SoCiAl E ChalleNgEd

my space

2005-07-11T20:08:00.000-05:00

So I've been creating a myspace account and I have a blog there now. Some material may be offensive or crude. tisk tisk. So I took the link out. The last couple of weeks I've been making the drive to B-town. So far my plans for July are to do a Pracs session and go to the Vans Warped Tour in the cities with my buddies smokey and steph. And as of today I'll be officially moved in with Erik Meyer, it's the apartment across the hall from MK and Greg.

Ta ta

shimmie

2005-06-19T23:13:00.000-05:00

I took a nap after work last thursday and was woken at 6:30pm. I had gotten a phone call from my buddies in Bemidji. Because I was given the weekend off, I promised the guys a visit. they yelled at me of course for not being there yet so I grabbed my laundry basket and a few items and took off down Hwy 10. They had already started in the festivities.....for those of you who are not familiar with Bemijdi, the weekends usually start on thursday afternoon around two. I was welcomed by drunk'n arms and two shots of suki, a bottle imported from Thailand. very smooth. It seemed I caught up rather quickly. We hit up the local irish pub, drank some combats--a pitcher containing two beers, triple sec, vodka, grenadine, whiskey and a splash of 7-up. There was karaoke, a broken ashtray, a demolished chicken sub, one out of control Jason aka the asian sensation, and a lot of shimmie yah haaas. The next day entailed a heavy hangover but was remedied with chinese take out. we played a little pong out side with our new makeshift beerpong table held up by sinder blocks, knee high grass ready to seed and one stolen shopping cart labeled with the sign "alcoholic in training". We carried a couch and Alison (our new found friend or beer cooler) out to the side of the road to play the drinking car game. Here are a few of the rules to the car game. 1 drink for every red car that drives by. 2 drinks for a honk or wave. 3 drinks for a cop. 10 drink for a cop pulling a boat....hey it happens. 1 drink for every mosquito bite. Cor-e and I saw a skunk get run over so we had to finish our beers and then we added a new rule that for every car that dodged the skunk we drank. 45 mns later we were pretty sauced.
Saturday night we went to slims for PBR and burgers. First one always goes down pretty harsh but Gritz-e and I stuck with it. We headed back to the house and because we had such a great time the other night we played the car game again. But this time with Skinny dippers....a drink somewhat like strip and go nakeds, but instead of barcardi lemon we used cheap vodka mixed with lemonade blend in our new walmart blender. After jason and tim finished at work we went to Keg &Cork, then Turtle creek for some live music, where band members striped down to their boxers and tim and bobby danced with 45 year old women.

I'll be going back to Bemidji on tuesday night and might stay until friday, because the Writers Conference is in town.

Wooly Boys

2005-06-13T23:59:00.000-05:00

The movie Wooly Boys is now out on DVD. During late summer and through the fall of 2000, the film was shot in the Badlands between Medora and Belfield, ND. Kris Kristofferson stayed in the Chateau de Mores in Medora and the TRMF catering service was responcible for feeding the cast members and staff. One afternoon driving to the film location, the catering van got a flat tire and had to serve the crew from the two track road in the middle of the prarie.

Mars Spectacular

2005-06-09T14:25:00.000-05:00

Not only am I a poetry geek but I like to catch up on astronomy now and then.
During this month and next, Earth is catching up with Mars in an encounter that will culminate in the closest approach between the two planets in recorded history. The next time Mars may come this close is in 2287. Due to the way Jupiter's gravity tugs on Mars and perturbs its orbit, astronomers can only be certain that Mars has not come this close to Earth in the last 5,000 years, but it may be as long as 60,000 years before it happens again.

The encounter will culminate on August 27th when Mars comes to within 34,649,589 miles of Earth and will be (next to the moon) the brightest object in the night sky. It will attain a magnitude of -2.9 and will appear 25.11 arc seconds wide. At a modest 75-power magnification Mars will look as large as the full moon to the naked eye. Mars will be easy to spot. At the beginning of August it will rise in the east at 10p.m. and reach its azimuth at about 3 a.m. By the end of August when the two planets are closest, Mars will rise at nightfall and reach its highest point in the sky at 12:30a.m. That's pretty convenient to see something that no human being has seen in recorded history. So, mark your calendar at the beginning of August to see Mars grow progressively brighter throughout the month.

shout out

2005-06-09T12:52:00.000-05:00

I got a cool new EP from my buddy eric who's in the CharlznewmanBand They are based out of Minneapolis and have created a good following. Be sure to check out their site and concert listings! They will be playing at Moondance Jam in Walker, MN on July 16th at 2 p.m.

My Movie Roll

2005-05-31T00:16:00.000-05:00

Imagine all the movies you could be watching if you weren't sleeping.

