The Iconoclast

#1 Here I Am

I'll start with a nice little introduction.

I've been writing since I was about 13, but it's taken me several years to cultivate my style and gain a decent grasp of the English language. I enjoy writing prose much more than poetry. Prose is really my strong suit, and most of the time, poetry just doesn't convey my emotions properly. Don't get me wrong, I love reading poetry. My favorite poem is A.E.Housman's "To an Athlete Dying Young." I love his subtle, haunting imagery and his sarcastic tone. Alas, as much as I would like to say that I'm a brilliant, poignant poet like Housman, I am not. Don't get me wrong, I like to write poetry, just not a lot of it.

Which brings me to my next point: I am a perfectionist. Everything I write must be constructed in precisely the correct way so as to convey my thoughts and feelings. Anything less is bad, wrong, and somehow incomplete. Over time, I've just learned to let certain things go and not obsess over perfection, but it can be quite difficult.

My last point is that I love writing about notions of gender and sexuality, particularly rape and the loss of innocence. You'll sometimes see me discuss these kinds of things here in blunt, unapologetic language. This is the reason I rated this journal 18+. That, and I plan to drop a few f-bombs just to make fun of the fact that any item with one use of the word "fuck" automatically gets an 18+ rating. I plan on earning my 18+ rating, Goddammit. The reason that I didn't choose the GC rating was that 1)I want this journal to be accessable to everyone, and 2)I don't plan on discussing sex all the time, in explicit detail. With the 18+ rating, I feel that I have carte blanche to use words like "rape," "abortion," and "penis" without having to worry about substituting them with phrases like "forced intercourse," "pregnancy termination," and "weewee" for those of you who are easily offended. Let's put it this way: if you don't know where babies come from, you will after you've read this journal!