Tyler on the Move: Writing in the Middle
Tyler Oaks on the Move: Writing in the Middle
Tyler on the Move
Volume 6
Issue 9
06/04/2008
Most writers belong to the middle class. While definitions and statistics vary as to what exactly the middle class is, its title defines it simply and best. The middle class is the midpoint of our society, sandwiched somewhere between luxury and poverty. While we don’t live in mansions or take private jets to island retreats for the weekend, we do have milk in the refrigerator and personal transportation, even in the face of impossible food and gas prices. Although middle-class writers have the ability to write imaginative books about the rich and the poor, stories of high society or tales of slums, there is something to be said about our own backyards, average America.
Yes, it’s true that for writers and readers living in the middle there is a guilty pleasure in escaping to the other sides. Historical biographies full of power and pageantry lure me in, Catherine the Great being a perennial favorite. I’m also a sucker for Dickensesque tales of the underworld. Yet while we may gravitate toward the outer edges of our culture to learn about lives distinct from our own, or simply read up or down to dodge the mundane, can’t the ranch style home or florist shop on the corner offer us the same? When we sit in a café and watch long enough or listen to the conversations at the farmer’s market we discover that there is magic, craziness, tragedy, love, and, yes, intrigue all around us.
Perhaps books set in the middle don’t have characters with unlimited resources or unthinkable conditions for settings, but from teacher to engineer, barista to musician, we of the in-between walk through wild, inspiring stories day by day. This week I scanned the popular library in my dentist’s waiting room to realize how many authors take us into the wonderful world of the average. These writers give us the opportunity to see lives similar to our own in a new way, and by that I mean “interesting.” I know I’ll still always want to know what is going on inside that Victorian mansion or be inspired by those who make life happen in spite of unspeakable hardships. All the same, the middle is so varied and unpredictable that for now instead I’ll let my mind wander into the chef’s kitchen, the dancer’s studio, or the dressmaker’s closet, all part of this idiosyncratic, sandwiched-in class around me.
http://www.writersweekly.com/
Tyler on the Move
Volume 6
Issue 9
06/04/2008
Most writers belong to the middle class. While definitions and statistics vary as to what exactly the middle class is, its title defines it simply and best. The middle class is the midpoint of our society, sandwiched somewhere between luxury and poverty. While we don’t live in mansions or take private jets to island retreats for the weekend, we do have milk in the refrigerator and personal transportation, even in the face of impossible food and gas prices. Although middle-class writers have the ability to write imaginative books about the rich and the poor, stories of high society or tales of slums, there is something to be said about our own backyards, average America.
Yes, it’s true that for writers and readers living in the middle there is a guilty pleasure in escaping to the other sides. Historical biographies full of power and pageantry lure me in, Catherine the Great being a perennial favorite. I’m also a sucker for Dickensesque tales of the underworld. Yet while we may gravitate toward the outer edges of our culture to learn about lives distinct from our own, or simply read up or down to dodge the mundane, can’t the ranch style home or florist shop on the corner offer us the same? When we sit in a café and watch long enough or listen to the conversations at the farmer’s market we discover that there is magic, craziness, tragedy, love, and, yes, intrigue all around us.
Perhaps books set in the middle don’t have characters with unlimited resources or unthinkable conditions for settings, but from teacher to engineer, barista to musician, we of the in-between walk through wild, inspiring stories day by day. This week I scanned the popular library in my dentist’s waiting room to realize how many authors take us into the wonderful world of the average. These writers give us the opportunity to see lives similar to our own in a new way, and by that I mean “interesting.” I know I’ll still always want to know what is going on inside that Victorian mansion or be inspired by those who make life happen in spite of unspeakable hardships. All the same, the middle is so varied and unpredictable that for now instead I’ll let my mind wander into the chef’s kitchen, the dancer’s studio, or the dressmaker’s closet, all part of this idiosyncratic, sandwiched-in class around me.
http://www.writersweekly.com/
posted by Tyler Oaks at
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