Seinfeld Episodes 1-3

Blade Trinity (yet another action/comedy)

Closer

Taking Lives (second viewing)

White Noise

One Who Flew Over the Cuckcoo's Nest

Other than watching too much TV, I've actually been pushing the pencil and wrote a few prose poems on my early morning wake up calls.

Zap

2005-05-30T23:31:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I recieved another early morning phone call from my buddy Tim-e. He called to let me know that he was in Fargo, but only stopped to visit the pisser. He was driving to Zap, ND. Population 231. The reason for his stay in Zap is actually not uncommon. He's going on a three day
prairie dog shooting spree. It was too early in the morning to spout out animal rights, so I simply ended the phone conversation by wishing him happy killing and I went back to bed. I used to live in Medora and then made the big move to Dickinson ND, even then I never understood the logic or reasoning for shooting prarie dogs. A few years ago there was a sudden outbreak of monkey pox. Scientists believe the outbreak was caused by a Gambian rat from Ghana that infected prairie dogs at an exotic pet dealer in Illinois.

wake up call

2005-05-27T20:14:00.000-05:00

At 10 am I got a wake up call from my good friend Tim-e. He had been up since 7 and already put in a solid three hours of work. I guess he got the sudden urge to tell me that I was a bum. He's right. I have been a pile. I haven't wrote anything since I've came back. Instead I've watched a marathon of movies in the last couple of days, such as Star Wars III, Troy, What dreams may come, King Arthur, Resident Evil: Apocalypse and The Chronicles of Riddick....and the list keeps getting worse and worse...you may insert your Vin Diesel jokes here ______ . The Hollywood action flick is more like my action/comedy hour. The next time I watch Riddick...correction...if I watch Riddick again...I will turn the movie into a drinking game...The first rule is....you drink each time Vin Diesel takes off his damn day vision goggles. Second rule is...drink two for every time he puts them back on. Third rule is....keep drinking till the movie becomes interesting.
I don't know why I watch this stuff. My new roomie Dist-e was rather shocked to come home from work and see that I too enjoi crummy action flicks. I guess you could say, we bonded.

Summerfest

2005-05-24T22:54:00.000-05:00

It's going to make sense someday...
I'm finally back in the F/M area...visited some buddies and brought cheer to their graduation, weddings..and to ahum..random parties and keggers, which explains my absence from the blog. What I can remember from the last two weeks happened in this order: 1. a five gallon bucket etched with Wu Tang symbols in green marker was mysterious filled with gold fish and found on the kitchen counter 2. Never trust guys named "Pinky" or "Smokey" 3. A 10 foot roof bong can be fun...minus the vodka/pickle juice 4. It is possible to throw your friend through the drywall and not have him get hurt..as long as he wears a helmet. 5. It takes half a roll of duct tape to hang a bar stool from the ceiling. 6. Burning couches can only make the fire flames glow brighter and bigger.
You can say that I've been partying like an undergrad. It's been a nice break and a good kick off for the summer. I've also re-located to the good part of town but on the bad side of the tracks. So this summer I am hoping to start on a few pages of fiction and revamp some poems, as well as keep you updated on the summer festivities.

School's out for Summer

2005-05-11T17:33:00.000-05:00

So school is officially over. I would like to give a shout out to our wonderful audience in the Intro to Pub. class...we hoped you enjoyed our presentation. If you would like to join socialechallenged's blog please email us at socialechallenged@yahoo.com
We would love to have you join the fun!

hi class

2005-05-10T17:45:00.000-05:00

how are you?

Finals

2005-05-10T16:25:00.000-05:00

Socialechallenged's presentation is today! We will be discussing our weblog in front of the Intro. to Publishing class.

A Review of Edward Micus's LANDING ZONES

2005-05-10T14:30:00.000-05:00

A fairly recent addition to the roster of literary work at New Rivers Press, Edward Micus's collection of prose titled Landing Zones is classified under the NRP Fiction category and subcategories of "Vietnam/Men's Studies". The subcategories narrow the demographics down nicely, and yet simultaneously manage to keep the subject matter broad enough to still appeal to a wide variety of people. Landing Zones collects seventeen short pieces of prose, most of them short stories, but there's also a few short shorts thrown in for good measure. It definitely was necessary for New Rivers Press to divide the book into three separate genre categories, since the wide range of subject matter and tone is often impressive. Of course, the Vietnam War hangs shroud-like over many of the stories, and yet it's surprising to find how many of the pieces deal with such subjects like the silly awkwardness of crushes, infatuations, and new romance, in addition to often hilarious memories of childhood and its wistfullness; with even a strong dose of Catholicism added to spice up the brew a bit!

