When Words Speak Pt 3: Character Shifts

My Fellow Contributors,

Here is the third part of my own going series "When Words Speak". In this episode I go over Character Shifts and how you can use this technique to give your performance a unique feel and energy. 

This week I perform William Carlos Williams poem, "This is Just to Say".

Next episode I will be going over Pacing. 

Undoubtedly Yours,

Bermuda the Man

When Words Speak Pt 2: Pausing

My Fellow Contributors,

Here is the second part of my series "When Words Speak". In this video I discuss how pausing can be used to stress certain parts of your performance as well as enhance the understanding of the poem by your audience.

As Always

Undoubtedly Yours,

Bermuda the Man

Letter To the Leaves: You Don't Need a Masters to Understand This

My Fellow Contributors,

I am graduating in less than a week. I think it is finally sinking in that I will no longer be an English-centered undergrad. This is a bit disheartening but I have a theory. My theory is that I don't need to be an English grad student to further my understanding of Literature. I have this crazy idea that I over these past five years I have been trained to read, analyze and think critically about any piece of literature that is put in front of me.

And it's this idea I want to explore in this blog.

But before I begin I have a question for you.

What added value does reading a book in a classroom give you?

If you take away the other students, many of whom have misinterpreted the text to begin with, and the professor, who if he or she is any good will undoubtedly remain silent and let you struggle through the material on your own, what are you left with?

Yourself and the book.

And this is exactly my point. One thing about English, which sets it apart from other majors is that you don't need someone over your shoulder explaining the importance of this symbol or that. Now it should be noted that of course, someone who is practicing English and reading texts on a daily basis will be better at it than someone who is not putting in as much time. And it does help to have a tour guide. Who helps you to pick out the books you should read, tells you which aspects you should look out for and who provides accountability. Also you need to be trained. You need to have the right tools in order to complete the job.

But after four years of English classes, I don't need a tour guide. I can venture out on my own and find my own enlightenment through books just like countless others. And so can you (and when in doubt claim Reader Response).

So even though I am going to be studying law next year, I am still going to be studying literature and learning and growing as an artist. I may not have a master's at the end of it, or a Ph.d (although a Ph.d in American Literature is on the to-do list), but I will have that knowledge. I will earn those merit badges you get after reading a work from the literary cannon.

This pursuit is further made possible because of the internet. Rather than having to go to a professor to put a particular image in context, a quick Google search and a peruse of the hits will give me the answers I need.

I guess this blog seemingly is just a long-winded denial of the claim that learning stops once you have a degree.

Because, at least for me, the most important thing college taught me wasn't anything in a book. But how to get knowledge out of a book and convey that clearly and confidently.

The books will always be there. Just be driven enough to read them. Stay on top of yourself. There is no reason why you can't have the knowledge people go to grad school for. No reason why you can't understand civil war poetry. No reason why you can continue your love for literature and pursue other interests.

English is not physics (although many of us would have you believe that). It's just a few lines on a page which put pictures in your head.

So I challenge you to go out there read valuable books and teach yourself the wisdom in words.


As Always

Undoubtedly Yours,

Bermuda the Man

Cannabis Culture: Writing on 4/20

Hey folks,

I don’t think there is a better day than today, the 20^th of April, to talk about cannabis, its influence on literature, and the current debate about the legalization of drugs that is going on within the Americas and around the world. [If you don’t already know about the origins of “420” and the growing use of the term to describe the subculture of medicinal and recreational marijuana users, then read about it all here: 420 explained.]

 I’ve always found cannabis prohibition to be a bit confusing; how is it that a simple plant that would thrive across the world without government interference has developed such a negative stigma in society – especially when the plant is spoken of so highly by those who choose to partake? It simply doesn’t make sense in a free society where alcohol is accepted as a controlled substance and the drug of choice to countless addicts to so readily dismiss the use of a potentially healthier drug. I could probably spend the rest of this blog post pointing out the benefits of cannabis and the many ways that it beats alcohol when it comes to fulfilling society’s need for recreation and escape, but I’d only be wasting my breath; the argument has been made (read one rational and informed comparison here: Alcohol vs. Marijuana), and it has been – for the most part – ignored by prohibitionists. The fight for legalization has been fought for quite some time now.

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“I smoke marijuana every chance I get” – Allen Ginsberg in “America" 1956.

