09 December 2008

The death of creativity.

Word Cage 498/589
Fall 2008
FINAL EXAM

Please answer the below question. Partial credit may be given. Write your response in the blue book (just pretend).

1. List three things that interfere with your creative work. Be as specific as you would like.

a)

b)

c)

Grades will be posted as soon as possible, but no later than next Tuesday. If you have any questions, raise your hand.

PS--Yes, I did decorate those cookies with musical miscellany, for my daughter's piano recital. I should've been writing a poem instead.

20 comments:

marybid said...

a) Household chores. Having an eternally messy house interferes with my ability to write. I spend too much time cleaning and doing laundry.

b) Emails and knocks on doors. Either in the office or at home. I'd make a "Do not disturb! Poet at work" sign, but everyone would just laugh at it, and that would distract me further.

c) Time. Sometimes I convince myself that I need hours to write, when really I can just keep a poem on tap all day, and add a line or two here and there.

Sara said...

a)Homework for theory-driven classes. I know folks say this will cross over into my work as a poet at some point, but I've yet to feel inspired by Adorno or Deleuze.

b)Having a social life.

c)Television. Even now, when I don't have cable, I can still get sucked in for hours on end.

John Skarl said...

a)sleep
b)teaching (everything that goes with it...planning, teaching, being a robot, enforcing rules, taking attendance, calling parents, having conferences, grading, eating lunch, making cofee, duty, e-mail, maintinaing a class library, submitting work orders for broken technology, providing ACT testing packets, writing letters of recommendation, decorating the classroom, writing on the overhead, cleaning the overhead, saying hello to every student I see, participating in the union, driving)
c)blogging

Jay Robinson said...

a) Playing with ricecars (sic), Playing tackle football, Watching Curious George and/or playing the Hide from the Monster's Game: These are Sam's favorite things to do, and some of mine, too!

b) Nice weather and/or the months of June, July and August: It's not because I enjoy the summer weather so much; I've just never been a terribly productive writer in the summertime. I tend to watch baseball and complain that I'm wasting all my free time.

c) My own self-confidence

marybid said...

Jay, for whatever reason I read that as "tickle football."

Oh my!

Stephanie Kartalopoulos said...

a) the internet. damn you, facebook! damn you, yahoo mail! damn you, television station websites that stream the shows I wouldn't otherwise be able to watch! damn you, blogosphere!

b) my short attention span and inability to focus as well as I wish I could

c) my surroundings (ie people watching if I am somewhere with my laptop, or looking around my messy apartment and wondering if I have the energy to clean if I am at home...)

Leslie said...

a) The money job.

b) No access to a great academic library

c) See a and b.

Julie Platt said...

a) self-doubt

b) self-doubt

c) World of Warcraft

Valerie Loveland said...

a) The internet! I waste so much time online, this should be A and B.

b) Procrastination techniques that involve me having to find my special writing notebook or special writing pen, or my clipboard. The items are not actually special.

c) Social activities. If someone asks me to do something or spend time with them, I feel like I have to say yes.

Adam Deutsch said...

1. DVr-ed tv shows.
2. Football season.
3. Xbox 360..NOT the video games of my childhood, which explains how productive that time was.

marybid said...

Adam, I just saw your doppelganger in the UA library. It was so hard not accosting him with a bevy of hugs, but I managed to control myself.

Oliver de la Paz said...

1) Facebook, reading blogs, and Twitter. They all go under the "internet" category. I lose so much time reading blogs and throwing sheep.

2) Being a Dad. I don't consider this a waste of time, mind you. It's just my priority these days.

3) I'm with Adam--my XBox 360. Luckily I can't connect it to the net. I'd be a real mess then. And Julie, there's a reason why I cancelled my WoW account.

Charles said...

Gossip Girl
Guitar
Ghappy Ghour

Talia Reed said...

Charles,

What's with Gossip Girl?

a) too many papers to grade and lessons to plan, you know, the day job that I won't be quitting any time soon.

b) The Mary Tyler Moore Show re-runs.

c) The 3 foot child who just learned how to play Memory.

Stephanie said...

a) Television

b) Teaching/Grading/Answering E-mails about Teaching/Grading

c) Video Games

Lyle Daggett said...

1. The need (so far) to make a living.

2. The need for sleep.

3. Mortality.

Amy said...

a) inertia
b) entropy
c) napping

Nin Andrews said...

a) Making a long list of things I HAVE to do
b) Doing things on the f-ing list
c) Discovering that the list only gets longer and longer even when I try to keep up with it

Collin Kelley said...

a) Day Job - The duties at my day job have grown significantly over the last six months and I often come home from work and just want to sleep.

b) Internet - If I'm not sleeping, I'm blogging, Twittering, Facebooking, Goodreading, MySpacing.

c) DVDs/Television - I don't actually watch that much television, but I do have a healthy Netflix addiction.

Pamela Johnson Parker said...

a. Telephone conversations and answering machines. I hate the phone. I HATE the phone. Did I mention that I hate the PHONE?

b. Working on lesson plans and grading essays. For some reason the actual teaching itself is regenerating.

c. Car-pooling tweens hither and yon. I like the car, the pooling, and even the tweens, but sing-along with Beyonce and Britney stays in the short-term memory WAAAY too long.

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