APPRECIATON #81: THE PROMISE OF PUZZLEMENT OR FASCINATION PREGNANT IN SOME SENTENCES

I love passionate writing about subjects I may or may not know anything about. It’s almost better if I don’t think I like the topic. It’s the passion that I love. I want to hear about it, and know why others like it. Sometimes I’m converted, and sometimes I’m confused. I want to understand. I want to see. Desire is a universal trait, how and where that desire and passion gets channeled is not. This fascinates me.

I just read about a book that I often read with my high school students being banned in a school in Florida. The author found the reasoning and justification “puzzling and fascinating.” I love that.

So many things in this world puzzle and fascinate me. Often I am fascinated because I am puzzled, and puzzled because I am fascinated. Why pine cones? Why blue 1985 Chevy Celebrities with vinyl tops? Why typewriters? Why International Pathfinder 8000 8-Band Radios? Etc.

Sometimes a single sentence can produce puzzlement or fascination WITH the implied promise of clarification. Here are six examples of what I am talking about:

1. This is the first sentence of Lab Girl by Hope Jahren:

There is nothing in the world more perfect than a slide rule. 

2. Kio Stark said this in her TED Talk “Why you should talk to strangers”:

I am obsessed with talking to strangers.

3. I remember reading this sentence somewhere:

I am a sentence connoisseur.

I thought it might be in Jhumpa Luhari’s essay “My Life’s Sentences.” It didn’t apper to be. Then I thought It might be in Stanley Fish’s How To Write A Sentence, and then I thought it was in Verlyn Klinkenborg’s Several short sentences about writing. It didn’t appear to be. But, I do think all three of the aforementioned sources could be summed up in that sentence.

4. Halfway through this video by Great Big Story about the fastest mochi pounder in Japan, the fastest mochi pounder in Japan says:

I live for mochi pounding.

5. I’ve heard Sarah Vowell describe herself as a civics nerd.

6. This is the introductory quotation to Sarah Vowell’s book Take The Cannoli:

I love songs about horses, railroads, land, judgment day, family, hard times, whiskey, courtship, marriage, adultery, separation, murder, war, prison, rambling, damnation, home, salvation, death, pride, humor, piety, rebellion, patriotism, larceny, determination, tragedy, rowdiness, heartbreak and love. And Mother. And God.   – Johnny Cash

7. In the beginning of Munir Virami’s Ted Talk: “Why I love vultures” he begins with describing common negative perceptions and then states that he is going to try to change your mind. He says it like this:

When you see a vulture like this, the first thing that comes to your mind is, these are disgusting, ugly, greedy creatures that are just after your flesh, associated with politicians. (Laughter) (Applause) I want to change that perception.

I love a sentence that implies an explanation. In class I try to get students to write about things that they like, enjoy, know about, or are curious about. Taking a cue from the above sentences, I think these are all decent sentence frames to begin a speech or essay or explanation.

1. I love ______, ________, _________, _________, etc. And_____. And ________.
2. I am a _________ nerd.
3. I live for ___________.
4. I am a ________ connoisseur.
5. I am obsessed with ______________.
6. There is nothing in the world more perfect than _______________.
7. When you see a _________the first thing that comes to your mind is __________, ________, etc. I want to ___________________.