tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-60469764076864663112024-03-14T04:59:50.650-07:00CritinomiconRich Chwedykhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17734066520904094275noreply@blogger.comBlogger72125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6046976407686466311.post-15522072975595669052022-04-16T00:09:00.000-07:002022-04-16T00:09:22.291-07:00What Ray Bradbury Didn’t Teach You About Short Stories (and Why)<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYJ_0IojUf6mA6bJ2Uj9oLViChBdSeU9k2ZU80pqa96clB4OlSxwLDllwiOzRzcyQaCtfRx5oPnIG4KH1hEattf728vfdiA4gcwWnc48c3ca--madIwPTKBxXmlwY-mqiPEPbgKXPYOQZn-gkufdADoTjiUtLpLhLV_OTQ1ryAhJmK6JRP2etPQ0Qx1w/s2592/2019-10-05%2015.14.42%20(1).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2592" data-original-width="1944" height="766" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYJ_0IojUf6mA6bJ2Uj9oLViChBdSeU9k2ZU80pqa96clB4OlSxwLDllwiOzRzcyQaCtfRx5oPnIG4KH1hEattf728vfdiA4gcwWnc48c3ca--madIwPTKBxXmlwY-mqiPEPbgKXPYOQZn-gkufdADoTjiUtLpLhLV_OTQ1ryAhJmK6JRP2etPQ0Qx1w/w575-h766/2019-10-05%2015.14.42%20(1).jpg" width="575" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">(I
wrote this piece for the Ray Bradbury course thrown to me mid-semester by
circumstances outside my control. They seem to be an excellent bunch of
students but have some trouble in discussing the short stories on the reading
list – and in writing first drafts of stories allegedly “inspired” by Bradbury’s
works. It occurred to me that most of the students hadn’t a clue to what short
stories are, and maybe someone had better tell them before they get any further
in this life. Besides, this isn’t a lit class but a “Craft and Process Seminar,”
whatever that is. What’s more “Craft and Process” than learning what a short
story is? Therefore… )<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in;"><i><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“The
purpose of trial and error, imitations and experiments, constant slaving
through uncertainty and despair is twofold: to acquire merciless
self-discipline; to acquire conscious story patterns and reduce them to
unconscious practice. I’ve often said that you become a writer when you </span></i><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">think<i> story,
not </i>about<i> a story.”</i><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: right;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">– Alfred Bester, introduction to “Time is the Traitor” in <i>Starlight:
The Great Short Fiction of Alfred Bester</i> (1976)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: right; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Even in his book about writing, <i>Zen in the Art of
Writing</i>, Ray Bradbury never answered a certain simple, basic question that
may have been asked of him a million times: <b>What is a story?</b><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">If anyone knew the answer, it was Bradbury. Novels, poems,
plays, screenplays, essays notwithstanding, Bradbury is best known as an author
of short stories.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I don’t think it was a deliberate dodge. Bradbury knew so well
what stories were, he may have taken for granted that everyone else knows what
a story is. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And the reason for that, I suspect, is this: Bradbury read so
many stories, and read so extensively, that he thought in stories, i.e. his
thoughts naturally took story-shaped ideas. It wasn’t necessarily some sort of
gift or talent. You have to work at it.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Many people starting out as writers are not as familiar with short
stories. They may have read a few in school, but much of what takes up their
self-motivated reading are novels. Novels, of course, are stories too, but they
can take a number of twists and turns and explore sidelines; or they can be
stacks of stories, one atop the other; or interwoven stories of many characters
in many places at many times.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I’ve spent a good part of my life teaching folks about short
stories. I’ve written a lot about it, too. And I’ve directed aspiring writers
to a lot of what has been written about short stories by others. It’s what I
do.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">There’s no need to bore you with a lot of that at this time, or
maybe at any time, granted you have an intrinsic sense of what makes one batch
of pages a story and another batch of X-number of pages of prose fiction – a
fragment, a scene, a chapter, but not a story.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Within the traditions of storytelling, it’s simple enough to
distinguish five basics elements (I don't call them parts, though many others
do) you will find in every story. Or, if you don’t find them in a story, it’s
because the author has made their presence felt by their absence, or through
some other clever redistribution of their weight upon the story as a whole. You’ve
got to have these elements or you don’t have a story. And it doesn't matter how
these elements appear, in what structure they may be used. Some teachers talk
about “three-act structure,” but you don’t need three acts to tell a story, as
long as the story has all the elements. The story doesn’t even have to <i>look</i> like
a story: it can disguise itself in an imitation of another form, like a text
message, or a journal entry, or a piece of journalism. It can look like a
postcard, but if it has all the elements, it’s a story.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">What are those elements? The answers will seem obvious, but
think about them for a moment. Very often, beginning writers mistake elements
or discard them, or consider one or the other of them unnecessary, or covered
elsewhere.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;"><b><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">First,</span></b><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> one needs a <i>character/protagonist</i>. The person (even
if the person is an object, or sometimes a collective) is who the story is
about. The focus upon this character helps shape what the story is about.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;"><b><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Second,</span></b><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> the character has to have a sort of <i>defining
motivation</i>. Characters can have all sorts of motivations about many things,
but there's usually one interest, one desire, one need, that defines the
character most specifically, at least for the purposes of <i>this</i> story.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;"><b><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Third,</span></b><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> the story has to happen <i>somewhere</i>. The “somewhere”
can be described in great detail or it can be sketched out with a minimum of
particulars. But even when sketched out, it has to have the feel of a real
place, even when the place is completely unreal (Oz, Narnia, Pluto,
Hyperborea).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;"><b><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Fourth,</span></b><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> the character has to be confronted with . .
. <i>stuff</i>! <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">An opposing force. A nemesis. Something that prevents or
obstructs the character’s defining motivation. This can come from outside the
character, or from within the character. Ideally, the external force working
against the character is a reflection of an inner force that prevents the
character from doing what needs to get done.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;"><b><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Fifth,</span></b><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> the collision between the character’s defining motivations and the
<i>stuff</i> – the forces opposing them – must result in a significant <i>outcome</i>.
It can and is often called the resolution. It can be a victory or a defeat. It
can be a standoff. It can be subtle or it can come in accompanied by a brass
band and twelve sticks of dynamite. No matter how the outcome is reached, it
needs to result in a <i>change</i>. The change may be in the character’s
self, or it may be in our perception of the character. If we can’t answer the
question “What changes?” by the end of the story, either something’s missing in
the story or in our reading of the story.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">That’s pretty much it. Sounds easy, but often the most difficult
things to do are also the simplest.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And it works. Try it. Think over any of the Bradbury stories you’ve
read so far in this class. You'll find all these elements there. Try it with
the stories we’ll be reading next. After you’ve read the story, ask yourself: “Who’s
story is this?” “What do they want?” “Where is this happening?” “What gets in
the way?” “How does it all work out?”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I trust you’ll find the answers in any story (even in bad
stories sometimes), by Bradbury or by any other author you choose to read. And
you’ll also discover that the elements are most interesting when they also are most
cleverly hidden and difficult to discern.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And once you have seen how these elements work in the stories
you read, it’s possible that you can more readily apply them to the stories you
write as well.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p><br /><p></p>Rich Chwedykhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17734066520904094275noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6046976407686466311.post-838882281264448662022-01-04T23:29:00.001-08:002022-01-04T23:39:14.769-08:00Two-way Street<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj52HbKZFXp1ZlFZeSuLG8LVKoxkLrfAuWAaK7oQrbNLJpqnLTTr0w_OVPvSD2kpkGntruPGAGzQu8QK7tpy4uBkYj-2AWrPPDwTKdTJv0cBIMN0ul4yyNyNjnhLZ0vVMn2-8BM1vMnRBxZ6RFVZm65jyBEFWstqdFEWMkbVlAol68JPVSO2fDemKl0Yw=s2592" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1944" data-original-width="2592" height="431" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj52HbKZFXp1ZlFZeSuLG8LVKoxkLrfAuWAaK7oQrbNLJpqnLTTr0w_OVPvSD2kpkGntruPGAGzQu8QK7tpy4uBkYj-2AWrPPDwTKdTJv0cBIMN0ul4yyNyNjnhLZ0vVMn2-8BM1vMnRBxZ6RFVZm65jyBEFWstqdFEWMkbVlAol68JPVSO2fDemKl0Yw=w575-h431" width="575" /></a></div><span class="TextRun SCXW27559315 BCX0" color="windowtext" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-indent: 48px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><br /></span><p></p><p><span class="TextRun SCXW27559315 BCX0" color="windowtext" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-indent: 48px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">The other night I awoke from a dream and found myself compelled to write down some thoughts that floated in my head as sort of the after-burn of dreaming. And that was about what “fantasy” </span><span class="TextRun SCXW27559315 BCX0" color="windowtext" data-contrast="none" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-indent: 48px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">–</span><span class="TextRun SCXW27559315 BCX0" color="windowtext" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-indent: 48px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"> of the literary type – teaches us.</span><span class="EOP SCXW27559315 BCX0" color="windowtext" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559731":720,"335559739":200,"335559740":240}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-indent: 48px; user-select: text;"> </span></p><div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW27559315 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW27559315 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{d25d5a80-faf7-45ef-ba8c-5c96fd33975f}{161}" paraid="162734507" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-indent: 48px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB"><span class="TextRun SCXW27559315 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">Last night, the thoughts <i>preceded</i> the dream, and had to do with science fiction.</span><span class="EOP SCXW27559315 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559731":720,"335559739":200,"335559740":240}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW27559315 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW27559315 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{a0159732-6ee8-4bca-979d-b7628a24eba4}{167}" paraid="215566304" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-indent: 48px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB"><span class="TextRun SCXW27559315 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">I was reading a manuscript a former student asked me to read for her and comment on. I was no more than a few pages into it when I found myself stymied. It was written about a future world someone might have written about in the 1940s, where, along with humans, there were two kinds of humanoid robots. And it seemed so “retro” that I had to write to the author before I could go any further. I wanted to explain that the conversation about artificial intelligence had progressed a great deal in the seventy-plus years since Isaac Asimov started kicking around ideas about robots. </span><span class="EOP SCXW27559315 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559731":720,"335559739":200,"335559740":240}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW27559315 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW27559315 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{6c8d8beb-a77c-40a3-9256-e863cc832888}{203}" paraid="1383061854" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-indent: 48px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB"><span class="TextRun SCXW27559315 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">There were many presumptions made about “intelligence” and “human behavior” and “self-awareness” and “autonomy” in those days. In a way, we know a lot more about such things, but in another way, we know much less – and in this I’m using the word “know” in a somewhat sloppy way. It’s not so much what we know as what we </span><span class="TextRun SCXW27559315 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">presume</span><span class="TextRun SCXW27559315 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"> to know. </span><span class="EOP SCXW27559315 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559731":720,"335559739":200,"335559740":240}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW27559315 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW27559315 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{97bec939-2e46-4417-ab93-47d8891e7fc2}{219}" paraid="138881759" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-indent: 48px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB"><span class="TextRun SCXW27559315 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">In other words, perhaps, we define the problem in such a way as to arrive at a simple solution. It’s not about the “solution,” so to speak, but the </span><span class="TextRun SCXW27559315 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">definition</span><span class="TextRun SCXW27559315 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">. If the definition is off, the solution doesn’t really “solve” anything.</span><span class="EOP SCXW27559315 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559731":720,"335559739":200,"335559740":240}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW27559315 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW27559315 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{6dcc9e9d-42fc-4a85-8455-2b21abf8c0a9}{83}" paraid="1968403220" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-indent: 48px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB"><span class="TextRun SCXW27559315 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW27559315 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">It brought me back to my reading of Louis H. </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW27559315 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">Sullivan’s</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW27559315 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></span><span class="TextRun SCXW27559315 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">The Autobiography of an Idea</span><span class="TextRun SCXW27559315 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">, published the year of his death in 1924.</span><span class="EOP SCXW27559315 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559731":720,"335559739":200,"335559740":240}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW27559315 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW27559315 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{45831c15-15d6-439e-8b75-bad6d5962556}{2}" paraid="865077742" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-indent: 48px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB"><span class="TextRun SCXW27559315 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW27559315 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"></span></span><span class="EOP SCXW27559315 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559731":720,"335559739":200,"335559740":240}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW27559315" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW27559315 BCX0" paraeid="{45831c15-15d6-439e-8b75-bad6d5962556}{23}" paraid="993857701" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 48px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="TextRun SCXW27559315 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">He</span><span class="TextRun SCXW27559315 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"> [Sullivan himself, writing about himself in the third person </span><span class="TextRun SCXW27559315 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">a la</span><span class="TextRun SCXW27559315 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"> Henry Adams] </span><span class="TextRun SCXW27559315 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">had worked out a theory that every problem contains and suggests its own solution. That a postulate which does not contain and suggest its own solution is not in any sense a problem, but a misstatement of fact or an incomplete one. He had reached a conviction that this formula is universal in its nature and in application. ... if one wished to solve the problem of man's nature, he must seek the solution within man himself. ...</span><span class="EOP SCXW27559315 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559685":720,"335559739":200,"335559740":240}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW27559315 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW27559315 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{45831c15-15d6-439e-8b75-bad6d5962556}{19}" paraid="1909104632" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-indent: 48px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB"><span class="TextRun SCXW27559315 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW27559315 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"></span></span><span class="EOP SCXW27559315 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559731":720,"335559739":200,"335559740":240}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW27559315 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW27559315 BCX0" paraeid="{e88813c8-c308-413b-addb-f8bf89e68ec5}{201}" paraid="1137380503" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-indent: 48px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="TextRun SCXW27559315 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">When the notion of humanity sitting at the top of the Great Chain of Being was considered indisputable, it was easier for our ancestors to figure out their priorities. Today, we’re not only uncertain of our position on the chain, but whether or not the chain exists at all.</span><span class="EOP SCXW27559315 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559731":720,"335559739":200,"335559740":240}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW27559315 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW27559315 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{db1fc4fc-2f41-4c8a-aba5-4c40b8d23be3}{180}" paraid="1042950096" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-indent: 48px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB"><span class="TextRun SCXW27559315 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">The more we know, the more we sense how much more there is to know. The more knowledge we gain, the more we understand how much of our universe is perhaps unknowable – at least in the immediate future.</span><span class="EOP SCXW27559315 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559731":720,"335559739":200,"335559740":240}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW27559315 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW27559315 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{09e71cb1-b47b-44e6-88e7-c4b850dd9ec5}{80}" paraid="749434134" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-indent: 48px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB"><span class="TextRun SCXW27559315 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">And I found myself thinking:</span><span class="TextRun SCXW27559315 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"> the important thing in science fiction is not what we know, but what we </span><span class="TextRun SCXW27559315 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">don’t</span><span class="TextRun SCXW27559315 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"> know</span><span class="TextRun SCXW27559315 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">. That’s what makes it fun and thrilling and fascinating – discovering the limits of what we know and speculating upon all that we don’t.</span><span class="EOP SCXW27559315 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559731":720,"335559739":200,"335559740":240}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW27559315 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW27559315 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{b58dbd69-e6ba-4b3e-8aa0-dbabee7fcb62}{99}" paraid="532021512" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-indent: 48px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB"><span class="TextRun SCXW27559315 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">And then I went to sleep.</span><span class="EOP SCXW27559315 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559731":720,"335559739":200,"335559740":240}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW27559315 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW27559315 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{b58dbd69-e6ba-4b3e-8aa0-dbabee7fcb62}{186}" paraid="1005967671" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-indent: 48px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB"><span class="TextRun SCXW27559315 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW27559315 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">And then I dreamed about the house </span><span class="ContextualSpellingAndGrammarError SCXW27559315 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-image: url("data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhBQAEAPEDAABVzDNVzDNV/wAAACH5BAUAAAMALAAAAAAFAAQAAAIInC2QchYKQgEAOw=="); background-position: 0% 100%; background-repeat: repeat-x; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">where I grew</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW27559315 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> up.</span></span><span class="EOP SCXW27559315 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559731":720,"335559739":200,"335559740":240}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW27559315 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW27559315 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{21ad41e6-7766-4201-841f-caf353909466}{96}" paraid="1324924870" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-indent: 48px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB"><span class="TextRun SCXW27559315 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">Except that it wasn’t the house where I grew up, not physically. It looked older, bigger. But it did have one thing my real house had: a crawlspace.</span><span class="EOP SCXW27559315 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559731":720,"335559739":200,"335559740":240}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW27559315 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW27559315 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{8c09b86c-73a5-4b5b-845d-5a6146699182}{85}" paraid="1423677361" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-indent: 48px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB"><span class="TextRun SCXW27559315 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW27559315 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">And in the </span><span class="ContextualSpellingAndGrammarError SCXW27559315 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-image: url("data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhBQAEAPEDAABVzDNVzDNV/wAAACH5BAUAAAMALAAAAAAFAAQAAAIInC2QchYKQgEAOw=="); background-position: 0% 100%; background-repeat: repeat-x; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">crawlspace</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW27559315 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> I discovered that about a dozen college students had snuck in and were living there. They had fashioned their own little cubicles, and their own cubby spaces where they stored their books and laptops and clothing. They had their own sleeping bags and lights. It was all a very neat arrangement. But once I discovered </span><span class="ContextualSpellingAndGrammarError SCXW27559315 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-image: url("data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhBQAEAPEDAABVzDNVzDNV/wAAACH5BAUAAAMALAAAAAAFAAQAAAIInC2QchYKQgEAOw=="); background-position: 0% 100%; background-repeat: repeat-x; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">it</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW27559315 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> I had to figure out if I should allow them to live there or throw them out. After all, they were living there without permission of anyone.</span></span><span class="EOP SCXW27559315 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559731":720,"335559739":200,"335559740":240}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW27559315 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW27559315 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{5125e4e2-83e7-4919-ba17-afede1d9e400}{157}" paraid="1216080379" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-indent: 48px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB"><span class="TextRun SCXW27559315 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW27559315 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">But they were living there because, of course, they had no money. And I could understand that. </span><span class="ContextualSpellingAndGrammarError SCXW27559315 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-image: url("data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhBQAEAPEDAABVzDNVzDNV/wAAACH5BAUAAAMALAAAAAAFAAQAAAIInC2QchYKQgEAOw=="); background-position: 0% 100%; background-repeat: repeat-x; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">So</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW27559315 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> I decided that I would let them live there and, if they ever found themselves with a little money to spare, to make a “donation.”</span></span><span class="EOP SCXW27559315 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559731":720,"335559739":200,"335559740":240}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW27559315 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW27559315 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{619ad05b-51f7-4dfe-b9d3-731127b6806b}{136}" paraid="624458303" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-indent: 48px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB"><span class="TextRun SCXW27559315 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">Unfortunately, the house wasn’t mine. And eventually my brother arrived. And it was understood that he had power of attorney over the “estate,” such as it was, and would throw the students out or call the police on them. </span><span class="EOP SCXW27559315 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559731":720,"335559739":200,"335559740":240}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW27559315 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW27559315 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{f35085f5-0327-4c23-af4c-a00bcf4bea31}{93}" paraid="1412543792" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-indent: 48px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB"><span class="TextRun SCXW27559315 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">I awoke before any such eviction occurred. I felt bad about the students and what might happen to them. I hoped they would find another crawlspace somewhere. </span><span class="EOP SCXW27559315 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559731":720,"335559739":200,"335559740":240}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW27559315 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW27559315 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{31b12ff0-b42d-401c-80b7-40cfa24b271d}{93}" paraid="1324094816" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-indent: 48px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB"><span class="TextRun SCXW27559315 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">But I felt good about </span><span class="TextRun SCXW27559315 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">my</span><span class="TextRun SCXW27559315 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"> decision not to evict them. Were it my decision to make, they could have stayed as long as they wanted.</span><span class="EOP SCXW27559315 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559731":720,"335559739":200,"335559740":240}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW27559315 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW27559315 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{8e421a29-3016-4382-8c5b-e79f8decfeb5}{54}" paraid="542717627" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-indent: 48px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB"><span class="TextRun SCXW27559315 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW27559315 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">There </span><span class="ContextualSpellingAndGrammarError SCXW27559315 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-image: url("data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhBQAEAPEDAABVzDNVzDNV/wAAACH5BAUAAAMALAAAAAAFAAQAAAIInC2QchYKQgEAOw=="); background-position: 0% 100%; background-repeat: repeat-x; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">was</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW27559315 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> all sorts of other stuff happening in the dream. My parents were there, though dead – their presence was in every room. Pam ordered groceries, and two African immigrants who delivered them were waiting for Pam to fold up the boxes so they could be used for the next delivery. And I had an amusing exchange with a gentleman from Goodwill when I discovered that the uniform </span><span class="ContextualSpellingAndGrammarError SCXW27559315 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-image: url("data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhBQAEAPEDAABVzDNVzDNV/wAAACH5BAUAAAMALAAAAAAFAAQAAAIInC2QchYKQgEAOw=="); background-position: 0% 100%; background-repeat: repeat-x; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">shirt</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW27559315 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> he was wearing was exactly the same make as the one I was wearing. I have no idea how this all may have fit with the alleged “big thought” I went to sleep with: </span></span><span class="TextRun SCXW27559315 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">Science Fiction is not about what we know, but what we </span><span class="TextRun SCXW27559315 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">don’t</span><span class="TextRun SCXW27559315 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"> know</span><span class="TextRun SCXW27559315 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">.</span><span class="EOP SCXW27559315 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559731":720,"335559739":200,"335559740":240}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW27559315 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW27559315 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{7ca68bcb-e045-4d1b-86da-67faa7f68764}{27}" paraid="702634454" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-indent: 48px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB"><span class="TextRun SCXW27559315 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">Maybe there</span><span class="TextRun SCXW27559315 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"> isn’t</span><span class="TextRun SCXW27559315 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"> a connection, but I suspect there is.</span><span class="EOP SCXW27559315 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559731":720,"335559739":200,"335559740":240}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW27559315 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW27559315 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{7ca68bcb-e045-4d1b-86da-67faa7f68764}{225}" paraid="166382444" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-indent: 48px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB"><span class="TextRun SCXW27559315 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">Suspect, but don’t know.</span><span class="EOP SCXW27559315 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559731":720,"335559739":200,"335559740":240}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW27559315 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW27559315 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{82f16994-7e4c-4b86-8c70-f19cbae30569}{60}" paraid="719914200" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-indent: 48px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB"><span class="TextRun SCXW27559315 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">And somehow, for some reason, I’m perfectly okay with that.</span></p><p class="Paragraph SCXW27559315 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{82f16994-7e4c-4b86-8c70-f19cbae30569}{60}" paraid="719914200" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-indent: 48px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB"><span class="TextRun SCXW27559315 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><br /></span></p><p class="Paragraph SCXW27559315 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{82f16994-7e4c-4b86-8c70-f19cbae30569}{60}" paraid="719914200" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-indent: 48px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB"><span class="EOP SCXW27559315 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559731":720,"335559739":200,"335559740":240}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi4ZYO_IDnV3dOyP2oQ6g53v2F7M22UOi11CpZsttxPRSj-RHNxrm4DcKjToEPTNwW4TE3aDyERnIlmjfL5Y2qfrMDgHAv84M8osXKi44JQ02z-x7Z1oBMWaHKEJZSiZ5jLFqxMxoG896ExtsuBD7hKWx64ng-T0na85VrbXZC1KHGEg_7Lqacs5FZViQ=s1600" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="325" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi4ZYO_IDnV3dOyP2oQ6g53v2F7M22UOi11CpZsttxPRSj-RHNxrm4DcKjToEPTNwW4TE3aDyERnIlmjfL5Y2qfrMDgHAv84M8osXKi44JQ02z-x7Z1oBMWaHKEJZSiZ5jLFqxMxoG896ExtsuBD7hKWx64ng-T0na85VrbXZC1KHGEg_7Lqacs5FZViQ=w469-h325" width="469" /></a></div><br /> <p></p></div>Rich Chwedykhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17734066520904094275noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6046976407686466311.post-68911023201167897242021-12-31T01:05:00.000-08:002021-12-31T01:05:05.811-08:00It Took All Year to Write this Post... and One Night <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgmQky9TylOtvWtjoiHaG-az9BqJb2GG5IiGzrMyMTEfO2jFomYe30WJEj5g10pMuMCedPD6LGrrXQy9AwDkUEci28C2-EuQUhPYuPq7GTxoGPGoA0UhaL4ZtsKoXNlvueNs08q2DSeiBElh7OmSywCr_ywC-c5Q6qmWG8RA8PGMEkx_WUl4iT1trksnw=s2592" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2592" data-original-width="1944" height="593" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgmQky9TylOtvWtjoiHaG-az9BqJb2GG5IiGzrMyMTEfO2jFomYe30WJEj5g10pMuMCedPD6LGrrXQy9AwDkUEci28C2-EuQUhPYuPq7GTxoGPGoA0UhaL4ZtsKoXNlvueNs08q2DSeiBElh7OmSywCr_ywC-c5Q6qmWG8RA8PGMEkx_WUl4iT1trksnw=w445-h593" width="445" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p> <span class="TextRun SCXW161351916 BCX0" data-contrast="none" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 24.15px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-indent: 48px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW161351916 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">I awoke from a very strange dream early this morning and, instead of my usual </span><span class="SpellingError SCXW161351916 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-image: url("data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhBQAEAJECAP////8AAAAAAAAAACH5BAEAAAIALAAAAAAFAAQAAAIIlGAXCCHrTCgAOw=="); background-position: left bottom; background-repeat: repeat-x; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">m.o.</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW161351916 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> of saying, when a thought comes to me, “I should write that down,” and then turning over and going back to sleep, this time I actually wrote it down:</span></span><span class="EOP SCXW161351916 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559731":720,"335559739":200,"335559740":276}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 24.15px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-indent: 48px; user-select: text;"> </span></p><div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW161351916" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW161351916 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{5f2a0210-cd9b-43a8-945d-0ded877d3f1e}{90}" paraid="223403906" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB"><span class="TextRun SCXW161351916 BCX0" data-contrast="none" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: bold; line-height: 24.15px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">What fantasy teaches us –</span><span class="TextRun SCXW161351916 BCX0" data-contrast="none" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 24.15px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"> </span><span class="EOP SCXW161351916 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559739":200,"335559740":276}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 24.15px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW161351916" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW161351916 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{5f2a0210-cd9b-43a8-945d-0ded877d3f1e}{96}" paraid="1517436035" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-indent: 48px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB"><span class="TextRun SCXW161351916 BCX0" data-contrast="none" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 24.15px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">We are taught that what is true and what is real are synonymous.</span><span class="EOP SCXW161351916 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559731":720,"335559739":200,"335559740":276}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 24.15px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW161351916" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW161351916 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{5f2a0210-cd9b-43a8-945d-0ded877d3f1e}{102}" paraid="1680324706" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-indent: 48px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB"><span class="TextRun SCXW161351916 BCX0" data-contrast="none" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 24.15px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">And we are taught that believing and knowing are the same thing.</span><span class="EOP SCXW161351916 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559731":720,"335559739":200,"335559740":276}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 24.15px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW161351916" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW161351916 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{5f2a0210-cd9b-43a8-945d-0ded877d3f1e}{108}" paraid="104244392" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-indent: 48px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB"><span class="TextRun SCXW161351916 BCX0" data-contrast="none" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 24.15px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">What fantasy teaches us is that what is real is often not true, and what is true is often not real.</span><span class="EOP SCXW161351916 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559731":720,"335559739":200,"335559740":276}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 24.15px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW161351916" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW161351916 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{5f2a0210-cd9b-43a8-945d-0ded877d3f1e}{120}" paraid="968615209" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-indent: 48px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB"><span class="TextRun SCXW161351916 BCX0" data-contrast="none" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 24.15px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">And what we believe is often not what we know, and what we know is often not what we believe.</span><span class="EOP SCXW161351916 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559731":720,"335559739":200,"335559740":276}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 24.15px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW161351916" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW161351916 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{5f2a0210-cd9b-43a8-945d-0ded877d3f1e}{132}" paraid="37180480" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-indent: 48px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB"><span class="TextRun SCXW161351916 BCX0" data-contrast="none" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 24.15px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">And that is why so many hate fantasy.</span><span class="EOP SCXW161351916 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559731":720,"335559739":200,"335559740":276}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 24.15px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW161351916" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW161351916 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{5f2a0210-cd9b-43a8-945d-0ded877d3f1e}{138}" paraid="1122954944" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-indent: 48px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB"><span class="TextRun SCXW161351916 BCX0" data-contrast="none" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 24.15px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">Not because it’s an “escape,” but an acknowledgment of our contradictions.</span><span class="EOP SCXW161351916 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559731":720,"335559739":200,"335559740":276}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 24.15px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW161351916" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW161351916 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{5f2a0210-cd9b-43a8-945d-0ded877d3f1e}{150}" paraid="1685972857" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-indent: 48px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB"><span class="TextRun SCXW161351916 BCX0" data-contrast="none" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 24.15px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">And with that knowledge, whether we’re free or imprisoned, we can become truly dangerous.</span><span class="EOP SCXW161351916 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559731":720,"335559739":200,"335559740":276}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 24.15px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW161351916" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW161351916 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{5f2a0210-cd9b-43a8-945d-0ded877d3f1e}{168}" paraid="24696618" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-indent: 48px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB"><span class="TextRun SCXW161351916 BCX0" data-contrast="none" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 24.15px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">Fantasy can, or at least </span><span class="TextRun SCXW161351916 BCX0" data-contrast="none" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 24.15px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">may</span><span class="TextRun SCXW161351916 BCX0" data-contrast="none" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 24.15px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">, give someone not only the power to recognize the words “true,” “real,” “believe,’ “know,” but to change them.