Notes Towards Day 25: "My Mind's Got a Mind of Its Own"

Notes Towards Day 25:
"My Mind's Got a Mind of Its Own"

Jimmy Dale Gilmore,
"My Mind's Got a Mind of Its Own"

I. Reminders (Anne):

7:00 tonight: Mark Doty in Chase Auditorium, HC

By 5 p.m. tomorrow, post on-line a 3-pp. proposal
for your final project, including a 3-item annotated bibliography

Over the weekend, respond to TWO of your classmates' proposals:
suggestions for form, content, reading, writing...
give the sort of feedback you yourself are looking for....
(spread yourselves out: if a proposal already has two comments
when you get there, please go on to another...)

Today: review conference sign-ups for next week
Also: sign up for next week's performances

And then there are the course evaluations.
Please add and write about:

--Value of the writing exercises and assignments.

--Value of the web dimensions of the course.

--Value, to interdisciplinary work, of bringing visitors into class.

II. Writing-and-editing exercises (Kristin):

Take 5 minutes to read over what you wrote on Tuesday.
What seems interesting? Compelling? Worth further thought?
Circle one passage/sentence/question that seems "ALIVE." 

Write for 10 minutes about this passage:
what series of QUESTIONS does it generate for you today?

Question-generating is where Lynda Barry's workshopping and Kate Bornstein's exercises
come together w/ what Anne and I think of as critical writing. The proposals due tomorrow don't have to have a thesis yet (maybe ever?), but they do need to be motivated by a critical question. 

Coming up w/ that question is a task that might take some time,
and is worth our time.  How big can that question be?
How can it both respond to other thinkers--the history of this field--
but also look onward and outward?
You want your question to be opening up some avenue.

Let's count off into groups of three (or two).
Your assignment is to help one another into a critical question--or a set of them. 
Anne and I will float, giving a hand up in your learning to ask good questions of one another's questions.

Once/if each of you in the group is satisfied with your motivating question,
you can move on, if there's time, to thinking about how to approach answering it:
What format is most appropriate?
What resources do you need, to explore both form and content further?
What other thinkers or artists can help you?
(Think:  works consulted, not works cited).

We hope you've begun to feel more comfortable w/ responding to one another's work in progress....
and remind you to respond to one another on-line over the weekend.