Please describe the prospective subject of your literary journalism piece.
Keep in mind Henry James'
criteria for judging a piece of writing: 1) What is the writer trying to
achieve? 2) Did the writer achieve it? 3) Was it worth achieving? The
last is also perhaps the most important.
Answer each of the categories in turn. For #2, answer "how" you're going to achieve it -- that is, your ideas for reporting and structuring the piece.
Try to be as specific as possible throughout.
Your response is due by 4 p.m., Tuesday, Sept. 17.
19 comments:
1) I want to try and create the reality of someone who is going senile, and describe the process of becoming oblivious to what was once priority. Putting emphasis on the process, I want to show a degenerative state of mind in which a person loses their common sense, but before it all becomes a muddled collection of images.
2) First, the story would be told from the view of the one in senility. I would go through all his loved ones, passions, devotions, and past experiences with moderate to weak enthusiasm. Then, the story would document his failing interactions with family, friends, co-workers, and in general. And before long, the subject will be the narrator's rants on his life. However, the rants themselves will be broad and unspecific, usually against people whose names he cannot remember. I want to make the family members important, but silent. There are multiple victims, but only one is visible and audible.
3) I don't know how to answer this. If I say yes, would you believe me?
If I say no, would you agree? I think everyone loves someone who becomes distant and estranged. Needless to say , its results are heavy. So, I believe this is worth it, but I can't decide its worth without agreement.
1. I would like my piece to express the human nature of denying what is clearly in front of their faces. It is a human theme to struggle against accepting reality, especially when it involves criticizing ourselves. My article will be written from the perspective of a young woman observing what is going around her, realizing the truth of it for one brief moment, and then sugar coating it with excuses. I have watched this girl deny reality her whole life, only to realize that it is true among everyone. I want my piece to mirror the theme of denial in one person, but also make it clear that everyone tends to surrender to it. I do not want the audience to criticize the character, but rather recognize her qualities in themselves.
2. Instead of writing it from my own perspective as an observer to the events, I believe it will be much stronger portrayed through her eyes. We can become the character denying the truth, and realize how comfortable we are with that feeling already. I will describe what she sees, hears and most importantly what she thinks. The character’s thoughts will only be slightly assumed, because she has shared all of her actual thoughts with my throughout her life. The story will depict her interactions with her abusive parents - as well as their interactions with each other - her heroine-addicted friend and herself. It will end exactly as she ends everything else - with denial.
3. It is worth it to me and if written correctly, I believe I can make this worth it to someone else. The point is to open the audience’s eyes to a universal truth, which is what good literature always achieves. I love when I read a novel or an article, and there is a quote or sentence that slaps me hard across the face. This is because it usually makes me realize something about myself. If I can achieve this with my piece, then it is most definitely worth it.
1. I want my piece to focus on the low value placed on human life in a hypercapitalist environment. My goal is to write an incredibly melancholy piece that accurately shows the reader how easily it is to treat people like animals in modern society. I believe some of my experiences dealing with this devaluation in low-wage employment can convince the reader that they’ve either been a mindless asshole in the past or still are one to this day. I plan on using more than just work experiences (family, friends, public experiences, etc.) to show how all encompassing this devaluation of man has become.
2. I plan on structuring the piece in a journal entry format similar to Didion’s “Los Angeles Notebook.” All of the reporting will be self-interviewing since the scenes are all from memory. Like “Los Angeles Notebook,” I want it to come off as seemingly random situations that all blend together into a common theme, as described above.
3. I think achieving my goal would be worth it—whether that will happen is a different story. If done correctly, exposing people’s misplaced values and showing their potential for cruelty and thoughtlessness might make people think about their actions more and reflect on their attitudes toward their fellow person. Or it might just depress readers into a state of cynicism… hopefully the former comes true.
1) I’d like to tell a story about the day I helped install blinds in an apartment complex to portray a few perspectives on the modern American working men of two generations. How the younger workers view the older workers and vice-versa will be very important as well as how they view their work.
2) The structure of the story will be sequential. All the men interacting together from the perspective of a stranger involves describing how the narrator (myself told from third person) comes to determine his opinions of the other workers as well as the work placed before him and his views of the endless possibilities in his future.
