Sample

Below is the sample given for my literary project proposal.

Sarah felt the slow chill of ice seep through the cotton fabric of her dress. She looked down. “Shit, when will I stop spilling?” she thought to herself as she brushed the moisture away. This was supposed to be a girl’s night, time to find a man without John’s Jekyll and Hyde unpredictability. She would have fun- even if she had to cover the wine’s blood red stain with her purse all night to do it.

The singer beneath the club’s hot lights was swaying to the band’s beat. Everyone was dancing. You’re the assessor; stroking my hand... she recognised the tune immediately. It seems you have forgotten about your man....

Bodies writhed against each other to the music as she scanned the sweat beaded faces for her friends. She folded her dress over the stain, embarrassed to have ruined yet another ‘get over him’ purchase. And there he was. Smiling.

Hours later, Sarah was with John. She shouldn’t be here; he’d stood her up too many times. He held her arms, kissed her forehead. Didn’t she remember the hours spent crying? Promising to herself never to lay eyes on the asshole again? His lips moved up her neck before they finally met hers. He tasted like caramel.

She’d never even had a proper boyfriend before and since the days when he’d notice her walk by in her high-school skirt were long-gone and he’d never seen flowers at her doorstep or a ute in her driveway , John knew the score. Sarah tried to focus on the lyrics stuck in her head to calm her nerves.

“I want us to try again,” he whispered.

Alone in the darkness.... she sung in her head. Your bed’s a different land.

John’s hand sunk lower and her perfectly ordered, model-student world was about to change forever.

Sarah felt it smooth over her hips before he stopped. Right on the wine stain.

Your touch intensifies...

She let her mind recall the final words

And I’m in the quicksand...

After recieving advice on the piece from Marcus about Sarah's thought of the song's most pertinent line not ringing quite true I have decided to re-write the sample to improve my work. Marcus also said that I should be wary of cliched phrases like " hot lights" and "swaying to the beat". Below is my attempt to improve the piece:

Sarah felt the slow chill of wine seeping through her dress. " Shit, when will I stop spilling things?" she thought, brushing the moitsure away. She was going to have fun, she was going to dance and drink and smile and find a man without John's Jeckyll and Hyde unpredictability. She would have fun, she told herself. Even if she had to cover the blood-red stain all night to do it.

Everyone was dancing to a band she could barely see beyond the looming fog of cigarette smoke. You’re the assessor; stroking my hand... she recognised the tune immediately. It seems you have forgotten about your man....

Bodies bopped and writhed against each other to the music as she scanned the sweat beaded faces for her friends. She folded her dress over the stain, embarrassed to have ruined yet another ‘get over him’ purchase. And there he was. Smiling.

Alone in the darkness.... the band continued. Your bed's a different land...

Hours later, Sarah was with John. She shouldn’t be here; he’d stood her up too many times. He held her arms, kissed her forehead. Didn’t she remember the hours spent crying? Promising to herself never to lay eyes on the asshole again? His lips moved up her neck before they finally met hers. He tasted like caramel.

She’d never even had a proper boyfriend before and since the days when he’d notice her walk by in her high-school skirt were long-gone and he’d never seen flowers at her doorstep or a ute in her driveway , John knew the score.

“I want us to try again,” he whispered.

John’s hand sunk lower and her perfectly ordered, model-student world was about to change forever.

Sarah felt it smooth over her hips before he stopped. Right on the wine stain.

Your touch intensifies.... and I'm in the quicksand.

M.I.A's Agitprop Pop

Lynn Hirschberg's article about pop artist M.I.A for The New York Times is a good example of an interesting literary journalism piece.

I thought Hirschberg's style was easy to read, entertaining and unbias as she detailed M.I.A's political, personal and family values.

The juxtaposition of the feminine, nurturing image of Maya being "nine months pregnant (to the day)" and her position on stage with " the male titans of rap" perfectly conveyed the idea that she has managed to make a place in a male dominated media. The device also introduced the fact that there are two sides to her personality, M.I.A the star and Maya the wife and mother, which is explored later in the text.

Hirschberg subtly exposes M.I.A's contradictory nature by quoting her statement of " you've gotta embrace the pain. Embrace the struggle," made before her son's birth, and then quickly reporting that " as it was, Maya gave birth in a private room in Cedar's-Sinai Hospital". While Hirschberg doesn't express her personal opinion of Maya, comparisons of the singer's political statements and her lavish reality.

