all the small things

i like Amy Rosenthal. John says that she is just full of herself, but i find the idea of writing an encyclopedia about yourself a brilliant one, not egocentric. We all want to be heard; we all have something to say; we all have opinions and beliefs and idiosyncracies ordinary things that shape us.

I don't have the attention span to write an entire autobiography. Or a novel. A short story, perhaps, but then again, I don't like writing in full sentences. The choppier the better.

Isn't that how we think, after all? Perhaps I shouldn't universalize it. I know that this is how I think. Circumlocutions and Ramblings and Confessions and Daydreams. Verbs and Explicatives. Jumbly, Disorganized, Terse, Mispelled, Parenthetical.

That is how I write, at least. I write the way I think. I overused ellipses...(parentheses)...Capitals..."quotes."

Damn the prescriptivists. Grammar and "proper" english. There is a place for both, I admit, but the best writers are those who transcend the rules.

So that's why I like Amy Rosenthal. She describes her life in charts and songs and quotes and snipits and illustrations. I know what makes her tick. I know what random things she latches onto for consolation. I know her really stupid fasincations and seemingly mundane (albeit fascinating) details about her childhood. She never expresses the deepest desires of her hearts or states verbatim her passions, sorrows, fears, beliefs. Yet somehow, by glimpsing her misconstrued thoughts in encylopedia format, i see her. All of her.

I'm a lot like Amy Rosenthal. I don't share the same pet peeves/credences/hobbies/childhood memories, but I share her outlook on presentation. I appreciate snapshots: photographs, memorobilia, quotes, newspaper clippings, taglines, song lyrics, bible verses, symbols, relics. I like finding the larger picture in the little things.