Brandt: Remembering Writing, Remembering Reading

In Thursday’s class, when we went around the room explaining what our parents did for a living, I specifically remember saying that, since my parents have such prestigious careers, I was “surprised they actually let me become a Writing major.” Reading Brandt’s essay brought a new understanding to me as to why I, as well as almost everyone else it appears, think of writing in such a strange, almost negative, light. Writing, especially creative writing, has always been an ambiguous subject because it’s not something that can readily be taught outside of the technical sense (such as grammar or syntax). If one does happen to develop an affinity or talent for writing, it is even more difficult to develop an identity as a “writer,” seeing as society seems to have tabooed the word to have negative connotations (the term “penniless writer” comes to mind). The irony in the way we don’t value writing in the same way we value reading is that we all can appreciate a good book, newspaper article, or essay. But someone had to write that!

The way I see it, it is the “chicken and egg” debate: it’s not so much a question of “which came first,” but that we can’t have one without the other.

Thinking back, reading was always an important part of my curriculum, both at home and at school. I always had books at my reading level readily available in my home, and was always encouraged, I suppose because there is the assumption that reading is an important skill, not only in the practical way, but in terms of intellectual growth. My writing skills were never encouraged in the same way, outside of my parents making sure I knew the alphabet and could write out the words and spell correctly. My affinity for writing, therefore, had to have come solely from within myself, and from the encouragement of college professors, many of whom gave me positive feedback on my writing early in my college years.

I enjoyed the individual anecdotes of the people Brandt interviewed for her research to back up her essay. It’s amazing really to understand just how much children are affected by the behavior of their parents. We tend to want to do what they do, so we have a tendency to associate reading with pleasure and relaxation, but writing with things like paying bills or balancing checkbooks. Our early desire to write, then, comes from an individual source, “involving feelings of lonliness, secrecy, and resistance.”

Although I enjoyed Brandt’s essay, I didn’t find it to be nearly as controversial as Rodriguez’s, mainly because it seemed much more objective and factual, very A + B = C. Still, I think we could still have a provocative discussion on the way our own individual affection for writing has come about.