3) I think that it is important for young people to get perspective on their lives and this story will show a contrast of respect and disrespect for the older generation which culminates in a certain insight that I think is worth the story. It may not seem like a significant story based on events, but that makes it relatable.
1. I want to write from the perspective of a camper at a sleepaway camp as an 100 event relay race is about to begin and take place. I want to show the emotions and thoughts that this camper is feeling as the events unfold.
2. Telling the story from the campers point of view will allow the reader to see all of the emotions and thoughts that are being felt. When it's the campers event all eyes will be on him, so he will surely be feeling a lot of things and will extremely nervous. I would like to show what is being seen by the camper as he sits and watches the event unfold prior to his turn in the race and then his emotions after he has finally gone.
3. This is worth it because I attended a sleepaway camp for 12 summers and I think it would be interesting to show all of the emotions that take place over a race that lasts one hour.
I want to write about the different perceptions of reality that each person has. I would write the story from the perspective of three different characters. Each character is participating in the same scene at the same time but they don’t know each other, and the reader does not know that they are all in the same place until the end of the story. The three characters are interconnected but the reader doesn’t see it at first because the reality that all three characters are seeing is so vastly different from the next persons view. The story would focus on group think versus individuality, and how people are often time even if you see them on a daily basis.
As a writer I am trying to portray to the reader that reality is what you make it and what you place importance on. I think if I achieve this goal and really make a lasting impression on the reader then it would be worth it because it’s something to keep in daily life.
I want to write about the different perceptions of reality that each person has. I would write the story from the perspective of three different characters. Each character is participating in the same scene at the same time but they don’t know each other, and the reader does not know that they are all in the same place until the end of the story. The three characters are interconnected but the reader doesn’t see it at first because the reality that all three characters are seeing is so vastly different from the next persons view. The story would focus on group think versus individuality, and how people are often time even if you see them on a daily basis.
As a writer I am trying to portray to the reader that reality is what you make it and what you place importance on. I think if I achieve this goal and really make a lasting impression on the reader then it would be worth it because it’s something to keep in daily life.
1) I want to explore the changing state of literature and literacy, not only from the perspective of a reader but also from the perspective of a writer and as a bookseller. Focusing on fiction and genres that were once-burgeoning, I want to show the changing landscape of print media and publishing and how this effects our mindset in increasingly consumerism-driven lives, and how these changes might be a product of that same commercial society. The prompt that sold the topic to me was one given to me by my father, a lifelong science fiction fan and many-times attempted at publishing his own work: "More books, but fewer titles: The McDonalds-ization of literature".
2)This problem is an intergenerational one; I am going to not only interview several authors I know (who are not publishing things that are easily published in today's fiction climate; one does queer erotica, another does old-style sci-fi that's being phased out for YA lit) but also people who have published digitally vs. traditionally, watch clientele at book shops (which are diminishing in the face of digital media), and gather information for a larger picture, captured from the view of a one-inch picture frame of these struggling people.
3) I feel this is important because literature and literacy are one of the most important concepts to our culture, and while people mark the encroach of consumerism as a threat people don't see how it can not only define and entrench itself in new and periodically-updated media forms (television, contemporary magazines, internet culture, etc.) but also in older ones like fiction and literature. Our cultural landscape has been changed in many levels, including in the bookstore.
For my literary journalism piece, I am thinking of concentrating on the process of sorting through the items of a deceased family member, specifically when the family member has left behind something of a legacy. This will be based on personal experiences of going through the things of my great-grandmother, an expressionist artist since 1940 and Holocaust survivor. By exploring such an intimate topic, I am hoping to delve into the value placed in objects. For example, my great-grandmother had decades (nearly seventy years) of art stored throughout her house—how are we, her family members, supposed to judge what has value? What are we meant to do with these objects, which are too plentiful to display in our homes? What is meant to be done with such personal effects as paintings and one-minute sketches?
