Foreword

One of my professors, Gregory Martin, once said that speculation is the engine of all art. And although he was speaking of the craft of art, specifically the memoir, I apply this to my endeavor this summer: speculating the literary art that is considered timeless. My hope is to read fifteen "classics" in fifteen weeks, continuing this same rigorous reading schedule that I've kept up for the last sixteen weeks of the Spring semester. My hope for this blog is to write down my responses to these works, respond to these works in a way that is meaningful and insightful, and preserve my analyzations so that these works will forever stick with me. It would be all in vain if I did not put forth the extra effort to put my thoughts and feelings into words, if all I did was close the book and simply move on to the next. I know many of my readers may not be studying literature or writing, so I hope they read this if only for the act of reading something that is different from what they usually read--which is exactly what I'll be doing.

Actually, if anyone knows me well enough, they will know that I've long since rejected many of these books on my list. I've always thought, how dare someone call something a classic--what about all the other phenomenal books out there that are not labeled so superlatively? In fact, probably my resisting this whole time had less to do with standing up for the underdogs and more to do with the fact that I simply did not want to read what everybody else was reading. Luckily, I've been surrounded by many great writers and students, many incredible creative writing professors who I will be forever indebted to, who have shown me that I can learn a great deal from my literary fathers and mothers, and as a writer myself, that's exactly where I should go. And even though I may not "like" something after I read it, which I expect full well to happen, I will at least know that I came to this innovation* with a mind open and willing to learn and that there is something, something, I'm sure, that I can steal from it.

Wish me luck. I just got The Grapes of Wrath, and it's nearly 500 pages long. I don't normally "do" long books, so this will be a real challenge!


*Another Gregory Martin quote. I predict most of what I say in these blog entries to come straight from him, because he is the one who has helped me develop such and eye and an ear for responding to innovations that both vex and bedazzle me.