Memoirs of an English Major

“Here’s what the Encyclopedia Galactica has to say about alcohol. It says that alcohol is a colourless volatile liquid formed by the fermentation of sugars and also notes its intoxicating effect on certain carbon-based life forms”-  Douglas Adams.

      As a English Major, I over analyze everything. I will dwell on the simplest of topics or moments, extending what should have been a two second comment into hour long topic complete with pros, cons, citations, and how it relates to the works of Shakespeare, Milton, and Mark Twain. Ok, maybe not Twain. Milton for sure though.

    It’s in my nature to pick apart things. I think it’s been in my nature even before I was an English major, being fascinated with Legos as a child, trying to construct something, but never truly getting it just right and tearing it apart in frustration. In the end, I wasn’t trying to learn the why just to know it, but more so to make a connection to something more than myself. It’s something that I live for, more so than any physical thing on this planet. Genuine connections rarely come out, even less so when you’ve only really known a person for a couple of months, spending a composite time of about five months tops. But when one of these connections appears, it sticks out. Allow me to elaborate.

   This past weekend was possibly one of the strangest weekends that I have had in a long while. Well, not so much the weekend day, but the night and not so much the night, but the end of the night. One of my friends was piss drunk and pretty much was useless and I had to give him and two other people a ride. To fast forward a bit, when it came time to drop him off, it was myself and another friend. To avoid pronoun confusions, we’ll just call the inebriated one GM and the non intoxicated one EV. Regardless of what names I give them, they know who they are. This is just so that I can actually write this.

    I’ve come to realize that GM is an emotional drunk and not the typical one, but that he says things on his mind that are probably better said in private. In any case, as EV and I were dropping him off, he said a very touching story in the car that in context was a great speech and was well worth the listen for the party intended. In any case, this is not really important to the story, but more so the pace and timing. Due to his inebriated state, he told his statement very slowly and that it was hard to tell what he was going to say next. As we dropped him off, EV was told to walk him to the house while I waited outside. As she walks out of the house, closes the door and locks up  I ask the question that has been on my mind since the whole thing went inside the house

“So did he confess his love to you?”

To which EV said no and that she was glad it didn’t get that cliche. It wasn’t to insult GM’s speech or to imply anything, but just the only comment you could make at the time. In any case, after all that craziness, the only logical remedy was coffee at IHOP. Remember kids, there is no situation that can’t be remedied with a strong cup of java. With are minds dazed, we headed for IHOP.

    At IHOP, we talked about random topics, and I mean random. From music tastes to friendship to whatever else came to mind. There was no set topic and we let our mind wander to wherever they wanted. Now this would be a pretty standard night for me, especially for the conversation part. But as English majors, we must put this into context. I’ve known EV for a little under a year. Oh sure, I’ve had classes with her, but pretty much this is the year I’ve hung out with her outside of class for any extended period of time. I’ve had little, if no time with her one and one, though at that moment, it felt like I had a genuine connection, something that I rarely see in my life, all over IHOP coffee.

    I’m not sure if I’ve written on this before, but I strive in life to make connections, whether it be people or literature. I can’t even begin to name the amount of times the question “why does this matter and how does it apply to the present” has ran through my head. Most of my papers during my years in college tried to approach this, making it pretty near impossible to find those perfect sources. For instance, one year I wrote a paper presenting Utopia as Science fiction, trying to show modern and past approaches to the genre in the paper, related the great work to the world of now. It’s my mission in life to internalize works and try to apply the work to modern times, trying to understand the real reason we still read these works so many years after, trying to make a genuine connection with the author.

   Now, why am I even writing about this story? Why illustrate this little portion of my life? What purpose does it hold? Other than to show how I view the world, it does illustrate one of the reason why I write and what we as writers must do. It’s not about how witty your banter is or how many metaphors you can put into one prepositional phrase, but how you connected to your reader and how you as a writer related to them. It’s understanding what truths exist in humanity and capturing them in literature that making sure your writing for the next fad. Sure, authors like Dan Brown are riding high now, but will they be remembered with the same regard as Hemingway, Shelly, or Poe in the near future? I can’t answer this, nor am I lowering his writing. What I am saying though is that connection is probably the most important element to writing, understanding what a reader of not only today wants, but possibly for all times. It’s a lofty goal, but if you shoot for it, you’ll make sure every work is at its best. Happy writing.