</span><span class="EOP SCXW161351916 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559731":720,"335559739":200,"335559740":276}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 24.15px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW161351916" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW161351916 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{3916f249-af63-4486-96b8-c2b89ef7b84b}{228}" paraid="1443797454" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-indent: 48px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB"><span class="TextRun SCXW161351916 BCX0" data-contrast="none" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 24.15px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">... And </span><span class="TextRun SCXW161351916 BCX0" data-contrast="none" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 24.15px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">then</span><span class="TextRun SCXW161351916 BCX0" data-contrast="none" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 24.15px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"> I went back to sleep. </span><span class="EOP SCXW161351916 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559731":720,"335559739":200,"335559740":276}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 24.15px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW161351916" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW161351916 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{e3489454-dcdc-4f6a-b557-9dcd7ce47e21}{12}" paraid="1738819379" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-indent: 48px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB"><span class="TextRun SCXW161351916 BCX0" data-contrast="none" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">It’s been a strange year for everyone, but not “strange” for everyone in the same way. Every journey has been a little (or a lot) different. </span><span class="EOP SCXW161351916 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559731":720,"335559739":200,"335559740":240}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW161351916" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW161351916 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{f0531d74-c2bd-45c7-8688-3fdb6fe69f2b}{132}" paraid="422301333" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-indent: 48px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB"><span class="TextRun SCXW161351916 BCX0" data-contrast="none" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">For me, the challenges have been somewhat personal. I’ve found myself in a position that I wouldn’t have imagined a few years ago, but one I would have hoped for a decade or so back. </span><span class="EOP SCXW161351916 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559731":720,"335559739":200,"335559740":240}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW161351916" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW161351916 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{9a8f3990-f3c9-428d-a2ef-378d89044e1e}{171}" paraid="1040729299" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-indent: 48px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB"><span class="TextRun SCXW161351916 BCX0" data-contrast="none" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">I’m writing, though not as much writing fiction as I’d like.</span><span class="EOP SCXW161351916 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559731":720,"335559739":200,"335559740":240}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW161351916" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW161351916 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{9a8f3990-f3c9-428d-a2ef-378d89044e1e}{180}" paraid="411199317" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-indent: 48px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB"><span class="TextRun SCXW161351916 BCX0" data-contrast="none" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">I’m teaching, though not necessarily the subjects I’d imagined I’d be teaching. Still, the subjects are in the neighborhood of my “area of expertise,” as some colleague might call it. “Foundations in Creative Writing” </span><span class="TextRun SCXW161351916 BCX0" data-contrast="none" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">–</span><span class="TextRun SCXW161351916 BCX0" data-contrast="none" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"> I’m supposed to know about them. “English Authors from </span><span class="TextRun SCXW161351916 BCX0" data-contrast="none" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">Beowulf</span><span class="TextRun SCXW161351916 BCX0" data-contrast="none" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"> to Blake” </span><span class="TextRun SCXW161351916 BCX0" data-contrast="none" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">– would not have been surprising in grad school, but fifty years ago if you had told me I would be teaching Chaucer, Marlowe, and Pope, I would have laughed. When it came to literature, I cared little about what was written </span><span class="TextRun SCXW161351916 BCX0" data-contrast="none" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">yesterday</span><span class="TextRun SCXW161351916 BCX0" data-contrast="none" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">. I wanted to read what was being written today. I wanted to read what was being written </span><span class="TextRun SCXW161351916 BCX0" data-contrast="none" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">tomorrow</span><span class="TextRun SCXW161351916 BCX0" data-contrast="none" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">. My journey through literature has been a backward progression. </span><span class="EOP SCXW161351916 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559731":720,"335559739":200,"335559740":240}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW161351916" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW161351916 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{28b284ea-3b6c-4cc9-94fa-8d3b7a4390df}{152}" paraid="247647475" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-indent: 48px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB"><span class="TextRun SCXW161351916 BCX0" data-contrast="none" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">The one that </span><span class="TextRun SCXW161351916 BCX0" data-contrast="none" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">really</span><span class="TextRun SCXW161351916 BCX0" data-contrast="none" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"> had me – and still does – perplexed is the Fantasy Writing Workshop. I’ve known and read fantasy fiction for years. </span><span class="EOP SCXW161351916 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559731":720,"335559739":200,"335559740":240}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW161351916" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW161351916 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{8a06ee1a-d8b1-4788-864f-0fd9116b3bea}{224}" paraid="1346307469" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-indent: 48px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB"><span class="TextRun SCXW161351916 BCX0" data-contrast="none" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">But I can’t say I know </span><span class="TextRun SCXW161351916 BCX0" data-contrast="none" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">what</span><span class="TextRun SCXW161351916 BCX0" data-contrast="none" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"> it is.</span><span class="EOP SCXW161351916 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559731":720,"335559739":200,"335559740":240}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW161351916" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW161351916 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{8a06ee1a-d8b1-4788-864f-0fd9116b3bea}{230}" paraid="1663945726" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-indent: 48px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB"><span class="TextRun SCXW161351916 BCX0" data-contrast="none" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">The literary categorical definitions have been little help. The one quote that has really helped was from Gene Wolfe, who said something along the lines (too lazy to look it up now) that it is the one thing in the universe that is bigger than the universe. There is more going on than “primary” and “secondary” worlds, with respectful apologies to J. R. R. Tolkien. </span><span class="EOP SCXW161351916 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559731":720,"335559739":200,"335559740":240}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW161351916" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW161351916 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{b6548e42-43f8-45a0-a767-351867cfdd9f}{2}" paraid="1677680364" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-indent: 48px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB"><span class="TextRun SCXW161351916 BCX0" data-contrast="none" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">What is primary to some is secondary to others, and vice versa. There are times when it seems that the primary world is merely an extension, or an appendix, of the secondary.</span><span class="EOP SCXW161351916 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559731":720,"335559739":200,"335559740":240}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW161351916" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW161351916 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{272176d4-2935-4078-aa59-fcb329d677bc}{66}" paraid="1740165314" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-indent: 48px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB"><span class="TextRun SCXW161351916 BCX0" data-contrast="none" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">I know many of my students want merely to write medieval idylls with dragons, elves, and fairies, but I can’t help feeling there’s more to this.</span><span class="EOP SCXW161351916 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559731":720,"335559739":200,"335559740":240}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW161351916" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW161351916 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{eace2821-4541-4561-8e82-3113a5a4ee39}{43}" paraid="1097572476" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-indent: 48px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB"><span class="TextRun SCXW161351916 BCX0" data-contrast="none" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW161351916 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">Some of that feeling may be personally driven. For the past couple of </span><span class="ContextualSpellingAndGrammarError SCXW161351916 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-image: url("data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhBQAEAPEDAABVzDNVzDNV/wAAACH5BAUAAAMALAAAAAAFAAQAAAIInC2QchYKQgEAOw=="); background-position: left bottom; background-repeat: repeat-x; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">years</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW161351916 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> I’ve been watching my mother, now 92, descending into dementia. And I believe part of the reason why it’s been so difficult for me to watch her descent is because, for her, all her life, the lines between primary and secondary worlds never really existed. What she believed to be true and real was always incredibly flexible. </span></span><span class="EOP SCXW161351916 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559731":720,"335559739":200,"335559740":240}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW161351916" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW161351916 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{9d5ef3c6-814a-4f73-a9e4-b51a194d6141}{204}" paraid="1946490459" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-indent: 48px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB"><span class="TextRun SCXW161351916 BCX0" data-contrast="none" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW161351916 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">It wasn’t that she was “merely” a liar, although she lied. It wasn’t that she rearranged facts for the convenience of the immediate circumstance – that's just part of it. It wasn’t that she chose a “make believe” world at times over the “real” one. I think, honestly, that she couldn’t tell the difference between the </span><span class="ContextualSpellingAndGrammarError SCXW161351916 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-image: url("data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhBQAEAPEDAABVzDNVzDNV/wAAACH5BAUAAAMALAAAAAAFAAQAAAIInC2QchYKQgEAOw=="); background-position: left bottom; background-repeat: repeat-x; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">make believe</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW161351916 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> world and the real one.</span></span><span class="EOP SCXW161351916 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559731":720,"335559739":200,"335559740":240}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW161351916" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW161351916 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{05426040-adc0-46f0-b6a2-8b4932f963d5}{26}" paraid="1863652892" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-indent: 48px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB"><span class="TextRun SCXW161351916 BCX0" data-contrast="none" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">Mentally ill? Not entirely. Not necessarily. I think millions of people do much the same thing. The only difference may be in degree. Some people are just good at it.</span><span class="EOP SCXW161351916 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559731":720,"335559739":200,"335559740":240}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW161351916" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW161351916 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{b5d9b65c-4850-480f-80e6-2028554cb428}{65}" paraid="1916938433" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-indent: 48px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB"><span class="TextRun SCXW161351916 BCX0" data-contrast="none" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">I may be one of them. After all, I am my mother’s son, along with being my father’s son.</span><span class="EOP SCXW161351916 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559731":720,"335559739":200,"335559740":240}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW161351916" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW161351916 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{8ed8ee34-ffe8-485d-9f4a-365b3deacdfc}{108}" paraid="184603319" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-indent: 48px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB"><span class="TextRun SCXW161351916 BCX0" data-contrast="none" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">Funny. Both of them excoriated literary fantasy to some degree. And yet both them lived intensely interior fantasies. Perhaps that is their legacy to me. And it may be why the traditional definitions of fantasy have left me cold. Something’s incomplete about them. I’ve been thinking about it a lot.</span><span class="EOP SCXW161351916 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559731":720,"335559739":200,"335559740":240}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW161351916" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW161351916 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{66cb3aa4-ea68-4dae-b56e-88a0c7ad56a6}{69}" paraid="870942338" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-indent: 48px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB"><span class="TextRun SCXW161351916 BCX0" data-contrast="none" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">And perhaps that’s where the dream came from – the dream that left me awake at 4:45 in the morning with those words in my head. It’s taken me a year, maybe two years, to figure them out somewhere in some part of my conscious or unconscious.</span><span class="EOP SCXW161351916 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559731":720,"335559739":200,"335559740":240}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW161351916" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW161351916 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{2dccd997-7979-4e66-bbca-1ffd1916da28}{105}" paraid="1152158664" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-indent: 48px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB"><span class="TextRun SCXW161351916 BCX0" data-contrast="none" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">For a large part of my life, I have felt that my life was a long, sloppy, unfortunate accident. I was the wrong person, in the wrong place, at the wrong time. I was a “rough draft” of a human being that it would have been better to erase and start all over again, were the laws of the land not written to prevent such corrections.</span><span class="EOP SCXW161351916 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559731":720,"335559739":200,"335559740":240}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW161351916" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW161351916 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{177f173c-8608-4618-a69e-3aa6ee3be8aa}{162}" paraid="1810574460" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-indent: 48px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB"><span class="TextRun SCXW161351916 BCX0" data-contrast="none" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">I’m beginning to think that maybe the accident was not so unfortunate after all. Even more – that it may not be an accident after all.</span><span class="EOP SCXW161351916 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559731":720,"335559739":200,"335559740":240}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW161351916" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW161351916 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{4688cfb9-8336-4e07-9d54-7ca6935d0a8b}{108}" paraid="1850269398" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-indent: 48px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB"><span class="TextRun SCXW161351916 BCX0" data-contrast="none" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">That’s something new for me. And it may be that the twists and turns of our current pandemic have played a role in getting me in that frame of mind.</span><span class="EOP SCXW161351916 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559731":720,"335559739":200,"335559740":240}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW161351916" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW161351916 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{10637ed0-382b-4429-a072-7f40e49a1a36}{83}" paraid="169453399" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-indent: 48px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB"><span class="TextRun SCXW161351916 BCX0" data-contrast="none" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">I’m not saying pandemics are good, but it’s perhaps possible that not all of their outcomes are bad.</span><span class="EOP SCXW161351916 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559731":720,"335559739":200,"335559740":240}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW161351916" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW161351916 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{3794a53d-023e-46b3-9092-a370d2d89d69}{187}" paraid="1873883973" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-indent: 48px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB"><span class="TextRun SCXW161351916 BCX0" data-contrast="none" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">Let’s see what the next dream tells me.</span><span class="EOP SCXW161351916 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559731":720,"335559739":200,"335559740":240}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW161351916" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW161351916 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{bee2b679-8909-46e2-a4c2-f820df41a408}{66}" paraid="856291881" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-indent: 48px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB"><span class="TextRun SCXW161351916 BCX0" data-contrast="none" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">By the way, Happy New Year. </span><span class="EOP SCXW161351916 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559731":720,"335559739":200,"335559740":240}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW161351916" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW161351916 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{5f2a0210-cd9b-43a8-945d-0ded877d3f1e}{61}" paraid="529886008" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-indent: 48px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB"><span class="TextRun SCXW161351916 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW161351916 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"></span></span><span class="EOP SCXW161351916 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559731":720,"335559739":200,"335559740":240}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Georgia, Georgia_EmbeddedFont, Georgia_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiIE5l1WeOCstJbUAevqwm_fqyU7lGsRxCAk3Zw40wOuQNBR7BBR5eGeGcsrOL5ea2b3SVA5Gp1dcMlCAUoR2Ffc4M2Ymv1YEwP0sUglKpzyCKjwIACocPFtBij1C2-mFLfuMhewzVWlLdTGz2rvcl8y5pZ95z-s4eyo9rFo2veiXtWtOxlqUzhuu-b-g=s2592" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1944" data-original-width="2592" height="433" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiIE5l1WeOCstJbUAevqwm_fqyU7lGsRxCAk3Zw40wOuQNBR7BBR5eGeGcsrOL5ea2b3SVA5Gp1dcMlCAUoR2Ffc4M2Ymv1YEwP0sUglKpzyCKjwIACocPFtBij1C2-mFLfuMhewzVWlLdTGz2rvcl8y5pZ95z-s4eyo9rFo2veiXtWtOxlqUzhuu-b-g=w577-h433" width="577" /></a></div><br /><p></p></div>Rich Chwedykhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17734066520904094275noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6046976407686466311.post-24582845716168420212021-05-26T23:11:00.007-07:002021-05-26T23:11:48.653-07:00Stuff I Wrote in Class Discussions, Spring 2021… (Part One)<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.biography.com/.image/t_share/MTE5NTU2MzE2Mzg4MzYxNzM5/jrr-tolkien-9508428-1-402.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="800" height="320" src="https://www.biography.com/.image/t_share/MTE5NTU2MzE2Mzg4MzYxNzM5/jrr-tolkien-9508428-1-402.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I’ve had a very busy
academic year.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">So busy I’ve barely had
time to write a grocery list, much less a blog post or anything else. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">What I have written much
of is material for online class discussions, writing back to students about
their comments on the topics I set up. Some of that stuff has been interesting
– their comments more than mine, but I don’t feel at liberty to reprint their
replies to my posts.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">And this whole topic in
itself is interesting, since these classes have been using a platform that’s in
cahoots with the college I teach for in claiming that everything I post on
their platform is <i>their</i> property. Of course, that’s illegal, as far as I
understand what the word “illegal” means.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">So – what if I were to
post some of my comments on my own blog and see if said powers-that-be try to
claim their “intellectual property” rights?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">In the meantime, enjoy
some of the nonsense I espouse in my so-called classes.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 18.0pt;">LITR 277B – Fantasy
Literature: Tolkien<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><strong><i><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Week 1 – Getting Started With
Tolkien</span></i></strong><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">One hardly knows where to begin.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Many students enter this class already knowing a great
deal about John Ronald Reuel Tolkien – as much as I do and very likely more.
And many have been introduced to him and his work through the Peter Jackson
films made from them. Some had <em><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">The Hobbit</span></em> read to them by
their parents. Some found the books on their own, on shelves at their homes, or
in libraries. Some were introduced to Middle-Earth through gaming.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">And some of you may be having your first shot at
reading his work here, in this class.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">It’s quite a balancing act. I don’t want to bore
everyone with stuff they already know, but I don’t want to alienate the
students for whom all this work, and the life of the person who produced it, is
unknown territory.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">To the grizzled scholars among you, be patient with
the rest of us.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">To start, I come at Tolkien not as a scholar but as a
fellow writer, a teller of tales, though hardly the same sort of tales that
Tolkien wrote. I have a scholarly side, but I try to hide it, and refer to
myself as a “recovering academic.” And yet understanding Tolkien without
taking <em><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">his</span></em> scholarly side into account risks missing the
point of his most vital work. As a scholar, you’ll notice that he wasn’t a
critic, and he wasn’t theorizer. He never felt he had to tame the texts he read
and somehow “explain” them. Rather, he was a careful reader, an ideal reader in
some ways – an appreciative and enthusiastic audience to storytellers who have
been gone for centuries.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">It all comes back to <em><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">story</span></em>, I believe.
Tolkien believed in the importance of story as the thing that makes us what we
are. He may have believed many other things, but story was at the top of the
heap.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Contexts may be important. The stories we tell today
in no way resemble the stories that were told a century ago. Nor should they.
And yet there are tales from the dawn of history that haunt us to this day.
Voices of bards and poets who have been dead a thousand years and whom we can
still hear even though the language has changed and the everyday references
they used have to be footnoted and looked up in encyclopedias. We can still
hear the voices.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">At least Tolkien could. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Why would that be? I ask questions for which no
definitive answers can be given. What goes on in the mind of writer most often
stays there. Even when the writer scribbles down notes, or proselytizes in a
journal, or speaks to an audience after a reading, those are just the words
that approximate what goes on in the writer’s mind. Words are merely an
imperfect medium to convey what’s in the writer’s mind. Maybe the best we can
hope for, but still imperfect. They’ll do. Though it means we’ll never have all
the answers.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">With any luck, we can stumble upon the right
questions.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">What are the questions you hope to ask in the course
of this class (or the class of this course)?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin: 0in; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">I have link <a href="https://www.tolkiensociety.org/author/biography/" style="color: var(--ic-link-color);" target="_blank">here<span class="screenreader-only"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><span style="clip: rect(0px, 0px, 0px, 0px); overflow: hidden; transform: translateZ(0px);"> (Links to an external
site.)</span></span></span></a> to a biographical sketch of Tolkien, by
David Doughan of The Tolkien Society. I’m also including a link to a video
documentary done in 1996, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNqVqzIxi3A" style="color: var(--ic-link-color);" target="_blank"><em><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">J.R.R.T.: A Film Portrait of J.R.R. Tolkien</span></em><span class="screenreader-only"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><span style="clip: rect(0px, 0px, 0px, 0px); overflow: hidden; transform: translateZ(0px);"> (Links
to an external site.)</span></span></span></a>. You can also find the urls
below.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin: 0in; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">I’m also including links to two entries in John Clute’s
online <em><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Encyclopedia of Science Fiction</span></em>, the first on <a href="http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/tolkien_j_r_r" style="color: var(--ic-link-color);" target="_blank">Tolkien<span class="screenreader-only"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><span style="clip: rect(0px, 0px, 0px, 0px); overflow: hidden; transform: translateZ(0px);"> (Links to an external
site.)</span></span></span></a> and the second on <a href="http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/fantasy" style="color: var(--ic-link-color);" target="_blank">fantasy<span class="screenreader-only"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><span style="clip: rect(0px, 0px, 0px, 0px); overflow: hidden; transform: translateZ(0px);"> (Links to an external
site.)</span></span></span></a>. They’re worth taking a look at because Clute
is an eminent categorizer, something which I’m a complete failure at doing. Not
that I’m very big on categorizing forms and genres of literature (most often
one creates a category as a means to file away a whole library of works and
never have to think about them again), but sometimes categories serve as a way
to distinguish one kind of book or story from another, and provide some useful
handles. <em><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">The Lord of the Rings</span></em> is a fantasy novel, but so is
John Crowley’s <em><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Little, Big</span></em>, though one could hardly confuse one with
the other. Clute, quite far down in his entry, includes Tolkien’s concept of
the “Secondary World,” but later in the term we’ll be looking at Tolkien’s own “On
Fairy-stories” to explicate that much more successfully. What Clute is good for
(allegedly) is finding terms for other kinds of fantasy literature that doesn’t
use the Secondary World approach, or uses it in a different way. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">I hesitate to throw any more reading at you. I am a
slow reader myself, and I much prefer to take my time over a few pages than
race through fifty chapters of some interminable epic. But here I go.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">First, I’m throwing in pdfs of two essays, one by
Ursula K. Le Guin, an eminent fantasist in her own right, “Things Not Actually
Present,” and “Hobbitry,” by Guy Davenport. The Le Guin essay is on the general
topic of fantasy and what we mean when we talk about it – because, to some
degree, we all use this word, though I’m not sure we all mean the same thing
when we do. Davenport’s essay is a sort of memoir and a meditation; he took a
class with Tolkien when he was briefly a student at Oxford (and at the time
didn’t know who Tolkien <em><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">really</span></em> was), and later was an
acquaintance of “Inkling” Hugo Dyson – leading to a somewhat surprising
revelation about what may have inspired some of the names found in <em><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">The Hobbit</span></em> and
in <em><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">The
Lord of the Rings</span></em>. Both essays point to the significance of Tolkien
on our literature in several ways, but also relate them to a much wider
presence fantasy takes in our current world.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Finally – yes,<em><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"> finally</span></em> –<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">I’ll let you decide. Tell me your questions and tell
me what you think.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: 9.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><strong><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">FOR NEXT WEEK:</span></strong><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin: 0in; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Read “Leaf by Niggle” in <em><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">The Tolkien
Reader</span></em>. If you haven’t acquired a copy of that book yet, try <span class="instructurefileholder"><a href="http://wp.lps.org/mpayant/files/2010/08/LEAF-BY-NIGGLE.pdf" style="color: var(--ic-link-color);" target="_blank">here<span class="screenreader-only"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><span style="clip: rect(0px, 0px, 0px, 0px); overflow: hidden; transform: translateZ(0px);"> (Links
to an external site.)</span></span></span></a><a download="" href="http://wp.lps.org/mpayant/files/2010/08/LEAF-BY-NIGGLE.pdf/download?download_frd=1" role="button" style="color: var(--ic-link-color); margin-inline-start: 5px;"><span style="text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"> </span><!--[if mso & !supportInlineShapes & supportFields]><span
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style='mso-element:field-end'></span></span><![endif]--><span style="text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"> </span><span style="clip: rect(0px, 0px, 0px, 0px); overflow: hidden; transform: translateZ(0px);"><span class="screenreader-only"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">download</span></span></span></a></span>. <a href="http://wp.lps.org/mpayant/files/2010/08/LEAF-BY-NIGGLE.pdf" style="color: var(--ic-link-color);" target="_blank">http://wp.lps.org/mpayant/files/2010/08/LEAF-BY-NIGGLE.pdf<span class="screenreader-only"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><span style="clip: rect(0px, 0px, 0px, 0px); overflow: hidden; transform: translateZ(0px);"> (Links
to an external site.)</span></span></span></a>. And start reading <em><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">The Hobbit</span></em> –
no hurry. The first chapter or two will be fine. I don’t want you to race
through it. Take it in slowly and see what you notice, even – or especially –
if you’ve read it (or had it read to you before). We’ll talk about both of
these, along with all the other things, next week.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><strong><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">ONE ADDED NOTE:</span></strong><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"> It’s become
clear in our Pandemic World that internet accessibility doesn’t always work the
way we want it to. Wifis can weaken and Hotspots can grow cold. Hardware can
break or malfunction at the worst moments. If you find yourself having trouble
maintaining connections, your mic craps out, batteries die, or if everything
starts to slow down, DON’T PANIC. I’ve tried to set up this course to
accommodate everyone, even those whose tech will betray them at the least
fortuitous moments. If you can’t stayed hooked up, let me know. If Zoom dies,
you can still participate via Discussions and readings. Let me know if you’re
experiencing difficulties. I may not be able to help, but between us we can
devise a strategy to get your work (and mine) done. We may not have the best
equipment, but we’ll do the best we can.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 16.0pt;">Week 2 – Tolkien and the
Nature of Myth<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">There are plenty of ways
to define “myth,” and I’m not about to go out on a limb and endorse one
definition over another. But in nearly every definition (even the one-word
definition my psychoanalyst friend uses, for professional reasons: “fantasy”)
one encounters the word “story.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Myths, at bottom, are
stories. Where they may differ (depending on whoever is using them) from other
kinds of stories is in the way they are used, or considered, or applied. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">We
shouldn’t find it odd. Recent neurological research maintains that our brains
are geared toward understanding the world through stories. [Take a look
here: </span><span style="color: black; mso-color-alt: windowtext;"><a href="https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/literally-psyched/the-storytelling-animal-a-conversation-with-jonathan-gottschall/" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/literally-psyched/the-storytelling-animal-a-conversation-with-jonathan-gottschall/<span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;"> (Links to an external site.)</span></span></a></span><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">*].
Reality is too complex to comprehend until we divide it down into story-shaped
units. But where does a story become a myth? At one point do we apply that
particular term?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">We’re familiar with
ancient myths of various cultures. But there are ways that mythical thinking
still permeate our lives. History, in one respect, can be seen as a succession
of myths. Or better: there is history, and then there are myths of history. For
many, what we think of as the classical world does not correspond with what archaeologists
and historiographers find. What they think of is an idealization of the
classical world – simplified, but comprehensible.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Similar idealizations
have been performed on the medieval world, the “American West,” the British
Empire, “The Roaring Twenties,” “The Swinging Sixties.” Certain important
people have an historical persona and perhaps a better-known mythical persona.
There’s a kind of mythical thinking that pervades our popular culture. Mythical
thinking often encompasses values, some of which we aspire to, some of which we’d
rather avoid. Comic books are filled with superheroes, but the super good guys
are always pitted against the super bad guys. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Even science partakes in
its share of mythical thinking. A complex theory about the origins of the
universe can be boiled down to something we call the “Big Bang Theory.” The
scientific basis for the Big Bang can be examined, parts of it confirmed, parts
disputed, parts where the physicists simply have to throw up their hands and
wait for further data. Wading through that data can take a long time, it’s
cumbersome, and presents the frightening prospect of encountering . . . <i>equation</i>s!
[shudder] .<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">But when we talk in terms
of the Big Bang, all the complexities are boiled down to a simple image – all of
matter pressed into an infinitesimally small (spaceless) space, then . . .
BANG!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The Big Bang Theory is an
origin myth. Perhaps.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Historical figures are
often enlarged to <i>mythical</i> proportions. Events are reduced to
certain key details. The rest of the details are smoothed away or forgotten.
Our everyday lives are filled with mythical thinking.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Tolkien is perhaps more
aware of our tendency to mythologize than most other authors of the last
century – or he understood that impulse better, since he didn’t try to analyze
it out of existence, as many of his contemporaries attempted.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Where there is a danger
in the whole business of myth-making and mythologizing is in mistaking the myth
for reality, or trying to pass off the myth <i>as</i> a reality. The
myth is a kind of tool, just as language is a tool. The name of a thing is not
the thing itself, but a means by which we can understand the thing better, and
relate it to other things – to measure it and weigh it. In a similar way, the
myth is not reality, but helps us to understand reality in a way we would not
be able to without creating the myth.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">From “Mythopoeia”:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Yet trees and not ‘trees’,
until so named and seen -<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">and never were so named,
till those had been<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">who speech’s involuted
breath unfurled,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">faint echo and dim
picture of the world,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">but neither record nor a
photograph,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">being divination,
judgement, and a laugh,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">response of those that
felt astir within<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">by deep monition
movements that were kin<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">to life and death of
trees, of beasts, of stars:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">free captives undermining
shadowy bars,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">digging the foreknown
from experience<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">and panning the vein of
spirit out of sense.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Great powers they slowly
brought out of themselves,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">and looking backward they
beheld the Elves<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">that wrought on cunning
forges in the mind,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">and light and dark on
secret looms entwined.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><b><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Some questions</span></b><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-left: 54.75pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In what ways, do you think, your reading of Tolkien has added to
your understanding of the nature of myth and its conversation with the “real”
world? (or the Primary World and the Secondary World)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-left: 54.75pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Are there any particular examples in his work you can think of?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 54.75pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And what, perhaps, marks the difference between myth and
fantasy? Are the lines between fantasy and myth (if and when those lines may
exist) determined by the author or the reader?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 54.75pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><i><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">An
added thought</span></i></b><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">: Myth rarely, if ever, sports a single author. Some authors may
be known for collecting myths and retelling them in one form or another, but
the reality of a myth, such as it is, transcends any individual author. Not
even </span><span style="color: black; mso-color-alt: windowtext;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homer" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Homer<span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;"> (Links to an external site.)</span></span></a></span><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">. It
may be one way of distinguishing the myth from the mythical.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: black; mso-color-alt: windowtext;"><a href="http://home.agh.edu.pl/~evermind/jrrtolkien/mythopoeia.htm" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">http://home.agh.edu.pl/~evermind/jrrtolkien/mythopoeia.htm<span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;"> (Links to an external site.)</span></span></a></span><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: black; mso-color-alt: windowtext;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFexwNCYenI" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFexwNCYenI<span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;"> (Links to an external site.)</span></span></a></span><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: black; mso-color-alt: windowtext;"><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/myth" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">https://www.britannica.com/topic/myth<span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;"> (Links to an external site.)</span></span></a></span><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 54.75pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Jonathan Gottschall, <i>The Storytelling Animal: How
Stories Make Us Human</i>, Houghton Mifflin, 2012.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">[In reply to comments by
Ashton and Ashley]<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif;">Thousands
of years in the future, whoever looks at our surviving culture is going to have
one big headache hashing out what we believed was true, and what we <em><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif;">wanted</span></em> to believe was
true.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif;">I’m
not sure about most of the extant mythologies other than that of the Classical
world (i.e. Greek/Roman), but there’s evidence that most of the myths, by the
time they’re recorded, were not believed in as physical realities, but were
told much as folk tales were in other cultures. Ovid did not worry about
lightning bolts from Olympus striking him down if Zeus didn’t like his
depiction in <em><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif;">The
Metamorphoses</span></em>. Euripides uses the gods to make points about fate
and uncertainty. In essence, they were writing fantasy too, but the myths and
stories made it easier for them to make their points and to keep an audience’s
attention. Myths can also be a way of encapsulating a concept with reference to
a single story or character: Augean Stables, Oedipus Complex, a stare like
Medusa’s, etc.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 9.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif;">Excellent
comments, Ashton. And an excellent response, Ashley.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 9.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-color-alt: windowtext;">[In reply to comments by Ashley]</span></i><i><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 9.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif;">Yes!
There’s a whole category of “origin” myths that “The Downfall of Numenor” falls
into (if you’ll excuse the expression). It’s a great tale, a great myth, and it
is told from a perspective that seems conscious of its “mythic” status, i.e.
that it is not a “literal” truth per se, but a story we tell to make an aspect
of the world more comprehensible. The myths we embrace, and the myths we
reject, help define who we are, where we come from, and very likely where we’re
going.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif;">Excellent
example, nicely explained.</span><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 9.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-color-alt: windowtext;">[In reply to comments by Mandi]</span></i><i><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif;">Very
excellent points. I agree that in many ways we all have own realities, and that
these personal realities can encompass secondary worlds – our own, mostly, but
they can be the secondary worlds of others, too. In that reality, we can
separate and shape parts of it into story-shaped things which make more sense
to us than that bigger primary world ever will. But that creates a question:
how much of the secondary world is a reflection of the primary world? What’s
that quote from Virginia Woolf? ”Fiction is like a spider’s web, attached
ever so lightly perhaps, but still attached to life at all four corners.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif;">I’m
not sure, though, what you mean when you distinguish “fantasy” from “newer
works of literature.” Does that mean what we call fantasy is always set in a “heroic”
mode of far-off worlds and settings a la Middle-earth and <em><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif;">Game of Thrones</span></em>? What about
books like John Crowley’s <em><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif;">Little,
Big</span></em>, or Mark Helprin’s <em><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif;">Winter’s
Tale</span></em>, or Samantha Clarke’s <em><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif;">Jonathan
Strange & Mr. Norrell</span></em> (historical but still not medieval)?
