Writing Prompts; Personal Identity & Transformation Tropes

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Writing Prompts from The Namesake, chapters 5-7:

  • Chp. 5, pg. 123-124: What stories have your parents not told you about? Or that they told you about later in your life. Were they right to hide this story from you or to avoid the conversation?
  • Chp. 6, pg. 125-127: Write about a city you visited or have lived in. OR Write about a family trip you took.
  • Chp. 6, pg. 132-136: Write about the first time you met his or her parents.
  • Chp. 6, pg. 141-143: Write about a time you were left alone (perhaps for the weekend or unchaperoned)
  • Chp. 6, pg. 158: Write about a party you attended; compare/contrast that with a party you attended when you were a child.
  • Chp. 7, pg. 169: Write about learning about the death of someone; or write about the birth of someone. How has this changed the way you live your life?
"How to Tame a Wild Tongue":
  • Start a poem with the line: "Wild tongues can't be tamed, they can only be cut out."
  • Argue in a speech/podcast/essay: "Language is a male discourse"--is it?
  • Make a list poem of "languages" you speak. Feel free to include metaphor and figurative language in your listing.
  • From a list of languages you speak, identify when you speak these languages and to whom? Under what circumstances do you speak these languages? How does changing a language or vocabulary change your identity? 
  • What are your home tongues?
  • Under "linguistic terrorism" in her essay, Anzaldua reports "repeated attacks on our native tongue diminish our sense of self." What attacks have you encountered in your life? How do these attacks diminish your sense of self or identity?
  • Who gets to say what the dominant language is in our culture? Is the institution of education to blame? Perhaps it is economic, religious, or driven by the media? Explore the topic.
  • Start a poem with the line: "I am my language..."

Choose one (or more) of these prompts and write this morning until about 7:50.

A smattering of philosophy: Personal Identity: Crash Course #19

Questions to ponder in writing/response:
  • Who are you? How do you know this?
  • Do you believe you have obligations to be "who you are" to particular people in your life? Is your identity consistent with, say your parents, or your friends, or does this change? If it does change, how/why or under what parameters? 
  • What links do you make with or what memories do you share with your earlier self? 
  • Which camp of philosophy do you fall into: the body theory (personal identity persists over time because you belong in the same body) or the memory theory (personal identity persists over time through connected memories)
"The Prisoner of Benda," Futurama, season 7, ep. 10, a model of the trope.

Body swapping tropes are common in film, media, and science fiction. Usually, this is done through some magical or mystical process or scientific contraption or procedure. Switching gender, race, opposite personality types, age, or even species is a common plot device.

Let's get literary with the magical realist short story "Axolotl" by Argentinian writer Julio Cortazar. For homework, please read "The Continuity of Parks" and "A Yellow Flower". See below.

Here are just a few clips/previews of some such body-swapping tropes in film:
Ideas for stories/film scripts:
  • Use the transformation archetype (see handout) plot in one of your stories.
  • Two characters swap personalities/identities 
HOMEWORK: The Namesake: Chp. 10; Write a draft from any of the prompts above. Read the short stories "Horse" & the rest of Julio Cortazar's short fiction: "A Continuity of Parks" & "A Yellow Rose" for a discussion next class. Annotate the short stories and prepare to discuss them with the class. Effectively you are "workshopping" these stories as practice and as models of writing fiction. You may use the workshop questions/analysis handouts Ms. Gamzon and I gave you to help you prepare.

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