Continuing our analysis of the various components involved with writing poetry/flash fiction, our readings this week have focused on aesthetics. In class we did an exercise in “workshop.” We sat circular as a class and discussed aspects of two pieces of pre-selected work, “Halloween,” by Erin, and “Dia De Los Muertos,” by Sandra Cisneros. Overall, I found this exercise to be a helpful method of initiating feedback from our peers. With every opinion, new ideas were sparked that could have really helped me; if either of the stories that were chosen were belonging to me.
In addition to the workshop in class, we also did a group activity. We were split into groups of three and asked to read different poems, define beauty, and talk about if we found our respective poem to be beautiful. I felt as though this was a good exercise, even though our story was a bit weird. I felt as though the author of our story used images that weren’t accurate to the emotion I felt she was trying to evoke. For example, the author describes the sky as “sobbing potato juice.” Whether she was describing rain or some other weather condition, I guess it’s hard to understand how that involved potatoes. Although I didn’t particularly care for our story, I still saw beauty in it. In my opinion, beauty is something that invokes emotion into the recipient/reader, and our story did that nicely (even if it was bad emotion).
This week has solidified my understanding of aesthetics in literature. Between reading our journal and the exercises in class, I feel as though I have acquired a keen ability to notice the set of principles that guide various artists’ work. I look forward to continuing further into the semester.
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