Day 3
Tues. Jan. 14
Share Place essay adventures
Practice observation on a Place essay
Practice observations on excerpts of Home definitions
“The Game of Things”
Homework
➤ Write 2 scenes
1) Choose one of the “micro-poems” that you or you classmates “wrote” in class (pick your favorite!) and write a short scene (4-5 sentences or so) using the three details in that poem. You can keep the details in the same order, or change the order; it’s up to you.
2) Choose a scene from your Portrait of a Place essay, and rewrite it, changing the order in which you present the details in that scene. Don’t just cut-and-paste the sentences; write a new paragraph, presenting the details in a different order.
Print out your two scenes (hand-writing them is fine too) and bring them to class.
➤ Reread Susan Orlean and E.B. White excerpts
Choose your favorite scene from either of these two essays, and think about why you like it. What does the author include in the scene? What does the author not include in the scene? Why are the images (or other details) presented in the order that they are?
In addition, find at least one example of:
abstract language
concrete language
a list
a juxtaposition
➤ (Optional reading in Chinese)
If you like, and if you’re able, read Eileen Chang’s 《公寓生活记趣》. This is also a “Portrait of a Place.” How is the way she writes about her apartment building similar and different from the way Joseph Mitchell writes about McSorley’s, and how Susan Orlean writes about her hair salon?
