sedaris, use the idea of "obsession" as a jumping off point for their writing. What is it that you are obsessed with? Using the techniques of narrative that we've talked about, attempt to tell a story that not only makes your obsession clear, but attempts to understand why you are obsessed in the first place. The only rule: you may not write, explicitly, "I am obsessed with..." or "I'm obsessed with X because..." Your obsession and its reasons must be implied through your storytelling.

Blog Entry Two

The focus of our second blog entry is the difference between the straight reportage of newspapers and the narrative construction of literary journalism.

You'll notice that, in your reading about Truman Capote's In Cold Blood, Capote originally found the story of the Kansas murder as an article in the New York Times. I want you to do something similar, only, I'm not expecting you to write an entire book.

Dig through the headlines of various newspapers. They can be national, local -- even The Collegian will work for this assignment. Look for a news article that appears to have the potential for a good narrative treatment--a news report that is begging to be told as a story, with vivd characters, dialogue, action, and setting. You don't have to construct the whole story into a narrative, but build a single scene of action with the information from the article. It could be the most pivotal moment in the story, the climax, the calm just before the storm: you decide what you can recreate best and most vividly. The only rule is: all your information must be based on facts you collected from news sources and what you actually know about the place or time (common sense is very useful here, too).

For example, the date December 21, 2011, may become "an unusually warm day in State College," and "the victim, Alicia Jones" may become "Alicia, a 24 year old sophomore studying business at Penn State University" who "walked out her front door, only to be greeted by an ominous masked figure." You might have to find other articles to mine for more details about the event. The more specific details you have, the better. Put what people said into dialogue, use photographs to help you paint images -- even use the Farmer's Almanac to help you describe the weather.

Your scene should be no less than 250 words. Also, please include a link to the original newspaper article from which you developed your story. If you used more articles, feel free to include links to those as well.

Due by Thursday, January 19

Tayari Jones Reading: Mandatory Attendance

The Mary E. Rolling Reading Series 

with support from the Joseph L. Grucci Poetry Endowment,

the Pennsylvania Center for the Book, the University Libraries,

the Department of English, and the College of the Liberal Arts

presents:

Tayari Jones

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

7:30 p.m.

Foster Auditorium, Paterno Library

Tayari Jones is the author of three novels: Leaving Atlanta, The Untelling, and Silver Sparrow. The American Booksellers chose Silver Sparrow as the #1 Indie Next pick for June 2011. Jones will embark upon a national tour with media coverage to include O Magazine, Vogue, and Poets and Writers among other venues. She was born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia where she spent most of her childhood. Although she has not lived in her hometown for over a decade, much of her writing centers on the urban south. She is a 2011 Radcliffe Institute Fellow at Harvard University for the 2011-2012 academic year.

Reading a lot of your first entries...

...made me think of "Shirt Worthy," a New York Times Magazine article written by David Giffels in 2007. In particular, the first line of Matt S.'s "Shirt Luck" ("When my oldest brother packed his bags for San Francisco two years ago, I felt like everything cool about me was going with him." -- Nice first line, by the way) brought Giffels's essay to mind for me. 
In just 1,000 words, Giffels uses the t-shirt as 1. a way to explore male relationships, 2. a vehicle through which to tell a coming of age story about a boy into manhood and, 3. a lens through which to examine how masculinity and codes of masculinity change throughout one's life (the shirt means different things when he is a young man and when he is a father). 
Similarly, in Kristen's piece, she shows us not only the coming of age story of a girl through a nightgown, but the difficulty of completely surrendering that girlhood, too. 
Though I'm citing Kris and Matt S. in particular here (just to make a point about a developing theme among the work I'm reading), a lot of your pieces function on many similarly interesting levels. Shirts and shoes become the lens through which the reader sees many of you grow up. Fascinating! 
Keep up the good writing, guys and gals.

Gay Talese On Gay Talese

Writing Contest