Most of the stories are pretty straight-laced literary fiction, but occasionally -- as in "Shootin' Craps with God" -- Micus experiments with more far-out magical realism literary fiction. Here's a little taste of his style taken from his story "Dying Over Here":

There's little pretense here. Besides this strip of tar, one ticking field, then another, making its green promise to our hearts, which bloom in their time, as if meant for the world. Things are pretty much what they are: earth, rain, wind. The sun rises and sets. Above the broken fields, above the blackened ribs of the grove, a moon yellows, falls away. Seasons come and go, mark a life in one-quarter time. We're all dying over here.

This weblog host had the privilege of helping to copyedit these fine stories in this fine collection published in the fall of 2003 by New Rivers Press. If this has in any way piqued your curiosity about Edward Micus and/or Landing Zones, and you want to know more about the book or author, then just click here.

2005-05-08T16:00:00.000-05:00

Craig Crist-Evans suffered a heart attack and died March 22. Last October he came to visit the MSUM campus to talk about his love of writing and to read from his book of poetry titled No Guarantee, which was recently published by NRP.

Traffic

2005-05-08T15:34:00.000-05:00

Jack Anderson’s Traffic, a collection of prose poems published in 1998 by NRP, offers you an escape with a bourbon chaser. The book is precisely the right thing for those in search of a poetic re-charge. His work is uncommonly wicked and his use with new dimensions make his poems clever and catchy.

RED WEATHER

2005-05-05T14:17:00.000-05:00

Join in on the fun at 8:00 P.M. in the Library Porch at MSUM. Red Weather will be celebrating their 2005 issue. Contributors and contest winners will be reading their work. Free cookies and beverages will be provided. Pick up your copy tonight or visit the MSUM Bookstore!

Slammed

2005-04-28T12:35:00.000-05:00

I don’t know what’s worse, slamming my fingers in a car door or watching four fiction writers successfully ruin a poetry slam? Today marks the one-week anniversary of the poetry slam that was held at the Great Northern. I would like to give a shout-out congrats to Bret Ortler, Kevin Zepper, Jay Bordt and of course the four fiction writers who successfully ruined the poetry slam with their poem Four Fiction Writers Ruin The Slam. The four writer’s charming bits of behavior triumphed at the slam by taking home fourth place but they also gave a little hope to fiction writers everywhere, that they too can write poetry.

Four Fiction Writers Ruin The Slam

You begged me to read this
but you got nothing
waiting for the friggin
choo choo to roll on by.
Making love to a vampire
with a monkey on my knee.
The judges look lovely tonight
I've got cans in my pocket.
MK and KC, the emcee keeping me
real.
Wish I had another beer - I gotta piss.
Can you imagine,it took four people to write this?

The Glasrud Lecture Series Presents the Erdrich Sisters

2005-04-28T00:08:00.000-05:00

Hello, again, everybody! Just wanted to make sure to remind our weblog visitors out there to be sure and go check out this year's Glasrud Lecture at MSUM. This year's should be a really exciting one as we are lucky to be graced by the presence of the talented Erdrich sisters -- Louise, Heid E., and Lise -- who will present a lecture at 4p.m. in the Science Lab Auditorium 104, to be followed that evening at 8p.m. with a reading from their works in the same place.

All three sisters were raised in nearby Wahpeton, North Dakota, and have delved into their Ojibwe heritage in much of their writings. Heid E. is among the roster of New Rivers Press authors with her collection of poetry titled Fishing For Myth. She currently teaches both Native American literature and creative writing at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul. Lise resides in Whapeton to this day and has published two children's books called Bears Make Rock Soup and Sacagawea. She has also published various fiction and nonfiction in numerous anthologies and literary magazines. Louise is one of the most popular and well-known authors to have ever come from North Dakota, receiving much critical acclaim for her many books and award-winning novels, beginning with 1985's Love Medicine.

Personally, this weblog host at least learned a great deal more about Louise this semester in his Midwestern literature class, where professor Mark Vinz (also an old friend of Louise; the guy has an endless list of writer friends!) assigned the class her novel Tracks, which is set late in the period when Native Americans were rapidly losing their land, and it was definitely my personal favorite of all the assigned readings. One can see a strong influence from William Faulkner in Louise's fiction, especially in some of the literary methods she employs, such as multiple narrators in first person point-of-view in the same work, to characters that continue to reappear in subsequent works.

So come on out later today (Thursday) for what is sure to be an enlightening experience listening to the Erdrich sisters. Also, if you would like more information on Heid's book, Fishing For Myth, published in 1997 by our old friends here at New Rivers Press, check it out at their website by clicking here.

JET Programme

2005-04-24T19:14:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I met a young couple who were participants in the JETProgramme and worked as Assistant Language Teachers (ALT)in Japan. They enjoyed their experience so much they've decided to return and teach for a second year. When they applied for the position they didn't know the Japanese language and they knew very little about the culture. The JET Programme teaches it's participants through a series of workshops before departing in order for the individual to prepare for the job.

