Contemporary. Classic. Two different words that relate to two very different ideas. Why did I choose those random words as my title? Simple; life itself is an oxymoron. We die to live and live to die. Usually, one thing can't exist without the other. My whole being is basically made up of opposites and contradictions. Just like the books I read.
At one point of my life, I was consumed with reading almost every Victorian era romance novel that ever existed. It almost got to the point where I gave up sleep and homework just to finish a book that left me a little less than satisfied. Then came the time when I discovered the “joy” of reading dark novels. I mean how does a person go from reading sappy stories like Austen’s Pride and Prejudice that was set in the all-real past, to something as gruesome and ultra-violent as A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess (which by the way, is a very good book with some interesting points on the notion of free will), set in a fictional future? I guess my nature needs both. One left me a little content and the other left me contemplative.
Hopefully the literature that I read in class will cover both areas. If not, I could always stay up until 3 A.M. finishing my copy of The Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker.
