Writing Under the Pressure of Technology

(or, “On the War of a Foot”)

A Short Story

An imprisoned foot plots against his captor, the evil leather shoe.

Specific Sounds:

• Voice: “Oh I can’t stand you,”
  • http://www.pacdv.com/sounds/index.html
• Rhythmic Noise: footsteps
  • http://www.pacdv.com/sounds/index.html
• Exclamation: Scream(1e),
  • http://ljudo.com/default.asp
• Background music: “Wrong Turn” by Balloonist,
  • www.opsound.org

2:30

 

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Notes on “Foot Notes”

Reading the beginning of “Yours for the Telling” by Raymond Queneau, gave me an idea of what the Oulipian artists were doing, but it was difficult to do these things myself because they were not things to be done, only things not to be done. The constraint wasn’t to write an odd story about “sprightly peas” (171), but to begin an experiment with vague ideas at hand.

The first line, “To begin with, they never got along” was my starting point. Here I began moving and thinking of things, beings that wouldn’t get along. Some of those listed were a cat and a dog, a soul and a mind, band members, co-workers (which I immediately nixed), a finger and a nose (crude, I know), and the multiple personalities of one individual. The latter was investigated the furthest of these, though I decided it was a bit unoriginal and with obvious conclusions. Something ordinary was needed; something seemingly boring was in order. Under my computer desk my feet ached under the constraints of their newly purchased leather shoes. My shoes were not getting along with my feet and “to begin with, they never got along.”

So I began toying with the idea, building “the labyrinth from which [I] propose to escape” (Brief History of the Oulipo, 175). The sound effects fell into place. In the storyline, the foot eventually tells the shoe “Oh, I can’t stand you.” My original idea was to have the shoe say something sinister, something evil to the foot, but came to the conclusion that the truly evil thing about the shoe was that it was devoid of all feeling or care, and therefore had no soul (and this is why my feet were in such pain). After hearing the foot’s remark, I decided that the shoe should have some extra sinister act. He manipulates the foot (and the “father of the foot) so that they slam the big toe into a wooden desk leg. Both the walking, which was my “rhythmic noise” and the screaming as the “exclamation” seemed logical choices for sound effects. My way out of the labyrinth was clear and straight in view.

What remained difficult was the task of writing such a short piece. After recording the initial script I had 20 seconds to cut from the piece, (2:50 sec in total). This I did by gradually re-recording occasional bits as well as cutting unnecessary milliseconds between words and breath’s. I will admit that because of this the podcast may more too quickly at times. I struggled to balance the 2-minute-and-thirty-seconds time constraint with a need for a natural, fluid sound. Eventually I cut the piece down to exactly 2:30 with trouble and many re-writings. It still moves quickly. Without something behind the text and effects, though, the piece felt dry and uninteresting. The music I’ve selected was found on opsound.org. It seemed the appropriate touch to breath life into my story. I had to edit the piece at one point, trying to preserve the idea of it as a whole while balancing its tone and feeling with those in the story. The original song “Wrong Turn” by Balloonist was over 4 minutes in length. I had to edit it down to exactly 2:30 to fit our constraints.

The constraints, while at times were abhorred by the author, only furthered my imagination and creative process. Sometimes in my own creative works, say, song writing, I’m lost without constraints. In turn, I propose constraints on my own work which usually only hinders it. Because these were external constraints, ones which I had no part in deciding, I had to use them to my advantage. I looked to them eagerly with excitement. The technology wasn’t a constraint in itself, but the search for my sound effects through the use of technology (the internet) was terrible. For example, I originally wanted the shoe to say something like “It had no soul” or “The thing had no soul” but couldn’t find any free pre-recorded sound bites of this nature available. When I stumbled across “Oh I can’t stand you” I had to re-write the piece to fit, satisfying my first requirement. The other two sound-constraints were essentially as I meant them to be, though. Once found, they were easy to manipulate and mold.

If I had more time I would continue to work on the fluidity of my words. The writing and story line, though a bit odd, works. I might re-write the piece to allow for more spacing between breaths and words. I would buff up the spoken words as well, adding a bit of reverb (not offered in audacity) and echoing sound effects. Overall, though, I am fairly satisfied with my product and intrigued by the Oulipian idea of constraint. The experiment was not a failure.

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 2nd, 2007 at 11:29 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.