Writing & Creativity

Dear All,

Writing may seem boring, but...!

Please listen to at least one of the following talks about writing, storytelling, letters, blogs, and creativity in general, and let us know what you think of it [click on "comment" to share your views]. Feel free to add any other thoughts and/or links you would like to share about these topics.

Thank you,

gudrun


Here the list:

Chimamanda Adichie: The Danger of a Single Story

http://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story.html

Isabel Allende: Tales of Passion

http://www.ted.com/talks/isabel_allende_tells_tales_of_passion.html

Amy Tan: Where Does Creativity Hide?

http://www.ted.com/talks/amy_tan_on_creativity.html

JJ Abrams: The Mystery Box

http://www.ted.com/talks/j_j_abrams_mystery_box.html           

Andrew Stanton: The Clues to a Great Story      

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/andrew_stanton_the_clues_to_a_great_story.html

Joe Sabia: The Technology of Storytelling

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/joe_sabia_the_technology_of_storytelling.html

Ryan Lobo: Photographing the hidden story

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/ryan_lobo_through_the_lens_of_compassion.html

Lakshmi Pratury: On Letter-Writing

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/lakshmi_pratury_on_letter_writing.html           

Neil Pasricha: The 3 A's of Awesome

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/neil_pasricha_the_3_a_s_of_awesome.html

Isaac Mizrahi: On Fashion and Creativity

http://www.ted.com/talks/isaac_mizrahi_on_fashion_and_creativity.html

Authors on Writing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtQlWMhPcYc           

More Authors on Writing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9IgTDLvRfY&feature=related 

The Power of Words

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hzgzim5m7oU

Storytelling & Identity

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ILb11fWpA8

Advice for Writers from Stephen King

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqp7A0B7abc           

Advice for Writers from Garrison Keillor

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADQO0aO_uSc&feature=related           

Advice for Writers from Kurt Vonnegut

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyQ1wEBx1V0           

Writing Lessons by Jack Kerouac

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7IeCEvT_CM&feature=related

Wit & Wisdom from Writers about Writing, I

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulBofscijPI           

Wit & Wisdom from Writers about Writing, II (critics)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKpL0RNJbnY&feature=related           

Jaques Derrida: Fear of Writing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoKnzsiR6Ss

Peter Elbow: On Writing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDUn1c4uxUE

Garrison Keillor: Writing in Different Forms

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZMBrY6lbmg&feature=related

Toni Morrison: Motivation for Writing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8Zgu2hrs2k&feature=related

Salman Rushdie: The Creative Process

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwcGDpcwDsM&feature=related

Margaret Atwood: The Creative Process

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXEXX8bkLDI

speak out for the environment and democracy today!

Please speak out for the Environment and Democracy today by joining the BLACKOUT SPEAKOUT Campaign!

Details: http://www.blackoutspeakout.ca/

Thank you for your support,

gudrun

Interesting Ads, Websites, Videos/Clips, etc

Dear All,

Technology - though sometimes pretty annoying or even scary - can be a wonderful tool for creativity. Some ads, websites, and videos in particular use texts, images, music, sounds, movement and technical tricks to create really interesting effects.

Please post some links to ads, websites, youtube clips, and/or other (free) videos or even (free) games etc that you like here in this section and tell the rest of us:

1) what you particularly like about whatever you have chosen,
2) what the main message of the piece is, and
3) how the creator of the ad, website or video/clip managed to get his/her/their message across
    (i.e. what do you think are his/her/their main strategies).

