Starting a conversation about the reading by way of a few prompts!

Dear Class,

I've been thinking about some of your early comments on D'agata and the Pillow Book and thought I might throw out a few prompts in case you might be stuck for tomorrow's assignment. (I am sure you are not stuck, but what the heck, here they are).

1. Persona in CNF: So, I love what Angela said about Shei Shonagon being "the first blogger." Yes! As D'agata says in his intro to the piece (yes, that's him again)…she's catty, she's rude, gossipy, mean sometimes, sometimes really sappy. She makes lists that seem on the one hand out of boredom and on the other out of a kind of nervous self-centeredness, a way to place herself in the world. She reveals personal things about herself in a sideways way.

Here's something to think about. How does persona work in your writing. By persona here I mean subjectivity and tone. Is it intimate? Is it distant and story-telling? Is it formal? How can you access a more intimate tone in your own work? I love the idea that this piece was written over time in a book she kept under her pillow. A secret book that no one would read (though, like 19th century diaries, she probably knew someone would read it). But still, what about this? For a week keep a stack of index cards by your bed. Each night and each morning -- before you go to sleep and right after you wake up -- write something down that fits inside the space of the index card. Then put it in a pile in your desk drawer. Don't look at them until the week is over. My thought is that perhaps this "procedure" will yield a more intimate tone? Another way to accomplish this: write the piece to someone you love very deeply who you are very very close to. Then try it again imagining a stranger.

2. Found Forms: A recipe, a resume, a catalogue, a comment card, a contributor's note, a will, a progress report, a While You Were Out note card, a greeting card, a bill, a medical text book….pick a form and appropriate it for a piece of CNF….see where it goes!

3. Short-Short: What about the idea that the lyric essay is just the CNF of the prose poem or flash fiction? If so, try and write a short short cnf piece that takes up only 200 words. Or less!

Here's an example of our boyfriend, Nick Flynn, writing a collage of terms of alcoholism from his memoir Another BS Night is Suck City:

http://www8.georgetown.edu/departments/familymedicine/imh/unit5/unit5Sec1b.htm

Here is our girlfriend, Sarah Manguso:

http://www.esquire.com/blogs/books/sarah-manguso-napkin-fiction-blog