There’s plenty of literature where the secondary world and the primary world
coexist, or the primary world is simply camouflage for the secondary. If not,
it might not mean Neil Gaiman wouldn’t have a career, just a much less
remunerative one.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif;">Perhaps
fantasy, like Dr. Who’s TARDIS, is a lot bigger on the inside than it is on the
outside (once we figure out which is which). :-) <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 9.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-color-alt: windowtext;">[In reply to comments by Arianne]</span></i><i><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif;">Very
good. This makes sense: “. . . we generally know the author of these
stories.” As you say, if there are authors to myths, we generally don’t know
who they are. They are often a kind of collective collaboration. They are
borrowed from, or borrowed from others, revised, re-cast, annotated and
re-arranged. Even after thousands of years, they can be like
works-in-progress. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif;">Also
like: “ . . . fantasy can be used as an umbrella term that myths can be
under.” Almost everything can be placed under that umbrella, even a lot of “realistic”
fiction.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif;">Indeed,
hobbits are very human-like, because they can provide our entre into a world of
magic and fantastic beings. We might have a hard time seeing things from an elf’s
point of view, or a dwarf (much less a dragon). But we’re close enough to
hobbits that what they puzzle over and need explanation of, so do we.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif;">Nicely
done.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 9.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-color-alt: windowtext;">[In reply to comments by Angel]</span></i><i><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 9.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><span style="background: white; color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif;">I think you’ve hit it right on the head in regard to both
books, Angel. When we think of Frodo, or Bilbo (or Gollum or Saruman, for that
matter) in terms of what their characters encompass, we’re thinking of them as
myths – just as Hercules stands for strength, or Odysseus for slyness (or
determination, whether we’re thinking of him in terms of <em><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif;">The</span></em> <em><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif;">Iliad</span></em> or <em><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif;">The Odyssey</span></em>). They represent
the qualities (or lack of them) they best express.</span><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 9.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-color-alt: windowtext;">[In reply to comments by Daniel L.]</span></i><i><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 9.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif;">Excellent
point, Daniel. Every myth needs at least a small bit of truth, if not more.
Otherwise it will quickly be forgotten. And it’s also true that we give the
myths power (whether some of them deserve it or not). But it’s a keen insight
of Tolkien’s (though others most likely have shared it) that even a “fantasy”
world will have its myths, some of which are founded ni some fact, and others
not so much.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 9.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-color-alt: windowtext;">[In reply to comments by Annabel]</span></i><i><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 9.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><span style="background: white; color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif;">It makes sense. I especially like your point, “Having a
built-in history to a fantasy also helps the reader connect with the work
through their own history.” One of the things that has attracted readers to
Tolkien over the years is not simply the “secondary world” such as it is, but
the completeness, or sense of completeness, his Middle-earth has. It’s like a
miniature model railroad – but with all the details right. You can scrutinize
it with a magnifying glass and every bolt and plank is in place.</span><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 9.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-color-alt: windowtext;">[In reply to comments by Samantha]</span></i><i><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif;">Great.
Very much like your conclusion: “I personally think that the line between myth
and fantasy depends on what the author wants to write and what the reader gets
out of it, because there is a sense of reality in both, that can only be
interpreted by the person.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif;">In
talking about science fiction, I used to tell my students that it wasn’t a “genre,”
but a point of view: a way of seeing the world. The same perhaps can be said of
fantasy. If you’re walking down the street with someone, and the other person
looks at a house, points it out to you and says, “There’s a house,” that’s one
thing. And if you answer, “That’s a <em><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif;">magic</span></em> house,
that’s another. For the purposes of the walk, you may both be right. It just
defines the way one sees things. Two people look up at the night sky. One says,
“It’s all cosmological mechanics.” The other person says, “It’s a miracle. It’s
a billion miracles all at once.” They’re looking at the same sky, but they see
the same things different ways. That’s the amazing thing about great fantasy
writing.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 9.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-color-alt: windowtext;">[In reply to comments by Marquisa]</span></i><i><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 9.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><span style="background: white; color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif;">Yes. Tolkien makes his world so complete, even down to
providing it with its own mythologies. The great thing to note is that any work
of fiction, if it’s any good, will contain some degree of truth, whether it’s
myth or fantasy or “made up real.” Fiction is truth dressed up for a
masquerade. The costumes can be simple or elaborate, just as long as there’s
truth underneath it.</span><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 9.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-color-alt: windowtext;">[In reply to comments by Daniel A.]</span></i><i><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif;">Good
points. Tolkien drafted the goblins/orcs, dwarves, and elves from other
mythologies. And even though his son Christopher made a good case as to how the
Ents were a Tolkienian creation, one has to remember “The Dream of the Rood,”
the Old English poem (which Tolkien would have been familiar with, since Old
English was his turf), partly narrated by the tree from which Christ’s cross
was fashioned. The tree was a significant symbol in pre-Christian beliefs, so
the Ents do have their source. Hobbits, however, are pretty much Tolkien’s, and
fashioned to behave very much like humans to provide point-of-view characters
for the <em><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif;">LotR</span></em> stories.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif;">At
times – at least at times – I believe fantasy is what everyone writes, or wants
to write. Whether or not it becomes myth depends upon its audience. Did Siegel
and Shuster create Superman to become a myth, or just an interesting character
for a science fiction comic book? The superhero is merely one of a number of
new mythologies that are so prevalent as to be unnoticed in some parts of the
culture. One definition of myth involves invoking a character whose name
recalls their whole story without our needing to provide all the details.
Hercules. Theseus. Atalanta. Odysseus. Et. and etc. And much the same can be
done for Spider-Man, the Incredible Hulk, and Black Panther. Or John Wayne. Or
Greta Garbo. Or Mark Twain. Or Paul Revere. And so on. Some mytholizations are
more successful than others. But as you point out, “ . . . if the reader
gets it wrong, the same lessons are instilled into us.” Indeed.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 9.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif;">I
go back to one of my earlier observations: fantasy is more of a point of view
than it is a made-up world. We can find fantasy everywhere, if we know how to
look for it. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 9.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-color-alt: windowtext;">[In reply to comments by Andrew]</span></i><i><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif;">I
think you get the gist of it here: “ . . . but Fantasy at large can be
completely unconnected to the what we know of as myth.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif;">Sometimes
it can be tricky as to what comprises history. Herodotus is not always the most
objective historian to say the least, and a lot of recent research seems to
indicate he did his share of fictionalizing. How that weighs on mythology is
another matter. Ditto Holinshed, who did a hatchet job on Richard III. But the
point is still well taken that myth often has some basis in “this world,” such
as it is, i.e. real people and/or real events upon which myths are built. It’s
not so much that fantasies can’t be based on history as that fantasy doesn’t <em><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif;">have</span></em> to be based on
anything (though more often than not, it is). Not all fantasy aspires to myth.
And not all myths need in engage in fantasy (though many fictionalize and/or
stretch a truth to its natural limits). :-) <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 9.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-color-alt: windowtext;">[In reply to comments by Alexis]</span></i><i><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 9.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><span style="background: white; color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif;">That’s it. Right on the mark. There are aspects of myth in
most of our beliefs, even in everyday things. A world without myths is an
unreal – or unconvincingly real – world. And so the mythos and mythologies of Middle-earth
need to be there if we’re to feel it’s a “real” place.</span><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 9.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-color-alt: windowtext;">[In reply to comments by Kevin]</span></i><i><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif;">Yes. “By
creating such a mysterious character Tolkien left room for myths to grow about
him amongst fans.” A very keen observation. The leaving of certain things, or
certain characters, unexplained is part of what makes Middle-earth so real.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif;">And
further: It may be that what is myth and what is “real” is all a matter of
perspective. What we perceive as myth becomes myth. And sometimes vice versa.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif;">“In
ways superhero comics can be seen as myths because so many people rely on the
stories as a source of life lessons . . . “ The difference between a classical
Greek hero like Theseus and a modern hero like Captain America is that each to
their own times in their own ways, but they perform similar functions to both
societies. As you say, “Comics today for us are what religion and mythology was
for those of ancient times. I wouldnt be surprised if centuries from now people
thought we worshipped super heroes because in ways we do.” <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif;">That’s
it exactly. It goes to the very nature of what we mean by these terms – Myth,
religion, worship. They transcend the conventional definitions, and the
conventional boundaries. If heroic fantasy performs a valuable function for us,
it’s that. It helps us see past the labels, to how we often really think of
things,sacred and profane.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 9.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-color-alt: windowtext;">[In reply to comments by Devyn]</span></i><i><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif;">Excellent
points, Devyn. Myth and story are very closely tied together. Sometimes I
think: the better the story, the stronger the myth. Someone might come up with
a story about where the lightning and thunder come from, and it may make for an
okay explanation, but if it isn’t a good story it won’t float. Another story
might not make for as good an explanation, but if it’s a better story, it will
stick. Sometimes, even when the myth outlives its ability to explain the world
to us, we’re hard pressed to give it up . . . if we like the <em><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif;">story</span></em> enough.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif;">I
like your descriptions and I like your memories. Very nicely expressed.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 9.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-color-alt: windowtext;">[In reply to comments by Dulce]</span></i><i><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 9.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif;">Great
summary. I might differ with you only on one point. Fantasies can be fairy
tales, but aren’t limited to fairy tales – though they may be stories. Fairy
tales are stories, too. But are they fake? Fantasy is “fake” if it presents
itself as the truth. Most fantasy stories present themselves as fiction. They’re
not meant to be considered as anything but fiction. Fiction can will, if it’s
any good, contain truths, but those truths don’t necessarily present themselves
as “real.” The Lord of the Rings is a fantasy novel, so there’s nothing fake in
it, though nothing in the novel really happened as depicted and no matter how
elaborate the creation of the fictional world. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 9.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif;">Jewish
space lasers shot from UFOs starting forest fires in California is “fake,”
because you the people foisting this tale on us want us to believe it as true.
Not only is it a fake, it’s also a lie. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif;">That’s
why Tolkien said in “On Fairy-tales”: <em><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif;">Fantasy
is a natural human activity. It certainly does not destroy or even insult
Reason; and it does not either blunt the appetite for, nor obscure the
perception of, scientific verity. On the contrary. The keener and the clearer
is the reason, the better fantasy will it make. If men were ever in a state in
which they did not want to know or could not perceive truth (facts or
evidence), then Fantasy would languish until they were cured. If they ever get
into that state (it would not seem at all impossible), Fantasy will perish, and
become Morbid Delusion.</span></em><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 9.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-color-alt: windowtext;">[In reply to comments by Dani]</span></i><i><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 9.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><span style="background: white; color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif;">Good observations. I especially like your last two sentences.
I think some myths are real, too. Now all I have to do is figure out what “real”
means. :-) </span><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 9.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-color-alt: windowtext;">[In reply to comments by Ryan]</span></i><i><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 9.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif;">Excellent
comments, beautifully expressed. I don’t think I can express them any better. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif;">There’s
a quote that comes to mind when I think of friendship and <em><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif;">Lord of the Rings</span></em>. It comes
from another British author, E. M. Forster:<strong><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif;"> </span></strong>”I hate the idea of causes, and if I had
to choose between betraying my country and betraying my friend I hope I should
have the guts to betray my country.” I’m not sure if I hate the idea of causes,
but I understand the importance of friendship. It would have to take a lot
before I would betray a friend, and you can see that in the later scenes with
Sam, when Frodo has pretty much lost the struggle with the Ring. Sam is really
struggling. He cannot go against a friend, and yet he knows the danger, and
evil, of the Ring. This is one of the things that makes <em><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif;">LotR</span></em> so vital, even if one
isn’t a habitual reader of heroic fantasy. And it’s the role friendship plays
throughout the novel, among many characters, displayed in many ways, that
launches the story into the realm of myth.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 9.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-color-alt: windowtext;">[In reply to comments by Reem]</span></i><i><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 9.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif;">Good
points, and good distinctions between myths and fantasy.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 9.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif;">The
funny thing (at least I find it funny) about myths is that very often, even
after the myth loses its ability to “explain” some aspect of the world, folks
remember it and keep it around. I think they do that because they like the
story. The story doesn’t have to be true, it just has to be interesting or
compelling. There were times when certain diseases were believed to be caused
by demons. Modern medicine determined the diseases were more likely caused by
infections, bacteria, viruses and the like. No one continues to believe in
demons (well, a few do), because it doesn’t make a good story. Odysseus having
his crew put wax in their ears so that they aren’t lured to the rocks by the
sirens – no one believes in the sirens, but they tell about it because it makes
a good story. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 9.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 22.5pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-outline-level: 1;"><b><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 18.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">Week 2 – “Leaf by Niggle”: Allegory or
Allegorical?<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p style="background: white; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Tolkien famously wrote in the
Foreword to the Second Edition of <em><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Lord of the Rings</span></em> that he didn’t
like <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/allegory-art-and-literature" style="color: var(--ic-link-color);" target="_blank">allegory<span class="screenreader-only"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="clip: rect(0px, 0px, 0px, 0px); overflow: hidden; transform: translateZ(0px);"> (Links to an external
site.)</span></span></span></a>, or at least that he didn’t like its use in
fantasy stories.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<h1 style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 4.5pt; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><em><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">I cordially
dislike allegory in all its manifestations, and always have done so since I
grew old and wary enough to detect its presence. I much prefer history – true
or feigned– with its varied applicability to the thought and experience of
readers. I think that many confuse applicability with allegory, but the one
resides in the freedom of the reader, and the other in the purposed domination
of the author.</span></em><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><o:p></o:p></span></h1>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">And yet, he wrote “Leaf by Niggle” somewhere in the
period between finishing <em><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">The Hobbit</span></em> and beginning <em><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">The Lord of
the Rings</span></em>. The story is often interpreted as being an allegory, or
at least having strong allegorical elements.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Is this so?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">If you think it is, why do you think he would do so?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">If you don’t think so, what do you think it is?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Please post your thoughts, observations, or comments
in the Replies section below.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">You can look up the entire link
to the <em><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Encyclopedia Britannica</span></em> definition by clicking on
the link in the text above. For the record, the definition begins: “<strong><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Allegory</span></strong>,
a symbolic fictional narrative that conveys a meaning not explicitly set forth
in the narrative. <a data-term="Allegory" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Allegory" style="color: var(--ic-link-color);" target="_blank">Allegory<span class="screenreader-only"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><span style="clip: rect(0px, 0px, 0px, 0px); overflow: hidden; transform: translateZ(0px);"> (Links
to an external site.)</span></span></span></a>, which <a data-term="encompasses" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/encompasses" style="color: var(--ic-link-color);" target="_blank">encompasses<span class="screenreader-only"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><span style="clip: rect(0px, 0px, 0px, 0px); overflow: hidden; transform: translateZ(0px);"> (Links
to an external site.)</span></span></span></a> such forms as <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/fable" style="color: var(--ic-link-color);" target="_blank">fable<span class="screenreader-only"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><span style="clip: rect(0px, 0px, 0px, 0px); overflow: hidden; transform: translateZ(0px);"> (Links
to an external site.)</span></span></span></a>, parable, and apologue, may have
meaning on two or more levels that the reader can understand only through an
interpretive process.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><strong><i><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">One more interesting note</span></i></strong><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"> (at
least to me), what Tolkien himself said about the composition of “Leaf by
Niggle”: That story was the only thing I have ever done which cost me
absolutely no pains at all. Usually I compose only with great
difficulty and endless rewriting. I woke up one day (more than 2 years ago)
with that odd thing virtually complete in my head. It took only a few hours to
get down, and then copy out.” (in a letter to Stanley Unwin,18 March 1945)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><strong><i><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">And this too:</span></i></strong><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"> ”I
should say that, in addition to my tree-love (it was originally
called The Tree), it arose from my own pre-occupation with the <i>Lord of
the Rings</i>, the knowledge that it would be finished in great
detail or not at all, and the fear (near certainty) that it
would be ‘not at all’. The war had arisen to darken all
horizons. But no such analyses are a complete explanation even of a short
story...” (in a letter to Caroline Everett, 24 June 1957)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-color-alt: windowtext;">[In reply to comments by Ashley]</span></i><i><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><span style="background: white; color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Yes, I feel pretty much the same way,
though the quote from the letter above (to Caroline Everett) seems to indicate
he was thinking of</span><em style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"> The
Lord of the Rings</span></em><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; float: none; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"> as the tree. But the letter is written more
than twenty years after the story, and two years after the publication of </span><em style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">The
Lord of the Rings</span></em><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; float: none; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">. He may be simplifying things for Ms. Everett.
There seems to plenty of correspondence to support the notion that the “great
work,” the “tree” was </span><em style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">The Silmarillion</span></em><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; float: none; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">. </span><i><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-color-alt: windowtext;">[In reply to comments by Annabel]</span></i><i><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><span style="background: white; color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Very good. Yes, I guess it wasn’t
Tolkien’s intention to write an allegory, but it came out that way. The strange
thing was that it was one of the few pieces he didn’t have to revise or rewrite
as much as he did his other work. The unconscious works in strange ways, and
even a writer as “deliberate” as Tolkien has to defer to what his unconscious “muse”
tells him to do. :-)</span><i><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-color-alt: windowtext;">[In reply to comments by Mandi]</span></i><i><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 9.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Great, Mandi. Don’t worry about
overanalyzing – scholars have been overanalyzing Tolkien for years. All the
points you bring up are valid. Tolkien was often very modest and
self-deprecating, so that the narrator (and Niggle) sound an awful lot like
Tolkien. Perhaps that’s what made it easier for him to write: he was so
familiar with his subject. :-) <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 9.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Parish, in the allegorical sense,
stands for a lot of things, but one of those things is certainly his friends
the Inklings, and especially C. S. Lewis. But in a more general sense, I think
Tolkien may be cenceding that the interruptions from Parish, or from anyone
else, are a necessary part of the creative process. Niggle, without Parish,
would be totally isolated (if he had his way). Tolkien seems to be conceding
that any good art, his or anyone else’s, doesn’t spring from a vacuum, even if
at times the outside world seems like an intrusion.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-color-alt: windowtext;">[In reply to comments by Samantha]</span></i><i><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><span style="background: white; color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Good! That’s the neat thing about “Leaf
by Niggle.” Allegory or not, it’s a fantasy story – just not the kind of
fantasy story one would usually expect from Tolkien. It gets stranger and more
unearthly as it goes along. With all due respect to Tolkien’s more famous works
set in Middle-earth, this is in some ways the kind of fantasy I like best,
where the everyday world is revealed to be not so mundane after all.</span><i><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-color-alt: windowtext;">[In reply to comments by Kevin]</span></i><i><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 9.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">You’ve got it. See my reply to
Marquisa’s comment below. Sometimes we don’t write the story as much as the
story writes us. Maybe that’s why it came to Tolkien pretty much in one lump,
with no need to revise or re-shape. Tolkien didn’t see it as an allegory, even
though that’s how we read it. And there’s nothing he can do about it. :-)
We readers do have a say-so in how a story is read.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 9.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I also like how Niggle realizes
his neighbor wasn’t necessarily an imposition on his finishing his work, but
that in some way he provided something to the process.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-color-alt: windowtext;">[In reply to comments by Marquisa]</span></i><i><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 9.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Yes. Good responses. I’m thinking
this: the heart of this story is that no matter how hard we work (if we do work
hard that is), how skilled we become, how determined we are to make our art the
equal to our dreams of what we want our art to be, we fall short. We can’t
really experience the ideal version of our art until we make that big
journey. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 9.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The other thing: all those
interruptions and digressions from working on our art: they’re part of the
process. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And one more: some stories turn
out to be allegories, whether we want them to or not. :-) The story chooses its
own shape. All we can do is hang on for dear life and hope the story doesn’t
buck us off. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-color-alt: windowtext;">[In reply to comments by Santana]</span></i><i><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 9.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Very good points. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 9.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">A lot of how we see “Leaf by
Niggle” also has to do with the way we define “allegory” and “fantasy.” Some
scholars want to limit the use of the terms “allegory” and “allegorical” to
certain specific kinds of narrative. The medieval play “Everyman” is an almost
perfect example of allegory. But in some respects, almost every kind of
narrative is allegorical in nature. I think it’s Northrop Frye who says that in
allegory, everything represents something other than itself.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 9.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And often, where fantasy ends and
allegory begins, or vice versa, depends a lot on how we read a story and how
the teller chose to present it. So you’re right on the mark about different
readers having different ways of reading the same story.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-color-alt: windowtext;">[In reply to comments by Angel]</span></i><i><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 9.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Exactly. And in that ethereality
we get the story’s resolution – Niggle seeing himself and his work in a new
light. All through the story, Niggle sees himself as either putting off his
goal, procrastinating, or getting distracted – or worse: that he’s incapable of
achieving that goal. It’s only in the end that Niggle can see that his goal was
inevitable, and that he was achieving it all along and not realizing it.
Allegorical? Perhaps. But also, in some respects, like a parable.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 9.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I’ll bet Tolkien would have
grumbled about that interpretation too, but it can easily be made.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-color-alt: windowtext;">[In reply to comments by Daniel A.]</span></i><i><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Good observations. I think
Tolkien worried that his work – this story, but his work in general – would be
reduced to “mere” allegory. That is, that some readers would think the
allegorical aspects were all that mattered. To some degree, almost any work of
fiction can be reduced to an allegorical interpretation. Fiction, any fiction,
can be seen as a secondary world, since it is “fiction,” and therefore not “real.”
The key, then to that view of fiction is to match up the fictional parts to the
“real” parts, and that’s one of the things Tolkien didn’t want readers to do,
with his work or with any work. The secondary world had to have its own
integrity, and not be <i>just</i> a stand-in for the real world.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 9.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Nevertheless, “Leaf by Niggle”
remains one of the most allegorical of his stories. I think that’s why it came
together so quickly. It must have seemed so clear – like an extended metaphor.
Metaphor and allegory are related, but not the same thing. Even so, that it
came together so quickly in Tolkien’s imagination is worth noting. And that it
works so perfectly as a representation of how he viewed not only the creative
process but life for we humans in itself, is what gives it its power.</span><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-color-alt: windowtext;">[In reply to comments by Alexis]</span></i><i><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><span style="background: white; color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Very true, Alexis. Tolkien was
nothing if not impulsive. And I suspect that what attracted him about “Leaf by
Niggle” was how it worked as a </span><em style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">story</span></em><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; float: none; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">, and not that it could be interpreted as being
allegorical. The allegorical elements certainly are there, but he didn’t have
to be conscious of them while writing it.</span><i><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-color-alt: windowtext;">[In reply to comments by Ryan]</span></i><i><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><span style="background: white; color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Excellent. I couldn’t agree more – nor
have expressed it better. Especially the second paragraph. “While it may
include some strong allegorical elements in the beginning and middle, the
ending seems up to interpretation.” Exactly.</span><i><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-color-alt: windowtext;">[In reply to comments by Reem]</span></i><i><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Excellent comments. I agree that
nearly everything can be interpreted as allegory. I guess that’s what
Northrop Frye was complaining about in<i> Anatomy of Criticism</i>. Not
that allegorical readings are categorically wrong – just that there are other
ways to read a work. Sometimes the allegorical interpretation can be a red
herring. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And you’re right on the mark with
another point: Tolkien can’t make us <i>not</i> read “Leaf by Niggle”
as an allegory if we want to. There’s a point where every writer has to
surrender their work to their readers, and let the readers make of it what they
will. This probably rankled Tolkien especially, as his writing was very
personal to him. It was his own personal world – his own personal fantasy. And
even though he did eventually give it up (thankfully) to share with millions of
readers, at another level it was still all his own, and he didn’t want anyone,
especially critics and scholars, “messing” with it. I can simultaneously
understand the impulse and be grateful that he got past it. :-)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-color-alt: windowtext;">[In reply to comments by Skye]</span></i><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><span style="background: white; color: #2d3b45; font-family: Georgia, serif;">Yes. My suspicion is the latter part
of your comment: unintentionally </span><em style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">and</span></em><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; float: none; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"> subconsciously. The reason is because the
story came to him so quickly, and he wrote it down with scarcely a revision.
Those stories usually come from deep within the subconscious. The intention has
less to do with it than the product – i.e. the work itself. Frankly, I think it’s
more than an allegory – thinking of it as an allegory is selling it short. It
superficially resembles an allegory, or an allegorical tale, but in a sense it’s
a prose poem that’s more of a self portrait. An interior portrait, but a
portrait all the same.</span><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt;"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-color-alt: windowtext;">[In reply to comments by Audrey]</span></i><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<div style="background: white; border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.5pt; border: none; mso-element: para-border-div; padding: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in;">
<p style="background: white; border: none; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext 1.5pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Great
observations. I agree that there’s something very Catholic about Niggle’s
situation. And how creativity is woven into the whole process of living and
dying can be seen as a kind of Catholic existentialism.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p style="background: white; border: none; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext 1.5pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
</div>
<p align="center" style="background: white; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">To be continued. This covers
discussions for the first two weeks, excluding some contents where I just said “Good,”
or “Yes,” or “right.” It also excludes some initial discussions from the first
week where we just introduced ourselves to each other.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin: 0in; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Looking back on
this, I’m surprised that my comments and topics added up to over 6,000 words. I
was putting out the equivalent of a short story per week. And that’s just for
one of the two classes I taught last term (the other, LITR 201 – English Authors
from <i>Beowulf</i> to Blake, I hope to get to, maybe, later)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin: 0in; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="color: #2d3b45; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">I can only hope
to prove similarly productive with my fiction now that the term has ended.<o:p></o:p></span></p><br /><p></p>Rich Chwedykhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17734066520904094275noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6046976407686466311.post-6596723765139290312020-12-30T00:57:00.003-08:002020-12-30T13:19:09.305-08:00What I Learned from Teaching What I Don’t Know<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://previews.123rf.com/images/moenez/moenez1103/moenez110300064/9134907-vector-copy-of-a-medieval-engraving-representing-reaching-out-the-edge-of-the-world.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="670" data-original-width="800" height="427" src="https://previews.123rf.com/images/moenez/moenez1103/moenez110300064/9134907-vector-copy-of-a-medieval-engraving-representing-reaching-out-the-edge-of-the-world.jpg" width="480" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">My most
often used phrase on this blog: It’s been a while.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I’ve been
busy.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">For the
first time, I’ve taught what can be considered a “full load” for a working
college teacher. Nine semester hours, three courses. In total, just under
seventy students. And none of these courses were anything with which I am
intimately familiar: Tolkien, Fantasy Writing, Foundations in Creative Writing.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Let me
amend that. I’m not familiar with teaching those classes, though I have some
familiarity with the basics in each case.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">But I had
to put each course together by scratch, no matter who had taught it before or
under whatever circumstances. I can’t teach someone else’s course any more than
I<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>can wear someone else’s clothes.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And I had
to put each course together as online classes. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Thank
you, Covid-19. Teaching online is never my first choice, though I’ve considered
creating online courses before. <i>Considered</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Necessity
is the mother of invention.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Be
assured, it’s more work than you would bargain for.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Never in
my wildest dreams (and my dreams can get pretty wild) would I have imagined
myself teaching a course on Tolkien. I mentioned that before, when I was
dragooned into finishing Jana Tuzar’s course for the spring semester.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">But here’s
what I learned (other than that I know little or nothing about Tolkien): when
you teach in an arts college, allow your students to make their final projects <i>art</i>
projects. Let them paint their final exams, or design them for the stage, or
interpret them musically, or through oral interpretation, or re-stage scenes
from <i>The Lord of the Rings</i> as comedy sketches. These students won’t let
you down.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
course Foundations in Creative Writing is supposed to acquaint students with many aspects of the creative writing world. Apparently, it’s also supposed to
acquaint them with the lingo that will make them sound like grad students in an
MFA program. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Forget
that. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Find some
interesting exercises and let them go to town. They won’t do what you think
they’re going to do, but you’ll be surprised with what they come up with. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And give
them interesting things to read. My students ended up reading a lot of science
fiction because, since I’m not teaching any science fiction courses this term,
I had no one else to give them to. Chances are they’ve never read anything like
it before, and the stories present the notion that they can write in ways that
they hadn’t imagined they could try before. Not always, but it’s worth a shot.
In many ways, my Foundations students were the best ones I’ve had in a long
time.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Perhaps
the most important thing I learned from teaching all these courses this term
has to do with the inclusion and/or intrusion of some critical language in the
creative process.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">You can’t
go far into reading Tolkien studies without running into the term “secondary
world.” That, according to critics, is where the fantasy world is. The primary
world is “our” world, which runs by the rules Nature set out for us. The secondary
world is Wonderland, or Oz, or Narnia, or Neverland – the place that follows
its own rules and can contain magic, dragons, elves, fairies, giants,
shape-shifters, and whatever else you can come up with.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">One of
the students in my Fantasy Writing Workshop is very interested in writing
fantasy set in current times. In the bookstore, you’ll find all sorts of books
shelved together or labeled as “urban fantasy.” We’d hit upon a quote from
Flannery O’Connor: </span><span style="background: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Segoe UI Historic";">“I
would even go so far as to say that the person writing a fantasy has to be even
more strictly attentive to concrete detail than someone writing in a
naturalistic vein – because the greater the story's strain on the credulity,
the more convincing the properties in it have to be.” (from “Writing Short
Stories” in <i>Mystery and Manners</i>).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="background: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Segoe UI Historic";">Suddenly it occurred to me: what you need to do
is take these convenient labels, primary world and secondary world, and turn
them around. What we think of as the primary world is actually the secondary
world, and it is contained in the world of fantasy. The “real” world, of magic
and dragons and all the rest, is all around us, in hiding, in disguise. What
the author, through the characters, has to do is see through the veil that the “mundane”
magic-less world throws around us. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="background: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Segoe UI Historic";">I’d given the class an exercise, “Magic All
Around You,” based on that premise. I wanted them to come up with a fantasy
story based on what they could see out a window. A closed-up doorway to an
abandoned warehouse might just be a “portal” to another world (“portal” is
another word you’ll find is popular with critics). The woman at the window in
the building across may be a sorceress. Statues may come to life at three a.m.
A box of candy may contain the souls of the damned. What we see may not be all
there is to see in any given place at any given time.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="background: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Segoe UI Historic";">We played around with this a little in my
Tolkien class, too. So much is made of Tolkien’s secondary world of
Middle-earth. So I brought in the work of “outsider” sculptor Tom Every, AKA
Dr. Evermor, and the music of Sun Ra, and how these artists assert their
secondary worlds into our primary world.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="background: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Segoe UI Historic";">Most of us, in fact, have lived with secondary
worlds in our imaginations most of our lives. It is a survival skill in a universe
that demands our sublimation into a conformity we’re told is necessary but
really is no such thing. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="background: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Segoe UI Historic";">To quote Luis Buñuel</span>: <span style="font-size: medium;">“<span style="font-family: georgia;">Fortunately,
somewhere between chance and mystery lies imagination, the only thing that
protects our freedom, despite the fact that people keep trying to reduce it or
kill it off altogether.</span>”</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="background: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Segoe UI Historic";">The important thing is to get past the labels. Or
reverse them. Or stretch them out of shape. I used to quote Damon Knight about
science fiction not being a literary category but a point of view – a way of
looking at the world. The same is true of fantasy. And it may as well be said
that it’s true of “realistic” fiction too. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="background: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Segoe UI Historic";">And if I ever get the chance to teach this
course again, I have a better handle now on where I should take it.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://c8.alamy.com/comp/KCEW9P/medieval-engraving-titled-the-sun-the-sun-was-considered-a-male-planet-KCEW9P.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="570" data-original-width="800" height="394" src="https://c8.alamy.com/comp/KCEW9P/medieval-engraving-titled-the-sun-the-sun-was-considered-a-male-planet-KCEW9P.jpg" width="560" /></a></div><br /> <p></p>Rich Chwedykhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17734066520904094275noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6046976407686466311.post-63226596558608906572020-06-07T21:41:00.000-07:002020-06-07T21:41:42.134-07:00What I Learned Teaching Tolkien -- Part One<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt;">Well, six months without posting, where have I been all this time?</span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt;">Well may you ask.</span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt;">I’ve written some posts, but couldn't finish them to my
satisfaction. I have about a half dozen sitting in one state of incompletion or
another.</span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt;">Things got busy.</span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt;">Even though I was scheduled to teach one course for spring term, I
was asked to sub for another for two weeks – a course on the Harry Potter
series, which I never finished reading, and the books I had finished reading
have been on the shelf untouched for years. But hey, can I sub? Of course I can
sub. Any kind of literature, any kind – I can work something out.</span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt;">So what happens next?</span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt;">Covid-19.</span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt;">All the school’s courses have to be switched online. And the
instructor for the Tolkien course, who is not too big on technology anyway, and
is a high-risk, category, and has been itching to sneak away and write a book
about ... about what? Teaching Tolkien, of course. Anyway, the heads of the
English/Creative Writing department ask me to take over for her. She askes me
take over for her. Her students think the course is being taken away from her, so
they contact me. </span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt;">“Help! The English Department is trying to turn over the Tolkien
class to some other teacher!”</span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt;">“I know. I’m ‘the other teacher.’”</span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt;">So this bounces back and forth, and I bring in the Part Time
Faculty Union, because the department can’t really negotiate these sorts of
changes without them, and the thing goes crazy for a few weeks, and the next
thing I know I'm teaching Tolkien.</span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt;">How did that work out for me?</span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt;">The short version: not so bad.</span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt;">I went into this thinking I was the least qualified person to
teach Tolkien anywhere at any time. </span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt;">It then occurred to me that when I started out teaching Science
Fiction Writing I believed I was the least qualified person to teach that
class, ever. </span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt;">I’d met some of the students beforehand. Some of them had been
students in my other classes. It was a big class, too. Almost thirty on the
roster. twice as big as almost any other class I ever taught except for
Freshman Rhetoric and Composition thirty years ago. But one thing about this
class: they all loved Tolkien and they all knew ten times more about him than I
ever knew.</span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt;">What do I need to know about Tolkien? I thought. I have students.
