Discussion Posts:
TextBook Link: https://u1lib.org/book/2885693/e0df43
Margaret Atwood’s “Death by Landscape” attached as pdf.
In our final forum for the semester, we read contemporarily/recently published stories: Margaret Atwood’s “Death by Landscape” (you may know her for the fame she has gained for her dystopic/sci-fi novel made into a episodic TV show, The Handmaid’s Tale). Short stories, as you most likely already know, are often the inspiration for TV and film today, and the degree to which this is successful varies based on the adaptation (as well as the critic/s discussing the adaptation work). Adaptation is a genre in and of itself (there are film studies classes devoted to it in the English department); however, this relationship between writing and the filmic arts is important to be aware of as you think about your own inspiration for writing (after all, some short stories written today are imagined through the ways in which the writer has experienced storytelling most consistently, and this is through the filmic arts/media more often than through reading for many new writers [& as previous students often tell me]). As we in this class are using published writing as our inspiration at the same time we learn creative writing techniques, my hope is that addressing what is successful about this story will allow you to reflect on what is unique about reading and writing stories (as opposed to watching/viewing them).
To that end, our chapter on “Clarity” in Kardos’s text from yesterday can be considered as a way to investigate what is unique to your writing in the short story genre. Recalling that interiority (discussed in chapter 5) is what makes writing unlike film (and, as Joseph rightly pointed out in our second fiction forum last week, is different from what we call point of view), the clear presentation of a character is paramount to good storytelling. This chapter gives technique-based suggestions on naming, on sentence structure (including important advice on long and short sentences), and on tense (and how long and short sentences relate to the timing for the reader’s pace, as well). I’d like for us to focus on the section on tense (“Then and Now”), as this is the most difficult for many new writers to achieve with the clearness they desire (especially considering the transition between scene and narration from the Midterm/LaPlante PDF).
Primary Post: In “Death by Landscape” (as well as in Alexie’s story), Atwood is moving between times throughout her story and the skill with which she does so adds to the effect of the story. The past gives us a direct “backstory” to the present action for the story, something we often see in the form of flashbacks in fiction writing (and that you may choose to try). In your post about the short story, please discuss one of the writing techniques that were introduced here and in the podcast lecture (especially “ekphrasis”) in relation to the story/how Atwood achieves these effects. (Aside: in relation to my brief intro above, note that this story has *not* been made into a film like Atwood’s Handmaid’s Tale. After having listened to the podcast lecture, reflect on why: what about this story as a filmic adaptation might be difficult? worth trying?) Please select one passage that you can quote in your paragraph post (as usual, please write about 250 words) about the way you see this technique functioning in the story overall.
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