The Man, the Myth, Thelonius Legend
A self-proclaimed “Urban Science Fiction and Fantasy Writer,” Thelonius Legend is a very reflective and transparent writer. His name is almost too good to be true, but one thing that is true and clear, is his passion on the topic of diversity. He asks a lot of questions with honesty — sometimes brutally honesty — and he already knows the answers to his questions. In his two blogs “Why Diversity Matter to Me” and “Diversity, Identity, and Self-Worth.”
The point isn’t that he’s looking for the answers. The point is that he’s looking to make a point using the questions. So when he asks “why does diversity matter to you?” (you = him), he’s able to answer it with passion and integrity. The self-reflection comes in the form of his constant habit of inserting himself and his opinions into the conversation. Legend constantly asks questions and answers — but he’s also able to create a discussion using voice within his point. He asks “So again why does diversity matter to you? Tough question? OK, I’ll start…” By asking questions, he initiates discourse and facilitates a relationship between him and his readers. I would say 70% of his blogs are questions. He’s a curious guy, it seems, and he clearly wants to drive home a point.
Repetition of the phrase “Diversity matters to me because…” reiterates the key point of this blog post, and essentially, his entire website to drive home the point of his writing. Through this voice, it’s pretty evident that he’s a persistent advocate of diverse representation. It’s not a simple matter, but a complex one that exists for these and these reasons.
He often interjects himself with “oh”’s and emphasizes with !’s and investigates with ?’s. He uses CAPITAL WORDS to underscore and photos to break up the paragraphs. It’s useful to see and pair with the examples he gives. It’s also helpful to see that diversity mostly lends itself to a visual image.
His choice of punctuation and paragraph structure leads me to believe that these posts serve as a carefully curated stream-of-consciousness. It’s not meant to be academically sophisticated; it’s not about that. If anything, these posts are colloquial and simple at best but I think that voice presents a non-arrogant, genuinely passionate and concerned individual who wants to raise awareness for a cause he cares about.
What I do find interesting though, is that he doesn’t seem like a professional writer. Yes, this is a blog so maybe he adapts his writing his style to his medium. Maybe his fiction work is a bit more refined. However, his blogs present a completely different image of what I imagine through his writing. It’s not because it’s bad per se, but it is a bit cheesy. This, however, could be a purposeful method to match a blogging style that remains as simple as possible while contextualizing a very sophisticated issue. The sophistication in his blogging does lie within the subtle nuances of his writing as seen though the italics and the quotations and the curious examples he uses to buttress his statements. Back again to the questions, he asks “But where are our heroes? Where is our black Harry Potter? Our Latina Katniss?” Interesting.
One thing that Thelonius Legend does very well is continue the discourse between him and his readers constantly throughout all his blog posts. This continuing conversation leads to narrative that’s eloquently nurtured by his examples and his questions. It’s almost as if he’s moderating a one-sided interview with himself, but he’s so aware that he has a readership that has opinions and answers to the questions he pose. His voice is able to convey that conversation so it’s dynamic, and not static.