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            Allen Ginsberg was a very open individual – from his homosexuality to his cannabis use. There is appropriate suspicion that many of his poems and works were written under the influence of marijuana. In his essay, “The Great Marijuana Hoax: First Manifesto to End the Bringdown,” an interesting read which points out the ways the federal government gave bud a bad name, Ginsberg explains his views on cannabis, saying that “marijuana is a metaphysical herb less habituating than tobacco, whose smoke is no more disruptive than Insight.” This sentiment didn’t go against the views of many of Ginsberg’s fans and followers, men and women who often smoked pot with Ginsburg at his public readings. Other beat poets partook too – plentifully. William Burroughs, a close friend of Ginsberg’s, was known to be a cannabis user, and often wrote while stoned. Naked Lunch, Burrough’s most notable work, is said to have been written as short episodes under the influence of marijuana – among other drugs – and later revised and arranged with the help of his friends Ginsberg and Kerouac.

           

Now, almost 70 years after the beats, many countries in South America are pushing for a widespread legalization of not only cannabis, but nearly all narcotics, arguing that America’s drug war is causing more harm and trouble than it is worth. Still, stuck in its ways, America stands against an overwhelming amount of support for the legalization and fights on, spending billions enforcing its laws, and bringing violence to its borders. To the support for legalization, Obama plainly says, “legalization is not the answer.” (check this article)

So, finally, here’s my question: World of the internet and academia, what do you think about 420 and legalization? And, as an interesting side question, is there anything wrong with writing under the influence?

A Novel Idea Part 1: The Literary Meet and Greet

My Fellow Contributors,

This is going to be the first blog in a series of blogs that will chronicle my attempt at writing a novel. If you haven't already, please check out Alli's blogs on "Building your Writing Toolkit" as this endeavor of mine is somewhat inspired by her series.

What I hope to accomplish with this series is two things:

First, I hope to inspire you, my fellow contributors, to start your own writing project. Something that you will keep coming back to a body of words and shaping and molding it.

Second, I hope by writing about my novel experience, that I will be able to dedicate myself to finishing this novel.

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When I was trying to figure out where to begin, I found myself actually figuring out the ending. I was in class and was listening to my professor lecture about Milton's Paradise Lost when the Heavenly Muse herself came down and penetrated my consciousness with a brilliant idea. I had the idea of three men, who grow up together, and die relatively soon after each other. What is significant about the ending is that each man chooses to be buried in a specific way that reflects the metaphysical makeup of that particular character.

So now that I had the ending, I needed to figure out how I was going to get them to that point. This seemed like an overwhelming task. I mean, seriously, where was I going to begin. But before I could begin I realized that I had to know who I was writing about and how I was going to write about them.

This is when I performed what I call a literary "meet and greet". I wrote the names of each character and then started to list details about him. I would describe personality traits, people in my own life that I would mold the character after, and little back stories or small events that would come into play later. For the three main characters I chose to mold one of them after myself, two of my friends, and my dad. I am a firm believer that you have to write what you know; granted that you don't have to know everything about something in order to write about it, but it does make coming up with words and realistic reactions easier. I then went on to describe two minor characters, two sons of two of the main characters.

Now that I had some idea of who I was going to be playing with in my figurative world, I now had to decide how I was going to construct the narrative of the story. For this I drew inspiration from two sources. First, Alli's latest blog about crafting your narrative and second from the last book I read And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks. The book is written by both Jack Kerouac and William Burroughs. In it each author writes from a different narrative perspective and the book alternates chapters between each narrator. So for the purpose of my novel, I will be writing in first person and alternating between each of my three main protagonists as well as a few others.

What has made me feel like I can accomplish writing a novel after mainly writing poetry is that I am going to be writing the chapters as if they were stand alone compartments. Each chapter will be a different perspective and will allow me to give my readers the opportunity to be one-up on characters at points and also one-down at other times. By breaking the novel into pieces it is more manageable and will allow me to write various different narrative sequences with out having to worry about telling the story from A-Z. Having the narrative broken up into pieces will also allow me to move chapters around and interchange them so that I can pick and choose when to reveal important plot information.

So with that said, I am going to be leaving you now. Next time I hope to report back with a few more lines about the progress of this novel idea.

Also if you have any questions about writing your own novel, or want to share your experience please leave a comment. The more of us pushing each other to finish, the better the end product will be.

As Always

Undoubtedly Yours,
Bermuda