Steve Almond

Anyone can write a story about people addressing and going after their desires, few people can do it in such a real setting as Steve Almond. In fact, as I realized just how real he portrays his characters I didn’t expect to learn much from this lecture. I have to admit and apologize for the fact that I started this lecture with a prejudice set in my mind, this started when he first said the line “there will be fucking”. I saw a crudeness that blocked me from really feeling his words and looking beyond the imagery that was produced. He forced my mind to see two different scenarios in his readings. One story was about two people of very average appearance sloppily pushing together in the throes of passion and another was about skull fucking a girl without an eye. However, at the end of the first story you learn that part of the reason why the woman was so sloppy was the fact that she had a disease which impaired her coordination. This made me stop and think about what Almond was actually saying by putting these average people in a highly romantic situation with very really personas, desires, and looks. At the end of the second story with the question and answer session I was further relieved of my prejudice when he talked about how he wanted to give real emotions and feelings to a subject as private and taboo as skull fucking. Now I understand what Steve Almond was trying to teach me about how realness is nothing to be afraid of. We should not lie to ourselves by have unrealistic expectations towards any sort of life experience, especially sex. The beauty of his writing is in the reality.

The first thing I learned from Steve Almond, once I stopped feeling a prejudice was an awareness of myself. I learned that I had this prejudice which kept me from really listening to the story. I had a prejudice against normalcy because when he started telling us about an imperfect summer romance I stopped wanting to see the normalcy of the people, the extremely flawed people that made up this story. This prejudice showed me that I need to be more open to the fact that people don’t fit perfectly into my criteria of what is normal is not normal. When I believe someone to be below me I need to stop, figure out why I think that, and then stop thinking that way. These imperfect people are more normal than most of the images I strive to replicate when I usually watch a movie or read a book.

I also learned that I need to be honest about how I see the world. This is one criterion of the things that Steve Almond said makes a good writer, the ability to tell the world the truth even when most people don’t want to hear it. People don’t want to hear about the truth of life and how messy and revealing true desire and passion really is.  We want the fantasy where good writing doesn't matter as long as the girl gets to be with the boy and they find some sort of sanctuary in each other. Realistically at the end of a relationship you don’t look back at a perfect relationship that ended for out there, crazy reasons, such as they became a vampire or the got murdered. Usually you split up for normal reasons such as they expected too much from you or they weren't the prince charming you expected. It is normal look at past relationships as a lesson, a stepping stone towards your desired ultimate happiness (this usually occurs after all the depression, eating of brownies, and thinking that you’re going to die alone).  Although we love the unrealistic stories it is just not true that the supermodel is going to fall anyone who is below average looking and socially awkward. These fantasies ultimately only produce unhappiness from our normalcy. Steve Almond celebrates normalcy in all aspects; job, friends, desires, and love. There is something wrong with the fact that we are content behind our fantasies of perfection where sex is clean and love is pure.