Description of the December Issue (The
Onions)
In this issue, each member needs to -
- create FOUR pieces of works either written. performing
art or visual
- read a story/play/memoir/non-fiction book etc.
based on individual magazine title
- create quizzes and polls but they are not considered
as required work yet integral parts of your interactive magazine.
*Any extra work will earn your extra credits.
Schedule
Weekly-
- One-day Writing workshop
- One-day Reading of two poems
- One technical workshop
- two-day group discussions
Dec. 2: Discuss magazine topic and table of contents.
Groups members assigned each other the first piece of work.
Dec. 5: Writing Workshop-Originating a Poem from an Article
Writing Workshop 1
Aim:
Do Now: Read the following poems and
describe each poem's unique style
Procedures:
-
Think of a subject or topic that you will
like to poeticize
-
Take a look at
Dali's works and
explain what perspective he used to portray to objects. How did he "articize"
his objects?
-
What distinctive styles have you learned from the above poems
, which you can apply to your topics?
-
Homework: Read
the articles and identify adjective,
nouns, and verbs. Make a list of them. Write a poem using any of the articles.
Reorganize the words and put them in a distinctive setting. Express a unique
message.
Writing Workshop 2:
Point of View Writing
Writing Workshop 3 :Creating a
Story , Poem or a Dramatic Scene Based on Posters, Paintings ,Photos As a
Response
Activity 1: Understanding Art Critical Analysis Process: Responding to
Visual Arts
Click here to access
Paintings.
DESCRIBE: Discover as
much as you can about the artwork.
Ø
Think like a
detective. Tell what you know about who made it. How? With
what?
Ø
Are there some things
in the artwork that you recognize?
Ø
Are people shown to
you? Is a time, place, or event shown?
Ø
What kinds of colors,
shapes and lines has the artists used?
Ø
Are these repeated?
In what ways?
Ø
What is the first
thing you notice when you look at the artwork?
EVALUATE:
Tell how the artwork is important or special. Give thoughtful reasons for your
opinion.
Ø
Is the artwork
important or special because of what it does? Why?
Ø
Would you like other
to see this artwork? Who? Why?
INTERPRET: Explain what
this artwork means. Give reasons for your interpretation.
Ø
What mood or
feeling is expressed in this artwork?
Ø
Does it seem quiet?
Happy? Frightening? Powerful? Friendly?
Ø
Can you think of
other words to describe the mood or feeling?
Ø
How has the artist
suggested the mood or feeling?
Ø
Is there a message or
deeper meaning in the artwork than is apparent at first viewing?
Ø
What in the artwork
leads you to interpret the artwork the way you do?
Activity 2:
Developing a Short Story
Step 1: Knowing Your Character
Find a famous portrait in an online museum. The
portrait can be from a poster or postcard . Ask the following questions about
the person in the image-
-
What is the person’s belief system?
-
Is the person conservative? Liberal? Religious? A
non-believer?
-
Is the person educated? Uneducated? Independent?
Dependent? Alone? A part of a family?
-
What are the goals of this person?
-
Who keeps them from the goal?
-
Who aids them in attaining the goal?
-
Is the person’s goal for themselves or for a group?
-
What qualities about the portrait aided you in coming to
your conclusions about the character? (hint: the artists color choice,
facial expressions, dress, posture, etc).
Step 2: Creating Dialogue
-
What does the character that you have created want to
say?
-
To whom does she want to say it?
-
What is the character’s tone? Urgency?
-
Step 3: Characters and Relationships
-
Find a new group of portraits /photographs from the online museums.
Select three images. Take a closer look at the pictures. Choose a main
character and minor character (protagonist / antagonist).
-
Establish the relationship between these three people.
How are they connected?
-
What do they want from each other?
-
What is the length of their relationship?
-
What conflict binds them?
-
Is there a solution to their conflict?
-
What is each of the characters thinking at this moment?
