"I want to see a piece of the essayist. I want to see a mind at work, imagining, spinning, struggling to understand. If the essayist has all the answers, he isn't struggling to grasp, and I won't either. When you care about something, you continually grapple with it, because it is alive in you. It thrashes and moves, like all living things." (Atwan 22) My quote, by Alan Lightman, really hits home with me. I think his abstract wording and ideas help me to relate to him. When I read an essay, I too want to learn a little bit about the writer, not just the topic. For me, an essay is truly successful if it makes the reader want to go out and search about the topic on their own. A good essay should bring up all the questions lingering in the essayist’s mind but doesn’t always have to answer them. They may possibly leave some of the answering up to the reader to discover. Another good point that Lightman brings up is how a reader should be able to feel the passion of the writer through the ink and pages. Its chain reaction, when the writer is truly excited or interested in the subject, the reader tends to feel the same. An essayist who really struggles with a topic, almost to the point where it seems to haunt him, will automatically become a better writer because he pours his emotions, frustrations, accomplishment, and more onto the page. If the writer isn’t struggling, in a good way, the reader won’t either. Thus, if the writer isn’t interested in the topic, there can be no hope for the reader. Again, the wording is brilliant and it caught my eye, especially the line, “When you care about something, you continually grapple with it, because it is alive in you. It thrashes and moves, like all living things.” I believe that when you stumble across an amazing essay, or any piece of writing, you will be able to feel the words trying to thrash themselves off the page. They scream at you, grab your attention, take you along for the ride and don’t let you go until the writing is finished. After you finish reading, take a deep breath and all you can do is mutter, “wow..” Now, I know this doesn’t happen very often, but isn’t it amazing when it does? Those are the pieces of writing that you’ll remember.
