I don’t know if any of you have ever taken a Literature class, but I’m in both an American Lit. (Civil War-Mid Twentieth Century) and a British Literature (Victorian-Modern) class this semester—and I’m loving them! (Is it weird that I’m okay with saying “Lit.” when it’s American but feel compelled to say “Literature” when it’s British? Probably.)
Considering the semester only started last week, all we’ve really done so far is read the introductions to our anthologies, but they’re amazing. Reading them kind of makes me long for the point when Publishing was really just getting started. There were so many magazines back then that published stories in serial! People were excited to read; printing was becoming cheaper. Novels and short stories were just coming onto the scene, and it was the main entertainment source for many.
Nowadays, it’s just the opposite. A lot of people don’t read at all. It’s all old hat, and if they read anything, it’s online (yes, I realize that I’m writing something for people to read online, but I sincerely hope my blog isn’t the only thing you read. If it is…I’m sorry).
But another thing these introductions have done is make me want to learn about EVERYTHING. (More than I already did, I mean.) I read an author’s name, and I think “I want to read their books/poems/whatever!” Even people I’ve never been interested in before, suddenly, I want to read. And not just read: I want to collect their works. I want to absorb it, and then be able to take it off my own shelf and read it again and again. I began a running list of everything I wanted to learn about, and added tons of things just from reading one introduction.
Yeah, I’m a little crazy, but there it is.
I’ve always wanted to learn about everything, but I’m lazy and never really quantified it before. It’s kind of nice to have a list, incomplete though it may be. I still want to learn it all at once, though, and I know I won’t, but now that I’ve got a list at least I can be on the lookout for things to teach myself with.
Anyway, it’s amazing how much just the introductions have inspired me. I never really thought they would.
