By Courtney Dekanich, English major at Silver Lake College and editor of The Novice
The last of the fall leaves have barely
hit the ground – and Thanksgiving dinner has yet to be served – and a steady
flurry of snow has already begun to spiral down upon us. Winter has yet to
officially begin and it’s already time to break out winter coats and mittens,
pompom-topped hats, and snow boots. While many have greeted the premature
changing of the seasons with a groan, the unmistakable chill of winter in the
air can undoubtedly serve as a source of inspiration for all those looking to
create.
If you’re having trouble getting
started, here’s another week’s worth of prompts from the staff of The Novice. Take a look at the prompts,
let your inspiration run its course, and send the products of your creativity
to thenovice.slc@gmail.com.
If you send in your work, your submissions will be considered for publication
in the upcoming editions of The Novice,
Silver Lake College’s own literary and art publication.
Happy writing!
1. It’s ten below and your car breaks
down on a very quiet – and very empty – country road. Just as you’re about to
brave the cold and hike back to the last house you remember seeing, a pair of
headlights appears in your rearview mirror. When the car stops, you’re relieved
to be getting help. When you see the driver, however, you’re absolutely
shocked. Why? Who’s the driver? What happens next?
2. Walking down the street one day, you
heard a strange noise suddenly come from a narrow alley. When you go to check
it out, you find nothing but a dead end and a package wrapped in beautiful
paper and topped with a gorgeous bow. The tag, however, reads “DO NOT OPEN.”
What do you do?
3. It’s a Friday night, and you’re home
alone in the middle of the worst blizzard in years. When you answer a sudden
knock on the door, you find a shivering figure on your doorstep who very
politely says “I seem to have driven my car into a snowbank and was wondering
if I could wait out the storm here.” You’re quite speechless as you recognize
the person. Who is it (they can be famous or infamous, real or fictional,
living or dead), and how in the world did they end up alone in the middle of a
Wisconsin blizzard?
4. You finish building your own version of
Frosty the Snowman in your front yard one day. In the middle of the night,
there’s a knock on your door. You open it to find a very alive – and very
serious looking – snowman on your doorstep, greeting you with the words, “I
think it’s time we had a little talk…” What’s on your snowman’s mind?
5. You’re walking through the mall when
a jolly looking department store Santa tries to flag you down. In a hurry, you
say Merry Christmas and keep on walking, only to hear him call you by name.
Confused – and more than a little curious – you turn to him, only to hear him
say “I know what you did.” What did you do (if anything), and what happens
next?
6. Write a break up letter (or love
letter) to winter weather.
7. You stumble upon a very disgruntled
Christmas elf, recently released from Santa’s employment, and does he have the
dirt to dish on the big man. What does your new elf friend have to say? What
happens when Santa himself suddenly walks in on the conversation?
By Shaughn VanGinkel, senior Communications major at Silver Lake College
It's October 25th, a cool,
breezy day at the Spartan Stadium where the crowds are roaring and
shouting for their teams to take the field. Enter Michigan State vs. Michigan, a long lasting rivalry to clash once again on the battlefield of the Spartans.
Just as the players are taking the field, Michigan performs a rather
odd pregame ritual of driving a large wooden stake branded with their name into the
soft, rich soil of Michigan State. Each player of Michigan State looks on in
brewing anger as the hammer pounds the stake into their field inch by inch.
Coach Dantonio cannot stand to see another second of their soil being pierced
by another team’s logo and immediately calls out disrespect against their
long lasted rivals. This fire lights within the players and the game progresses
with Michigan State crushing Michigan in the second half of the game.
The drama
involving the stake burns through sports media and launches heated debates
between sport debrief specialists as they wonder whether or not the
unsportsman-like conduct of Michigan’s pregame ritual is to be tolerated. They
go about debating in a civilized manner to see if the situation is able to be
worked out between coaches and players.
As this story hits the freedom and public access of the internet; however, that
civility immediately decays in the comment sections that are opened for debate once
the incident is turned to article format. People of all backgrounds unleash verbal cannon fire on each other as more people log on to view the article.
It absolutely
amazes me how quick people are able to retort to freedom of speech with any
argument. It doesn't matter what the subject or so called “opinion” is about, because there are many people that ironically use the words “freedom of speech”
like a sharpened blade against any equal foe. It feels less like an unalienable
right and more of a backup against disagreement, and it happens every single
day for the most ridiculous of reasons.
I
can't stand it when I look at the comment section on Youtube or the posting
sections of Facebook and witness personal information and harmful grammatical
usage being spewed from the fingertips onto the keyboard, and with access of
technology becoming easier and integrated into our own brains, the problem only
thickens. Respect? Forget about it! It's the freaking internet, right? It's not
like you can actually be held accountable for your own verbal
atrocities...right? WRONG!
The
greatest sensation we know as the internet has officially become the burial
ground of everything you have been drilled on as a child. Respect, morality-hell, even intelligence has been known to take a dive off the face of our
humanity once you jump on a popular website. Many seem to have gotten the idea that just because an individual is not directly in front of you,
there is free reign to scorch and strip them of happiness in order to fuel your
own personal ego. A perfect example of this is the increasing wave of hatred
that plagues the religious. I decided to pay a visit to Youtube and look up
some videos on “The Amazing Atheist.” His name immediately makes the hair upon
my neck sharpen as I scroll through many of his feeds as I knew immediately
this man was some kind of pseudo-intellectual thinking he has the world all
figured out. Listening to some of his videos, I began to feel proven wrong a
little bit. He knows quite a bit about his historical facts, but his common
sense seems to be lacking.
