Behind the Curtain
Dominating the podium, Junot Diaz let his mouth rip open. Out came swearing like I had never heard, let alone at a college speaking event. I had read that Junot Diaz would be speaking at my school, and having read This Is How You Lose Her, I jumped at the opportunity to see him speak. I'm not sure where his anger came from, but it was a fascinating look into the mind of someone who had been published, a successful, brilliant man. He went on about politics, which made no indent in my ignorant brain: and that's not even why I liked him. I want to meet someone with a passion that meets paper, my same weapon against the mundane. He shoke with it, leaning into his truth. I want a destiny that leads me to speak in this way, to move with conviction and let lose a mind tortured by questions about the greater world.
David Foster Wallace. What leads a person to hang themselves? Brilliance? I want to meet the person who is tortured by intellect, who raises his hand and poses interesting points to the world. I am currently reading Infitite Jest, and my mouth hangs open at the depth - and the length. I carry this book around with pride, feeling smart, and I wonder what it would be like to meet the mastermind behind the infinite power of what the mind is capable of.
The editor(s) of Prose. Who are this/these masterminds?? I'd love to meet and discuss what goes behind spotlighting a post. Who knows, maybe I'd learn a tip or two for being a better writer.
Maybe one day in some form I can meet these incredible people...
Cheers!
Mao, Stalin, Hitler
Being an eternal optimist and believing that humanity is filled with good, I want to know what evil is. I've lived mania and depression and the brutal phychosis that both can bring. This is certainly a darkness that many humans suffer, but insanity, even the permanent kind does not cause evil. In the throes of it I've met beautiful souls in the back reaches of their minds where light shines like nowhere else. So what is it? I suspect evil is much the same as good and lies with choice, compulsion, and ultimately in action. The only way to know it, is to know those who thought it and chose not to be true.