The JET Programme is an opportunity for new graduates to travel abroad and help teach the English language to junior and senior highschools. The purpose of the JET Programme is to increase mutual understanding between people of Japan and people of other nations. JET aims to promote internationalisation in Japan's local communities by helping to improve foreign language education and developing international exchange at the community level.

Literary Disneyland Field Trip (Part 1)

2005-04-19T16:07:00.000-05:00

Last week the Introduction to Publishing class was invited to visit The Loft, Milkweed Editions, Consortium Sales and Book Mobile in the Twin Cities area. 6:00 a.m. whupped our weary bodies and from parking lot C on MSUM turf, we boarded the swanky charter bus and stumbled down the aisle in relentless pursuit for the back seats. The bus smelled like sleep and day old coffee, but the 3 ½ to 4-hour bus ride was filled with enough banter and flea-bitten, road-tripping fun to make any bed head a no-dozer.

When we arrived in Minneapolis the bus dropped us off at the Open Book, which is the building where The Loft and Milkweed Editions are located. This was my first visit to Open Book and when I entered the reading room it felt like a literary Disneyland. Eye candy of artistic work lined the walls and zines and books were distributed throughout the area. I flipped through the zines and read from these writers grappling with the world and I wanted more! I wanted more of what they offered. There was something unique, something that snapped within the sharpie-inked pages. It was a chance to engage with underground raw-literature, to soak up the brainy introverts and black marker. These Disneyland writers and artists have conventional wisdom and are dedicated in distributing the unscripted lock of truth at binding speeds.

I didn’t want to leave the reading room but the class had to continue with the tour. We scurried along through studios and around vintage off set printers where we learned the fine art of hand sewn book binding, paper making and printing. We then ascended toward the third floor where Milkweed is located and we’re given a tour of the office and meeting rooms. The class walked around the cubicles in the office and I noticed manuscripts towering in slush-piles waiting to be chewed on and further through the office there were other manuscripts bound on top of a cabinet with a sign written above them labeling the stack as “Manuscripts w/Agents.” I found that humorous.

We gathered in one of the boardrooms and were informed of the history of the press. I learned that Milkweed Editions is a non-profit press with the intentions of making a human impact on society. They consider distinctive voices of literary merit and their books are visually dynamic and explore ethical, cultural and esthetic issues. There are about 8-12 people working full-time and during other months they have non-paid interns working alongside.

To Be Continued...

Preview of Literary Disneyland Field Trip Part II.....I enjoyed the tour given at The Loft, Consortium Sales and Book Mobile printing. It’s interesting to see what actually happens in the rear view mirror of a book and to think of how it actually got into your hands. It amazes me of how any book can survive and not be totally extinguished from the market. If NRP books don’t succeed, I learned that they will remain incubated on the shelves in the warehouse at Consortium.

Field Trip Festivities

2005-04-11T18:04:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow at 6:00 a.m. Orty J and the Intro to Publishing class will be eating breakfast and boarding the bus to go to the Twin Cities. Stay blogged to find out how the trip went!

Marisha Chamberlain discusses emphasis of dramatic element in the writer's craft

2005-04-08T22:07:00.000-05:00

Known mostly for her reputation as a poet and playwright, Marisha Chamberlain spoke at 4pm this past Wednesday in MSUM's library porch as the last of this semester's series of Tom McGrath visiting writers. Her topic mainly focused on the dramatic element involved with writing fiction, plays, and poetry. Chamberlain used excerpts from her play Scheherazade to help give examples of the often subtle or gradual progression of suspense and drama in a literary work. She also used a couple of poems from poet Stephen Dobyns and MSUM's own poet/professor (and longtime friend of Chamberlain's) Mark Vinz as additional examples for the necessity of building multiple levels of dramatic texture, as well as to illustrate the need for the writer to be able to take their work up a notch, jumping to a higher level of drama as the work continues to progress. She claims that for the dramatic element to be successful in literary work, the writer must realize that it is essential to write about the things that are extremely important to that particular writer. She also says it's crucial for the writer to embrace the cruel realities of life as well as the beautiful ones for the artist to see growth in their work, and that the writer must emphasize that situations usually tend to go from bad to worse before they start to get better in both real life and in the literary arts.

Chamberlain also discussed some research she examined in which she claims to have discovered three common characteristics inherent in writers of creative fiction. The first trait, she says, is a strong tendency to be mostly self-taught at their craft, using writing workshops and classes as a way to hone many of the skills they may have already learned and cultivated. The second trait is that many writers often tend to be highly-sensitive to the social world around them, that their actual sensory perceptions such as hearing and sight may not necessarily be any more advanced than the average person, yet they seem to take in more of what may be happening around them, such as possibly hearing the subtle sounds that most others tend to ignore or notice the little details that the average person may shut out. The third and last trait is that many creative writers tend to grapple with either a real or imagined social handicap that affects them on a regular basis. Well, we here at Social E Challenged can definitely identify with that one and we feel that this last trait is also probably fairly self-explanatory, so I'll refrain from further detail on the matter aside from mentioning that Chamberlain used the character of Linus from "Charlie Brown" fame -- with his security blanket as example -- to highlight her point on social handicaps.

