Pursuant to our fruitful conversations, I'm going to summarize here our group thoughts and responsibilities. If we each do our part, it should be very doable (and interesting!)
We've discussed the evolution of creative non-fiction qua genre over the millennia. After getting the pulse of what we're each individually interested in, here are my initial proposals for the areas we can focus on individually. If you can please have read your representative work by Tuesday and bring a copy or a (legal, public domain) URL, that would be fantastic.
These are in rough chronological order, from the ancient world through the 21st century.
Caitlyn: Would you be willing to touch on Augustine and the originals of the tell-all memoir? I almost said "I'll bring you macarons," then I remembered my penury.
Dawn: Speechmaking. Lincoln's second inaugural is 720 words. Pretty sure T. S. Eliot wrote footnotes longer than that.
Charly: early 20th-century literary criticism. Borges is short and punchy.
Kimara: cookbooks, specifically breadmaking. Bring a recipe (nice and brief!). Literary qualities count.
Toldja there were medieval cookbooks!
Jamie: New Media. Loved the mention of Elizabeth Gilbert, or TED talks. Something the class can view beforehand, or short enough to present. Obviously you'll be bringing pasta carbonara for 25.
None of this is fiat. But I think it will help structure our presentation, not be subject to too many difficulties, and even with several entries, most are short (and we can choose good selections, alla Dallin's case), so I don't think that's asking too much of the class to read.
Can we plan on serving bread? I think it'd be fun to have each team/Hogwarts house write a short, five- to -ten-minute piece of non-fiction on one topic but in different genres (recipe, confessional memoir, political speech.) The French poet and short fiction writer Gaëtan Brulotte wrote a self-description like PopTart or hair dryer instructions, and it was actually awesome. #obligatoryfrenchreference
Also emailed.
Wow, Charly! This is great! Thank you for putting together all our thoughts (and your great ideas) on the blog. You are a born leader!
ReplyDeleteSounds great! Thanks for thinking of ways we can all present. Thanks for being our leader.
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