The Voice of Authority
rationale | background | what to do | inner voice variation *an advanced exercise*
[updated 03/20/2005]
Why the Voice of Authority?
This exercise is a very liberating experience because it
allows you to “channel” a
voice with which you are intimately familiar and which is distinctly different
from your own voice. Ultimately, the voices of authority that we all carry
around in our heads define an important facet of identity. So you may get a
far greater appreciation for your own identity, or someone else’s identity,
and you may get a new voice that you can add to your repertoire in your writing.
Background:
This was adapted from an exercise that I learned from Marilyn Chin, a famous
poet/writer at University of California at San Diego. She used a story by Jamaica
Kincaid called “Girl.” She read the story, which was a mother’s
voice talking to a daughter, mostly in the form of warnings, demands etc. Although
the story is called “Girl,” it really creates a portrait of the
mother.
Then Marilyn asked us to remember the voice of our own mothers and to write
this down quickly, without thinking too much about it. She said she
had great success
with this exercise, and her students often came away with a greater understanding
of the voice of the mother that everyone carries around inside. This voice
is often surprising and full of energy and dynamics that you would
not expect.
I have changed this exercise by using an excerpt from a novel by Thad Rutkowski,
Roughhouse. In this excerpt, we will hear a father warning a boy
about what not to do, but as he goes along the boy gradually turns into an
adolescent and an
adult who becomes the voice of that father.
Start writing, and use any authority figure that you like, a father, mother,
step mother, grand father, grandmother, Uncle, Aunt, and so on. You can even
invent a character, but you must be able to produce the voice spontaneously
as though you know it as well as you know your own mother or father etc. You
could even use a fictitious character such as Homer or Marge Simpson (if you
are a fanatical Simpsons viewer).
Remember that you can start your writing from the point of view of a child. The child can change and even grow up, and the child may return. Or you could start with an adolescent or even a young (or still malleable) adult.
Important: do not to censor the voice of authority no matter what it says! Let the voice flow out of your memory or imagination without worrying about it. You won’t have to read any part of this aloud today, but you will be given an opportunity to volunteer a part of your writing.
Important: you can reveal or invent a story or many stories in the process of your writing.
Excerpt from a novel by Thad Rutkowski, Roughhouse
[used with the permission of the author]
UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES ...
Don't stick a dry bean in your nostril and poke it with your finger until you can't reach it anymore.
Don't stick a fork or other utensil into an electrical outlet or, in your own words, don't play with the plugger place.
Don't ride your bicycle at full speed across an active roadway without looking both ways or stopping.
Don't take a magnifying glass outside on a sunny day and incinerate ants.
Don't light a firecracker and hold it in your hand until it explodes and leaves a wet, circular blister.
Don't stuff match heads into a closed metal pipe until the device has the killing power of a grenade.
Don't place a shotgun shell on its end and hammer a nail into its firing cap.
Don't pretend you are shooting BBs at a paper target when in fact you are shooting at human beings.
Don't tie a child to the crossbar of a swing set and leave him to be discovered by his mother.
Don't bait your schoolteachers by giving them quizzical looks when they are trying to lecture on serious topics, like civics and physics.
Don't break into the school building through a rooftop trapdoor and steal as many video recorders as you can carry.
Don't stand by the highway and throw goonies through the windshields of passing cars.
Don't shoot songbirds with your .22 in a safety zone or even in a non-safety zone.
Don't argue with your parents so intensely that you get sent to a foster home.
Don't fight with your foster parents so much that you get sent back to your original home.
Don't disrupt a local wedding ceremony and make the newlyweds' relatives beat you like a piñata.
Don't stare at a slab of hashish the size of a chocolate bar and then smoke it.
Don't knock on the door of a fraternity house with a baseball bat and shout, "Send out your biggest brother!"
Don't antagonize a shirtless man by digging your fingers into his pectoral muscles and lifting him off the ground.
Don't say to the person returning the gloves you left at a bar, "If you can take them from me, you can keep them."
Don't get thrown through the bar's window in such a way that the glass leaves a gash down your back.
Don't, as you are leaving for a new life in a different city in another state, even think of coming back to where the trouble began.
Inner Voice Variations (an advanced exercise)
Part I: The Voice of Authority as the start of a longer exercise
Start with the voice of authority exercise but try to stay focused in on one conflict or one moment.In the voice of authority exercise, start writing, and use any authority figure that you like, a father, mother, step mother, grandfather, grandmother, Uncle, Aunt, and so on. You can even invent a character, but you must be able to produce the voice spontaneously as though you know it as well as you know your own mother or father etc. You could even use a fictitious character such as Homer or Marge Simpson.
Remember that you can start your writing from the point of view of a child. The child can change, grow up, and even return. Or you could start with an adolescent or even a young (or still malleable) adult.
Important things to remember as you write:
(i) do not to censor the voice of authority no matter what it says! Let the voice flow out of your memory or imagination without worrying about it. You won’t have to read any part of this aloud, but you will be given an opportunity to volunteer a part of your writing.
(ii) you can reveal or invent a story or many stories in the process of your writing.
(iii) this can be a very liberating experience because it allows you to “channel” a voice with which you are intimately familiar and which is distinct from your own voice. Ultimately, the voices of authority that we all carry around in our heads define an important facet of identity. So you may get a far greater appreciation for your own identity (or someone else’s identity) and you may get a new voice that you can add to your repertoire in your writing.
Part II: The Ear of Authority
Read over what you just wrote in the voice of authority, and then say back to that voice or persona whatever you really would like to say: This is your chance to release everything you could have or would have said to the ear of authority. Note that this is a potentially volatile area to enter into as a writer; it may involve you in powerful and even unexpected feelings. This is due to the fact that voices of authority by definition have inordinate powers over one’s consciousness, which creates oppression. Some degree of rebellion or violent feeling would be expected then.
Part III: The Ultimate Understander
Read over the previous part, and then write as though you are addressing someone (or even something) who is totally able to understand exactly what you mean, a kind of ultimately understanding addressee—the one who fully understands everything. You could think of a very unique best friend, maybe a kindly grandparent, maybe a trusted therapist, or perhaps even a more abstract nonhuman “great spirit,” or a “spirit of a place,” or God.