in response to...

yes, in response! the exclamation point is warranted, because i am breaking my silence for a reason other than mere frippery. oh, i may bandy foolish words on this blog, but now i cease to jest. in other words, i make myself sound like an even bigger moron than i am in real life. as if that's even possible. but really...

in response to sarah, who wants to know why we write...

we just do. it is a part of the basic human urge to create. you live in a cave, you eat meat, you paint on the wall. or, closer to home, you go to a university, you live in a hovel, you complain about your conditions in writing because your roommates won't listen. okay. seriously though, i question why i write, and whether i can or not about a million times a day. i propose staving off the finality of answering the question by saying that we write for different reasons at different times. if we always wrote for only one reason than we would probably wear that reason out, even if it were true that we are all posessed beings that have no choice but to slave away perfecting long sequences of words.

in response to trent, who thinks that he can use big words and get away with it...

if all literature is epidiectic, does that mean that you then presume to cut out the past role of the epiphany in literature? if you are privileging one thing over another than you are necessarily setting yourself up for blind spots. i am not saying that i necessarily think that the epiphany is or was a good solution, and from your statements it appears that you think that the epiphany has been used as subject matter but not as the real base or argument. i would be interested in seeing your ideas on how to solve the problem. i have my own little hunches, but hunches they will remain until i expand them. until you explain your secrets, i shall have to conclude that your blog was composed in the good-spirited nature of sycophancy.

in response to mary, who makes top ten lists and tries to pawn them off on us...

top anything lists are never a good idea. besides, i disagree with yours heartily, and for no other reason than that it is not my own list.

and in response to aaron, who hides on his blog in silence (different from my own now very vocal self)...

you cat! hissing in the orchard! wrapping yourself in a shroud of fog! hiss away, i know your secret. i know, i know, i know... you've been rendered genderless. neutered, i believe it is. oh well. some cats hiss because they don't want others to know their secrets. well, you can stop hissing and post on your blog, because your secret's out pussycat.