Approved!

On Tuesday I found out my Honors Proposal passed the committee and I've been approved to enroll in English 490 next fall. After all that wheedling, pleading, and jumping through hoops, it finally worked. Step one down. On to step two: beginning a summer of preliminary research, writing, sketching, and development.

Speaking of research, I've still been working on that, although admittedly I find finals are sapping much of my time. For now I've been reading Museum of the Missing, a fascinating book on the history of art theft. It has a lot of fascinating information that's been sparking a lot of ideas about what I want to do with my story.

http://www.amazon.com/Museum-Missing-High-Stakes-Crime/dp/1552638693

A Proposal!

Sorry it's a tad late! I didn't have time to post it yesterday. But here's what I've been working on. My adviser has had a look at its first incarnation (this is its second) and said he liked what I had so far. The plan is to go over a third draft on Monday before we polish it off and get ready to send it in to the committee (yikes!). So comment away! Any critiques? Things I can do better? Any advice is valuable.

490 Proposal by gbrlmorrison

And pretty soon you should be seeing some posts that go into more detail about what the story and characters might look like as I start to flesh that all out. But first I want to make sure this is ready to go.

A Trip to the Library

This week I took a trip to the library. Well, a couple of libraries, really. I wanted to do some reading. Firstly, I wanted a sampler of some of the stuff out there in the realm of children's literature. Secondly, I wanted to do some critical reading on the field.

I went to my local library and asked the children's reference librarian for some advice. She was really helpful and I got a lot of books from among the best of children's lit -- old stuff, new stuff, the whole gamut. It probably looked a bit odd to see a nineteen-year-old sitting on a child-sized stool in the children's section, poring over a stack of picture books, but I had a great time. I spent about an hour in the library, then checked out a small mountain of books. I've decided to make it a weekly pilgrimage. Every week I'll check out ten books. They're pretty small, so it doesn't take much time to read them, but I think it's the best thing for me. It always helps to build on the success of others' ideas.

After that, I stopped by Adams Library to hunt down some titles one of the children's lit professors here had recommended me. I'm still waiting for some of those to come in, but I picked up a few books that look critically at children's literature including the illustrations therein. So I've had fun reading up on that, too but still have a lot more to read.

Anyway, right now I'm re-devouring anything by Chris Van Allsburg and Brian Selznick. There are so many reasons to love their work, but one of the things that I really like is that, yes, they write for children, but they don't simplify things because their audience is young. Difficult issues are discussed and there's no "talking down to" the reader. A lot of children's lit does that. But life is complicated, even when you're young, and children understand that. I know I hated books that treated me like a child when I was younger, and I'm determined not to write like that. Is writing for children the same as writing for adults? Of course not. But you don't have to "dumb something down" or over-simplify because children are reading your work. Children are curious and they work hard to learn and understand things.

The other thing I love about Van Allsburg and Selznick is how beautifully integrated the artwork is with the text. The two mediums really work together and don't feel like separate parts, but rather one whole.

Anyway, I'm going to keep reading and keep learning. I'll keep you updated on my findings.

Why Children's Literature?

It's a question I know I'll be asked by the committee, and something I'd better have an answer to in my proposal. Why not a group of short stories or a chapbook of poems? Why this? And then the most irksome question of all: How can something written for children be literature?

I've always wanted to write for children. But I don't think it's because I want to be tied down to a particular audience or genre. It's more because I don't. Children are way more open-minded than adults. They don't have parochial expectations of what you're allowed to do. They want to learn, not to categorize and control. So what you can write is wide open.

The late Maurice Sendak said, "I don't write for children. I write, and then someone says, 'That's for children' ... So I write books that seem more suitable for children, and that's OK with me. They are a better audience and tougher critics. Kids tell you what they think, not what they think they should think."

'Nuff said.

I'm also going to be asked why illustrations have to be included and how the committee can possibly judge artwork like that. So I've been doing research to come up with an answer for that too. Perry Nodelman is a critic of children's literature and professor at the University of Winnipeg, and in Touchstones: Reflections on the Best in Children's Literature he writes, "The stories in picture books are not told by words alone, with visual enhancements to delight the eye; they are stories told by words and pictures working in consort with each other" (2). You need both the word and the picture for the story to work. And you don't need to be an expert in both art and children's writing to evaluate them. Nodelman also says, "an illustration for a story is quite a different thing from a picture on its own. In fact, the primary purpose of the pictures in children's books is illustrational rather than aesthetic: they are there to help to tell stories, and their ability to excite a viewer's aesthetic sense is no more significant than the ability of well-chosen words to excite a reader's aesthetic sense" (1). So the real issue here is not art or writing, it's the story. And anyone who can appreciate the story should be able to ask the question of both the art and the writing: Is it working?

The last point I want to address is that, believe it or not, I've actually been asked why children's literature should be considered real literature. I think the much bigger question is why it shouldn't be. But anyway, if you want a real good answer to that, you should check out Radical Children's Literature: future visions and aesthetic transformations in juvenile fiction. Some have argued that children's lit is simplistic or conventional, mainly employed to teach and indoctrinate children. But I just don't see how you can say that. Children's lit has often been extremely subversive, edgy, and envelope-pushing. It talks about things adults are afraid to talk about, in ways that are innovative and beautiful.

