Class 4

Key terms from today's discussion:

The Snapshot Story: Writing a story in single moments, separate in time. Each moment can be considered a single, discrete scene. Your story works like cinematic montage does, by implying relationships between each of the single moments.

Parataxis: A coordinating structure that hides the connections & relationships between elements. Such as: "The sun was shining. We went for a walk." (The walk happened because it was sunny, but that relationship is not stated explicitly.) The most famous instance of parataxis: "I came. I saw. I conquered."

Hypotaxis: A subordinating structure that reveals the relationships between elements. Such as: "The sun was shining, so we went for walk." (That the walk was made possible because it was sunny is made explicitly clear.)

Parataxis and Hypotaxis can describe the structure of a sentence, but they can also describe the structure of an entire story. Most short stories are constructed hypotactically. That is, something happens, then something else happens because of the first thing, which makes something else happen and so on in a big chain reaction. The relationships between events are made clear. But a snapshot story uses a paratactic structure, so that the relationships between all the different scene are kept invisible, waiting for the reader to tease out.

HOMEWORK:

1) Read the assigned readings for next week: "The Bizarre, Inscrutable Moment" and write a Reading Response.

2) Write a Snapshot Story called "Love: Five Examples." Use the same two characters in five scenes. Each scene should embody one of the five kinds of love:

EROS—Romance and longing. Jittery, nervous, heart-racing love.

PHILEO—Cherished friendship. The love of comfortable, familiar things.

STORGE—Affection and belonging. Love developed slowly from friendship. Or the affection one feels for groups, clubs, classes, etc.

EPITHUMIA—Desire and attraction. The strong need for self-satisfaction. A selfish, acquisitive love that desires things and/or ownership.

AGAPE—A general love for everyone. A godlike love for all things. Motherly love. Unconditional love. Or, a drunken, merry, “I love you man!” kind of love.