Experiencing literature

Literature and other art forms are the expression of the artist and author. All art forms are used as an alternative form of spreading ideas to literal language. Life influences art and art influences life so of course everyone has a lived experience affected by literature. Some of the artists who have influenced me the most are Mary Shelly, Hozier, Madeleine L’Engle, and Alok V Menon.

When I was around 10 I struggled a lot with identity, partly because I was masking a lot but also because that’s the time you start forming identity but I was super existential and intense about it. The way I defined identity was a culmination of all the things I liked, especially genre wise and I was obsessed with finding my identity. That’s when my friend, Linsey, showed me Michael Jackson, Doctor Who, and Harry Potter. Ah yes, my first phase.

I was not invested in anything until then but wow did I get invested. The reason I liked these things and continue to like and consume media is because there’s a little piece of myself that I can sense in all of it and even when using it to learn about other people and topics there’s a part of it that I can understand on a personal level through my own identity and experiences. If an artist feels completely overcome with the melancholy slow emotion of waiting and they write about it and you feel the same way when reading it, the writing will speak to you on another level than it would have otherwise and that’s how literature (and any art for that matter) connects to your lived experience.

#literature