Chamberlain says that she has always been somewhat of a multiple-format writer, but for the most part she got her start in creative writing with an interest in poetry, and from there it shifted to playwriting, then lastly to prose fiction. She claims that writing in multiple formats isn't necessarily the mark of the "better" writers, that it's the quality of the work that obviously is the ultimate judge of the writer's abilities, and that many of the best writers out there got that way by getting so much practice in the central form of their choice.

Again, if you missed Marisha Chamberlain's discussion and reading or would just like to get more info about her and all her work, make sure to check out the previous weblink just a few posts below this one and enjoy!

Orty's (not very) Daily Affirmations, #???

2005-04-08T21:53:00.000-05:00

Some days I just want to yell to the gods and demand a new thyroid and maybe a less obsessive brain. Oh, and also a couple new pairs of socks.

Poetry on Canvas

2005-04-06T18:08:00.000-05:00

I've recently started reading a biography on Edward Hopper
written by Gail Levin. I can't really say I go-giddy for a good bio but I can't resist this mammoth book on my favorite American painter. So far I've made a small dent in the 580 pages and I think I'll actually finish it. I'm finding an intriguing connection between Hopper's art with literature. Hopper's intellectual interest is shaped by Victor Hugo, Emerson, Whitman, Flaubert, Dickens and Kipling's poetry. There was such an impression from literature on Hopper that he began producing illustrations in art school and even wrote poetry himself. Such characters he sketched have been Fagin and Oliver from Oliver Twist, Mr. Tulkinghorn from Bleak House and Hester Prynne from The Scarlet Letter and Poe's The Raven.

When I first started to study Hopper's paintings I wasn't aware of his individual expressions and techniques. I just knew it had triggered-I guess you could say- a fulfillment to an end... an aesthetic pleasure. Today his paintings have inspired me to write on a whole different level by developing images and observations from my daily life.

"The attempt to give concrete expression to a very amorphous impression is the insurmountable difficulty in painting."
- Edward Hopper

Joyce Carol Oats found these words to apply to all forms of art that she then later produced a profound poem about Hopper's painting Nighthawks, titled Edward Hopper's Nighthawks, 1942.

Tequilamockingbirds

2005-04-04T20:44:00.000-05:00

April 2005 marks the 10th celebration of National Poetry Month!

In celebration to the National Poetry Month, Mark Vinz's MFA poetry workshop class will be reading poems at the Fargo Public Library April 13th (that's next Wed. ) at 7:30pm.

Ink runs from the corners of my mouth.
There is no happiness like mine.
I have been eating poetry.
—from “Eating Poetry” by Mark Strand

I miss the intro to poetry prompts my professor would bring to jumpstart the creative process. Prompts such as: Imagining yourself inside a bubble at the bottom of the ocean...or writing a poem of what corduroy feels like..or beginning a poem with "I thought I saw a..."

On behalf of the National Poetry Month Orty J came up with a creative writing exercise that involves the found poem. A found poem is shaped from a collection of words or phrases found in one text... or it actually could be found anywhere.
Here's the prompt: Take a few shots of tequila and flip through Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird and just start writing whatever phrases or words you find intriguing, just make sure you are writing legibly. I've actually tried this exercise with Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom. You will be amazed with your results.

A cool new writer's quote for y'all!

2005-04-04T15:28:00.000-05:00

Hi, everybody! While I was leafing through my writing scrapbook today I found this neat little quote that I thought you might like me to share with you. It's not the average take on creative writing to say the least I'd say:

One cannot lie, if one writes in blood. There is too much responsibility; and the ghosts of those one has killed will rise up and twist the pen down true lines, change the written word to the unwritten as the red lines fade on the page to brown.

This quote is taken from the graphic novel titled Mr. Punch by Neil Gaiman, which deals somewhat with those archaic and vaguely creepy Punch and Judy puppets. Formerly from England but now a Midwesterner taking up residence right outside of Minneapolis, Gaiman is a highly versatile and eclectic literary artist, often blending many different genre styles together such as fantasy, dark fantasy, horror, history, alternative history, and literary (sometimes all in one story!) He is most known for his work on the award-winning Sandman comic and graphic novel series, but has also published poetry, short stories, children's books, and in the most recent years, various novels. Most recently he has been at work on screenwriting for the future film Mirror Mask, to be released by Jim Henson Productions. Mirror Mask will be the second screenwriting project that Gaiman's done thus far, the first being a miniseries for the BBC titled Neverwhere, of which he later rewrote as his debut (and bestselling) novel.

