That Literary Life

I spent this morning in Costa Coffee with my little sister, Suzie. She's in the middle of A-level English Literature coursework, and so of course, the discussion turned towards her essays, and her many ideas for them. I think it is easy to forget how much you enjoyed something once you no longer do it... or once it is no longer an integral part of your life. My life now no longer rotates or really has anything to do with authors, poetry, prose or literary theory. I still love to read, but I don't think that will ever change.

I suppose what I realised this morning is just how much I loved studying literature. In fact, how much I still do. There are skills you pick up when studying a literature degree, that you are not even aware of. Like the fact that every time I read a book, poem or even just some kind of advertisement, words, lines and ideas will stand out to me. That has come from having to look at hundreds of texts through the eyes of an essay question. I love the power of words, I love the fact that not until you read something on a page, do you fully understand exactly what it is that you think or feel about a given situation. I love that moment when you read a line of writing and you suddenly realise that right there, on that page, is exactly how you felt, or exactly what that moment was like. Almost as if, until that moment, you had not truly lived that experience.

Sometimes I think about what I would do if I was given a choice between two circumstances, like, would I choose to be blind or deaf, would I choose to only ever be able to hear melody or lyrics, or whether I could only ever write or read. The latter is one I have never quite come to a conclusion on. To be able to articulate in words something that someone will one day read and feel a sense of affinity with, or to be able to read what another has written, and have the satisfaction of knowing that right there, through that line or sentiment, you are not alone, because someone else has felt it too. Thankfully, I don't have to choose between the two. And for that, I am very grateful.