In the last couple of days I have been wrapping up a Shakespeare experience of Romeo & Juliet with my ninth grade students. In an effort to keep things light and entertaining when introducing students to Shakespeare, I use a … Continue reading
Archive for the ‘VonnegutStory’ Category
The Shape of Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet
Friday, June 8th, 2012Shape of Nancy Drew Stories
Monday, June 4th, 2012Okay, so many people are familiar with the Nancy Drew book series. I was addicted to them throughout elementary school. I always loved going to Costco with my mom because they sold Nancy Drew books in packs of 6 there. So every time I went to Costco with her I was able to buy a new pack of Nancy Drew books. They were easy and quick reads, I could finish them in like half a day. But if you ever read Nancy Drew books, you know they are predicable.
After about my 3rd Nancy Drew book I was able to predict what would happen when I read them. Nancy somehow comes across a mystery that needs to be solved and her friends would help her solve it and often times they would have to travel to do so, or they would already be traveling when they came across their mystery. Nancy would get herself into a dangerous situation while trying to solve the mystery and then she would be saved by either her sweetheart or friends. Then she would eventually solve the mystery.
Vonnegut and The Shape of Stories: Gladiator
Sunday, June 3rd, 2012So after watching the short clip I decided to make my own graph of the movie Gladiator (if you have not seen it don’t read this post, I don’t want to ruin it for you!). I chose this movie because it is one of my favorites and I have seen it countless times. So the movie starts out on a high note with Maximus winning a battle and then told he will be the caretaker of Rome when the Caesar dies. Then as represented by the graph below there is a terrible drop where he is betrayed by Caesar son from this his wife and son are murdered and he is eventually sold into slavery. Once a slave he becomes a gladiator which accounts for the rise in fortune but there is a small drop when his plan to take down the new Caesar is foiled and he is caught. At the end of the movie he gets to fight Caesar and although he does die it is good fortune for him because he believes he is joining his family.
Here is my version of Vonnegut Graphs.
A Latecomer to Camp Magic Macguffin
Sunday, June 3rd, 2012
My Daily Create assignment No 146 – a photo that represents destruction
I joined Camp Magic Macguffin a while ago, then forgot all about it, shame on me. I joined the camp because I love digital storytelling and the DS106 activities will give me something fun to do during summer. Since I am an open participant and not doing this for credit, I hope it is still not late to start creating.
I am grateful to @olHatchetJack for showing me the way to Bunkhouse Four and to @cogdog for reminding me that I haven’t written a single blog post so far. So, here I am now.
If you are one of my regular readers and only came here looking for TEFL lesson ideas, I believe you are still at the right place. The reason why I didn’t create a separate blog for DS106 is that I think that most of the stuff I do here can be transformed into lesson ideas. Today is no exception.
The first task I have decided to tackle is “Vonnegut and The Shape of Stories”. Here is the original video:
Our task was to describe the shape of a story we are familiar with, based on Voneggut’s video. Here is my contribution:
So, have you recognised the story yet?
Technorati Tags: DS106, VonnegutStory
The Shape of 50 Shades
Saturday, June 2nd, 2012From beginning to end, the shape of the first book in the 50 Shades trilogy “Fifty Shades of Grey” is a roller coaster ride. Typical girl meets boy story that doesn’t have a happy ending…yet. I’m currently reading the second book is the series “Fifty Shades Darker” so I’ll report back on if Ana and Christian get there happy ending.
shaping our stories
Saturday, June 2nd, 2012Kurt Vonnegut’s elements of a good story include (among other elements): time (stuff happens over time, from beginning to end), characters (whose status is determined by a number of factors), space (setting/environment), and action/plot (stuff happens, characters interact, fall in love or not, fight evil or not, prevail or not, etc). Rushmore is one of my favorite movies of all time (not including Dazed and Confused. As Wooderson says just keep L-I-V-I-N.). The hero of that movie, Max Fischer, follows the “Man in Hole” storytelling arc (as illustrated here by the awesome Maya Eilam. Max starts out in trouble because he is failing out of Rushmore. At the same time, he’s savvy and crafty and creative and energetic and can-do in every sense. He orchestrates his world, and when he can’t (cause we can’t totally control our world), he grows. I love Max because he is creative and an underdog. He is the maker of his own story. That kid embodies so much sadness and drive and goodness. Of course he has to win in the end, even if that winning end is bittersweet.
The Shape of Cool Hand Luke
Friday, June 1st, 2012
cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by cogdogblog
This is a fairly literal attempt to draw the shape of the story to one of my favorite all time films, Cool Hand Luke (1967) according to the Kurt Vonnegut approach:
In the beginning, since he is drunk and feeling no pain, Paul Newman’s character is doing pretty good at chopping parking meters, although we have no idea why he is doing this. Of course, his track plummets in finding himself in jail. But it is there, among the various characters, that his spirit rises, although he is beaten up in the fight with Dragline (the young but always tough George Kennedy), Luke’s fortune just keeps arcing as his spirit of a fighter is respected by the other prisoners.
