What I think about Jane Austen

"To me, Poe's prose is unreadable–like Jane Austen's. No, there is a difference. I could read his prose on a salary, but not Jane's."

I first read Pride and Prejudice when I was about ten. I remember finishing it–all proud and ready to show off–and not knowing at all what the book was about. When I was older, maybe fourteen, I decided to read it again, embarrassed that I couldn't talk about the book . . . and the same thing happened. I read it, and understood nothing.

And now after finding this quote by Mark Twain, my favorite American writer, I am completely vindicated. I felt stupid. But as Twain divulges, it wasn't me, it was her.

Self-Importance, Writing and Eat, Pray, Love

There's a certain amount of megalomania required to be a writer. It all comes off as too dramatic and way too self-important and self-absorbed. I read a really horrible book a couple months ago, Eat, Pray, Love. Actually, I might have gotten half-way through it, but the author was just so self-absorbed and vapid, that I couldn't bear to suffer through it any longer.

But could I be any better? I write stupid, vapid, over-dramatic, self-absorbed things all the time. This whole writing thing, and especially blogging, requires a personality glitch. Really, why should anyone think they're so darn interesting that others would take the time to read their stuff?