Unba//anced

i just realized the past few posts have had colloquialisms. i must be amused, instead of annoyed, by south philly talk lately.

so, here's a new layout for ye olde blogge. i was just too lazy and uninspired to make a new one, so i appropriated this one from a template site. you'll notice that the comments are now just a number next to the title of the post. click on that number to check out or leave a comment. also, all my links and info are at the bottom of the page. i like the cleanness of the layout and the single column design.

thanks to the two lovely people who offered to edit my story. check yo inboxes.


now on to more stimulating topics (which is amusing to me, given the nature of the story mentioned above)...

** i'd like to start the 10-12 year olds in blogging or podcasting. just something that's not myspace. but the key to getting them into it is finding a subject matter that they'll get fired up about. need to brainstorm about that.


** on the Now What blog, the original post talks about why they started this collaborative blog. one of the comments left by frank sauce struck me:

However, academia, like the publishers, often neuters the creative process. Most writing and poetry from those institutions today lack the profound complexity or the chewable meat of real literature.

the original poster, lance olsen, writes back:

Thanks, Frank. I quickly want to pick up on your comment that "academia, like the publishers, often neuters the creative process."

Brian Kiteley, in his wonderful experimental fiction-writing guide 3 a.m. Epiphany, underscores that point by arguing that most workshops "promote mere competence."

Why?

My sense is that craft can be taught, but not vision. The result is often a standardizing of creative work rather than an opening up, a challenging, an invitation to risk-taking.

i'm not going to disagree with olsen, because after witnessing a creative writing program first-hand, i can testify that most people can write and tell a story, but don't know how to inject original thought, test the limits of language and meaning or blow those limits away, or have the sense to play with language and words without having to tell a nice little story (that really happened to them - which anyone knows are usually the worst kind of stories to write about).

but i think that that academia, like music/film/tv/internet/publishing, is suffering from maximizing profits at the suffering of creativity and progressive ideas. college is being used as a holding pen for young adults who don't think they're ready for real life and by businesses as a way of not having to spend their own money and time on training employees (and instead make parents and the students themselves pay for knowledge and skills that could be garnered by working). it's a money-making machine, not a place for individuals to expand their thinking about their chosen field and to make strides in something unique and new.

and in typing all that, i just want to say that i've come to realize just how much i had at a certain undergraduate college. i met several people there who not only put me on the intellectual path i'm currently on, but pushed me into considering things i may have dismissed before and enlighten me on things i had no idea about. so, thanks to doug, alan, gerry, mark and especially the two people i consider mentors - courtney grim and ted pelton. thank you all and you have no idea how much i miss having people in my life who were great artists in their own rights, obviously cared a great deal about their art, giving interested students the time, attention and knowledge to start their own paths...and i especially miss those who wouldn't allow me to slack on my responsibilities to my art.


** in my own little sphere of creativity, i've decided to start a hypertext fiction piece. it won't be on a blog, because most blogging sites use date and archives, while this needs to be an on-going thing. so, in the next few [insert your favorite span of time here], i'll be starting it up on rebeccamaslen.com. and while i'm sure most of it will be my work, i'd like you, gentle readers, to be involved - so it will be a collaborative project as well.

as i post things, if you come across a word/phrase/idea that strikes you, i want you to write something about it and email it to me. it doesn't have to be fiction...it could be non-fiction, something you overheard on the street, a quote from somewhere. and it doesn't have to make sense within the context of the story. also, your entry could be inspired from another person's entry.

i'll be creating links from the word/phrase/idea you got your inspiration from to your entry. if you wish to be identified, i'll use your initials within in the piece and i plan on having a page with info about each participant (so you can send along a small blurb about yourself with the first entry). if you wish to remain anonymous, then please let me know that as well.

and most importantly, you don't have to identify yourself as a writer - if you can type an email, then you can send something in. and i better get at least one entry from each of the cast of regulars that haunt this site. yes, i'm talking to you :-) but if you've just discovered this, and feel so inspired, please send me something as well. all texts are welcome.

current mood: fidgety
current noise: "vicarious" by tool