An update from the twenty-second Writing Workshop with Conner Bassett A summary of the workshop held on Saturday November 20 In preparation and celebration of Thanksgiving, this week we focused on the time honored tradition of eating. We began by looking at a couple different paintings: The Feast of Dives by Master of James IV of Scotland and The Potato Eaters by Van Gogh. Both paintings exalted the poor and therefore the hungry, while the former in particular represented the act of eating as a sort of monstrous excess, which was also found in Mound of Butter by Antoine Vollon, Vertumnus by Giuseppe Arcimboldo, and Hotdog in #NYC by Valery Jung. By way of literary examples, we looked at the poem “Eating Together” by Li-Young Lee and “Eating Poetry” by Mark Strand. The former we found to display eating as communal and ritualistic, whereas the latter associated eating with animalistic and demonic traits. The Challenge: Write a story/poem in which people are eating. Think about what food symbolizes in your story/poem. The Participants: Penelope, Nova, Lina, Alice B, Audrey, Emma, Shilla, Josh, Ethan, Svitra
writing workshop
Writing Workshop #52: Art and Made-Up Languages
An update from our fifty-second Writing Workshop A summary of the workshop held on Saturday November 6th, plus some of the output published below At this writing workshop, William went over the concept of art-languages, or languages made up by writers for their stories. Starting off with Lewis Carroll’s classic “Jaberwocky” poem, the class went over some of the words made up by the famous author. The class also looked at examples from James Joyce, watched several videos of people speaking Star Trek’s Klingon language, and read aloud some of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Elvish language from The Lord of the Rings. Lastly, the class read some examples from previous writing workshop of pieces that incorporated real languages and made-up languages The challenge: Focus on sound and invent words or parts of a language to fit within a story. The participants: Liam, Peri, Lena, Elbert, Ethan, Faiz, Kina, Samantha, Sierra, Elliott, Rachael, Aditi, Kate, Nami, Grace, Madeline Designing a Dress Peri Gordon, 11(Sherman Oaks, CA) Peri Gordon, 12 I paced around the room, inevitably stepping on the precious fabrics I had purchased. Heaps of quem wylven cloel clustered thickly around the heels of the esstappi shoes I was practicing wearing for the upcoming event. Making sense of this clupple snetthoy would not be a shtut ruttel. Knowing I only had a week to design the queen’s heraten gown, I let my voice burst out in waves of doyatere. My mother came running, the soup she was carrying dripping onto her moill shoyanine. She exclaimed, “Resh keru! Yiplash?” But I needed to be alone. After helping wipe the huitren off of her shoyanine, I slammed the door. I approached my sutrebenishien, which was laden with plashti. They glimmered in the sunlight that came through the potoshoo. I sorted through them. How would I choose my favorite? Finally, the idea came to me: Using the wylven cloel I had stepped on as a base for the dress, I would yertin in each sparkly fabric separately. I would be done in less than a week, and the result would be absolutely resenden. I took out my toz and got to work. Dictionary: Quem – (Of a fabric) Shiny and white Wylen – Woven with an elaborate pattern involving swirls Cloel – A thick fabric composed of grass, wool, and rose petals Esstapi – Overly fancy at the expense of one’s safety Clupple – Making one likely to trip and fall Snetthoy – A comedically disorganized room Shtut ruttel – Piece of cake Heraten – The coronation of a king or queen’s child Doyatere – Sincere distress Moill – A dull and murky shade of brown Shoyanine – A dress made with a fabric at least two centimeters thick Resh keru – Good heavens Yiplash – What is the matter Huitren – An edible plant often used in soup Sutrebenishien – Intricately carved desk Plashti – Sparkly fabrics Potoshoo – A triangular window Yertin – Sew in a braided pattern Resenden – Divinely beautiful Toz – A very sharp needle, reserved for the most intricate sewing Nami Gajcowski, 11Seattle, WA Filligri Nami Gajcowski, 11 Filligri is the name of the lillipads on the bright summer’s day. Mooran is the frog sitting on the Filligri. Swog is the flies that the frog is eating. Ligth is the word for the wings on the fly, letting it go aloft. Floof is the word for cloud that the wings brush. Allgen is the word for sky which the clouds clutch. Rrum is the airplane. Zram is it’s engine. Glockenrn is the mechanics to make that engine. Zendgle is their tools. Track is the name of houses built by those tools. Swindlgrog is the name of the tree in the front yard. Smissslfinddle is the name of a forest of those trees. Mrusgsgu is the name of the swamp next to that forest. And Filligri is the name of the lillipads in a bright summer’s day.
How Stories Work—Writing Workshop #19: Objects
An update from our nineteenth Writing Workshop with Conner Bassett A summary of the workshop held on Saturday October 30, plus some of the output published below Continuing our run of workshops focused on concrete concepts instead of standardized elements of writing, this week we focused on objects because, simply, objects are weird! In order to illustrate this point, we began by looking at a shovel—yes, a shovel, because as it turns out Marcel Duchamp considered the shovel odd enough that he put one up in a museum. Next, we looked at some of the artworks from an exhibit by Katarina Kamprani, wherein she slightly transformed ordinary household objects—a hammer, a knife, for example—into unusable things, the idea being that the exhibit invites us to consider how strange objects are. We then discussed a few paintings—Still Life with Skull by Cezanne, Violin and Candlestick by Georges Braque, and Sunflowers by Van Gogh, to name a few, all of which presented objects in a distorted, alienating light. From our discussion of paintings we moved into a discussion of poetry, beginning with Wallace Stevens’ strange poem “Anecdote of the Jar,” in which the central object, a jar, seemed to transform itself and its surroundings with its strangeness. We also read “Perception of an Object Costs” by Emily Dickinson, which suggested that by perceiving an object, the object somehow eludes us and escapes our perception, two poems by Gertrude Stein—”A Box” and “Mildred’s Umbrella”—and “The Crystal” by Clark Coolidge. The Challenge: Three short exercises done in ten minutes each. First, choose an object either near you or imagined. Then, one: write a funny poem/story about your object, two: write a scary poem/story about your object, and three: write a sad poem/story about your object. The Participants: Audrey, Simran, Josh, Emma, Lina, Ethan, Shilla, Ellie, Olivia, Svitra, Sinan, Alice B Svitra Rajkumar, 13(Fremont, CA) The Deadly Jasmine Svitra Rajkumar, 13 It was getting late and Xyian still hadn’t found the last ingredient for the crabapple concoction she was making. She had picked the juiciest blood colored crabapples, some wild hibiscus nectar, yellow poppy seeds, and indigo sugarcane sugar. All she had left were deadly jasmine petals. Unlike the frightening name, the petals of the flower had an exotic flavor that couldn’t be found elsewhere. The deadly parts were the stems. If you were to come in physical contact with a deadly jasmine stem, they would drag you underground with them. However, Xyian was prepared. Her mother, having specialized in potion making, knew a lot about dealing with dangerous ingredients, and gave her special gloves to deal with them. Xyian walked into the dark cave that stood in front of her, pushing aside the long vines that creeped along it’s opening. She shuddered as the chilly air hit her face, and tugged on her coat’s hood.
