A playfully contrarian take on the teaching - and learning - of
creative writing. ""Unconventions"" is a quirky and provocative
miscellany that reveals Michael Martone's protean interests as a
writer and a writing teacher. Martone has, shall we say, a problem
with authority. His chief pleasure in knowing the rules of his
vocation comes from trying out new ways to bend, blend, or
otherwise defy them. The pieces gathered in ""Unconventions"" are
drawn from a long career spent loosening the creative strictures on
writing. Including articles, public addresses, essays, interviews,
and even a eulogy, these writings vary greatly in form but are
unified in addressing the many technical and artistic issues that
face all writers, particularly those interested in experimental and
nontraditional modes and forms. Martone's approach has always been
to synthesize, to understand and use any technique, formula, or
style available. ""I find myself, then,"" he writes,
""self-identifying as a formalist, both and neither an experimenter
and/or a traditionalist."" In ""I Love a Parade: An Afterword,""
Martone writes about not fitting in - and loving it - as he recalls
the time he marched alone in a local Labor Day parade, as a
one-person delegation from the National Writers Union. Elsewhere,
in writings formally, stylistically, purposely at odds with
themselves, Martone's expansive curiosity is on full display. We
learn about camouflage techniques, how a baby acquires language,
how to ""read"" a WPA-era post office mural, and why Martone sold
his stock in the New Yorker and reinvested his money in the company
that makes Etch A Sketch. ""Unconventions"", then, is Martone's
""Frankensteinian monster,"" a kind of unruly, hybrid spawn of the
mainstream writing enterprise. ""Writing seems to me an intrinsic
pleasure, an end in itself first,"" says Martone. ""The question
for me is not whether my writing, or any piece of writing, is good
or bad but what the writing is and what it is doing and how finally
it is used or can be used by others.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
