*Don’t forget to pick up your drafts on Tues., 29th in my mailbox at 444 Western Ave., Marcelle Hall (mailbox in kitchen).
*You’ll have 10 minutes for your reading set, so keep that in mind as you select your piece (or combination of pieces). See previous post for scheduled readers.
*Bring your final portfolios to class on Thurs., May 1st.
*Enjoy this lovely weather. I heard a terrible rumor that it will rain on Saturday 
The lyric essay partakes of the poetic in its density, its distillation of ideas, and its musicality of language. It partakes of the essay in its weight, its desire to engage with facts, and its allegiance with the actual. The lyirc essay seeks answers but seldom finds them.
–Harrison Candelaria Fletcher
Class Reading Schedule (Remember: N/A Champagne, Food, & Strobe Lights! Get Excited!)
Thursday, May 1:
Megan C., Cara, Grace, Bridgett, Adrienne, Paula, Allison, Susan, Meaghan P., Brianne
Wednesday, May 7:
Morgan, Mara, Michelle, John, Shaakira, Samantha, Elisa
(if your name appears not on the list, you’ll go on May 7.)
Howdy folks,
This is your captain speaking. We are flying at an altitude of zero so don’t expect any turbulence on this trip. Bring a notebook and pen to class on Thursday along with some pocket change (enough to buy a coffee, or snack); we will be venturing outside for a field trip. We’ll meet in the classroom at the usual time and then who knows where we will end up! But I do know this, we will be doing a lot of freewriting.
Homework for Thursday is to find a blog or an essay that discusses travel (or the lyric essay) that captures your attention. Provide a link to that essay or blog in your post and briefly summarize the essay, explaining what drew you to that essay or blog. There will be no reading discussion for the next class, but I encourage you to browse around each other’s blogs to discover interesting essays and blogs about travel.
One of the things that happens when you give yourself permission to start writing is that you start thinking like a writer. You start seeing everything as material. Sometimes you’ll sit down or go walking and your thoughts will be on one aspect of your work, or one idea you have for a small scene, or a general portrait of one of the characters you are working with, or you’ll just be completely blocked and hopeless and wondering why you shouldn’t just go into the kitchen and have a nice glass of warm gin straight out of the cat dish.
–Anne Lamott
Class Update:
4/15: finish workshop
4/17: final draft due, persuasive essay
4/24: first draft travel essay due
5/1: final portfolio due (with final draft of travel essay) + first half of class reading
5/7: final portfolios returned, second half of class reading. Class meets from 1:30-4:00 p.m.
I decided that eighteenth-century philosopher Jean-Jacques Rouseau might have had a point: seeing a “noble savage” would rouse my spirit and reveal the primordial essence of my being. Of course, this outdated and arguably racist view ignores the fact that first contact has historically resulted in a deadly tsunami of disease, war, famine, slavery, and proselytization like those that engulfed nearly all of the world’s tribal societies following the arrival of European explorers. But I signed on for the three-week trip anyway. Someone needed to check out Woolford’s First Contact experience, which he was selling on the Web for$8,000.
–Michael Behar from “The Selling of the Last Savage”
Draft #2 Jungle Workshop Sign-up:
Thursday, April 10th, 11:45-12:50 (Post revised draft to blog by April 9th, 9 p.m.)
Adrienne, Mara, Bridgette, Shaakira, Michelle, Grace, Brianne, Kaitlin
Tuesday, April 15th, 11:45-12:50 (Post revised draft to blog by April 13th, 7 p.m.)
Megan C., Paula, Susan, Allison, Elisa, Meaghan, Cara, Samantha, John, Morgan
Here is what is coming around the corner:
April 3rd: Workshop first drafts of persuasive essay.
April 10: 2nd draft due.
April 17th: final draft due.
The essay is, and has been, all over the map. There’s nothing you cannot do with it; no subject matter forbidden, no structure is proscribed. You get to make up your own structure every time, a structure that arises from the materials and best contains them. The material is the world itself, which, so far, keeps on keeping on. The thinking mind will analyze, and the creative imagination will link instances, and time itself will churn out scenes—scenes unnoticed and lost, or scenes remembered, written, and saved.
–Annie Dillard
