Paper Three gives you the opportunity to ponder, to muse, and to write deeply about your writing and yourself as a writer so far this semester. Rumination means “a deep or considered thought about something” (“Rumination”). Specifics: The paper will be a full three page essay in MLA format with a Works Cited page. You can always write more but not less so if you have trouble getting started, schedule a session at the CWC to brainstorm or chat further with a classmate after you read the instructions. First, go to Online Classroom and read the article by Maria Popova, “I Met the Walrus: Lennon’s Brain Animated,” which introduces you to an interview that a Canadian teenager, Jerry Levitan, conducted with Beatle John Lennon in 1969. Then watch the you tube video of the interview (in Popova’s article) directed by Josh Raskin, produced by Jerry Levitan, and animated by artist James Braithwaite. Listen carefully as Lennon ruminates about world peace, governments, activism, protests, non violence, maturity, and, yes, writing. You can also access the video directly on you tube if you prefer. In the interview Levitan asks Lennon if there is a message in his music. Lennon ruminates: Messages are there on all levels . . . I write it, record it, and play it and I don’t hear it until a few months later and I’m lying down and I say okay well I’ll listen to the Beatles’ album and try to hear it in retrospect and not objectively and it’s about everything. So it’s about UK; it’s about USSR; it’s about nothing; it’s about USA, anything you hear is there; you know? It’s all there whether trivia or profound whatever; it’s all there. And the same as in a flower: everything’s there, you know, it just is and if you look long enough all answers are in it . . . and the same with the music . . . And . . . the same with our writing “whether trivia or profound . . . all answers are in it.” Well, we don’t have a few months to let Paper Two sit and then go back and analyze it, but nevertheless since it developed from Paper One, it’s been out in the world awhile so we will try now to “hear” what you wrote “in retrospect and not objectively.” Objectively would be putting a grade on the paper and shelving it and then rushing on to another paper. “What grade did I get?” shows you are not yet a writer. “What was I trying to say?” and “Did I communicate what I was trying to say?” are the questions writers ask. Retrospect for a writer is much deeper and much more challenging and much more important than a grade. For Paper Three I would like you to ruminate about three things in your essay: For the first section of Paper Three, go back and spend some time with the sources I’ve posted in Online Classroom this semester. Re listen to them from Robin Williams to Torin Hight to Kurt Vonnegut to Charles Bukowski to Anne Lamott to Kelly Eden to Jessmyn Ward to James Harney to RBG to Chuck Wendig to Pablo Neruda to TaNehisi Coates to Burl Smith. Choose one that resonates with you. Introduce (name and title) the source and then summarize their message about writing that spoke to you. After you give a succinct summary so that someone who has not read or listened to the source understands their message then respond to this source’s message using your own experience and writing from Paper One/Two. Example: The youtube video, “Tribute to Robin Williams,” by Melodysheep is a collage of actor Robin Williams’ inspirational lines from his movies. Some examples include: x, y, and z. One line that resonates with me is from the movie x, where Williams states, “Quote.” By this he means . . . When I wrote Paper Two, “Title,” I was influenced by Williams’ words when I wrote about (summary of my paper). He inspired me to do x in Paper Two . . . or He challenged me to experiment with Y in Paper Two. . . or I connected with what he was saying about writing because . . . etc. etc. In the next section of Paper Three, summarize and discuss John Lennon’s points from the interview specifically about communication (writing/messages), but you may also additionally discuss anything he says (he says a lot about important and relevant issues). The pattern we are aiming for is summarize as if someone has not heard the interview and respond with your own thoughts. Be sure to introduce the source (Levitan’s interview). In the last section, ruminate about your message in Paper two in retrospect. What is your message? What were you trying to communicate? What is between the lines? What is being broadcast to the universe in your words and your ideas that might change the world? Lennon says: “it’s all there” and “it’s about everything.” In other words, your writing is about what’s happening to you and in the world; it’s about everything and it’s about nothing; it’s both “trivial and profound,” but “it’s all there . . . and if you look long enough all answers are in it . . .” What answers did you find in Paper Two? What was the question? Why is it important? Think about that. Works Cited I Met the Walrus. Directed by Josh Raskin and produced by Jerry Levitan. YouTube, 22 March 2007, www.youtube.com. Popova, Maria. “I Met the Walrus: Lennon’s Brain Animated.” Brain Pickings, 21 Nov. 2008, https://www.brainpickings.org/2008/11/21/jerry-levitan-i-met-the-walrus/. “Rumination.” Oxford Languages, n.d. www.languages.oup.com.