Writing Prompt: CONTEMPT

Visual inspiration + mental exercise to start your writing week

“Disregard.” Photograph by Aimee Liu

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Metaphortography Prompts are free visual and verbal writing prompts for inspiration and reflection. This is the Monday section of Aimee Liu’s MFA Lore. Our Wednesday section is Writer In The World, a curated collection of essays on the writing life by acclaimed MFA faculty and alumni. Writers in Conversation and other MFA Core essays on the craft and business of creative writing will drop each Saturday. Receive some or all of these newsletters by subscribing now:

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Tuesday, March 3 at 11 am PT

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CONTEMPT

Beneath, it burns. Such a cruel whip, contempt. So busy and preoccupied up there, where the light is white with power, with the stink of casual privilege and the flagrant lie of superiority. Like a catastrophic perfume capable of murder, all that confident chaos and brutal, invasive hubris. It catches without conscience, obscures without a care, obliterates with willful abandon. That light, that intoxicating whiff of domination, the addictive yank of self-deception —these may fuel a dance flamboyant, wild enough to trample all life in its path. But we are not wilting. Just you wait. We’ll rise.

CONTEMPT: Middle English, borrowed from Anglo-French & Latin; Anglo-French, borrowed from Latin contemptus, from contemnere "to look down on, show no respect for, despise"

1. a feeling of intense dislike for someone or something regarded as unworthy of respect or approval : disdain

   : unusual or inappropriate lack of fear or reverence for something

2. the state of being despised : disgrace

3. willful disobedience to or open disrespect of a court, judge, or legislative body

   : the offense of contempt

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Here is your writing prompt:

As you contemplate the image above, study your emotions. What do the two figures bring to mind? What does the distance, the gestural line, the implied choreography tell you? Which of these figures holds the most power? How does the other respond? Does one feel beneath the other’s contempt? Can you imagine why?

Now carry those reflections into a scene or poem or personal essay on the dynamics of contempt. Fold in the following considerations:

• What does “beneath contempt” actually mean?

• What is the relationship between power and contempt?

• What allows contempt to fester?

• What emotions does this attitude mask?

• What hidden purpose does contempt serve?

• What is the recipient of contempt expected to do with this judgment?

• How might the recipient defy those expectations?

• What happens if the balance of power unexpectedly flips, if those beneath contempt suddenly rise to the top?

• How might the cycle of contempt be neutered or disarmed?

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Loreates’ Corner

I’m delighted to introduce you to a few of the wonderful stacks by writers in our community. Please read, subscribe, and share! And if you’re an MFA Lore subscriber with a great writing stack that I haven’t mentioned, please drop the link in a comment, so I can add you to our Corner.

Ben Yagoda writes More Mush from the Wimp :

@martin j smith writes The Shitshow Observed

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