Just come up with some interesting discussion topics and let them teach </span></i><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt;">you<i>.</i></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt;">So I did.</span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt;">The next few posts will comprise of some of the discussion topics
I came up with for my online classes. I won’t reprint their responses, because
that’s their work and they are entitled to their privacy. But I want to share
with you some of my responses, because they surprise me even now. They make me
sound as if I know what I’m talking about. In some cases, that’s the hardest
thing for any teacher to do. And in this case in particular, it means that I
actually learned something in the process of teaching the class. You may not
think it’s true, but for any teacher, of any subject, that’s the most important
part of the process.</span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt;">Below, was the first discussion topic I gave them. We’d been away
from class for three weeks and suddenly we were going to have to go about this
subject in a different way, to students who were now scattered two-thirds of
the way across the globe.</span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">If you’re trying to make sense of a pandemic, there are worse writers to
be sequestered with than J. R. R. Tolkien.</span></i><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://cdn.wallpapername.com/1300x982/20121025/the%20lord%20of%20the%20rings%20fantasy%20art%20mordor%20frodo%20baggins%20mount%20doom%20greg%20hildebrandt%201300x982%20wallp_www.wallpapername.com_28.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="604" data-original-width="800" height="241" src="https://cdn.wallpapername.com/1300x982/20121025/the%20lord%20of%20the%20rings%20fantasy%20art%20mordor%20frodo%20baggins%20mount%20doom%20greg%20hildebrandt%201300x982%20wallp_www.wallpapername.com_28.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<div style="background-color: white; color: #2d3b45; font-family: Lato, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-top: 12px; text-align: center;">
<strong style="margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Tolkien in the Post-Covid-19 Age</span></span></strong></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #2d3b45; font-family: Lato, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-top: 12px; padding-left: 40px;">
<em style="margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px;">"I have claimed that Escape is one of the main functions of fairy-stories, and since I do not disapprove of them, it is plain that I do not accept the tone of s<span class="text_exposed_show" style="margin-bottom: 0px;">corn or pity with which 'Escape' is now so often used. Why should a man be scorned if, finding himself in prison, he tries to get out and go home? Or if he cannot do so, he thinks and talks about other topics than jailers and prison-walls? The world outside has not become less real because the prisoner cannot see it."</span></span></em></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #2d3b45; font-family: Lato, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-top: 12px; padding-left: 40px; text-align: right;">
<em style="margin-bottom: 0px;">-- J. R. R. Tolkien, On Fairy-Stories, 1939</em></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #2d3b45; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-top: 12px;">
<span style="margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">To inaugurate our "return" to class (online, at least), I'd like to pose a general question, or questions, in regard to Tolkien and what has been happening to us these past few weeks.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #2d3b45; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-top: 12px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #2d3b45; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-top: 12px;">
<span style="margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The question: has your reading of Tolkien, especially <em style="margin-bottom: 0px;">The Lord of the Rings</em>, seemed more or less relevant in light of what the world has been going through with the Coronavirus crisis? If so, in what ways? What parts speak to you more clearly now than before? Or, is it harder now to concentrate on a work of fiction, of fantasy, in a world that seems more unreal than ever?</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #2d3b45; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-top: 12px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #2d3b45; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-top: 12px;">
<span style="margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Does <em style="margin-bottom: 0px;">TLOTR</em> help you keep your mind off of what is happening, or does it in some way help you comprehend, realistically or metaphorically, a dangerous and mostly incomprehensible world?</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #2d3b45; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-top: 12px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #2d3b45; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-top: 12px;">
<span style="margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Your response is meant to be more personal than critical or scholarly. You can speak from your own experience as you can speak from which parts of the novel, or sections of Tolkien's other works, speak to you most personally (or don't).</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #2d3b45; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-top: 12px;">
<span style="margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">It's okay to veer off topic and tell us about your own experiences this past month or so, where you are, what you've been doing, what you has changed, and maybe what hasn't.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #2d3b45; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-top: 12px;">
<span style="margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I've only met a few of you, so it would also be helpful if you could go a little way in introducing yourself to me.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #2d3b45; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-top: 12px;">
<span style="margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><em>The ground rules</em>: every comment is valid. Every reading is valid, even when, or <em style="margin-bottom: 0px;">especially</em> when, it disagrees with your own. In other words, be nice. You can rail against politicians, administrators, executives, etc., all you want. But amongst ourselves we shall be generous and empathetic.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #2d3b45; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-top: 12px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #2d3b45; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-top: 12px;">
<span style="margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The important matter is that every voice be heard. We have all lived through the past few months. We all have something to say.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #2d3b45; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-top: 12px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #2d3b45; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-top: 12px;">
<span style="margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Also, it occurs to me that I haven't introduced myself to you. </span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #2d3b45; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-top: 12px;">
<span style="margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I'm mostly known as a writer, but I've been teaching at Columbia since 2009, mostly the science fiction writing courses, but circumstances have forced me to branch out a bit. I got my Master's in English at Northwestern, and my thesis focused on Chaucer (why doesn't this school have a Chaucer class?) I refer to myself as a "recovering academic." My fiction and poetry have been nominated for a few awards and a long while ago I was fortunate enough to have won a Nebula, which is the award members of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA) give out every year to works they deem worthy. </span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #2d3b45; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-top: 12px;">
<span style="margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">What fascinates me about Tolkien I'll explain as we complete this course, but in brief it is this: there are scholars and then there are writers. Few can be both. Tolkien did it, and did it brilliantly, in that he managed two great works that have captured the imaginations of millions. No meager accomplishment. How he managed it we will never know authoritatively, but the endless speculations unearth truths we could not have anticipated when we first embarked upon them.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #2d3b45; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-top: 12px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #2d3b45; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-top: 12px;">
<span style="margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Okay, now it's your turn . . . </span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #2d3b45; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-top: 12px;">
<span style="margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #2d3b45; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-top: 12px;">
<span style="margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Here are my responses to their comments, which have been edited out for reasons stated above, and to protect the smart (them) for the innocently dimwitted (me):</span></span></div>
<ul class="discussion-entries" style="background-color: white; color: #2d3b45; font-family: Lato, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
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<header class="entry-header discussion-section admin-link-hover-area clearfix" style="border-bottom: none; padding: 4px 10px 3px;"><a class="collapsable collapse-discussion pad-box-mini" data-event="toggleCollapsed" href="https://canvas.colum.edu/courses/14546/discussion_topics/101324#" role="button" style="display: block; padding: 10px; text-decoration-line: none;" tabindex="0"><span aria-live="assertive" class="screenreader-only" style="border: 0px; clip: rect(0px, 0px, 0px, 0px); height: 1px; margin: -1px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; position: absolute; transform: translateZ(0px); width: 1px;">Collapse Subdiscussion</span></a><a class="fs-exclude avatar" href="https://canvas.colum.edu/courses/14546/users/8412" style="background-image: url("https://canvas.colum.edu/images/thumbnails/181765/GoSCSVY6pZZL4h5iOEzFehQTzgv1atLUSGRdejXt"); background-position: center center; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: cover; border-radius: 500px; border: 2px solid rgb(211, 217, 217); display: block; float: left; height: 32px; margin: 3px 8px 0px 0px; overflow: hidden; text-decoration-line: none; width: 32px;"><span class="screenreader-only" style="border: 0px; clip: rect(0px, 0px, 0px, 0px); height: 1px; margin: -1px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; position: absolute; transform: translateZ(0px); width: 1px;">Richard Chwedyk</span></a><div class="discussion-header-content right-of-avatar" style="padding-top: 0px;">
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<a class="author" data-bypass="" href="https://canvas.colum.edu/courses/14546/users/8412" style="text-decoration-line: none;" title="Author's name">Richard Chwedyk</a></h2>
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<time data-html-tooltip-title="Apr 3 at 9:24pm" data-tooltip="" datetime="2020-04-04T02:24:35.000Z" pubdate=""><span aria-hidden="true">Apr 3, 2020</span><span class="screenreader-only" style="border: 0px; clip: rect(0px, 0px, 0px, 0px); height: 1px; margin: -1px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; position: absolute; transform: translateZ(0px); width: 1px;">Apr 3 at 9:24pm</span></time></div>
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Hi_,</div>
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Sorry to hear about your layoff. Hope your dad and the rest of the family stays safe and stays well.</div>
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<em style="margin-bottom: 0px;">The Hobbit</em> is a great book to have read to you. I think it's where Tolkien perfected his storyteller's voice. It's slightly different in <i>LotR</i>, but it's because he knows he's addressing a different, older audience. Nevertheless, he always seems to be aware that he's telling his story to an audience, to readers. </div>
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I think you're taking a good approach. You can appreciate the book more when you take it a relaxed pace. No spoilers, but depending where you are, things are about to get a little rougher for Frodo and company.</div>
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Stay well. Stay safe.</div>
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<time data-html-tooltip-title="Apr 4 at 11:32pm" data-tooltip="" datetime="2020-04-05T04:32:45.000Z" pubdate=""><span aria-hidden="true">Apr 4, 2020</span><span class="screenreader-only" style="border: 0px; clip: rect(0px, 0px, 0px, 0px); height: 1px; margin: -1px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; position: absolute; transform: translateZ(0px); width: 1px;">Apr 4 at 11:32pm</span></time></div>
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Greetings, ___,</div>
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I think you've picked up on one of the most important themes at the heart of TLOTR: change, and how we respond to it. Something I hope we can get into later is the view in certain scholarly circles that literary fantasy is fundamentally conservative, as opposed to science fiction, which is seen as fundamentally progressive. It's obviously an oversimplification, but it's affected some folks' reading of Tolkien and other contemporary fantasists. The attitudes toward change expressed by the array of characters in TLOTR demonstrates Tolkien's understanding of the complexity and multi-facetedness of change. That may be why so many science fiction writers have admire and have been inspired by Tolkien's work. The differences between one work of fiction and another has less to do with content (magic, technology, "realism" (however one defines that term) and more to do with point of view. </div>
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While looking for something else, I recently ran into this quote from Ray Bradbury: <span style="margin-bottom: 0px;">“…fantasy, and its robot child science fiction, is not escape at all. But a circling around of reality to enchant it and make it behave. …all science fiction is an attempt to solve problems by pretending to look the other way.” I think that ties into what Tolkien was expressing in "On Fairy-tales" and "<em>Beowulf</em>, the Monsters and the Critics." While so many of us are looking for "escape" in this Covid-19 world of self-sequestration, we're not necessarily escaping <em>from</em> something as escaping <em style="margin-bottom: 0px;">to</em> something. In that way, one can see TLOTR as speaking to us more directly now than many other works from the twentieth century.</span></div>
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<span style="margin-bottom: 0px;">Stay well and stay in touch.</span></div>
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<time data-html-tooltip-title="Apr 4 at 11:44pm" data-tooltip="" datetime="2020-04-05T04:44:29.000Z" pubdate=""><span aria-hidden="true">Apr 4, 2020</span><span class="screenreader-only" style="border: 0px; clip: rect(0px, 0px, 0px, 0px); height: 1px; margin: -1px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; position: absolute; transform: translateZ(0px); width: 1px;">Apr 4 at 11:44pm</span></time></div>
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Hi ____,</div>
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Good to hear from you. I'm looking forward to getting back to something that at least virtually resembles the swing of school as well. In some ways what's happened has been overwhelming but, for better or worse, the best way to keep going is one step at a time. Not that every college course is logical and comprehensive, but in comparison to a lot of what's happening "out there," we make a hell of a lot more sense. </div>
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Stay well.</div>
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<time data-html-tooltip-title="Apr 4 at 11:54pm" data-tooltip="" datetime="2020-04-05T04:54:22.000Z" pubdate=""><span aria-hidden="true">Apr 4, 2020</span><span class="screenreader-only" style="border: 0px; clip: rect(0px, 0px, 0px, 0px); height: 1px; margin: -1px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; position: absolute; transform: translateZ(0px); width: 1px;">Apr 4 at 11:54pm</span></time></div>
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Hi ____,</div>
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I guess we're consuming so much media because the minute we step away from our books, movies, shows, game, we're assaulted with more statistics and scary news. And . . . cabin fever! Good art of any sort seems to give us another place to go to when we quite literally have nowhere else to go -- except for short walks or a run for groceries. The incredible thing about Tolkien, at least to me, is the deepness -- the dimensionality -- of Middle-Earth. He doesn't just <em>suggest</em> an entire universe, he <em style="margin-bottom: 0px;">presents</em> it, every significant little scrap and grain.</div>
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More later. Stay well until then.</div>
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<time data-html-tooltip-title="Apr 5 at 6:57pm" data-tooltip="" datetime="2020-04-05T23:57:15.000Z" pubdate=""><span aria-hidden="true">Apr 5, 2020</span><span class="screenreader-only" style="border: 0px; clip: rect(0px, 0px, 0px, 0px); height: 1px; margin: -1px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; position: absolute; transform: translateZ(0px); width: 1px;">Apr 5 at 6:57pm</span></time></div>
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Hi _______,</div>
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Good to hear from and best of luck with the grad school offers, however you decide which way to go.</div>
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I think your attitude toward the arts is perfectly sensible, or at least it's one that's more dear to me. It boils down to this: you can't use a piccolo to play a tuba solo. You can't paint details in a canvas with a house painter's brush (at least not comfortably). Every art, every form, defines its own limitations -- not that one can't explore those limitations, but very often there's much more space in defined area of one art or another than we first imagine. Another approach is that if you find yourself coloring outside the box, you're not necessarily redefining the form, it's just that you've discovered the lines that make up the box are in the wrong place.</div>
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There's more room than a lot of folks tell us there is. I remember all the hemming and hawing when "Free Jazz" came in back in the Sixties. Just because you're doing one thing doesn't mean it replaces the other. Bop didn't replace Swings, Cool didn't replace Bop, Free and Progressive jazz didn't replace Cool, and all the little movements and forms that filled in the spaces around them.</div>
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I ended up teaching creative writing because that's primarily what I do, and it defines the way I look at literature. It's an active engagement between author and reader, between performer and audience. It's a living thing. Lit classes -- not<em> all</em> lit classes, and certainly not<em style="margin-bottom: 0px;"> this</em> lit class -- doesn't get to "examine the body" until it's been brought from the morgue. Artists are primary care physicians. Scholars are pathologists. and coroners. Exceptions granted -- gratefully. And some can be both. Tolkien, for example, is an exceptional scholar and an enormously talented author. </div>
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And I guess that's why we have this class.</div>
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All the best, Michael. I hope that must of the venues can open and provide remunerative gigs within the next few months. I tend to agree with this quote from my "sorta" mentor, Algis Budrys, who taught at Columbia way back when I was an undergrad: <span style="margin-bottom: 0px;">"I think that all forms of fiction and art are actually survival mechanisms. Far from being frills and decorations on the face of some kind of practical world, they are just about the most practical thing there is. They consist of a series of affirmations or denials of conventional reality, and of tests of various facets of reality."<br /><br style="margin-bottom: 0px;" />Stay well. Stay safe.</span></div>
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<time data-html-tooltip-title="Apr 5 at 10:15pm" data-tooltip="" datetime="2020-04-06T03:15:51.000Z" pubdate=""><span aria-hidden="true">Apr 5, 2020</span><span class="screenreader-only" style="border: 0px; clip: rect(0px, 0px, 0px, 0px); height: 1px; margin: -1px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; position: absolute; transform: translateZ(0px); width: 1px;">Apr 5 at 10:15pm</span></time></div>
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Hi ____,</div>
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Remember you well. Glad you're aboard.</div>
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Stay well</div>
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<time data-html-tooltip-title="Apr 5 at 11:53pm" data-tooltip="" datetime="2020-04-06T04:53:00.000Z" pubdate=""><span aria-hidden="true">Apr 5, 2020</span><span class="screenreader-only" style="border: 0px; clip: rect(0px, 0px, 0px, 0px); height: 1px; margin: -1px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; position: absolute; transform: translateZ(0px); width: 1px;">Apr 5 at 11:53pm</span></time></div>
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Hi _____,</div>
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Good to hear from you. I understand how difficult it is to feel motivated to do anything. The whole thing has been overwhelming. The way the college has handled the dorm situation is at best haphazard, at worst incompetent. If they had spent as much time developing a respomse to a pandemic emergency as they did to monetize every aspect of college operations, things might have gone a little smoother. I could get atop a soapbox and rail against their idiocy, but I'll save that for another time and venue.</div>
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I saw a meme the other day that said something like (can't remember the exact wording) that we all have to become Frodo now, or "We are all Frodo now" (unless of course we're not). I didn't ask for the TLOTR plug, so it's in the air. The magnitude of the threat put it there. Along with the knowledge of change -- even if we win the battle, nothing will ever be the same. And another meme with the bit of dialogue between Sam and Frodo, where Same says, "There's some good in this world, Mr. Frodo, and it's worth fighting for." Sam, of course, is the secret hero if the novel -- and somehow we knew that from his very first mention, though we were not at all conscious of it until much later. That's what great novelists can do, and it's no easy trick.</div>
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Hang in there and stay well.</div>
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<time data-html-tooltip-title="Apr 6 at 7:15pm" data-tooltip="" datetime="2020-04-07T00:15:56.000Z" pubdate=""><span aria-hidden="true">Apr 6, 2020</span><span class="screenreader-only" style="border: 0px; clip: rect(0px, 0px, 0px, 0px); height: 1px; margin: -1px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; position: absolute; transform: translateZ(0px); width: 1px;">Apr 6 at 7:15pm</span></time></div>
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Hi ____,</div>
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In the last few weeks, I think we've all been a bit guilty of having trouble getting out to adventure a little bit (within safe parameters, of course). If it weren't for foraging for food and the inevitable quest for toilet paper, etc., looking out the window might be about as adventurous as I would get.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 12px; margin-top: 12px;">
The marvelous thing about LotR is that Tolkien knew that we readers didn't know what Middle-Earth was like (before Peter Jackson, that is, and from my perspective Peter Jackson in one thing, Tolkien is another) -- it's a creation of his imagination that we can' see, can't know, until he presents it to us. So, within the framework of carefully telling us his story, he just as carefully gives us a tour of this extraordinary world. The tale unfolds in such a way that it's not just a bunch of side trips, but a journey into the heart of this world which, at least at first reading, is wholly new to us.</div>
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Very few novels from the twentieth century do as good a job of presenting a whole new world as vividly.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Stay well.</div>
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<time data-html-tooltip-title="Apr 7 at 4:18pm" data-tooltip="" datetime="2020-04-07T21:18:08.000Z" pubdate=""><span aria-hidden="true">Apr 7, 2020</span><span class="screenreader-only" style="border: 0px; clip: rect(0px, 0px, 0px, 0px); height: 1px; margin: -1px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; position: absolute; transform: translateZ(0px); width: 1px;">Apr 7 at 4:18pm</span></time></div>
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Hi ___, </div>
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Good to hear from you. And also glad to hear that <em style="margin-bottom: 0px;">someone</em> is having a great time in quarantine. </div>
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The good thing I've noticed is that, at least so far, a number of people are maintaining a sense of humor. It's one of the things that will most help us get through this.</div>
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Take care and stay well. I'll be posting more stuff by Friday.</div>
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<time data-html-tooltip-title="Apr 7 at 4:23pm" data-tooltip="" datetime="2020-04-07T21:23:50.000Z" pubdate=""><span aria-hidden="true">Apr 7, 2020</span><span class="screenreader-only" style="border: 0px; clip: rect(0px, 0px, 0px, 0px); height: 1px; margin: -1px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; position: absolute; transform: translateZ(0px); width: 1px;">Apr 7 at 4:23pm</span></time></div>
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Hi _____,</div>
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Good to hear from you. Sorry about all the dislocations this Corvid-19 crisis is calling. I grew up in Chicago, so at times I take it for granted, but it is a splendid place and frankly, if I were stuck in Indiana, I'd feel a little exiled too.</div>
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We'll do our best to relieve the boredom for a while. I hope the Lord of the Rings as a novel lives up to you expectations.</div>
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Hoping you and yours will stay well and stay healthy.</div>
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<time data-html-tooltip-title="Apr 9 at 12:07am" data-tooltip="" datetime="2020-04-09T05:07:08.000Z" pubdate=""><span aria-hidden="true">Apr 9, 2020</span><span class="screenreader-only" style="border: 0px; clip: rect(0px, 0px, 0px, 0px); height: 1px; margin: -1px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; position: absolute; transform: translateZ(0px); width: 1px;">Apr 9 at 12:07am</span></time></div>
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Greetings,</div>
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<br /></div>
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Any name is good (though I kinda like ____). But I'll do my best to get it right.</div>
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The animated version of the <em style="margin-bottom: 0px;">The Hobbit</em> was certainly more in the spirit of the novel than the multi-movie Peter Jackson thing.</div>
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Tolkien was nothing if not a great world-builder (and a lot more than that). What impresses me most about What impresses me most about Middle-Earth and everything that comes with it is that, in spite of his incredible learning and reading, Middle-Earth is a place born from his own imagination. And as a storyteller, he understood that what came from his imagination did not yet exist in the minds of his readers. He had to put it there. Many writers who try to follow in his tradition are too lazy to do that, and so they pull all these fantasy conventions from off the shelf and they just don't have the same feel.</div>
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Good to hear from you. Stay well and stay safe.<a class="discussion-reply-action entry-control" data-event="addReply" href="https://canvas.colum.edu/courses/14546/discussion_topics/101324#" role="button" style="font-size: 0.75rem; text-decoration-line: none;"> </a></div>
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<time data-html-tooltip-title="Apr 9 at 12:15am" data-tooltip="" datetime="2020-04-09T05:15:34.000Z" pubdate=""><span aria-hidden="true">Apr 9, 2020</span><span class="screenreader-only" style="border: 0px; clip: rect(0px, 0px, 0px, 0px); height: 1px; margin: -1px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; position: absolute; transform: translateZ(0px); width: 1px;">Apr 9 at 12:15am</span></time></div>
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Hi ______,</div>
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Glad to hear you're coping with all the madness. </div>
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Yeah, I can't help feeling Tolkien is more relevant now than he was when his works first became phenomenally popular a half century ago. Back then, both his fans and his detractors tried to re-shape him into what they wanted him to be. What survives, and will continue to survive, are the stories themselves. He was a great world-builder, but what makes his worlds relevant are his stories, especially LotR.</div>
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Stay well and stay safe.</div>
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<time data-html-tooltip-title="Apr 9 at 3:51pm" data-tooltip="" datetime="2020-04-09T20:51:14.000Z" pubdate=""><span aria-hidden="true">Apr 9, 2020</span><span class="screenreader-only" style="border: 0px; clip: rect(0px, 0px, 0px, 0px); height: 1px; margin: -1px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; position: absolute; transform: translateZ(0px); width: 1px;">Apr 9 at 3:51pm</span></time></div>
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Greetings, ______,</div>
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Glad you made it home okay. It's been very difficult for some international students, I understand. For example, I've heard German residents, once they arrive, have to go into a two-week quarantine. Although they're home, they can only see family members from a distance, which can be very frustrating.</div>
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Tolkien brings very basic human concerns -- virtues and failings alike -- into a different context and allows us to evaluate them in ways we wouldn't ordinarily anticipate. Ray Bradbury says that fantasy and SF are a way to solve problems by pretending to look the other way. It doesn't hurt that, in the process, the work can also be vividly entertaining.</div>
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Stay well and stay safe.</div>
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<time data-html-tooltip-title="Apr 9 at 4:02pm" data-tooltip="" datetime="2020-04-09T21:02:12.000Z" pubdate=""><span aria-hidden="true">Apr 9, 2020</span><span class="screenreader-only" style="border: 0px; clip: rect(0px, 0px, 0px, 0px); height: 1px; margin: -1px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; position: absolute; transform: translateZ(0px); width: 1px;">Apr 9 at 4:02pm</span></time></div>
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Hi ____,</div>
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Good to hear from you.</div>
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Completely understandable to want to leave thoughts of school behind at the moment, especially after the devastation Nashville's been through recently. And . . . it's that time of year. Here in Chicago, we've had storms passing through and this afternoon the wind gusts have gotten up to 50 mph. Luckily, no tornadoes -- so far. Just Covid-19. You lose some and then you lose some. :-)</div>
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Hope you get back into LotR soon. I'm biting my tongue not to say anything about Robert Jordan, except -- had there been no LotR there would not be a Wheel of Time. 'Nuff said. :-)</div>
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All the best, and stay well. </div>
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<time data-html-tooltip-title="Apr 9 at 6:10pm" data-tooltip="" datetime="2020-04-09T23:10:00.000Z" pubdate=""><span aria-hidden="true">Apr 9, 2020</span><span class="screenreader-only" style="border: 0px; clip: rect(0px, 0px, 0px, 0px); height: 1px; margin: -1px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; position: absolute; transform: translateZ(0px); width: 1px;">Apr 9 at 6:10pm</span></time></div>
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Greetings, ______,</div>
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Tolkien is a fascinating guy. In one sense, he should have been an Oxford don, and done what dons do. That is, he should have become an inspiring teacher and scholar, who stuck to his scholarship. Instead, along with being a teacher and scholar, he becomes a teller of tales and, with <em>The Hobbit</em> and <em style="margin-bottom: 0px;">The Lord of the Rings</em>, he becomes a novelist. But does he follow the path of E. M. Forster, or Evelyn Waugh, or Virginia Woolf? Or, in another direction, does he become a P. G. Wodehouse? As a writer of fantasy, does he become a Lord Dunsany, or a William Morris, or James Branch Cabell, or E. R. Eddison? Or Maybe a Mervyn Peake? No. He doesn't even write like his fellow Inkling C. S. Lewis. He builds a world called Middle-earth, of his own making, and sets a long tale there, with a hobbit named Frodo at its heart. The literati and his academic colleagues consider his work eccentric; some even look upon it with disdain. Why . . . why write such a fanciful piece in such a traditional fashion? Why not write like the other modernists?</div>
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<br /></div>
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But Tolkien sticks to his guns, so to speak. Three quarters of a century later, Tolkien has millions -- MILLIONS of readers. All the others have their adherents, but none have had their work enter into the public consciousness like Tolkien.</div>
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Opinions? I don't have many, but one I do have is that what separates LotR from all the rest is the STORY. It's the STORY we love. The STORY at the heart of all the world building, and magic, and adventure.</div>
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To pursue a career in comics or any other medium -- go forth! :-) But never forget the story. The one thing we want, even when we don't recognize it, even when we deny it, is . . . we want a story.</div>
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Remember that, and you'll go far. :-) </div>
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Stay well.</div>
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<time data-html-tooltip-title="Apr 10 at 10:21pm" data-tooltip="" datetime="2020-04-11T03:21:31.000Z" pubdate=""><span aria-hidden="true">Apr 10, 2020</span><span class="screenreader-only" style="border: 0px; clip: rect(0px, 0px, 0px, 0px); height: 1px; margin: -1px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; position: absolute; transform: translateZ(0px); width: 1px;">Apr 10 at 10:21pm</span></time></div>
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Hi ___,</div>
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Writing through observation is a big thing with me as well -- at least I try. It's one of things that I discovered I admire even more about JRRT, coming back to reading him after a number of years. All his senses are at work. Not only does he have an eye, but an ear, and a nose, and a hand. And what gets me after all these years is that within something like a thousand pages, there isn't a sense image that seems superfluous. It all belongs to the story.</div>
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Good luck getting through all the work that's due in your other classes.</div>
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Yes. We should be the eyes of history. The witnesses. The reporters. We should keep our eyes open, even in our isolation (well, when we wander out in search of food and toilet paper). Otherwise, explaining these times to the generations ahead of us will be reeeeally difficult.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Stay well.</div>
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<time data-html-tooltip-title="Apr 14 at 4:08pm" data-tooltip="" datetime="2020-04-14T21:08:14.000Z" pubdate=""><span aria-hidden="true">Apr 14, 2020</span><span class="screenreader-only" style="border: 0px; clip: rect(0px, 0px, 0px, 0px); height: 1px; margin: -1px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; position: absolute; transform: translateZ(0px); width: 1px;">Apr 14 at 4:08pm</span></time></div>
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Hi ______.</div>
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Glad to hear you're dealing with the social-distancing aspect of this pandemic fairly well. I've known artists and writers all my life (my adult life, at least), and when the calls came out for social-distancing from the pandemic experts and governors and mayors, etc., my first response was, "Hey, we have<em style="margin-bottom: 0px;"> experience</em> with this." We need distance just to our work most of the time. The tough part, for me, was having all the cafes and libraries close. </div>
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Covid-19 is sort of like a shadow falling over the land. In that respect it reminds me of LotR a lot. Unfortunately, we have a really lousy Saruman. The good part is that everyone -- well, not everyone, but a lot of folks -- are uniting to defeat the evil. One might wish for a Gandalf (submit resume here), but we have no shortage of brave Frodos out there.</div>
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Best regards and stay well.</div>
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<time data-html-tooltip-title="May 2 at 3:33pm" data-tooltip="" datetime="2020-05-02T20:33:54.000Z" pubdate=""><span aria-hidden="true">May 2, 2020</span><span class="screenreader-only" style="border: 0px; clip: rect(0px, 0px, 0px, 0px); height: 1px; margin: -1px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; position: absolute; transform: translateZ(0px); width: 1px;">May 2 at 3:33pm</span></time></div>
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Hi ______,</div>
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Don't feel too bad about taking your time replying. I've been pretty late keeping track of replies myself. I'm in a constant state of catch-up.</div>
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Illustrating children's books sounds like a great way to go. The way publishing works these days, it's one the last places for creative, innovative artists with a gift for illustration and innovation. Children's lit has a great variety of styles, approaches and media. Good luck.</div>
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And say hi to all our friends in Hobbiton. :-) </div>
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Rich Chwedykhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17734066520904094275noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6046976407686466311.post-26961393321607044292019-12-27T12:07:00.000-08:002019-12-27T21:12:39.605-08:00After the Fall (term) ... <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://c8.alamy.com/comp/BE4F61/crash-landed-space-ship-BE4F61.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="587" data-original-width="800" height="234" src="https://c8.alamy.com/comp/BE4F61/crash-landed-space-ship-BE4F61.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<div class="Paragraph SCXW178696015 BCX0" paraeid="{42b6cc67-8aec-42fb-8ae3-ab537a3455dd}{32}" paraid="453863287" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-indent: 48px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="TextRun SCXW178696015 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "georgia" , "georgia_msfontservice" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><br /></span>
<span class="TextRun SCXW178696015 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "georgia" , "georgia_msfontservice" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US">Traditionally (well, for a year at least), I try to assess how things went during the fall semester. It was a hectic term, where I taught three classes for a time, as well as “running” the writing workshop for the </span><span class="TextRun SCXW178696015 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "georgia" , "georgia_msfontservice" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="SpellingError SCXW178696015 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: inherit; background-image: url("data:image/gif; background-position: left bottom; background-repeat: repeat-x; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">Windycon</span></span><span class="TextRun SCXW178696015 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "georgia" , "georgia_msfontservice" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"> local sf convention, as well as a writers group made up mostly of my former short story writing students. Add to that writing a couple of book columns for a science fiction magazine. I did a lot of reading and wasn’t able to get my own fiction-writing projects, the frustration over which I am still trying to cope with.</span><span class="EOP SCXW178696015 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559731":720,"335559739":200,"335559740":240}" style="font-family: "georgia" , "georgia_msfontservice" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> </span></div>
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<div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW178696015 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;">
<div class="Paragraph SCXW178696015 BCX0" paraeid="{42b6cc67-8aec-42fb-8ae3-ab537a3455dd}{42}" paraid="1407273260" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-indent: 48px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="TextRun SCXW178696015 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "georgia" , "georgia_msfontservice" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US">Not only that, but the courses I taught at the college level were not exactly my “home turf.” Fantasy writing is in the neighborhood of science fiction, but not quite the same thing – otherwise, why call one “fantasy” and the other “science fiction”? I didn’t feel at home, and for good reason: I wasn’t. Not in the way I feel at home with science fiction.</span><span class="EOP SCXW178696015 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559731":720,"335559739":200,"335559740":240}" style="font-family: "georgia" , "georgia_msfontservice" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> </span></div>
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<div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW178696015 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;">
<div class="Paragraph SCXW178696015 BCX0" paraeid="{42b6cc67-8aec-42fb-8ae3-ab537a3455dd}{48}" paraid="1919384918" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-indent: 48px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="TextRun SCXW178696015 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "georgia" , "georgia_msfontservice" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US">It wasn’t that I felt unfamiliar with the forms and conventions of fantasy, it’s just there are so many, and so many forms differ from one another. The gamut runs from Franz Kafka to Brandon Sanderson, from Lord Dunsany to J. K. Rowling. My predecessor set up her class to teach fantasy writing as a publishing category in popular fiction. Up until then, that’s what I believed her students wanted. I believed they wanted to be the next Patrick Rothfuss, or Tomi Adeyemi, or Django Wexler, or Kelly Link. Or something.</span><span class="EOP SCXW178696015 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559731":720,"335559739":200,"335559740":240}" style="font-family: "georgia" , "georgia_msfontservice" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> </span></div>
