Last Cass Class
Thursday night was my last writing class and it ended with discussion of how to improve the class, what comes next, and how many people were going to take the same course in the winter. There are two or three people who keep repeating.
I also got feedback on my last story, “Tunnels.â€
Besides the usual, “it lacks clarityâ€, “How about an occasional connecting paragraph or phrase,†and “It was hard to follow,†I got far more positive than negative comments. Such as: “Economy of wordsâ€, “All show,†“Left much to the imagination,†“Good close,” and “Chilling.†People also mentioned specific sentences they liked. This one, for instance: “I saw a flame decal. The kind as a child, I would glue on my model cars. It began as a depression in the car’s roof, right above the driver side window, yellow, the color of the car, but quickly, streaks of red … .â€
And, like most of my stories, it generated lots of conversation. There was so much chatter that I wanted everyone to shut up, much like during my summer course. Except this time, it was shut up in a good way, but still, shut up. Matthew has the world’s best, “Shut up,†and if I thought they would all laugh as I do, I’d a tried it out.
Ms. Cass left this note: “Michael: You’ve created a dreadful world with very effective images: cruelty and laughter,†And, “Is the idea that a person is like a tunnel – if you dig into him you find rust? Sewage?â€
I was quite happy given that I knew I had handed it in unfinished. With a few more hours, I might have had a chance to tie up loose ends, but Wednesday was poker night, and at my house.
Now what?
Now what? Now we call you “auteur Michael” for a few days and buy you drinks! Not bad for a procrastinating gambler — bravo!!! Funny, though, how I bestowed on “Tunnels” not my usual gushing praise, but some strong, structural criticism, when the winds were conversely blowing more favorably than usual…….. Ignorant blowhard.
And what did you say about the winter Cass Class?
Comment by yin's yang — December 5, 2003 @ 7:12 pm
Ignorant blowhard? Then make room for Matt -îWhat does Toni have to do with anything?î – Andrea, ìKill off Toni and Melanie, use more memorable names, develop ëtunnelsÃ, subtly throughout, what’s missing from the fiction is you. Your voice, your persona, your opinions, your humor,î and Diane who was drawn in by my reading but crossed to the other side when she read it.
If I donÃt reenlist, IÃll find another class in another town, maybe Concord. I write this as if it were someone other than DianeÃs idea.
Comment by room for all — December 5, 2003 @ 9:39 pm
LOL. Nothing like a few unabashed kith & kin! I delight in your resilience of ego, as these waves of acclaim and outrage wash over your unperturbed skin.
Comment by in good company — December 5, 2003 @ 10:36 pm
Found this in a reveiw of an Ezra Pound book:
“Pound credits Ford Madox Ford for making him see the light one day. The novelist, who fought for Flaubert’s precision and economy in English prose, collapsed on the floor laughing after hearing the stilted language of one of his poems. That roll, Pound said afterward, saved him two years.”
Comment by don't call me ezra — December 5, 2003 @ 11:00 pm
Admire your tackling and putting out a fiction piece and risk having it torn apart rather than praised.
I myself am too fragile to present anything that didn’t have at least the potential of a standing ovation.
Would have loved to have heard you attempt a shut up! I trhink you could’ve pulled that off.
Comment by admirer — December 6, 2003 @ 10:14 am
Oh, admirer, I am so sorry to report that Tunnels, too, was true.
Comment by thereatthetime — December 6, 2003 @ 5:34 pm