Dawn Cooper

How it Happened That I Became an English Major in the Early Years of the Twenty-First Century

            I have always loved reading and writing, but I had heard the adage that after college graduation, English majors have no future career and end up living in a cardboard box, so after high school I enrolled at my community college as an Office Management major. Unlike a writer, a secretary is needed and paid well so it became my plan B. Plan A was to write, always. Much as Donadio said in Revisiting the Canon Wars, I wondered “what will this major do for my career prospects?” Despite my worries, I pursued my Bachelors in English with a focus in creative writing. Having the education for the sake of knowledge is worth the loans and time spent as an older student among teenagers even if I’m not ever successful as a professional writer.

            As I’ve become serious about writing, I’ve encountered the conflict that Gopnik discusses regarding abridgement versus originality of voice. I’ve tried to find that transcendental quality I want so badly for my writing to have because my stories are, so far, neither horrible nor outstanding and that is simply not good enough. Gopnik says that “masterpieces are inherently a little loony” and I heartily agree. If you take away what makes the story special and unique for the sake of length, you have sacrificed the whole point. A piece can always change focus to find a new “point” but as a writer I know letting go of that first vision is like watching the child you dreamed would continue the family business decide to sign up for the peace corps and then move to Zimbabwe. It is painful and stressful and the entire time the writer knows this new edit will never work and the child will never find happiness in the jungle when he could be at home selling plumbing fixtures by your side. If authors of classics that are being abridged knew what was happening to their works, they would most likely shed real tears over their visions being lost. I know that I, as a writer in the early part of the twentieth century, will have to fight someday with editors to keep pieces of my work from being nibbled off, but I welcome the fight. Writing challenges, inspires, and thrills me, a process worth all the loans and editing this world can throw at me.