My Autobiography Project
Phase One
Hand in developed, revised & typed up copies of:
• I Remember
• My Name Acrostic
• My Name Mesostic
• If I Wasn’t Called … I’d Like To Be Called …
Here are some tips –
• I Remember
Try to be specific. Think of how one memory might trigger another. How memories might startle or amuse by being placed next to each other.
Aim for twenty (or more)
• My Name Acrostic
Try to produce one which has its own life – and yet also says something about you. I’d recommend writing several and taking the best.
You can use your first or all your names!
One text is enough.
• My Name Mesostic
The best ones surprise you – how could someone else’s words says something about me? How do words acquire a voice and life of their own? Do I really speak like that? Notice how your name works like your DNA. Notice how chance works hand in hand with a rule.
Write several – perhaps varying the source text. Don’t be too worried about common sense meaning or logical connections. Allow the phrases to lead your ideas.
Aim for a text that fills one side of A4.
• If I Wasn’t Called … I’d Like To Be Called …
The advice here is to open up names to all sorts of language use. A name might be a verb, an adjective, a saying, a place, a type of food … . Do not feel you have to find orthodox boy/girl names!
Think tribal naming. Think emergency service codes (Charlie Bravo Tango). Think crazy names from children’s fiction (Nimpy Windowmash). Think Rapper names (Ice T, Snoop Dogg)). Think restaurant food (Croquettes aux crevettes). Think baby-names, valentine message pet names, absurdly formal honorary titles (Snuggles, Lover Boy, The Minister For Giggles) … & there’s plenty more possibilities!
Aim for a list poem of at least 30 alternative names.
Above all – let your imagination go for a swim in the ocean of language. Don’t be strait-jacketed by thinking it must make strict (auto) biographical sense.
2 comments:
I remember this day when i walked into this classroom in august 2002, very lost, lacking understanding not only in the system but also in the language. I sat there not for too long, about two weeks, before, someone noticed that i never talk read or really do anything. And that person made me read, talk and suffer in many ways. But it was made in such a way that it didn't hurt me, it only helped me.
I remember walking into a classroom in march 2005, and someone was mad because i was very late, after lunch.
I remember walking into a classroom and being kept afterwards on several occasions to be told that smoking is not good.
I remember now four years later, and will for ever, Oscar Wilde, Scott Fitzgerald, George orweel, Orson Wells and many many others.
I remember that feeling when you get a 7 after two years of struggling, and that feeling of achievement not only for yourself, but for the person who was so patient and so helpful. The anxiety that you will fail your IB, the anxiety of finishing school.
I remember the getaway places, behind deli, behind that building that no longer phisically exists,but will always exist, in that alley way, where even now, long long time after not being there anymore, when i go back home, i go.
I remember those three years, that helped me to get where i am, not too far yet, but far enough to be proud.
I remember everytime i re-read 1984, I remember and those memories bring warmth, joy and smiles to me.
I remember everytime something goes wrong, that impossible is nothing.
Thank you Mr Jones
You got me doing that mesostic thing; it kept me digging for ages. Here it is without the correct alignment.
if you came this way
thought you came for
a husk of meaning
and every phrase
all shall be well
not cease from exploration
start from anywhere
to arrive where we
started
between two waves of the sea
which was the beginning
a condition of complete
simplicity
at the sea jaws
when you leave the rough road
complete consort dancing
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