Writing Workshop 4: Writing a Satire
(from the Greek satur, "a satyr" and satyros, "mythical
burlesque"; also from the Latin satur, "sated; well-fitted")*
Go to
theSpoof online magazine to read examples of satire.
Why satire?
Satire refers to a "manner of writing that mixes a critical
attitude with wit and humor in an effort to improve mankind and human
institutions. Ridicule, irony, exaggeration, and several other techniques are
almost always present. The satirist may insert serious statements of value or
desired behavior, but most often he relies on an implicit moral code, understood
by his audience and paid lip service by them. The satirist's goal is to point
out the hypocrisy of his target in the hope that either the target or the
audience will return to a real following of the code. Thus, satire is
inescapably moral even when no explicit values are promoted in the work, for the
satirist works within the framework of a widely spread value system." ( from
www.tnellen.com)
Definition:
- The use of wit, sarcasm, or irony to expose, attack, or ridicule human
faults and weaknesses. When used deftly, satire can be a particularly potent
weapon in a writer's arsenal.
- A piece of literature designed to ridicule the subject of the work. While
satire can be funny, its aim is not to amuse, but to arouse contempt. Jonathan
swift's "Gulliver's Travels" satirizes the English people, making them seem
dwarfish in their ability to deal with large thoughts, issues, or deeds
Example: From Jonathon Swift's A Modest Proposal--
"I have been assured by... acquaintance in London, that a young healthy
child well nursed is... a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food,
whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled..."
Swift is satirizing England's callousness about the dreadful plight of
starving Irish families in the 19th century. With tongue-in-cheek, he is
proposing that the Irish eat the young in order to survive rather than
burdening the British with the cost and inconvenience of providing relief for
the Irish. He further attacks the British quite vigorously with his satire he
writes:
"...it is wholly new, so it hath something solid and real, of no expense
and little trouble, full in our own power, and whereby we can incur no danger
in disobliging England. For this kind commodity will not bear exportation, the
flesh being of too tender a consistence to admit a long continuance in
salt..."
*The above info is selected from
http://www.stlcc.cc.mo.us/mc/support/cwc/fpages/Satire.html
More examples:
Techniques: comparison, to show the similarity or contrast between two
things. A list of incongruous items, an oxymoron, metaphors, and so forth are
examples. See " The Purpose
and Method of Satire" for more information
Seven Golden Rules for the writing of Satire *
by Gregor Stronach
1. Making fun of individual people. This is perhaps the easiest of
all satire, and is usually the least rewarding, unless done very, very
well. There are two ways of approaching this, and the method through which
it is achieved depends on the nature of the person you're attacking – I
mean, lampooning. Should the person upon whom you have decided to heap
your scorn be quite clearly a total buffoon, ie Michael Jackson, George
Bush (Sr or Jr, it matters not for the purposes of the exercise) or a
woeful sportsperson such as Eddie 'The Eagle' Edwards, the methodology is
simple. Merely quote them, or describe their exploits, and wonder to your
readers in phrases such as "How on earth am I supposed to sleep at
night?", or "It's little wonder children are afraid of birthday clowns."
2. Making fun of groups of people. This is slightly more difficult
than making fun of a smart person, and there are several pitfalls to be
avoided. First of all, before you rush out and begin making gags based on
racial stereotypes, make sure you can claim some sort of connection to the
group you're talking about, however tangential that connection might be.
The only people who can get up on stage, or put pen to paper and talk
about how all Italians are like the Sopranos, or how all Asian folks know
Kung Fu but can't drive, are members of those communities. For a middle
class white man, such as myself, to make those remarks, it's racism. But
if you're a member of a minority, it ceases to be racism, and becomes
'holding up a mirror to the world', or 'telling it like it is. In the
'hood. Yo.' Important stuff indeed.