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<div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW178696015 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;">
<div class="Paragraph SCXW178696015 BCX0" paraeid="{42b6cc67-8aec-42fb-8ae3-ab537a3455dd}{54}" paraid="2048794039" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-indent: 48px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="TextRun SCXW178696015 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "georgia" , "georgia_msfontservice" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US">Instead, I found that many of my students don’t even know who these writers are. And whatever it is they want to write isn’t necessarily geared to what is currently selling in the publishing world. Frankly, half the class seemed to have trouble identifying what fantasy literature is, exactly (or even approximately). A number of them told me their reading of fantasy was drawn from the worlds of manga, graphic stories, and gaming. And a couple of students seemed to have little familiarity with any kind of fantasy beyond the oldest and dustiest examples; they were of a “literary” bent, and were taking this class to explore what they might possibly do in the form.</span><span class="EOP SCXW178696015 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559731":720,"335559739":200,"335559740":240}" style="font-family: "georgia" , "georgia_msfontservice" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> </span></div>
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<div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW178696015 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;">
<div class="Paragraph SCXW178696015 BCX0" paraeid="{42b6cc67-8aec-42fb-8ae3-ab537a3455dd}{60}" paraid="1775640511" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-indent: 48px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="TextRun SCXW178696015 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "georgia" , "georgia_msfontservice" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US">I don’t wish to disparage manga, or graphic stories, or gaming, or literary writers. Except for the latter, I don’t feel comfortably familiar </span><span class="TextRun SCXW178696015 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "georgia" , "georgia_msfontservice" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US">enough </span><span class="TextRun SCXW178696015 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "georgia" , "georgia_msfontservice" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US">with any of the forms</span><span class="TextRun SCXW178696015 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "georgia" , "georgia_msfontservice" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"> to express any opinions one way or another</span><span class="TextRun SCXW178696015 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "georgia" , "georgia_msfontservice" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US">. Luckily, I don’t have to, but for a while I wasn’t sure of that.</span><span class="TextRun SCXW178696015 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "georgia" , "georgia_msfontservice" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"> The role of a teacher somehow gets inexorably muddled with the role of an “authority.” After all these years teaching science fiction, and short fiction too for that matter, I should have known better, but it didn’t occur to me soon enough.</span><span class="EOP SCXW178696015 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559731":720,"335559739":200,"335559740":240}" style="font-family: "georgia" , "georgia_msfontservice" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> </span></div>
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<div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW178696015 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;">
<div class="Paragraph SCXW178696015 BCX0" paraeid="{42b6cc67-8aec-42fb-8ae3-ab537a3455dd}{76}" paraid="820751911" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-indent: 48px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="TextRun SCXW178696015 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "georgia" , "georgia_msfontservice" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US">In fact, it occurred to me to me only after I lay in bed one early morning before class, worrying about what I was </span><span class="TextRun SCXW178696015 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "georgia" , "georgia_msfontservice" , serif; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US">going</span><span class="TextRun SCXW178696015 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "georgia" , "georgia_msfontservice" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"> to do, what I </span><span class="TextRun SCXW178696015 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "georgia" , "georgia_msfontservice" , serif; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US">should</span><span class="TextRun SCXW178696015 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "georgia" , "georgia_msfontservice" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"> do, and what I thought I was </span><span class="TextRun SCXW178696015 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "georgia" , "georgia_msfontservice" , serif; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US">expected</span><span class="TextRun SCXW178696015 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "georgia" , "georgia_msfontservice" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"> to do. I worried and worried and couldn’t get to sleep until a clear, sharp, direct little voice sounded in my head: </span><span class="TextRun SCXW178696015 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "georgia" , "georgia_msfontservice" , serif; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US">“Hey, this isn’t </span><span class="TextRun SCXW178696015 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "georgia" , "georgia_msfontservice" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><u>your</u></span><span class="TextRun SCXW178696015 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "georgia" , "georgia_msfontservice" , serif; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"> class. It’s </span><span class="TextRun SCXW178696015 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "georgia" , "georgia_msfontservice" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><u>your students’</u> </span><span class="TextRun SCXW178696015 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "georgia" , "georgia_msfontservice" , serif; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US">class. You’ve got sixteen other minds at work on these same problems. Now, some of them are just trying to figure out how to get through this class with a passing grade and the least amount of effort, but the best of your group not only are here to learn something, but to contribute something to the conversation you started in the very first session: What is this kind of literature we call fantasy?”</span><span class="EOP SCXW178696015 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559731":720,"335559739":200,"335559740":240}" style="font-family: "georgia" , "georgia_msfontservice" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> </span></div>
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<div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW178696015 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;">
<div class="Paragraph SCXW178696015 BCX0" paraeid="{42b6cc67-8aec-42fb-8ae3-ab537a3455dd}{104}" paraid="433114814" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-indent: 48px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="TextRun SCXW178696015 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "georgia" , "georgia_msfontservice" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US">What I can’t teach them, they can teach me.</span><br />
<span class="EOP SCXW178696015 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559731":720,"335559739":200,"335559740":240}" style="font-family: "georgia" , "georgia_msfontservice" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">I felt incredibly relieved. </span></div>
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<div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW178696015 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;">
<div class="Paragraph SCXW178696015 BCX0" paraeid="{42b6cc67-8aec-42fb-8ae3-ab537a3455dd}{110}" paraid="2050144648" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-indent: 48px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="TextRun SCXW178696015 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "georgia" , "georgia_msfontservice" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US">Of course, it’s never as easy as that sounds. On the contrary, it’s total chaos and madness, but I get to share in the process. </span><span class="TextRun SCXW178696015 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "georgia" , "georgia_msfontservice" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US">But that process, of necessity, includes trial and error, and getting things wrong.</span><span class="EOP SCXW178696015 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559731":720,"335559739":200,"335559740":240}" style="font-family: "georgia" , "georgia_msfontservice" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> </span></div>
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<div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW178696015 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;">
<div class="Paragraph SCXW178696015 BCX0" paraeid="{42b6cc67-8aec-42fb-8ae3-ab537a3455dd}{118}" paraid="992184941" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-indent: 48px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="TextRun SCXW178696015 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "georgia" , "georgia_msfontservice" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US">This was also true for the Fiction Writing Workshop: Beginning I taught. Trial and error. Getting things wrong. True, I managed to do a number of things right, and I believe that with a few notable exceptions my students did their best. They were a great group, too. I had at least three students who were already capable of work that could be seriously considered for publication; two more who were very close to putting out publishable work. The one thing I never have to worry about at Columbia is having enough good students for a class. Yes, there are plenty of students who aren’t uniformly great at every facet of the creative process, but still, so many of these students are extraordinarily gifted. Even an academic bumbler like me can look like a good teacher.</span><span class="EOP SCXW178696015 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559731":720,"335559739":200,"335559740":240}" style="font-family: "georgia" , "georgia_msfontservice" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> </span></div>
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<div class="Paragraph SCXW178696015 BCX0" paraeid="{42b6cc67-8aec-42fb-8ae3-ab537a3455dd}{124}" paraid="700254024" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-indent: 48px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="TextRun SCXW178696015 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "georgia" , "georgia_msfontservice" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US">But I wouldn’t want to be judged so on </span><span class="TextRun SCXW178696015 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "georgia" , "georgia_msfontservice" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US">my performance </span><span class="TextRun SCXW178696015 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "georgia" , "georgia_msfontservice" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US">this term. If anything, right now, I feel less than competent. </span><span class="EOP SCXW178696015 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559731":720,"335559739":200,"335559740":240}" style="font-family: "georgia" , "georgia_msfontservice" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> </span></div>
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<div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW178696015 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;">
<div class="Paragraph SCXW178696015 BCX0" paraeid="{42b6cc67-8aec-42fb-8ae3-ab537a3455dd}{130}" paraid="1435398993" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-indent: 48px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="TextRun SCXW178696015 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "georgia" , "georgia_msfontservice" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US">But I know, I think, what I can do better next time.</span><span class="EOP SCXW178696015 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559731":720,"335559739":200,"335559740":240}" style="font-family: "georgia" , "georgia_msfontservice" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> </span></div>
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<div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW178696015 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;">
<div class="Paragraph SCXW178696015 BCX0" paraeid="{42b6cc67-8aec-42fb-8ae3-ab537a3455dd}{136}" paraid="505850201" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-indent: 48px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="TextRun SCXW178696015 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "georgia" , "georgia_msfontservice" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US">The learning process extends to me. If I’m to learn anything at this gig, I have to allow for my own mistakes. I have to allow that I can learn from them. And allow that I can do better next time.</span><span class="EOP SCXW178696015 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559731":720,"335559739":200,"335559740":240}" style="font-family: "georgia" , "georgia_msfontservice" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> </span></div>
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<div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW178696015 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;">
<div class="Paragraph SCXW178696015 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{12c3cac7-23a3-4206-9365-9df39a6d0344}{11}" paraid="347596324" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-indent: 48px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB">
<span class="TextRun SCXW178696015 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "georgia" , "georgia_msfontservice" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US">For the Fiction Writing Workshop, I give myself a B-. For the Fantasy Writing Workshop, a C+. Short Story Writing is a non-credit continuing ed class, Pass/Fail … I think I pass, but after 28 years, I should be able to get it right. </span><span class="EOP SCXW178696015 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559731":720,"335559739":200,"335559740":240}" style="font-family: "georgia" , "georgia_msfontservice" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> </span></div>
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<div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW178696015 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;">
<div class="Paragraph SCXW178696015 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{e3f677d4-247d-4483-b2bb-6292d3321ced}{85}" paraid="1563675514" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-indent: 48px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB">
<span class="TextRun SCXW178696015 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "georgia" , "georgia_msfontservice" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US">Mostly, at least.</span><span class="EOP SCXW178696015 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559731":720,"335559739":200,"335559740":240}" style="font-family: "georgia" , "georgia_msfontservice" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> </span></div>
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<div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW178696015 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;">
<div class="Paragraph SCXW178696015 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{e3f677d4-247d-4483-b2bb-6292d3321ced}{91}" paraid="962377429" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-indent: 48px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB">
<span class="TextRun SCXW178696015 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "georgia" , "georgia_msfontservice" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US">If I teach these classes next year, I’ll be going for As.</span><span class="EOP SCXW178696015 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559731":720,"335559739":200,"335559740":240}" style="font-family: "georgia" , "georgia_msfontservice" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> </span></div>
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<div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW178696015 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;">
<div class="Paragraph SCXW178696015 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{43c2cc22-2092-4ae1-9736-27c836fa650e}{42}" paraid="1182609796" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-indent: 48px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB">
<span class="TextRun SCXW178696015 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "georgia" , "georgia_msfontservice" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US">This spring, I’m scheduled to teach Foundations in Creative Writing, which I’ve never taught before. I expect to make more miscalculations, but I already have a batch of ideas that will at least be fun to try.</span><span class="EOP SCXW178696015 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559731":720,"335559739":200,"335559740":240}" style="font-family: "georgia" , "georgia_msfontservice" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> </span></div>
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<div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW178696015 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;">
<div class="Paragraph SCXW178696015 BCX0" paraeid="{42b6cc67-8aec-42fb-8ae3-ab537a3455dd}{142}" paraid="1589773792" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-indent: 48px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="TextRun SCXW178696015 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "georgia" , "georgia_msfontservice" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US">My science fiction writing class was canceled because not enough students signed up for it. </span><span class="TextRun SCXW178696015 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "georgia" , "georgia_msfontservice" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="ContextualSpellingAndGrammarError SCXW178696015 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: inherit; background-image: url("data:image/gif; background-position: left bottom; background-repeat: repeat-x; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">So</span></span><span class="TextRun SCXW178696015 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "georgia" , "georgia_msfontservice" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"> it goes. I guess most students don’t think science fiction has anything to teach them anymore. A science fiction writer like me should feel a little bummed out – and I did. It took me a while to remember that one of the most important aspects of my view of what science fiction is – is <i>really</i> – rests on sf’s ability to subvert the norms of any system or culture it finds itself in. Here at CCC, that means cultural, literary, and academic.</span><span class="EOP SCXW178696015 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559731":720,"335559739":200,"335559740":240}" style="font-family: "georgia" , "georgia_msfontservice" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> </span></div>
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<div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW178696015 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;">
<div class="Paragraph SCXW178696015 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{c306de56-0941-4d56-a288-c0bcb17654f8}{250}" paraid="1289508764" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-indent: 48px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB">
<span class="TextRun SCXW178696015 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "georgia" , "georgia_msfontservice" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US">If you’re a science fiction writer, or even just a science fiction thinker, you don’t shed that viewpoint when you leave the science fiction cave, so to speak, and venture out into all the little </span><span class="TextRun SCXW178696015 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "georgia" , "georgia_msfontservice" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="SpellingError SCXW178696015 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: inherit; background-image: url("data:image/gif; background-position: left bottom; background-repeat: repeat-x; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">elsewheres</span></span><span class="TextRun SCXW178696015 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "georgia" , "georgia_msfontservice" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"> available.</span><span class="EOP SCXW178696015 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559731":720,"335559739":200,"335559740":240}" style="font-family: "georgia" , "georgia_msfontservice" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> </span></div>
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<div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW178696015 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;">
<div class="Paragraph SCXW178696015 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{b5ffaab2-73ab-4e79-8e0e-1674a7e15bcb}{183}" paraid="1815666308" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-indent: 48px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB">
<span class="TextRun SCXW178696015 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "georgia" , "georgia_msfontservice" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US">Wherever I go, I take my science fiction with me.</span><span class="EOP SCXW178696015 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559731":720,"335559739":200,"335559740":240}" style="font-family: "georgia" , "georgia_msfontservice" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> </span></div>
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<div class="Paragraph SCXW178696015 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{a6ef609e-5a35-443d-9044-ecadcfe45204}{89}" paraid="862841269" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-indent: 48px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB">
<span class="TextRun SCXW178696015 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "georgia" , "georgia_msfontservice" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US">If the students </span><span class="TextRun SCXW178696015 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "georgia" , "georgia_msfontservice" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US">won’t come</span><span class="TextRun SCXW178696015 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "georgia" , "georgia_msfontservice" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"> to science </span><span class="TextRun SCXW178696015 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "georgia" , "georgia_msfontservice" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US">fiction,</span><span class="TextRun SCXW178696015 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "georgia" , "georgia_msfontservice" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"> I’ll simply have to take science fiction to them. </span><span class="EOP SCXW178696015 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559731":720,"335559739":200,"335559740":240}" style="font-family: "georgia" , "georgia_msfontservice" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> </span></div>
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<div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW178696015 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;">
<div class="Paragraph SCXW178696015 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{b40b328a-f94b-4e4f-b287-e8637a8044ea}{152}" paraid="1382430816" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-indent: 48px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB">
<span class="TextRun SCXW178696015 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "georgia" , "georgia_msfontservice" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US">It may not be much, but it’s what I do.</span></div>
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Rich Chwedykhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17734066520904094275noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6046976407686466311.post-59875330331250762992019-07-03T23:23:00.000-07:002019-07-03T23:23:10.838-07:00Notes Toward a More Coherent Essay, Someday, Maybe (Part 1, on the Fourth)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://res.publicdomainfiles.com/pdf_view/60/13539928216026.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://res.publicdomainfiles.com/pdf_view/60/13539928216026.png" data-original-height="701" data-original-width="800" height="280" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">You know, writing
something that is worth reading takes a long time. Maybe not for you, but for
me I need at least a month to clear a comma from a lengthy prepositional
phrase. I don’t want to just throw words out into the pixelverse. I want to
write something that someone else might understand and maybe even appreciate.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">In the meantime,
I’ll scribble out this or scrawl out that – writing replies or replying to
someone else’s queries. Some of these things echo what I’d like to say if I had
the time to sit around and do what writers are supposed to do – and nothing
else.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">For example.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">A writer friend
for many years is getting back into the harness, sold a nonfiction piece and a
short story to one of the pro-zines recently, has been asking me for advice –
on particular stories and the field in general. He also read one of my recent
book review columns for <i>Galaxy’s Edge</i>
magazine (Am I a book reviewer? I am <i>now</i>.
That doesn’t mean I’m a book critic or a scholar or a literary essayist.
Circumstance has so far spared me from those fates). But he decided, since I
was there and convenient to ask: </span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">“Is there something missing in my apprehension,
something that will block my progress as a writer, if I simply cannot fathom
some of the works of the so-called greats in the literary sf field?” He
continues, I am willing to give PK Dick another try. But honestly, I have tried
Le Guin, Delaney, Russ, others, and in each case I cannot go more than a few
pages before putting the book aside, confused and irritated.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">He
went on to describe a recent encounter with Ursula K. Le Guin’s <i>The Dispossessed</i>, where he got halfway
through before giving up “in despair.” He liked the TV adaptation of <i>The Lathe of Heaven</i>, though, and thought
maybe he should try again with that.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">I
replied that maybe he should. I think <i>The
Lathe of Heaven</i> is still a favorite of mine (except on those days when <i>The Left Hand of Darkness</i> takes over). I
also admitted that at times I find <i>The
Dispossessed</i> a little too ponderous for me, but let’s not pursue that any
further now, since I know many who consider it a masterpiece and love it dearly.
It’s a great book no matter how I might stumble through it. The fault is all
mine.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">But
my friend asked an honest question, so I tried to answer as honestly as I
could:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 14.65pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">That there’s so many books in the field of science fiction that
we <i>don’t</i> want to read is part of the beauty of the form.
Authors can write in so many ways, incorporate so many styles and techniques,
and it’s <i>still</i> science fiction. To speak briefly of other
“difficult” writers, I don’t think any other literary category, except perhaps
fantasy (however one defines the boundaries of that field), contains the
equivalent of Delany’s <i>Dhalgren</i>, or Wolfe’s <i>The Fifth Head of
Cerberus</i>, or Lafferty’s <i>Past Master, or</i> Joanna Russ’s<i> Picnic
on Paradise. </i>Etc., etc., etc. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 14.65pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Science fiction is a coat of many colors, but we don’t have to
like every shade of them.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 14.65pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Sf has had its crews of cultural movers and shakers over the
years. … I try not to judge books by critics. A book review is a creative
response to a book by one person. Often, I'll like a book lauded by a reviewer
– but not for the same reasons. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 14.65pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Reviews and awards, at times, are a way for a culture to,
consciously or unconsciously, try to impose a <i>uniformity</i> upon literature. Some might see it as “quality control,”
and that’s fine. I’ve nothing against quality control (depending upon the
qualities being, or not being, controlled), But in general, I don’t think much
of uniformity – and neither does literature (in the widest sense of the term,
without the capital L). Literature, in the widest sense, is bigger than that.
It’s bigger than everything – almost. If we can read what we love and love what
we read, the literary world would be a whole lot better off.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 14.65pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And any time I feel like I’m being forced to read a book –
either in school, by compulsion, or through the influence of peers and
“betters,” it distracts from any enjoyment I may receive from the task, if
enjoyment is to be found there at all. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 14.65pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_GoBack"></a><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I want to meet the book on
its own terms, and not the terms as defined by its supporters or detractors.
Exceptions granted. But the whole notion of having books shoved into my face
doesn’t help me figure out what I do or do not enjoy or what I value in my
reading.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 14.65pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">So, I wouldn't worry too much about what one “should” read in
the field over what one <i>wants</i> to read. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 14.65pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">If any of those highly-touted books keep calling to you, you’ll
get to them, when the time is right. And if you don’t care for them, the “Lit
Police” can’t take you away. They have no tin badges. They have no authority.
Reading should be an exploration and an adventure, but it should probably
contain equal measures of the familiar and the uncharted. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 14.65pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The best thing about books is that you can open them and go
nearly anywhere. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 14.65pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The second best thing about books is that you can also close
them and put them back on the shelf, whispering, “Not this one. Not now. Maybe
not ever.” If reading can’t be an exercise in freedom, what’s the bloody point?</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 14.65pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 14.65pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">So there.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 14.65pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And … Speaking of freedom, have a wonderful Fourth.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
Rich Chwedykhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17734066520904094275noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6046976407686466311.post-9962767947178011922019-04-30T22:56:00.000-07:002019-04-30T22:56:37.654-07:00Style Isn’t Story<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://media.gettyimages.com/photos/coloured-engraving-showing-two-men-wearing-fantastical-hats-both-of-picture-id90741152?s=612x612" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="375" data-original-width="612" height="196" src="https://media.gettyimages.com/photos/coloured-engraving-showing-two-men-wearing-fantastical-hats-both-of-picture-id90741152?s=612x612" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">Sometimes, not
too often, but still often enough, I get a student who believes that what you
say in a work is less important than the way you say it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">“It’s <i>all</i> style, man! Who cares what it’s
about?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">Yes, dear
friends. These poor unfortunates are still with us.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">Stories, if
they’re to be considered at all, are just excuses to exercise one’s style – or
should I put quotes around that word? Because what “style,” as these students
practice it, consists of, for the most part, are certain distinctive traits of
other authors placed in other contexts by the students emulating them. They
insist they’re being “themselves,” but they’re really trying on stuff, experimenting,
exercising – trying to figure out <i>not</i>
who they are, but who they <i>want to be</i>
– which is perfectly okay. That’s how you do it. That’s how you find out who
you are: as a person, as a writer – as a person who <i>is</i> a writer. They don’t know it yet, but they will eventually.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">How do I know?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">I used to be one
of them. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">Back in the
1970s, when there were so many styles to choose from, like so many different
hats to try on. And the “literary” side of the street had grown bored with
telling stories. More so: they believed it was all in the technique, that the
pyrotechnics <i>was</i> the show, and to
settle on telling a compelling story to an audience was to lower yourself as an
artist. It was like designing a chair that someone might actually enjoy sitting
in. How dull! How utilitarian!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">The artists
above, the rabble below.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">Usually, I shrink
back from using terms like “elitist,” because they’re usually engaged in
political forums and take on political taints that can’t be rinsed off. But one
cannot view aesthetics that distinguish “highbrow” from middlebrow, to lowbrow,
to no-brow, without feeling a sort of tyranny of exclusivity. “Don’t try this
at home, kids. This is <i>high art</i> we’re
talking here. Go back to your comic books.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">Well, move over, <i>literati</i>! <i>I</i> was going to show <i>them</i>
what <i>real</i> art was all about.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">Yeah, right.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">Let’s put it this
way: I didn’t have a mind that was particularly attuned to nuance. It wouldn’t
surprise me if I wasn’t alone in that, back then, for kids my age, with
overactive imaginations and a great yearning to be nearly anywhere except where
they were. I wanted spectacle and pyrotechnics and just about anything that
blew a hole through the status quo.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">I liked the <i>nouvelle vague</i> movies and experimental
films that were all quick cutting and filters and effects and jumping around in
the narrative, and interminglings of fantasy and brutal realism. I liked the
dynamic perspectives of Jim Steranko comics and the surrealism of Steve Ditko
(I was more in love with his work on Dr. Strange than anything he did with
Spiderman). When I discovered New Wave science fiction, I was all for it. The
less I understood of what I read, the better I thought it must have been. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">“Wow! This is
totally incomprehensible! It <i>must</i> be
a work of genius!”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">I wanted literature
to be a huge ladle dipped into the unbridled unconscious, spread out on the
page without benefit of organization or interpretation. The stranger the
better. In music, I was thrilled by Captain Beefheart, Sun Ra, The Stooges. I
was looking for new languages and new grammar in visual expression, in sounds,
in written works. No boundaries. No horizons. No walls. No “end” title.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">Problem was, I
didn’t know what I was rejecting, or if I was rejecting anything by embracing
all these apparent manifestations of “the new” (And some of it, in spite of my
generalizations, really <i>were</i>
brilliant and wonderful; on an instinctual level, I was pretty good; on an
intellectual or aesthetic level, I was a complete idiot).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">I learned the
history of literature backwards – of culture in general. I started with
experimental writers and worked my way, years later, back to Chaucer and <i>Beowulf</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">Problem was, I
didn’t know shit. I didn’t care, either.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">But the further
my interests went, the further I wanted – <i>needed</i>
– to know more of that history.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">One of the
insights I picked up, as I increased my knowledge and experience, was that much
of what I thought of as innovative had roots that went back to the very origins
(or as far back as we could find) of the forms that interested me. For example,
no postmodernist impressed me more than Sterne, Fielding and Cervantes. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">Every age is an
age of innovation and discovery. Some of these eras get more attention than
others, and the attention varies from subsequent era to era. One period of the
past speaks, or reflects, or echoes, a later age more directly than others.
That’s when an author, or a whole era of literature is “rediscovered.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">Eventually, it
became clear to me what had probably been clear to most of my contemporaries
all along: innovations and experimentations in art forms are a means and not an
end. The most successful explorations of “style” are the product of necessities
driven by other needs. Something we want to say or tell can’t be told any other
way. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">We do what we
have to do to make the work of art we want to make. While we’re doing it, we
call it, “getting the job done.” Afterward, we may call it “style,” but rarely
before. Style is something someone else calls your writing. You just call it “work.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">Simple enough,
but it took me about thirty-one years to get there.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">Now, it becomes
my job to guide students away from the excesses in which I indulged, and
produced reams and reams of unreadable drivel.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">Can I do it?
Maybe with some students. With others, no.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">This is both good
and bad. Good because the itinerant student in question has the intrinsic stubbornness
that makes for a good writer. But that only works when the writer is, well,
right. If not, the writer will spend a long, long time (like me) finding out
that the hill chosen to die upon is actually two hills over.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">We all live and
learn. Some faster than others, but we learn. If you ever stop, it’s almost as
if you’ve stopped being a writer. You’re just going through the motions.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">Never sacrifice
clarity to style. Style should enhance clarity, otherwise it’s holding you
back.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">Never sacrifice
story to style, otherwise you’re just putting fancy wrapping paper around an
empty package.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">So I think: what
the hell do <i>I</i> know? I’m just a guy
who stumbled into a teaching job, and what I know about writing should be
considered suspect at best. What does someone who <i>really</i> knows about writing have to say?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">The nearest book
on writing at hand is <i>Worlds of Wonder</i>
by David Gerrold. I open it up at random and the gods of serendipity smile upon
me.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">Page 234:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.5in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">You
have to know what you want to say.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.5in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">If you have no clear goal, then you’re
just fumbling around, smearing paint on canvas, pounding randomly on the piano
keys, and throwing yourself about on the stage in semblance of a performance.
If you don’t really know what you’re evoking, then all the exercises of style
and form and tense and person will not disguise it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">On the previous
page (233), in describing the New Wave sf writers:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.5in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">In the breakaway from traditional form,
what had also occurred was a disinheritance of the storytelling structure. Much
of this experimentation was necessary, creating an important expansion of the
range of ideas and treatments available to authors, yet it also gave comfort to
the idea that traditional forms were worthless and should be discarded. The
result, for a while, was a nihilistic abandonment of story.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.5in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">Fortunately, this trend didn’t last long
– <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">That’s the word
from David Gerrold, and he <i>does</i>,
without dispute, know a thing or two about writing.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">So – do what you
have to do. And may the light shine upon you sooner rather than later.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;"><br /></span></div>
Rich Chwedykhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17734066520904094275noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6046976407686466311.post-81214684853684836422019-04-27T20:10:00.000-07:002019-04-27T20:10:06.788-07:00The Cathedral and the Story<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://solqushorts.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/freytags_pyramid.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="516" data-original-width="775" height="213" src="https://solqushorts.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/freytags_pyramid.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.vam.ac.uk/__data/assets/image/0004/185062/2006bb3218_rheims_cathedral_model_annotated.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.vam.ac.uk/__data/assets/image/0004/185062/2006bb3218_rheims_cathedral_model_annotated.jpg" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="800" height="320" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">At the risk of infuriating my students and
colleagues yet again, and doing so in the shadow of the recent, tragic fire at
the Cathedral of Notre Dame, I've been thinking recently about the similarities
between stories and cathedrals, and maybe how the one helps to explain the other,
at least to some degree.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 14.65pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I often refer to stories having “shapes.”
