An update from the twenty-sixth Writing Workshop with Conner Bassett A summary of the workshop held on Saturday February 5, plus some of the output published below “It is the function of art to renew our perception. What we are familiar with we cease to see. The writer shakes up the familiar scene, and as if by magic, we see a new meaning in it.” -Anais Nin “The purpose of literature is to impart the sensation of things as they are perceived and not as they are known. The technique of art is to make objects ‘unfamiliar.'” -Viktor Shklovsky This week, Conner was unable to attend due to the birth of his second child, Sawyer Cruz Bassett-Wood (congratulations, Conner!), so his assistant, Caleb Berg, led Conner’s lecture on defamiliarization. To begin, Caleb familiarized—ha ha—the class with the concept of defamiliarization as it pertains to art: the artistic technique of presenting to audiences common things in an unfamiliar or strange way so they could gain new perspectives and see the world differently. We focused on the art of Leonora Carrington and Pablo Picasso in painting, noting their unique ability to portray the ordinary in spectacular, often dream-like ways. Finally, we looked at the poetry of Paul Celan and Velimir Khlebnikov, paying particular attention to Celan’s “An Eye, Open” and Khlebnikov’s “When Horse’s Die.” The Challenge: Write a story or poem in which one or more objects/scenes are defamiliarized. That is, transform one or more objects/scenes so that they represent the feeling they produce. Create, as Anais Nin says, “new meaning.” The Participants: Lina, Emma, Josh, Amelia, Penelope, Zar, Samantha, Alice, Ellie, Nova, Quinn To watch more of the readings from this workshop, like Emma’s below, click here. Emma Hoff, 9(Bronx, NY) The Lamp Emma Hoff, 9 The light shines innocently, but it blinds me, and my eyes become red. Did it glare at you? It glared at me. I shied from it and still it followed me with its intent gaze, boring into me as I walk around the room. I can feel the hot bulb, feel the lamp melting and morphing under its own heat, its own light. The business is done, I think, but my dreams that night are of hot light burning me, and the next day, I find the lamp, standing again. The lamp glared at me once again, and whispered in my ear, burning it red-hot, telling me that the sun’s light will not be enough for me. I ask it, what does it know, but the sun dies and the lamp is still glowing and I am grateful for it. I make my way through the darknes with this lamp, until it parts with me, saying it must go, saying that its lightbulb can not take the strain anymore and that it will lie peacefully, saying that the darkness isn’t as bad as people think. We both give in to the shadows, my lamp is happy, unmoving, unthinking, not glowing, but I am dragged away by figures cloaked in black, and I am crying.
how stories work
How Stories Work—Writing Workshop #25: How to Make a Character
An update from the twenty-fifth Writing Workshop with Conner Bassett A summary of the workshop held on Saturday January 29, plus some of the output published below This week, Conner enumerated what makes a great character, the most important attributes being that a character should be flawed and be put under stress so that, according to Charles Baxter, “the story goes forward, [and] something in the situation or the characters is forced to reveal itself.” Some famous characters we discussed were Don Quixote, Hamlet, Odysseus, Jo March, Anna Karenina, and Maleficent. During the workshop, we learned that oftentimes the best jumping off point for a character is ourselves. Before completing the prompt, Conner had us get in the mind of our character by finishing these sentences as if we were them: I spend my time worrying about…, What I want most in life is…, My biggest regret is…, My biggest secret is…,I believe in…, and The thing I do when no one else is watching is… And then we wrote! The Challenge: Write a short story, a chapter, or a poem in the voice of your character in a situation under pressure. The Participants: Nova, Amelia, Quinn, Emma, Alice, Zar, Penelope, Ellie, Josh, Lina, Gwynne To watch more readings from this workshop, like Amelia’s below, click here. Amelia, 11
How Stories Work—Writing Workshop #24: “And” (Revisited)
An update from the twenty-fourth Writing Workshop with Conner Bassett A summary of the workshop held on Saturday January 22, plus some of the output published below In his first class of the new year, Conner Bassett revitalized a scintillating lecture on the use of “and” in literature as well as visual art. Over the course of the workshop, we learned about the uniquely conjoining, relational, and aggregational nature of the swiss army knife contraction, noting specifically its different uses within the titles Crime and Punishment and Being and Nothingness. We also looked at Marcel Duchamp’s conversion of a urinal into a “fountain” in his famous museum exhibition, noticing how this subversion of meaning connoted the effect of the word “and.” Moving through the expression of “and” in works by Magritte, Warhol, the general nature of Islamic art, and in the effect of the comic panel, we read an excerpt from Cormac McCarthy’s All the Pretty Horses in order to see the “speed” of “and.” Finally, we considered “and’s” ability to transcend time and conjoin the present with the past in Dylan Thomas’ poem “And Death Shall Have No Dominion.” And, of course, at the end of the workshop we wrote! The Challenge: In 30 minutes, write one of three types of pieces: one, write a story or poem where you replace every period with the word “and”: two, write a story or poem that begins “in the middle,” beginning with the word “and”: or, three, start a new story or poem at the end of an old one, beginning with the word “and.” The Participants: Lina, Gwynne, Amelia, Emma, Ethan, Samantha, Penelope, Nova, Josh, Ellie, Zar, Alice, Quinn To watch more of the readings from this workshop, like Zar’s below, click here. Zar, 11
