Huh?

  I didn’t really get a ton out of this article- I will post more later after a closer re-reading.

V!

Semi-Final Draft of my Letter Animation!

On "Counting" by Alistair Reid

            I picked to write about the piece, “Counting” by Alistair Reid largely because I have, like so many others, been a fan of “Curiosity” and have been working quotes of his into casual conversation for years.  When the poem popped up on my screen, the first thing that I noticed was the three column format, each lined up across from the other and extending down ten lines.  Three columns, ten lines.  Counting.

            The first column from the left, when read all the way down, reads, “Ounce/ Dice/ Trice/ Quartz/ Quince/ Sago/ Serpent/ Oxygen/ Nitrogen/ Denim”  I don’t know how many of you speak German, I don’t, save for the numbers one through ten.  These lines, especially when spoken bear a striking resemblance to the sounds of the German numbers, to me at least.  I don’t speak many other languages, and I wondered of there were more similarities to the sounds and feeling of these words to the words assigned to numbers in other languages. 

            Having this similarity in mind, I went to column two; “Instant/ Distant/ Tryst, Catalyst/ Quest/ Sycamore/ Sophomore/ Oculist/ Novelist/ Dentist” and column three, “Archery/ Butchery/ Treachery/ Taproom/ Tomb/ Sermon/ Cinnamon/ Apron/ Nunnery/ Density”  After a cursory googling to find out what languages these words might be meant to resemble and coming up empty, I realized that what language didn’t matter to the meaning of the piece. 

            I got to thinking about words.  A professor, for those of you who have had him, you will know; keeps saying in a class of mine that all words are metaphors.  All languages assign a different combination of letters that forms a word that means something to the people who speak that language.  Does a dog change if it is called a perro?  Words only have the power that we give them.

            I really want to take that away with me into my work.  Reid uses different sounds and words and with the title he implies that the speaker is counting.  One to ten.  Three columns.  Counting.  Is he asking us as readers to examine why we associate words with meanings?  Maybe we should assess the power given to arbitrary groupings, words, of arbitrary shapes, letters? 

            I don’t think that a so-called traditional form would have had the impact that the three column format has with this poem.  If the intent of the author is indeed to playful question the meanings and forms of words, the non-traditional style complements those aims.  If Reid wants us to be curious (!) which I think he does, exploratory style puts the reader in that frame of mind.  We want to know what is going on in this poem.  Why is it weird? 

Face it. Curiosity

will not cause us to die--

only lack of it will.

Never to want to see

the other side of the hill

or that improbable country

where living is an idyll

(although a probable hell)

would kill us all.

Only the curious have, if they live, a tale

worth telling at all.

-A. Reid              

Thoughts on the Class's Animations

I had been really excited about my little dancing V and I was completely blown away by the things that other people had accomplished.  My sad little V only dances, I have some serious letter envy.
I was really struck by the cursive f that flies.  I love the combination of blue letter and yellow wings and I think that the way the word fly grows out of the letter at the end was magical.  I hadn't been thinking beyond manipulating Flash when doing mine and I am impressed by the subtlety and forethought in such a short animation.  There was a delicacy about the way the f moved, a grace in the curvature that I think really conveyed a flying creature.    

How My Piece Works

I was wanted my V to be vivacious!  She dances across the frame, bold and bright in pink.  She twirls and skips.  The V then folds into itself before opening back up and exploding with a rainbow of changing colors.  As I thought about Vivacious; full of animation and spirit, lively; I wanted the V to be full of life and brightness.   

I chose to have the V expand and explode to show the connection between vivacious and violent.

To V or not to V, that is the Question.

The letter V may have had it's earliest forms as a sign in the Egyptian hieroglyphs as a sign that represented a supporting pole or branch.  In the Semitic languages it originated in the letter waw, along with F, U, W and Y.  The Greeks originated Upsilon from waw.  In the early Cyrillic alphabet V is called Izhitsa, which has been used in place of the Greek Upsilon.  V, U, and Y seem to be very closely related and in the middle ages V and U were used for the same sound but placed in different places in the word; for example, vpon and haue to represent upon and have.  V is not commonly used in English and is worth four Scrabble points.  The Roman numeral V represents five.

I have been thinking a lot about V words and what they mean in comparison to the letter and the shape and connotations of that letter.  Violent, vigilant, violet, vagina, vendetta, vivacious, vivisection.  I have to imagine that the letter that starts the Latin Vita, life, is by no coincidence the beginning of the word that all life springs from.  This begs the question, did the letter inspire the words that follow it or have the words given meaning to the letter?  In other words, what came first, the V or the Vagina?  Even the shape of the letter can represent meanings of words.  A violent V is a slash on the page, two harsh, strong lines.  A vaginal V opens for life and love.  A vivisection V is sliced by the symmetry. 

It's such a powerful, decisive letter; it came, saw and conquered.             
 

Plan for Letter Animation

The scene opens with a tree.  The tree softly sways in the implied breeze.  Suddenly, the tree is alive with birds that are the letter V.  The birds seems to be borne of the tree itself.  The flock circles overhead and then, with no warning, descends on the mother tree in a swift and abrupt attack.  The birds peck at the tree and when they reach the tree's delicate inner parts, it explodes. 

The First Flash Animation I Have Ever Made!

And man, am I proud of it.

V

 I love the letter V.  I love the way that V gets thrust from your mouth, pulling on your bottom lip.  I love the strong, angular lines and the symmetry.  I love that V doesn't lose it's identity in the lowercase form, a v is always a V, so sure of itself.  V is an army march, V is a burlesque show, V is a surgeon's best tool.

I picture the violent V as a flock, flying overhead and then attacking from the air.  The vivacious V shimmies and struts her stuff, filling the stage or screen. 

I have to end with my own little V-

Vivien! 

Vivi, V, Vivalicious, Vivisaurous Rex, Vivarus, Vivius Maximus, the love of my life and bane of my existence (for those of you with kids, you know).   She is stubborn, confident, sweet, full of life, spirited, and a force to be reckoned with.  To me, she is the embodiment of the letter she was named after.  

Introduction to me as a writer

I'm not a writer.  I fancied myself a poet at 19, but quickly came to the realization that, despite the requisite angst and a love of hats of all kind,  I just wasn't that good.  I do, however, give excellent feedback and have (I think) a good ear for talent in others. 

After several years of exploring and dancing and experimentation of several varieties, I have found my calling in Education.  We all know the adage, if you can't do- teach!  I want to nurture and inspire young writings, tend them carefully and hopefully read about the character version of myself in more than one first novel.  At the very least, I could be a presence in the dedications; "To my beloved Teacher, I would not be the writer I am today without her."