After
listening through all five poems read aloud by the author herself, Eileen
Myles, I discovered “Aunt Anne” to be my favorite piece. In the five minutes
with which Myles performs, she takes listeners on a journey through her family’s
history – recalling stories of her mother, aunt, and other relatives all the
while. Compared to her other pieces (that we listened to), “Aunt Anne” was the
most personal. The poem detailed stories of her own life, whereas the others
told stories about other people’s lives or about objects. Contrasting further,
the poem had more of a stable plot line. In her other works, Myles tends to
speak her mind as it wanders, not following any clear plot. It is almost as
if she is thinking out loud and simply verbalizing anything and everything that
crosses her mind. Furthermore, and more simply, I had a much easier time
understanding what message Myles destined her reader to grasp – or, at least I
hope so.
Though
there was much rationale behind why I found “Aunt Anne” to be the most
appealing, the primary reason was because it related most to the style of the
piece that I plan to write. My plan, as far as storytelling goes, is to focus around
the topic of how technology affects families and relationships in general. Recently,
but more specifically, this past holiday season, I discovered how attached we
all are to our mobile devices nowadays. I do not consider myself an exception. Through
family-based storytelling, I intend to express my thoughts on the subject. If
all goes as expected, I will likely end up changing my mind completely on this
plan and finalize an entirely different product, but we will see how it goes.
I think this is a great topic for storytelling: it’s a very relatable topic and I feel like many people may readers/listeners will share your opinion. By telling your story I feel as though readers will be able to draw parallels to their own experiences with family relationships and technology. For the better or worse, there is no doubt tech is changing the way we interact. I have found pieces on how this affects modern dating and friendships but not as frequently for family so I think this will be interesting to read/listen to.
ReplyDeleteI too loved Eileen Myles' personal way of telling "Aunt Ann", and plan on implementing some of the methods she used to create that sense. I think your topic idea would be very doable, particularly in the style you're discussing, because you could do so much to personalize it. While you could focus on families' experiences in general, you could just as frequently touch upon your own. And you could even change the level of personalization throughout the piece, depending on how appropriate you feel it is for a particular phrase or line. Good luck :)
ReplyDeleteI think what you plan to write about, technology dependence, and what you said you liked about "Aunt Anne" could work well together. Myles has a way of inviting you in and making her experiences clear to us. If you're able to mimic her storytelling style I think you'll make something that's really personal and very "relatable", because I know myself and my family are definitely guilty of acting like this. I personally think it's a really interesting topic to write about, so I'm curious to see what you have to say about it.
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