I learned the phrase “story-shaped idea” from somewhere and it has never left
me. I have had numerous problems with discussions of story structure as
practiced in academic and non-academic circles. I learned only recently what a
“Freytag Triangle” (or “Pyramid”) is,
and it turns out to be the renaming of a description for “story” I've
encountered most of my life, and found true only in the most general (and least
helpful) sense. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 14.65pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The Freytag Triangle. <i>Writers
fly into it and are never seen again.</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 14.65pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Three-Act Structure. <i>For the
geometrically-impaired.</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 14.65pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Six-Act Structure. <i>Three-Act
structure cut into smaller pieces.</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 14.65pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Plotto. <i>Pick a plot – any plot.</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 14.65pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The Lester Dent Master Plot. <i>Pick </i>this<i> plot!</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 14.65pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The Hero’s Journey. <i>A train that only travels in circles.</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 14.65pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Narratology </span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">–</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> <i>Don’t
Go There!</i> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 14.65pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Seriously, all these terms surrounding
narrative structure are all fine and well (when I'm in a good mood), but they
are at best what you might call “analytic.” Some of them apply best to
completed works but do little to help the author of a work in progress. Some of
them will help an author construct a plot, but a plot is not a <i>story</i>. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 14.65pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I return to the brilliant observation
of book editor Teresa Nielsen-Hayden: “Plot is a literary convention. Story is
a force of nature.”</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 14.65pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Narratives or plots may be “structured,”
but stories are shapes, like containers, or vessels. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 14.65pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">On a practical level, they must
perform a function and contain the elements essential to make the comprehensible
and meaningful communication we tend to call a story. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 14.65pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">On an aesthetic level, the variations
of shapes, colors, materials and the like are limitless. Function may dictate
form, but both form and function are determined by that natural force: Story. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 14.65pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">We may not know what it is, but we
recognize it when we see it.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 14.65pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">More or less. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 14.65pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Sometimes function hides in form, but
it is certainly there.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 14.65pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Sometimes the form proclaims the
function loudly.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 14.65pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Story can’t survive without a
structure, and a structure without a story has no purpose.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 14.65pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The same, to some degree, can be said
for cathedrals.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 14.65pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">They have elements that help define
them as cathedrals: narthex, nave, transept, choir, ambulatory, towers, gables,
pinnacle, niche, tympanum, rose window … and so on. Other structures may
contain these elements, but are not cathedrals, but nearly all cathedrals will
contain these elements – and something more.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 14.65pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">At the heart of a story is a point.
It may not be a “big” point, or a good point, and it may not be one consciously
conceived by its author, but if you look at the story long enough, you’ll find
it. One may argue that it is there only because you’ve searched for it, and
it’s the product of your searching more than it is of the author’s intention,
but it doesn’t matter. Stories are for readers, an audience, and this is one of
the things readers do with what they read – again, whether it was their primary
intention or not. We read stories for many reasons, and some of those reasons
we’re not conscious of at first, or even later, or ever.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 14.65pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">At the heart of every cathedral,
likewise, is a point. It is a manifestation of a view of the universe, of
metaphysics, of theology. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 14.65pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">It is a model of the universe as conceived
by its initial adherents, perhaps, but it is more than a treatise written in
stone, wood, and glass. And one doesn’t have to be an adherent to the
worldview, or metaphysics, or theology, to appreciate the point the building
makes.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 14.65pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">It is a design, but it is not the
product of any single designer (except for more recent examples); it is the
product of many, laborers, craftspeople, artisans. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 14.65pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Each cathedral built along the
general principles outlined by what we recognize as common or defining elements
to the structure, but each one is distinct, different – its own experience. And
every individual who journeys into the structure will find something distinct
and, possibly, wondrous within it (and around it), beyond the intended tenets
of any specific religion, spirituality, or theology.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 14.65pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And this is one reason why we are
often moved so deeply when we visit these places. They are singular structures,
but their very <i>singular-ness</i> is an
echo of an entire reality – not to be mistaken for “reality” itself, whatever
that is, but a response to reality, one of many within the human experience.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 14.65pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Which also can be said, without too
great an exaggeration, of a story. The materials differ (thank heavens for
that; fiction is cheaper and easier to carry around), but the results,
potentially, are often the same.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 14.65pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Neither cathedrals nor stories should
ever be taken for granted.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Rich Chwedykhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17734066520904094275noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6046976407686466311.post-71215666447381293302018-12-29T23:50:00.000-08:002018-12-29T23:53:55.059-08:00Remembrances of Papers Lost<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">I’ve been
thinking about papers – school papers (as opposed to newspapers or rolling
papers) – one especially that I wrote for high school English in my senior year.
I broke every rule about how to produce the paper (someday I’ll tell the story
how, but not now) and I still received an A+ on it. It was about film editing
and how it was one of the defining elements of what makes a movie a movie. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">For reasons that
so far escape me, I’ve been thinking a lot about what I may have actually said
in that paper, wondering if I still believed any of it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Too bad the paper
was never returned to me. I’d had a chance to look it over. Mr. senior year
English teacher, Mr. Hurley, allowed me to see the grade he placed on it, but
needed it back for whatever arcane recording purposes Chicago Public Schools
teachers needed to hold on to senior papers. I saw the grade, glanced over its
contents and a few penciled-in comments, and back it went into Mr. Hurley’s
folder.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">On the last day
of classes, my last day of high school, I sought out Mr. Hurley in his
classroom. In the corridors, students were emptying their lockers as if they
were those German military functionaries you always saw in the World War II
movies, where the Allies are advancing and the Axis minions are throwing all
their maps and files into big fires. I probably didn’t see any bonfires in the
hallways of John F. Kennedy High School, but it looked like the word was out
that everything – <i>EVERYTHING!</i> – must be
destroyed. The trash cans were filled to the max, so the hallways effectively <i>became</i> the trash cans. The other
significant difference was that the students were in a much better mood about
dumping textbooks into garbage bins than the gray-uniformed officers seemed to
be about torching their precious documents (the moral to this side-tale appears
to be that any organization which lives by bureaucracy dies by bureaucracy).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">When confronted,
Mr. Hurley claimed my paper was in his office and would be “difficult to locate
at this moment.” I’m not sure if he was speaking of the paper or his office.
Either way, he looked like a man with a briefcase filled with embezzled funds
and a phony passport in the pocket of his sportcoat. Or perhaps he was afraid
the First Division had already secured that part of the building. Whatever was
really on his mind, he looked surprised that I would want the paper returned,
but insisted he would get it back to me “somehow.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">That was in 1973.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Since then, I
have seen neither the paper nor Mr. Hurley.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Mr. Hurley was
never someone you’d characterize as a teacher dedicated to his subject. I don’t
recall many literary discussions in his class, nor did he ever endeavor to
instill in his students a love for the written word. I do recall we spent a lot
of time going over selected cantos from <i>Paradise
Lost</i>, but I also recall we were considering them more like a legal document
than a work of poetry. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">English as a
subject for Mr. Hurley was one of those “skills” you pick up to advance your
opportunities for advancement in the faceless offices of industry and commerce.
Your District Supervisor might note that you can hammer out a letter more
grammatically than your fellow underlings, or make a better presentation at a
sales conference, and thereby you’ll earn enough to purchase a better grade of
white shirt to go along with your double-knit suit and Christmas tie. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">To Mr. Hurley,
from what I experienced, the inherent value of literature <i>as</i> literature was no value at all. He was a notably uninspiring
English teacher, though he may have been a good chess player (I believe he also
sponsored the school’s chess team).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">My adolescent thoughts
on film editing are no great loss to the world, I suppose. I just wonder, as I
enter (or extend my occupancy of) my dotage, what those thought were. I may
have been smart, by accident. Or I may have been stupid in a seemingly smart
way. In those days, I was a passionate lover of the cinema. Today, I find
myself rather estranged from the medium, with notable exceptions. I find myself
ranting over the shortage of great films and great filmmaking – until I
encounter a great film, and my love of the form is reborn.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">I am curious,
though, if the paper might help me figure out if I loved cinema because it was
a great storytelling medium, or if I discovered my love of storytelling from my
love of movies. The difference may be slight, but it’s the slight distinctions
that mean the most.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">There are two
other of my papers that are apparently lost to the ages, both of them dating
from my grad school years at Northwestern University. The professors for whom I
wrote them are now deceased. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">In one of them, I
came up with my most incisive thoughts on the novelist Muriel Spark and her
great novel, <i>Loitering With Intent</i>.
The paper effectively saved my grade. I was expecting a B at best from
Professor Elizabeth Dipple and somehow managed to pull an A- on the strength of
that paper. The thoughts came to me, though, in the midst of some 3 a.m.
inspiration (and a haze of caffeine and nicotine) and for the most part now
escape me. I would like to read over my “brilliant” analysis of Ms. Spark’s
novel, in case I ever need to be that brilliant again. But I doubt I ever will
(see the paper or ever be that brilliant, take your pick).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The other paper
took on <i>Heart of Darkness</i> – a topic
my professor specifically warned the class against because, to paraphrase, “I
have read everything that has been said or ever <i>can</i> be said about that book, and <i>nothing</i> you can write will strike me as new or interesting.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Yet I persisted,
approaching the novel as a critique of reality, eventually connecting it up to
the works of – believe it or not – Philip K. Dick. It all had to do with A.)
the frame story, and B.) Marlow’s hatred of lies, leading to the lie Marlow
tells in the end. Oh, it also had references to the “fascination of the
abomination,” the description of one being “captured by the incredible that is
the very essence of dreams,” and Marlow’s regarding his <i>choice</i> of nightmares. I linked all these to Borges, Philip K. Dick
and Gene Wolfe.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">How I got away
with it, I’ll never know.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">While I was
working on a final examination in class, the professor, Alfred Appel, looked over the final
papers that were turned in at the beginning of class, including mine. At a
point halfway through the examination, I heard the professor loudly whisper, “Son
of a bitch!” I looked up and could see he was reading one of the papers. Either
from immodest egotism, or unhealthy self-contempt, I could not help but suspect
he had gotten to my paper.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">But I did receive
an A for the course, whether on the strength of that paper or not, I’ll never
know.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">I kind of wish I
could know, but I can’t.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">So I’ll just have
to come up with something better.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Happy New Year to
all!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
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Rich Chwedykhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17734066520904094275noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6046976407686466311.post-88810724073220490122018-12-25T12:38:00.000-08:002018-12-25T12:38:03.289-08:00A Spy in the House of STEM<br />
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<a href="https://www.easypeasyandfun.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Dinosaur-Coloring-Pages.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="700" data-original-width="700" height="320" src="https://www.easypeasyandfun.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Dinosaur-Coloring-Pages.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">I was about to
post a blog piece that was introspective, soul-searching, and serious, but
thought better of it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">Who wants to read
such boring prattle? I used to fill up volumes with that kind of crap back in
the 1970s and 1980s.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">Let me tell you
about something I did recently that made me feel good.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">As of recent,
circumstances have driven me into the employ of a company that provides
afterschool “enrichment” programs for grade school children in the area (and a
number of places around the country, so I’ve been told recently). Originally,
this company provided chess classes, but not they have branched into “robotics”
and allegedly engineering-related classes. The kids spend an hour a week
assembling remote-controlled vehicles built from plastic parts in kits – sort
of off-brand Legos. Each kit has a few cheap motor, a battery pack, and the
remote control.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">The purpose for
this is, allegedly, to interest kids in STEM-related stuff. For parents and
school officials, STEM is big. STEM is what’s going to save their kids from
abject poverty, scrounging through dumpsters and sleeping in underpasses. While
the rest of the world (or at least the neighborhood) collapses into naked
savagery and cannibalism, STEM kids will be heading for air-conditioned offices
in their auto-drive cars, ready to spend the day designing plastic robot dogs
that catch ping pong balls, or managing the folks who do. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">I could go into
this in greater detail, but why bother? The folks who designed the courses and
manage the program haven’t, so why should I? Teachers in this program are
“trained” through a series of videos that, needless to say, provide them with
very little that resembles the reality of what they’ll find at the ground
level. It’s sort of like finding oneself in a full-scale firefight after having
just completed Basic Training. One is promised some sort of calculated
strategies, and instead receives – mayhem!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">Mayhem!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">In a few brief
months I’ve gathered enough war stories to bore you and annoy you all through
the coming cold winter months. Some kids actually want to put together stuff
from the robot kits. Some are actually quite good at it. Some kids just want to
exercise their right to refuse to do anything you ask them. Some want to throw
things around.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">Only a few – but
a significant few – we’ll either raise their hands, or step up and ask you, “Do
I really have to do this?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">All I can tell
them is, no. You don’t have to do this. What do you want to do?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">A few of them
asked, “Can I color pictures?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">I said, sure.
Would you like to color pictures of dinosaurs?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">They look up,
their eyes suddenly bright at the prospect, and nod.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">After the first
week, I started to bring downloaded coloring pictures of dinosaurs I found
online. “Be prepared.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">They’re not
robots, but we can call it STEM, because ... science.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">Is it what my
supervisors want me to do? Of course not. Is it what the parents want me to do?
I have no idea. Do they want me to indoctrinate them into a world of
engineering that will allegedly guarantee them relevance and value in a
changing world? Or do they want me to simply keep them busy for an hour a week
so that they don’t get into some greater trouble.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">What am I
supposed to “teach” these kids?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">I can teach them
what my supervisors expect me to teach them – but no. The kids never listen to
me the way they listen to other teachers. They sense the anarchy in my bones.
They know I have no “authority.” I’m a stranger in these parts. They can do
what they want, whether it’s playing with robots or not playing with robots.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">All I can teach
is what I am, and what I love. That’s all the authority I’ve got.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">And what I am,
and what I love, often includes dinosaurs.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">Last Thursday,
one of the students in a “circuits” (i.e. circuitry) class I’m subbing for gets
up from her table, walks to the place on the floor where the jackets and
backpacks are being stored. She can’t be older than a first-grader. She lies
down on one of the jackets as if it were a cushion. She looks tired, bored, and
sad. The other teacher I’m working with asks her, “What’s the matter?” Doesn’t
she want to learn about circuits and play with the motors and propellers
attached to them?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">She shakes her
head. No. She looks even sadder.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">My co-teacher
asks her, “Is there <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">anything</i> you want
to do?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">Even sadder shake
of her head.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">So I ask her,
“Would you like to color some pictures of dinosaurs?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">Her eyes light
up. She rises from her improvised cushion like Lazarus rising from his tomb.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">We walk over to
the box where I keep my teaching stuff. She chooses one of the dinosaur
coloring pictures from my folder. She races back to her table with the picture
and finds crayons … somewhere. Soon, she runs back to me and shows me the
result of her coloring.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">“See my
dinosaur!”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">“It’s beautiful,”
I tell her. “I especially like what you did with the green.” I point to the
region along the dinosaur’s back.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">She runs back to
her table. Somewhere, somehow, she’s found a pair of scissors. She carefully
cuts the dinosaur away from its paper background, then runs back to me.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">“See my
dinosaur!”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">“Beautiful!” I
say. “You did an incredible job of coloring the dinosaur and cutting him out.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">“Can I take him
home?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">“Of course.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">“I love my
dinosaur!”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">“Who wouldn’t?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">The class was the
last one in a session, and it’s part of the regimen to hand out medals to the
groups and teams that did the best with projects and a final competition. A lot
of the kids get a kick out of the medals, and that’s understandable and great.
I’m not on competitions, so I don’t stress those kinds of things, but if my
supervisors want competitions, I’ll do what’s needed to comply. Everybody gets
medals.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">But what warmed
my heart on that last day of class, so close to the Christmas holidays, was the
girl with her crayon-colored dinosaur. She was more proud of her dinosaur than
the “STEM” medal. And that’s fine with me. Some kids do robots. Some don’t.
Some are big on engineering. Some want to color dinosaurs. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We need as many kids coloring dinosaurs as we
do building robots. More power to all of them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">I’m a lousy
employee.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">But I may be a
decent teacher.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">Merry Christmas. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />Rich Chwedykhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17734066520904094275noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6046976407686466311.post-50684316892618236562018-09-05T00:41:00.000-07:002018-09-05T00:41:52.300-07:00Not In Our Stars<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;"><i>“It may be that universal history is the
history of the different intonations given a handful of metaphors.” <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;"><i>– Jorge Luis Borges, “The Fearful Sphere of
Pascal”</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">On an afternoon
I’m supposed to be writing, I get up and walk around. I fidget. It happens when
something isn’t coming out right. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">I’m in a library.
Books surround me. There are times when this can feel oppressive to a writer
with a work in progress. So many books. Why add to the noise of language? What
will one more work add to this vast outpouring of story?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">There are other
times when the shelves and shelves of books feel like a resource. I have an
army of allies. At the right moment, you can hear the books whispering to you.
Some of them are whispering answers. Some of them are trying to help you finish
your story. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">You take from a
random shelf a random book and turn to a random page. Except it isn’t a random
choice – you have been pulled by some uncanny magnetism to the right book at
the right page at the right moment.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">Or it could be
truly random. Outside the framework of causalities real and imagined, most
everything is.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">This time I reach
for David Gerrold’s book on science fiction writing, <i>Worlds of Wonder</i>, because I don’t have a copy of it at home (well,
I do, but it’s from the Columbia library, which means it one day has to return
to their shelves).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">The “random” page
I turn to is under the chapter title “Transformation” (page 101) and addresses
the matter of fictional characters, specifically protagonists, and ways to
think about the problem of change that most every fictional protagonist has to
face.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">The whole matter
of characters in fiction has been on my mind a lot. Science fiction has always
been perceived as having problems with the creation of vivid characters. For
much of its history, the criticism has been valid, with many and varied notable
exceptions.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">The criticism
remains valid. I had been reading through the most recent “Best of” anthology
for science fiction, looking for stories I wanted to assign to my students for
class reading. I found many great stories with many wonderful characters, but I
also waded through pages and pages of depictions of empty people, dead inside,
psychologically opaque, mechanisms suffering “hardware issues.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">It wasn’t that
these characters weren’t interesting in their deadness, so to speak, but that
this same kind of character kept on showing up again and again and again until
it sounded to my reader’s ear like a pianist banging on the same key over and
over. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">Today, we have
better writers, better schooled in both sciences and arts, and the ones who
pursue short fiction are rarely burdened with the necessity to hammer out one
story after another to make a living. There <i>is</i>
no living to be made from writing short stories. So why should all these protagonists
be so similar? Why do so many of them seem to be simply going through the
motions?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">I have an
interest in this question as a teacher. I want my students to be the writers
who will break this contemporary convention. But I also have an interest as a
writer myself. Have I fallen into the same morass? Or will I, eventually? Is
there something I can keep in mind so that I can maintain my own standard that
places character at the core of any successful story?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">At the outset,
Gerrold tells us, The transformation of the character is the reason you’re
telling the story.” The story can go no further without it. It’s the reason for
everything included in the story and the reason why the story is about this
character, not someone else.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">In boldface:
“Transformation is the reinvention of the self by the Self.” The problem, or
nemesis, or obstacle, the character faces is not so much what prevents the
transformation, it is the self, or “Self” defining the obstacle as insurmountable,
at least by the character. Gerrold describes the character as saying, “I can’t
handle this,” then continues, “By choosing to make this situation the problem,
the hero creates himself as the source of the problem. Until he recognizes his
own authorship of the dilemma, he cannot create himself as <i>the source</i> of the resolution.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">Forgive me if my
summary makes this idea seem too convoluted. The simple version, best as I can
manage it, is: “The real conflict of the story is not between the character and
the external obstacle, but the character in conflict with him/her/it/they
self.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">Which reminded me
a lot of William Faulkner, in his Nobel lecture: “… </span><span style="background: white; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">the young man or woman writing today has forgotten the
problems of the human<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><em><span style="font-style: normal;">heart in conflict with itself</span></em><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>which alone can make good writing
because only that is worth writing about, worth the agony and the sweat.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">An obvious, and fitting,
connection.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">What it also reminded me of was
this passage I encountered in Louis H. Sullivan’s <i>The Autobiography of an Idea</i>, his last great statement to beliefs
in art, and nature, and its reflection in his architectural work, published the
year of his death in 1924. Sullivan writes of himself in the third person,
which can be a tad annoying for twenty-first century readers, but bear with him
here. He describes the moment when his aesthetics all clicked together for him:
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">He had worked out a theory that every
problem contains and suggests its own solution. That a postulate which does not
contain and suggest its own solution is not in any sense a problem, but a
misstatement of fact or an incomplete one. … he had reached the advanced
position that if one wished to solve the problem of man's nature, he must seek
the solution within man himself. ...<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">In other words,
chosen by that author with an uncanny penchant for finding “other words” that
live forever, “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars but in ourselves. …”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">Or, as Gerrold
states it, “The moment in which the hero recognizes, ‘I’m the problem – ” he
also recognizes the corollary: “—<i>therefore
I’m the solution!</i>” His commitment becomes ‘I <i>can</i> handle this. I <i>will</i>
handle this.’”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">Story structures
can vary. In a “realistic” story, the problems may not be so apparent. In a
science fiction story, the science-fictional concept may serve to define the
internal conflict. The concrete representation is external and tangible, but
the solution is internal – is <i>personal</i>,
even if the subject is personhood itself, as it can so often be in contemporary
sf.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">It may seem
overly self-reflective to say that the character’s plight echoes the plight of
the author in writing a story. The solution is to found in the problem itself;
if the problem is within the author’s imagination, so is the solution.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">Let’s throw this
in, just for the hell of it, a little something I picked up in a faculty
seminar when novelist Nami Moon was teaching at my school. Conflicts can be
divided into two groups: “Chronic conflict” (long term, over the course of the
character’s life), “Acute conflict” (the immediate situation which spurs the
problem within the story). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">There’s a
distinction here that’s useful in most any kind of fiction, but may work with
exceptional success in a science fiction story. The science-fictional problem
in the story reflects what has long-dogged the central character, in fact,
defines that character.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">Science fiction
can and very often does explore the concrete representations of emotional and
metaphorical hopes and fears – we fear change; we need change; we fear the “other”;
we <i>are</i> the “other.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">What makes the
form so thrilling and interesting that it can expand upon these basic emotional
dichotomies to limitless dimensions. We have more than one universe to play
with.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">It’s just important
that, in making these stories memorable and resonant, that we remember where to
seek the solutions to their immense and wondrous problems.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3c1703fe8d.site.internapcdn.net/newman/csz/news/800/2018/universe.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="800" height="192" src="https://3c1703fe8d.site.internapcdn.net/newman/csz/news/800/2018/universe.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;"><br /></span></div>
Rich Chwedykhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17734066520904094275noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6046976407686466311.post-78674071303598344282018-08-11T00:26:00.000-07:002018-08-11T00:28:23.211-07:00Insist on Your Cup of Stars<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://www.nypl.org/sites/default/files/images/hauntingofhillhouse.inline%20vertical.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="182" src="https://www.nypl.org/sites/default/files/images/hauntingofhillhouse.inline%20vertical.jpg" /></a></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">When human beings,
or even dinosaurs, fail to deliver consolation in times of doubt, uncertainty,
and maybe even a little despair, there are always libraries.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">For instance …<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">This afternoon, I
needed to get out of the house. It’s been a bad week, in some ways. Not so bad
in others. One part of me wanted to just sit at home, lie on the bed, and
contemplate my misfortune. Luckily, I recognized that doing so never solved
anything. I have a lot of work to do – work that I want to avoid, and still
have to some degree. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">And, of course, I
have writing to do as well, which I don’t want to avoid, but I had a hard time
working myself to get any done. I’m in the dumps.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">My fall class at
Columbia was canceled.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">And this time, I
can’t really blame the administration, the department, or anyone but the
students. They just didn’t sign up.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Not enough of
them. Just nine, I think. And I thank those nine for signing up. And I also
apologize that now there won’t be a course for them to take.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">But when you get
ready to put on a show, so to speak, and no one comes, you can’t help feeling
bad. Feeling like a failure. Or an outcast. I have some experience in feeling
like an outcast.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">And when you feel
like an outcast, it’s very difficult to motivate yourself to soldier on and
produce new work. Even if you’ve had some relative success, all you can
remember are the failures, the empty rooms, the silence.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">So, sitting in
the library, I started writing, then looked around. Who needs any more stories?
I’m surrounded by five thousand books. Who needs to read anything by me? What
the hell do I know? I think science fiction will not only save literature, but
maybe save the world. How dumb can you get? If readers don’t want Tiptree,
Delany, Sturgeon, Lafferty, on and on and on, who the hell wants me?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Well, this is no
good, I thought. I got up and started checking out the shelves, looking for
something to read to remind me what good words look like when put together.
Good sentences. Good storytelling. I also wanted to see what books I have loved
are still hogging shelf space. On previous scans of the shelves, I’d discovered
a number of my favorites had been “disappeared” to make more space. Catalog
searches proved they were gone. Kaput. Outta here.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">But I did find
this: <i>The Haunting of Hill House</i>, by
Shirley Jackson.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Memory is the
ultimate censor, but if I recall correctly, Jackson’s novel was the first “grownup”
novel I read, excluding books by Wells and Stevenson, which some considered “kid
stuff” (the Wells novels were in editions specifically marketed to children).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">I had also
included the novel in a list of books that made a great impression on me or
were favorites. I had read <i>Hill House</i>
in many years. I retained my very first copy of it in my library, but handle it
with care, afraid it might turn to dust if I finger through it too rapidly.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Did it still
retain its power?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">I took the
edition off the shelf, flipped it open, and started reading at a random page.
It’s early in the novel: Eleanor’s car trip to Hill House. It’s a section that
fascinated me when I first read it as a kid and which still fascinates me. You
would think a boy, especially a boy living in Chicago, in Garfield Ridge – a place
of mediocre little schools and mean-spirited, mediocre little minds, a paradise
for the venal and the superficial – would be bored by all this. “Come on! Let’s
get to the <i>house</i>! Let’s get to all
the haunted stuff!” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">But no. I didn’t
know who Eleanor was, but somehow I detected a kindred spirit in her. She didn’t
feel at home <i>at </i>home. She is
wandering, heading off to Hill House, daydreaming along the way.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">She stops at a “country
restaurant” and notices the family at another table, the only other customers
at that time of day: parents, a young boy and a little girl.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.5in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">…
The light from the stream below touched the ceiling and the polished tables and
glanced along the little girl’s curls, and the little girl’s mother said
calmly, “She wants her cup of stars.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.5in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Indeed,
yes, Eleanor thought; indeed, so do I; a cup of stars, of course.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.5in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">“Her
little cup,” the mother was explaining, smiling apologetically at the waitress,
who was thunderstruck at the thought that the mill’s good country milk was not
rich enough for the little girl. “It has stars in the bottom, and she always
drinks her milk from it at home. She calls it her cup of stars because she can
see the stars while she drinks her milk.” The waitress nodded, unconvinced, and
the mother told the little girl, “You’ll have your milk from your cup of stars
tonight when we get home. But just for now, just to be a very good little girl,
will you take a little milk from the glass?”<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.5in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Don’t
do it, Eleanor told the little girl; insist on your cup of stars; once they
have trapped you into being like everyone else you will never see your cup of
stars again; don’t do it; and the little girl glanced at her, and smiled a
little subtle, dimpling, wholly comprehending smile, and shook her head
stubbornly at the glass. Brave girl, Eleanor thought; wise, brave girl.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.5in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">“You’re
spoiling her,” the father said. “She ought not to be allowed these whims.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.5in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">“Just
this once,” the mother said. She put down the glass of milk and touched the
little girl gently on the hand. “Eat your ice cream,” she said.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.5in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">When
they left, the little girl waved good-by to Eleanor, and Eleanor waved back,
sitting in joyful loneliness to finish her coffee while the gray stream tumbled
along below her. …<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.5in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">This is an
incredible moment that a lesser author would have probably cut in an early
draft – “No, let’s get to the action. Let’s not dawdle.” Or an editor would
have made the same suggestion. “No one wants to read about country restaurants!
Hell, let’s get this show on the road!”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">But the show <i>is</i> on the road. The show is Eleanor. And
in this little moment we get the answer to the question I keep asking students
and fellow writers when I read their work, and so often – so very, very often –
they cannot answer with even faint success: “Why the hell should I care what
happens to this person?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Eleanor wants her
cup of stars.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">We <i>all</i> want our cup of stars.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Eleanor knows.
She was trapped into being like everyone else, at least on the outside. You
concede your cup of stars and for the rest of your life you struggle to get it
back. Eleanor and the little girl exchange this wisdom silently, and it is not simply
Eleanor imparting wisdom to the little girl – she isn’t. The little girl is
imparting as much to Eleanor as Eleanor is warning the little girl.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">I don’t pretend
to know what great literature is. I believe, perhaps wrongly, that I know good
storytelling, and good writing, and how to bring a notion across to its most
powerful effect. And this is certainly great storytelling, great writing – a brief
moment, a stop on the road to destiny that tells us almost everything we need
to know about Eleanor while revealing a startling awareness of our own secret
dreams.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">There’s a lot of
talk these days, especially among folks of my generation, about whether books
we read when we were young “stand up” today. Maybe they have a point, because a
lot of what they read (me too) was a lot of crap. Earnest crap. Exciting crap.
But … crap.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">But then I think:
stand <i>up</i>? To whom? Who has appointed
these arthritic bozos the Grand Jury of Literature? They were stupid enough to
read and love the crap in their youth. I should take their judgments seriously now?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Perhaps it makes
one feel cool and wise now to eviscerate the giants of our youth, to call “Fraud!”
and “Foul!” on former heroes. Perhaps that’s an exercise everyone needs to
perform to understand how the world changes and how we change within that
world.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">But perhaps a few
moments should be spent not in judging how the works we read in youth stand up
for us, but how well we stand up against the works we read.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Have we kept our
cup of stars?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">I went back to my
reading table and scribbled out a few more pages of words, most of which I will
probably cross out and try to come up with better ones, reminding myself of
something I’ve been telling myself a lot: <i>All
great stories are love stories. All great stories are about loneliness. These
two sentences are not mutually exclusive</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Writing is never
easy, but the only way you get it done is to keep going through the tangle of
uncertainty and fear and emptiness. Take a break, enjoy your coffee, but at the
end of road, Hill House awaits.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
Rich Chwedykhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17734066520904094275noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6046976407686466311.post-89665502805858954822018-08-06T20:13:00.000-07:002018-08-06T20:13:23.889-07:00With These Hands (and a few other parts thrown in)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQkjhyphenhyphenud1uh3HbyiMcFmZksg_xqOGGijItnQA2gg9TH77F0F73Mk8PyzLEuzhq_E-PaV1sf1d9NSpEOnk5BlLrBwxrdaauvlIM6gwNiEhA8b08TDbCjdluF8PTMHChC5_ajE4nq6is8dia/s1600/Secret+Garden+Scribble+first+page.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1208" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQkjhyphenhyphenud1uh3HbyiMcFmZksg_xqOGGijItnQA2gg9TH77F0F73Mk8PyzLEuzhq_E-PaV1sf1d9NSpEOnk5BlLrBwxrdaauvlIM6gwNiEhA8b08TDbCjdluF8PTMHChC5_ajE4nq6is8dia/s320/Secret+Garden+Scribble+first+page.jpg" width="241" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">As a kid, I was
very big on hand-scripting first drafts. In part, it was because notebooks were
a lot more portable than typewriters (even portable typewriters) in those days.
