Homework: Be Inspired

When I had my first one-to-one mentoring session a few weeks ago, my mentor told me he was easing my cohort into the program, and the workload would eventually pick up.

Dunnottar Castle, painted by Waller Hugh Paton

He did not lie.

Midterm formative assessments, extra reading, group presentations, another mentoring session (read: 5,000 more words of some creative work), and pre-writing, pre-writing, pre-writing. It was a welcome break to have an assignment that made us leave the library.

Homework for First Person Narrative: Go to a museum and be inspired by an artifact.

Flower Still Life in a Sculpted Stone Vase, painted by Jan van Huysum

So on Wednesday, two friends and I set out for the Scottish National Portrait Gallery on Princes Street. It's felt like Fall for a while now (I've been mocked for saying 'Fall' instead of 'Autumn', and then again for saying 'Autumn' wrong), and now it's finally starting to look like it, too. The leaves are turning and falling, and on this particular day, the sun was shining. It was a perfect day to be inspired.

None of us are the kind of museum-goers who need to read about every painting; we wandered, stopped, admired, and took pictures of paintings we might use as our inspiration. The gallery is free (!) and we spent a lovely hour there, followed by the discovery of a burger & crepe stand. We sat outside in the cool light of the golden hour of the evening, eating Nutella & raspberry crepes and sweet waffles and chips (fries). A perfect break from studying.

The painting that inspired me is called St Bride, painted by John Duncan, pictured below.

Here's what the museum said about it: "This is one of the outstanding creations of the Celtic revival movement which had begun during the last decade of the nineteenth century in Scotland. Popularly known as 'the foster mother of Christ', the Irish saint Bride is shown being carried by angels over the Hebridean seas to Bethlehem to witness the nativity of Christ. In the background on the right is the silhouette of Iona Abbey. Duncan drew on his close study of Celtic design and the techniques and aesthetics of early Italian fresco paintings to create a dreamlike and otherworldly image, subtly combining naturalism and formal pattern."

The Twins Clara and Albert de Bray, painted by Salomon de Bray

I was struck immediately by the colors. Their wings are particularly beautiful, and the tapestry images woven into their robes are mesmerizing. It reminded me of an idea that's been rolling around in my mind for a while: Death, personified, not as the being who kills people, but as the being who guides the dead into the great beyond so they don't have to go alone.

There are many cultures in which white is the color of mourning, and wearing white has a lot of religious and traditional symbolism attached to it: baptism, confirmation, weddings, etc. And if these angels are carrying a dead girl into the afterlife, perhaps their robes are covered in scenes from the lives of those they've guided. With this, I have a concept for the short story I'll need to write for my midterm formative assessment.

Landscape of Christ and Saint Peter, painted by Goffredo Wals

For my one-month anniversary of living in Edinburgh, I did not hike up Arthur's Seat to watch the sunrise - instead, I got my cake from Montpeliers and watched my favorite movie, the 2005 Pride & Prejudice, in the Writers' Room with some friends. It was an excellent way to celebrate.

I've also registered with a General Practitioner (yay!) and found a Bible Study. I was FaceTiming with a friend from home this week and she asked if I've been feeling lonely, and surprisingly, I haven't. I fully expected to be lonely for the first season of living abroad, and I was ready for it, but it just hasn't happened. Maybe it's because I enjoy my alone time, or because my cohort likes to get together during the week to study, but I really haven't been lonely. I'm still working on building up a good local community, though.

Orchard in Blossom (Plum Trees) Arles, painted by Vincent van Gogh

Time for another round of 'Noteworthy Aspects of Living Abroad':

- No paper towels in bathrooms. Due to the city's dedication to going green, all bathrooms have hand dryers.

- Living here has already changed my vocabulary: 'lifts' not 'elevators', 'chips' not 'fries', 'crisps' not 'chips', 'autumn' not 'fall', etc.

- Dogs are allowed inside pretty much everywhere. Most stores I walk past have a dog or two chilling inside, and most restaurants let people bring their dogs inside.

- I have yet to find anywhere that sells regular microwavable popcorn. I found sweet popcorn, which is just coated in sugar, but I'm searching for kettle corn I can make in my microwave.

- People here think my accent is interesting and funny. My accent. I have an accent. Wild.

Before the Performance, painted by Edgar Degas

Things I'm looking forward to: the ends of the next few months. At the end of October, I'm meeting up with a lifelong friend in London for a few days to explore. At the end of November, a college friend is coming to visit me for a few days here in Edinburgh. At the end of December, Christmas break!

For now, along with all of the other work I have to do, I'm hard at work with world building. Creating a new fantasy world from scratch has been challenging and so, so fun. If I'm drawing a map of this new world and designing its geography, where is the equator? Is there more than one sun? If it's a spherical planet like ours that rotates on an axis, then, as with the earth, the equator is exposed to more sunlight than the poles, which affects geography. Or, I can go for Terry Pratchett's 'Discworld' method and design a flat, disc-shaped world balanced on the back of four elephants that are standing on the shell of a giant turtle. That's the beauty of creating your own world - you make the rules.

The Sacrament of Baptism, painted by Nicolas Poussin

Most civilizations are built around water sources, since living creatures need water to survive. So where are the water sources? The rivers? Lakes? Oceans? That's where people will have settled. How is food produced and distributed by the rivers? By the desert? In the mountains?

A lot of world building in modern literature has largely euro-centric civilizations. A good example of a world based on more diverse world cultures is the TV show "Avatar: The Last Airbender". The Fire Nation is modeled after Japan, the Earth Kingdom is modeled after China, the Air Nomads are modeled after Tibetan Monks, and the Water Tribe is modeled after North American Natives. Watching this show has inspired me to research the anthropology of different world cultures so my people groups aren't all the same.

Roses, painted by Henri Fantin-Latour

I'm almost halfway through trimester 1, and I've already learned so much. I'm excited to see how my ability as a writer continues to grow!

Story recommendation: This time it's not a book - it's the TV show "Avatar: The Last Airbender". Not only is it hilarious and family friendly, but it also has incredible characterization (every character has a rich and deep background), has the best redemption arc I've ever seen (I'm looking at you, Zuko), shows the humanity of the enemy fighters instead of making them 2-dimensional 'evil people', and so much more. I could write a whole book about how much I love this show.