Although they are given the grunt work of clearing roads and tarring, it is Luke’s leadership that leads them not only to an early finish, but a bit of a relief of a sideshow when Joy Harmon’s character sexily attends to a dirty car.
Things could not go more in the I range when Luke’s mother die, but sinks lower when he is placed in “the box” as some sort of an example. There we ride the peaks (one of these is the egg eating scene?) and valleys as Luke seems to easily escape but almost as easily ends up brought back to jail. It’s that last one, when the guards make Luke repeatedly dig and bury the same ditch, and essentially (seem) to break him when he asks god for help.
Yet, he is not broken since he (and Dragline) escape one final time- will they break free? No, and they are caught and shot at a church- I place this not so far below because maybe it is an end to the cycle that the prison would give Luke this next time (?). And his stature only grows more in respect after he is no more, when Cool Hand Luke becomes a legend even bigger than a big man. How much more G can you get for a guy who always does things on his terms.
Just sing along with Luke
I made this in Brushes on the iPad, importing a still image of Luke’s glazed eyes while eating one of 50 eggs. I used different layers for the axes, curves, text (I have the hardest time getting it to brush and not move the canvas), and even tossed in a little bit of a background layer to put behind the text.
Summer of Oblivion, Vonnegut Style
Thursday, May 31st, 2012How awesome was that Vonnegut video? I wasn’t sure what story I wanted to draw, and then I had the idea to map out last summer’s Summer of Oblivion edition of DS106. To make it work, I actually mapped the arcs of three characters. For those who followed along, I think it will be pretty obvious who I’m talking about. :-)
I did this using Sketchbook Pro on my iPad, which I am growing to love! Thanks for the tip @giuliaforsythe! I had a lot of fun drawing the little cartoon heads. I learned a trick from watching Giulia a few weeks ago at Faculty Academy — it helps A LOT to zoom in. You have much better control over the drawing and can add more detail. (BTW, I was using my new stylus, which I’m also loving)
What Shape is your Story?
Thursday, May 31st, 2012I kept wanting to exclaim, “Round is a shape” but in the context of stories, round is not a shape.
Phew – Finally a video that is not more than 15 minutes
Vonnegut’s lecture here suggests that formulas exist in stories. Formulas that help you consider and build your story, formulas that help your audience identify with the story, and formulas that can help you analyze a story or story form.
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| Thanks to Maya Eilam |
Don’t believe me? Think Law & Order franchise or This American Life. It is a simple formula that grips audiences every week and keeps us coming back for more.
So what? Well, as we begin to think about creating stories it can take the route of deciding what type of story to tell. I also think we can start with a story and retrofit the story to a shape.
It got me thinking about the shapes application to longer stories, epic novels, or the emerging narrative genre. What of Ulysses? What of Gone with the Wind? What of the Corasanti Trial in my home town of Buffalo, NY that is unfolding as of the date of this post.
Do Vonnegut’s shapes continue down an infinite x-axis cycling like a sin wave? Perhaps that is more than a story.
I began to think about the stories in my life; not my life as a story mind you (who would play me in the movie?) but the smaller stories in my life. I applied Vonnegut’s shapes to some important stories in my life.
Happily Married - Boy Meets Girl
Thyroid Cancer Survival - Man in a Hole
My Dissertation Journey - Which Way is Up? (though I’m hoping for Man in a Hole)
Those are some serious stories but what about the stories I like to tell to my daughter?
Dad Fishes with Papa - Man in a Hole
Dad Runs a Marathon - Boy Meets Girl (usually around Mile 11 comes the “Oh God damn it”)
Dad Camps for the First Time – Man in a Whole
Dad Gardens - Which Way is Up?
I’d have to give the other shapes and stories more thought. One thing thing about seeing the shape of stories si that I can’t seem to turn it off. Like when you first recognize the formula in This American Life you can’t not see it (Thanks Jamie Bono for that one) or when you hear a newscaster say ‘uh’ or ‘um’.
Objective Correlative Machine
Wednesday, May 30th, 2012Listening to Vonnegut, who could arguably be called the father (or one of the fathers) of postmodern literature, discuss dropping shapes into a computer to create stories is beautifully ironic as his work is anything but formulaic. Nonetheless, he’s right. Stories are made up of fundamental (read: ancient; timeless; played; spent?–I hope not.) human experiences. The trick isn’t discovering what those experiences are–we all live them and know them–or to come up with a “novel” set of circumstances that house that experience, but rather to find a (not the) objective correlative for that experience…the holy grail of storytelling. It’s that last part that computers can’t do. So, without further ado, I give you the Objective Correlative Machine acting upon one of my least favorite novels: Moby Dick.
