by Bailey (’15)

Great things come in small packages. Avi, a sophomore in CW is a brilliant teacher and had no trouble at all holding the attention of the class. His lesson was relevant and helpful. I, for one, find creating realistic settings in my fiction difficult and looking a the whole social, geographical, anthropological, and economic systems to a city made the setting in my short story come alive, even though the whole system wasn’t explained in my story. I have to say, three cheers for Avi and I am hoping for an encore sometime in the future.

(Midori) Avi and Adrian Kane’s class definitely gave me a lot to think about. Everybody’s processes were different. Personally, I first sketched out a rough landscape and topography– what natural resources are available? To whom? From that point on, everything came naturally, gushing out in torrents I barely had time to draw or note down– who controlled the water, what kind of governmental system was my city, what effects did the resources have on not only the living style of the citizens, but also their ideology, religion, sacred lands…

Day two was even more interesting, in which the class was assigned groups to share our maps, and we were to write of a theoretical tour a citizen of our own city would take of another Cdub’s city. Everybody’s backstory and cities were so interesting, I wanted to visit them all, but we barely had time to go over everybody’s maps as it was. I sincerely hope– like Bailey– that we’ll get a chance to continue this project some more.