I particularly liked the simile used to describe M.I.A's style and music "she’s surprisingly petite and ladylike, with beautiful almond-shaped dark brown eyes and full lips that she painted a deep red the day we met. Maya has a unique tomboy-meets-ghetto-fabulous-meets-exotic-princess look that, like her music, manages to combine sexy elements (lingerie peeks out from under her see-through tops) with individual flourishes (she designs elaborate patterns for her nails) and ethnic accents (the bright, rich prints of Africa are her wardrobe staple)." In one sentence, Hirschberg manages to convey to the reader M.I.A's beauty, her inability to be pigeonholed into one genre of music or fashion, her personal style and ethnicity.

Another highlight of the piece was Hirschberg's ability to listen to Maya for longer than the interview required. When Maya is speaking about how upsetting she finds it "when babies say ga-ga now. It used to be innocent. Now, they’re calling her name," instead of taking the quote and moving on, Hirschberg continues to observe the conversation. What comes next is pure gold- when Maya attempts to embarrass Gaga by showing a parody of 'Telephone' on Youtube but instead discovers "this clip has three million hits- that's more than I've ever had". By letting her continue, Hirschberg exposes the motive behind her statement about the babies- jealousy, while at the same time allowing Maya to show her true personality.

I enjoyed 'M.I.A's Agitprop Pop' as it did more than advertise Maya's latest album and instead presented her different personas within the political, celebrity and private spheres. The beautiful photography of Ryan McGinley added to the piece's attempt to showcase the nurturing and soft side of Maya as well as her determination and self-absorption.

Pitch Time!

After hearing the pitches from my classmates for their literary piece, I was impressed and a little worried about my own work!

I thought Peter's idea for an 'Almost Famous' style article about the pressures, trials and triumphs of a rock photographer was really interesting. I enjoyed his sample and it's description of waiting in line to enter a gig. I noticed he used the very Gonzo technique of first person narration and internal dialogue such as" "come on, let me in," I thought" to give the reader access to his thoughts and the stressful, crazy nature of the music business.

Birgitta's pitch for a story about her mother's friendships as a nurse and their impact on her career and family was also very good. The many people her mother formed relationships with in the hospital and their separate stories would perfectly create chapters within her work and be connected by the central character ( her mother) and the underlying common themes of mortality and illness.

Another sample which really stood out for me was Erica's description of her grandmother giving birth in a tent as the rain crashed against its walls on her family's pearl farm. I thought her use of imagery was great and really set the scene for the story's focus on the development of the farm into a successful business.

Rhianne's story about members of her family affected by cancer was another touching proposal. Her description of holding her grandfather's hand made me reflect on the members of my own family who have died from cancer. I thought her use of the image of holding the patient's hand and feeling them let go as a metaphor for death was excellent and really drove home her story's theme of the transient nature of life.

For my own work, I would like to focus on the theme of 'fatal attraction' and the lengths to which it can drive the individuals involved. While I have a rough idea of the story I wish to write, I am still unsure of how it will be structured and which tense to use. The pitches given from other members of the class, however, have given me a clearer understanding of the many topics which can be covered by literary journalism and the different styles in which authors can choose to write.

The Game- Neil Strauss

My research on Gonzo journalism led me to Neil Strauss' ( who also wrote the Lady Gaga article for Rolling Stone) investigative novel 'The Game'.

I am halfway through the book and have already found it to be a great example of how a journalist can become completely absorbed into the world of their subject. Basically, 'The Game' details Strauss' investigation of online 'seduction communities' for a Rolling Stone article which then leads to his participation in the community to assist his own failing love life.

Strauss is dragged deeper and deeper into the world of pickup artist 'Mystery' , who holds 'workshops' all over the world and eventually becomes a celebrated member of the seduction community.





Strauss moves into a Hollywood mansion with Mystery and his followers and embarks on a complete lifestyle program called 'Project Hollywood' before bitter rivalry between members causes their world to come crashing down.

'The Game' is a fantastic ( though at times shocking) read which has exposed me to a section of society which I previously had no idea existed ( one of the aims of literar journalism). Some of the literary devices that are used throughout the book and which I would like to emulate in my own work include:

* The use of quotes to separate chapters and provide an overview of what is to come. For example Gloria Steinem's " the first problem for all of us, men and women, is not to learn, but to unlearn" is used before Strauss' introduction to the 'Mystery Method' of seduction.

* The metaphor of 'The Game' and use of computer jargon to describe the seduction community. This technique, seen through references to 'top score' ( number of sexual conquests) and 'kiss close-level' ( when a meeting ends with a kiss) demonstrates the shocking fact that members of the community see women as little more than characters in a computer game.

*The inclusion of pages from online posts. This device mixes up the structure of the novel, keeping the reader interested while also allowing characters such as Mystery to explain their theories in their own words.

