Next month, I return to the University of Minnesota’s Compleat Scholar program to teach How to Be Awesome: A New Way of Looking at Creativity.
The class, which starts on April 6th, runs on three consecutive Monday nights.
If you like this blog, you will love this class.
If you love this blog, you will LOSE YOUR MIND.
See you in school.
3 responses so far ↓
Dennis Lang // March 10, 2009 at 1:35 pm
As an “Awesome” alumnus, this is an imaginative, terrifically engaging class. Also, for me a chance to put a person together with the fellow who wrote the memorable “Head Case”. Predispositions are challenged, new possiblities of thought are discovered.
Sara Aase // March 11, 2009 at 1:19 pm
Let the arm wrestling begin.
Dennis Lang // March 18, 2009 at 9:10 am
An article in “The New Yorker”, 3/16/09, about screenwriter/director Tony Gilroy (the “Bourne” films, “Michael Clayton”) reminded me of the “Awesome” class and how Dennis approached the question of invention and creativity. Gilroy talks about the “reversal” in screenwriting: anything that’s a surprise as a way of keeping the audience interested.
The article goes on: “Gilroy believes that the writer and moviegoing public are engaged in a cognitive arms race. As the audience grows savvier the screenwriter has to invent new reversals–madder music and stronger wine…. How do you write a reversal that uses the audience’s expectations in a new way?”
You may remember the scrambled time frame of “Michael Clayton” creating puzzles within the larger puzzle of the story itself. Meanings that became comprehensible and logical only long after we’ve observed the initial action.