If the Ghost of Gertrude Stein Wrote/Made a Zine, It Might Look Like This...

Class today is going to be mostly a workshop to prepare us for the production of our zines on Wednesday.

Please pay close attention in class and to the following directions.

You will be making a new text (continuous or prolonged present in Stein's terms) out of the bones of an old text.

In essence, you will be "Gertrude Steinifying" a pre-existing text. Use some of the techniques that you see in Stein's writing. Have fun, make it funny, serious, boring, etc. The choice is all yours. 

This source-text could be from your notes, journal, sketchbook, poem, to-do list, etc.

It could also be appropriated from a news article, a recipe, a joke, a piece of classic literature, instructions for a video game, song lyrics, cereal-box text, comics, television script, etc.

You will need to bring to class on Wednesday six pieces of paper:

Two pieces will be small: 3.5 inches high by 2.25 inches wide. These will be your cover and your one-paragraph explanation of what you did and why. 

Three pieces will be your zine's primary content: 3.5 inches high by 4.5 inches wide. On these spreads you can include text and image. Type your text in ten-point sans-serif, such as Verdana, Gill Sans, Helvetica, or the dreaded Arial.

One piece will be your fold-out piece: 8.5 inches high by 11 inches wide. This can be pure image or pure text or a combination of both. 

Cut out these six pieces and have them ready at the beginning of class.

Questions: csmith@dcad.edu

PS: This is intended to be a fun and different kind of exercise that explores the resources of other kinds of writing. The world of writing is larger than the argumentative college essay.