3. Lampooning Politics. It's easy to do so from a right wing
position, and beyond difficult from anywhere left of moderate. PJ
O'Rourke, lifelong Republican and one of the greatest living satirists has
it easy. Making a gag that has a reader laughing guiltily, blushing
furiously and thinking quietly to themselves 'if my pseudo-intellectual
friends catch me laughing about the plight of the Haitian people, I'll
never sip chardonnay with them again' is very easy. But approaching the
same problem (using Haiti as an example again) from the leftist view, it
verges on the impossible to complete the task without resorting to
iconoclastic ramblings. Of course, you'll need to add the occasional 'but
it's OK, because I gave Reuben, my guide, every penny I earned for writing
this story' feel good phrase thrown in for good measure. It's funny,
because we all know that there isn't a leftist on the planet who likes
paying for anything, let alone the $25 they generally get paid per article
in their limp little newsletters. Plus, leftists tend to be dope fiends or
drunks, and as a rule they have no money.
4. The Facts. How you treat the 'facts' of any matter is vitally
important, and there's a scale that needs to be memorised. When dealing
with 'facts', it's obviously best to have your facts 100% correct. Next
best, surprisingly, is to have them 100% wrong, in case you ever get
called on what you've written, and need to fall back on the satirist's
best retort: 'It's satire, you moron, and I didn't mean a word of it'. Any
mix of facts, right and wrong, means disaster. You're better off claiming
that George Bush has personally drowned better than 160 kittens in the
White House swimming pool than suggesting he's responsible for thousands
of innocent Iraqi citizens losing their lives through his attempts to
'liberate' them. The former example is ludicrous, and bound to raise a wry
chuckle at the very least. The latter smacks of effort and earnestness –
two things to be avoided at all costs. The satirist should always appear
aloof and sophisticated, saving angry rants for polite dinner conversation
and ensuring that the reader feels included in the writer's air of callous
conceit.
5. Making fun of a tragic event. This is a tricky one, but there's
a rule of thumb that I have developed that makes the art of lampooning bad
news, without fear of overtly offending large slabs of the population. A
satirist should skate close to the edge, but never, ever cross the line
into truly tasteless humour.
So when assessing a calamitous event to see whether it is fit to be
lampooned, one must simply look to the last word in the title of that
event. Anything that ends in 'Tragedy' is verboten, such as 'The Diana
Spencer Tragedy'. Anything that ends with 'Disaster' is fair game, for
example 'The Challenger Disaster'. Anything that ends with 'Bombing' or
'Attack' should be left alone for at least three months, before testing
the waters with a few genteel, sombre jokes. 'Killings' should never be
touched, but 'Slayings' or 'Shootings' are generally ripe for the
satirists attention within a week of the final burial. Naturally,
'Scandal' should be leapt upon within seconds and devoured like ice cream
on a scalding hot day, except for anything that ends in '-gate', in which
case the satire should best be left to the mainstream press and their
hamfisted attempts to 'expose the truth'.
6. Religion. It's the modern satirist's minefield, so beware –
the laughs could land you some serious karmic retribution, in jail, on the
wrong end of a Holy War or an eternity in a fiery afterlife, depending on
who you manage to annoy. It's best, when attempting religious satire, to
go all out on your own 'people' first, paving the way for some
bone-crushingly insensitive comments concerning other people's beliefs. A
few religions are quite tolerant of satire – the Moonees know how silly
they are, the Amish will never, ever hit you, no matter what you do and
Catholics have shown uncharacteristic kindness towards Mel Gibson's latest
satirical efforts, so they have clearly stopped caring. Middle Eastern
religions are generally easy going, except for a fringe element that is
notoriously intolerant of ridicule – unless you covet the notion of waking
up one morning strapped to a bomb, it's best to steer clear altogether.
