The writer’s festival put together by Neha and the gang (Susan and other Narratives helpfuls) is going quite smartly. If Jerz or anyone else from SH read this then I urge you to put Ms. Bawa to good work, whatever the smoking policy. She’s a great organizer, has lots of potential as a writer and scholar, and has the steel to get things done.
I’m proud of the people running around Tunxis these days. We have lots of great students heading off and staying around, hopefully for a good long time. They often come back to, those that go, and tell us what we do right, what we do wrong.
Kudos to the presenters, although I feel I ran a little flat. David Pesci was dead on with the process, especially the real work of writing being that of revision. Timmons hit stride with IF, doing an excellent job of taking us through that world of narrative and structure, the great world of maps and configurations of the digital. We also made good friends with Victoria Zackheim, author of The Bone Weaver. She gave a great talk on the development of her novel and was insightful and direct in response to questions.
Looking forward to the next round.
ALL the presenters were terrific, and it was an exciting, interesting and informative day. I truly hope that this will be the first of many annual Writers’ Festivals, and hope that now that Neha has proven what can be done, we can follow her lead in making this a tradition.
I agree with you Susan. Although I must take issue with Steve’s comment about “falling flat”. Any form of creativity (including presentations) takes on its own life and assumes a unique identity and will struggle with (and resist) our conscious attempts to “control” it. Can you tell I’m a surrealist at heart? I felt, personally, that the importance of what you did was pragmatic: the performance itself. It was in “what you were doing” that illustrated the semiotics of hyper-text and some of its associated syntax–and that included those “in-between” moments. The juxtaposition of all those elements (verbal, visual, etc.) was cumulative and that was where the true meaning(s) came through. Personally, I was also impressed by your adroit handling of Storyspace and the glimpse into your thought-processes of working within the various demonstrated enivronments.
Of course I agree with you John, and in dancing along the various threads of the web, I neglected to note here my own approval of Steve’s presentation. It is clearly stated, however, in both an e-mail to el profesore, as well as on Spinning, whereupon you are mentioned as well.
Only admiration and gratitude comes from my little corner of cyberspace.
Thanks for everything teach. Hard to go wrong with you around.
I only wish I could of stayed. Your intro was Great!
You all are too kind.
It is one of the interesting things about storyspace that the mao is key. Tolkien then.
Pingback: Spinning
Pingback: Spinning