Ha! Altars?

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

original posting: Fri, 2 Jun 1995 13:59:13 EDT

(in search of the higher metaphor, the enlightenment of the ages, I stumbled across this little exercise...)

Dice in hand, we bravely take our changes:

1. a pebble 2. a tree 3. a frog
4. a river 5. a rainbow 6. a cricket

rolled? again?

1. a chirp 2. a squeal 3. a hiccup
4. a burp 5. a snore 6. a giggle

and yet again:

1. yourself 2. your parent 3. your sibling (sis, bro)
4. your friend 5. your lover 6. your child

so, on your altar to the muses, perhaps you have a pebble, a burp, and yourself...

Now! Papyrus and bullrushes in hand...

1. Take one phrase and list at least 10 things you think about it, know about it, etc. For example, you might look at the smooth pebble and think it was ground down in a river, all the sharp edges have been knocked off, you couldn't crack it with a hammer, it's banded with colors, reminds you of an Easter egg, and so on. Simple, prosaic - what does it remind you of? where did it come from? What characteristics does it have? How is it special? How is it the same? What is it missing?

2. Do the same thing for each phrase. Try to ignore the other lists for a moment.

3. Now look at the three lists of things. Think about how these thoughts relate across the lists. Maybe you suddenly realize that you feel as if the sharp edges have been knocked off yourself, just like the stone. Whatever - whether it is the same, opposites, variations, or whatever. Don't be upset if you don't see any relationship between one of the items on the list and the other stuff - you've got 33 bits and pieces (10 each plus the original phrases), there will be plenty of places that these lists grind together in your thinking.

4. Write down those relationships, those thoughts across the lists. These don't have to be forever truths that everyone will see, these are your own personal notions today. I may not understand why the pebble revealing its true color and flash when wet seems to match your own hobby of bungee-jumping in waterfalls, but that's ok. We're not interested right now in whatever notions I have or a professor might have, we're exploring your ideas.

What you have done (I believe!) is to construct a set of personal metaphors. You've taken three things and related them in terms of associations of associations. That isn't so hard, is it?

To be real honest, I think it is the very simplicity of the process that confuses us. We expect lightning flashes, mysterious voices whispering in our ears, or magic - and when you look close, it's just the hum-drum business of patterns that we work with every day.

I mean, almost everyone notices that Prof. Grump always takes his notes out, sets them on the lectern, then never looks at them during class. Exaggerate this to talk about a character taking out the same ratty set of notes that he first started teaching with over 20 years ago - edges weatherbeaten, ink fading, and unread since he first penned them. Work in the way that this "security blanket" represents his fear of change, and maybe show what happens when he loses the notes, and you're well on the way to a story. But the "metaphor" or "symbolism" building that led to it is just an extension of the hum-drum pattern handling we all do.

[extra credit--you may select a personal metaphor or set of metaphors from your lists, generalize and introduce them to the world in a story or poem, and make us all very, very proud...]

words, metaphors and other smoking guns...
write!!!

Foolish Narratives

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

original posting: Fri, 26 May 1995 12:05:02 EDT

Narrative, in case you've forgotten, "tells a story by presenting a sequence of events." Or, as advised now and then, begin at the beginning and go on until you reach the end...

So, with die in hand, let us begin!

Roll once. That's your quote (a theme by any other name would smell as philosophic?:-)

1. A prosperous fool is a grievous burden
2. Fine clothes may disguise, but foolish words will disclose a fool
3. Weep for the dead, for he lacks the light; and weep for the fool, for he lacks intelligence; weep less bitterly for the dead, for he has attained rest; but the life of the fool is worse than death.
4. Even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise.
5. There is no need to fasten a bell to a fool
6. A wise man may be duped as well as a fool; but the fool publishes the triumph of the deceiver.

[fool quotes from "The International Thesaurus of Quotations" Rhoda Thomas Tripp]

And roll once more, selecting the narrative which you are going to write...

1. Following a path to a goal
2. Encounter with a famous person
3. Travel (a trip of your very own!)
4. Historical narrative
5. A first (date, argument, violence, time away from home...)
6. An encounter with a larger social group forcing one person to cooperate

[narrative tasks from "Patterns for College Writing" by Laurie G. Kirszner and Stephen R. Mandell]

Roll again!

Here is your fruit!

1. avocado 2. breadfruit 3. coconut
4. guava 5. kumquat 6. papaya

So, for example, perhaps you are going to write a narrative about an encounter with a famous person, illustrating the theme that "there is no need to hang a bell on a fool." Somewhere in the tale you will include the humble kumquat in one form or another...

[And in the battle of the keyboards, the E is well out in the middle finger lead, closely followed by T on the forefinger, but A is creeping up on the outside pinkie, and the space key just keeps on thumbing along...]

write soon!