Vicarious MFA
The Vicarious MFA: Weekend Reading Assignment & Abbreviated Notes
The Vicarious MFA
For Monday:
The Things They Carried by Tim Obrien
I Remember by Joe Brainard
Let’s Talk About Love: A Journey to the End of Taste by Carl Wilson
(I’ve only just started this, but it is awesome. It’s a book that is all about Celine Dion’s album Let’s Talk About Love {the one with the Titanic song on it.} Some chapter titles: Let’s Talk About Schmatlz, Let’s Talk About Hate, Let’s Talk in French and Let’s Sing Really Loud. I am psyched to see Celine Dion burned at the stake of bad taste.)
For Tuesday:
Three Workshop Submissions (60 pages)
Turn-in second workshop piece
For Thursday:
In Patagonia by Bruce Chatwin
For Friday:
More stuff I don’t understand for Psychology elective
(see the presentation I gave last week)
Incredibly abbreviated notes from 2 weeks of The First Book seminar are after the jump….
(2/12) Hunger of Memory: a sustained memoir-essay on learning and language by Richard Rodriguez. Conclusion: authentic/honest style, intersection of the personal & political, weirdly great structure.
(2/19) At The Bottom of the River: Jamaica Kincaid once said: “I didn’t want to be myself. I wanted to be a writer.” Even though the prose is mostly beautiful, I think I can feel her wanting to be a writer too much. Also, did you know that George Trow used to refer to her as “my black island friend” in his Talk of the Town pieces? The 70’s were weird.
maybe “my black island friend” was ironic
sometimes people refer to me as “their oriental southerner friend”, but only in Shouts and Murmurs pieces
maybe “my black island friend” was ironic
sometimes people refer to me as “their oriental southerner friend”, but only in Shouts and Murmurs pieces
Yay, Ti’m O’Brien. Later this term my students will read “How to Tell a True War Story” from that book,
Also, have you ever read Augustine’s chapter on Memory in the Confessions? I’m working through it now and having myself a delightful little mindblow. Seems relevant to the general theme above. Admittedly few prairie voles though…
Yay, Ti’m O’Brien. Later this term my students will read “How to Tell a True War Story” from that book,
Also, have you ever read Augustine’s chapter on Memory in the Confessions? I’m working through it now and having myself a delightful little mindblow. Seems relevant to the general theme above. Admittedly few prairie voles though…
things they carried is great but isn’t using that piece in a non-fiction class confusing?
barry hannah talked about how he had a conversation w/ tim o’brien and was like, “man what a powerful piece of work, especially the section with your daughter” and tim o’brien was like, “i don’t have a daughter”
things they carried is great but isn’t using that piece in a non-fiction class confusing?
barry hannah talked about how he had a conversation w/ tim o’brien and was like, “man what a powerful piece of work, especially the section with your daughter” and tim o’brien was like, “i don’t have a daughter”
reading tim o’brien almost convinced me to make the biggest mistake of my life
tim o’brien is that powerful
reading tim o’brien almost convinced me to make the biggest mistake of my life
tim o’brien is that powerful
Marshall:
I thought the same thing, but I asked Amy about it and she reminded me that O’Brien uses his own first name in the book– in a way he’s inviting us to take some of the book as non-fiction, and all of it as “true.”
I will post revelations from class next week & Joyce Carol Oates is coming to do a talk on “Revision,” though I might end up missing it because Lethem has offered to take people to a “secret bookstore.” (Did we learn nothing from the pied piper leading the children into the woods? No. We didn’t.)
Marshall:
I thought the same thing, but I asked Amy about it and she reminded me that O’Brien uses his own first name in the book– in a way he’s inviting us to take some of the book as non-fiction, and all of it as “true.”
I will post revelations from class next week & Joyce Carol Oates is coming to do a talk on “Revision,” though I might end up missing it because Lethem has offered to take people to a “secret bookstore.” (Did we learn nothing from the pied piper leading the children into the woods? No. We didn’t.)
I remember I Remember
I remember I Remember
TTTC is one of my favorites. The ending paragraph skates just up to cheese but avoids so beautifully.
TTTC is one of my favorites. The ending paragraph skates just up to cheese but avoids so beautifully.