Another part was because I wasn’t a particularly good typist (I’m still not,
but much better than I was). Not that I had particularly good penmanship,
either. The choice between typescripts and handscripts was pretty much the
choice between scribble over scrubble.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">As a young adult,
I continued to do a lot of my early-draft work in spiral-bound notebooks.
Again, it was the portability. It must have also appealed to me that even
though it was a <i>note</i>book, it was
still a <i>book</i>. The covers were thin,
but it still <i>felt</i> like a book.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">That was when I
did a lot of writing, but I hadn’t yet learned, to some extent, how to be a <i>writer</i>.
I still had visions of pages upon pages with nary a scribble or a
cross-out. The words came out freely and unhindered – too bad the majority of
them were crap.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">This is not to
say, also, that I didn’t type. I typed up a storm, in spite of being the worst
typist in the universe. I think I was in the fifth or sixth grade when I
received my first typewriter for Christmas. It was a machine that printed all
caps. I was forty years ahead of the times if I was planning to write comments
on social media posts. Everything I produced looked like it came off a broken
teletype machine. Luckily, my mom had a 1949 Royal Portable typewriter – or
what passed as “portable” when dinosaurs ruled the earth. But I put that old
Royal to work. When I was in eighth grade and home with some sort of terrible
sickness for a week and a half, I used the time to write a book about the
movies. Yes. I wrote a book. Not a long one, but a book nonetheless. Not only
did I type the whole thing, I typed it with two (2) carbons(!!!).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">And yet – I was a
lousy typist. A typist of necessity, not of talent. I didn’t type well, but I
typed a lot. That’s how you “got it done” back then.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">That is still how
you get it done, though the keyboard is no longer fixed to a physically
mechanical device in quite the same way. Your fingers move over the letters
that make the words (and the punctuation) in the same way, and you press down
in the same way, though maybe not so hard.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">I know writers
who never hand-script a thing. If it weren’t for keyboards, they wouldn’t be
writers. And I need to add that most of those writers are prolific. Not only do
they get it done, they a get <i>a lot</i> of
it done.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">And that’s fine
with me. Every writer has to find what works best. Some have a proscribed
methodology. Others work within the confines of a continuous riot. There is
order and there is chaos and there’s a lot of room in between. There is an
order in chaos as well and, conversely, a chaos in order.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">With that in
mind, I’d like to suggest to some of you who are still working out what works
best for you, that you try an intermingling of both.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">Usually, one
works at hand-script first, then transfers or transcribes what was written by
hand to the keyboard. That’s supposed to be the natural progression of things.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">Recently, though,
when I worked on the novel, and then on “The Man Who Put the Bomp,” I kept
switching back and forth, typing up what I had scribbled, then scribbling what
I had typed down. The process was born of necessity. I very often had to work
on these projects while in transit, or in spare moments before heading into an
office. I didn’t have a laptop computer handy, but I still needed to get work
done. Some folks have notebook computers. All I had was the notebook. And a
pen. And, very often, a printout of what I had typed up the day before, or a
week before, or whenever.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">Going back and
forth between keyboard and pen, I noticed something very unusual, to me at
least: we write differently when we type than we do when we write with a pen,
scripting out each letter by hand; also, we <i>read</i>
differently when we engage in these processes. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">It may be that
each process utilizes a different part of the brain, or if not that, it uses
the brain differently. Typing up scribbled notes is a different task than
composing on the keyboard. Hand-writing sentences that have already been typed
out applies a different kind of scrutiny to what you have written. You’re
looking at the sentences in a different context – it provides you an
opportunity to look over your sentences and read them with a greater distance –
or if that “greater distance” phrase seems hackneyed, look at it this way: it’s
a chance to read your work and separate your <i>self</i> from your <i>words</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">I’ve never been
into this “your brain is hardwired to do this” kind of thinking. The brain
precedes hard-wiring and the metaphor is, as all metaphors about the brain are,
flawed. Some researchers, so I’ve read, are catching up with this insight. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">They’re also
becoming aware that the brain does not work in isolation. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">It is tied to a
nervous system that extends to the body’s extremities – hands, for example.
Brain and hands work together. Brain and eyes work together. Brain and nose
work together. And ears. And so on.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">We read a page of
your handwritten work differently. We read a screen of your prose differently.
We also read a printed page of your prose in a way that puts your sentences
into a different context. The writing and reading of your prose in various ways
involves processes that are substantially different but not unrelated to each
other. We learn from each of these processes and, with a little thought, we can
use their interrelations to become better writers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">Years ago, when
“right brain thinking” and “left brain thinking” were all the rage, my prof at
Columbia, John Schultz, would make a point that he included in his text, <i>Writing from Start to Finish</i>, that this
notion was an oversimplification. Early brain scans demonstrated that people
who were writing used <i>both</i> “parts” of
the brain (and a few parts not usually counted) – sending messages back and
forth. “Logical” brain was as necessary as the “aesthetic” brain to create a vivid
piece of writing.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">And that work was
done over a half century ago. Today, my guess would be that every part of the
neural network – every part that can be utilized – has been observed
contributing to the process. Brain, eyes, hands, fingers, feet, gut – you name
it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">Over all these
regions of the neuro-system, memory rules. You remember your fingers scribbling
out a phrase, or tapping keys that produce figures on a page – the way you
remember how to run, or ride a bike.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">Which is to say:
a great part of the writing process is visceral. It’s exercise. The best kind
of exercise your entire nervous system can get.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">Not to mention
your mind.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">And it doesn’t
hurt your writing, either.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">I’ve noticed over
the years, and even now, that when I ask my students to read from something
they’ve just started working on, a good half of them will pull out notebooks,
filled with words they’ve placed there by hand, printed carefully or in cursive
script. When I see that, my fears that the end of the world are near
significantly alleviate. There is hope.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">In the meantime,
if you spy a writer in the library who has both a laptop and a couple of
notebooks spread out before them (along with a few old books and a cup of
coffee) you have found either me or an ally.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFXZrHf7Z3wu1mP3Og9CAZOOwFAFecCkjrAiRokUosmJkpGEUpKUdQD2Ue6cajBs0oYPZHSiZF2f-pP8O-JmaWAwWAwc2GoUGcAbhyphenhyphenQkb1s7TUg2_unbNKQiAttCyuti9V879Y9zLMVHDJ/s1600/Secret+Garden+Scribble+second+page.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1197" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFXZrHf7Z3wu1mP3Og9CAZOOwFAFecCkjrAiRokUosmJkpGEUpKUdQD2Ue6cajBs0oYPZHSiZF2f-pP8O-JmaWAwWAwc2GoUGcAbhyphenhyphenQkb1s7TUg2_unbNKQiAttCyuti9V879Y9zLMVHDJ/s320/Secret+Garden+Scribble+second+page.jpg" width="239" /></a></div>
Rich Chwedykhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17734066520904094275noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6046976407686466311.post-5909916861632725252018-07-02T23:58:00.000-07:002018-07-02T23:58:11.014-07:00Doing It Right, Maybe<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Science
fiction, if you’re doing it right, is reality in tight focus.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">That’s
the only sentence left from my first draft of this post, which for me was
getting on a soapbox and complaining. (Okay, so I threw in a few more sentences
once I got rolling, but I really did want to change the tone from a grumpy
tirade to something more.) I looked it over and decided that complaining will
get me (and you, and everybody else) nowhere. I want to do more. I want to
actually <i>understand</i> what’s going on.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">In
the past couple of years, I’ve had a number of students who’ve wanted to
indulge in the accoutrements of science fiction without really taking advantage
of what can, potentially, be at the heart of this form. They want the smell of
the burger, but not the meat – or, when it comes to science fiction, they want
the rockets, ray guns and robots, but not the who, what, when, where, and why.
They want to play in the dirt, but they don’t want to tell you what’s in the
dirt, or where it came from, or why anyone would want to play in it in the
first place. It’s a game. It’s a joke. It’s an evasion.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Escape
literature is one thing. It helps define what we’re escaping from. <i>Evasion</i> literature is another. It
altogether denies the thing we’re escaping from.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">So … why? Why go
for the easy stuff, other than that it’s easy? </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The problem I have with a literature of
evasion is that it always travels on the same tracks, stops at all the same
stations. It moves right on schedule. The changes are superficial. Red shirts
become blue shirts. Desert planets become ocean planets. Robots become scary
aliens, and vice versa. But it’s always the same trip taking us to same place.
So what?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">So
bloody what?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">A
literature allegedly devoted to wonder and awe cannot run on schedule. It
cannot rely on conventions. It should not settle for competency and mediocrity,
even if that’s what sells. This is not to say there should be no schedules, no
conventions, no competency. But somewhere, somehow, someone’s got to mess with
the rules, switch the tracks, surprise us without getting us all killed.
Someone has to write more than a variation to a theme, perhaps change the theme
altogether. And when that theme becomes a convention, subvert that one as well.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Then again –
we’re talking about young writers here. And I have to remember what was
important for me as a young writer. In honesty, I have to say that nothing
mattered to me more than what was called at the time “emotional expression.” I
think that’s what we still call it. We want feelings to guide every element of
storytelling we take on: character, setting, motivation, conflict and
complications, resolution. In one sense, we’re right. Feelings are what we have
to return to when we’ve labored at everything else. And labor we must, because
none of this easy, especially for writers whose main influences are graphic
stories, TV, and – dare I say it? – popular fiction.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">I don’t want to
denigrate “popular” fiction categorically. The best of what sells is usually
something that transcends category, and in doing so creates its own niche. But
it also narrows one’s perception as to what can be done in the field of written
prose, not to mention science fiction in particular. There are books in the
“unpopular” category that can do as much to widen a young writer’s perspectives
as anything sitting in the racks at the airport concourse newsstand.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The problem with
young writers relying so greatly on “feelings” alone is that young writers, in
general, have a blurry, indistinct notion of what those feelings are. They are
too busy “feeling” them to successfully render them on a page. It’s like trying
to render a self-portrait without the aid of a mirror, and more – while one is
in the process of doing something else, like running, or operating heavy
machinery, or making a salad, or playing a video game.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">It’s the process
of writing, the actual work of putting the thing together word by word, that
helps makes sense (every way in which that term can be used) of the raw
feelings we feel so desperate to convey in our work.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">When we’re young,
we don’t know so much about writing – no mystery in that. We learn by doing,
and the more we do, the more we learn. Or so we hope.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The truth that
gets forgotten or overlooked is that when we’re young, we don’t know much about
feelings, either. We know we have them, and that they shape us and direct us,
but that’s not saying a lot. We can fly as passengers in a plane and know
nothing of the basics of aerodynamics, either. We still get to places, though
we don’t know how.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Writing is a
place we can learn more about our feelings. We can examine them, test them, put
them to work. We may not be conscious that this is what we’re doing, but we do
it. We write to learn, whether we’re aware of it or not.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">And one of the
things that has most intrigued me about science fiction in particular, apart
from the process of fiction-making at any level, is its natural tendency to put
what we know to the test. When Philip K. Dick tried to “explain” science
fiction in his speech, “How to Build a Universe that Doesn’t Fall Apart Two
Days Later,” included in the collection <i>I
Hope I Shall Arrive Soon</i>, he boiled it down to two questions: 1.) What is
Reality? and 2.) “What constitutes an authentic human being?” – this second I
place in quotes because Dick’s wording is important. Dick has perhaps
oversimplified the issue and defined what science fiction is for <i>him</i>, though not for everyone else, but a
truth hovers over his assessment. Science fiction does – or at least <i>can</i> – include as much metaphysics as
physics, but is not necessarily <i>about</i>
the metaphysics. It’s about us. It’s about what we believe and what we desire –
and what we <i>feel</i>. It’s about all the
things we look for and often discover when we read what’s often referred to as “realistic”
fiction, but then takes that and applies an even sharper lens to this “reality.”
It allows for alternatives to the status quo. It allows for glimpses into what
we cannot know – the future – through what we do know, or think we know.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">At its best,
science fiction can do this.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Would that we do
it more often, especially now, when “status quo” and conventions have become
the objects of constant struggles – when science and technology may play an
even more important role in shaping a world culture than even money and power.
Science fiction need not be a limitation, not a simplification, of human
experience, but an opportunity to expand our experience and comprehension of
it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">And our feelings
toward it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">If we do it
right.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
Rich Chwedykhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17734066520904094275noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6046976407686466311.post-77547846857712033582018-06-26T23:27:00.000-07:002018-06-26T23:27:01.991-07:00Preparing to Remember<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://i.pinimg.com/736x/cf/53/15/cf531555998cacd551925ecd19df43af.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="180" data-original-width="240" src="https://i.pinimg.com/736x/cf/53/15/cf531555998cacd551925ecd19df43af.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">I’ve
been saying recently that until I wrote the novel that’s currently floating
around to publishers (called <i>The Va-va-va
VOOM!</i> but may end up being retitled <i>North
Side Girl</i>), I’d never really written about the neighborhood where I grew up.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">I
was wrong.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">I
wrote two short stories. One of them was called “Neighborhood,” and the other
was called “The Tigers of Wrath” (I think, I don’t have a copy around for me to
confirm). I also wrote at least one poem, “Michele Constance,” and maybe a lot
more in a book-length batch of poems I’d never dream of inflicting upon you,
called <i>Intensive Care Ward</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The
poem wasn’t bad. I forget where it was published, but it did get into print
(now I remember – it was the magazine Paul Hoover and Maxine Chernoff edited
called <i>Oink!</i>). The stories were
probably good, too, or better than I’ve thought they were for a long time. They
were pretty much universally rejected, though they received some interesting
notes from editors. They were strong stuff. They dealt with revenge and
cruelty. They had a very hard edge, and there was really nowhere to place such
stories at the time. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The
literary magazines and journals were looking for “New Fiction,” which was
fiction allegedly all about itself. It was about technique, and cleverness, and
blandness, and about being above your material. It was about the authors
discovering that fiction was fictional, which was about as profound as
discovering that an iceberg is made of frozen water. But it was all the rage,
and no one was interested in a story about how the iceberg was going to sink
the ship everyone was sailing upon.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The
stories were sent to dozens of places. They always came back. I consigned them
to the back of my file cabinet until Northern Illinois University asked me if I
wanted to contribute some of my papers. They received them, and a number of
other stories I couldn’t sell, and I never thought about them again, until now.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">You
probably wouldn’t like them anyway. A lot of bad things happen in those stories.
The language isn’t buffered. The cruelty isn’t cloaked in innuendo. The
narrators are sick, though they not sociopaths. They are deeply injured, and
they do terrible things. The stories do not absolve them, nor do they allow
their narrators to absolve themselves. We see more than the narrators think
they are revealing. One might compare them to early Nelson Algren being grafted
to early Hubert Selby, Jr. The implicit message was: danger! These people are
there. They have wounds we can’t even imagine how to begin to heal. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">We
see those same wounds today, still festering, still incurable, still unanswered
in our culture. And those same wounded people, I humbly submit, are still
infecting the culture (or what’s left of our culture). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">In
way, they were horror stories, but they did not contain the one or two things
that would qualify them for the short fiction “horror” markets, so those
publications had no interest in them either.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">So
I wrote that stuff. And it didn’t sell. I moved on and wrote other stuff,
because writers don’t give up after a couple of stories. And writers don’t keep
on writing the same kind of stories over and over again, do they?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Not
that I was going to write that 1970s-era “New Fiction” malarkey, which is still
highly praised. Much of it, though, to me reads like a package without a
product – an empty container. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">At
least my packages always contained something, even though when the editors
opened them, the contents bit them. My submissions came with return stamped envelopes,
and editors were unanimously all too willing to use them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">I
do, now, remember one rejection, that came from a college literary journal, and
it was sent by one of the assistant editors, one of the first readers, not from
any of the “big” editors – big as one can get when the circulation of the publication
was no more than 250. It was like once of those comments whispered to you when
no one else is looking, one of those comments that begins like, “Don’t tell
anyone I said this, but …”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The
rejection went on to say, I’m paraphrasing, from memory: This is really good,
uncompromising, vivid … but we can never use it at our publication. We haven’t
the guts. I hope this story finds a place that does.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">At
that time, I was a fairly depressed kid, or young man, stuck in a dead-end job,
my academic training unused and apparently unusable. Wrong place, wrong time,
wrong world. It wasn’t that I missed the bus – the bus stopped running. I was
built for one job – making stories. I didn’t know much about how to make them,
but make them was what I had to do. Except – kids from my part of the world
weren’t supposed to do those kinds of things. And the world wasn’t ready to
break any rules just for me. I was going to be one of those in the multitudes
of failures – one of those who may have not failed for lack of ability or
determination, but for no good reason at all. Like one of those millions of
soldiers in millions of battles in millions of wars – the soldiers who didn’t
survive for no other reason than that the bullet went <i>here</i> instead of <i>there</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Rejection
slips, the personal ones – they were
these little notes slipped to me that both confirmed and negated my status in a
world I chose to live in. <i>You’re good,
but it just doesn’t matter. Good we got. Millions more good writers than we’ll
ever need. Sorry.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Well.
What can you say? I tried to do it right, and what I got was “Sorry.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The
literary landscape faced one way. I faced another. I could try to write the
stuff the literary editors liked, but … wasn’t that what my teachers taught me
writers do in the “popular fiction” markets? Wasn’t that the thing we were
supposed to avoid because we were real, true artists who didn’t pay attention
to the beck and call of editors and readers?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">So
– “literature,” the light of civilization, turns out to be the same sort of
marketplace that guides and guards this world with invisible hands.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Not
that I’m complaining, or was complaining at the time. All I regretted was that
I didn’t receive the memo sooner.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">If
you’re going to the market, you better bring something someone wants to <i>buy</i>. Eventually, I found something I
could sell, and sold it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">But
it wasn’t my old neighborhood. It wasn’t the people I knew. It wasn’t all I had
grown up with, the things I observed, the feelings and the explicit expression of those feelings. Nobody wanted
to read that shit, so I stopped trying to sell that story – until now.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Maybe
this time I’ve figured out how to tell the story. Maybe this time I will find an
audience that’s ready to listen.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://i.pinimg.com/736x/a6/08/ee/a608ee14fb62d97ef82bc6ac8aa6ac27--child-hood-box-office.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="460" data-original-width="310" height="320" src="https://i.pinimg.com/736x/a6/08/ee/a608ee14fb62d97ef82bc6ac8aa6ac27--child-hood-box-office.jpg" width="215" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
Rich Chwedykhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17734066520904094275noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6046976407686466311.post-42997582818524480302018-06-25T23:21:00.000-07:002018-06-25T23:21:27.062-07:00A Day Late, But Still to the Point …<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BM2QwYmRjOWUtNzE5NS00NzRkLTgwMWQtMjBkNWRlM2JlYjIxXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNDUzOTQ5MjY@._V1_SY1000_CR0,0,675,1000_AL_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="540" height="320" src="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BM2QwYmRjOWUtNzE5NS00NzRkLTgwMWQtMjBkNWRlM2JlYjIxXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNDUzOTQ5MjY@._V1_SY1000_CR0,0,675,1000_AL_.jpg" width="216" /></a></div>
<br />
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">“I have
not written a novel for seven years, but I hope to write another fairly soon.
It is bound to be a failure, every book is a failure, but I do know with some
clarity what kind of book I want to write.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="right" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: right;">
<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">– George Orwell, "Why I Write" (1946)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 14.5pt; margin: 4.5pt 0in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">In 1947, he started <i>Nineteen
Eighty-Four</i> in earnest, so this was his “another” novel, “bound to be a
failure.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 14.5pt; margin-bottom: 4.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Happy Birthday, George
Orwell, you immortal failure, you! . . .<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
Rich Chwedykhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17734066520904094275noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6046976407686466311.post-89867306795164284622018-04-29T22:57:00.000-07:002018-04-29T22:57:58.854-07:00When We Were Respectable<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">A
few years ago now, I attended a convention where, on several occasions and within
several different contexts, I was assured that science fiction had become
“respectable.” On only one occasion, though, did someone explain to me why they
thought so.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">“Because
it makes so much money.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Like
an innocent lad from the farmlands who just fallen off the turnip truck, I
found myself asking, “<i>Really</i>? Is <i>that</i> all it takes to become
respectable?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Reply:
a shrug. As if to say, “And what’s wrong with money? You want a Nobel Prize or
something?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">For
the moment, let’s forget that I <i>do</i>
want a Nobel Prize. That can wait. What I did was try to add up what I just
heard, except that it didn’t add up.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">I’m
a writer, which in most places means that, by definition and demonstration, I
have no money. In fact, I’m convinced (without research, so sue me) that in
many languages the word “writer” can be literally defined “One who has no
money.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">But
… but … I write <i>science fiction</i>!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Where,
then, is my respectability?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Has
it gotten lost in the mails? Was it transferred to the wrong PayPal account?
Did one of my neighbors pick it up by mistake?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">And
… this loss is not mine alone. I look around at my peers, and if any of them
have any money, not to mention “so much” money, it’s because they’ve been doing
something <i>other than</i> writing, much
less writing science fiction.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">We’re
eating watered-down porridge from hand-carved wooden bowls.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">One
would think respectability would have a little more flavor.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">But
wait, there’s more.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">I
also <i>teach</i> science fiction writing.
Isn’t it proof enough that if an accredited institution with an impeccable
reputation would pay for an instructor in science fiction writing, science
fiction has earned a degree of respectability in an austere and – dare I say
it? – <i>respectable</i> corner of our great
culture?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Wrong
again.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Within
the confines of the Ivory Tower, science fiction is at best the poor relation.
The “help.” We’re used to attract the rubes (and their money). It can be
pointed to, if needed, for “cultural relevance” (“See? We’re not trying to make
you write reams of involuted gibberish with abstractions instead of characters
and inventories instead of plots! See, we have classes in science fiction!
We’re … we’re almost <i>cool</i>!”).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">But
if enrollments go down and money grows scarce, science fiction is shown the
door. Science fiction, then, is just a “frill.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">And
science fiction classes may not be attracting as many students as they have in
previous years. Students today know what science fiction is: it’s rockets and
rayguns and robots (the “Three Rs” of science fiction). It’s shit blowing up
other shit. Who needs to take a class in <i>that</i>?
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">“You
were here as an <i>embellishment</i>. You’re
not essential to the <i>core</i> of our
highly-esteemed program. You do not display the necessary <i>academic rigor</i> to remain here. We’ll call you when we need you
again.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">When
you hear the word “rigor,” you know “mortis” will follow almost immediately.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The
great academic ship in the harbor has painted over the name “Higher Education”
on its sides and stern, replacing it with “Pequod.” And, thanks to a liberal
application of academic rigor, we know how that story ends.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">If
this is what respectability feels like, I’d never have thought to pursue it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Wait
a minute – I <i>haven’t</i> pursued it!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">When
it comes to education, there are many things more important than
respectability. Like, well – like … <i>education</i>,
maybe, for a start.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">When
it comes to writing fiction, especially science fiction, on the list of things
I most need to pay attention to, respectability is near the bottom.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Why
the <i>hell</i> should I care about
respectability?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The
obvious conclusion that links science fiction with “so much money” is – media.
Big budget superhero movies. Franchises like Star Wars and Star Trek. TV series
via cable or Netflix. Big money there. But I can’t help feeling that “so much
money” is all about the media, not the message.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">And
science fiction is more about message than media. Or can be. Or should be.
Sometimes it is. But again, I don’t feel comfortable in my seat. I keep
fidgeting, even squirming.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">So,
let’s say science fiction is respected because it makes so much money. What
kind of respect is that? It is the respect of a merchant toward another
merchant – a more successful merchant. It’s a respect based on commerce, not
creativity. Respect based upon the contents of our wallets, not the content of
our character, much less the character of our content. It is concession to
power via money. It is an approbation of the status quo.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">This
is not to say I wouldn’t be happier with a few more bucks in the bank, or more
than a few. I am not denying the attributes of financial success. I just don’t
want the two confused – success and respectability.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Science
fiction does not require respectability as either a necessary or sufficient
cause for its existence any more than it requires financial success – though I
wouldn’t mind if the latter came along for the ride.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">“Respect”
is one thing. “Respectability” is another. Of the two, I’ll take the former, if
and when it is offered. The latter, far as I’m concerned, can go hang.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Rich Chwedykhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17734066520904094275noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6046976407686466311.post-55025196370288627492018-03-19T23:49:00.000-07:002018-03-19T23:49:09.064-07:00Before the Year Gets Any Older<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">You will find
this hard to believe if you don’t know me, but easy to believe if you do: I
hoped to start off 2018 posting from the get-go, and posting more regularly, as
in more often.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">What went wrong? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">Well might you
ask.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">I have been hard
at work finishing a novel that I started eight or nine years ago. I had to take
break to write other things as well as teach a few courses and read some other
manuscripts in one editorial capacity or another, all within the framework of
doing more work for less pay.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">The year 2018
seems neither a good year nor a bad year, just another year.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">This notion is
neither grim nor celebratory. This is another year we need to get through, like
every year preceding it and every year to come.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">Granted we don’t
do something like die.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">I’ve explained
elsewhere that around the time I reached sixty, I gave myself points for still
being around. People who knew me when I was considerably younger would not have
bet on that possibility. But I made it, out of sheer luck, or stubbornness. Having survived this long is one of the few
accomplishments I can claim without some awkward qualification.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">“Wow, Rich, you
made it to sixty-two. How did you do that?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">“By not dying.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">Life should
always be so easy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">Already this
year, the list of folks who won’t make it to the year 2019 is pretty long, and
getting longer. Folks I’ve known personally. Folks I’ve known by reputation.
The one thing you never get used to about living is that it never gets easier
to look around at all the people who are dying before you.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">One advantage to
being sixty-two (going on sixty-three) is that you no longer have to imagine
what you’re going to do before you get to the age of sixty-two; you’ve already
done it. That can relieve you of a lot of worries.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">Late at night, I
find myself thinking something or saying something, then I stop and ask, “Is
that really me? Is this who I really am?” Maybe it’s a symptom of dementia, but
I doubt it. I just find it hard to believe that I’m the person that I have
become – not because I didn’t think I would, but because everyone else thought
I was going to become someone else, some other person; that I would gain some
inner wisdom or lose some critical flaw they saw in me. Instead, they got this.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">I’ve tried to
write about “Imposter Syndrome” before. Maybe I did. I don’t remember and at
the moment don’t much care. It’s common to writers, artists, musicians,
creative people in general, and anyone who aspires to one of those positions to
which the said individual ascribes a great deal of respect and reverence.
Somehow, you assume that the status you aspire to is one must be born to; it’s
all destiny and DNA – you cannot “become” a writer, a composer, painter, a
physicist, a world leader. Therefore, if you try to become such a person, you’re
really an imposter. An imposter, along with other things, is a person who lives
in dread of being discovered an imposter. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">Whenever it was I
was going to write about Imposter Syndrome, I was going to say that a person,
if or she lives long enough, wakes up one morning (or whenever it is one wakes
up) and discovers he or she is not an imposter. You may not be who you aspired
to be, but you are who you are and no one else. For better or worse.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">Many of us have
had to take on jobs that we <i>needed</i> to
take – to make a living. We also may have taken the jobs we were convinced, by
others, we needed to do – again, maybe to make a living, or because others, or
ourselves, we didn’t think we had what it took to be the person we wanted to
be. It may not make much difference why. We took jobs we were <i>expected</i> to have or <i>had</i> to have.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">And in this
country, in this world, a person is the job. You’re not a poet who washes
dishes, you’re a dishwasher. You’re not a guitarist who paints houses, you’re a
housepainter. That’s how you do business in the country whose business is
business. At best, you’re a dishwasher who writes poetry, or a housepainter who
plays guitar. But … you are the job.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">I was a
Production Assistant (I clipped tearsheets for an ad agency). I was a Mailing
Machine Operator. I was a film inspector. I was a Cold Type Compositor (whatever <i>that</i> is). I was a Makeup Desk editor. I
was a Copy Editor. I was a Communist for the FBI …<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">No. Scratch that last
one.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">Actually, no. I
wasn’t any of those things. Scratch all of them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">I was an
imposter.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">An imposter
whenever I did anything <i>but</i> write, or
teach, or fiddle in one way or another with the texts of others. I was even an
imposter when I tried to be a scholar of a certain sort I imagined I should be,
and could be, if given the chance.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">All the times I
thought I was <i>not</i> being an imposter,
I was.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">All the times I
thought I was being an imposter, I was being who I really was.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">No wonder it took
me sixty-two years to stop spinning around. I was going in through the “Out”
door, looking through the wrong end of the telescope, taking the right train in
the wrong direction, from the wrong station.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">It’s always been
thus for me.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">Do I repeat
myself? Then I repeat myself. I repeat multitudes.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">Something that
does change, if you’re lucky, are your dreams. Not your aspiration-dreams, your
what-you-do-when-you-sleep dreams.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">For years my
dreams always took me off course – in the dream I needed to get to Place A, and
by the end of the dream I was riding past Place Z with little hope of returning.
Now, my dreams leave me off somewhere, somewhere uncertain, but wherever it is,
it’s where I seem I’m supposed to be.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">More about this
later. You’d think I was getting paid by the word to write all this. But after
concentrating so deeply on that novel, I just needed to let my brain run off
without a leash, before the year gets any older …<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigCf5ztts7_21w18k-Pgo4QGsuVpVRs_oX5ldDroQOK7YbmEMXe2vbMwqAV5AjxvhSIpcVi-9KyqmtcyY0t4F9ut4HnJ8m-j8VEb8aUfqa240xyHT-EVA9Q92MYJ2_0TqqbRnH8JCAY3Ka/s1600/Old+business5136.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1152" data-original-width="1600" height="230" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigCf5ztts7_21w18k-Pgo4QGsuVpVRs_oX5ldDroQOK7YbmEMXe2vbMwqAV5AjxvhSIpcVi-9KyqmtcyY0t4F9ut4HnJ8m-j8VEb8aUfqa240xyHT-EVA9Q92MYJ2_0TqqbRnH8JCAY3Ka/s320/Old+business5136.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;"><br /></span></div>
Rich Chwedykhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17734066520904094275noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6046976407686466311.post-4391911943591894572017-12-22T14:42:00.000-08:002017-12-22T14:42:42.742-08:00The Semester Ends<b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">(<i>more</i> notes toward <i>more</i>
stuff, and the term that never ends)</span></b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">It’s
all over but the grades.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Wait
a second – okay, that too.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">I
had a good semester. Maybe not my best, but my students did well. They always
surprise me. And I always come away from my classes feeling like I’ve learned
more from the experience.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">I’d
love to expand upon that, but what I’m left with at the end of this term is not
so much about my students as about the folks who are now my bosses.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">You
see, when I started teaching at Columbia, I worked for a <i>Fiction Writing</i> department, a rare species in an academic world.
