average life

Near the end of his life, William Faulker served as the writer-in-residence at the University of Virginia. This appears to have meant that the University of Virginia needed good press and that William Faulker needed drinking money. However the arrangement, it resulted in Faulkner giving a series of talks in conjunction with the University. Some of these were to classes such as Freshmen Lit., while others were to more social groups such as the Law School Wives. (This particular group caught my interest. Was there a gathering of Med School Wives? How about Nursing Husbands? What about Theatre Major Life Partners?)

I’ve never read a single Faulkner book (reading not having been especially encouraged in my high school), but I found a lot of what Faulkner said to be terribly interesting. One quote in particular caught my interest:

I think style is one of the tools of the craft, and I think anyone that?that spends too much of his time about his style, developing a style, or following a style, probably hasn’t got much to say and knows it and is afraid of it, and so he writes a?a style, a marvelous trove.

It’s that bit in the middle that caught my attention the most: “probably hasn’t got much to say”. It’s been over a year since I’ve written anything and more than a year and a half since I’ve written anything readable. I haven’t really said anything in a long time and I’m not sure that I have anything else to say. Maybe, however, I’ve simply gotten used to the silence. Or maybe it’s something else, entirely. Maybe I do have things to say, but I’m scared that if I open myself up again, that the pain of public criticism will become too overwhelming.

Maybe, I’m just a wuss.

I’m not going to promise anything with the relaunch of this site. I don’t promise to update it regularly. I don’t promise that it’ll be funny or insightful or even not boring. I won’t even tell you that it’s here. I just needed to talk again.

To see if I have anything to say.

Tagged: writing