Assignment 1 9/9/22

Ever since I was a young child my parents always supported my fervent obsession with learning. I was deeply curious about the world around me. In middle school, my parents got me this series of books called ‘Horrible Histories’. They were children’s books that had a focus on violent and strange lives of peoples from civilizations of the past. The books were strewn with some pretty graphic cartoon violence and a toy be in cheek writing style. I was obsessed with them. All throughout middle school my appetite for reading increased rapidly. With all the extracurricular reading, I felt like I could express my thoughts more clearly. 

At school anything that was English or social studies related was for me, while anything regarding math was extremely difficult. Most of the time school was a slog to push through. Barring the periods where I got to goof around with my friends everything teetered from being tedious boredom to frustration. My inspiration at this time was my social studies teacher Steve Krinsky. His class was one of the very few where I actually felt mentally stimulated. I felt like I could really engage with him about my interest without hesitation. During this period I was reading books like Animal Farm, Catcher in the Rye, Things Fall Apart among others.

 Around this time I also started to explore the internet by myself. I frequented ‘Rate Your Music’ and ‘My Anime List’; spaces in which users would be able to log and post their thoughts on the media that they were consuming. Although I didn't post much I gained a lot of insight from lurking through the discussions in the forums. While I learned a good amount about the topics that those websites were focused on, what really grabbed me was the parasocial aspect. Small communities where everyone knew each other. The discussions ranged from thought provoking, to comically vitriolic. My time spent there helped me become much more internet literate. 

Later on in high school, I feel like my reading habits have slowed down, but I was progressing into understanding more advanced material. In particular writers like Camus had shaped my outlook on life significantly. Life at this point was a lot more stressful as I was battling depression. Reading didn’t have the same appeal as it once did, although to be fair most things had lost their luster when I was in my slump.

I feel as though literacy to me now is extremely important. My lifetime worth of reading has shaped who I am, and has helped me on a path of introspection. In this time of mass confusion, and hyper stimulation, I’m thankful that I have some basis of an understanding of the world around me. There are plenty of figures who have inspired me to become more well read. Joshua Citarella is a contemporary artist and founder of the open publishing platform ‘Do Not Research’ which has writings about art, and culture within a post-internet age.