I often hear people trash the classics; books that had to be read for school. And it does make me a touch sad. I like reading, quite a bit. There are times of my life I didn't like it so much, but even in those times the things I read were important. The authoritarian nature of school likely helped make it a mixed bag for me as well as everyone else out there who can't stand classics.

Most everything I experience becomes a part of me, whether a small part or a big one. Books especially. When I was growing up my Dad wanted me to experience Asimov, Heinlein, Herbert, etc. All the greats of science fiction.

And I feel like you can see a lot of Heinlein in me. He was very classical libertarian in his thinking as time went on, and I resonated with one of his quotes that I think informs a lot of his writing:

"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects."

He spoke as a former navy officer and a believer in service to communities, but he had a lot of opinions on what service and community meant that I think is taken out of context most of the time. Especially in regard to Starship Troopers. While a lot of his writing has influenced me to adopt certain aspects of his views, his writing has more than anything equipped me for disagreeing with them. Which I feel is also something he'd support based on Tunnel in the Sky.

But I don't plan to sit here and ramble about Heinlein. Never got any of his stuff in school anyway, I just wanted to point out a single author who has greatly influenced me. I look at myself and a few very close friends and I can see how some of their favorite books influenced them and became a part of them.

Books by their nature I think affect brains a lot more than most other forms of media. Here are a few that have been really important to me.

When I was in sophomore year of high school, I was having a period of not enjoying reading. I wasn't keeping up in English class, and my Dad looked over the syllabus and picked out one of the books I was assigned and insisted I read it. It was the Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck.

Pearl S. Buck was a white woman who grew up in China in the early 20th century, living there for most of the first 40 years of her life.

The Good Earth was a slice of life following a very poor Chinese farmer starting on the day of his wedding after finally being able to afford a wife. It follows their trials and tribulations and the horrors and hopes of living in a tumultuous time. I had to force myself to get started, but I became hooked.

My Dad wanted me to be exposed to Asian culture more. My brother had experienced much of his childhood in Korea during the 70s, but I wouldn't set foot outside the country until I was 30. The book is definitely mired in Chinese culture and presents it without judgment, neither exoticizing, infantilizing, or presenting anything as alien or bizarre.

It was my first real look into Asian life, history, culture, etc. And furthermore, it was a book that forced me to confront that I didn't see women as completely people. We all get a lot of misogyny in this culture, but growing up in an Asian household with parents who wholeheartedly believe in the traditional roles of marriage left me with a lot of problems I wasn't aware of, but seeing the wife in the Good Earth work so very very hard and not receive a fair shake, with all the characters almost coming to this realization horrified and saddened me in a way I couldn't understand at the time. My Dad had hoped I would gain a newfound appreciation for my Mom, who I don't always get along with due to some of her mental illnesses. It took a while, but I did.

I did a presentation on it in my English class, I was so excited that I talked for way too long. I don't know if my Dad ever knew how important that book became to me.

Y'know, I had read a couple adventure books by middle school but yet they didn't feel all that fun to me. I was bored by Treasure Island which I think might have depressed my Dad, and it was totally a skill issue on my part. I'd been reading at an adult level since like, pretty early on, but learning to enjoy what was I reading, get really into it, really actually consume the meaning of it all, that was difficult.

Getting assigned Beowulf: A New Telling by Robert Nye in the 7th grade really helped turn that around. It was the first time I ever had a book that just really appealed to me. It featured big burly barbarians and scary monsters and swordfights and it was exciting and managed to carry my attention all the way through.

Knowing what it was supposed to feel like really turned me around on reading. It would lead me to downing trashy DnD novels religiously, I absolutely adore the Drizzt saga now.

Later on in college I read the original, and by that point I was pretty good at figuring out how to enjoy anything I read, and in many ways I reminded me of being a kid again. I insisted the prof grunt out the name Hrunting.

What I am saying is they should have more wanton violence in school reading assignments.

So this one wasn't assigned to me, but it still managed to impact me greatly. Back in Arizona, I was dating a lovely lady who was taking some classes and was assigned the Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath.

You might know this as one of the more popular feminist novels out there, and my girlfriend hated it. She had a really hard time getting through it, I think a lot of its subject matter was triggering for her. So I also read it, to try and help her feel a little less alone.

There's this scene in the book, where the main character talks about this vision she has, of sitting under a fig tree, and every fig is a possibility of who she could be. And she wants to pick just the right one, but the longer she dallies the more just rot off the tree. That was exactly how I felt about my life at the time, and seeing this character go through so much wasn't so much a feminist awakening as it was a sign that the things I was feeling were felt by others, that the anxieties and terrors of this world were shared. I felt a lot less alone.

It was nice of Sylvia Plath to write the book, and I wish she hadn't killed herself. It seems to me that she could have used a book like the Bell Jar. But y'know how it is for Pagliacci.

Obviously there's a lot more than this. I picked the three that are always not far from my conscious mind, but there are so many. Like that short story about the guy being hanged, or Death of a Salesman. I have found in my experience that there is so much worth reading- everything you come into contact with will change you a bit, but books are a grand way to control who you are, who you wish to become. They're some of the best ways to become a person you'd like to be.

So yeah, literary analysis and reading comprehension are things that are important to learn, especially now. I was wondering a long time ago why my high school required so much english compared to everything else, and now I kinda just wish it was more.

But more than that, these classics connect us to each other. It lets converse with folks long gone and know that the horrors and hopes we carry were carried by those who came before. Maybe we can learn from them, or maybe we can just find some solace in being bound to another person across time and space.