Poetry Survey.

Next week:

o Rebekah Ongstad, Holly Rust for Workshop

o Lorrie Moore and James Baldwin (we’ll eventually talk about most readings, even if we don’t get to them on the day they are assigned).

Everyone’s working on P#1:

1) Describe this character’s favorite movie or rock artist.

2)

“Pecker” and Plot:

1) Note how, as movie is coming on, the scene is fully set: we follow him around and meet many people in his community and see just what he does and is. He’s someone whose art come from his everyday relationships, and his desire to embrace his life.. Equilibrium.

2) Trigger or narrative hook: Rory sees his stuff at the burger joint. Question: will P become famous? How will he deal with fame? How will his life change?

3) —Note that what gets the story going is putting the main character into a situation where his greatest fears are maximized, or his weaknesses tested, or his needs threatened, etc. Note that character establishes what this story is about and drives the plot.

4) Complicating action: we meet the Whitney people on their way to P’s show or there. Big contrast to Baltimore and P’s family and friends.

5) Shelly starting to get annoyed.

6) Mother can’t take care of homeless in NY restaurant.

7) They’re burglarized.

8) Little Krissy is visited by social worker.

9) Matt can no longer steal.

10) Mi Mama’s miracle is spoiled.

11) People in the community are pissed off.

12) Vogue invades his mother’s thrift shop.

13) Shelly sees him kiss Rory = Climax? At this point we get max disequilibrium; the source of P’s art is now lost. The enemy or chief obstacle has been the world of high art and the threat of losing the source of his own art.

14) He makes radical choice. Climax when he throws down camera and says, “Cancel the Whitney”? [Note: there are many possible outcomes or answers.]

15) With the Baltimore show, he regains the source of his art and even wins over or forms a new unity with the “enemy.” NEW equilibrium.

Note how character issues drive the plot. We’re not waiting for the next heart-thumping sex scene or scary action, we’re waiting to see what will happen to the person of P.

“Cathedral” and Plot

—How would you describe the narrator and central character of "Cathedral"?  What kind of guy is he?  What does he value?  What does he fear?  How educated is he?  What’s his fundamental problem?  A xenophobe.

—How describe his wife?

1) Triggering action: wife says she’s bringing home someone different, alien, an unknown—the very thing the protag is fearful of. Confrontation with Other. (Relate to Carol P.’s talk the other day.)

—So what’s the narrative question? What questions, established early on in "Cathedral," create the story’s narrative suspense?   What is it you want to find out? How will he react to this unknown; how will his wife deal with her husband’s dumbest flaws.

—Note that the monologue isn’t chronological; we go back in time, then come back to the base plot.

2) Importance of the dinner scene: delays answers to the main questions. Also reveals psychological tension.

3) How are the narrative questions in "Cathedral" answered in the end?  What do you make of the story’s final scene(s)?  What’s happening, really? How has this character dealt with his confrontation with the unknown or the strange?

—Again, new equilibrium.

—How would you describe Carver’s style?  Consider his diction (word choices), sentence length and structure, point of view, and tone of voice. What effect do you suppose he’s after?  How might style reinforce what his story is ultimately about? Why is his style important and integral to what this story is about?

Plot issues to consider:

· Pacing (Rate of Revelation): Slow = a lot withheld; Fast = a lot revealed.

· Action which 1) complicates main question; 2) delays answers to main question; 3) speeds answers to main question.

· How create tension ?

§ Digressions

§ False clues

§ Sub-plots ; multiple narrative questions and/or multiple possible answers.

· How slow pace?

§ Dialogue

§ Description

§ Interior monologue

§ Exposition

· How speed pace?

§ Action

· Devices :

§ The narrative frame

§ Flashbacks

§ Digression

§ O’Henry twist

· Scene development

· Unearned endings : too fast ; trick or twist ; deus ex machina.

Nonchronological plot structures: circular; all flashbacks; no action.

Multiple, intersecting plots.