Avoid conflict with the Scientologists too – they, along with the
Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons, will subscribe you to every mailing list
known to man, and will visit you, at home, at six in the morning, every
day for the rest of your life. Leave satirizing the Jewish people to the
Jews – no one does it better, and you'll just end up looking foolish. Of
course, for those that have tried and failed and are feeling down upon
themselves, you could always look to the pseudo-spiritual teachings of
cult leader Anthony Robbins. Even though the idea of 'Awakening the Giant
Within' actually sounds pretty painful, I'm assured by Anthony himself
that whatever doesn't kill us makes us stronger.
*This article is selected from
http://rumandmonkey.com/articles/203
Writing Workshop 5:
Parody(Go to
theSpoof online magazine to read examples of satire.)
Definitions of PARODY:
Random House Webster's College Dictionary:
1.a humorous or satirical imitation of a serious piece of literature or
writing.
2. the genre of literary composition represented by such imitations.
3.any humorous, satirical, or burlesque imitation, as of a percon, event, etc.
4. a burlesque imitation of a musical composition.
5. a poor or feeble minded imitation; travesty.
Glossary of Poetic Terms:
A satirical imitation, for comic effect, of the style and content of another
work. The humor depends upon the reader's familiarity with the original. The
imitation of an art work also fits in the category.
Purpose: A parody imitates and
critiques a well known form of writing or art by making fun of its
conventions. Parodists target everything from high art to popular culture:
television comedy shows like Saturday Night Live and MAD TV
spend much of their time parodying popular TV formats like game shows, talk
shows, and infomercials.
Examples:
Writing Workshop 6:
Adapting a Story/Poem to a Screenplay(
Read the story
about How Brokeback Mountain"was adapted into a screen play)
Excerpt From:
How To Adapt Anything Into A Screenplay
What do the movies "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," "The Shawshank
Redemption," "The Patriot," and "X-Men" have in common?
They're all adaptations -- films scripted from material originally created
for other mediums, from novels to non-fiction to comic books. Now, a new book
written by screenplay expert Richard W. Krevolin and published by Wiley & Sons
in New York provides the definitive guide to writing screenplays based upon
material adapted from other sources. How to Adapt Anything Into a
Screenplay will be released March 28, 2003.
Although screenplay adaptations are a staple of Hollywood and even have
their own Academy Awards category, until now little guidance has been given to
writers who want to take on an adaptation project.
Krevolin, who is a renowned screenplay consultant and has taught
screenwriting at universities such as USC and UCLA, says there's a
misconception that adapting material for a screenplay is somehow easier
for a writer because the basic story is there.
"Adapting pre-existing material for a screenplay comes with its own
unique set of challenges, from obtaining proper clearances to successfully
structuring the material to work well in the medium of film," Krevolin
said. "The key to successful adaptations is not to do a verbatim and faithful
transcription of the original material. It is to capture the essence, spirit,
and soul of the work and creatively convey it in the script and on the screen."
In his book, Krevolin offers intense case studies on close to a dozen
major films adapted from different types of pre-existing material. He also
includes tips from agents, managers, producers, and development
executives designed to help writers navigate the difficult waters of adaptation.
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
FORWARD by Jeff Arch
PREFACE What you need to know to begin.
