College Admissions Essay: Cabells Jurgen Speaks to My Heart :: College Admissions Essays

Cabells Jurgen Speaks to My Heart When I was in high school I just liked this book because it was bawdy and picaresque. The older I get, though, the more I return to it and the more it speaks to my life. I only recently realized that its a comment on Goethes Faust, too. But then despite some(prenominal) starts Ive yet to read Faust all the way through and Ive read Jurgen four or five times. Because of Jurgen Ive read other books by Cabell, and even acquired a slightly rare set of his works. I havent read them all yet, but Ive read some. Some are just entertainments, but in others he melds good storytelling with something deeper. His Figures of Earth, for example, is not only a funny book, but it says much thats painfully true about our existence that Ive never heard another author say. The way he mixes satire and humor and wit and a statement about humankind all together is something I aspire to in my own writing. From Jurgen I got the initial outside confirmation that someone other than me found life to be a profound dark comedy. I already felt this, but didnt assurance in my own feelings. In school I was encouraged to see life as a actually serious affair, and to dismiss the comic prefigure of view as being pleasant but trivial. But I didnt and dont believe any of that in my heart. Jurgen helped me listen to my heart. As it happens, I dont think theres unfeignedly anything to be done about it. For better and for worse, my writing is at least somewhat comic even when there are serious issues at stake, and I cant change who I am or how I see things. But Ive also learned over the years that comedy and tragedy are very close. The difference is not so much one of subject matter but of attitude. Both can encompass serious issues. And while tragedy is the temper of regret, comedy is the mode of forgiveness. Without intending it, I find that everything I write turns out to be about folly, illusion, self-deception.