Overview
I address in this project some of the ways in which humans are affected by separation and how modern technology has changed interactions. Most people think that the dramatic changes will be in the future when it will be easy for people to only communicate through technology. I think that we are already affected.
In my manuscript, I look at the types of separation that people experience and the objects which separate them. I was inspired by how separation influences people in different ways. I see some strangers every day, yet don’t know their names. I talk to my pen pals every day, yet I’ve never met them in person. How do these situations function at the same time? I decided that separation must not affect each person in the same way, which is why I decided to use different writing genres in my project. Each genre addresses in detail a certain kind of separation. As Marshall McLuhan said, “the medium is the message.”
In my project, I created four sections: poetry, a novella, letters, and essays. Each focuses on someone affected by separation.
Poetry
Once he answered a call
from a man who’s writing
about him and his mother.
That’s not what she’s like.
He insults and cusses out
everyone, even his mother,
while smiling like he’s saying,
I love you.
from a man who’s writing
about him and his mother.
That’s not what she’s like.
He insults and cusses out
everyone, even his mother,
while smiling like he’s saying,
I love you.
Novella
Doctors took her away, cupping her body in the green of their surgical gloves. When she was brought back, her mother cradled her. She spoke each syllable of Penelope slowly. Her breath puffed against Pen’s forehead and pushed back her cloud of hair.
Letters
At one in the morning, I find myself in white-washed quiet hallways with a liar and a donut-faced boy. The janitor cleans the floor behind us. Donut Boy gives me eight gigabytes of books then walks me through the semantics of being alone. He has familiar brown eyes.
Essays
I shook with the plane. I was at the part in Sunshine when the main character and her unlikely friend are battling the darkest Others. The main character wonders whether she will die in the battle. She assumes that her death is the only outcome.
I looked up from my book at the blue backside of the chair in front of me. I felt the shaking of the plane. What would I do if the plane took off but the engines malfunctioned? I didn’t feel any fear. I looked down at my book. I thought, there’s nothing for me to do even if the plane were to explode. I continued to read.