1. A SHORT HISTORY OF ADAPTATIONS --
2. PROF. K.s FIVE-STEP ADAPTATION PROCESS --
3. LEGAL ISSUES OF ADAPTATIONS Rights, Contracts and examples
4. ADAPTING A NOVEL Case Study -- Harry Potter and The Sorcerers Stone
5. ADAPTING A NOVELLA Case Study -- The Shawshank Redemption
6. ADAPTING A SHORT STORY Case Study -- Rashomon
7. ADAPTING A HISTORY/BIOGRAPHY Case Study -- The Patriot
8. ADAPTING A LITERARY CLASSIC Case Study -- O Brother, Where Art Thou
9. ADAPTING A TRUE LIFE STORY FROM A NEWSPAPER/ MAGAZINE ARTICLE
Case Study -- Madison
10. ADAPTING A STAGE-PLAY Case Study -- Glengarry Glenn Ross
11. ADAPTING A COMIC BOOK Case Study -- The X-men
12. ADAPTING A CHILDRENS/YOUNG ADULT BOOK - Case Study -- Shiloh.
13. HINTS FROM AND INTERVIEWS WITH HOLLYWOOD BIGWIGS -
14. Filmography and Bibliography
Chapter 2
Prof. Ks Five-Step Adaptation Process
You've come across something that would make a great movie. Whether it's a
series of letters in your attic, an article in your hometown newspaper, a story
in an old book you picked up at a garage sale or some scrawlings on a used piece
of toilet paper you found in the bathroom, you are convinced this concept, this
story you've discovered will provide the perfect source material for a Hollywood
blockbuster. You don't need a release or option, since the source material
you've stumbled upon is public domain, or better yet, you've already gone out
and done the work to secure the rights. (If not, please see Chapter 3 on Legal
Issues.)
Either way, you are now ready to go to script, but where the heck do you begin?
How do you transform a three-page article into a 110-page script? Or if you are
adapting a five-hundred-page classic Russian novel and transporting it to modern
American soil, the question still begs to be answered, how do I compress 500
pages in to a 120 page screenplay? Please, tell me, where the heck do I begin?
Don't fret, my friend. If you only remember one thing from reading this entire
study on the art and craft of adaptations, make sure it is this. You really
don't owe anything to the original source material. Yes, it might have been
their story once, but the point is, it's your story now.
The credits will read, Screenplay by YOU based upon a story by some lesser dead
figure like Shakespeare. The key thing here is the three letter word, "YOU." No
matter whom the story used to belong to, it's now yours. You will be judged by
how you choose to tell your tale and no matter how good their original story
was, it's your ass on the line now. You will get credit for making it sing with
clarity and purpose or for bastardizing and soiling it beyond repair.
After watching the wonderful adaptation of the first book of The Lord of the
Rings, I visited the john on the way out of the theater. Since it was a
three-hour long film, as soon as the movie was over, almost the entire male
population that saw The Lord of the Rings was in the john with me. And that was
when I overheard a young man in the urinal stall next to me turn to his buddy
and say, "Yo, dude, wasn't that awesome? It was totally like the novel."
I do think The Lord of the Rings was an awesome adaptation; however, I don't
feel that way as a result of it being totally like the novel. It was awesome
because even though it shared many similarities to the novel, moreso, it seemed
to capture the essence, the spirit, the soul of the novel. That, then, is what I
believe the key to successful adaptations really is. Not to do a verbatim and
faithful transcription, which is in many ways impossible, anyway, but to capture
the truth of the original work and convey that on screen. In other words, the
key point here to remember is that you are now free to create a new story
inspired by the source material.
Think of yourself as a Supreme Court Justice searching for the spirit of the
law, instead of abiding by the letter of the law. You can combine characters,
eliminate whole sections, add scenes, change times, dates, places, whatever
needs to be done to make the script work.
That then is Rule Number #1. YOU OWE NOTHING TO THE ORIGINAL TEXT!
You needed the original text to get started and to inspire you, but now that you
are moving into the world of scripts and Hollywood storytelling, new rules
apply. And the only real bottom line is this:
Rule Number #2. IF IT MAKES FOR A GOOD STORY, IT STAYS, IF NOT, IT MUST BE
TRASHED!
Yes, I know much there might be a scene, detail or character that you don't want
to part with, but if they aren't completely necessary to push the story forward,
they must go. The only rules that apply here are the rules of Hollywood
storytelling. And Hollywood storytelling is based upon this simple premise:
AN ENGAGING CHARACTER OVERCOMES TREMENDOUS OBSTACLES TO REACH A DESIRABLE
GOAL!
