Clement

The Conceptual Development of a Novel:

The Sea [working title]

Rebeka K. L. Clement

Mentor: Kurt Queller

BACKGROUND:

I have been working conceptually on a novel for the past six years. It started as a loose idea that came out of a short story I wrote in English 392. I worked with recreating the piece many times and there are several different incarnations of it. Sometime after this creation I began to work on a story which drew heavily from an ancient Sumerian text. It was during this process that I realized that the two stories could be parts of the same story and also that I had an older rough draft of another work that I would include as the middle portion of the novel. There was a moment when I was thinking of my fictional writing in general and it occurred clearly to me what I was to do with these three specific literary sketches. Part of the connection between the three works was that I had been using the same character elements and similar ambient and aesthetic themes throughout each narrative. It became easy for the separate works to become different parts of one work. I have since included unifying thematic and conceptual properties throughout each section. At its current stage, my novel is a well thought out project in its internal and preliminary form; however, I am in need of a research opportunity to bring it to fruition.

CURRENT PROJECT:

I am looking forward to being able to use this opportunity to do research for the conceptual basis of the novel. There are many areas in which it will be important for me to make introductions and studies for myself in order to come to a point where I am ready to write. I am currently assembling and adding to my working bibliography and building on the conceptual basis of each of the sections of the work.

PLAN FOR THE NEXT TWO MONTHS:

The project of the novel is too large for this assignment and considering the amount of research that I need to do I think that the next two months would be best used working toward this endeavor.

For part one of the novel I will be reading the Gnostics and making studies of basic Gnostic theory. There is a specific concept I would like to work with in a narrative way within this section of the novel. I will also be including a depiction the Tree of Life which appears in The Book of Genesis but I am also researching a trail which ties its conception to the Mayan culture. I need to do some minor research on boat construction and I would like to include elements from the myth of Inanna, specifically regarding the Huluppa tree. This section of the novel takes place on an isolated island.

For part two of the novel I will be reading The Book of Genesis and exploring the concept of paradise lost. I will be researching The Tree of Knowledge and humankind’s fall from grace, I specifically plan to not attribute the concept of the fall to the doings of womankind. I will be reading about King Gilgamesh and other ancient rulers in order to best portray a shift in one of my characters.

For part three of the novel I will be reading translations of Inanna’s descent into the underworld. Her origin is with ancient Sumerian myth. I will also be reading other depictions of hell and descents into the underworld, for example: Dante’s Inferno, the Hebrew notion of descent into Sheol (pit), Aeneas’s descent to reach Achilles, Orpheus and Eurydice, the relationship between Hades and Persephone, Gilgamesh and hell, and the Mayan’s Xibalba. I will be studying and focusing on depictions of bodies of water in hell, for example, the River Styx, but I would also like to find a depiction of a lake in hell. I will be researching The Crying Tree of Mercury for this part of the novel also.

For the entire piece I will be contemplating the human condition and the history of the development which has brought the people to their current moment of existence; these elements will be heavily and conceptually present within the work. I would like to be able to give historically conceptual weight to my novel and this is why a heavy amount of research is necessary. Other areas I will be focusing on relate to my need to work out some basic elements-for example, the reincarnations of the characters between parts, the designation of the names for the major characters, and to begin to make concrete decisions about plot and theme elements. These are the overall areas in which I am hoping my research will aid me.

IDEAS FOR PRESENTING THIS WORK:

The finished product for this project will be a complete outline for each of the three parts of the novel. I will also indicate through a reflective essay (for the purpose of the project) the areas in which my research has aided me. I would like to compose some preliminary writings for small scene selections of the work in order to begin to establish the voice that I will be writing in throughout. I plan also to draw a series of charcoal pictures as visual scene sketches for the novel.

PRELIMINARY BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Alter, Robert, and Frank Kermode. The Literary Guide to the Bible. Cambridge, Mass: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1987.

Attridge, Harold W., Charles W. Hedrick, and Robert Hodgson. Nag Hammadi, Gnosticism & Early Christianity. Peabody, Mass: Hendrickson Publishers, 1986.

Cavendish, Richard, C. A. Burland, and Brian Innes. Man, Myth & Magic The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Mythology, Religion, and the Unknown. New York: M. Cavendish, 1995.

Ficino, Marsilio, and Sears Reynolds Jayne. Commentary on Plato's Symposium on Love. Dallas, Tex: Spring Publications, 1985.

Goetz, Delia, Sylvanus Griswold Morley, and Adrián Recinos. Popol Vuh The Sacred Book of the Ancient Quiché Maya. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1950.

Grant, Robert McQueen. Gnosticism; A Source Book of Heretical Writings from the Early Christian Period. New York: Harper, 1961.

Graves, Richard Perceval. Robert Graves and the White Goddess, 1940-85. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1995.

Iggulden, Conn, and Hal Iggulden. The Dangerous Book for Boys. New York: Collins, 2007.

Jakes, John. Heaven and Hell. San Diego, CA: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1987.

Kepes, Gyorgy. Sign, Image, Symbol. New York: G. Braziller, 1966.

Leeming, David Adams. The Oxford Companion to World Mythology. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.

Rohl, David M. Pharoahs [Sic] and Kings A Biblical Quest. New York: Crown Publishers, 1995.

Smashing Pumpkins (Musical group). Machina the machines of God. Beverly Hills, CA: Virgin Records America, 2000.

Tedlock, Dennis. Breath on the Mirror Mythic Voices & Visions of the Living Maya. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1997.

Tedlock, Dennis. Popol Vuh The Definitive Edition of the Mayan Book of the Dawn of Life and the Glories of Gods and Kings. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1985.

Wallis, Richard T., and Jay Bregman. Neoplatonism and Gnosticism. Studies in Neoplatonism, v. 6. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1992.

Wolkstein, Diane, and Samuel Noah Kramer. Inanna, Queen of Heaven and Earth Her Stories and Hymns from Sumer. New York: Harper & Row, 1983.