I talked to Susan Abbotson, a professor who teaches children's literature at our very own Rhode Island College. (As a side point, if children's literature wasn't a legitimate field of literature, why would they offer an English class that teaches it?) She gave me some really good resources to look into, so the research continues and I literally have a stack of critical books on children's lit and illustration that I'm working my way through. I'll keep y'all updated on my findings.

Links to the books I referenced:
Touchstones: Reflections on the Best in Children's Literature
Radical Children's Literature

Institutionalize Me

I thought I was out of the woods. Really, I did.

I had some very productive meetings with Dr. Hall and faculty in graphic design and children's literature. After the meetings and a flurry of emails, I thought I'd be ready to draft the proposal and send it in. Now I'm having second thoughts.

Two things happened this week which have made me doubt whether I should even attempt this project. With spring break here, I don't have time to meet with anyone else or do any more arm-twisting. So I guess I'd like to hear advice from you guys if you have any.

Wednesday I found out that my adviser will be leaving the school next year. This is a major setback for me. I only know one of the other creative writing faculty -- a poet -- and she doesn't seem to feel comfortable serving as my adviser. If I want to do this project, I'll need to find someone who'll help me, and besides her, there are only three other creative writing professors, two I'd never met before and the other, another poet, I know is not interested in serving as my adviser either.

On Wednesday, I met with another creative writing professor (I'd never met this person before). This person told me that s/he had no background in children's literature and would not feel comfortable advising me, going on to say that "none of the members of the creative writing committee know much about children's literature, and we're not sure we'd feel comfortable evaluating such a work."

"You can still propose it," the professor said. "You can propose anything, but there's certainly no guarantee that we'll accept it. It's just like if someone submitted a script. We don't have any script-writers on the committee, so something like that would have to be submitted to Theater or Film. Perhaps you can submit your project to the English Department -- I know there are some people who teach children's literature there."

Which is all well and good, except Departmental Honors won't let you do a project outside of your major. I haven't checked with English yet, but I have a feeling they won't "fee comfortable evaluating such a work" either.

"Your situation's obviously not ideal," this professor said, "but unfortunately you are in an institution and you have to work within that institution's guidelines."

I felt very discouraged after this conversation. I had received no support whatsoever, and had basically been told to change my project to suit the needs of "the institution" or else take my concerns elsewhere. I'm willing to work with the institution, but shouldn't the institution be willing to work with me? How different really is children's literature? It's still writing! And would it be impossible to collaborate with other departments, perhaps get some people from art and children's lit on board? Why does everything have to be so rigid? I'm not sure I like being "institutionalized" and put in an academic straight jacket.

I know this is only one professor and that s/he doesn't control the committee. But I felt a lot less hopeful about my prospects. Plus I'm running out of people to ask. There's only one faculty member I haven't spoken to and I don't know this person at all. On top of that, I haven't been able to get a hold of my old adviser (although I've been trying very hard) and I really need to get working on my proposal -- and with spring break here, it'll be getting dangerously close to the proposal deadline before I get to meet with anyone from creative writing who might help me draft it.

So this whole thing has brought up an important question. If, as a student, I really am "institutionalized," should I even try to fight this hard? Am I being unreasonable? Maybe they're right. Maybe part of being at school is following the rules. I thought that some of the freedom of Honors was being able to depart from the rules. But maybe I'm being difficult. I don't want my project just to get rejected and not get the chance to do any project at all.

What are your thoughts?

Mind Mapping

So firstly, a creative writing "thesis" is not really a thesis in the conventional sense. I'm actually creating a work of creative writing. So, my plan so far is to create a work of children's literature, since that's the field I'm most interested in (although I need to work with my adviser to figure out if the creative writing committee will accept this kind of thing). So... I did some preliminary mind mapping and came up with this:

Okay, but then you get to that "Content Subject(s)" bubble and realize that I'm dancing around the field of children's literature, but I haven't concretely set down or even discussed what my content is going to be at all yet. I have many half-formed ideas, which include such diverse subjects as astronomy, art history, and folklore, but like most creative projects, these ideas are still in the amorphous, changeable stage, and aren't likely to be fully developed until I start writing and outlining. But I haven't gotten to that point yet, especially as I'm not sure the committee will be on-board with this. So for now, I'm going to be devoting my research to children's literature in general, examining styles, conventions, notable works, etc. Ideas welcome!

Links

This blog is going to be used primarily to gather research together for my Honors in Creative Writing children's lit project. So for now, here are a few pretty cool links dedicated to the topic:

http://wakingbraincells.com/
http://www.hbook.com/category/blogs/read-roger/
http://kidlit.com/
http://bookblogs.ning.com/group/childrensbooks
http://wellreadchild.blogspot.com/
http://theartofchildrenspicturebooks.blogspot.com/