Week 9 Prompts

1. As we discuss Ceremony, we continue to talk about stories. In Ceremony, Silko implies that stories are very powerful. Once a story is "let loose on the world," it cannot be put away. She implies that bad stories (witchery) cause violence, and that the only way to remedy a bad story is with a good story or another version of the story. Thinking beyond the novel, how do you make sense of this claim? Can stories cause violence or create peace?  Explain. 

2.(recycled) If you could conduct an interview with any of the writers we have encountered this quarter, who would you interview? Why? What would you ask him or her?

3. (recycled) Write about your reaction to Janice Gould's visit. What surprised you about her readings or about our conversation?

4. DIY. As always, feel free to write a response to your own prompt or to bring up a previous prompt.

Week 8 prompts

1. As we discuss Ceremony, we have been discussing Tayo's character and perspective. To dig further in to character and perspective, try out one of the following prompts:
A) Analyze perspective and character: how would you categorize the type of narration in this text? Describe the narrative style. How does it affect the novel? How would Tayo's story be different if it were told from a different point of view.
B) Attempt to write a key scene from the novel from another character's point of view.

2. If you could conduct an interview with any of the writers we have encountered this quarter, who would you interview? Why? What would you ask him or her?

3. Write about your reaction to Janice Gould's visit. What surprised you about her readings or about our conversation?

4. DIY. As always, feel free to write a response to your own prompt or to bring up a previous prompt.

Week 7 Prompts

1) In "Language and Literature from a Pueblo Indian Perspective," Leslie Marmon Silko claims that instead of moving "from point A to point B to point C," Pueblo expression "resembles something like a spiderweb–with many little threads radiating from the center." What would it mean for a story to progress like a spiderweb? Explore this idea by responding to one of the following prompts:

• Does this description resemble any type of expression that you are familiar with? Describe a form of expression or form of storytelling that you think embodies a spiderweb style. 
• Re-tell a story familiar to your experience in spiderweb style. Briefly discuss what it was like to try to write in that style.

2) Thinking about Fiction (recycled from week 6): What Makes a Story? Supposedly, Ernest Hemingway once wrote a short story in six words. “For Sale: Baby shoes, never worn.” Do you think this constitutes a story? Discuss.
Then, try your hand at writing some 6-word stories. Post at least 2 of them. For inspiration, check out this link to results from a similar exercise by a dozen or so famous horror and science fiction writers in Wired magazine: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.11/sixwords.html

3) DIY. Do it yourself. Make your own prompt about this week's readings. What speaks to you? What do you think about Ceremony so far? 

Week 6 Prompts: Thinking about Place and Fiction.

1) After re-reading "Man Made of Words," I've been thinking a lot about place. Momaday gives us all a prompt:  

Once in his life a man ought to concentrate his mind upon the remembered earth, I believe. He ought to give himself up to a particular landscape in his experience, to look at it from as many angles as he can, to wonder about it, to dwell upon it. He ought to imagine that he touches it with his hands at every season and listens to the sounds that are made upon it. He ought to imagine the creatures tha are there and all the faintest motions in the wind. He ought to recollect the glare of noon and all the colors of the dawn and dusk.

Try to take Momaday's advice, in full or in part. Write about a place that you know well. Try to describe it at every season.

2) Thinking about Fiction: What Makes a Story? Supposedly, Ernest Hemingway once wrote a short story in six words. “For Sale: Baby shoes, never worn.” Do you think this constitutes a story? Discuss.

Then, try your hand at writing some 6-word stories. Post at least 2 of them. For inspiration, check out this link to results from a similar exercise by a dozen or so famous horror and science fiction writers in Wired magazine: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.11/sixwords.html

3) DIY. Do it yourself. Make your own prompt about this week's readings. What speaks to you?