As cliche as it may seem, it was a summer of immense possibilities, but I wasn’t taking advantage of that. I am not sure if it was the extreme boredom of the hot June month that made me feel sluggish and insecure, but I just could not seem to move forward with any positivity. At that time I really wasn’t pondering where should I go to grad school? How many classes should I take in the fall? Or more importantly who will hire me after I graduate in May? It was incredible to notice how much I did not care about any of those questions, I had a burned out attitude towards any subject that would ultimately propel me closer to a career I was working for my entire life. Whether I was just less active or insecure, I couldn’t shove the “I really don’t care” feeling that this generation simply stood for.
That summer the only time I would plan a trip was to see a nuance garage punk band in the back of a warehouse versus visiting my estranged sister who lives out of state. I had no idea why but the music filtering through the mediocre speakers on my laptop was just not good enough. I felt like an indentured traveler at that point, not giving any of my time to a real issue, but just a servant to artists that I only knew at earshot.
The image that I decided to connect to my writing aesthetic was a product of that lazy summer, it was a photograph taken at the Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago, a place that I had never ventured to until that weekend.
The crowd of people didn’t frighten me into a claustrophobic episode, instead it arose so many questions. It was then that all those same questions that I put off the month before concerning my future filtered back into my head with urgency. My mind was a wasteland until that moment, I quickly realized maturity only adjusts when I wanted it too. The atmosphere, the cuisine, the people, it was all different interactions than what I had at home in Florida, giving me inspiration to explore more.
This image was a collection of all the insecure feelings I had at the beginning of the summer but summed up into what is the bigger picture? What I may think is significant in order for my life to progress can absolutely not be crucial to the person standing next to me? For once it allowed me to realize that following the guidelines of what I may think is accurate for happiness and success isn’t really what I should be focusing on. I do not need to look for inspiration to write at grad school but rather be inspired by the most uncanny events. It was in that clump of people that I realized the most interesting pieces of writing that I can compose come from the most unexpected events.
Whether intentional or not, having the frontmost layer of background all white plays very appropriately with the text as it revolves around the notion of starting anew. More specifically, given that the narrator explores how he or she is seeking career as a writer, the wrinkled paper effect within that white background is a great aesthetic choice. That also ties well into the style of the blog, which is a largely confessional story of gaining new perspective, told in the first person. The language is also as casual as language used in a personal journal, or travel memoir might be, which also calls to mind the physical page.
ReplyDeleteThe further background color being a light blue, reminiscent of the sky and open air of the outdoor concert, is equally fitting. In a larger sense the blue reflects the world, as it is being opened to the narrator during his travels and time spent in the midst of a large, diverse crowd. With a photograph of what seems to be professional quality, the reader is shown just the crowd they are invited to imagine at the Pitchfork music festival. Their faces are all trained, hypnotically, almost worshipfully on the stage the reader knows to be before them. It is the photographic embodiment of the line in which the narrator likens his or herself to an indentured traveler, serving this band they have only heard of, not having yet reached the state where the music festival is being held. That analogy showed that while being a personal story, the writer has a sense of literary technique and skill toward employing it.
With a photo centered at the top, and the text broken into paragraphs and aligned to the left, the blog appears as much like a typical music related blog, as its contents reveal it to be. As far as steps that might be taken to make it an all the more professional and effective blog, the narrator might consider a few critiques. First, the title could be spoken to in the body of the blog: the reader is not familiar with the band nor the lyrics of their music and therefore would not know if it is a reference to the music or whether it is more lofty and relevant in a broad sense. It would also be satisfying to have the image of shattering brought into the text more as well. Yes, there was an overall sense that a previous point of view was deconstructed and rearranged, but it could be played upon with more imagery. As far as actual writing goes, the structure of the sentence using "versus" should be reexamined, as well as the use of the word "uncanny". The blog would also read better if the writer did not explain their intentions in choosing the photograph they did and deciding what to write about. Trusting that the work is good enough to speak for itself would show more confidence and authority.