Things Gary Fincke has said

This is mostly for you, Ally. I know you miss him erry day.

Notes taken in Non-Fiction, Spring 2009:

“Fiction is enormously more popular than poetry. If you want to make money I suggest you stop using line breaks. NOW.”

“We were sputnic children. We had to beat the Russians”

“I spent all of Chemistry staring at that bombshell Diane Perino, wishing I could touch her…….yeah.”

“You guys all remember those road trips you’d take with your family. We had three kids, you know, so one of them would always be squished in the middle of the back seat. And when they’d start making a ruckus, whoever was sititng in the middle would always get the Claw, you know, when I’d reach back with one arm from where I was driving and just grab at their knee.  And then my daughter. Yeah. She used to get car sick. We’d go out for pancakes before we started driving, and twenty minutes into it she’d get carsick and we’d have to pull over so she could get sick. And at first, you know, you feel sorry for her. But after a couple of times I was just thinking, Jesus, throw up out the Goddamn WINDOW.”

“Hey Gary! You really gave it to Sarah Palin again last night, didn’t you?” – His neighbors  (I wish I wish I could remember the context of this quote, but can’t)

“People say things in memoir like, “I remember when I was in diapers.” No you don’t! …or else you’re a slow learner.”

“I’ve never seen a PowerPoint presentation that was helpful in any way.”

“Get out of there, Gary, you big pantywaste.”  -his childhood teacher

“My friend’s mom buttered the sandwich. Both sides. Who does that?”

“Have you ever been to one of those small town circuses? God those things are depressing. It looks like the camel might die before the end of the show.  ….yeah”

“It was such an awful carnival they couldn’t even find a midget.”

(During a reading and Q&A session with two job candidates applying for positions in the Creative Writing department. A husband and wife team applying as one)  “So, two writers under one roof. How does that even work? Sometimes that can be fabulous, and sometimes that just leads to alcohol and prescription drugs”

“If somebody was seriously ill when they were watching that I think they’d want to get a flame thrower out!” -on “The Bucket List”

“Okay, so, who doesn’t want to know more concrete details about time in this piece?  …Nadia’s probably going to raise her hand over there and say ‘oh, what is time? We can’t restrain ourselves with such flighty concepts as time.’ “  (ooh, ouch. But awesome)

“That woman with octuplets. Somebody oughta just take her out back and punch her in the throat.”

“Donny’s excuse for not coming to class today was actually pretty good. He told me his landlord didn’t tell him they were doing construction, so when he woke, he was missing a flight of stairs. Huh. I almost want to give him credit for being here. That was some of his better writing”

Quotes from Bob Shacochis:

On bad writers: “Why don’t you give yourself permission to shut the fuck up?”

On the “write as though everybody you know is dead” advice: “No. Write as though everybody you know is alive and well and will read this essay. Even your worst enemies”

“Fuck catharsis. It won’t produce good art”

“My mother died eating a can of peaches. We looked for a place to bury her, couldn’t find one, and so we threw her out the side of a plane. There. That’s my story”

“A mentor I had in my graduate program said to me, ‘Bob, I sense you’re not ready to die for poetry.’  I looked at him and said ‘…you’re right. And I’m never going to write a fucking poem again.’  And I haven’t.”

“There are not many good prose writers who don’t love poetry. I think poetry is the greatest and truest art form. It is so hard to do it right, and so easy to do it wrong.”

“Heelocopter”  (about 50 times)

Looking forward when I should be staring at a screen. A computer screen. And writing scholarly things.

Creating a website for a final project in History of the Book to demonstrate hyperlink medium and its influence on the processes of the mind and the writing process. I’m thinking of hyperlinking poetry with associative texts, images, sounds, video etc.

http://comenius.susqu.edu/ENGL/390/09SP-01/waggener/Poem%20Home.html

Also–- pretty excited about courses next semester.

Black Feminism I (part 1 of a 2 semester course tought by the fierce and, let’s face it, slightly terrifying Dr. Hill. Becky, Berkeley, Claire, Kaitlyn and I think Kelly are all registered too, so, basically a feminist force of goodness)

Forms of Literature: The Novel debated for a long time between this and Forms: Short Story. Ultimately decided on the Novel course because, looking at both of the sylibi, the Novel class covers more new material, whereas I’ve read and studied most of the short stories on the agenda. Also Dr. Robertson is one of my favorite humans ever, and is just too wonderful not to take one more class with before I graduate.

Grammar: Alas, I missed the reign of the infamous Dr. Harden, but rumor is that one of the new writing professors, either Catherine or Silas will be stepping up, so I’m intrigued.

Women’s Studies:hopefully this will fall post-internship. I’m extremely proud of Liz, too (as are Becky, Berk, and the entirety of WomenSpeak, I’m sure) for signing up for this class as well. We’ll make a feminist of you yet.

Senior Writing Portfolio: = applying to graduate schools=anxiety attack

Independent Writing: Probs with G. Fincke, maybe with Glen?