live with it.
i knew i wasn’t going to write much on here over the holidays because, on top of the holidays, i was also proofing the awful possibilities, writing a handful of recommendation letters, and hosting some old friends (and meeting some new ones) in town for the mla conference.
and i have a full-time job, y’all. having friends in town on interviews for mla got me thinking about that.
on the one hand, i get to feel pretty righteous, being a writer (technically, currently) (maybe i will let you decide what the preceding parenthesis modifies) outside of academia. there are many, many things to be said against writers and writing in academia, but you can’t say them because they sound stale and they make you sound like you’ve got a chip on your shoulder. not the good kind. at the same time, i’m pretty close to academia. i work as a copywriter at a university, so i also get to be righteous about how i’m using the skillses to convince people to get something worthwhile (that being an education).
on the other hand, i miss teaching like a motherfucker. not just the schedule — i mean i really like teaching. of course, i liked the schedule, too. when i was making my entire living teaching (i say entire because i still teach classes when my schedule permits), i would have been more likely to include things like writing fiction, and maybe even this site, as an extension of my job, whereas, as a copywriter, i tend to compartmentalize it all, not just the fun stuff from the 9-5, but also the writing from the editing from the posting.
rhymin and stealin
but i think i can stop doing that.
i took well-nigh a month off from this part of the internet thinking maybe this part of the internet was partially responsible for what has been, and continues to be, an epic writer’s block (i hate that term) (and don’t be an asshole and try to tell me writer’s block doesn’t exist / is for the weak / represents a lack of commitment / demonstrates a lack of imagination / etc, because this isn’t that song). that “continues to be” suggests to me it’s not the blog or the other extracurriculars or the job (though did i mention i miss teaching?), it’s just part of the way i do writing. so i will keep posting here.
anyway, it was great to see old friends, and i also read a bunch. here are some of the books i read:
- ghosts, by cesar aira
- distant star, by roberto bolano
- i am not sidney poitier, by percival everett
- senselessness, by horacio castellanos moya
- nog, by rudolph wurlitzer
also a lot of jack spicer and some millhauser stories. that’s all that’s coming to mind right now.
but those short novels had me thinking a lot, and what i want to write about them is big and will take a while for me to formulate.
in the meantime, i’ll write about things as they come up and try to avoid goofy confessions about my career (though i’m also trying to figure out how to say what i have to say about writer’s block and its potential value).
happy new year.