You can check Neil Gaiman out at his own official website and weblog by clicking here

Sidebar

2005-04-03T13:28:00.002-05:00

Hey check out the new Top 3 links on the sidebar.

This week the sidebar is featuring Dr. Mark Christensen's weblog and wiki.

Spring forward

2005-04-03T13:08:00.001-05:00

Okay I have to admit... I thought day-light savings time was last Sunday. What can I say, I am disconcerted with hiatuses of thought!!! But for all of those not on Orty J time remember to set your clocks one hour ahead.

Tom McGrath Series

2005-04-03T13:08:00.000-05:00

The Tom McGrath Visiting Writers Series invites Marisha Chamberlain Wednesday, April 6 4:00 p.m., Library Porch, talk on "The Writer's Craft"Reading at 8:00 p.m., Library Porch.

Marisha Chamberlain is a poet, essayist, fiction writer, and prize-winning playwright whose plays have been seen all over the U.S., notably Scheherazade, which won the Foundation for Dramatists Guild /CBS Regional and National Awards and was screened across the country in an award-winning teleplay version. She has adapted numerous works for the stage, including Little Women, which was premiered by the Children’s Theater Company of Minneapolis, and is the author of a ballet, libretto, and numerous other works. She has taught at a number of universities and currently lives in Hastings, Minnesota.

Interchangable art

2005-04-03T12:51:00.000-05:00

The art of reading and writing is interchangable. There is a literary level and a writer level. When the reader is taking on a piece of literature they are also connecting with the author and the text invites the reader to collaborate in the creative process. The freedom of reading enables the reader to fill in the missing pieces of the text. It has them re-establish themselves with the literature. The reader's freedom than is to help or complete the writer through his/her piece. Sartre states that " the author writes in order to address himself to the freedom of readers, and he requires it in order to make his work exist." It is through prose that Sartre reveals the world as the site of freedom. Literature is no longer an activity for oneself but it is concern with human freedom. There is a need to impose ourselves (writers) on the world and when freedom is denied it is his/her responsibility to disclose the reason to which it has been misplaced.

Orty discusses more about creative writing, and "tone-blending"

2005-03-26T17:04:00.000-06:00

I notice lately, particularly in my prose writing, that much of my fiction is becoming more and more based on actual happenings in my own life. Sometimes based on stories I've heard from other people or stories maybe about people I've met or know. Mostly though, it seems all too often enough that my life has become (and has been this way for quite a while) a sort of magnet for strange occurrences that can often cause me trouble or pain, but on the bright side, give me something very valuable to write about. And on the other side of the spectrum, sometimes I just meet extremely interesting people, albeit complete strangers, who for some reason feel compelled to tell me their life story... or at least a fascinating anecdote to record.

Which directly relates to and leads me into discussion of one of my favorite current experiments with creative writing, that of playing with tones and blending them together in the same story, often in the same paragraph. I come across quite a few writers who employ this technique in some form or another, and to me it especially seems to be used more frequently in lots of screenwriting that I've come across, such as the "black comedies" (dark humor, I mean, not African-American, though in some cases it's both). In various creative writing workshops that I've taken, there have been a fair share of writers who believe that writing is all about consistency, and of course that's true and endless amounts of great books and great writing stand to support this claim. However, I've also come across numerous cases of writing that personally blew this writer away because I remember how quirky and strange the tone of the work was, that it could go from serious to humorous and back to serious again or vice versa, taking readers from being on the verge of tears at one point, to putting them in danger of splitting their sides from laughter at the next.

How best to develop into a “good” poet?

2005-03-24T19:41:00.000-06:00

Almost every writing professor will respond, “you have to read, read, read!” Today there are hundreds of journals and lit. magazines being published by large and small presses to help you keep up with what’s going on in the literary world. Some writers (although I have not met any in the MFA program) fear that paying too much attention to others work will at some degree influence their own writing. I do not agree that reading other work from poets would diminish my style, but it only redeems my writing. Although I have to say that some contemporary poems that I have read in literary journals seem chatty, self-centered, too explosive, and adherence to free verse but then I wonder and ask myself this question…. isn’t that the poetry of our time? I am not saying that the poet’s work is cheaply thrown together but somehow maybe there are too many poems traveling down the same paved road of current poetic fashion.

This reminds me of the coloring contest our class had in the third grade. Mrs. Cook handed out the same picture to every student. The picture we had to color was a tropical forest with exotic animals such as a toucan, monkey and koala. I remember watching the other kids smudging yellows and blues with their palms and how Joey kept smelling the markers and got orange ink on his nose. And I can’t remember who sat next to me but I do remember her green marker wearing out and I let her borrow mine. I remember neatly following the contour lines of each animal, giving them their appropriate color and carefully keeping my hands from blurring the picture. Then I waited for the girl to return my marker just so I could fill in each tropical leaf to a perfect bright green.

