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Saturday, November 8, 2003

The seventh exercise...

was more automatic writing. This time the constraint was that we should make a simple list--just single words. For three minutes.



3-minute list



typewriter

ghost

paper

oranges

chair

rug

nouns

can

i

write

non

list

items?

books

lines

pens

confused

intent

unclear

not

understood

belly

ache

didn't

like

having

to

tell

her

no

there

she

didn't

like

it

either

precious

parade

outside

barricades

costumes

lights

library

tower

giant

spider

football

player

limosine

driver

laughing

gas

out

loud

Bob

Holman

needs

a

call

from

me

tomorrow

there's

work

again

again

it's

work

nouns

things

come

on

just

list

sirens

echo

concrete

talking

to

brick

city

trashcan

drums

hit




Pretty clear, I guess, what was going on here. Bucking the drive to write in phrases, lines, sentences. The fictioneers had trouble with this too. I kept thinking of this as a very skinny poem, and they kept thinking of theirs as vertical sentences. Harry's got us realizing what we do habitually, automatically, and is teaching us the difference between automatic writing and habitual writing. Something like that.

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