Ernest Conversations

The assignment this week, to collaborate with a deceased author, sounded to me like a gimmick at first. Then I read Nox. That book, that poem, that collections of words to make a thing, is stunning in it's physical manifestation. Three friends and I spent all weekend simply unfolding and refolding, exploring relationships and wishing we could dissemble the whole thing and reassemble it in our own way.

That whole experience got me really excited about the possibilities beyond the project for this week. As a result, I have a not-at-all complete representation of the final piece I will produce ready at the moment.

I am working with Hemingway, and specifically In Our Time. Two segments of that piece stood out to me when I initially read the book: "The End of Something" and "Soldier's Home". At first I was intellectualizing the pieces and their connection to me, but I slowly realized that that isn't what is needed at all. Carson was allowing her intellect to interplay with her emotions, letting the poem she was working with relate to her personally. This is my issue, my weak point in everything I do: allowing my head and my feelings to coexist. 

I am playing with the format of the dialogue in "The End of Something", taking out all of the description and playing with the spoken words and the way they do or do not add up to a relationship. To me this piece is all about communication between people and the way that communication is a bind between people but also a force that can separate them. After I play with the formatting I will be working in a section at the end that is a sort of reflection on the things going on in my life and the crises of communication that drives me to write.

"Soldier's Home" is a significantly more personal piece, simply because of the subject matter. I'm not sure just yet how I want to work with the story, but I know the emotional connection much better. My brother is a soldier who came back from Afghanistan a year ago, and I am only just now really starting to comprehend my relationship with him and the way his experiences may figure into that. Again, a reflective poem or vignette will accompany the re-imagination of the story.