I lost the third grade coloring contest. It was Heather’s picture that had won. She didn’t even stay within the lines and her forest was filled with pink leaves, an orange toucan, purple monkey and green koala. She even drew her own blue kangaroo. There is no such thing as a blue kangaroo!..but maybe that’s what I need to do with my poems...to just let them color outside the lines.

Orty J's favorite song lyric of the day! (number 1)

2005-03-23T14:06:00.000-06:00

The end of paralysis/I was a statuette/Now I'm drunk as hell on a piano bench/And when I press the keys it all gets reversed/The sound of loneliness makes me happier.

-- "Poison Oak" by Bright Eyes

Welcome back, spring breakers!

2005-03-23T13:58:00.000-06:00

Social E Challenged hopes everyone had a fantastic break and that you're all rested and ready for the last half!

Happy St. Pat's and Happy Birthday, Billy!

2005-03-17T16:43:00.000-06:00

Orty J would like to wish everyone a very happy St. Patricks's Day, and maybe some of you will be enjoying a fresh green beer with Orty J tonight. And speaking of "Patrick's", we here at Social E Challenged would also like to extend a very Happy Birthday wish to one of the greatest and most influential rock musicians of our time, now also a literary artist, Mr. Billy Patrick Corgan, of former Smashing Pumpkins fame. New solo album and DVD coming this spring! Have a green beer on us, Billy! Check him out at www.billycorgan.com

Spring Break Hoopla!!

2005-03-17T16:35:00.000-06:00

Hiya, folks! We here at Social E Challenged hope you are all having the very best of spring breaks, and to all you suckers who have already enjoyed spring break a couple weeks ago (i.e. Concordia) now it's our turn to rub our vacation time in, so there... ha ha! We also apologize for the slight lack of posts this past week, but of course since we're all on break this week we figure all you folks will be spending most of your time dipping in some of our planet's beautiful oceans, soaking up some sunshine in an exotic place, keeping your feet in the warm sand, and just generally avoiding the internet and/or computer labs altogether. We totally understand that desire, especially since we at Social E Challenged are still stuck here in the not-so-tropical, but still oh-so-ambient FM neighborhood trying to get caught up on all our class work for the last half of the term. But we're also aware that our break is soon over, so be sure to keep checking us out for a completely refreshed and re-energized flurry of activity again, starting with an upcoming review of various New Rivers Press books, such as
Landing Zones by Edward Micus, one of the NRP books that yours truly aided in copyediting in his exciting NRP internship! And by all means, we invite you to please add your own special comments to any of these great books that we will be reviewing and discussing, especially if you have read them as well and would like to add or mention something about them that we maybe forgot to discuss. We're all about interaction here!!

orty j is back..

2005-03-08T19:06:00.000-06:00

..and needs coffee.

Under Destruction

2005-03-08T07:43:00.000-06:00

Hiya, folks! We apologize for the inconvenience, but both Orty J and his tagboard appear to be under destruction at the moment. Orty's comes from the fact that it is midterms and exam time, and the tagboard... well, that's just for various other reasons! But rest assured and stay tuned, cause provided Orty can survive his exams, he'll have that tagboard up and running faster than you can shake a stick at it!

Also, make sure to stick around (no pun intended, see above) or check back here soon for some coverage of local bookstore venues and libraries as we will be having some guest speakers from these venues this evening in Orty's Intro to Publishing class! They will be discussing various promotion and sales techniques of published books and authors.

Under Construction

2005-03-07T13:53:00.000-06:00

SoCiAl e ChAlLeNgeD is currently under weblog construction. Orty J apologizes for the lack in posts and welcomes you to stop in again. Please feel free to lounge, comment or take a nap.

Back in MY day....

2005-03-06T03:07:00.000-06:00

we didn't have technology, we had nothing to entertain us but trees and dirt. And we liked it! we loved it! Alright, alright... anyway, this technology thing is new to me, especially this HTML business, so go easy on a fictional 98-year-old student web log host... okay? Just thought I'd let you people out there know that although we are a site especially dedicated to New Rivers Press and its great authors and their work, we also plan on discussing some of our other interests in the arts these days, as well as other favorite writers and their work. And whenever possible, we will try to provide you with links, that is if your friend Orty can get this darned HTML stuff right! So keep checking us out for new info and stuff! Now go get some sleep already, it's past your bedtime!

