First Week Thoughts

Right now my thoughts are pretty foggy.

My art history class is going to have a different format than I'm used to. I've had the professor for two other art history classes, and the way he's structured the class in the past is with lecture from which we will take notes in class. I've been pretty happy with that format. I'm an incessant note-taker, and it gave me a chance to take a lot of notes and therefore keep up with what he was saying. This semester, however, he has split the class in half. One group will meet on Tuesdays, the other on Thursdays. On class days, we will be doing in-class activities/presentations based on the lectures and activities we had to do online throughout the week.

Part of me is excited about this format; the professor talked through some of the goals of the in-class activities, including some practice with writing criticism/analyses and artist statements in relation to what we're talking about. The other part is worried. I'm not yet sure what that worry is in response to (though I have a feeling it's not just about one thing). I'm giving it two weeks before I have an opinion about it.

Drawing 3 does not seem as scary as it was last fall. We're starting with a focus on observational drawing. I did a drawing of my cell phone yesterday in class--unfinished, because we only had an hour and the instruction was to make the object we chose as observed as possible. I'm also waiting to have an opinion until I've attended more sessions, but right now I'm feeling good about it. This is good news considering how close I am to developing and putting up my BFA show. I know it will be challenging--incredibly so--but I feel positive.

I know I'm going to love my Intro to French Lit 2 class. We're reading a great variety of literature from the Middle Ages (Le Moyen Age en francais) to the 1700s. I'm stoked; I haven't read a lot of literature from the time period yet, so it will be something different and exciting. The best and also the most nerve-wracking part of it is that because it is a language course, the class is entirely in French. We're reading these classic French works in French (some of which has been translated into the modern French from the original Old French). Mind = blown. My worry, however, is that it's going to become overwhelming. My French vocabulary is not very good at the moment (I'm working on it), and it might take me awhile to get into the swing of reading in addition to our class discussion. I'm so excited for it, but I know it's going to take a lot of work.

Finally, there is Advanced Creative Non-Fiction, a class that will also be a challenge. I have a lot of feelings about this class, and they are all good. I can't wait to be back in the swing of writing again, especially because I haven't done a lot of non-fiction writing. I write fiction and poetry, so this is definitely going to be a different kind of experience and will give me the chance to expand on my knowledge in and of creative writing. I want to do it justice, though. I don't want to fall into a pattern of embellishment and exaggeration. I was so worried about not being able to remember everything--something I'm convinced is impossible to achieve. What if I couldn't produce anything that is able to capture what I want to say? One can't "make stuff up." We had to read a couple of short essays discussing the genre itself--which is much more varied than I ever imagined: essay, travel writing, literary journalism, memoir, cultural criticism, food writing, and so on. Mind = Blown. In that chunk of reading, I gained more enthusiasm and excitement for trying out the genre then I'd ever thought I'd have. There was something, too, that my professor said yesterday in class that soothed my concerns. I don't remember her exact words, but it was something along the lines of: "be truthful to the memory as you remember it." I think I wrote it down in my notes from yesterday; I'll look it up and post it, because it really struck me.

Perhaps I worry too much.


Edit 25 Aug: I have written in my notes (probably not word-for-word): "be true to the memory as you have it." Another thing I wrote down that struck me as interesting is "silence is a power in literature." Also, "verity."