I thought the class labeled public speaking would be a slightly lame echo chamber of advice I’d gotten almost all of my academic career. “Eye contact, stop fidgeting, be concise.” At most, I thought I’d make a friend or two. (Something, as a new student, I figured I could use.)
Instead, we spent the majority of the time doing slightly ridiculous improv exercises. They fixed my writer’s block and taught me more about writing tad presenting than I thought a long-winded collaborative story about polar bear empires and lizard people in the Bermuda Triangle could. Here’s why your next activity should be stupid improv with your writer friends or solo.
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Tragic Character Arcs in Poetry (Part I)8/22/2021 You see the foreshadowing. You knew from the very beginning, from the moment you plucked it off the bookshelf, or from the second you clicked into the first chapter, that it’s a story with a bad ending. But you chose to read it. You keep waiting to get hurt, asking to be broken. Maybe you’re so drawn to tragedies because you are one in the making too.
Warning: Spoilers for the short film Shelter
Often I have spent hours watching movies or series only to be left feeling disappointed when they did not leave up to my expectations. And then I stumbled upon a short film called Shelter. I was never really a big fan of short films, but this short film deeply moved me in a way that I never thought was possible, in a way that many longer series have failed. I didn’t realize Victor Hugo was buried in the Panthéon when I walked by the magnificent building in Paris, which is strange for me because I’m absolutely obsessed with that city and have been trying to learn everything about it since I got back from my study abroad. His impact on literature is immeasurable and was often thought of as radical.
Dear Reader, I’m about to learn just as much from this article as you are because I’m currently writing to you from the first day of class of my senior year of university. I’m stuck in the library thinking “how the hell do I do this?”
Whether you’re in high school or college, this article covers how to balance your time as a writer and as a student. Read on for five tips and motivation hacks, plus a note on procrastination. I’m wishing us both luck. This week, I had a sudden urge to analyze a short memoir.
So, I hit the web and surfed for some of the wackiest, most descriptive and heartfelt memoirs I could find. Two hours later — and after using up all my free monthly articles for NYT and New Yorker — I found three pieces that stuck out against countless others. Why? That’s what I wanted to know. After critically examining these memoirs, and asking myself what made them so compelling, I pinned down my answers to three key elements. The Debated Tragedy of Gilgamesh8/19/2021 One story I had the opportunity to read this year was The Epic of Gilgamesh. If you weren’t aware, the Epic of Gilgamesh is labeled as the oldest written epic. Originally written in Akkadian — the language spoken in Sumer — then thousands of years later roughly translated into English. Safe to say I wasted money on a book that didn’t understand the translations either.
Anyway, I found an online version of the text, and then when I finished I was pretty impressed with myself having read the oldest recorded story, and also just satisfied since it was a good read. Now, I say all of this to warn you not to make the same mistake I did and buy a bad paper copy. But also to encourage reading older texts outside of the classroom. More important than that, a question that came to mind after I read it was, “Is Gilgamesh a tragic hero?” And it was too good to ignore so, I’m taking you with me through my thinking process because this is a debated topic. What draws people to tragedy8/18/2021 Cw: mentions of death
It’s no secret that tragedy sells. Audiences love tragic backstories and authors love putting their characters through the most horrific incidents, all in the name of character development… supposedly. The simple truth is, character development does not have to stem from broken homes and trauma, but for some reason it's seen as the best way to become a truly realized person. Not growing emotionally, not building relationships, not overcoming a personal challenge, but instead being crushed and pushed to your absolute limit until you have been hardened into a shell of a person, who broods around, trusts no one and has a mysterious aura. Fun right? Trigger warning: assault, violence
Spoiler warning: this post contains spoilers for Batman: Three Jokers Batman has always been associated with a traumatic origin story. The murder of Bruce Wayne’s parents served as the inciting incident for Bruce’s crusade against crime. Since Bill Finger and Bob Kane created the character in 1939, the murder of the Wayne family fueled the Batman canon as the driving force behind Batman’s quest for vengeance and justice, leading Bruce to battle criminals in order to prevent another incident like his own. TW: mentions of death and suicide
The theater is dark. It seems to hold its breath, impatient. Suddenly, one single reflector turns on, and the music begins. The swift violin and soft piano produce a melancholic tune. There is only one person on stage; she is wearing a white ballet tutu, and feathers adorn her hair. When she moves through the stage en pointe, she seems to be floating. Her arms are as graceful as a bird’s wings. Her face shows pain and despair. She is trembling, longing for something that has long been out of reach. It is mesmerizing to watch, but it’s also flooded with sadness. She is dying. Categories
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