"The Magic Show" written by Tim O'Brien made me think about a recent project I did in my Methods of Inquiry studio course. The writing process for the Sequence project was similar to entering the mystery of things, indulging in my craving to know what cannot be known. I do not have any direct access to the thoughts of other human beings, nor can I hear their thoughts. In reference to O'Brien, the protagonist I wrote was intended to create a stethoscope to the innermost musings of fictional character, and manifest empathy for person that is often ignored, yet have an air of familiarity to many students. I realized that the objective with this narrative was to access a kind of enigmatic “otherness,” another person within a context that is recognizable. My fictional character was not flesh and blood, but rather of words I created from words and phrases I collected from U of M publications as explicit incantations that invites the viewer into and guides them through the universe of our imagination.
My subject is a University of Michigan Blue bus employee driving around the campus. Our character is a fictional one, rather than an actual person. The protagonist is metaphysically minded and attentive to their surroundings in and outside of the vehicle. In reference to Shira Erlicman’s poem “Seeing the Wind,” he would “philosophize” himself “into the madhouse.” The sequence follows the bus ride from his train of thought and observations to his ultimate degeneration of his mind by the end of the night.
Taylor, I really want to take this class now! I feel that at the University many of the classes we take allow us to cohesively combine our thoughts and processes from other classes. One aspect of poetry I love is that it is truly universal. Even when I am attempting to tell a story at the dining hall, or I am sitting in Economics 102 discussing why the Supply of T-shirts at the University should be decreased to result in a positive profit, I feel poetry is linkable. I do not so much attribute this to the writing style, but rather to the ability of poetry to take out my emotions and put them into words. Therefore sometimes I view poetry as a musician, because they sing songs that I never deemed possible.
ReplyDelete