Blueprint

Abstract

Blueprint is a set of 57 cards comprised of four different writing forms/constraints (erasure poetry, micro essay, short story, and freewriting) inspired by the author’s original Tarot deck. These 57 cards, their faces a collection of hybrid vignettes, are their own deck, set as a book object, and are meant to be shuffled and read in whatever order they are shuffled and drawn, mimicking that of a Tarot reading. For the purposes of this document, the 57 cards are in alphabetical order. The vignettes host the themes of home; a feeling of reluctance, shame, or guilt; the act of being an outsider or foreigner in a place known. There are two main voices: internal and external. These are a parallel to what is seen and what is known; curb appeal and interior design. The book object’s function itself is also two-fold: to keep the reader at arm’s length, developing an empathy for what it means to be home but not feel at home, and to allow the reader to interject their own conclusions and narratives. The work itself combines the theories and poetics of Jane Bennett’s writing on vibrant materiality, OuLiPo writing practices and constraints, the use of divinity aids in creative pursuits, and reader engagement. This combination adds to the larger conversation within the literary world of what it means when writing is taken off the page, explores physical space in a different form, and influences a reader.