Wild Ink

I just survived my first year at grad school! I'd break out the chocolate and cider Martinelli's just for that, but I am especially excited to have more time for writing the next few months . . and terrified. Thoughts become wild ink thickets when imagination is given free play in the mind and it's my job to turn them into well-ordered groves. I confess, sometimes I wonder what it would be like to have quiet space in the head--no characters vying for attention, no dragons distracting me from scholarly papers on theory or unit planning.

Quiet time is overrated, and dragons? Always welcome.

Quill of the Condor

How do you write? In Moby Dick, Herman Melville calls for a "condor's quill" and "Vesuvias crater for an inkstand!" (428). I must confess that my brain is no longer programmed to work efficiently with pen and paper. My computer has become my condor's quill. I rely on my trusty mouse and keyboard (esp. the backspace key!) to give my thoughts the eloquence of form. And I can't leave out the visual-audio component. Sometimes I write with movies playing in the background. Current favorite? Tangled! Current music of choice: Mediaeval Baebes,"Erthe upon Erthe." Dictionary.com is usually open in my tab bar. Sometimes I google artists' conceptions of creatures that I am trying to ink into being with words in my own stories. Thanks to the magic of multimodality, I am never alone as a writer unless I want to be. I wonder, fifty years from now, how will we write?

Pluto's Demotion and the Intertextual Universe

The poet Muriel Rukeyser said, "The universe is made of stories, not atoms." In my research methods class, I also learned that according to some theorists, the universe is intertextual. I agree! Scientists have proven it with Pluto's demotion to a dwarf planet: Growing up, my perception of reality was bracketed by the concept of a nine-planet solar system. It's what my science book and teachers drummed into my thick skull. I remember piecing together nine-planet puzzles, seeing posters and marble kits that all included Pluto... Today? Not so much. I was recently mildly peeved to visit a science museum and find Pluto missing from the solar line up. Even the gift shop had obliterated Pluto. Granted, I'm happy that Ceres and Xena are part of the solar system club now, but the point is that a piece of my universe has dropped off its previously appointed pedestal, reshifting my reality.

Go Muriel. You were right.