Scissortail Creative Writing Festival Extra Credit

 REMEMBER, no class on Friday so you can attend (if you wish) a session or two of the Scissortail Creative Writing Festival. It starts Thursday morning and runs all day, with hour to 75 minute-long sessions, with a break for lunch and a break for dinner. There are also evening sessions (one) at 7:00. The entire schedule is here: https://ecuscissortail.blogspot.com/2022/01/2022-schedule-of-readings.html

Once you attend a session (or two), you can answer the following questions just like one of our daily readings to get extra credit. This can take the form of excused absences, missed responses, or simply a few extra credit points to  your grade, which can help border-line grades at the end of the semester. 

Answer all FOUR:

Q1: Which author did you find most interesting in the session and why? Did you connect more with their material, their performance, or something else? Would you read more of their works if you could? Would you recommend it to others? 

Q2: In general,  how did the readers perform their works? Was one more physical or theatrical than another? Or were all more or less the same? Did one's performance help you 'see' or understand their material? Did one make it more difficult to hear or understand it? 

Q3: Discuss the audience for your session: how did they react to the different pieces? How can you tell when an audience likes or is less interested in a piece? Did they clap between pieces? Did you often know why they were clapping (was it obvious)? Did anything about the audience reaction surprise you?

Q4: How did all the pieces in your session work together--or not? Did they seem to complement each other? Or was one very different or almost out of place? Did one help you appreciate another one? And did you like the fact that they weren't all poets, or they weren't all reading fiction? 

For Wednesday: Capote, In Cold Blood, pp.36-74 (the rest of Chapter One)

Be sure to get me your Paper #3 by 5pm on Monday! You can still turn it in late, but you lose -10 pts. for each day afterwards (5pm Monday to 5pm Tuesday counts as one day, etc.). 

Answer TWO of the following:

Q1: The concept of fate runs through the entire book, and terrible decisions seem to be made by chance encounters or strange coincidences. How does fate itself seem to play a role in the murder? Why might Perry be particularly influenced by the idea of fate?

Q2: Writing of the nearest 'big' town, Capote says, “Without exception, Garden Citians deny that the population of the town can be socially graded…but, of course, class distinctions are as clearly observed, and as clearly observable, as in any other human hive. A hundred miles west and one would be out of the “Bible Belt,” that gospel-haunted strip of American territory in which a man must, if only for business reasons, take his religion with the straightest of faces…” (34). Why is the setting of the novel as important as the murder itself, at least for Capote? How could it have also (like fate) been an accomplice? 

Q3: What is strange about how Dick and Perry murder the Clutter family? Why does it lead the police to believe that the murderers were someone who obviously knew the family, and possibly held them a particular grudge? 

Q4: Besides the horror of losing people they knew and loved (the Clutters), what is the greatest aftermath of the murder? How does it begin to change the town and make them look at themselves, and the world, in a different light? 

For Monday: No Class--Paper #3 due!

Remember that Paper #3 is due by 5pm on Monday, so there's no class. Instead, finish the paper, and then keep reading In Cold Blood for Wednesday's class (I'll post new questions later on Monday).

ALSO, we won't have class on Friday since I want to encourage you to go to ECU's Scissortail Creative Writing Festival, Oklahoma's largest writing festival right here at East Central. There will be over 70 authors from all over the country reading their works, signing their books, and in general, just sharing their love of the written word. Instead of coming to class on Friday, go to one of the 9:00 sessions in the Cole Student Center, or sleep in and go to one of the later sessions. There are dozens of sessions from Thursday to Saturday, and you can find the entire schedule here: scissortail creative writing festival: 2022: Schedule of Readings (ecuscissortail.blogspot.com)

I will give you an Extra Credit assignment on Wednesday which you can complete for up to 2 sessions. More information on that to follow.

See you on Wednesday! 

