The unraveling

[Xavier Iriarte he/him]

Im not sure if this is the right place to post this, if it isn´t, please let me know where it should go.

I had to write an essay for my english class detailing the people or circumstances that lead me to start reading. I decided to tell my story in a sort of unusual format, interweaving two stories at the same time, i used the prologue of Oathbringer, and i hope the reason why becomes clear once you´ve read my essay.

Im looking for feedback mainly regarding the clarity of it all. Do you understand the structure of the essay? If not, how could i make it clearer? Do you think it makes for an engaging story? 

If you think my essay works well as it is, please let me know, i would very much appreciate it. With that said, im open to all kinds of constructive criticism.

 

Spoiler

The unraveling

 

It's 2 am in the morning and I am laying on the couch of an apartment we rented for our vacations, tomorrow we are going out early but I just can't sleep, not yet.

 

“All great art is hated,” Wit said. […]

“It is obscenely difficult ─if not impossible─to make something that nobody hates,” Wit continued. “Conversely, it is incredibly easy─if not expected─ to make something that nobody loves.”

 

Growing up I wasn’t much of a reader, actually I’d say quite the opposite. Only once had I gotten into a book, as I reached half of Jules Verne's “The mysterious island” and then just left it there, unfinished. I made multiple attempts at finishing the book, but every time I would only manage to get 10 pages in before inevitably falling asleep. The book was given to me by my grandfather. My family had always said that I was very much like him, which was ironic seeing as he was a published author and I hadn’t ever actually read a book in my life. Eventually that would change, thanks to one of the most amazing people I know.

 

I check the hour again. I could finish it tomorrow really; it wouldn’t make much of a difference. My eyes are closing and I have to make a decision. I'll do it.

 

This makes sense, if you think about it. Art is about emotion, examination, and going places people have never gone before to discover and investigate new things. The only way to create something that nobody hates is to make sure that it can’t be loved either. Remove enough spice from the soup, and you ́ll just end up with water.”

 

One day, in the last year of middle school, my best friend Andrea was reading a book. I asked her what she was reading and she told me it was Percy Jackson, and that she really thought I would like it. Immediately, I answered what I always did when a situation like this one came up. “I don’t doubt that I would like it, but you know that I can´t read”. She responded without hesitation. “I'll read it to you”. Now, there was a bit of a problem, given that she was reading Percy Jackson three and I, needless to say, didn’t know anything about the first two. Just as readily as she offered to read, she offered to briefly summarize the first two books for me and explain anything that I might not understand. I thought it would be fun, so I accepted, and in between classes she would read to me. This happened towards the end of the semester so we weren’t really doing much at school, which meant she had a lot of time to read, and I had a lot of time to listen. Over the span of two days she read nearly 60 pages

 

I'm actually going to do it, I never thought I'd get this far.

 

Human taste is as varied as human fingerprints,” Wit said. “Nobody will like everything, everybody dislikes something, someone loves that thing you hate─but at least being hated is better than nothing. To risk metaphor, a grand painting is often about contrast: brightest brights, darkest darks. Not gray mush.

 

At the end of the second day she asked me if I was liking the story so far, and I answered with the truth. I was loving it. That’s when she told me that if I wanted to know what happened next, I would have to read it for myself, and she gave me the book. I don’t think there are words for how much she changed my life in that moment. I accepted and said I'd try my best, but I didn’t think that my chances were especially good. We left school early that day, at about 9 am. On the way home I was a little nervous, I couldn’t imagine having to walk up to Andrea and telling her “You know how you read sixty pages of a book out loud for me and also summarized two other books while answering every doubt I had? Well, I didn’t actually read the book”. So, I decided I would read it, this time I would. I laid down to read in my bed at about 10 am in the morning. Needless to say, being a person that didn’t read, I was a slow reader. At the pace I read I figured three days would be a decent amount of time to finish the book, as it wasn’t that long and I had a good head start. You can probably imagine my surprise when I stepped out of bed having finished the book that same day at 8 pm. To this day I don’t really know how, but I read for about 7 hours straight, only taking breaks to have lunch and dinner.

 

Now my eyes are getting really heavy, but my heart is racing as I reflect on the personal achievement I am about to culminate.

 

“That a thing is hated is not proof that it is great art, but the lack of hatred is certainly proof that it is not.”

 

I can't express the happiness I felt the next day, telling Andrea that I had finished my first real book, and it was thanks to her. It seemed a bit of a silly achievement, reading a book at 16, people start reading books when they are little kids on some cases. But she knew how much it meant to me, and so she shared that happiness with me. She also told me that the series was 5 books long, and that I should read the last two. I had loved the third one (Although the first for me) so I agreed, and I asked a friend that happened to have all 5 books to lend me the fourth. I took it home and read it in a day. The next day I asked him for the fifth. I took it home and read it in a day. And that was it, the saga was over. And that’s when it hit me.

 

I shift positions in the couch. It's not really a big couch and I barely fit, but there were only two beds, and my parents and sisters had claimed them. It doesn’t matter, right now nothing matters.

 

“The question becomes,” he whispered to her, “how many people need to love a piece of art to make it worthwhile? If you’re inevitably going to inspire hate, then how much enjoyment is needed to balance out the risk?”

 

I hadn’t anticipated the effect finishing the fifth book was going to have on me, this story that I loved so much that it got me from never having read a book to having read three in the last three days, was over. I felt a pit in my stomach, I was wishing that somehow there was more. I went for a bike ride in which I thought of the series, I thought of the fifth book and how it made me feel. I thought of moments that I enjoyed, moments that made me angry, moments that made me sad. I thought of how much I loved the end of the book. That bike ride was when I realized that while that series was definitely over, there were many more out there that I might like, the first moment where I really considered starting to read, the first moment that I thought of books as interesting, the first moment where I noticed that maybe, just maybe, I loved reading. All thanks to a very determined and loving friend.

 

“I think, in answer to my question… I think it only takes one.”

 

And in that moment, two years after first having read Percy Jackson, I finished the third book of the one that would become my favorite series, The Stormlight Archive. A book series that has a combined 3342 pages. I went to sleep, with the biggest smile on my face.

 

[+Ed Venture]

Dude! That’s an awesome essay! I know you want some constructive criticism but I’m just going to marvel at how wonderful it was! You put a lot of time into writing that and it obviously turned out great! I hope you get a good grade!

[Xavier Iriarte he/him]

@Butt Ad Venture Thanks! It means a lot to hear that