That is it. Beauty of language, scintillating cerebral concepts, political or
social issues are all well and good, but nine times out of ten, they are mere
window-dressing. They do not help your writing; in fact, they get in the way of
the story and they should be expunged. All fat must be sheared away.
Screenwriting is a highly disciplined form of storytelling, one that comes
closer to poetry writing than to many forms of prose.
Screenwriting is, in fact, probably the best discipline to teach you the rules
and structure of storytelling and thus, inherently valuable to any writer.
Whether your script sells or not, I can guarantee you that you will learn a
tremendous amount about your story in the process of re-structuring it to fit
the screen. Every time I have taken one of my stage-plays and transformed them
into a screenplay, I have inevitably gone back afterwards and rewritten the
stage-play as a result of seeing the essential story elements that were missing
in the original. These story moments only came into being and to my attention as
a result of the rigorous re-structuring that I had to engage in to make my story
work as a screenplay.
Take the Nestea plunge of screenwriting. Remember, as a screenwriter, you are
not constrained and limited, you are free to create and explore. And yes, of
course, if you are doing a historical piece about the assassination of Abe
Lincoln, you can't have Honest Abe live through that fateful night he was shot
by John Wilkes Booth. No matter how liberating the act of adaptation should be,
in the case of historical and biographical efforts about known people and
events, you do have the onus to maintain a certain degree of accuracy. Yet,
there is even a good deal of leeway here too. For, no one knows exactly what was
said or felt by the major players during, before and after these grand
historical events. Your job is to understand these situations, based upon your
research and the historical facts that exist and then fabricate your version.
And if you do it well, no one can prove that the main players in the story
didn't utter those very words and that things, in fact, didn't occur according
to your version.
The main point here is simply this, in the context of an adaptation, you are
free and in fact, you have the burden to make the story better. It must be
clearer, move faster and be funnier than the source material. It must be more
action-packed, thrilling and sexier than the original. Good adaptations can
never include all elements of the source material and so, the art of adaptation
becomes one of distillation and I'm not talking sour mash whiskey, here. The
gifted adaptor knows his or her limitations and can find the theme, the crux,
the heart and soul of the piece he or she is confronted with. That is their task
and their burden. The fact is that even though elements are left out, the
audience feels as if the story itself remains intact and in the best case
scenarios, the story has, in fact, been improved.
Procedures:
Step 1(Story) |
Step 2(Character) |
Step 3(Scene Construction) |
Finding A Story
Story Statement
Premise
Plot Development |
The Protagonist
The Identity Quest
Creating Character
Antagonist |
The building blocks of your story
Types of Scenes
The Great Scene
Transitions
Using Voiceover
Sub-conflict and Individual Scenes
Dialogue
Format |
- Finding the Heart of your story
- Plot or Character driven, which is best?
- Cause and Effect (Characters and Plot)
- Thinking about Characters
- Round Characters
- The Paradigms of a Story
Screenplay Structure (every story has a
beginning, middle, and an end or it would not be a story, and we're only
interested in writing screenplays with a story.)
- What is Structure and why is it important?
- What Structure best suits your Story?
- Structure and Genre
- Classic Structure: Linear, Journey, Chase, Search
- Types of Alternative Narrative Structure
- The Setup: the or else scene
- Establishing genre and drama
- Connecting the Audience
- Case Studies
- Looking Ahead towards your Second and Third Acts (setups
and payoffs)
- Writing the Scene
- Types of Scenes
- Scene Dialectics
- Ins and Outs (inner or out persona)
- Structures
- Sequences
Writing Workshop 7:
Using Stream of Consciousness(Definition)
to Juxtapose & Reveal Characters' Inner World
1. Understanding
Theory of Stream of
Consciousness
2.Feminist
Epistemology and Philosophy of Science
2. Read the excerpt of Chapter 6 from To
the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
..."He stood by her in silence. Very humbly, at length, he said that he would
step over and ask the Coastguards if she liked.
There was nobody whom she reverenced as she reverenced him.
