Today was less productive than yesterday, but yesterday was glorious in every way, so that was to be expected. I finished the church essay, and I love the ending I gave it.
Mostly, I worked on the library essay, trying to narrow its focus.
I found it difficult to do this for all the same reasons I’ve had difficulty with revision throughout the writing process. The library essay is the essay I’m having the most trouble bringing to its full potential. Right now, it’s pretty good but very general. I think that it can be brilliant essay that examines my linguistic development and, unlike the other essays, my fear of growing up.
I know I’ve stopped putting excerpts in since I was finished with the rough drafts, but I’d like to include one in this entry so that you can see how the essay could embrace the ideas I just mentioned:
“Whereas in elementary school I had picked Moby Dick off the shelf specifically because it looked mature, I now chose novellas which were written for a reading level far lower than my own.
“In fifth grade, I had a fear of growing up. I had worked my way to a place where I had begun to understand myself through reading literature and seeing all the strange things language could express, and, as I peered into the deepness of the human mind, I realized that there may be knowledge in there that I would not want to own. I was afraid of what I might discover about myself, humanity, and the world. So I stuck with cheery children’s books, choosing to float on the surface of fathomless life until I realized that I had to dive in because I did not belong on the surface level; so I dove in.”
Language was my way of discovering the deep and complicated nature of the world, and I want to expand on my development from eagerness to hesitation to finally embracing the full mystery. I just hope that the essay realizes these qualities before Senior Project is over.
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