真实故事

他喜欢下午喝咖啡. He compares stories to dogs wandering around a railroad town, sniffing out treasures. He name-drops celebrities on a regular basis, but all as part of the larger fabric of an anecdote. 他问问题——也许问得太多了. He deals in the details of life, and that means his days are hectic. 他介于乐队指挥和治疗师之间, cultivating stories and teasing out uncomfortable truths.

As the 2016 Lois and Willard Mackey Professor of Creative Writing at 贝洛伊特, George Dawes Green ran his class with the same rules he uses for his globally acclaimed storytelling project known as the Moth. 这是一本深奥的书, 经常的, 有时很搞笑, and far from the normal conventions of courses taught by Mackey Chair authors, 或英语系教授, 就此而言.

格林本人就有点与众不同. 乔治亚州高中的辍学生, he originally shot to fame in the mid-1990s with two acclaimed novels: 的 穴居人的情人节 (1994)和 的 陪审员 (1995), both of which were later adapted into Hollywood films. Flush with cash, he decided to channel his money back into a new project. 1997年，飞蛾诞生了. 最初, it was an informal event based out of his New York loft; today, it is an international phenomenon of true and first-person storytelling.

绿色歌颂人类的“混乱”, especially when it is portrayed in ultra-realist artistic performances. When discussing one of our listening examples for class—a sort of tattered love story about a woman falling intensely into a relationship while also battling a heroin addiction—he remarks that, “你可以感觉到, 当你听到这样的故事时, 这是全新的, 激动人心的艺术形式.”

In many ways, Green’s class adhered to common elements of other writing courses at 贝洛伊特. 的re was the small size, the emphasis on discussion, the workshops and presentations. 但后来课程出现了偏差. Despite his multi-genre success, Green is first and foremost a raconteur. He always began class by ruminating on something he read or heard, 通常是一种深奥的思想. He played many sound and video clips from various Moth performances, 经常加上他自己对叙述者的看法. 但在它的核心, 这是一门关于学生的课程, and that brave interpersonal honesty was directed right back into workshops.

Most 贝洛伊特 English courses follow some very specific workshopping trends. Students are expected to submit their written pieces at least 24 hours in advance for review, and classmates read through them twice—once to get a feel for the story, 有一次加入了细微的批评. 的 class then reassembles and discusses the work as a whole. 的 professor interjects throughout to explore certain ideas. 偶尔会有暴行和频繁的盘问. 的 writer fervently jots down notes or listens intently, having been reminded that it’s all right to have your first draft savaged. 最重要的是，目标是诚实.

格林的班级不同. 诚实和合作的天性依然存在, 但作品本身是如此的发自内心, 所以痛苦, 所以直接, that it completely shook up the emotional and creative landscape. 这些故事没有事先警告. 的y were heard for the first time in class—and in many cases, 这是他们第一次被告知. People discussed the deaths of loved ones, assaults, battles with depression. It wasn’t unusual for a story to leave the class shocked into silence. At times, it was nearly impossible to workshop the pieces. 你如何批评别人最脆弱的时刻?

This was compounded by the personal relationships in the class. 我们大多数人都认识多年了. We had sat through many of those 更多的 traditional English courses together and had become familiar with one another’s work, 的声音, 和风格. 我们还一起生活、一起工作、一起玩耍. 我们有时已经知道黑暗的存在, 作为故事素材的私密秘密, 这让我更伤心了.

环境对格林来说是一个重大的变化. 培养蛾片时, 他和每个讲故事的人一对一地见面, dissecting various creative elements through multiple sessions. At 贝洛伊特, he worked with 15 times that many people on a daily basis. 更重要的是, the day-to-day tone was a whole different emotional field: “I’ve never seen such intensity as in this class,他解释道. 然而，这也是一个巨大的协作过程. “What I really like is the fact that everyone contributes,” he says.

但这种脆弱性仍然存在, whether on the Moth mainstage in New York or on a Tuesday afternoon in 贝洛伊特. “It can take many sessions… to get people where they really feel ready and confident,格林解释道. “他们仍然很害怕. 每个人都害怕.” And out of that fear, as the class discovered, often come the best stories.

Kiernyn Orne-Adams的16 was one of 15 students in the Mackey creative writing workshop with George Dawes Green last spring. 今年5月，她以最优等的成绩毕业, with departmental honors in creative writing and minors in anthropology and journalism. She is pursuing a career as a writer in Minneapolis, Minn.

关于讲故事的技巧和技巧

• 注意身体的存在. Telling a story live—whether onstage or in a gathering—offers a new side of the storyteller. “Everything comes out in their every gesture,格林解释道. 你站立的方式, 用你的手, 或者四处看看也是一个有用的工具, 但它也可能带来挑战.
• 要诚实. “Art seems to become very powerful and exciting when it becomes personal,” Green says. “你和观众之间不能有任何隔阂.”
• 找到故事的关键. 几乎每一次, the truly impactful part of the piece isn’t allowed its chance to shine in the first telling. 它在一开始就摆得太露骨了, 或者用作结束语，从未发展, 或者埋在中间的某个地方, 支持另一种解释的补充意见. We, 的叙述者, never really see it; perhaps because of our mental contexts and priorities, perhaps because we simply don’t know how to articulate its connections.