I really like the following clips and would like to share it with you:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ep9MFiWXR8M&feature=share
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-HnrMrQ6Tw&feature=player_embedded

The two projects from Dan Cole's portfolio below are also very interesting, I think:

http://dancole.carbonmade.com/projects/88948
http://dancole.carbonmade.com/projects/4224697

More playful and less serious, the following two ads: the first one uses a metaphor - and take sit literally - the second one a well-known story:

http://www.kuraoka.com/fncu%20stepcd%20ad.pdf
http://www.kuraoka.com/HE-mailer-pigs.pdf


I am looking forward to your pieces,

gudrun

word, words, words

Another way to play with words - and to produce an infinite number of texts:

1)
please pick 20 words from the words in the picture and number them from 1 to 20

2)
write a text (poem or story or article or journal entry etc) that uses the words in the order you have given them (i.e. from 1 to 20)

3)
write a second text in the same genre that uses the words in reverse order (i.e. from 20 to 1) -> see what happens

4)
you can go on trying other sequences of the same words and see what happens

5)
ask a friend to give you his/her sequence of words and do the same thing

Here some words to start with:

Have fun!

gudrun

Visual Poems and Sound Poems

Many poets love to play - and to use language in a very experimental way. Examples are visual poems and sound poems. Please share links to your favorite visual poems and/or sound poems and comment on your reading/listening experience, your thoughts about these poems, and other comments you may wish to share.

Please feel also free to post your own visual and/or sound poems here!

Some of my favorite visual and sound poems are:

Earle Birney, "Alaska Passage"
(apparently not available on-line - so you have to find it in the library)

bp nichol, "What is a Poem":  
http://media.sas.upenn.edu/pennsound/authors/bpNichol/Ear-Rational-1982/bpNichol_02_Pome-Poem_1972.mp3

bp nichol, "Love Poem for Gertrud Stein":  
http://media.sas.upenn.edu/pennsound/authors/bpNichol/bpNichol/bpNichol_01_Love-Poem-4-Stein_bpNichol_1971.mp3

Bill Bissett, "Gypsy Dreamers,":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jh9FzN6oh5w&feature=related

Bill Bissett, "Chant":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0KqtN0GczY

See also: 2 parts of Phillis Webb interviewing Bill Bissett and bp nichol:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBmxvfktZaM&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vv8BN2NA6nk&feature=related

Contemporary Visual Poems are easily accessible:
-> just google: "visual poems image" or: "concrete poems image"

For Visual Poetry through the Ages see:
http://www.webexhibits.org/poetry/explore_21_visual_examples.html

Please do not forget to play with the sounds and the visual arrangement of words yourself. It really is fun!

gudrun

"Academese"

In his article  "Language Crimes: A Lesson in How Not to Write"
<www.denisdutton.com>  Dennis Dutton makes fun of the typical academic style that so many scholars use in their papers.

What do you think of this topic - and the typical "Academese" that seems to spread like a disease?

Thanks for you comments,

gudrun

Analyzing Texts - Continued

Dear All,

I would like to invite you all to share your thoughts on one (or more) of the three texts listed below.
Please write down your own comments FIRST and THEN read what others have written about the same text. This will help you
1) post your own unique approach to the text and
2) learn more about the text in question by also looking at it through someone else's eyes.
Please feel free to comment on what other people have posted to get a real discussion going.

Our goal: to approach the three texts from different directions and angles. Since we are all unique, we necessarily have a unique way of interacting with a text. In fact, each of us has MANY unique ways of interacting with the SAME text - since each time we interact with the text, the context is different, the situation is different, our mood is different and therefore the connections we make and the associations we bring to the text are different each time as well.

By thinking about the same text in different contexts - and by reading how other people understand the same text - we  gain a deeper understanding of the text because we will gradually become able to look at it  - more or less simultaneously - from different directions and through different  people's eyes.


What T.S. Eliot said in "Little Gidding" holds definitely true for the understanding of texts - and works of art as well as reality in general: only after we have walked around something and looked at it from all sides, can we begin to grasp it's meaning:

We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.

Here the three texts I would like us to explore:


Deepak Chopra, "Speech for Cinema for Peace"
-> http://www.lighthousecompany.com/downloads/Choprah_speech.pdf
This is the full version of the text.

Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī, "Only Breath" (translated by Coleman Barks)
-> http://peacefulrivers.homestead.com/rumipoetry1.html#anchor_13849

Margaret Atwood, "Habitation"
-> http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poem/3743.html
Please note that this version contains one additional line that is omitted in most anthologies!

I think all three texts are wonderful texts and definitely worth some deeper exploration.

Enjoy!

gudrun