***PUPPETBOOK***

[a whole *bookwork* written in 120 minutes by the attendees of the *Puppet Symposium* held on November 2, 2024 at Teacher’s College, NYC]
This writing is meant to be gifted to others.

voodoo | memoji | ventriloquy | possession | manipulation | stand-in | proxy | substitute | whatever Cyrano de Bergerac is about | karaoke | furries | marionettes | the Muppets and the Moopets (or the jim-hensonverse | trolling | parody | puppet state | animation | zoom | animatronics | sock puppet | finger puppet | inflatables | ghost writers | surrogates | catastrophizing | fan fiction | impersonation | Stuffed animals | action figures | pets | googly eyes | anthropomorphism | land of confusion |mascots |the CV | our Social media accounts | Master of puppets | Toy Story | Prank phone calls | amulets |vicarious living |projecting |policy |robots | spokesperson | wack-a-mole | the bogeyman, bloody mary, chupacabras, la llorona, etc. | exquisite Corpse | halloween | mr. Potato Head | gloves | benchwarmers (and other replacements) | prosthetics | campaign ads (“i’m so and so and I approve this message” | the wizard of oz |big brother | authorship, copyright, intellectual property, licensing, etc | AI | voice mail | “self” driving transportation (cars, subway, elevators, etc.) |letters of recommendation | blind review |this Conan O’Brien thing |fandom |a gift | a playlist or “mixtape” |costuming or any other typeS of pretending |scapegoat or shifting the blame | Clowning |magic

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etymological scrap: PUPPET, From Middle English “poppet”, "small human figure used in witchcraft and sorcery," c. 1300…The metaphoric extension to "one actuated by the will of another, one whose actions are manipulated by another" is recorded from 1540s.

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Below you will find six opportunities to write about puppets and puppet adjacent ideas.

We’re going to make this book together today, in two 60-minute sessions, interluded by magic misdirection. You are encouraged to contribute to every prompt, however you are not required to write to every prompt. All of your contributions are going into a collective google doc, which will then be edited and published as a bookwork shortly after our time together.

A speculative note about authorship: Each contribution that you make will be printed as a discrete vignette, juxtaposed and intermixed along the contributions of your fellow co-authors. What you won’t see in the bookwork is your name associated with any single contribution. The eventual reader of this collection will know that all the material comes from a collective of contributors who came together to remember puppets, but they won’t know which segment comes from who. This gives us the opportunity to write openly, and through an act of horizontality—maybe—eventually even finding ourselves in the words of others. By not attributing specific pieces of writing to specific individuals, we present ourselves with the future possibility that we wrote this whole thing, or none of it.

Please respond to any or all of the prompts below.

Submit any pertinent images here.

A LETTER

Remember a puppet (or puppet-like) that came alongside you, gifted you something, introduced you to something, or helped you to go through something. Write them a letter of appreciation. Puppets are animated (made alive) by your enlivening, still you've come a long way into the world of seriousness and they need you to return to them. Reach back towards them and tell them how you feel.

PROXYHOOD

What is the nature of proxyhood? What does it mean to have a stand-in, an in-between, a surrogate? Why take a pseudonym, or use a ghost writer, or find a scapegoat? You may speak to this through your puppet-knowledge, but it is not necessary. Proxyhood is a human occurrence that pops up in so many parts of our lives. Speak to it through this lens. Don't be afraid to make claims for it (you will be able to amend or add to this before it gets published).

WHAT WE'RE MADE OF

What is the sheer materiality of puppetry? If you could, suspend your sentiments and nostalgia for puppets and attempt to concentrate on how puppets appear in the world. Yes, how they look and what they are made of, but also, how they are born (or make their appearance in the world). This is both a prompt for description and for philosophy.

YOUR PUPPET TEACHERS

Be a puppet. Think of something that deserves a teachable moment (some "thing", idea, problem, or phenomena that matters to you or the people around you; this could be global or local). Then, choose a famous puppet (e.g. Topo Gigio, Triumph the insult comic, Pinocchio, Alf, etc.) and speak to the "world" through that puppets defining characteristics/traits (Topo Gigio's tenderness or "foreigness", Triumph's quick wit or meaness, Pinocchio's desire or headstrongness, Alf's sarcasm or sophistication, etc. [Admittedly, this is a difficult prompt, but the point is to try to embody that puppet. You may not be able to put your hand in/on them, but your attempt to slide into this character is what we're aiming for].

PUPPETFUTURISM

Make an invitation for a puppet collaborative. Not one that already exists, but rather one that could exist. This is a space for dreaming. Do not be limited by resources, geography, ability, technology, physics/metaphysics, good taste, the history of puppets, etc. The only limitation is that it needs to include others folks in a collaborative effort. Attempt to be as descriptive as possible. WRITE THIS ONE AS AN INVITATION. Perhaps start with, "Dear....you are invited to..."

PUPPET TALES

Perhaps this will be your second opportunity, within the last two days, to do this one. Tell a story of you and puppets. This could be an origin story, it could be a story of transformation, it could be story of interest, or simply a puppet memory. Imagine that your story in this spot, will cause readers to begin to recall their own puppet stories. In some ways you're shepherding them into this part of their own lived experience.

Please provide an email in case there are any editorial questions about what you have written. This email will only be used for matters concerning the creation of this book. If you choose to not provide an email, we will do our best to interpret and present what you have submitted with fidelity.

Mailing Address

If you would like, please provide a mailing address where we can send you copies of the book when it is printed. Although we will not attribute specific writings within the book to any one author, we do need a name/place here to send the books to the contributors.

IMAGE SUBMISSIONS

If you have images that go with any part of your contribution (or if your entire contribution is images), please upload them to the link near the top of this page. If it is important, in the space below, please tell us where--approximately--you would like us to place the images. For example, say that the image should be near a specific response of yours (e.g. "my contribution to Prompt 3"). You can also free us to put the images wherever we think would work best in the bookwork. Because the layout and design of the bookwork is yet unknown, all we can say is that we'll try our best to make your directions a reality. Our apologies in advance, in case that doesn't happen.

Name

Please provide a name as you would like it to appear in the bookwork. If you wish to use a pseudonym, you may. You may also write "anonymous" if you wish. Although your name will not appear to indicate which parts of the bookwork you've authored, the name you provide will appear as part of the collective who created this thing on the cover and other promotional opportunities.

First Name

Last Name