10/1/2025
busy busy day
in lecture today, we were talking about contemporary reviews for passing by nella larsen and my professor mentioned that the most important things a piece of literary criticism can do + should do is tell you why and how
i was more fascinated by the why because he meant specifically why she made the ending ambiguous, why it seemed like things were left unresolved and if that was the goal
and something clicked for me then because i realized that you can do and you don't always have to spell everything out, especially if you're creating
and challengers was one of my favorite movies last year and it did the same thing so i knew this already, except the reaction to that from my mom was irritation that she didn't get a clear conclusion to the story, so i was trying to create some distance from that and my own story ideas, i suppose?
all in all, it was a good day and i'm glad that someone i respect was able to verbalize this. he's done so before, too, and i know i've written about it because i'm getting a really strong feeling that this has happened before. it's like he can read my thoughts
anyway, that's how my day went! see you tomorrow