Class today started with us discussing the elements of a story. Like usual it took our class a minute or 5 to actually start coming up with ideas and the women were called upon to speak because for the most part we tend to be the quiet ones. We discussed many different elements everything from the rising action ( the sequential events leading up to the climax) to what gore meant. After we came up with a list of words we went on to watch to TED talks.
The first one was by Amy Tan. The topic of her talk was " How do we create". The structure of Amy's talk was very engaging as a viewer. She used humor, her own personal tragedy and pictures to get her meaning across. I really enjoyed everything she talked about especially the part about questioning everything. She said that in order for us to create we must question. If we are questioning things then we will be constantly opening different doors and taking different paths to creativity. I also liked how she said that there is no absolute truth in life. For us especially as creative minds this is very true. We have the chance to explore different ideas about life and create from them for the not so creative world to see and understand, for out ideas to get across. We have the chance to make a difference and it is amazing that we get to do this.
The second video we watched was on Elizabeth Gilbert. I thought what she talked about was very interesting and something that I had never thought about before. She first began by humorously talking about artists and how we do not have to go down the mentally unstable path. That creativity should not lead to suffering in the end. She talked about her journey to find creativity and ho she needed to put a safe distance between herself and her anxiety about writing so that she could continue to write. Also she made us think about where creativity comes from and the fact that it is important to use it to its fullest potential when it's there because it can disappear immediately onto the next person. I really enjoyed the two stories she told one about Tom Waits and the other about a poet and their individual experiences with out of body creativity.
Where you able to fully follow Amy Tan's speech? I'm a bit unsure but as I mentioned in my blog, I found it a bit disarranged, I have trouble recalling it as a linear speech. Not that it wasn't enjoyable, of course.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed Amy's speech but yes, I agree, it was hard to follow at some points. I feel like Elizabeth's ideas came across easier and were easy to relate to.
ReplyDelete