There used to be a more direct objective to my adventures in literature. Read book; discuss book; write essay about book. While there were certainly numerous works I read and enjoyed (such as Grendel, Pride and Prejudice, or Fools Crow), I was not selecting these books off the shelf to read for enjoyment. Similarly, my writing doesn’t happen near enough simply because there’s no requirement hanging over my head.
Even in college, I enjoyed the different writing tasks assigned to each week’s poem, be it subject, style, form. I may not enjoy the ghazal, but at least I know a slight bit more about it from attempting to write one and reading several others (both professional and amateur) and analyzing what worked, what didn’t, and how the form can be used to strengthen, despite the initial thought of form,in general, being an invisible fence and the poem being a shock collar around my neck. And while I knew, and still know, that I was incredibly talented and had no reason to fear for my grade, there is always that aspect of me that enjoys approval. I enjoyed writing good poems weekly, as required, and receiving the simple satisfaction that came from the fulfilled assignment. I’m working on a solution.
Things are a bit different without instructors demanding specific readings, but I still manage to get in some reading. I am currently halfway through Daniel Yergin’s The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, & Power which is somewhat of a behemoth (and possibly a bit self-serving).
It’s quite interesting, and I’ve always enjoyed history (especially as it relates to the middle east, which anything related to oil generally does), but it’s hardly a compelling example of a change from the motives behind my reading selections from years past as it was given to me by the CEO of the company that employs me at orientation. It was a bit rough getting into it, especially when I found it was missing 30 or so pages of the first 170 pages, but with a replacement book I am chronologically just past WWII and it is proving to be packed with interesting tidbits I had not heard in previous studies, which makes it enjoyable to continue on into the “oil drives all aspects of life” world painted by the author.
April 10th, 2009 at 10:06 pm
Very interesting, and, of course, true, that once one matriculates, his reading changes according to tastes, time, and tendencies.