1. Unlearning how to read - Forget symbolism and theme, what the writer is "trying to do." Forget all that. What do you feel when you read something? Reading is an emotional experience (created through the senses), not an intellectual one.
2. Unlearning craft - "Talk to the page," he advises. Craft/technique is the antithesis of the creative process. Write from your white hot center. Later, go back and read what you've written. Don't think about what you've written, but try to assess it through your senses. What feels out of tune with the rest? Re-dream that part.
3. Unlearning how to teach - Thinking analytically about literature is an artificial and secondary response to the work that must be forgotten in order to really engage with it emotionally.
Watch this video. Maybe you'll unlearn a few things, too.
1 comments:
I agree; ROB's From Where You Dream has been an astonishingly important book to me. Thank you for this. (And, thank you, Mr. Butler...)
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