Updike, Downdike, All-arounddike!

English 1002 begins the semester reading and writing about John Updike. (That's John smiling lovingly in the pictures, the one on the left "fer real," the other obviously a cariciature (Ooh, cariciature--that's a vocabulary word! Who knows what that means?)

Students in the class will have the opportunity to discuss Updike and the representative short story "A&P" in the course's Blackboard discussion board, but that's a closed forum. This blog is an open forum! In other words, anybody in the world--not just students in English 1002 class-- can post a comment, or reply to someone else's comment--right here!

So let's see what happens! Whoever you are-- 1002 student, literary critic, common Joe/Jane on the street--Have you read Updike? Whatcha think of Updike? And if that doesn't interest you, whatcha think of life? the meaning of life? The English 1002 class you're in now, or a second semester comp. class you took a long time ago?

Post one, post all! Join the Updike free-for-all!

Accidental Poetry: "Accidentally yours . . . ?"

Hopefully, one of the most reliable indicators of poetic impulse or instinct in a writer is the capacity to demonstrate not only a facility with words, but also a fascination with words--a "head full of logos," as I once composed in a verse celebrating the creative impulse of language (that Greek word "logos" is so much richer than our boring English "word!") .

Writers with this "head full of logos" show a propensity to erupt in spontaneous wordplay, even as they trudge through drafts of otherwise functional and/or transactional writing tasks-- a memo, an email message, a note to co-workers, even a shopping list. This spontaeous wordplay often produces what I term accidental poetry: usually brief poetic expressions resulting from the writer's recursive experimentation with revision and word possibilities.

For me, the process works this way: As I labor at a writing task, I occasional get caught up in fanciful experiments with word sounds, phrasal rhythms, word combinations that produce alliteration or assonance, some clever way of turning a phrase, or even a combination of these strategies. This distraction begins as a sub-conscious and unintentional loss of focus as some interesting possibility leads me off task, but as I wake to find myself wandering off in that direction, instead of redirecting myself to the task at hand, I succumb to the impulse and "play!" Here's an example of an "accidental" verse that spilled out of my keyboard yesterday as I posted a blog comment:

And what's our cheer
this year
down here
along the Coast?
Death to hurricanes!


Of course, it's not great poetry. But nor is it serious poetry-- It's just "accidental poetry," a casual invention that's sometimes cute and almost always fun, something to tuck away in a journal or a corner of the portfolio for future reference and further elaboration--or maybe never. But one way or the other, here I am with this "head full of logos!"

Any other "accidental" poets out there? I'd like to compare notes.

Whatchy'all think of "y'all?"

Want to turn heads in a small college town in Northern California? Go into the local Starbucks and ask the attendants, "How are y'all?"
The user of that contracted form of "you all" attains immediate recognition as one not from those parts, followed by the inevitable "Where are you from?" I experienced that quite a bit earlier this summer.

So the question arises, especially for one rhetorically and poetically inclined in the profession of letters, "Is 'y'all' a legitimate word?" I've never thought of it as otherwise, but then again, I was raised in the Deep South.

Thus, I was gratified, at least according to one source, Wikipedia, that the word conforms to an acknowledged standard spelling ("y'all" as opposed to the incorrect "ya'll") and even an acknowledged possessive form: "y'all's." I was pleased to discover such linguistic acceptance., for like many Southerners, I feel compelled to be defensive about our speech and our usage because some non-Southerners judge our regional vernacular as sub-standard. They often base that judgment solely on our accent, even when we otherwise follow conventional usage standards for formal English.

Admittedly, Wikipedia consigns "y'all" to informal as opposed to formal usage situations. But I can live with that. I'm just pleased that credible sources accept and acknowledge our regional linguistic values and tradtions.

Now the next question: Why is the way we speak seemingly more important to Southerners than to other Americans? That's a good question for a future blogservation. Maybe someone will have opinion and offer a post.

So what do y'all think about that?

Behold the Teacher!

Since so much of my teaching is web-based, maybe some of my students would be interested in knowing what I look like. Here's a portrait I believe my daughter snapped in the past year: Observe the casual pose, if you will--I chose that particular shot simply because the don't-take-myself-too-seriously demeanor that comes across (to me, anyway) is "me." I hope it works for you!

If you are a student in my classes, I look forward to getting to know you once the semester starts August 26. If you are a visitor just poking around, thanks for stopping by. As we say down South, "Do come back," and don't hesitate to post a message so we'll have a record of your visit and your impressions of what goes on here.