Date:         Sat, 25 May 1996 00:24:50 EDT
From: "overdue, delayed, almost defunct" <mbarker@MIT.EDU>
Organization: The True Funct
Subject:      EXERCISE: What's A Prickly Pear?

[Friday before a three-day weekend, a pile of work to do,
and...nearly everyone has to stop by and tell me all about
what they are doing on the weekend?  So now I'm going to
spend a chunk of my "holiday" trying to do what I thought I
would be doing today?  What's wrong with this picture?]

Ah, well.  Let's quickly turn the pages of "The Writing
Workshop, Vol. 2" by Alan Zeigler... oh, that should do the
job...

1.  Pick a small number.  Anything between one to six will do
just fine.

    1.  cantaloupe
    2.  persimmon
    3.  prune
    4.  avocado
    5.  grapefruit
    6.  raisin

(other exotic fruits might include prickly pear, starfruit,
mango, papaya, or jockey shorts fresh off the loom?  Your
choice, just get your fruit armed:-)

2.  One more number.  Guess!

    1.  a bowl of snow
    2.  a desert of white sands
    3.  an ebbing tidal pool, surrounded by stones
    4.  a glacial wall of ice
    5.  a field of wheat baking under the August sun
    6.  a mountain spring of fresh, cold water

3. Pick another number, any number, just as long as it is a
fairly small number (say one to six?  I know you could say
it!)

1.  Love
2.  Hate
3.  Joy
4.  Relief
5.  Anticipation
6.  Fear

(other emotions, if you don't like those, might include
distress, relief, pride, gratitude, guilt, anger, or the
cast of hundreds to be found in a thesaurus near you:-)

4.  Your emotion IS those two, the fruit and the setting.

You may want to spend a few minutes writing down connections.
What does the fruit and the setting have to do with each
other?  The fruit and the emotion?  The setting and the
emotion?  Let your mind spin its own fine network of
associations.  Don't worry if something else comes in, that
crystalline silverware probably helps you toss the salad?

5. Your job is to describe that fruit and that setting
(related in any way your little fingers care to tap the
keys) without telling us about the emotion--just make us
feel it, show it to us, make us ache with it...

Start your fruit rotting now, please?

(That's not at all what Ziegler suggested, but maybe it will
do the job.  He has you brainstorming relationships, one
liners, without any explanation, all for later expansion.
For example, love is a tray of ice cubes.  Love is a prickly
pear.  And so on.  Tell you what, if you get bored with my
little twisted play on relationships, go ahead and do his.)

One sentence to start?  Okay, on your keys, get limbo,
and...

        "I could almost taste it," she said, and licked her
lips.

Sleepily
tink