One of my courses at university involves creative writing, but following a variety of constraints as followed by the Oulipo group. These might include not using a certain letter (Georges Perec succeeded in writing an entire novel in French without the letter ‘e’) or replacing the noun from a source text, with the 7th succeeding noun in a dictionary, producing a translation of sorts. This week it was dictionary definitions, and I chose the opening sequence from Girl, Interrupted as my source text. The English language is truly wonderful (as are google definitions).
I have also made a new youtube video if you want to check it out (yes it’s a product of procrastination)
Susanna: [narrating] Have you ever confused a dream with life? Or stolen something when you have the cash? Have you ever been blue? Or thought your train moving while sitting still? Maybe I was just crazy. Maybe it was the 60′s. Or maybe I was just a girl… interrupted.
Have you ever caused someone to become bewildered or perplexed, made more complex or less easy to understand, a series of thoughts, images, and sensations occurring in a person’s mind during sleep, with the condition that distinguishes animals and plants from inorganic matter, including the capacity for growth, reproduction, functional? Or taken another person’s property without permission or legal right and without intending to return it, dishonestly passed off as one’s own, something when you have the money in coins or notes, as distinct from checks, money orders, or credit? Have you ever been of a colour intermediate between green and violet, as of the sky or sea on a sunny day? Or had a particular opinion, belief, or idea about someone or your train going in a specified direction or manner while adopting or being in a position which one’s weight is supported by one’s buttocks rather than one’s feet and one’s back is upright still? Maybe I was just mentally deranged especially as manifested in a wild or aggressive way. Maybe it was the decade from 1960 to 1969. Or maybe I was just a female child, a person’s daughter… broken, discontinued, hindered.
