Advanced Storytelling
A journal and discussion of the coursework for Advanced Storytelling, READ 5230, at ETSU Spring 2006.Saturday, April 15, 2006
Day 10
Day 10, March 29, 2006
Present: All
We began with a game of making connections among random objects. Many connections were obvious, others were a stretch. this was a preparation for working with personal story material. the challenge being to make connections: weave together events and images into a coherent story.
I shared my story of finding "Story Land" a childhood vision quest.
We discussed the analytical tools from Dr. Sobol's class. They are good and useful with this caveat: analytical tools are more useful in critiquing a story or performance than in the creative process. Instead of working analytically, try to give yourself a creative problem to solve (such as connecting seemingly disparate events.)
We then discussed each personal story concept. I am looking forward to your work!
Here is an inspiration for you from the Knopf Poetry Newsletter:
In an essay called "On Reading Poetry," the late Kenneth Koch wrote:
Suppose you want to get an experience into words so that it is permanently there, as it would be in a painting—so that every time you read what you wrote, you reexperienced it. Suppose you want to say something so that it is right and beautiful—even though you may not understand exactly why. Or suppose words excite you—the way stone excites a sculptor—and inspire you to use them in a new way. And that for these or other reasons you like writing because of the way it makes you think or because of what it helps you to understand. These are some of the reasons poets write poetry. Today's episode of the Knopf Poetry Podcast features Mark Strand reading Kenneth Koch's poem "Permanently," and the text is below.
Permanently
One day the Nouns were clustered in the street.
An Adjective walked by, with her dark beauty.
The Nouns were struck, moved, changed.
The next day a Verb drove up, and created the Sentence.
Each Sentence says one thing—for example, "Although it was a dark rainy
day when the Adjective walked by, I shall remember the pure and sweet
expression on her face until the day I perish from the green, effective
earth."
Or, "Will you please close the window, Andrew?"
Or, for example, "Thank you, the pink pot of flowers on the window sill
has changed color recently to a light yellow, due to the heat from the
boiler factory which exists nearby."
In the springtime the Sentences and the Nouns lay silently on the grass.
A lonely Conjunction here and there would call, "And! But!"
But the Adjective did not emerge.
As the Adjective is lost in the sentence,
So I am lost in your eyes, ears, nose, and throat—
You have enchanted me with a single kiss
Which can never be undone
Until the destruction of language.
From THE COLLECTED POEMS OF KENNETH KOCH © 2006. Excerpted by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of these excerpts may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Present: All
We began with a game of making connections among random objects. Many connections were obvious, others were a stretch. this was a preparation for working with personal story material. the challenge being to make connections: weave together events and images into a coherent story.
I shared my story of finding "Story Land" a childhood vision quest.
We discussed the analytical tools from Dr. Sobol's class. They are good and useful with this caveat: analytical tools are more useful in critiquing a story or performance than in the creative process. Instead of working analytically, try to give yourself a creative problem to solve (such as connecting seemingly disparate events.)
We then discussed each personal story concept. I am looking forward to your work!
Here is an inspiration for you from the Knopf Poetry Newsletter:
In an essay called "On Reading Poetry," the late Kenneth Koch wrote:
Suppose you want to get an experience into words so that it is permanently there, as it would be in a painting—so that every time you read what you wrote, you reexperienced it. Suppose you want to say something so that it is right and beautiful—even though you may not understand exactly why. Or suppose words excite you—the way stone excites a sculptor—and inspire you to use them in a new way. And that for these or other reasons you like writing because of the way it makes you think or because of what it helps you to understand. These are some of the reasons poets write poetry. Today's episode of the Knopf Poetry Podcast features Mark Strand reading Kenneth Koch's poem "Permanently," and the text is below.
Permanently
One day the Nouns were clustered in the street.
An Adjective walked by, with her dark beauty.
The Nouns were struck, moved, changed.
The next day a Verb drove up, and created the Sentence.
Each Sentence says one thing—for example, "Although it was a dark rainy
day when the Adjective walked by, I shall remember the pure and sweet
expression on her face until the day I perish from the green, effective
earth."
Or, "Will you please close the window, Andrew?"
Or, for example, "Thank you, the pink pot of flowers on the window sill
has changed color recently to a light yellow, due to the heat from the
boiler factory which exists nearby."
In the springtime the Sentences and the Nouns lay silently on the grass.
A lonely Conjunction here and there would call, "And! But!"
But the Adjective did not emerge.
As the Adjective is lost in the sentence,
So I am lost in your eyes, ears, nose, and throat—
You have enchanted me with a single kiss
Which can never be undone
Until the destruction of language.
From THE COLLECTED POEMS OF KENNETH KOCH © 2006. Excerpted by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of these excerpts may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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