Its all about Love...and Robots

Over the years I've noticed that there are two primary topics students rarely stray from. Those categories include Love and Robots.

Love: If students aren't writing about dating or their boyfriends/girlfriends they write about heartbreak and disappointment and expectations when it comes to love. I've had students come out as being gay for the first time in papers written for my class. I've had students talk about transgender issues in poetry. I've had students openly talk about abuse and neglect and a general sense of abandonment. Its about love for someone else, themselves, their futures, a lack of love from someone else--but always, love. 

As a teacher, what I love to see, is the sympathy and kindness my students show each other during workshops. They talk about real issues and it always leaves me to question why we simply can't create open forums to talk about issues and aspects of life in an honest way. 

Legally, I can only say so much. But there are always moments when I have a student show up in my office who wants and needs so desperately to talk about what it means to be gay and have no one to talk to. They want to talk about being heartbroken/pregnant/facing jail time. This semester alone I've had two students have their brother murdered. I have a total of 100 students. The challenges they face are extreme. I teach in a public mainstream University with roughly 28,000 students. 

When they come to my office I tell them that we largely have two senses of self: that which we display outwardly and that which is internal. When it comes to writing, we can see where these two aspects converge. We talk about what happens after the work is written, about how once the two aspects of the self have met formally in writing, that there are decisions to make. 

Those decisions include how to proceed. If there are major issues like talks of being suicidal or being abused, I tell them where and how they can get help. Every semester I've had a student write about or come to my office talking about struggles with suicide. I've been able to get them all the appropriate help they need but in regard to how I teach it has changed me. 

I start the beginning of the semester asking my students why we talk, why we write, what ultimate need both of these goals are fulfilling. We examine, through use of 'honest' examples of poetry and fiction, what it means to communicate and how and why we say things in the manner that we do in this culture. I'm completely fascinated with the nature of honest and intimate language and our culture's dualistic delivery of messages similar to that of the duality of ourselves. 

Which leads me to...Robots. There is a strange and interesting fascination with Robots in all of my classes. My theory is thus: if students feel that an emotion is not human or too difficult to express they show it through use of robot expression. Case and point:

The Terminator

C3PO/R2D2

Robo Cop

Marvin and the Paranoid Android

Power Rangers

Transformers

Iron Man

So, there is either the full capacity of emotion in writing about love OR, killer robots. Its a rough world out there...as noted by this video by The Flight of The Conchords. Always a treat. 

After having my students watch this video I have them write a poem from the point of view of a robot trying to express an emotion. Each group of roughly 4 students is given a sheet of paper. On that sheet of paper is a famous robot with a contextual backdrop as to what particular emotion that robot is trying to overcome. For example,

1. R2D2 and C3PO

Context: After a long and sordid affair, R2D2 and C3PO have committed their love to one another and are getting married. You are the DJ for their wedding. They have asked you, specifically, because of the success of your last song, "intergalactic love beats for the new millennium" to write them a collage poem that can be turned into a song. 

2. The Terminator

Context: After being programmed as a killing machine the Terminator has grown a heart. He is in love...with his garbage disposal. He comes to you, a team of robot-specializing therapists, to ask for your advice. You decide that your best course of action is to write him an instruction manual/poem about how the garbage disposal cannot love him back. 

3. Rosie, The Maid from the Jetsons

Rosie, the Maid from the Jetsons has just retired. She is looking for love after the passing of her late husband, Dr. Jacob Vacuum. However, before packing up her bags and leaving for the Florida Keys, Rosie finds a poem from her late husband in his sock drawer. She dusts off the piece of paper, opens it up and it reads...

This is largely a community building assignment I use to bring students together and to open up a forum of discussion into when and how we think about the context of emotions and expression in creative writing. It's incredibly entertaining.