Shout "Digression" at me

"It's this course where each boy in class has to get up in class and make a speech. You know. Spontaneous and all. And if the boy digresses at all, you're supposed to yell 'Digression!' at him as fast as you can. It just about drove me crazy. I got an F in it."
"Why?"
"Oh, I don't know. That digression business got on my nerves. I don't know. The trouble with me is, I like it when somebody digresses. It's more interesting and all."
"You don't care to have somebody stick to the point when he tells you something?"
"Oh, sure! I like somebody to stick to the point and all. But I don't like them to stick too much to the point. I don't know. I guess I don't like it when somebody sticks to the point all the time. The boys that got the best marks in Oral Expression were the ones that stuck to the point all the time--I admit it. But there was this one boy, Richard Kinsella. He didn't stick to the point too much, and they were always yelling 'Digression!' at him. It was terrible, because in the first place, he was a very nervous guy--I mean he was a very nervous guy--and his lips were always shaking whenever it was his time to make a speech, and you could hardly hear him if you were sitting way in the back of the room. When his lips sort of quit shaking a little bit, though, I liked his speeches better than anybody else's. He practically flunked the course, though, too. He got a D plus because they kept yelling 'Digression!' at him all the time. For instance, he made this speech about this farm his father bought in Vermont. They kept yelling 'Digression!' at him the whole time he was making it, and this teacher, Mr. Vinson, gave him an F on it because he hadn't told what kind of animals and vegetables and stuff grew on the farm and all. What he did was, Richard Kinsella, he'd start telling you all about that stuff--then all of a sudden he'd start telling you about this letter his mother got from his uncle, and how his uncle got polio and all when he was forty-two years old, and how he wouldn't let anybody come to see him in the hospital because he didn't want anybody to see him with a brace on. It didn't have much to do with the farm--I admit it--but it was nice. It's nice when somebody tells you about their uncle. Especially when they start out telling you about their father's farm and then all of a sudden get more interested in their uncle. I mean it's dirty to keep yelling 'Digression!' at him when he's all nice and excited. I don't know. It's hard to explain." I didn't feel too much like trying, either. For one thing, I had this terrific headache all of a sudden. I wished to God old Mrs. Antolini would come in with the coffee. That's something that annoys hell out of me--I mean if somebody says the coffee's all ready and it isn't.
-Kudos go to Mr. Salinger for this text.


After reading the reader's responsibilities by Booth, I thought that the writer's responsibilities will be somewhat similar in the sense that he or she must know what the reader's responsibilities are and cater to them. However, I don't think this is the case.

I like to think of authors as artists and I don't think that artists have any responsibilities to their audience. They have their own reasons for crafting their work but I don't think that real art is created for an audience, instead I think it is created for one's self. I think the same is probably true for authors. Maybe I'm wrong, that happens alot. Maybe I'm just being naive because sometimes that happens too. However, the more I think about it, the kind of music I like is not music that is created to make money, but it is the music that is created through hours of self-reflection and passion. This is true with books. You can hate me for saying this but I find the novels of Grisham to be about the literary equivalent of a reality show. There isn't a substance to it. It seems devoid of passion. Simply lifeless words on a page.

I might change my opinion on this when I'm less ignorant one day, but as of now I dont like the idea of novels as a form of entertainment. I think they should be something more. I'm not saying that readers shouldnt enjoy the books that they read. I'm saying that books shouldn't be written only for the sake of pleasure and money making. Maybe, I dont know. Books should be fun to read, and they should be an adventure to write. I dont know what to say. I just dont like books that exploit a reader's pleasure as a means to make money. I feel like the authors that do that are raping the pockets of their readers. I dont know what to think anymore. I know it happens and I dont like it, but everyone has to make money some how. I just think that's the wrong reason to even be in this field. Now I'm feeling slimy for feeling superior to the the people that do that as their job.

Gosh Gabe, what the hell? I meant for this to be about how to write and now it is something completely different. I dont know how to write. I suppose it's different for everyone. Me, I like to write late at night with the window open when I'm in a mood.

How to write: Come up with crappy idea, write crap about crappy idea, keep writing crap about crappy idea until it becomes something completely different from what you intended, then rethink your crappy idea and write some more crap.

I dont know. When I sat down I was going to write about how I thought that the most fundamental aspect of writing is living. So far I haven't mentioned that at all. Well that's what I think. We write because we live and we live because we write. How you write depends on the life you live. I believe that in order to write extraordinarily, you must first live extraordinarily. You must experience things first-hand. You must take risks and do things that you might not have done for the sake of the experience. I suggest doing stupid things like driving with the windows open in the winter to really learn what being cold is like. Writing is a sharing of personal experiences and first you must have experiences worth writing about.

I do not feel qualified to answer your question.

and this blog is a mess but I like the digression.