She was quite ready to take his word for it, she said. Only then they need
not cut sandwiches—that was all. They came to her, naturally, since she was a
woman, all day long with this and that; one wanting this, another that; the
children were growing up; she often felt she was nothing but a sponge sopped
full of human emotions. Then he said, Damn you. He said, It must rain. He said,
It won’t rain; and instantly a Heaven of security opened before her. There was
nobody she reverenced more. She was not good enough to tie his shoe strings, she
felt.
Already ashamed of that petulance, of that gesticulation of the hands when
charging at the head of his troops, Mr Ramsay rather sheepishly prodded his
son’s bare legs once more, and then, as if he had her leave for it, with a
movement which oddly reminded his wife of the great sea lion at the Zoo tumbling
backwards after swallowing his fish and walloping off so that the water in the
tank washes from side to side, he dived into the evening air which, already
thinner, was taking the substance from leaves and hedges but, as if in return,
restoring to roses and pinks a lustre which they had not had by day.
“Some one had blundered,” he said again, striding off, up and down the
terrace.
But how extraordinarily his note had changed! It was like the cuckoo; “in
June he gets out of tune”; as if he were trying over, tentatively seeking, some
phrase for a new mood, and having only this at hand, used it, cracked though it
was. But it sounded ridiculous—”Some one had blundered”—said like that, almost
as a question, without any conviction, melodiously. Mrs Ramsay could not help
smiling, and soon, sure enough, walking up and down, he hummed it, dropped it,
fell silent."...
Excerpt from chapter 1
...“Let’s go,” he said, repeating her words, clicking them out, however, with
a self-consciousness that made her wince. “Let us all go to the circus.” No. He
could not say it right. He could not feel it right. But why not? she wondered.
What was wrong with him then? She liked him warmly, at the moment. Had they not
been taken, she asked, to circuses when they were children? Never, he answered,
as if she asked the very thing he wanted; had been longing all these days to
say, how they did not go to circuses. It was a large family, nine brothers and
sisters, and his father was a working man. “My father is a chemist, Mrs Ramsay.
He keeps a shop.” He himself had paid his own way since he was thirteen. Often
he went without a greatcoat in winter. He could never “return hospitality”
(those were his parched stiff words) at college. He had to make things last
twice the time other people did; he smoked the cheapest tobacco; shag; the same
the old men did in the quays. He worked hard—seven hours a day; his subject was
now the influence of something upon somebody—they were walking on and Mrs Ramsay
did not quite catch the meaning, only the words, here and there ... dissertation
... fellowship ... readership ... lectureship. She could not follow the ugly
academic jargon, that rattled itself off so glibly, but said to herself that she
saw now why going to the circus had knocked him off his perch, poor little man,
and why he came out, instantly, with all that about his father and mother and
brothers and sisters, and she would see to it that they didn’t laugh at him any
more; she would tell Prue about it. What he would have liked, she supposed,
would have been to say how he had gone not to the circus but to Ibsen with the
Ramsays. He was an awful prig—oh yes, an insufferable bore. For, though they had
reached the town now and were in the main street, with carts grinding past on
the cobbles, still he went on talking, about settlements, and teaching, and
working men, and helping our own class, and lectures, till she gathered that he
had got back entire self-confidence, had recovered from the circus, and was
about (and now again she liked him away on both sides, they came out on the
quay, and the whole bay spread before them and Mrs Ramsay could not help
exclaiming, “Oh, how beautiful!” For the great plateful of blue water was before
her; the hoary Lighthouse, distant, austere, in the midst; and on the right, as
far as the eye could see, fading and falling, in soft low pleats, the green sand
dunes with the wild flowing grasses on them, which always seemed to be running
away into some moon country, uninhabited of men.
That was the view, she said, stopping, growing greyer-eyed, that her husband
loved.
