Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Why I Read

I think I enjoy reading so much for the sense of – awe – I experience just seeing the words, watching the combination of those words work together to create pictures and thoughts and adventures in my head. Grant Morrison’s run on the Animal Man comic from 1990 was a brutal, beautiful and breath-taking achievement in writing. A character that isn’t even real becomes as true as any person I meet on the street. Bizarre and true essays by Chuck Palahniuk about farm combine demolition derbies and dressing up and running wild in a dog costume allow me to explore the weirdly wonderful crazy things people do do. Sure, all this reading is a substitute for the actual experience - for the doing of these things myself - but it’s still enjoyable.

Just one of the many reasons I enjoy reading.

2 comments:

Midnight Sprinter said...

"Why I Read" by Joshua Shaver... doesn't that sound like something you would have asked your students to write?

Escape Pirate said...

Yeah, I suppose so. I just wrote it because in the matter of a couple of hours I was simply blown away by some of the stuff I was reading.