Re: freewriting

Albert Rouzie (rouzie@CCWF.CC.UTEXAS.EDU)
Thu, 25 Jul 1996 09:43:11 -0600

Nick wrote:
>We've had these discussions before, sharing metaphors, telling classroom
>stories, describing how we apply theory and to what degree. Often there
>is a counter argument raised that's made by extending the metaphor beyond
>what an author intended, by giving the narrative an unexpected twist. I
>suppose a good constellation of stories should include follow up
>narratives. If a writer heres one what has worked for another writer,
>and tries it herself, the results or application or feeling of it might
>be different. Linking the variations would be great, it would show both
>the complexity of each story, the complexity of acting on stories, and
>the process of someone working with their own sense of whom they are as
>a writer, or whom they want other writers to believe they are. I mean,
>when we're dealing with something so fishy as a porpoise, you need to
>leave room for whoppers and the ones that got away.
>
>Nick Carbone, Writing Instructor

Anyone remember Lex Runciman's College English essay "Fun?"? His point
that we seldom refer to our pleasure in the processes of writing and
thinking could inform whatever form this project takes. I worry less about
reification of the narratives as prescription (which Nick points out can be
avoided through follow-up, inclusion of other voices, and a hypertextual
structure) than that we may end up representing the whole enterprise in the
dreary terms Runciman was protesting. Mer's jazz image gives us a
play/improvisation metaphor suitable to the list's improvised mesh and it
raises other terms, like bricolage, with the similar sense of improvisatory
flair for constructing emanings out of whatever materials are at hand or
eye. I think we need to explore the idea of pleasure in writing,
recognizing, of course, that some folks view it as just hard work, but also
trying to prevent that from becoming the image one carries away from the
site.

-Albert
*************
Albert Rouzie
University of Texas at Austin
e-mail: rouzie@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu
http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/~rouzie/rouziepage.html
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