*The use of dialogue, rather than narration to show the personalities and motives of the characters involved. For example, Mystery's quote "These are my personal development goals. I want to raise money for a touring illusion show. I want to live in posh hotels. I want a limo to and from shows. I want specials on TV with big illusions. I want to levitate over Niagara Falls. I want to travel to England and Australia. I want jewelery, games, a model airplane, a personal assistant, a stylist. And I want to act in Jesus Christ Superstar- As Jesus," perfectly sums up his character. He is ridiculous, self-centred, nerdy, child-like, self-obsessed and driven to achieve his goals to the point of insanity. I love how Strauss communicates this to his readers through this quote without once including his own personal observations.

Have a look at Strauss trying to pick up Jessica Alba below:

Gonzo Journalism?

Peter mentioned in class his interest in Gonzo Journalism, a genre I had never heard of. Suddenly, names like Hunter S Thompson and Tom Wolfe were being thrown around and I decided it was time to catch up and discover what Gonzo was all about. Here are some of the interesting explanations I found from various websites devoted to the genre.


* Gonzo is a literary style pioneered by the late Dr Hunter S Thompson which is famous for breaking traditional rules by mixing fact with fiction, featuring the writer at the centre of the story and often using first person narration.

* Many Gonzo pieces are based on the writer's experience 'on the inside' of a particular subject. While a traditional article may see a journalist interview drug dealers and report of street crime, a Gonzo writer would immerse themselves in the world of a street gang, participate in swaps and detail their experiences.

* Gonzo journalists make little effort to appear unbias. Instead, the entrance of the writer into the world of the subject is the genre's main focus. This can lead to serious legal, moral and personal issues.

* The first recognised Gonzo piece was Hunter S Thompson's ' The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved' . The 'manic first-person' piece came about when Thompson, facing a deadline, panicked and sent his editor pages ripped from his notebook instead of a polished article.

* Morgan Spurlock's documentary 'Supersize Me' is a modern example of Gonzo journalism. Spurlock, in an aim to investigate the effects of McDonald's food, challenges himself to eat at the restaurant for all three meals everyday for a month. In true Gonzo style, Spurlock becomes the focus of the story as he gains 12kg and increases his body mass by 13%.

* Famous Gonzo journalists include Tom Wolfe, Lester Bangs and George Plimpton.

With a deeper understanding of the genre, I realised that I had in fact been exposed to several Gonzo pieces such as 'Almost Famous' ( a film based on Cameron Crowe's real-life experience of touring with bands and writing for Rolling Stone Magazine), Michael Moore's 'Bowling for Columbine' and the diaries of Belle Du Jour, who uncovers the world of high-class escorts in 'Diary of a London Call-Girl'.

Information from:
http://www.essortment.com/all/whatisgonzoj_rqjo.htm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/4291311.stm
http://www.mahalo.com/gonzo-journalism

Extending a news story

After being asked to write an extended piece based on a news event from 1969 in class, I decided to take the task a little further and practice my skills by reflecting on a more recent event- the one year anniversary of the closure of Blue Scope Steel's 'pickle line' plant and subsequent unemployment of thirty men including my father. Below is an introduction to a piece of literary journalism detailing the loss of jobs, impacts of redeployment or unemployment on workers and the history of the plant. I would interview those who lost their jobs and well as the redeployed workers and management of Blue Scope Steel if I was to complete the article.

Wollongong is a place of contrasts. There are towering rainforests, pristine beaches, busy malls and peaceful parks. Many things seem unrelated, but under the pavements and sand the city’s veins are fed by one pulsing heart. A heart that’s made of steel.

The Port Kembla Steel Works, now known as Blue Scope Steel, has been operating in the area since 1928. Thousands of migrants travelled to Australia from overseas to work in its plants, developing the Illawarra region into what it is today. These days, over 500,000 people across the nation rely on the company for their livelihood.

Last year Blue Scope decided to close its pickle line and cold mill operations, a section of the company which had been producing steel products for 45 years. The jobs of over 80 employees were cut, leaving 50 men redeployed to other sections of the steel works and 30 contractors and service providers unemployed.

Many of the pickle line’s workers had woken up and gone to work at the same job, with the same people, all of their adult lives. Twelve months on, they now find themselves thrust into new environments, many of which they have had to retrain to work in, establishing new relationships and adjusting to the social and financial pressures which have resulted from the line's closure.

Dominick Dunne

Truman Capote ( whose work I am yet to read but would really like to) was the subject of one of Marcus' lectures on literary journalism. It was noted that Capote's involvement with the criminals who murdered the Clutter family could have jeopardised his ability to produce a fair and unbiased novel, which bought up the question "how deeply involved in the subject can a writer be without becoming bias?"

