Hunting For Meaning

We're going to read "The Hunt" - a short story by Steven Nightingale and hunt for different things as we go.

First, jot down a handful of associations connected with the title: hunt. You can include its derivatives, too: hunting, and hunter. Choose one idea, word or picture and underline it or write it down on a separate piece of paper and put it aside. We'll use it later.

Now, what do you expect the story to be about? Can you foresee some elements of the plot? Maybe the whole possible story line?

Read the story. Then look at the possible directions to go around it.

1. How do you find it? Did you enjoy it? Was it lukewarm? Did you get disappointed?  Does it still linger in the air? 

2. If it disappointed you, try to find out why - or where. If you admire it - say what you admire. 

3. What is the most important part (a paragraph, a couple of sentences, a single sentence) of the story? Why?

4. Write a few questions concerning the plot or the characters. What would you like to know or clarify? What intrigues you? Where would you be willing to go further?

5. To make the story fuller, check up the images incorporated in the story. Proper names, names of species, etc. Landscapes. Can you read it with your senses?

Also, guess the meaning of the new words or check them up.

Now, let's pay attention to the story structure:

1. What promises did the writer place in the first paragraph? Hints? Warnings, maybe? 

2. How do you understand the very ending: "...we must hunt what no one can kill"?

The story is an example of magical realism. What characteristics of this genre can you notice - or guess?

You can read an interesting article about magical realism here:

https://writers.com/what-is-magical-realism-in-literature

Here are three creative writing tasks to choose from:

1. Get back to what you noted down - an idea, word or image. Use it as a seed for a new story.

2. Answer the questios that you've written down concerning the plot or the characters as if you were the writer. You can incorporate them into the story.

3. What is this something that no one can kill? Make a few hypotheses.

4. Do you think this story matters nowadays? Why / how?

A Literary Collage

Everyone knows what collage is as an art form - a whole made of pieces that once belonged to other wholes. In other words, pieces that don't necessary belong are gathered on one page and made into a particular entity. Or, a particular entity arises from the bits&scraps.

A literary collage can be more than one thing. 

If you are in a group, let everyone write some sentence on a scrap of paper. Then, put the scraps randomly one under, over or next to each other, face down, and turn them to read the text. Allow room for small adjustments of forms, e.g. tenses or pronouns.

Or, choose a topic and write a few short pieces about and around it. They may differ in character, tone, and length. Then, put them together in one text. You can number the parts.

For a famous example, see Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird by Wallace Stevens:

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45236/thirteen-ways-of-looking-at-a-blackbird

Choose whether you'd rather go for poetry or prose.

Bothies

Lately, we've done an exam task based on the text about bothies. 

You're not sure what they are? Have a closer look at the pic above and/or visit the website 

www.mountainbothies.org.uk

The creative writing task, emerging naturally in these circumstances, is to write a text incorporating bothies.

You can choose btwn a story, a blog entry or an article. Feel free to do some research.

As always, I encourage you to share the piece of writing with me.

Pantoum continued

First, see the previous entry. Then you can read what I've done with my lines.

I'm so curious about your outcomes of this creative task. If you like, read it aloud to yourself or to someone else who may appreciate it. I'll be more than happy to be your reader.

The Blue Mug, the eight lines

1. I was in Findhorn when our paths crossed
2. I keep it in the cupboard, at the back
3. People say nothing about it
4. Because they don't know it's sitting there / about its existence
5. It is a wide blue ceramic mug
6. Sometimes a guest finds it in my house
7. I reached for it when I saw it on a stand
8. I bought it on a day when I was very sad

The Blue Mug, a Pantoum

I was in Findhorn when our paths crossed
I keep it in the cupboard, at the back
People say nothing about it
Because they don't know it is sitting there

I keep it in the cupboard, at the back
It is a wide blue ceramic mug
Nobody knows it is sitting there
Sometimes a guest finds it in my house

It's a wide blue ceramic mug
I reached for it when I saw it on a stand
Sometimes a guest finds it in my house
I bought it on a day when I was very sad

When I reached for it, I saw the potter at the stand

 People said nothing about that

I bought the blue mug when I was very sad

It was in Findhorn where our paths crossed

Pantoum (after Pádraig Ó Tuama of Poetry Unbound)

Today I want to share a prompt I got in a newsletter from Pádraig Ó Tuama, a contemporary poet of Irish origin (you can find him here: 

https://www.padraigotuama.com/).

