Poetry Editing

Today we discussed the body of Christian's work, examining which poems we liked and which we didn't. We ultimately decided to group them into a narrative.

We will continue working by author this way next Thursday.

For Monday: the 1st draft of your prose work (fiction, creative nonfiction, or essay).
Write as a Google Doc and post the link as a reply in the comment section of this post.

Poetry Editing Day 1

In class, we worked on altering one of the submission poems. Here is my version:

Cycle of Life

We

begin

our short lives

incontinent

unable to feed

ourselves. If we're lucky

we have loving parents to

fill our bellies, clean us up, sing

us a lullaby, and hold our hands.

And now here we are. Not yet

incontinent,not even gray. Certainly without

children. Or at least the kind of children

who will spoon gruel into my future.

And you are not the type

for spoon-feeding. I laugh when
I say this, but you tilt your head. So

you’re absent from all that, too..

But this is today.

Please submit yours below as a comment. 

Editor-Artist Relationship

Today, I showed you several clips from the film "Seven Psychopaths" (McDonagh 2012).

First we viewed Marty's original story about "The Viet Cong Guy."
Second: we viewed the discussion of this story (in which Hans points out problems with Marty's story).

• Marty finds his character interesting, but he does not love him
• Marty's female characters are often unintelligent and killed quickly (suggesting they are not important)

Third: we viewed Hans' version of the story, in which he corrects many of these problems.

We talked about Hans' role as Marty's editor. The version of the story that he creates

• adds an extra layer: this story becomes a story within a larger story.
• (we talked about how we generally should avoid dream sequences in stories, but Hans gets away with this by exiting the dream sequence into a larger story)
• loving the character

As editors, it is our job to help the artist figure out what the story "wants" to be. Or to help her figure out why she is interested in this thing. 

It is also our job to [gently] point out the flaws with a story and make suggestions for how to make it better.

Editorial Board and Task List

Today we established the editorial task list (link to the right).

Today's discussion was largely about practical issues:
- resources for the publication
- contests (and the details thereof)
- the platform of publication
- advertisement
- calls for submission

Please fill in task list details by this evening.
Monday's class will address Martel's "Manners of Dying" as well as your CYOA stories. I'd like you to think about format and the best way to represent the "Killing Alec" series.

We will also discuss editorial duties and relationships with writers.

Killing Alec and Choose Your Own Adventure

We began by reading Vera's version of the "Killing Alec" ending. 

- chronology (linear, reverse, flashback)

- how/when to reveal information

- how to end the story

The idea of having different endings and keeping these endings led to a discussion of Choose Your Own Adventures stories.

Template for Choose Your Own Adventure Stories.

Your homework:

Complete your CYOA story as a group. Write as a Google Doc (complete with links and bookmarks). Please also provide an outline/map of the story.

Read and Respond (as a comment to this post): Martel's "Manner of Dying" (link at right)

"Killing Alec"

This is the beginning of a story "Killing Alec" (it is inspired by Donald Barthelme's story "Some of Us Had Been Threatening Our Fried Colby")

Use this to create your own work (due next Monday). You can do this in whatever way you like:

a. keep the text exactly as it is and write an ending to the short story. The result will be a collaborative work between you and me.

b. borrow the premise that you use in your own story/poem/essay/digital art

c. create an equally ridiculous premise in your own story/poem/essay/digital art

d. create a completely different premise in your own story/poem/essay/digital art

Directions: Write your story in a Google Doc with a shareable link. Post this link as a comment below before class on Monday Oct. 19.

"Killing Alec" by Dr. Marquardt

Of course Alec had been cheating on me. He had been cheating on all of us: Caroline, Anje, Tiffany and me. So we decided to kill him.

Caroline and I had figured it out sitting next to each other on a full bus, both of us playing on our phones. It was a city bus. I might have been sitting next to anyone.

“That looks like my boyfriend,” she told me as I flipped through photos of Alec. She looked more closely. “That is my boyfriend.”

There was some brief hostility, but we calmed down. We even had coffee, compared notes, and decided to take out an ad in the newspaper to see if there were more of us. Several women responded, but Anje and Tiffany were the only ones willing to meet. We suspect there are more.

Alec didn’t deny it. “My love is big,” he said. “One person can’t contain it.”

“Bullshit,” we said. He admitted that it was, though he still preferred not to die.

“It’s not that grave an offense,” he said.

“It is,” we said. And then Tiffany cited the Bible and that got us tangled up for a while. Anje offered the analogy of a dog, one that bit too many people and had to be euthanized. And everyone agreed that this was the better argument.

“She and I never dated.” Alec pointed at Anje, who shrugged. She had seen the ad. She was in it for the solidarity. We appreciated that. Alec thought it was nice, too.

