Writing Prompt: PREJUDICE
Visual inspiration + mental exercise to start your writing week
“Amusing curiosities” designed to split the heart of the world, to coarsen our differences, drive us apart, and stuff our souls with contempt.
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:
I wish today’s image were composed purely for shock value. Alas, it’s a photograph of an actual “antique” store display, and I doubt any of the shelved objects were molded with irony in mind. Instead, they’re historical artifacts of prejudice, in all its dimensions. Clueless expressions of bigotry. Distortions of otherness. Alienating caricatures. Belittling fabrications of exaggerated menace. Cheap shots at the “exotic.”
Even the euphemisms slight with their implications of irrelevance, carelessness, and ridicule: gewgaws, knickknacks, gimcrack, kickshaw, doodads, lawn ornaments. “Amusing curiosities” designed to split the heart of the world, to coarsen our differences, drive us apart, and stuff our souls with contempt.
PREJUDICE*:
noun
The act or state of holding unreasonable preconceived judgments or convictions.
An adverse judgment or opinion formed unfairly or without knowledge of the facts: “a boy with a prejudice against unfamiliar foods.”
Irrational suspicion or hatred of a particular social group, such as a race or the adherents of a religion.
Detriment or harm caused to a person, especially in a legal case: “The delay operated to her prejudice.”
Preclusionary effect, preventing further pursuit of one’s interests: “The case was dismissed with prejudice.”
transitive verb
To fill with prejudice or cause to judge with prejudice. synonym: bias.
To affect detrimentally or harmfully by a judgment or act.
*The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
With thanks to Cole Haddon for this relevant David Bowie quote:
“If you feel safe in the area that you’re working in, you’re not working in the right area.”
…here is your writing prompt:
As you contemplate this post’s image, examine your own gut reaction. What are you feeling? What are you remembering? Who comes to mind?
Let these thoughts guide you to a ruthlessly honest scene that unfolds around conscious and/or unconscious prejudice. Fiction or factual, your choice, in which two or more characters react to an object like those in the picture. Write out this scene in a way that includes:
What memories and feelings the object calls up for each person.
What each person says or does in reaction to the object.
How this reaction reflects each person’s world view.
What is hidden or left unsaid.
How the characters react to each other’s reactions.
What this exchange exposes about these people, their biases, and their relationship.
How this conversation changes their understanding of each other.
How this interaction changes each person’s self- awareness.
What these individuals decide to do with or about the object.
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.
Ramona Grigg writes Constant Commoner
Cherilyn Parsons writes THE REST STEP
Sieran Lane writes The Queer Trans Fiction Writer
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