Anyway I had a lot of fun while at BYU taking classes from John Talbot. He introduced me to Postmodernism in literature. Well as something that I thought about in literature anyway. What Mr. Sanderson was talking about was something completely different. What they both have in common is they got me thinking. A lot of the post-modern stuff I read with Mr. Talbot, when I really thought about it, was disturbing in its message and intent. Most of the disturbing underpinnings would have escaped me had he not pushed me to think about it.
I see that same intelligent approach to how Mr. Sanderson was addressing modern fantasy. I've read a great deal of Mr. Sanderson's stuff, and I like it, I like it a lot. I particularly loved Mistborn and those "tricks" he used.
Back on topic, I realized while reading his blog post about specialization, perhaps that's what I should title the article (welcome to Ben stream of consciousness). While I was engaged in Mr. Talbot's class I was used to THINKING about literature. But even then I only really thought about the classics I was assigned to read, because I knew that class could be so much more if I really engaged the topic before hand and really engaged Mr. Talbot during class. I realize now that I never really used that while thinking about what I read for fun. There are a couple of reasons for this. 1. I think a great deal of the fun of life can be sucked out, by looking for hidden meanings and agendas and everything. Dad does that a lot with grumbling about the Commies in Hollywood as his excuse to not watch or, if he doesn't want to, enjoy a movie. He'll let someones political orientation, whether or not it is evident in the movie or not, affect if he'll even watch it, let alone what he thinks about it. 2. I'm lazy. When I read for fun, I read for fun.
That being said, thinking about literature and culture is also fun! I look at myself now and when I read for fun it's really to give my brain a break. It's acquiring a lot of new knowledge and information at an alarming rate, and needs it's breaks. But reading Mr. Sanderson's essay really got the old juices running, and has me hankering to talk about literature again.
Some of my greatest memories are talking about literature with friends, not least of all is my mom, with whom I've talked about more literature and in more depth then anyone else.
This is a weird random post, but it's what is on my mind. I hope you all enjoyed it.