“Would you like to die by firing squad?” Caroline asked. “Aureliano Buendia style?” And this irritated me because I thought reading Marquez to each other in bed was our thing, but I let it go for the cause.

Alec recalled some Monty Python skit in which a man was chased off the edge of a cliff by a herd of beautiful women wearing only helmets and knee pads. “That would be preferable,” he said.

But Anje nixed it on principle. “And besides,” she said. “There aren’t any cliffs around here.”

“How about a guillotine?” Tiffany offered. “It’s supposed to be painless.”

“Guillotines require kneeling,” I said. “Alec’s knees are bad.”

“They’ve gotten better since he started his prescription,” Caroline said. It turns out she was a pharmacist. That was how they met, actually.

“How about a manhunt?” Tiffany said. “Like those films you like.” And we all got pretty excited about this. Alec agreed that it was the best option.

To be sporting, we gave him a lot of leeway: anywhere in the world and a full day head start. We each kissed him and wished him luck. Then Anje drove him home because we suspected he might be in shock and not ok to drive.

Presentations and Call for Submissions

Our goal is to send out a Call for Submissions for our journal as soon as possible (Thursday, Oct 8).  This will require us to know

1. -          deadline for submission: 

We want to give writers enough time to create good work, while still leaving enough time for us to edit/produce this work.

1. -          Method of submission (submittable? Email?)
2. -          Description of work we receive (genres, formats?)

We will use your experience with these journals to inform our decisions. Please post your suggestions to 1,2, and 3 as comments to this post.

Day 3: Barthelme's "The School"

Today, we discussed Barthelme's "The School" and why it was "good literature."
Some elements we liked:
- it did not teach us a lesson
- that it made us think about what it means to be human
     - about grief and loss
     - the meaning of life
- we liked the representation
    - of the experience of loss
    - the experience of triumph
    - the "righting" of world order
    - the students (the author respected these characters, they were all smart and articulate, acting older than normal 4th grade children would)

This was a print story, posted online. It is not Electronic Literature. We talked about ways to make this story Electronic Literature, using hypertext, interactive fiction and digital poetry.
Your best suggestions included:
- linking to similar philosophies about the meaning of life
- including a comment section for readers to respond and interact with one another

We also debated about whether or not these changes would be useful. Many of you felt that such changes would distract readers from the original story. And I agree that many superfulous changes (such as definitions of a term, linking to the author's biography, or images of gerbils) would indeed be distracting. But links to substantive topics (such as philosophical essays that further explore the "meaning of life") could be useful and enrich the reading experience.

Your homework: prepare for journal presentations on Monday

Day 2: Page One

We will be watching the Carr's documentary "Page One" (2011) today. While this is about the New York Times, a print publication, I'd like you to think about the implications it has for electronic literature. I'd also like you to think about the experience we are about to have together in creating Volume 2 of The Lying Cotton Review. What roles/positions would you enjoy [or not enjoy]? What are some problems we should anticipate? What things can we do in order to have the best/most productive experience?

Please think about these things individually and have an online conversation here.

Day 1: Introduction to Introduction of Electronic Literature

We talked about the history of writing and writing technologies, identifying the pattern that writing and production is speeding up and expanding.

With this speed, comes the concern that literature is losing its value, quality, and permanence. The most recent claim is Nicholas Carr's article, "Is Google Making us Stupid?" in which he argues that online literature is distracting (while print literature is consolidating).
This is one of the central questions of this course: is Carr right about electronic literature? Is it devaluing great literature? Or is he simply a part of a larger, reactionary pattern that responds adversely to changes in literature and technology?

Assignment:
I introduced the Journal Review Project (see link to the right). Please sign up for at least two journals.
due Monday, Sept 28.
We also began a collaborative process of defining electronic literature terms (see prezi to the right). - due Monday Sept, 21

We will view a documentary about the publishing process on Thursday. Please be sure to bring your computer/smartphone so that you can participate in the Todaysmeet discussion.

Defining Electronic Literature

"Electronic literature, or e-lit, refers to works with important literary aspects that take advantage of the capabilities and contexts provided by the stand-alone or networked computer. Within the broad category of electronic literature are several forms and threads of practice, some of which are:

• Hypertext fiction and poetry, on and off the Web
• Kinetic poetry presented in Flash and using other platforms
• Computer art installations which ask viewers to read them or otherwise have literary aspects
• Conversational characters, also known as chatterbots
• Interactive fiction
• Novels that take the form of emails, SMS messages, or blogs
• Poems and stories that are generated by computers, either interactively or based on parameters given at the beginning
• Collaborative writing projects that allow readers to contribute to the text of a work
• Literary performances online that develop new ways of writing" 

-- ELO (Electronic Literature Online)