He continues on
with the video, continuously attempting to debunk and rip apart any idea of
religion. I realized then that this wasn’t about debunking any kind of theory; this was just underlying malice candy-coated in the form of a Youtube video.
It’s as if the video itself was based on disrespect! With his arguments lacking
any real fire power, I whisked down to the comment section to discover
horrendous examples of what the ugly face of disrespect looks like. The insults
ranged from “godtards” to “atheist f***” and became gradually worse as I
scrolled through the feed of the comment section.
Of course “The
Amazing Atheist” isn’t the only one guilty of this kind of disrespect. Another
youtuber by the name of VenomFangX, a pro Christian channel, possesses
recordings and live streams gushing with disrespect against atheists,
slandering them and threatening the fear of hell with each and every word he
utters. Some of his content is actually so vulgar that his videos get taken
down a regular basis just by the Youtube administrators themselves due to their
conflicting views and sometimes illegally ripped audio files.
One of his few videos I was able to locate, it's lengthy but his comment sections are the real threat. His comment
sections, like The Amazing Atheist’s, are a continuous battleground of numerous
different parties unloading their verbal weaponry and unleashing fire on all who
oppose their point of view. What’s even worse is the fact that I saw the EXACT
SAME insults splayed all over the comment section of Venom as I did with The
Amazing Atheist. Keep in mind, this
isn’t some crazy argument about religion or atheism, this is the horrifying
reality of people of all backgrounds ripping each other at the throat simply
because they all have their own belief system or viewpoints.
Many
other hot button topics are plagued with disrespect and hatred. In the weeks and months leading up to the political
elections, you may have noticed some of your favorite news channels being
flooded with political information about what the Democrats, Republicans and
Liberals are up to. This is the time of year where I roll my eyes 180 degrees
into the back of my head so I don’t have to witness the putrid amount of
mudslinging that is burned into every 20 second commercial between airing
times.
People, this is the new face of humanity. You would think that with a popular
news site like Fox News, you would find the comment section to contain writing that is credible and comments that encourage each other as fellow Americans to make the right choice
as a team to not only better our nation, but even our allies outside of the
border. Instead, you are greeted with the unpleasant, humanistic rage focused
on demolishing the opposing party of all of its ideals.
On October 14th an article was posted of Hillary Clinton's speech talking about the
educational system and its apparently ineffective methods of being affordable
to students. There is absolutely nothing wrong with what Clinton is discussing.
It’s an important idea that has been expressed by many for years and for those
that are concerned for the educational upbringing of future generations. The
main beauty of this article, however,--or rather, hellish experience--is in the
comment section as it is with Youtube and Facebook. The comment sections is
brewing with insults ranging from “Killary Clinton” to “Hilarity Clinton” and
even the common “dumb c***” insult. This is one of the only speeches she has
given so far this year and people have gone as far as to already tear apart her
name internet wide and news wide. That’s not even mentioning the numerous
amounts of people that counteract by slandering the ideals of other politicians
when compared with Hillary’s, which can be viewed in the exact same comment
section! There are even people insulting each other with remarks that have nothing to do
with the actual article itself!
"Eugene2012" and others appear throughout the comment section writing similar "comments"
Where
does this fueled rage and hatred for others stem from and why is it so easy to
wield as a weapon? Honestly, I cannot form an answer for you. Maybe humanity
has lost touch with its humbleness and instead prefers to thrive off the idea
of ruling with a steel plated ego, or maybe most humans fear the idea of mental
anguish and hide themselves in a palace of loneliness and security from others.
Whatever the case is, I encourage all of you to look to your hearts and the
next time you are writing a song or novel or even when you are about to write a
comment on Youtube, for the sake of respect, treat your words like an offering
not like a sharpened blade. A respectful word leads to respectful actions, and
respectful actions lead to a healed world.
Shaughn VanGinkel is a Radio/Communications Major At Silver Lake College. His hobbies include singing and performing and is heavily involved within his community of Two Rives and their various festivals.
By Courtney Dekanich, English major at Silver Lake College and editor of The Novice
November
has arrived, and as the leaves continue to fall, a faint hint of winter’s chill
can already be felt in the air. Leaves and snowflakes, pumpkin and peppermint –
they all share the days as winter draws closer and the countdown to the
holidays begins. This approaching changing of the seasons, this time of ever
growing happiness, thankfulness, and cheer, often serves as sources of
inspiration for writers and artists, all those who seek to create.
If
you’re having a bit of trouble getting started, here are a few more prompts
from the staff of The Novice that
could help you through another week. Take a look at the prompts, see what they
inspire you to create, and send your work to thenovice.slc@gmail.com. If you send
in your work, your submissions will be considered for publication in the
upcoming edition of The Novice,
Silver Lake College’s own literary and art publication.
Happy
writing!
1. In
the spirit of Thanksgiving, write about the thing in life which you are most
thankful for.
2.
Write about the most terrible Thanksgiving dinner disaster you can possibly
imagine.
3. If
you were asked to make a float for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, what
would it be?
4. You
have won an all-expenses paid trip to the location of your choosing, and it
lasts for the entire winter season. Where are you going (and why), and what
will you do there?
5. The
Christmas season often makes people nostalgic about their childhood; what was
the best part of the Christmas season as a child? What do you miss most?
6. Write
a letter of protest against the one holiday movie or television special you
cannot bear to watch again.
7. This
Christmas, the last tree left on the lot looks a lot like the one from the
Charlie Brown Christmas special – and it’s all yours. How do you decorate it to
make it look nice?
