Lee Glazebrook English 1101 Writing Theory Essay

During my short time at UNCC I have already learned a fair bit about writing and the importance of depth. Over the course of this semester I have had an English class as well as a Liberal Studies course that have both focused heavily on what the piece of writing is really saying. In English we continually discuss the idea of whether the author is sincerely authentic or if they are using platitudes and contrived ideas to form their argument. In my Liberal Studies class we discussed the meaning behind the words as it related to the authors time as well as how their life has affected their writing. With these two courses I have been able to read into things a little differently and now I find myself looking for that second layer of text when I am reading, watching a movie, or show, or even if I play a game with a strong narrative. This can be a little annoying when I am trying to just get lost in the story, however I do feel like in the long run I am getting a very useful skill that will at the very least help me throughout college. I think that good writing makes the reader look beyond the words on the page to make them think. I took a Liberal Studies class this semester that focused on Science Fiction literature as well as the cultural connections they had to their time period and the author. I took this class because it was a requirement and I didnt really have any expectations for it, but my first reading was a short story call All you Zombies by Robert A. Heinlein. The story is pretty hard to explain, but essentially it is about a man who can travel back in time and he goes through his life talking to himself and each time giving himself the option to go back and do something different. Each time however the man keeps things the way they are for better or worse. I went to class wondering how the hell he was going to relate this to the culture of the time and the guys life. He revealed that the guy was from a poor family in Kansas and that he had worked his whole life with minimum wage jobs to get to college and become an engineer, and that he had written science fiction in his spare time and it just blew up. He talked about the fact that he wrote this

Lee Glazebrook English 1101 Writing Theory Essay

story to show people that he has looked at his life from many different perspectives as well as his past, and he knew who he was and what he had done. The title All you Zombies referred to the readers who had not looked at their pasts or thought about the way they were living so in theory they werent. This really got me interested in the idea of what I had been missing after all if he could pull that from this confusing puzzle he called a story then how hard could it be for me to find the subtext in some of the great works I had read. We also covered the idea of questioning ideas we hold as fact in our society through sub text. It questioned our government how and what we consider a family to be, as well as where technology was actually going and how that could affect us as a society. We primarily read science fiction from the 1960s and 1970s, but he pulled in songs, movie clips and the movie inception to show where similar ideas had been formed in all sorts of text. In Inception for example in clearly questioned the idea of reality and if there was one specific reality or if it really is perception based, and if so how would we ever know what is real. This related to the story Neuromancer by William Gibson where the protagonists when into a matrix like environment to steal files from people, and as the story progressed he became so involved he preferred the matrix to real life. Its questions like this where this is no right answer if there is an answer at all, and these questions make people think and question their core beliefs that we talked about as well as things like the government, families, and how pre-determined gender was and how much was done by our society. Its questions like these that I enjoy because they allow the writer to get creative with his or her interpretation of what they believe, and it allows the reader to have their own thoughts and conversations. In high school I took Latin 3. This class focused on the literature of that time instead of learning the language, and had I known what I know now I think I would have gotten an A in that class

Lee Glazebrook English 1101 Writing Theory Essay

instead of a C. I say this because when I was thinking about what is good writing I found myself looking back at some of the poems and stories they gave me for this class, and I found myself understanding a lot more of the subtext about the history I was studying in that class. I kept looking back and having the same recurring thought: Damn it why didnt I see that? I can look back now and see that some of the poets threw out ideas radical even for today and they were veiled under their poetry allowing scholars to freely debate this idea and to also keep the poets out of exile; well most of the time. It is amazing to me to see that level of writing ability in the time of the Roman Empire. I can vaguely remember a poem written by a poet named Cicero that went against the current rulers ideas, but it was only in the subtext and was veiled by a story that the ruler was very fond of. The ruler made public his love for the poem and brought more attention to it allowing Cicero to get his message to Rome, however his second poem wasnt quite as good at veiling the idea and he was exiled. While thinking about this I noticed that looking back at ancient poetry and classic science fiction there arent nearly as many examples of this level of subtext in our modern culture. Coincidently as I began looking for these modern examples I was listening to the newest album by Eminem Marshall Mathers LP 2. Eminem is in my opinion one of the greatest writers of our generation even if he never wrote a book, and as I looked back through his music I found large levels of subtext. I believe on of the best examples I found was the song My Name is This song was released in 1999 and was a massive success in pop culture that still has a foothold today as a great pop by many people. The irony in this is if you listen to the lyrics and read into them he talks about how awful pop music is and how much he hates it. He takes these consistent jabs and it as a genre, and yet the people sit there and sing along until he comes out right and says what the song was saying all along. Eminem of course isnt the only rapper or artist who uses this

Lee Glazebrook English 1101 Writing Theory Essay

level of subtext and for many artists they struggle between making something thought provoking or something that sells. I think this transitions into books and movies as well which is kind of disheartening. This shows that we are giving up a level of deeper thought for simplicity which is ok in bursts. If we have this continuation of shallow stories then we will lose those thought provoking writers in favor of mediocre ones. I should mention that I am one of those people who thinks I am a terrible writer. I am pretty sure that my opinion isnt worth the time it takes me to write this or the time it takes for you to read this, and I dont think I could show that level of subtext, but I enjoy reading it and I feel like other people would to. Once I started understanding a little more on how to see the depth of a text I saw it a lot more and it has become second nature to recognize some things. I feel like it adds another level for the reader, viewer, or listener. Like a games has value based on its replay ability I think good writing has this ability where you can read it enjoy the story, and then go back to see how what the majors issues were for that time, the big questions the author wants to ask, and how it is all affected by their life.