Idiosyncrasy
My perfectionist tendencies come after me like a three headed dog every single time I want to start a new project. The three heads insist: You’re not starting correctly! They always wish me to start at the beginning, wherever the beginning happens to be: temporal beginning, historical overview, etc.
I appreciate the pup’s warning. Inherent in the desire to start “at the beginning” or “in the right way” is the notion that my learning benefits from coherence. This is the kind of coherence I attempt to curate in my class. I begin my intermediate classes with three weeks of background knowledge so students can approach information with a common vocabulary. And, yet, they still feel unmoored. So, my clumsy canine companion isn’t wrong. But, the little pup isn’t right either.
As a poet writing in a Black tradition of poetry, I love an anthology of Black poetry. The overview helps me understand at least one narrative of how the poetry coheres, and, more importantly for me, what tools I need to read it. If had listened to that three-headed dog, I’d be stuck into Norton anthologies of poetry broadly (which would mean European traditions with a smattering of Black folks) or immersed in books about meter, which isn’t my immediate poetic concern. The anthology seems like a useful compromise. It provides coherence, but also idiosyncrasy.
It has been my experience that we all come to our projects in idiosyncratic ways. For instance, in reading The Best Minds by Jonathan Rosen, I see Rosen’s approach to the high theory discussions of the 1980s as more intwined with the deinstitutionalization process in the US. This is resonant with my own understanding of that time period, but my approach hinged on thinking of those scholars as part of a post-war conversation. Both approaches are idiosyncratic. Both have merit.
More than once, I have been tempted to understand my own idiosyncrasy as simply incorrect. There is a right way, the dog insists. But, the more I talk to other writers and scholars, the more I realize that the beauty and the insight of their work comes as a result of these idiosyncratic approaches, not despite of it.
To use a phrase, lean in. Pet the dog. Even feed it. But, don’t let it walk you.
Between you and me, I am interested in expanding Inquiry Editing with a product that might help folks help themselves. Not everyone has access to discretionary funding and not everyone is interested in laying their writing bare for someone else. I get it. But, I am not sure what product you all might need most. Feel free to let me know what you might be interested in!