the book of qualities

Here is a delightful, sometimes sobering book. J. Ruth Gendler's The Book of Qualities walks readers through short prose-poems that personify various abstractions, states of mind, and emotions. Today at Writing Project, we hosted a presentation from Tom Romano, a sharp advocate for revisiting the notion of voice. Tom walked us through a teaching exercise--one I'll certainly use this fall in my creative writing class--using Gendler's work. Here's Gendler on Despair:

Despair papered her bathroom walls with newspaper articles on acid rain. For years she worked with abused children. She has documented how we all suffer from malnourishment basedon insuficient amounts of love. She has investigated how the pain of concentration camp survivors has been transmitted from one generation to the next "through disturbances in the parent-child relationship." Not only the children but the grandchildren and their children.

Despair is overworked and overwhelmed. She has a heart condition. In her dreams the war is everywhere. She is not lying or exaggerating. Still, it is difficult to be around her. There is no arguing with her. She is persuasive, eloquent, and undeniably well-informed. If you attempt to change her mind, you will come away agreeing with her. She has stopped listening to music.

It's that last line that gets me.

Of course, Tom walked us through pedagogical uses of Gendler and had us write our own versions. Here's my attempt at Curiosity:

Curiosity likes to take long walks in the woods. He never stays on the trails, though and prudence has to club him and drag his limp body to the right path. Curiosity takes risks intellectually, too, and invented the concept of hypertext, an invention made possible by curiosity's obsession with free association. Curiosity and focus had a fierce rivalry back in high school. Focus ended up being valedictorian. Curiosity didn't mind so much but spent hours and hours questioning the principal and the faculty about their decision; the principal recommended ritalin. Procrastination once kidnapped curiosity and brainwashed him into working overtime. Luckily, balance brought curiosity the antidote to his brainwashing.