Unlike many of my talented peers I was not born with pen in hand; in fact, it's been quite the opposite. I come from a long line of scientists and engineers, and fully intended on keeping the tradition. However, it turned out, through my little awakening that I discovered something in literature, opera and the arts that I could not find in beakers or even the anatomy of the human body. As amazing and beautiful as science is, I couldn't resist (for lack of a better term) the emotional draw of literature.
Anyway, there is not much more to know about me than that I love theatre, music, and a good time; I play the piano, I'm an eagle scout and I'm still passionately interested in the hard sciences. I suppose if I could have dinner with any three people I would choose George Gershwin, Teddy Roosevelt, and William Saroyan. My reason for taking Major American Writers, honestly, was the off chance that I would get to write a paper about Catch-22 or The Human Comedy. I know, nerdy, but I also know that no matter what we focus on I'll gain valuable writing experience. Plus, how can you go wrong with anything American?
I'm always looking for good books and stories, things I would have never thought to pick up. As far as reading goes, I tend to get stuck in ruts. I read a lot of Joseph Heller, which lead me to William Saroyan. And ever since I read The Heart of Darkness in high school I've worked my way through some of Joseph Conrad's work. I like reading from an author's first work to his last. I find short stories especially telling of an author's artistic direction and style. They're like the appetizer before a meal, or in this case a book.
Truthfully, I'm still finding my feet in writing. I've read a few books on style, but the best I can do right now (especially in creative pieces) is to imitate the writing styles of the authors I like best. Of course, it's hard for me to gauge my own voice, I honestly don't even know if I really have one or not. I do my best to avoid superfluous diction, awkward adverbial phrases, dangling modifiers, too many adjectives, R rated movies. That was a joke. I'd be happy to watch any movie with you at any time. Did I mention I have trouble focusing on one subject at a time?
Well, I guess to wrap things up, I hope that this blogging project helps me to mature as a writer and I hope I can provide some insightful analysis on nineteenth-century American children/popular literature. I modeled this page on the theme of The Lamplighter, I read an excerpt of it in high school. I find some the most interesting parts of literature lie in the details, especially the way authors describe light. That's another problem of mine, I find myself stopping and contemplating every splendid detail of a passage. Things can get pretty slow, but it's incredible how a writer can fit so much truth into so few words. I could sit around all day thinking of how to describe the movement of light and shadow, the way trees look when the sun is shining through technicolor leaves. That was weird. In any case, I hope the simple theme and dark colors of my blog make it easy to read and facilitate an intellectual mood.
Oh yeah, I have read the course description, I agree and understand all of it's terms and I will follow them, putting forth my best effort all the while. Slap me if I slack off.
