Lazy Summer, Lazy Mind

"Read in order to live" - Gustave Flaubert

How do you get back into the literary mode when you feel like you’ve gotten so far away from it? Well, that’s where I am right now.  Like Ali and Ryan, I didn’t spend my summer writing to the extent that I had hoped I would. And now, it been months since I’ve sat down and written something, aside from an email, that is to be completed promptly and then promptly read by an audience.  Upon realization that I was going to write a blog again, acknowledgement of my lack of ideas quickly set in.  What would I write about?

This is not generally a problem for me when it comes to writing blogs or any other form of non-creative writing. I’m generally always reading something and listening to NPR and am the girl who commonly says, “I read this interesting article the author day…”  

So what’s different now? Why the lack of ideas? Despite not reading much literature lately, I’ve still been reading Newsweek, and I’ve still been listening to NPR (like the liberal snob that I am), I’ve still been generally keeping up on world events.  But that’s the thing: without literature to anchor everything, all of the noise and sound, I find myself struggling to deeply contemplate or really make sense of anything.

Literature does such an essential service to our brains. That quiet one-on-one extended time with an author is, as far as I can tell, irreplaceable.  And when we try to live without it for a period of time, the clarity and perspective that engaged reading offers does fade. 

I have a preliminary, admittedly swift, conclusion as to why literature improves our critical thinking/contemplation skills.  As students, whether formally or otherwise, of the art, we are trained to search for meaning in the events of the novels we read and in the details of the characters. And once you do that kind of analysis enough as a result of reading often, searching for meaning and piecing together details and evidence to make sense of a scenario or a human being, you naturally conduct a similar analysis of the world and the people around you. 

So I look forward to starting to read again soon- I’d like to say “when things calm down,” but the truth is it’s been too long already; I’m picking up Margaret Atwood again as soon as I place the final period here.

Until next time, I’d love to hear what you’ve been reading lately or what were some of your summer reads (or about your lack thereof). Have you ever gotten into a literary dry spell? If so, please share how you managed to get your feet wet once again.

-Leena