Here is the invitation: Respond to the following eight prompts, with a single line each. Then arrange it in pantoum form (the pattern's given below).

1. Where you got the item

2. Where you keep it

3. What others say about it

4. A secret only it knows

5. A description of it

6. How others see it

7. A particular time you reached for it

8. What it means to you

Try to make each line of roughly equal length, and certainly each line should be no wider than a page. Then arrange the 8 lines in the following order (each line is repeated, so this will turn into a 16-line poem). 

1
2
3
4

2
5
4
6

5
7
6
8

7
3
8
1

If you wish, you can modify the line when it repeats — to make it fit in with the previous line or to give a different angle into it. 

Here's my attempt at the task. You can first put it simply, and then alter your sentences before you arrange them according to the rules.

The Blue Mug

1. I bought it in Findhorn

2. I keep it at the back of the cupboard

3. People say nothing about it

4. Because they don't know about its existence

5. It's a wide blue ceramic mug

6. Sometimes a guest finds it in my house

7. I reached for it when I saw it on a stand

8. I bought it on a day when I was very sad, to brighten my mood

More elaborate versions of the sentences:

1. I came across it on my walk
    around Findhorn, Scotland, Findhorn Bay

2. I keep the mug in a cupboard now
    behind my other pieces of earthenware

3. People say nothing of its kind of blue

4. Because they don't know it is sitting there
     half-forgotten, in the sunlit room, in half-dark         of its cupboard universe, 

5. It's blue the way an ocean wave is, 
     many of them

6. Every now and then a guest will notice it 
     by pure chance

7. I reached for it once I saw it on a stand; 
    it said: for sale, and it said: pay here

8. It saved my life after somebody I loved
    chose someone else

Message Exchange

It's just happened to me - and so I encourage you to do the same. 

I will explain.

I was in the midsts of trying to choose the right text for the English specialisation group, reading E. A. Poe (not my favourite, but matching our latest attemps at Big Ben), William Blake's Tyger roaring behind my back, and D. H. Lawrence's Snake hissing, "it'ssss time you took me into the classsssroom...". Oh, and there there was Padraig O'Tuama's newsletter nestling Edward Lear's runcible spoon (now, what on Earth is this? And will they want to know?).

The phone ting'tinged. It was a message from one of the students saying he won't be coming to the class today as he's caught a cold. I started clicking a usual response when - out of a sudden - it gained a life of its own and turned itself into a poem.

And what it has to do with you, you wonder? 

Well, next time you're reading something a n d get a text message, try to answer it in the rhythm and melody, mood and tone of what it is you have been reading. Or, if you weren't reading at all, pause, choose a piece, read through it (it can be the lyrics of your favourite song, or news lines) and follow with your message back to the sender, letting it turn into whatever it feels like turning.

You don't need to share your writing with that original person but you definitely can - and are welcome to - share that with me as I'll share with you in a moment.

Thx, N. It came just in time :).

Message Exchange

Thanks for the 

message. Hope 

it'll pass soon - this

cold. But take

your time.

        It's autumn, after 

all; the time so apt, so

suitable

to feel one's way 

into the rains. the 

chills will try

their best to chase 

away from us the 

remnants of 

the summer suns 

that we

had gained

when it was time - when

summer seemed

untouchable by death;

some time will pass

until we lose

the very last

of rays.

There is no need to 

rush -

- it just takes time

to get back

to oneself, recovering

from too much

sunshine,

yielding the joys

and happiness

to moistures, letting in

howls      and    gusts

  of wind               of rain

to hush

oneself

at last, and have

some rest

before 

another spring

A Horse in Space

The other day we had an interesting conversation in class. We watched a short film about living at ISS (= International Space Station) and then we were talking about how it would be like to actually go and stay there for a given time, or what we would or would not be allowed to do - or even take there with us.

If I'm not allowed to take my pets with me, I'm not even going, one student said with such a strong conviction that it would, perhaps, be a thing worth trying to let her go cuddling her dog on the way up there, or talking to her horse.

So, here's the task:

Write a short story that happens in space: on the Moon, on another planet, inside a spaceship - or outside of it, that includes at least one animal.

https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2013/03/02/02/21/space-89132_1280.jpg