1. Flash Fiction! You have 8 minutes!
You are writing a short story as fast as you can…
Your story must
Be based on true events that took place over the last 48 hours
You must be a part of your story
You must falsify at least one thing in your story
You have 8 minutes!

2. In your groups… Share out your stories
Were you able to identify which parts of the story were false?
Does it matter which parts are false? Did this dramatically shift any of your stories?

3. Metafiction
Using Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried to discuss the role, form, and purpose of ‘metafiction’

4. Truth & Fiction
The author tells us, seven stories into the book and in the same story that starts with “This is true,” that everything in the book is made up, a sentiment he repeats several times throughout the novel.
In addition, the story “Good Form” returns to the concept that everything in the book is true and fabricated at the same time. Can an idea exist as both a truth and a fabrication? Many of us don’t tolerate this concept in the realms of politics or religion, nor is it acceptable in an interpretation of school rules. Why should we tolerate it in fiction?

5. Which kinds of fictionalization are acceptable and which aren’t?

6. Why Metafiction?
There never seems to be a shortage of people in our culture who play with their own stories.
Look at Eminem. He’s born Marshall Mathers, renames himself Eminem, raps stories from the perspective of his alter ego Slim Shady about things he has done or imagines doing in his own life, then makes the semiautobiographical movie 8 Mile. He often talks about violence in terms of how he feels rather than what he has done.

7. Postmodernism: Metafiction
Writing about writing
Self-conscious fictional writing which systematically draws attention to its status as an artifact in order to pose questions about the relationship between fiction and reality.
Metafiction does not let the readers forget they are reading a work of fiction.

8. Metafiction can include…
A story about a person writing a story
A story about a person reading a story
A story in which the author is a character in the story
Characters who express awareness that they are in a work of fiction and realize they can influence the story.
The juxtaposition of fictional characters and historical figures.
A narrator reads a story to the reader, sometimes taking breaks to make comments on the story or to introduce characters who are also taking part in listening to the story.
The narrator intentionally appears in the story either as a character or as a divine entity telling the reader what he or she is going to do next.

9. Metafiction in popular culture
Books The Neverending Story Naked Lunch The Princess Bride Cloud Atlas Movies Midnight in Paris Fight Club The Truman Show TV Shows How I Met Your Mother 30 Rock Scrubs

10. Homework Book Clubs tomorrow! Read pages 1-56 Response Journals
Preparation Assignment

11. Expectations Come prepared with preparation assignment each meeting
Follow all the rules/guidelines established by group
Complete one log per week
READ, READ, READ!

12. Preparation Assignments
Discussion Leader
Facilitates discussion, comes prepared with interpretive questions to guide the conversation
Connector
Makes connections to self, real world, text-to-text, text-to-history
Passage Master
Tracks passages that you think will be fruitful for discussion
Illustrator
Illustrates one pivotal scene
You will rotate to have a different role every time, since there are 4 more reading dates, you will do each role once (we will not be doing roles for the final meeting)

13. Personal Response Log All done individually!
Reading logs: 4 (one paragraph each, typed out)
One per week, reflecting on what you actually read
Not a summary
Your reactions/response to what you read (characters, story, writing style, etc.)
You will turn these all in at the end, with your group work

14. How are you being graded?
In-class group work
Individual response journal
These will both be turned in at the end of the novel
In-class participation / on-task work