When one man, for whatever reason, has the opportunity to lead an extraordinary life, he has no right to keep it to himself.
- Jacques-Yves Cousteau
I just heard this quote, and I'm not entirely sure how I feel about it. Although, considering I'm writing this blog, I guess I'm not above sharing what I feel to be my extraordinary life, haha.
I've continued my explorations into reading by trying to accomplish something I've never attempted (successfully) before: reading multiple books at once. This seems as though it would turn out a little muddled, but I've put some minor thought into it. I feel as though .. if I choose three or four books of very different styles/genres, it will be easier to differentiate the plots and characters of each respective piece.
So right now I've started the second part of Stephen King's Dark Tower series entitled The Drawing of the Three. Then there's Farewell, My Lovely by Raymond Chandler, a hardboiled crime novel set in Los Angeles some sixty odd years ago. And THEN, there's this crazy Crichton novel named Sphere which I haven't read enough to properly assess where things are heading. And finally, I'm tackling a novel recommended just over a year ago to me by a good friend entitled Travels with my Aunt, which is a beautiful contemporary British story about two estranged relatives.
All in all, I'm making my way through them at a steady pace. Drawing of the Three is moving along a little faster since I'm hoping to advance a little further in the Dark Tower series. The slowest paced read at this point is Sphere, but only because I feel I might need to dedicate a significant amount of time to it in order to truly appreciate it in its entirety.
School is starting again in ten days, and to be honest I'm a weird mixture between nervous and excited. But with nine courses and nine months left to my undergrad, this will be interesting to say the least.
4.30.2010
4.28.2010
the beginning of the beginning.
I haven't sat down and written anything in too long. Myself and some friends sat around and brainstormed some scenarios for a television series or a screenplay about a month ago.
A couple of round-table discussions was as far as it got. Not that I'm ready to give up on it, though.
The truth is, the last couple of months away from school have brought me around to thinking. Trying to figure out where I'm going to be in a year or maybe five years. I don't have any intention of making a long-term plan of sorts, but I've put a lot more thought into the kinds of things I'm interested in accomplishing. Time is passing, it has occurred to me, and if I don't start becoming the person I want to be right now .. every day from now on end will be a wasted opportunity.
With some pretty serious thought, I've decided that I would like to be able to develop and practice my writing for the coming months. With some experiments into my own expressions of modern poetry, along with devoting a realistic yet significant amount of weekly time to working on my style and consistency, I think I've got a lot of room to grow and all the time in the world to do it.
Whether I'm right or wrong, I've gotten the idea into my head that it would help get my creative juices flowing if I spent a few weeks intensely immersing myself into some novels that I can truly savor and enjoy. Stephen King's The Stand was my most ambitious venture as of yet, considering (and this is embarrassing for the English major in me to admit) I have never finished a book that exceeds 1000 pages. And though it was a slow delve into the first two hundred pages, it quickly changed from an insurmountable task to something I felt couldn't be put down. I was hooked, sucked in, a gravitational pull that I haven't been lucky enough to experience from a book in a long time.
I feel like.. if I absorb enough of the classic narratives that have survived decades and even centuries of academic criticism, then maybe I can start to grasp and understand the existing factors that give them so much relevance in the world I was raised in.
I'll talk more as it occurs to me, but for now, this is a good start at just writing and getting some thoughts out.
A couple of round-table discussions was as far as it got. Not that I'm ready to give up on it, though.
The truth is, the last couple of months away from school have brought me around to thinking. Trying to figure out where I'm going to be in a year or maybe five years. I don't have any intention of making a long-term plan of sorts, but I've put a lot more thought into the kinds of things I'm interested in accomplishing. Time is passing, it has occurred to me, and if I don't start becoming the person I want to be right now .. every day from now on end will be a wasted opportunity.
With some pretty serious thought, I've decided that I would like to be able to develop and practice my writing for the coming months. With some experiments into my own expressions of modern poetry, along with devoting a realistic yet significant amount of weekly time to working on my style and consistency, I think I've got a lot of room to grow and all the time in the world to do it.
Whether I'm right or wrong, I've gotten the idea into my head that it would help get my creative juices flowing if I spent a few weeks intensely immersing myself into some novels that I can truly savor and enjoy. Stephen King's The Stand was my most ambitious venture as of yet, considering (and this is embarrassing for the English major in me to admit) I have never finished a book that exceeds 1000 pages. And though it was a slow delve into the first two hundred pages, it quickly changed from an insurmountable task to something I felt couldn't be put down. I was hooked, sucked in, a gravitational pull that I haven't been lucky enough to experience from a book in a long time.
I feel like.. if I absorb enough of the classic narratives that have survived decades and even centuries of academic criticism, then maybe I can start to grasp and understand the existing factors that give them so much relevance in the world I was raised in.
I'll talk more as it occurs to me, but for now, this is a good start at just writing and getting some thoughts out.
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