My (Triumphant?) Return to Stuff I Used to Like Doing
Since my life has been rather idle as of late (an effect of not having to balance school with my job) I’ve been considering returning to my high school love, writing for fun. In college I really just wrote when it was required of me. Throughout my three years of taking English classes, I heard some of my fellow English majors remark that being an English major can take the “love” out of reading, writing, and such. This may or may not have been the case for me. I find myself reading books that I don’t have to analyze much—genre fiction, Pride and Prejudice sequels that usually do not compare in quality to the original—and sometimes I chastise myself for it. But really, my education did endow me with the skills necessary to read genre fiction with a critical eye. This involves picking out the conventions used by authors, analyzing to what social norms the novels appeal, and, in the case of my “guilty pleasure” romance novels, picking out the formula that each author uses and comparing it to other authors’ formulas of the same genre. At least, I tell myself that I am reading critically so that I may feel better about reading what so many call “trash.”
Being an English major did, however, stop me from writing creatively. Poetry was my chosen medium in high school, and I may have written one successful poem since then. This, of course, is more my fault than that of my professors. I don’t practice, I don’t read poetry much, and I don’t write daily (as is the suggestion of many successful writers.) So, I have decided to return to this blog (which I originally started as part of my response journals in an English class with one of my most favorite professors.) That professor always encouraged creativity to be merged with academia.
I work in a movie store (somewhat ashamedly, as I now have a degree and am still in retail). However, working there does expose me to many ideas and films that I would not encounter otherwise. I work with a wonderful group of smart people who can discuss films with me intelligently. I take my “English major” approach to many of the films I watch (especially the Twilight series, which I love to hate). They have their own unique perspectives. I also read regularly a very thought-provoking website about my all-time love, science fiction (www.io9.com). I will most likely discuss in this blog my thoughts on film since it is what I know best. I will also likely steal many of my espoused thoughts here from those wonderful writers on io9 and perhaps some of my acquaintance as well. Since plagiarism is a horrible thing, I will attempt to credit where credit is due.
I hope that in writing this blog, I will feel a little bit better about my laziness and put my degree to use in a positive way. I also hope that I will keep at it rather than quit once I’m bored. Since a majority of my free time is spent either reading or watching film or television shows, my hope is that I can make the watching of such things useful. Rather than just let the thoughts swim around in my head, I’d like to articulate them so that I don’t feel so guilty about spending an entire week watching Farscape and doing not much else.
Being an English major did, however, stop me from writing creatively. Poetry was my chosen medium in high school, and I may have written one successful poem since then. This, of course, is more my fault than that of my professors. I don’t practice, I don’t read poetry much, and I don’t write daily (as is the suggestion of many successful writers.) So, I have decided to return to this blog (which I originally started as part of my response journals in an English class with one of my most favorite professors.) That professor always encouraged creativity to be merged with academia.
I work in a movie store (somewhat ashamedly, as I now have a degree and am still in retail). However, working there does expose me to many ideas and films that I would not encounter otherwise. I work with a wonderful group of smart people who can discuss films with me intelligently. I take my “English major” approach to many of the films I watch (especially the Twilight series, which I love to hate). They have their own unique perspectives. I also read regularly a very thought-provoking website about my all-time love, science fiction (www.io9.com). I will most likely discuss in this blog my thoughts on film since it is what I know best. I will also likely steal many of my espoused thoughts here from those wonderful writers on io9 and perhaps some of my acquaintance as well. Since plagiarism is a horrible thing, I will attempt to credit where credit is due.
I hope that in writing this blog, I will feel a little bit better about my laziness and put my degree to use in a positive way. I also hope that I will keep at it rather than quit once I’m bored. Since a majority of my free time is spent either reading or watching film or television shows, my hope is that I can make the watching of such things useful. Rather than just let the thoughts swim around in my head, I’d like to articulate them so that I don’t feel so guilty about spending an entire week watching Farscape and doing not much else.
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