This exploration will be done in a procedural fashion, going through the steps of sorting out books, clothes, artwork, etc, and having to decide what goes where, who gets what; thus, the piece will be done in a more objective first person point of view. Although it will be done in the first person, I do not want it to be weighed down in personal emotions, but rather, a step-by-step outline of looking at a person's life through the objects they have compiled and collected. As well, it will be a more of an exploration of how other family members, who knew her significantly better than I did, deal with this step in death.
As for the third criteria, this approach views grief in a different light than death is usually viewed in. Rather than an emotional account of memories, it will be an exploration of material goods and objective observations. This piece forces me to address the question, how can you know someone simply through their collection of “things,” which I believe is something that deserves exploration.
1. For my piece I want to shed light on the Muslim culture and Islamic religion through a Christian, "Mainstream Americanized" lens. The piece will attempt to expose how mainstream media and culture, along with Christian religion, distorts other cultures and religion, namely Islamic. By doing so I hope to achieve for the reader a better understanding of how and why we view certain cultures and religions differently, and in result question religion entirely and/or form a stronger attachment to their own beliefs.
2. My goal is to formulate the gathering of information, as well as the style of the article, in a way very similar to "An Experiment in Misery." By submerging myself in the Islamic culture for a short period of time and then writing my experience from my own view, I will not only be able to provide the reader with information, but express such information through my own lens, providing a much deeper interpretation of the facts that will (I'm hoping) shed light on both Islamic beliefs and my own, and where these beliefs and feelings stem from, very much like what happened in "Misery." Each graph will provide my interpretation of a scene or conversation through my perspective.
3. I think this article will be worth it because in the end, I hope it will lead people to question what they believe and why they believe it, and in the process making the reader more educated about a religion they might not be familiar with.
I have two ideas I am torn between.
The first is a subway ride on the M train from Queens over the Williamburg Bridge to the Lower East Side. This is an above ground subway ride that I have taken roughly 5x/week for the past ten years. With the use of flashbacks I would like to address how Brooklyn has changed, from the people that ride the train to the landscape that can be seen out the windows. The piece would be structured around one ride and transition between the past and present. The purpose of this piece would be to illustrate change through something as mundane as a daily train ride as well as capture the essence of the present ride.
The second idea I am considering is an expansion of a little piece I wrote about a morning on my deck in the woods. This piece would be more of a reflective piece. I grew up in NYC and now live in the middle of the woods. I would like to explore how these environments affect human condition, particularly mine. Compare the cabin fever of the woods to how overwhelming the city can be and the the bliss and awe I get from nature to the beauty and buzz of the city. The purpose of this would be to study how environment affects our psyche and compare two very different places.
1) My tentative story revolves around a road trip I took up the coast of California. I want to portray the differences I noticed in the mindset and lifestyle of homeless people in California and those living in New York City.
2) I intend to tell the story from my own point of view in a sequential structure. I will relate my encounters with a few homeless people from the East Coast that seemed to have a much more hopeful and lively outlook on life with that of homeless people in New york City.
3) I believe this is an outlook worth portraying since we tend to only encounter social classes of people which exist in our immediate environment. Because of this, we don't take into consideration the effects different environments have on social classes, at least not in the United States.
My literary story idea is pretty simple. I want to write about being a child of divorce. 50 % of marriages end in divorce, and because of that, divorce is a topic that I think is pretty glazed over in society. But every divorce has its own reasons for occurring and is traumatic in its own way, and always affects the children involved regardless of what age they are. My own experience occurred in a middle-class household, so that is the viewpoint I will write from.
I plan to structure my piece like Joan Didion’s “Los Angeles Notebook” and address different situations I have personally been in dealing with divorce/separation, though I’ll be sure to choose relatable anecdotes. Some scenes I plan to write about include the day I was told about my parents’ issues (which came as a complete shock when I was 17 years old), an argument I got into with my brother over the situation and memories of family trips (ones that have occurred since the separation and before). I want to tie it all together with one universal experience many children of divorce go through, and I am still deciding what I want that to be.
I want the point of this piece to be for readers to understand a little piece of the devastating heart ache that comes with divorce and dysfunctional family life. I want children who come from divorced families to identify with it and children who consider their parents to be blissfully married to gain some perspective. If that is what readers come away with, then it was worth achieving.
