284/Introduction to Prose.
We are mortal beings. There is as yet no evidence of god. We live in a hyperdigital culture. Art is related to the body and to the culture. Art should reflect these things. Brevity rules.
Life Is Short—Art Is Shorter: In Praise of Brevity (edited by Shields and Cooperman): purchase from UBS or online.
Students will read the book, do the prompts suggested by the book. We’ll do as many of them as we can. Read the whole book on your own, page by page, including the commentaries by Elizabeth Cooperman and me (we are the book’s co-editors). In class, students and I will discuss individual chapters as we have time. Crucial that you read the book on your own, chapter by chapter as we go and/or all the way through.
In class, students will read aloud their work and critique one another’s work. That is the core focus of the course.
Students will learn the virtue of brevity, the key principles of literary composition in general (for novels, short stories, essays, etc.), and the many gestures available to the contemporary writer.
This is not a course in fiction or nonfiction. This is a course in prose composition. In how to write. You can write whatever you want: prose-poem, essay, fiction, hybrid work.
A sustained argument for the excitement and urgency of brevity; a rally for compression, concision, and velocity; and a meditation on the brevity of human existence.