For Friday: Capote, In Cold Blood, pages 3-36

NOTE: Read at least to page 36 in In Cold Blood, but feel free to real more of the first chapter if you like. I'll give you more reading over the weekend for next Wednesday, so you'll have plenty of time to finish the chapter.

Answer TWO of the following: 

Q1: Truman Capote is reconstructing the events leading up the murder based on interviews and his own intuition. He wasn't literally in the car with the killers to hear their conversation, and he never even met the victims. Do you think it's fair to write a fictional reconstruction of 'real' events like this? Did it bother you--or did it help you understand the events?

Q2: For most people in the town, the Clutters were the perfect American family: successful, close-knit, and high-achieving. And while Capote doesn't contradict this portrait, what secrets did the family keep behind the scenes? What makes them less 'perfect' than appearances might show?

Q3: Why was Dick so drawn to Perry? As Capote depicts them, they're very different people, and at times don't even seem to like each other very much. What made them 'fated' to be together, in his eyes?

Q4: Writing about the town of Holcomb, Capote notes, "The inhabitants of the village, numbering two hundred and seventy, were satisfied that this should be so, quite content to exist inside ordinary life--to work, to hunt, to watch television, to attend school socials, choir practice, meetings of the 4-H Club" (5). Based on this, what makes Holcomb worthy of writing about in a book like this? Since most people have never even heard of it, why is a murder in Holcomb a national event? What makes Holcomb uniquely 'American'? 

Paper #3: The Art Critic, due March 28th

Paper #3: The Art Critic  

For this paper, I want you to choose ONE painting from Schmied’s book, Edward Hopper: Portraits of America to write about. You are going to write a 2-3 page spread on this painting, just like the ones you can read on paintings such as Office at Night and New York Movie. This should be a brief (so no more than 3 pages, double spaced) introduction to the painting that helps someone understand the ‘conversation’ about the painting: the CONTEXT of the painting (historical details, cultural details, etc.) plus a READING of the painting (what you see, what others see). Imagine what people don’t know and might need to know about this painting (and Hopper) to really appreciate this work of art. You don’t have to describe the painting, but feel free to point out specific details, something we might not notice, or you feel is important. Don’t go into too much detail, but do enough to be useful; quote when necessary, but be sure to cite all the information you learned from your sources.

To help you do this, I want you to find FIVE sources on this painting, from each of the following categories (ONE of which should be Schmied’s book):

• A source about the painting, or a discussion of the painting
• A source about another painting of the same period to compare it to this one
• A source about Hopper (his life, ideas, etc.) that is relevant to the painting in some way
• A source about the time period (context about what was going on then that could be relevant to understanding the painting)
• A source about the location of the painting (where it takes place: for example, what is an “automat?”)
• OR A source about the person’s occupation (gas station attendant, movie usher, etc.)

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY: Instead of a normal Works Cited page, I want you to list all 5 sources along with 1-2 sentences about each one, briefly summarizing what it’s about. Imagine that the person reading this article might want to read these sources to find out more information about the painting; your summaries will help them decide which ones are the most useful to them.

Ex: Schmied, Wieland. Edward Hopper: Portraits of America. New York: Prestel, 2005. Schmied’s book offers an overview of Hopper’s career, along with some biographical details to help you understand the major themes and ideas of his paintings. (don’t use this summary in your paper—write your own! J )

DUE MONDAY, MARCH 28^th by 5pm [no class that day]

For Wednesday: Schmeid, Hopper: Portraits of America, pp.80-106

NOTE: Read through the rest of the book for Wednesday's class, though don't worry if you can't quite finish. We'll spend more time with the book even though we're technically done with the questions. On Friday, we'll do some in-class writing and discuss the next paper assignment, and what I want you to do with this book going forward (stay tuned!).

Answer TWO of the following:

Q1: Hopper likes to paint different versions of the same basic scene or idea, even if they look quite different at first. Which painting in this part of the book seems to be a new version of an earlier one (Nighthawks, etc)? Why do you think so? What thematic links do we see from one picture to the other? Is it a similar character? Mood? Time of day? Story?

