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Influences
16 years ago
Influences on me
Throughout my life there have been various individuals who have deeply affected me. Some have shown me new ways to think about things, while others have taught me how to act. Some of them are cliché historical figures while others have thought me interesting lessons that they could not have intended to teach. But all of them have influenced me in untold ways, and this is my homage to them.
The first person that I will recognize is Dr. Theodor Geisel, or as he is more commonly known, Dr. Seuss. From a young age my nights were filled with his simple children’s stories. Sadly, I fell asleep through a majority of them, something I will never forgive myself for. But time after time my mind was filled with wonder by simple words that were nothing short of entertaining. And this is the first lesson that I learned from Seuss, you don’t need to waste your breath producing large complex images in order to be entertaining. This man made an entire book that not only made sense, but taught a pretty good lesson as well, using less than 400 words. Not only that, but he did it a second time using far fewer.
Now that I’m a full grown, and I use that term lightly because I have yet to cease my development, both physically, mentally, and metaphorically, but I’ve seen the deep meaning in some of his later work. With books like The Butter Battle, or Yurtle the Turtle, The Lorax, The Sneetches, or even Horton Hears a Who, he conveyed deep and powerful meanings while keeping the same simple format. He included absolute nonsense in these works, often creating words just to form a convenient rhyme, but never did his work lose any bit of its power or meaning. The second lesson I learned from Seuss was that you do not need to use large words that are only used to impress people in order to be effective in writing something that means something. That sometimes the simplest route is often the best.
Yet another thing that I discovered from the good doctor was that you can change your ways. As I grew older, once again I loosely use that term to describe myself; I discovered that before he wrote such literary classics, and I do mean that, as The Lorax, Dr. Seuss wrote racist propaganda aimed at defacing the Japanese people throughout the Second World War. But with the war’s end, Seuss seemed to completely change his life; he abandoned his old ways and put his cartooning skills to write children’s books. Once again, this amazing man taught me that people can change and that all you need to do is refocus your efforts and you can take something bad and create something good.
Other lessons learned from Seuss
-Always rhyme, it makes your work sound better
-Never be afraid to keep it simple
-Making up words is fun
-Various other life lessons ranging from equality and level headedness to conservation and global politics
Anyways, I plan to keep this as an ongoing thing, posting it whenever I have the urge to type something like this, I have a few more thought out in my mind. Up on the list are Shel Silberstein, The Transcendentalists, and many more.
Throughout my life there have been various individuals who have deeply affected me. Some have shown me new ways to think about things, while others have taught me how to act. Some of them are cliché historical figures while others have thought me interesting lessons that they could not have intended to teach. But all of them have influenced me in untold ways, and this is my homage to them.
The first person that I will recognize is Dr. Theodor Geisel, or as he is more commonly known, Dr. Seuss. From a young age my nights were filled with his simple children’s stories. Sadly, I fell asleep through a majority of them, something I will never forgive myself for. But time after time my mind was filled with wonder by simple words that were nothing short of entertaining. And this is the first lesson that I learned from Seuss, you don’t need to waste your breath producing large complex images in order to be entertaining. This man made an entire book that not only made sense, but taught a pretty good lesson as well, using less than 400 words. Not only that, but he did it a second time using far fewer.
Now that I’m a full grown, and I use that term lightly because I have yet to cease my development, both physically, mentally, and metaphorically, but I’ve seen the deep meaning in some of his later work. With books like The Butter Battle, or Yurtle the Turtle, The Lorax, The Sneetches, or even Horton Hears a Who, he conveyed deep and powerful meanings while keeping the same simple format. He included absolute nonsense in these works, often creating words just to form a convenient rhyme, but never did his work lose any bit of its power or meaning. The second lesson I learned from Seuss was that you do not need to use large words that are only used to impress people in order to be effective in writing something that means something. That sometimes the simplest route is often the best.
Yet another thing that I discovered from the good doctor was that you can change your ways. As I grew older, once again I loosely use that term to describe myself; I discovered that before he wrote such literary classics, and I do mean that, as The Lorax, Dr. Seuss wrote racist propaganda aimed at defacing the Japanese people throughout the Second World War. But with the war’s end, Seuss seemed to completely change his life; he abandoned his old ways and put his cartooning skills to write children’s books. Once again, this amazing man taught me that people can change and that all you need to do is refocus your efforts and you can take something bad and create something good.
Other lessons learned from Seuss
-Always rhyme, it makes your work sound better
-Never be afraid to keep it simple
-Making up words is fun
-Various other life lessons ranging from equality and level headedness to conservation and global politics
Anyways, I plan to keep this as an ongoing thing, posting it whenever I have the urge to type something like this, I have a few more thought out in my mind. Up on the list are Shel Silberstein, The Transcendentalists, and many more.
TYPE MOAR! U8< (my new sig :P)