A1MW001 - D - CREATIVE WRITING - Personal Anecdotes

1/ STORY n°1: JAMES THURBER - MY LIFE AND HARD TIMES - 1933 - EXCERPT

Plot: Experiences and anecdotes from Ohio State University

• Biology: As a short-sighted student, he can't see through the microscope.
• Economics: A dumb football player can't answer simple questions. Techer: Bassum / Student: Bolenciecwez Nugent
• Gymnasium: Not allowed to play with glasses and hates to swim: Gave his number 978 to a blond athletic young man numbered 473 to pass exams
• Writing: Hasking, the boring agricultural journalist
• Military: Compulsory 2 years of military drill. He was the worst student, but the only one who got the right direction instead of following others. General Littlefield as commaandant of the cadet corps.

2/ STORY n°2: DAVID SEDARIS - ME TALK PRETTY ONE DAY - 2000 - Excerpt

Plot: Forced into teaching when clearly not ready, Sedaris fails et feels like a fraud

David Sedaris: 1956 to nowadays: With an autobiographical and self-depreciating style, he writes with wit, and 97% of his stories are true. He grows up in North Carolina, and moves to France once achieved some fame and fortune with his partner : Hugh Hamrick. In 1992 he writes The Santaland Diaries, a series of essays all ending up top of New York Times best sellers. Often compared to Woody Allen and Oscar Wild, he blurrs the line between humour writing and stand up comedy. He is the only writer to be invited to late night talks to read his own exceprts.

Chapter: The learning curve

• Sedaris is forced into teaching 1 year after graduating of School of Art Institude in Chicago and mocks that pizza delivering pays more
• He enjoys the idea of power in the teacher position, but also craves his student's love and respect as a sort of fantasy
• The first semester he gets 9 students that he tries to buy by shaping his own leave-shaped name papers, but gets to his class unprepared and bores them.
• His first assignment was an essay on profound disappointment, and he tried to ease students comfort by offering them cigarettes despite the forbidding sign
• An asthmatic student disaproves and throws famous writers names on Sedaris for people who didn't smoke, but Sedaris is not a reader and writes those names down as "trublemakers"
• He always cleverly worked his way out by watching book based shows or returning questions and so he feels like a fraud in fear of being spotted.
• One of his students writes about her painful divorce calling the story "I deserve another chance" and doesn't finish it in addition of being boring. Significant experience vs unsignificant writing => conflict in class
• Unjustified Authority leads him to fail keep his class together, especially after revealing his pay-check that he first brags about.