Q2: Schmied writes that Hopper's characters "are mobile and restless, yet statically tied to some location from which they will probably never escape" (84). This suggests that many of his subjects are running away--or running to something. Do you think he means this to be hopeful or pessimistic? Which painting shows someone "mobile but restless," and how do you read the situation of the subject?

Q3: Schmied also notes how many characters in his paintings are drawn to the light--like moths to the flame. Over and over again, we see character basking in the light or being exposed in it (New York Office, Sunlight on Brownstones, etc.). Why do you think this is a favorite subject for Hopper? What does the light mean in these paintings? Is it a spotlight? A prison? Something else??

Q4: In one of his strangest paintings, People in the Sun (p.104), Hopper paints a group portrait of people lounging in the sun together. What do you think is the mood or story of this picture? Does it feel 'warmer' or 'happier' because no one is alone in this painting? Or is it just as creeper and isolated as many of the paintings with only one or two people in it? Why do you think so? 

For Monday: Schmeid, Edward Hopper: Portraits of America (pp.50-79)

NOTE: Be sure to check your e-mail this weekend, since I'll be grading your papers and e-mailing the rubric & grade for your paper. If you want a hard copy as well, let me know and I can bring it on Monday. 

Answer TWO of the following:

Q1: Schemid writes that Hopper's paintings create "a world without a future. And perhaps the oddest thing of all--it includes no children. Hopper never portrayed a child. His is a world of adults condemned to extinction, and conscious of the fact" (54). Do you agree? And if so, which painting best seems to characterize this sense of doom and extinction? And if not, what other mood/philosophy might his paintings communicate to the viewer?

Q2: Another thing Schmeid notes in Hopper's paintings in that they "exclude everything that has come to be associated with the American cliche" (53). What do you think the "American cliche" would be at this time (or in our time)? What subjects or ideas does he never paint, and why might his works (though fictional) be more realistic than most paintings of the period? Esp. ones like Nighthawks, New York Movie, Hotel Room, etc.

Q3: How might two of his most famous paintings, "Office at Night," and "Nighthawks" be different versions of the same general painting or idea? What do they each have in common? What does each one seem to say about people, relationships, the city, and night? 

Q4: Many of Hopper's paintings seem voyeuristic, meaning that it's like the viewer is spying on people who think they're all alone, doing normal, day-to-day activities. Hopper did this because he claimed, "the most mundane human situations can also be the most deceptive and revealing" (72). Which painting do you feel shows something normal and revealing? What do we see that his 'hidden' or surprising about this activity? 

For Friday: Schmeid, Hopper: Portraits of America, pp.7-49

Remember: even though several pages are just paintings, look at those too! There are different types of 'reading' to do in this book, so think about how the paintings work with the text. That will be important for answering the questions, and later, for your next paper assignment.

Answer TWO of the following:

Q1: According to Schmeid, what makes Hopper a "timeless" painter? Also, what makes him uniquely American? Why do his paintings look American as opposed to French or German? How can you see this in a painting? 

Q2: Hopper writes that "Great art is the outward expression of an inner life in the artist, and this inner life will result in his personal vision in the world" (33). According to what we learn about him in these pages, how did his 'inner life' match up with some of his paintings? Which painting in this section seems to most represent his character?

Q3: One of his most curious paintings is Gas (1940) on pages 30-31. Schmeid notes that the painting is "set at the frontier between day and night, between civilization and nature. The gas station has the appearance of a last outpost" (30). How do you feel about this painting? Is it supposed to be depressing or hopeful? A 'light' in the darkness? Or a scene of the 'darkness' about to take over the light? How does it make you feel (and why)?

Q4: How might the painting New York Movie (1939) represent Schmeid's comment that "Hopper's paintings began to take on the character of illustrations in reverse, illustrations without a subject predetermined by others" (40)? Why might this painting look like an "illustration" rather than just a painting of a woman?