I have to admit that as a writer I love looking at photographs of people. There are so many stories behind the eyes that stare out at you challengingly or with visible happiness or melancholy. It was a treat to hear last summer that Tamora Pierce uses acres of National Geographics and fashion magazines for the same purpose -- just the pictures of the people. The human face can be fascinating, and can provide a needed bump to the imagination when a writer gets stuck.Recently, The Library of Congress set up a Flickr site for their old photos, and they provide a fascinating glimpse of the past. This photo of a glam 40's chick, putting rivets on a bomber makes me smile. Her lipstick matches her nail polish, her eyebrows are plucked to within an inch of their lives, and she's wearing a huge ring, but that doesn't mean our girl isn't working.
See? You could write a fifty word flash fiction piece about her right now.
Randomly: Wow! MIT has free online college courses!? Who knew? (Well, apparently mental_floss, and a hat tip to them for the great link.)
3 comments:
Wow, those MIT courses are awesome! And I already loved mental_floss (well, a bunch of Duke grads, which is where I went to grad school, but I like them for what they do, too.)
Thanks for the tip!
There's nothing more glam than a woman who knows she's a woman, in all her strength and glory. Rock on!
And look at those MIT courses. I feel a need to study Tom Stoppard's plays.
Oooh! Tom Stoppard! Now I'm definitely going to have to go check that out...UC Berkeley has some webcasts and YouTube lectures also. Check out some poetry readings here--there are some really good ones...
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