She paused a moment. But now, she said, artists had come here. There indeed,
only a few paces off, stood one of them, in Panama hat and yellow boots,
seriously, softly, absorbedly, for all that he was watched by ten little boys,
with an air of profound contentment on his round red face gazing, and then, when
he had gazed, dipping; imbuing the tip of his brush in some soft mound of green
or pink. Since Mr Paunceforte had been there, three years before, all the
pictures were like that, she said, green and grey, with lemon-coloured
sailing-boats, and pink women on the beach.
But her grandmother’s friends, she said, glancing discreetly as they passed,
took the greatest pains; first they mixed their own colours, and then they
ground them, and then they put damp cloths to keep them moist.
So Mr Tansley supposed she meant him to see that that man’s picture was
skimpy, was that what one said? The colours weren’t solid? Was that what one
said? Under the influence of that extraordinary emotion which had been growing
all the walk, had begun in the garden when he had wanted to take her bag, had
increased in the town when he had wanted to tell her everything about himself,
he was coming to see himself, and everything he had ever known gone crooked a
little. It was awfully strange.
There he stood in the parlour of the poky little house where she had taken
him, waiting for her, while she went upstairs a moment to see a woman. He heard
her quick step above; heard her voice cheerful, then low; looked at the mats,
tea-caddies, glass shades; waited quite impatiently; looked forward eagerly to
the walk home; determined to carry her bag; then heard her come out; shut a
door; say they must keep the windows open and the doors shut, ask at the house
for anything they wanted (she must be talking to a child) when, suddenly, in she
came, stood for a moment silent (as if she had been pretending up there, and for
a moment let herself be now), stood quite motionless for a moment against a
picture of Queen Victoria wearing the blue ribbon of the Garter; when all at
once he realised that it was this: it was this:—she was the most beautiful
person he had ever seen.
With stars in her eyes and veils in her hair, with cyclamen and wild
violets—what nonsense was he thinking? She was fifty at least; she had eight
children. Stepping through fields of flowers and taking to her breast buds that
had broken and lambs that had fallen; with the stars in her eyes and the wind in
her hair—He had hold of her bag.
“Good-bye, Elsie,” she said, and they walked up the street, she holding her
parasol erect and walking as if she expected to meet some one round the corner,
while for the first time in his life Charles Tansley felt an extraordinary
pride; a man digging in a drain stopped digging and looked at her, let his arm
fall down and looked at her; for the first time in his life Charles Tansley felt
an extraordinary pride; felt the wind and the cyclamen and the violets for he
was walking with a beautiful woman. He had hold of her bag...
Read
"Clay" and "The Boarding House" by
James Joyce
Excerpt from Clay
THE MATRON had given her leave to go out as
soon as the women’s tea was over and Maria looked forward to her evening out.
The kitchen was spick and span: the cook said you could see yourself in the big
copper boilers. The fire was nice and bright and on one of the side-tables were
four very big barmbracks. These barmbracks seemed uncut; but if you went closer
you would see that they had been cut into long thick even slices and were ready
to be handed round at tea. Maria had cut them herself.
More stories from
The Dubliners by James Joyce
"...Yet in the midst of these
instabilities, or perhaps partly because of them, Joyce shaped an
entirely new literary style. He focused on small incidents and moments
in the lives of ordinary people, and yet he made those moments both
universally appealing and profound. He elevated the
stream-of-consciousness technique to a new art form. Joyce’ s work did
much to define the modern period in British literature." |
Writing Workshop 8: Using Allusions in
Poetry or Story Writing
-
To the Rose
upon the Rood of Time
Writing Workshop 9:
Types of Essays
More
Creative Writing Ideas
Writing Workshop 10: Non-Narrative (Read
Annie Dillard
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
Pulitzer Prize
non-fiction in
1975-an extended
meditation on her observations of the natural world).-Read
the Excerpts
Writing Workshop 11:
Investigative Journalism (288 pp.)
Fadiman,
Anne
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down