For Next WeekFor Next Week Workshop?Workshop? Look at more Fiction Project options.Look at more Fiction Project options. Two readings (see schedule).Two readings (see schedule).

TodayToday

Review perspectives.Review perspectives. Finish “Sonny’s Blues” and “Cathedral.”Finish “Sonny’s Blues” and “Cathedral.” Look at a couple project options.Look at a couple project options. Workshop.Workshop. Selected weirdnesses.Selected weirdnesses.

Reviewing perspectives…

An escape from reality; asedative or distraction

Form

alis

t

Form

alis

t

FormalistArt

An af

firm

atio

n of

real

ityThe improvement of reality

The invention of

reality

A conf

ront

ation

with

reali

ty; fa

cing

reali

ty

Defiance of

reality; reality

as it ought to be

(pos

sibly

moc

king?

)

The honoring of traditionFo

rmal

ist

Form

alis

t

FormalistArt

A mod

e of

perc

eptio

n

A pile of crap; a hoax; excuse for not having a REAL job

A com

modity

The subversion of tradition

Self-expression;

solely for self ;

exploration of one’s

unique vision

Somet

hing

pro

duce

d

sole

ly fo

r oth

ers;

a

mea

ns o

f ple

asin

g an

audi

ence

Emotional or

psychological

therapy

So: what are YOUR aesthetics and standards of judgment?

What will be the standard of judgment in this class?

(Maybe I’ll ask you that at the end of the term)

Look at Fiction Project Option #3

Plot• Traditional:

– Exposition– Narrative question– Complicating actions– Pace (what speeds up pace? what slows it down?)– Structure– Devices: flashbacks, framing, foreshadowing, O’Henry Twist

• Nontraditional:

– Multiple intersecting plots– Plot made up almost entirely of flashbacks– Circular plot– Non-plot:

• episodic approach• (Alain Robbe-Grillet)• pure interior monologue• montage

Consider:

Momento,Slackers,Etc.!

Alternative ways of experiencing and understanding TIME!

Look at Fiction Project Option 1

Expectations and tips for this option. If you were to do the written equivalent of what Pecker

does…what would you be doing?

What is the difference between an essay or expository prose and a story?

Essays generally have a thesis, are primarily factual and reflective (not dramatic), are “narrated” by the actual author, and are usually structured as traditional, a-temporal arguments.

Stories don’t have a thesis, are primarily dramatic and fictional, are narrated by an invented character, and have temporal structures.

For Option 1, you are to draw heavily on fact and autobiography, but still write a piece of fiction, a short story.

Don’t confuse a first-person narrator of a story with the author of the story!