Field Study Proposal

Writing fiction creates a world where we can explore the deepest elements of being human, and that is the goal of my novel. How to Survive Being Blessed is a story of those who have been touched by the gods. It is fourteenth century England, but the Greek and Roman gods are still worshipped. The gods have been proven to exist and people serve them as best as they are able. The gods are not always perfect but they care for their people, while the government is too tied up in protecting the wealthy to actually do things that matter very much for its citizens. There is Mauri, who has been blessed by Hermes and chosen by Morpheus to spread dreams all across the country. There is Clarabelle, who serves no gods, preferring to believe that humans could one day take care of themselves enough to not need the gods. Mauri’s son Tom has been touched by Ares and learns how to fight not just for fighting’s sake but for justice and those who have been wronged. Colin is a boy, has always been a boy, and it is just a matter of proving it to everyone else. He has been blessed by Morpheus and is held in high regard because of the way he pursues his dreams. Nightingale has been chosen by Aphrodite to bring people together. All of them go through trials and terrors because of the work they have chosen to do with their lives and the gods that have chosen some of the work for them, and all of them struggle to find themselves and survive in the wake of powers so much greater than themselves. More than just writing a story, I seek to answer what it means to write. Why do I feel the need to tell this story? What does culture say about women, fantasy, and bodily autonomy? I seek to listen and to counter all of these stories with tales of my own, using the Holdrege format to tell the story.

The novella I finished is included as an appendix to the Spring paper. It is 24,000 words long and encompasses the story of Mauri. I was unable to write the whole thing due to time constraints and the unexpected length of Mauri’s story. I hope to continue to work on the stories for the other characters and eventually turn it into a full length novel or series.

ABCs and 123s – weekly log and field notes

• E – Week 9 Log June 2, 2013 Monday 4 hours writing term paper Total hours: 4 Tuesday: 4 hours writing term paper 8 hours digitizing story Total: 12 Cumulative total: 18 Wednesday 4 hours digitizing story 7 hours writing term paper Total: 11 Cumulative total: 29 Thursday: 6 hours digitizing story Total: ...
• E – Week 8 Log May 26, 2013 Monday 4 hours editing Your Journey Home 3 hours digitizing How to Survive Being Blessed My handwriting is terrible Total: 7 hours Tuesday 4 hours writing poetry Too sick to go to class, wrote a reverie on ...
• E – Week 7 Log May 18, 2013 Monday – 3 hours reading. Wanted to finish brushing up on Tawada before the seminar. Wanted to explore some more of the text. I’m starting to see Perloff’s delightfully dry sense of ...
• E – Week 2 Log May 14, 2013 Class Work 10 Hours The rest of the class was at the retreat this week. I stayed home because the woods aren’t really cripple friendly. I spent several hours writing poetry ...
• E – Week 1 Log May 14, 2013 Class work 20 Hours It is the first week of class. Lots of reading, lots of different sessions to attend. All kinds of new information. This is a great idea and ...
• E – Week 6 Log May 12, 2013 Classwork – 10 Hours The reading from Rose this week was particularly dense with medical jargon. It was a bit of a difficult read. Also hard to think about the idea ...
• E – Week 5 Log May 4, 2013 Core Program – 20 Hours The chapter from Neuro was absolutely amazing. It was easier for me to read, somehow, despite the fact that normally I find Rose a bit dense. ...
• E – Week 4 Log April 29, 2013 How to Survive Being Blessed – 20 hours It’s coming along fairly well. Managed to get another twenty or so pages written. Chapter 1 comes in at twenty six pages, and ...
• E – Week 3 Log April 21, 2013 How to Survive Being Blessed – 20 hours The story is starting to come along. I’m working on the second draft of a couple of people, Mauri/Auntie being one of them. It’s tough ...

Neuro Reverie

• E – Reverie Week 8 May 24, 2013 “As for cognition, do we not think, literally here, with hands and eyes?” pg 230 “..there is nothing to fear in the rise to prominence of neurobiological attempts to understand and ...
• E – Week 7 Reverie May 19, 2013 “…your sense of personal identity and free will, are in fact no more than the behavior of a vast assembly of nerve cells and their associated molecules,” page 200 “…the self/nonself ...
• E – Week 6 Reverie May 11, 2013 Images do not speak for themselves. But what happens when they do? It is easy to see criminal acts, we do Through computers. But what makes The brain so amazingly different? Why is the brain ...
• E – Week 5 Bachelardian Reverie May 4, 2013 Ironies in Rose Autism doesn’t feel like A disorder. It feels  different An excess of input of empathy, A lack of theory of mind, not mirror Neurons. Here psychology shows itself Why ask an autistic person ...

Poetry

• Week 9 Poetry Collection Says who? I am owned by these fictional characters They guide my waking life, rule what I have the chance to do. I tell them what I want them to do. They retort with ...
• E – Week 8 Poetry Collection Perloff – this poem is to make up for the class I missed on Tuesday.  A Rose by any other name would smell as sweet, And Nikolas certainly makes Perloff sweeter. How refreshing ...
• E – Week 7 Poetry Collection The Most Beautiful Thing – somewhat suggestive The Most Beautiful Thing Oh it’s dark. But a small light shines, Illuminating what little I can see of her. It’s blurry. My glasses are next to ...
• E – Week 4 Poetry Collection Home I am built From the taunts of catty rich girls. They are hurdles on my path To boyhoood.   I am filled With the sounds of rushing Creek water. Peace and quiet here When nowhere else feels Like home.   I ...
• E – Week 3 Poetry Collection Life Life is a journey of seeking. We look for what we want to do When we grow up. We look for items, family Schools, careers, friends, books Better days, food, bathrooms, language. A college, a love, ...
• E – Week 2 Poetry Collection Ironies in Insults Calling someone a pansy Is a bit ironic. Pansies are tough flowers. Scouts of spring peeping Up through snow and freeze. They don’t need much water Thrive with very little attention. Not the kind of ...
• E – Week 1 Poetry Collections I Graph Relationships Novelists are actually mathematicians. We graph the interplay of conversation Show the probabilities of human interaction Write equations for the human heart Breaking down the large and infinite into Personal chunks of people   There ...
• E – Week 6 Poem I was four. Which is funny, because One in four. This number seems low To me because of who I know. So many Survivors. People with broken hearts and Violated bodies.   Stuck inside life with ...
• E – Week 5 Poetry Fantasy lives inside my blood. It has defined my childhood since I could read. I got Harry Potter for my fifth birthday, wrapped With shiny unicorns. (I still have that paper somewhere). When I ...

Poetry Observed

Term Paper Abstract

Abstract: How does my novel How to Survive Being Blessed recycle neurons? The first stage is taking ideas from culture to recycle into my own characters. The second stage is by using my own experiences. The third and last stage is by creating a story that is new and different from culture that will allow young adults to read about people who are like them, rather than the people that culture sees as beautiful or powerful.  

Read full term paper