All exercises are taken from Alice LaPlante's The Making of a Story: A Norton Guide to Creative Writing
Chapter 2: Part III features two short fiction pieces, Where are you going Where have you been by Joyce Carol Oates and Welcome to Cancerland by Barbara Ehrenreich
I highly recommend Welcome to Cancerland.
Chapter 2: Part III Readings
Where are you going, Where have you been? by Joyce Carol Oates
1. How does Oates define Connie’s character?
She is shallow and sexual yet somewhat afraid of her own sexuality. She rejects her role of a nice girl in lieu of a sexual persona that only comes out when she’s away from home.“She knew she was pretty and that was everything.”
2. How do you characterize the relationship between Connie and her mother? Is it one dimensional? Or is there something that keeps it from being flat and overly familiar?
They don’t seem to understand each other well nor do they want to. Here’s a line of how Connie imagines her own mother sees her in comparison to her sister June: “June did this, June did that, she saved money and helped clean the house and cooked and Connie couldn’t do a thing, her mind was all filled with trashy daydreams.” The relationship is more than one dimensional but not overly explored. To some degree, the mother is presented to the reader as a one dimensional character because she’s only interpreted through Connie’s eyes.
3. How does Oates create tension in the piece? What aspects of the piece are the most suspenseful, and why?
The mundane details of Connie’s life and character help create tension between her and Arnold Fiend. She is afraid yet mesmerized by him and the reader eventually feels the same way. He has an ostentatious car (a gold convertible) and a forceful way of speaking. He is a familiar stranger and his interactions with Connie create suspense in the piece.
Welcome to Cancerland by Barbara Ehrenreich
1. How does the writer avoid melodrama in this piece, which is about facing death?
According to NGCW’s author, a melodramatic piece is a work that is “characterized by extravagant theatricality and by the predominance of plot and physical action over characterization” and a sentimental piece is a work that is “falsely emotional in a maudlin way” (pg. 31). These types of pieces tend to rely on stereotypes and unrepresentative depictions in that they do not represent the complexity of a situation. For example, marriages and births are always depicted as happy while funerals are depicted as sad. Welcome to Cancerland is an excellent example of a short story/essay that avoids melodrama and sentimentality by attacking the corporate cult surrounding breast cancer survivors. “Cancer or no cancer, I will not live that long, of course. But I know this much right now for sure: I will not go into that last good night with a teddy bear tucked under my arm.”
2. Isn’t this a piece about fighting a sentimental attitude toward disease? In what ways is Ehrenreich saying the same things we read about in this chapter?
Ehrenreich points out that the cult of breast cancer surviving with all of its ribbons and relays for the cure is a false sisterhood that can be “judged as an outbreak of mass delusion” which celebrates “survivorhood by downplaying mortality and promoting obedience to medical protocols known to have limited efficacy.” This is a stellar rejection of sentimentality of a topic (cancer) that is very prone to sentimental and false displays that the corporate culture surrounding it actually exploits.
All exercises are taken from Alice LaPlante's The Making of a Story: A Norton Guide to Creative Writing (NGCW).
Chapter 1: Part III features two short fiction pieces, On Keeping a Notebook by Joan Didion and Emergency by Denis Johnson.
I highly recommend Johnson to anyone who likes Jack Kerouac and Chuck Palahniuk.
Chapter 1: Part III Readings
On Keeping a Notebook by Joan Didion
1. What do you think about Didion’s reasons for keeping a notebook? Do you agree with them? Why or why not?
Her reasons are to record how it felt to her. I agree because writing is a selfish and self-absorbed process. It’s all about my interpretation of the world and the notebook allows me to record what is significant. That’s why my notebook is useless to someone else and someone else’s notebook is useless to me, as she said.
2. What devices have you found best for generating notebook entries? Do you keep a traditional journal? Or do you find yourself jotting down odd notes, a la Didion?
I am trying to jot down more odd notes and to keep something small with me at all times so I can get into the habit of it. For now, I only have a 100 page mead composition book in which I write ideas from home. I also use it to develop story ideas and to take notes for these creative writing exercises.
3. Have you ever “mined” a journal or a notebook for fiction or nonfiction ideas? If so, how has the worked?
I sometimes write down things I heard on TV and use it later as ideas for flash fiction stories. It’s not so much mining because I do not take notes on the world around me (I would need something small and a habit of jotting to do that) but just referring. I hope to turn to mining in the future.
4. Do you agree with Didion that jotting down notes on what is happening around you is always, ultimately, about yourself? Why or why not?
Yes, I see all writing, at least non-sentimental/ melodramatic writing, as being an expression or a commentary of the world around us. There is always an element of what you’ve experienced or someone you’ve seen or observed and it is therefore ultimately about yourself, even if indirectly.
Emergency by Denis Johnson
I loved this story and its brevity. It reminded me of Chuck Palahniuk and, when I looked up Denis Johnson online, I saw that Palahniuk is a big fan of him too. The general feeling I took away is the absurdity and inanity of modern life. A man gets stabbed in the eye, the orderlies who treat him the hospital are high, and a rabbit family gets killed, yet none of these events is the focal point of the story. They are just things that happen.
2. What purpose does Georgie play in the story? How would it be a completely different story if he weren’t in it?
I see him as a reflection on the narrator. The story would be completely different without him. I particularly love (can one particularly love?) this simple yet complex metaphor. “I could understand how a drowning man might suddenly feel a deep thirst being quenched. Or how the slave might become a friend to his master. Georgie slept with his face right on the steering wheel.”
3. Can you point out the ways that Johnson keeps surprising us? How does he play with our expectations and deliver something that feels fresh and urgent?
It feels like a collection of flash fiction pieces all tied in together with the same characters. There is no mulling over and considering, what does this all mean? The prose is not tired or boring. The events that occur are not analyzed, they just happen. Finally, when you think that it’s all over, they meet Hardee, a draft dodger. They drive him to Canada and, when Hardee asks Georgie what he does for a living, Georgie replies “I save lies.” This made me laugh out loud. It was so unexpected and refreshing. Brilliant.
All exercises are taken from Alice LaPlante's The Making of a Story: A Norton Guide to Creative Writing
