Rethinking Genre

     When I was a kid, we didn't have padding under our jungle gyms. We had rocks.
     We didn't have safety belts on our swing sets. The whole goal was to get as high as you could, then launch yourself into the stratosphere.
     We rode our bikes without helmets. Without shoes. Sometimes without clothes.

     We played in creeks, ran through abandoned houses, went dam sliding, jumped on trampolines, ran our go-karts straight into oncoming traffic, and played with BB guns, with half the time spent pumping them up 'cause we'd heard you could take out an eye.
     We parachuted out of trees with bedsheets, threw lawn darts at each other, and had no sunblock, so we got burned to a crisp. Summer officially started when the first kid turned as red as a thermometer. Then we had peeling parties.
     We blew up Barbie dolls with M-80s, we ran with scissors, and our Halloween costumes were made of asbestos.
     But for safety, our moms made us wait an hour after we ate before we went swimming.


Lee, Robert G. "The Childproof Life." Reader's Digest. Sept. 2010: p. 113.




     This is kind of like a modern sonnet: a sonnet to remembering those "good old days" so often idealized. The whole first of the text details scene after scene of those "dangerous" situations of childhood. The final line then flips the emphasis of the text to emphasize its meaning for the present audience. Rethinking genre...I think "rethinking genre" is the era of literature I feel most presently. And I hope more of my writing mimics genres, reworks genres, and analyzes genre to reveal new and innovative ways of meaning. I have my first writing goal!


originally written, EAG
August 27, 2010