Who says being good with words is not useful?

Thanks to Olivier for alerting us to this incredible article on the crackdown on puns in China media.

And now from Groucho Marx: “Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.”

Finally, related to the assignment due next week, here are a few links that might help. First, a “retelling” of Kurt Vonnegut’s “The Shape of Stories” lesson that we watched during the first class.

Next, to be read with a grain of salt, from Mette Ivie Harrison’s “Writing Advice,” the graphs of various plots. What I find useful in this column is the idea that basic plots can be graphed (the way Vonnegut does it); doing this, whether on paper or just in your head, can help you isolate the crucial features of your chosen masterplot. The graph has low resolution: it’s just interested in the basic arc or trajectory, not the details or specifics. According to this approach, The Very Hungry Caterpillar has the same plot and same plot-shape as the Harry Potter series, though of course the specific ways in which the protagonist suffers, struggles, learns and grows differ a lot.