For my literature of journalism piece, I would like to present a major tragedy and show how it connects to different people.
I would like to take the impact of Hurricane Sandy and show how it changed the lives of people at the time it happened, and then show how it is still affecting them now (or maybe start with now and flashback to the past). I will take different perspectives of people and try to connect them.
I think this is definitely worth achieving, because even though this occurred about a year ago, it is still affecting people today, and some people do not realize that.
In my piece, i want to write about a trip i took to New Orleans this summer. For a month i stayed in a volunteer house. What's likely most interesting is how decimated the poorest parts of the city remain — many years after hurricane katrina. While some of those conditions will be described in my story, the real focus will be the roughly 16 or so other volunteers i shared the house with. What makes someone want to volunteer, and why here? Why now? How do they look? Act? I want to show the dynamics inside the house, daily living.
Nearly everything i write will come from memory. I got the chance to live with, work, and befriend volunteers and people from the neighborhood.
I think this is a story worth telling. In a neighborhood that has been forgotten by so many, even within the city it's located, how and why have people from all over the world come to live and work there? Who are these people? And how has their presence changed the community (for better or worse)?
1) I want to write a story that revolves around emphasizing and exposing the masks we all wear--no mater how minor or major they may be--on a daily basis to help us navigate what is socially expected of us. For example, we all have millions of individual thoughts a day, and most of those go left unsaid. Why? Some aren't worth mentioning, but some are--yet we leave them alone because we know we shouldn't say them. This is because of the outcome we know they may have. I'd also like to focus on the selfish nature of it all and how most if it is to influence a desired outcome on those we're speaking to or associating with
2) The story would have to be told from my first person POV in order to get the unbiased thoughts of someone. I'd track my thoughts through few given situations and string the inner unacceptable thoughts together to form a coherent narrative i.e. only choosing those that are interconnected. And then, parallel those with what actually gets said and to whom, then suggesting sub-textually the reasons behind such decisions.
3) It's worth it to me to make a point that we all have these "inappropriate" thoughts on a daily basis, but they go left unsaid because of assumed social norms. Perhaps this is for the best, but perhaps it isn't. I want to explore the reasoning behind wearing a mask and being anything less than what we truly are. The main point being, we all have that hint of darkness (or jack-assery) within us all. At least the capacity for it.
For my piece, I want to talk about my father's diagnosis as manic depressive in fall of 2009 and the aftermath following his arrest for grand larceny. There are certain moments that stand out in my mind: the car ride to Manhattan College, where my older sister was in school, before he broke the news; Late night googling to see where the news stories about his arrest would be posted; long nights sitting with my twelve year old sister, trying to explain to her just what was happening.
I'd like to address concern about mental illness running in familes and how the memories my sisters and I have of my dad (good, bad and those confusing ones within the grey area) are all linked some way to his manic highs or lows, but are worth more than that. I'd like to structure it as a letter of sorts to my younger sister, maybe trying to address the things I always wished I could explain to her about why daddy is crazy and all the things I felt I needed to rationalize about why we should love him anyway. Really focusing on how the illness is not an excuse for anything, but a reason; that our father isn't some martyr-esque representative of his disease, but a man who made mistakes.
I think the stigma surrounding mental illness in our country create a hostile environment for those afflicted. I want to try to demonstrate the complexities that surround mental illness and the family dynamic.
1)I want to write a piece exploring a friend's experience in a psychiatric hospital. The piece would show how mental illness is seen by people (relatives, doctors) who have not experienced it themselves and how those suffering find solace in themselves and others through their unique interactions with each other.
2)The story would be told by an omnipotent narrator as multiple scenes play depicting the main character's interactions with his parents, doctors, and other patients. The scenes would not be linked to form a continuous narrative but instead would be structured to juxtapose how one group of people treat the mentally ill versus another. Each scene would give the main character's thoughts on the interaction and how it altered his perception.
3)I think it's a story worth telling, as most people don't know life with a mental illness and how others treat people who suffer from them. I think it will inform the audience on a topic that isn't usually explored.
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