The question led me to think of Dominick Dunne, and a documentary about his life which I watched recently called 'After The Party'.

Dunne was born in 1925 and served in World War II before moving to Hollywood to work as an actor. He eventually became vice president of Four Star Television and was famous for his legendary parties and Hollywood friends like Humphrey Bogart.

In 1982, his 22 year old daughter Dominique was brutally murdered. This tragic event led Dunne to write " Justice: A Father's Account of the Trial of his Daughter's Killer" for Vanity Fair magazine.

Dunne then went on to cover the trails of OJ Simpson, Claus Von Bulow and Michael Skakel for the magazine and hosted several true crime television shows. He died of bladder cancer in 2009.



Have a look at the clip above from 'After the Party'.

While Dunne is a truly brilliant writer and a fascinating person, I couldn't help but wonder if his coverage of the Simpson Trial and other celebrity crimes could ever be truly objective. After all, wouldn't his daughter's death and the fact her killer was jailed for only 6.5 years have impacted on his ideas about the justice systems and criminals in general? How could someone whose own child was murdered ever remain 'uninvolved' in stories about crime?

Regardless of whether or not Dunne , like Capote, was 'too involved' in his subjects to report in an unbias fashion, it is always a risk for those whose work requires extensive research, interviews with and exposure to the subjects of an article. Have a look at some of Dunne's work below:

LA in the Age of OJ
Imelda in Excile
The Fall of Roberto Polo

Chorusing

When I think of my favourite literary works they each have one thing in common: the use of a literary device called 'chorusing'.

So what is chorusing? It is the word used to describe when a writer repeats various words, motifs or phrases throughout a text to reflect either the obsessions of characters or the central ideas of the story.

Kurt Vonnegut is said to have pioneered the technique in his novel 'Slaughterhouse Five', a story which centres on soldier Billy Pilgrim, his World War II experiences and journeys through time.

The phrase "so it goes" is repeated a total of one-hundred and six times throughout the work according to vonnegutweb.com and is used when dying, death or mortality occur or to move the narrative from one subject to another. Here is an example:

"Those were vile people in both those cities, as is well known. The world was better off without them. And Lot's wife, of course, was told not to look back where all those people and their homes had been. But she did look back, and I love her for that, because it was so human.
So she was turned into a pillar of salt. So it goes."

Another novel which uses chorusing to great effect ( and, allong with 'Lolita' has influenced much of my own style) is Chuck Palahnuik's 'Fight Club', where the narrator uses titles from old Readers Digests where human organs write about themselves in first person to demonstrate the obsessive, all-consuming nature of Fight Club as well as his own mental instability. Example :

" I am Joe's Prostrate. I am Joe's Gallbladder. I am Joe's Raging Bile Duct. I am Joe's Grinding Teeth. I am Joe's Inflamed Flaring Nostrils. I am Joe's White Knuckles. I am Joe's Enraged, Inflamed Sense of Rejection. I am Joe's Clenching Bowels. "

I think chorusing, when used correctly can be used to illustrate characters, ideas and central themes of importance within a text. The technique creates a faster pace for writing and assists readers by reminding them of previous passages and returning their focus to the core of the work. I hope I can employ this device in my own submission in order to create this effect.

The Broken Heart and Violent Fantasies of Lady Gaga.

One of the topics explored in literary journalism class throughout the semester has been the painting of 'characters' used by writers covering celebrities and public figures. With Lynn Herschberg's piece ' M.I.A's Agitprop Pop' in mind, I set out in search of examples of articles about celebrities which went beyond the classic question and answer format to further explore the 'character' of the star. A piece which stood out was Neil Strauss' 'The Broken Heart and Violent Fantasies of Lady Gaga' published in Rolling Stone Magazine's September 2010 issue.

While the article also contains mouthwatering photography from Terry Richardson, Strauss goes beyond the basics of the genre to expose a vulnerable, intelligent side of Gaga and delve into the mindset of one of the world's biggest stars.

I particularly liked how he begins the piece by describing her dressing room, segueing into a plug for her latest single and then finally surveying the chaotic state of her private life. " Her grandfather is in hospital, her father recently had heart surgery and she was just told by doctors that she is at risk of developing lupus, an autoimmune disease that killed her aunt before Gaga was born," is used to establish the fast pace of the article and imitate the speed and stress of Gaga's world.

Short, sharp sentences such as "her success is the ultimate misfit's revenge" add to the article's witty, bullet-speed appeal. Another device which caught my attention was the use of records to mark shifts in time with "Billy Joel spinning on the record player while we talk in Nottingham" and "Bruce Springsteen's 'Born to Run' on vinyl in Birmingham" used to show Gaga's varied taste in music as well as the movement of her tour across England.