(It's time for) Orty's Almost-Daily Affirmation

2005-03-06T02:07:00.000-06:00

If there was no such thing as a middle of the term then maybe we wouldn't have to worry about midterms!

not so famous quotes

2005-03-04T13:42:00.000-06:00

"What's with today, today?"
"You rock, rock!"
"I've gotta tell you my all time favorite book is Johnny Cash's autobiography Cash by Johnny Cash."

Titles don't have copyrights?

2005-03-04T00:03:00.000-06:00

Orty can't make it to the Red Bear tonight, but was able to find the Science Lab Auditorium to attend the Larry Woiwode reading.

A Taste of Poetry

2005-03-01T21:04:00.000-06:00

I have pulled a poem from Philip Bryant's book "Sermon on a Perfect Spring Day"

Stella by Starlight

My mother couldn't understand how my father, a man stuffed so full of promise and potential, could wither it all away on a stack of bebop records and a bottle of beer. And his close friend, Preston, was worse-undereducated and couldn't speak the King's Enlgish if you'd held a gun to his head, gave him the book, and asked him to quote any passage out of Shakespeare. Every other word was muthafuck this or muthafuck that. Why my father associated with him, who in my mohter's opinion was far beneath him, was an open mystery, something beyond her. Jazz, Jazz, Jazz, that's all she heard-morning, noon, and night-when he could have easily risen to be a great surgeon, lawyer, or civil rights leader. But one day I walked in on them by accident and there they were: Preston and my dad, a little drunk, crouched over the turntable. I understood why when they turned around, taken completely by surprise for an instant. I saw that both their dark faces reflected the light and were shining.

Sermon on a Perfect Spring Day

2005-03-01T20:13:00.000-06:00

Philip Bryant is an impressive poet and deserves applause. His book of poetry, “Sermon on a Perfect Spring Day”, was chosen by the Minnesota Voices Project and published by New River Press in 1998.

Bryant was a guest speaker to the Introduction to Publishing class and gave a lively reading incorporating jazz with his poetry in the Library Porch at Minnesota State University Moorhead on February 22, 2005.

Bryant shared his exploration of poetry and obsession of literature to the Intro. to Publishing class. During the discussion Bryant stated that it took one good English teacher to get him reading and from there he wanted to be T. S Eliot and to write like Rilke. Early in Bryant’s writing career he had experimented with Russian Surrealist poetry and wanted to bridge away from growing up in Chicago because he thought poetry about where he came from couldn’t be considered literary art. It wasn’t until Bryant distanced himself from Chicago was he able to write about growing up in Southside Chicago. It was with this distance Bryant was able to find structure and write in a sequential way.

In “Sermon on Perfect Spring Day”, Bryant uses a natural sense of language to bring people back into poems. He wants to connect language directly to the people who don’t read a lot of poetry by using free verse or “splatter dash arbitrary rhyme” to make line breaks. Bryant wants his poems to be accessible for the reader, “to hear a ‘click’ and let the poem open up to them.”
In Bryant’s poems he uses a documentary effect to get to the immediacy of the poem. He stated his writing is “kindof like a Blairwitch film” because using a preformed structure would just distract and get in the way of the story. Bryant uses different modes of speaking, a “swing speak” stretching the structure like jazz or getting a “ring in your head” to try and incorporate that sound of voice in the writing. Bryant has succeeded in developing an ambient diversity with language, music, and culture to create a distinctive voice in poetry.

Bryant was born in Chicago in 1951, educated in the Chicago Public Schools. He attended Gustavus Adolphus College and graduated with a BA in English in 1973. Bryant then attended Columbia University, School of the Arts, graduating with an MFA in creative writing in 1975. He has taught various colleges and universities in the Chicago area from 1975- 1989. He has served on the Minnesota State Arts Board and the governing board of The Loft, the center for writing and creative arts located in the Twin Cities. He has had poems published in The Iowa Review, The Indiana Review, The American Poetry Review, and Nimrod. Blue Island, a chapbook of his poetry was published in 1997 by Cross+Roads Press.

Bryant has set his poem to jazz forms by Carolyn Wilkins, pianist and singer. Bryant and Wilkins have composed poetry and jazz honoring their Chicago roots entitled South Side Suite.

Most of the poems included in “Sermon on a Perfect Spring Day” were written at his lake house in Sterns County near Paynesville, Minnesota. Bryant lives in Saint Peter, Minnesota with his three children and wife.

You can purchase a copy of PhilipBryant's book "Sermon on a Perfect Spring Day" by visiting the MSUM bookstore or clicking the link above.

New Rivers Press

2005-03-01T19:55:00.000-06:00

We like it!

orty's draw'ng

2005-03-01T19:47:00.000-06:00

Sometimes I like to draw draw'ngs after a long day of class at MSUM.

constructing a site

2005-03-01T18:58:00.000-06:00

We have nothing to do with this event

Red Bear

2005-03-01T18:51:00.000-06:00

I like the Red Bear because it looks like a castle.