fRoad Trip: Brent Spencer
As the preceding link indicates, Brent keeps very active at Creighton University and at the farm in Denton, where he lives with his wife, Jonas Agee, whose writing we will explore a bit next week.
You will have a chance on the Discussion Thread to talk about Spencer's short story and a short memoir by Aldo Leopold--consider, too, the E. B. White story from last week, "Once More to the Lake, " which many of you enjoyed a great deal; and the essay certainly merits a second look.
As you read this section from the anthology, focus on ways in which what Spencer has to say ties in with both your own writing experience and what the text has to say--about all aspects of creative writing. And, of course, make connections with what your colleagues in the class post.
The interview illustrates well that Brent has a wonderful sense of humor. The story also underscores a similar point, and something else you want to bear in mind: economy.
As always in literature and perhaps in life, less is indeed almost always better. While the story does offer numerous instances of humor, these moments never turn the story into simple comedy that emphasizes gags and jokes.
Spencer likewise points out in the interview the significance of revisions; in the case of the short story, revisions have modulated the humor. And in his life, humor plays an important role: "So you had to sort of read Moby Dick like it was pornography, under the sheets at night." While his family hardly read, they continue to exert a profound impact on his writing.
Notice his humor once again when he expresses relief that neither his mother nor especially his step-father reads his work: if they did, he would have a lot of explaining to do!
But he does not say that his upbringing was bitter, only difficult because of poverty. And this experience continues to inform his writing.
He is a serious writer, but he does not seem to take himself all that seriously, ensuring that all success comes, perhaps, as a surprise.
Like the other writers we have encountered this term, Brent has a specific writing space, a small shed on his farm. There he tries to work some four or five hours a day; he also has a full-time job at Creighton University, so his days are very full. And yet he continues to write, which is, by the way, part of his job.
Note, too, what Brent has to say about the "writing life" : "you're not really writing well unless you're living well." For him, the writer is not a figure isolated from life but a person fully integrated and engaged in life's often uncertain enterprise. Bear this idea in mind, especially when you wonder what you will write about each week: choose your experience from the world around you.
And his need to engage in life helps explain his dual interests, living and writing, for writing helps him make sense of life:
"Writers, to some degree, are discontented people who are trying to make sense of things, and when you're an insider, everything makes sense." (64)
Consider for a bit what Spencer says here: integrated in the enterprise but not feeling secure. Writing therefore becomes a way of trying to make sense of an ambivalent and often enigmatic world, to understand things better, if only for brief moments of lucidity:
"It's a form of meditation." (65)
Note on the same page, 65, what Spencer says about characters and how they develop for him. Noting comes to him all at once; he must work with the character to develop the person.
So do not feel discouraged if everything does not come to you at once: revise the character as you progress and add the necessary details. In addition, start with a simple idea or conflict.
Thus as he says, "If writing were easy, it'd be less interesting" (68).
And if understanding easily and completely without effort the complete meaning of a story were possible, reading would be less interesting as well.
Read "Save or Turn to Stone" and consider what might be the relationship between the story and the title. You will have an opportunity to discuss the matter in a Discussion Thread.
As you read, think about the first-person narrator and his descriptions of Anne: consider ways in which these descriptions tell us a lot about the narrator.
The humor is evident throughout the story, but one does not laugh: "In the morning, when we wake up, we'll be the same people. How sad to be no wiser than we are. To walk into the wilderness of the new day and lose our way again" (76). Do you agree? What does he seek in life? Why do they drink so much?
As you read the story, focus on the details and some of the repetitions: the getting lost, for example. And to what degree does the boy's game reflect what the adults seek?
Discuss the story with your colleagues: focus on Character, Conflict, and Plot.
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