The work seamlessly flows from a narrative style to a question and answer format- a technique I hope to employ in my own writing. An example of the movement between the two styles is evident in the passage " After the break-up, she promised to herself that she would never love again and would make him rue the day he doubted her. And this may be the origin of her transformation from Stefani to Gaga. And so I ask " do you think that all that love you directed towards men now goes towards your fans instead?"" This creates an easy-to-read movement between Strauss' observations and the formal interview while providing background information on the subject and the basis for his questioning.

Lastly, what I most admire about Strauss' work is his ability to let the subject define themselves through quotes, rather than by describing their personality for the reader. He ends the piece with Gaga asking him to "use the stuff that's going to make me a legend. I want to be a legend. Is that wrong," which in my opinion perfectly exposes her drive, deliberate provocation and love affair with fame.


Below: Images from the article.

Writing Practice: Describing a Situation.

Today I tried to practice my literary journalism skills by writing about a period of my day: rowing training at North Wollongong beach. In the following sample I have aimed to focus on the thoughts running through my head, the sights, smells and sounds around me and the feeling of rowing through the waves.

There we stood in the harbour: four young women shivering in the afternoon wind, swimmer pants ‘wedged up’, lily-white derrieres exposed for all to see. “ Guns up”, we wait for the call, “ boat”. Time to row.

I count the strokes in my mind as we push our boat through the break. The vessel resembles a flapping pelican as oars slap the water, narrowly missing dense clumps of seaweed. I can ear the blades turning in the rollicks. “ Clack clack, clack clack”. Perfect timing.

As the boat thuds off the peak of a surging green wave my mind begins to wander. ‘Did I ring my boss back to tell her I couldn't do the Thursday Shift? How will I be able to write three essays, two blogs and a major project over the next two weeks? Would the guy from the gym call me again?’ the questions are never ending.

Just as I feel my heart beat rising, increasing in intensity with the height of the waves, I’m jolted back to reality. “Jenna, lean back. Focus on the blade,” our sweep, a short, stocky man with a penchant for stubbies and singlets screams. ‘ That’s right,’ I remind myself as the worry subsides ‘focus’.

‘Twenty five, twenty six’ I count once more, my arms pulsating, legs burning. We glide around the buoy and head back for the beach. ‘twenty seven, twenty eight’. As the water glistens beneath my blade and the sun warms my back a thought hits me. ‘This is kind of like flying’. And it is.

The pelican’s wings clack in a frenzy as we stroke for an up-coming wave. ‘Twenty nine, thirty’. The boat is swept up in the emerald barrel and rushed to shore. Surprisingly, I think of nothing as we soar past the surfers and jetskis to the shore. Peace. Serenity. A drug dispensed only by the fresh North Wollongong waters.

The Score

Stephen Elliott's 'The Score' was offered in class as an example of literary journalism. While I was disinterested in some of the previous examples ( particular 'Anatomy of a Miracle' , which I found very dry and slow), Elliott's work kept me hooked to the very end as he explored Theo Van Gogh's death, his ex-girlfriend's triple infidelity and his own fractured emotional state.

I was hypnotised by Elliott’s poetic notion of loving like “we didn’t care if we lived or died”and felt compelled to read the entire piece to try and understand why the couple’s love was doomed.

Another technique used to great effect was the motif of basketball and its use to move the story between time periods. I noticed that Elliott replaces "I" ( which is often used in the text) with "we" when he is reflecting on the game and the fact that basketball also acts as a metaphor for the happiness he felt in Chicago and juxtaposes with the dark, seedy lifestyle he goes on to live in LA.

‘The Score’ is littered with beautiful description such as “the Tenderloin was full of fog. It floated near my knee caps,” and “he had long black hair and wiry arms. When he wore makeup he looked like a dragon woman.” The detail of Elliott’s prose is something that could only ever be gleaned from personal experience. The matter-of-fact way he seems to drop references to bisexuality, prostitution, sadomachism, domestic abuse, drug abuse, depression and suicide show that despair was a continuous aspect of his life and offer only a glimpse into the other stories he has to tell.

While these are only some of the literary devices used in the piece, 'The Score' appealed to me in a way that other in-class examples didn't. It opened my eyes to the fact that literary journalism doesn't have to be based soley on interviews of other people- it can centre on personal experience and have an almost confessional function for the author.

I hope that my own work can somehow express the honesty, black-humour and visual imagery of Elliott's 'The Score'. Read the 'The Score' for yourself.