For all its rarity, it proved a popular program. In fact, one of the largest in
the country.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">A
few years later, the Fiction Writing department was forced to merge with the
MFA programs in Poetry and Creative Nonfiction, which belonged to the English
Department. We were now the <i>Creative
Writing</i> department, or to be more formal, the <i>Department of Creative Writing</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">This
year, another merger has me now working for the <i>English/Creative Writing</i> department. So we’re one big, happy
family.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Happy
families are all the same.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">I
wonder where I heard <i>that</i> one before.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Years
ago, back when I was in grad school, I wanted to work for an English
department. I really did. Creative writing was all fine and well, but students
needed a solid grounding in language (at least one) and literature. You can’t
go anywhere until you know where you’ve been.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">To
some extent, I still believe all of that, but I no longer think that the “solid
grounding” is sole territory of the English department. It may be a gross
generalization, but a generalization with a foundation of fact: English
departments in most American institutions of higher learning, are
bureaucracies. And the main objective of any bureaucracy is self-preservation.
Everything else is at best secondary – like students, like education.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">I’m
aware that most of my colleagues teaching creative writing work for English
departments, and some of them may grimace sourly as I enter their domain. To
get my attention, they’ll rattle the bars of their cells with an empty soup can
they use as a water cup. And they’ll mutter, “Welcome to the club.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">It’s
true. All true. I was fortunate enough to work in a department that was an
aberration and, apparently, an abomination, before the eyes of the MLA, the
NCTE and the AWP. In my old department, we worked for the students. We shared
experience. Adjuncts and tenured profs were allowed to commingle in plain
sight. Academically, we were Babylon. We were Gomorrah.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Well,
now that nonsense has been fixed. We are safe under the heavenly dome of the
English department – the way it was, the way it has been, and the way it should
always be.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Adjuncts!
Renounce your ways and repent! Accept your anonymity and lowly place in the
hierarchy. Wear your shame like a mendicant’s robe. And to those who teach
creative writing, admit even further to your degradation! You are merely the
shills and entertainers hired to lure the unwary into this holy grove. We the
anointed will take over from there.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">And
to those lower still – those who teach writing in “popular” forms, sometimes
thought of as “writing that people actually want to <i>read</i>” – the dishes are stacked in the sink. Make sure they’re all
clean and dried before you leave tonight.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Resistance
is futile.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">So,
here I am. A Babylonian in the City of God (or so-named; God cleared out of
here eons ago). Unrepentant. Proud of my degradation, even proud of my shame.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">I’m
a science fiction writer – you can’t cast me into a dungeon lower than <i>that</i>! I accept my lot with pride, even
as you lower another stack of dishes into the sink. Even from the dungeon, I
can see your hierarchy for the shallow, sick skeleton it is.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">I’m
a science fiction writer – the kind who believes that what we do is subvert the
status quo. We examine the quotidian, and insist that there are other ways.
Tomorrow can be different.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">We
may be absorbed into the host (i.e. the English department), but we’re viral.
Those who hope to change us will find themselves changed in the process.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Let
<i>us</i> hope the change will be for the
better.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b7/The_Great_Chain_of_Being_(1579).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="551" height="320" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b7/The_Great_Chain_of_Being_(1579).jpg" width="220" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
Rich Chwedykhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17734066520904094275noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6046976407686466311.post-1208273954553829452017-09-14T23:18:00.000-07:002017-09-14T23:18:41.253-07:00The Semester Commences<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt;">(<i>more</i>
notes toward <i>more</i> stuff I’ve been
thinking about sf and teaching and maybe even living)<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">I
have a truly fine class this term. They haven’t read much in the field, which
would infuriate some of my colleagues, but several of my students have answered
that complaint very well already.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">“I
haven’t read a lot of science fiction but … that’s why I’m here.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Students
are students. That’s what they do.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">And
I know, in some instinctual way, they won’t let me down. Which puts the burden
on me, but that’s okay. I’m looking forward to the challenge. If I’m lucky,
every class teaches me something new, and I’m looking forward to what I’ll
learn this time.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">I
ran across a posting on Facebook, from another teacher, who was trying to work
out a comprehensive definition of “speculative fiction.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Speculative
fiction is what you call science fiction when you’re taking it to meet your
parents for dinner. Yes, I’m being facetious, but you know what I mean.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">I
never define speculative/science fiction. I let my students do that in the
first session. Then I check with them at the end of the term and see if their
definitions have changed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Science
fiction, contrary to its strongest defenders, is a <i>living</i> form. It changes and reshapes itself as the world changes
and reshapes itself. If one can successfully define it in a way that makes all
other definitions superfluous, call the undertaker. We’re outta here.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">In
the meantime, I’m rolling a number of things around in my head, juggling them
around to see what comes up.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond; mso-fareast-font-family: Garamond;">What we want from
life is magic.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond; mso-fareast-font-family: Garamond;">What we want
from science is magic.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond; mso-fareast-font-family: Garamond;">If we want to
figure out where we’re going, and write about it, look for what we want, and
what it will do to us. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">If
you want to write about future science and technology, look for magic. Look for
mystery and miracles.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">“The
only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way
past them into the impossible.” – Sir Arthur C. Clarke<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">“I
am only really interested in a fiction of miracles.</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18.6667px;">”</span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> – Flannery O</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18.6667px;">’</span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Connor<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond; mso-fareast-font-family: Garamond;">All great
stories are love stories.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond; mso-fareast-font-family: Garamond;">All great
stories are about loneliness.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond; mso-fareast-font-family: Garamond;">The two
sentences above do not exclude each other.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond; mso-fareast-font-family: Garamond;">A good story is
a good story, whether it is based upon objective reality or a subjective interpretation
of reality. A good story, however, does not necessarily result in a good reality.
Fiction remains fiction, no matter how many people believe in it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond; mso-fareast-font-family: Garamond;">But if you have
to believe in a fiction, at least pick a good one.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond; mso-fareast-font-family: Garamond;">We return you now
to our regularly scheduled programming …<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond; mso-fareast-font-family: Garamond;"><br /></span></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Rich Chwedykhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17734066520904094275noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6046976407686466311.post-60419549548280609002017-09-03T00:12:00.000-07:002017-09-03T00:12:05.092-07:00The Semester Approaches, Part Two<b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">(<i>more</i> notes toward more stuff
I’ve been thinking about sf and teaching and maybe even living)</span></b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">I’m
never satisfied that I’m teaching what my students need, but at least at times
I feel like I’m making an effort at it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Science
fiction is a moving target a.) because it is moving, and b.) because it’s a
target, has been a target, remains a target (in spite of many assurances that
our work has become “respectable,” whatever that means), and may always be a
target – perhaps because no matter what we do, someone who knows better thinks
we should be doing otherwise.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">There
are times when a syllabus looks like a death certificate. The good news is that
the patient isn’t dead, just the syllabus. We leave it in the rearview and the
class goes where it needs to go.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The
syllabus doesn’t teach the class – the teacher (for lack of a better word)
teaches, or leads, the class. Or at times the teacher runs just fast enough to
keep from being rolled over – by the students, the subject, or by the teacher’s
own expectations for what the class should or can accomplish.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The
thing I want most from my class – the thing I set out as my highest goal – is
that they leave by the end of the semester thinking like science fiction
writers. What they write is their own business. What they <i>do </i>is their own business. But if they can think like science
fiction writers (and it occurs to me that many people who write science fiction
can’t) they will at least have the equipment not only to write in the form, but
to think of the world around them in ways they wouldn’t have before.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"># # #<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">I
have no trouble calling what I write science fiction. I don’t spend a lot of
time worrying about what it’s called. I’ve noticed a lot students I encounter <i>do</i> worry. “I’m working on this story.
I’m not sure if it’s sci-fi or something else.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">“Are
you finished with it?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">“No.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">“Don’t
worry, then, until it’s done. We’ll figure out what it is when you’ve got
something.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">As
much I love science fiction, and as much as I believe that science fiction will
save our planet, our universe, our culture, and maybe even our lunch, what I
love more is story. A good story means more to me than all the categories you
can come up with.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Back
to the student: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">“I’m
working on something. I don’t know if it’s a story or not.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Oh
dear. Here we go again.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">“Keep
working. When it’s ready, and if you’re paying attention, you’ll find out what
it is. You won’t tell if it’s a story. I won’t tell. The thing you’re working on
will tell you if it’s a story or if it’s something else. Keep working.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">I
know that answer may strike many here as unsatisfactory. It <i>is</i> unsatisfactory. Here you are, a
roomful of writers who want to write all the great things you know you can, and
will, write, and I’m telling you that a pile of scribbled letters is going to
tell you what it is.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Remember,
that pile of scribbled letters is <i><u>yours</u></i>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">I’m
not trying to be “literary” or “aesthetic” about this. I am, I believe, being
practical. My employers at Columbia College Chicago hired me, I suspect,
because they wanted someone to teach what they believe is a “commercial” form
of writing – i.e. something that someone will <i>pay</i> you to write as compared to something that no one will pay you to
write but will exist for – well, for <i>some</i>
reason. My employers seem to make some distinction between what they think they
want their students to do and what they think <i>I </i>want my students to do. It’s a misapprehension. We both want them
to write the best possible work they’re capable of producing.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Besides,
I don’t think they know what writers of science fiction <i>really</i> get paid. If they ever find out, my butt is on the street.
We’re paid crap compared to what writers in other fields receive.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">What
it means is that a good story goes beyond the boundaries of the teachable. I
have colleagues who go on about three- and six-act structure; they’ll go on
about narrative “arcs”; they’ll talk about having an “A” story and a “B” story;
they’ll talk about character and motivation and conflict and complication
(hell, even <i>I </i>do that). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">They
can show you how to build the statue that is Galatea – perfectly life-<i>like</i>, but without life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">How
do you make Galatea live and breathe and speak and laugh, and even cry?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The
question is big. The answers are many – or the same answer worded many ways.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">I
came upon this wonderful quote from the great screenwriter Emeric Pressburger,
who worked with Michael Powell on such classics as <i>The Red Shoes</i> and <i>Black
Narcissus</i>. He is talking about films, but what he says applies to any kind
of writing:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 1in;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">I think that a film should have a good story, a clear story,
and it should have, if possible, something which is probably the most difficult
thing – it should have a little bit of magic. Magic being untouchable and very
difficult to cast, you can’t deal with it at all. You can only try to prepare
some nests, hoping that a little bit of magic will slide into them.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Yes,
even a science fiction story needs a little bit of magic.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Where
does it come from?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">I
don’t know. Like most of the universe, it remains a mystery.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">But
very often, most often, the magic comes from you. You give to every story a
little piece of yourself that no other writer can give to that story. It may
come easy or may come with unbearable agony, but it comes from you.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Let
me throw in some words from smart people, so that you don't just have to take
the word of a stupid teacher-guy:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 1in;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">“ . . . The mature science fiction writer doesn’t merely
tell a story about Brick Malloy vs. The Giant Yeastmen from Gethsemane. He
makes a statement through his story. What is the statement? Himself, the
dimension and depth of the man. His statement is seeing what everybody else
sees but thinking what no one else has thought, and having the courage to say
it. The hell of it is that only time will tell whether it was worth saying.” </span></i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">– Alfred Bester, “My
Affair With Science Fiction” (1975)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 1in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 1in;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">“It was 1956, and the beginning of a conscious realization
that to limit science fiction to outer space was just that – a limitation, and
that science fiction has and should have as limitless a character as poetry;
further, that it has a real function in inner space. This in turn led me to a
redefinition of science itself, and to an increasing preoccupation with
humanity not only as the subject of science, but as its source. It has become
my joy to find out what makes it tick, especially when it ticks unevenly.”</span></i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> — Theodore Sturgeon, in
his introduction to “And Now the News . . .” in the collection, <i>The Golden Helix</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; tab-stops: -9.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 1in;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">“The unread story is not a story; it is little black marks
on wood pulp. The reader reading it makes it live: a live thing, a story.”</span></i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> — Ursula K. Le Guin<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 1in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 1in;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">“Any bad fiction, no matter the genre, is a wild exercise of
the imagination which explodes in the night of our minds, makes garish
pyrotechnics, then dies, leaving the night blacker than before. But good
fiction is a steady light even if sometimes a small one. By it we walk without
stumbling and we may return at any time to see under its flare other
topographical features we did not understand the first trip.” </span></i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">– Philip Jose Farmer<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 1in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">I
know – if I’m teaching a “genre” class, is <i>that</i>
what I’m supposed to be talking about? Aren’t I supposed to be talking about
tropes and arcs and structure? Isn’t it all about the “Three Rs”: Rockets, Robots
and Rayguns?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">No.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">No.
No. No.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Not
necessarily so.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">It
can be, but it doesn’t <i>have</i> to be.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The
thing that probably most infuriates my colleagues who have no interest in
science fiction – or any forms of “popular” literature – is their belief that
it doesn’t <i>have</i> to be good writing,
by their standards, to be “successful” – by their standards. What those
standards are is an argument for another time, but let’s say we can agree on
what constitutes the basics of good writing. They have a point. All you have to
do is review the quality of prose in most bestsellers to see that a lot of bad
writing makes a lot of money for someone. They will also see that bad writing
is not the exclusive domain of science fiction – in fact, our standards are
much higher than they are in many other forms. And yet the belief persists that
science fiction depends mostly on “ideas” illustrated through cheap dramatic
conventions, which makes none of it “real” or “serious” literature. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">And
very often, to be honest, they’re right.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">This
isn’t to say the work has <i>no</i> value,
but that it engages in a currency they do not recognize.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">I
believe it’s possible and even necessary, to write to the higher goal, i.e. it
takes as many sheets of paper (or equivalent electrons) and as much ink to
write a good book as a bad or mediocre one. A box of good books weighs as much as
a box of bad ones. Why not fill that box with the best work possible?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The
coolest thing about science fiction is that, so long as we keep “story”
somewhere in the upper corner of our imaginations, we can invent the form as we
go along. And we can imbue it with a finesse and nuance it never had before. Why
I maintain such prominence for “story” is a subject for another time.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">We
are situated on the corner of Popular Street and Personal Avenue, and the cross
traffic comes from both ways. In a culture that is changing in so many ways, it’s
not a bad place to be.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<a href="http://sffshortstories.com/fp-content/images/youth1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://sffshortstories.com/fp-content/images/youth1.png" data-original-height="260" data-original-width="585" height="142" width="320" /></a></div>
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Rich Chwedykhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17734066520904094275noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6046976407686466311.post-71772930864609306402017-08-31T22:11:00.000-07:002017-08-31T22:11:42.831-07:00The Semester Approaches<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt;">(notes toward more stuff I’ve been thinking
about sf and teaching and maybe even living)<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">One should
write fiction carefully and consciously </span></i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">to<i>
someone, as one writes a letter; and the selection of that someone is the
single most important skill that a writer can develop.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in; text-align: right;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">— Theodore Sturgeon</span></i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Everybody
writes to somebody.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Or
they should.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">I
know a few carloads of writers who say they write only for themselves, and I
would never doubt them. But I didn’t say anything about who they write <i>for</i> – I said “write <i>to</i>.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Writing,
so I have been told, is a form of communication. Communication implies that
there’s a sender and a receiver. “</span><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">Rhetoric must be a bridge, a road,” Borges wrote; “too
often it is a wall, an obstacle.”</span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Who
is receiving what we write?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">If
we’re writing science fiction, is there a science fiction reader to whom we’re
writing? Who is that person? What is that person like? Are they like us? <i>Should</i> they be?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">I
believe these questions may be at the heart with what is going on in the field
these days. Many people have many assumptions about what’s good, what’s bad;
things ain’t like they used to be; a candy bar used to be twenty-five cents;
you shouldn’t be eating candy bars anyway; if it’s sci-fi, why are there no
robots?; why are there <i>only</i> robots?;
I ordered a halibut and you brought me beef jerky; if I go to Mars who’s going
to mow my lawn?; why is everybody else always wrong and only I am right? Huh?
How about <i>that</i>?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">I
had an argument – no, let’s call it a disagreement – with the late and
much-missed David G. Hartwell. He used to say, most directly in his book, <i>Age
of Wonders</i>, that readers have to <i>learn</i> how to read science fiction,
which was one of the expressed intentions of that volume. Reading science
fiction is different from reading other kinds of fiction. Many readers don’t
know how to do it – like going from automatic to stick shift. “Written science
fiction, like cooking, mathematics, or rock ’n’ roll, is a whole bunch of
things that some people can understand or do and some not … Just because
someone can read does not mean that he necessarily can read SF, just as the
ability to write arabic numerals and add and subtract doesn’t mean you
necessarily can or want to perform long division.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Me?
I insisted that every book teaches its reader how to read it. Some do so better
than others, but each novel or collection has to work its own specific magic.
If I read a book about how to read regency romances, I doubt if it would do me
any good. Same with westerns, or private eye novels, or police procedurals. One
kind of story may appeal to a reader more than another, but every book has to
teach its readers how it should be read.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Were
it otherwise, that strange and alluring abyss known as fandom would have the
greatest sway over what is written and what is sold as science fiction. And yet
there are a number of books that have sold far and wide beyond fandom’s fuzzy
corridors and are recognized by all but the most adamant protesters as science
fiction.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">How
can that be?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">I
am one of those writers who often hears from readers, “I usually don’t like
science fiction, but I like <i>your</i>
stories.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">On
the other hand, I’ve heard this from fans: “You <i>wrote</i> some kind of thing, didn’t you?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">So
it goes.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">I
don’t know why this is. Obviously, there are many voices speaking to many
readers. Some are more readily received by the more vocal members of the sf
community. Others, not so much. And the differences between the “some” and the
“others” are not always reflected in book sales. Readers of science fiction outnumber
science fiction “fans.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Science
fiction media is pervasive. We are constantly told we now live in a science
fiction universe. Terms from popular science fiction media have entered
everyday vernacular. For those of us who create science fiction to be read or
listened to, this may not always be a blessing, but it seems that at least in
some respects a wider audience has already met us half way. It is no longer
1984 (when Hartwell’s book came out).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Who
is our audience? Who are we writing to?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">In
a world (as the movie trailers tell us) of growing diversity, even in the midst
of devastating setbacks, cultures are communicating with other cultures with
greater facility. Or at least they can – we can, if we choose. We don’t have to
presume our readers all come from similar backgrounds.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">I
used to get grief from my short story writing students all the time whenever I
asked them to give me more detail and description. Now, we’re not necessarily
talking about science fiction stories, or fantasy stories, or historical
fiction. “Why do I have to put all that stuff in? Everybody knows what I’m
talking about.” In a classroom, on a high school or junior college campus, with
a roomful of students who live within a few miles of each other, that <i>may</i> be so – may be so. Even within what
seems to be a fairly homogenous culture, there are degrees of variance that
will make voices and points of view unique.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Some
writers seem to communicate to an inner circle of the initiated. Perhaps Joyce
was the best example of that with <i>Finnegan’s
Wake</i>. You have to know the territory, so to speak, or you’re lost in a
stormy sea of references. Other writers try to reach outside the circle and
draw you in. “</span><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">In a hole in the
ground there lived a<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>hobbit.<span class="apple-converted-space">” The reading does not require a preliminary
initiation but is the initiation itself. I would think that we now live in a
time where we, as both readers and writers, require the latter more than the
former, which is not to exclude the former, but if we intend to increase
diversity, the inner circle must necessarily expand.</span></span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Every
writer gives us a new world to explore. Even when they write about a place we
know, they give us a new picture of the place, or they make the place anew. Be
aware that every reader comes to your book a stranger, and it is only common
courtesy to make a stranger welcome.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">We
don’t need to explain everything – explain nothing, in fact. But give us enough
of a picture to distinguish your worlds and your characters from all the
others. That’s partly done by craft, and partly done by voice. But it’s also partly
accomplished by address – not what you are writing but <i>to whom</i> you are writing; not writing to an audience, but to an <i>individual</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">When
you write a story, science-fictional or otherwise, give a thought to whom you
would most like to tell this story: in a letter, or an email, or face to face,
sharing a couple of coffees in the same café where you sit and type away at
your device. Choose a person and tell your story to that person.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">When
you first discovered reading and books, what kind of stuff were you looking
for? What kind of reader were you? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Were
you looking for yourself in the books you chose? Or were you looking for the
self you wanted to be? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Or,
perhaps, you were looking for anyone <i>but</i>
yourself, and anywhere but the “here” you occupied at the time. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Who
was that person who searched so
diligently, maybe even so desperately, for whatever it was they were looking
for?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Maybe
that’s the person you need to write to.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">As
the person you are now, write to that person you were, the one who so loved
stories and poems and books about rockets and dinosaurs and zeppelins or
whatever it is you loved. Write to them as if they are still searching, still
waiting.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"> Because they <i>are</i>
still waiting.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span>
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<a href="https://us.123rf.com/450wm/rinofrv/rinofrv1605/rinofrv160500005/56489586-the-robot-works-on-a-typewriter-robot-writer-writes-a-work-of-the-table-robot-works-hard-to-achieve-.jpg?ver=6" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="338" data-original-width="450" height="240" src="https://us.123rf.com/450wm/rinofrv/rinofrv1605/rinofrv160500005/56489586-the-robot-works-on-a-typewriter-robot-writer-writes-a-work-of-the-table-robot-works-hard-to-achieve-.jpg?ver=6" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span>Rich Chwedykhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17734066520904094275noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6046976407686466311.post-87435401947459223002017-05-22T23:09:00.000-07:002017-05-22T23:09:19.820-07:00From the One That Got Away<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">You may have recently
read about the death of John Schultz, the man who developed the Story Workshop
approach to the teaching of writing, and started the Fiction Writing department
at Columbia College Chicago. He wrote a collection of stories, <i>The Tongues of Men</i>, and two
extraordinary books of reportage, <i>No One
Was Killed</i> and <i>Motion Will Be Denied</i>.
His text, <i>Writing from Start to Finish</i>,
was integral to the approach he developed. And for the continued perplexed, or
the inner circle, a teachers’ manual accompanied the text.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">His approaches
were, and remain, controversial among those who can use the term “pedagogy”
without blushing. I am certainly not the one to defend those methods here,
though I have gained greatly as a writer by them. If anything, I appreciate
them more as the years proceed. I utilize a number of his approaches, though I
can hardly be called a Story Workshop teacher.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">For years, a
rumor circulated throughout academia that Schultz and the teachers he trained
formed something like a cult. I may even have assisted in promulgating the
rumor. John had his circle within the semicircle (that’s a reference to the
seating arrangement in his classes; the chairs were always arranged in a
semicircle around the teacher, or “director”). From my perspective, that circle
was an elite, the “chosen few” who would be anointed to spread the gospel of
Story Workshop.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">Then as now, I
have an acute allergy to elites, no matter how strongly I might even believe in
what that special group advocates. But that, as they say in therapy sessions,
is more my problem than theirs. Within their circle, the world looks different.
Some in that circle saw it as their family. Some saw it as home. The view from
within always differs from the view without.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">At John’s wake, I
heard it described in just such terms by the faithful. Now, in 2017, with so
many circles held so tightly – so many elites, so many cadres, so many “in
groups” standing against what they perceive as walls of indifference and
hostility, I can empathize with so many intelligent, sensitive, discerning
artists who are in search of their “tribe,” or any group in which one does not
feel like a stranger.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">In the mid-1970s,
when I first discovered Story Workshop, I was a troubled and insecure kid (as
compared to the troubled, insecure old fart I’ve matured into). About the only
thing I could say with any certainty was that I wanted to be a writer – I would
become a writer, by hook or by crook, whatever that meant, whatever that
entailed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">It didn’t matter
that what I wrote was horrible – without skill, without vision, without
anything that would interest a reader in the slightest way. The only thing I
could do at the time was put one word after the other, albeit terribly.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">I knew I had to
get better, but I didn’t know how. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">In those days, a
number of colleges began creative writing programs. A handful had reputations.
All those colleges with reputations were far away and very expensive. Their
efficacy, even those anointed institutions like Brown, Iowa and Arkansas, was
held in question. One would read interviews with authors who dismissed all these
programs and encouraged apprentice writers to just sit down and write. The only
way to learn writing was to write. Learn from your mistakes.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">But what if all
you learned from your mistakes was to make the same mistakes even better? What
if it took you twenty years to learn your craft by trial and error? Was there
any way to cut that time in half?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">I didn’t know. I
knew nothing. Really. You couldn’t find another person more stupid than I: rash
and brash and volatile and emotional – but at bottom, stupid. It didn’t matter
that I had a high I.Q. and a head full of facts. I was an encyclopedia without
an index. Useless.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">Add to that: I
had no counselors, no mentors, no resources. No one gave a shit. My dad wanted
me to be an accountant because he believed accountants always found work. My
mother just didn’t want me to be arrested or dead. Neither of them wanted to
have to pay any more money than was absolutely necessary. They never tired of
reminding me what a burden it was to them to pay for my food and keep.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">After high
school, I left home in a panic. I didn’t want to be a burden. I just wanted to
write.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">Young men with
high I.Q.s were and remain a dime a dozen. I operated mailing machines and
mimeographs for a living. It didn’t take long to discover that the “dignity of
labor” was a lie. Horatio Alger was a lie told to suckers. There were no
ladders to climb in the world of work. Your job was your definition. Don’t try
to step out of your place.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">It wasn’t that I
didn’t want to go to college. It was just that I knew that if I did go, it
would be to a local school, and it would have to be while I worked fulltime.
Even with the scholarships that were available in those days (few and paltry,
but more than today), the dream of going to a school away from home, living in
a dorm, devoting myself completely to an education, was impossible.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">Most of the local
universities offered only day classes. A few schools offered evening classes
with limited degree opportunities. A fewer number of schools offered “regular”
degrees. Columbia College was one of them, though their reputation was mostly
for degrees in photography and, in a lesser way, for film.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">And yet there was
this program in Writing/English. And Story Workshop. Was it worth it?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">There were
certain things I knew – or thought I knew – about <i>learning</i> to be a writer: 1.) My work was crap; 2.) In order for it
to be less crappy, I needed to write more; 3.) I needed to read as widely as
possible; I never knew of a successful writer who wasn’t also an incessant
reader.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">I could just keep
writing stories, novels, poems, etc., and continue on with my dead-end job,
hoping someday to break through and write something worth publishing. I could
major in English at one of the schools with evening programs and satisfy my
desire to read widely and learn more about the history of literature. If I
couldn’t become an out-of-work literary genius, at least I could become an
out-of-work English major.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">And then there
was Story Workshop. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">I hadn’t yet
taken a class with John (or Betty Shiflett, or Larry Heinemann), but in the
classes I <i>had</i> taken, I picked up two
very important points my writing lacked. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">First, the
necessity for physical detail in order to make my fictional worlds into “real”
places in the minds of my readers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">Second, the
realization that I was writing <i>to</i>
readers, to an <i>audience</i>. Up until
then, what I was doing was writing for myself, <i>to</i> myself. A reader’s experience of my writing was of necessity
different from mine. I left things out because <i>I </i>knew them – but a reader wouldn’t.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">It seems
painfully simple, but important, and important no matter what kind of writing
you’re interested in doing: literary, popular, personal, fictional,
journalistic, humorous – you’re writing <i>to
a readership</i>. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">I wallowed in my
indecision – but briefly. I said to myself, “This guy Schultz and his Story
Workshop thing have something to teach me – and it’s something I <i>need</i>. Desperately.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">Columbia didn’t
have quadrangles and historic lecture halls. They didn’t even have a campus. At
least they didn’t have a campus as repellant and ugly as U. of I. “Circle
Campus,” as it was called in those days. I couldn’t afford to go to a cool
place like University of Wisconsin – Madison, though I would have loved to.
Would have sold my soul to go there, had I a soul to sell.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">But Columbia had
something that all these other schools lacked. They had John. And Story
Workshop.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">“This man has
something to teach me that I need to know.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">So I chose
Columbia over my other available options.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">I have lived to
regret many things, but I have never regretted that decision, even when I encountered
students from other, more prestigious schools, who openly laughed in my face
(may I repeat that because it was real, not just an expression: <i>LAUGHED IN MY FACE</i>) for attending
Columbia.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">Hey, I’m a
science fiction writer. You cannot be more ridiculed in your profession than by
admitting you write science fiction. But my years of flinching at ridicule are
over.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">And, as long as I
brought up the subject of science fiction, let me assure you that John and his
colleagues did their best to beat the science fiction out of me. They cannot be
blamed for what I’ve become.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">But this meager
little fact also explains why I couldn’t remain at Columbia and become part of
the inner circle.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">Story Workshop
was instrumental in shaping me as a writer. I learned much, and much of what I
experienced in those classes took years to sink in. I am still learning from my
experiences in those workshop sessions, now so many years ago.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">It was an
incredibly important decision for me to come to Columbia and study writing
there. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">The decision to
move on was almost as important.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">I was never one
of the shining stars of workshop students. No gold stars after my name. No one
ever read my stuff in class as good examples of “model telling” or “good seeing”
– or good examples of anything but crap. But some of my crap showed a little
flair. Some of the teachers took notice, including John.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">Everyone who ever
worked with, or for, or under, John has at least one “John Schultz Story.” The
“John Schultz Story” folks are most fond of hearing from me has to do with the
time he chased me into the men’s room when I registered for a senior semester
and <i>didn’t</i> take a workshop. I got a
“talking to” about what I needed to do and I told John that I needed to take
more classes in more disciplines because … I just needed to <i>know more stuff</i>. John insisted I needed
to do both, but I wouldn’t back down.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">I remember how
flabbergasted Pam looked (she was waiting for me outside) when I came out.
“Rich, why did your department chairman <i>chase
you into the bathroom</i>?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">“This is
college,” I told her. “The <i>really</i>
important decisions are <i>always</i> made
in bathrooms.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">That is true.
Bathrooms and stairwells. True to this very day.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">I was never one
of the shining stars, and on that day I lost my chance to become one.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">When it came to
the inner circle of Story Workshop people, I was the one that got away.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">It may have been
my doing out of pure, blundering ignorance. It may have been because I was
attuned to some universal frequency that set me on a personal path of failure,
despair, donuts and coffee. But I set out on a path that found me incapable of
taking a well-rutted course, with rest stops and mentors and any sense of
certainty that I was heading anywhere but to madness and an early grave.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">But that’s what I
did. And if I didn’t find a home at Columbia, I did no better at Northwestern
(between classes I hung out in a bar and restaurant called The Third Rail,
where the NU students rarely ventured). I did no better in science fiction
fandom (the SMOF fans always sneered at me, like I must have belonged to the
wedding reception in the hotel next door). I did no better among science
fiction writers (the older writers always gave me the hairy eyeball, like they
were afraid I was going to walk out of the SFWA suite with the ashtrays in my
pockets). I met great people in all these groups – people who helped me, liked
me, and even at times (forgive them, Lord, they knew not what they did)
respected me. I loved all these worlds. I love them now. But they aren’t home.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">For certain
writers, there <i>is</i> no home. I happen
to be one of them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">My <i>curriculum vitae</i> is, in some ways,
fascinating but worthless. I’ve written a few things. I did some okay
scholarship. I’ve worked hard to be a good teacher, and maybe someday I will
be. But it has been and will always be from the periphery.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">What little I’ve
managed to accomplish, though, would have been far less were it not for John
Schultz, Story Workshop, and that circle of writers he brought into being. I
couldn’t be part of that circle, but the light at the heart of it, that fire, has
guided me on my wayward path all these decades, as it has guided so many
others.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">May it continue
to do so forever.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Rich Chwedykhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17734066520904094275noreply@blogger.com0