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What we know
The connections in Marble Springs have evolved over the past 25 years: organically, rhizomatically, ties leading back to ties. If you are looking for a paper to write or even just something to think about, follow these connections.
How to analyze this
Nodal Characters
We see several characters in Marble Springs only in terms of others—-we get their story only in how they view the world. Take one of these and determine what she is really like based on her observations. Or take two of these and compare. How do perceptions differ as they talk about the same characters? What does their choice of character to talk about (or not talk about) say about that character? Or take a character and look at that character from the different viewpoints. Where is that character mentioned? Who notices her? Why? Who is on the inside? on the outside? How can you determine this?
- Gossiping Edna Harris
- Visiting Mrs. Maude Newsome
- Healing Doc Nancy
- Caring Matilda Granger
- Judging Sue Langley
- Doing business Kevin Paine
- Begging The Washerwoman
- Hating Alvina Heollstar
- Death Jedediah Grasslands
Generational Characters
Marble Springs 3.0 now sketches in three different family lines to trace back passions, obsessions, and fears from very different experiences of history:
- The Millers trace back their roots from Catharine Miller, a wife of a minor clerk in the revolutionary government, who passes sophie-smith-weaver down her wisdom to her granddaughter, Gertrude Miller, who explains this to her grandson, Asa Miller, who transmits this in a completely different form to his daughter, Zandra Miller.
- The Pitkins trace their footsteps back into the Crystal River Valley before the white settlers came. Pohanapusa, mother of Nabuinde, knew what her ancestors had known for uncounted generations. Nabuinde, mother of Katalin, uncovered the truth of her visions of history before she died. Katalin, mother of Towee Pitkin was torn between the two worlds and saw her daughter snatched up in the new. Towee Pitkin, squaw of Henry Pitkin and mother of Red Birch Pitkin and Black Bird Pitkin retreated as far as possible into a tiny corner of the new world. Red Birch and Black Bird Pitkin felt the Edna Harris full hatred of the new world.
- The Vernons trace their living from Big Bertha, who escaped the patrols with her infant daughter, Missy Vernon, who spilled the horrors of that time at night when her son Liberty Vernon could hear her moans.
Thematic Nodes
As poetry distills its attar, it infuses certain words with repeated meanings. What words are used in several different poems? How do they relate?
Moreover, certain characters are associated with certain things, such as Joel Harris with his Caller or Robert Vernon with the Dance. How do these connections define-and redefine the characters? The concepts being connected?
Connective Tissues
There are many different types of connections in Marble Springs, and you could take one and examine its inner workings:
- Communities. Most characters are associated within a community, each with specific types of relationships. What does it mean to have the graveyard on the outside in a connection card? as a secret?
- Textual links. Textual links emphasize certain words, color certain repetitions . How does this emphasis affect the work? Links also impregnate the destination text with the meanings from the origin text, and backsplash the origin text with meanings from the destination text. Like opening a door in your home, the room you are in and the room you see through the door change simply by allowing that connection to be seen.
- Portal captions. In Marble Springs 2.0, these portals were “hidden” links—you would only find the connections if you clicked around. They were designed as a secret entrance into the minds of the characters. How do they differ
- Tags. Tags provide another set of commonalities. What tags are used –and are they used denotatively or connotatively? Pick one tag and follow those characters.
Connections
Portal
Sources
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