Thought of the Day (Part I)

I've been thinking a lot about what makes a writer noteworthy, trying to pin down a sort of "x-factor" that each of my own favorites seem to embody. My own personal literary cannon takes many of its cues from the traditional academically acclaimed top 100. I think of these particular writers as starting points of exploration of deeper, more mysterious types of writing. My early experience with literature began with Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Heller, O'Brien, Vonnegut and other mostly contemporary American/British men. While each is masterful in my consideration and at some times lovably insane, I think they miss the point.

The point, I think, is to reveal delicate pieces of human life that resonate with the audience. Characters should be multi-dimensional. And while I will always be in love with Heminway's Nick Adams and Fitzgerald's Nick Carraway , I cannot be convinced to believe that these men exist anywhere outside of the pages they are bound to. They are not real enough for me.

In more recent years I've been introduced to a type of literature that I find a thousand times more enigmatic, telling, and effective. The turning point for me was Toni Morrison's Beloved. Never had I read a story so gripping, violent, and unforgiving yet so utterly real. Yes there's the element of super-natural but I think that its a tangible reality of the culture Morrison was speaking to. Richard Wright's imposing Native Son and Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God are both equally fantastic works. I especially love Native Son and it's depiction of the segregated neighborhoods of Chicago who's boundaries and confines are in many ways very real to this day.

Flannery O'Connor also belongs on my short list. I've read everything that woman ever committed to paper. Her neat and tidy life works can all be tucked into a single anthology-like volume that never strays far from my desk. Her brilliance defies any words I can think of because her stories are perfectly synchronized and timed. They are machine like in their quality but one does not have a difficult time finding good and evil, just with picking a side. I don't mean to say her work is not flawless, but I don't think I am in any place to make that judgment.


Part II will discuss informal writing and literature (i.e. blogs)