Kendall Henderson

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I'm Kendall and I'm a senior English major from Greenville. I don't really like to talk about myself but I like to make lists so here are the things I am mainly into: music, movies, tv, books, art, plants, astrology, the beauty and fashion industries, learning, writing, reading.  I like to read novels, nonfiction books, personal essays, poetry, the news, film and tv reviews, interviews, graphic novels, and magazines. I don't particularly like the classics. I can appreciate why we study them but feel no personal connection to them or inspiration from them. I like to learn about new ideas or techniques or concepts that are emerging in the world but I know at the same time you need an appreciation of history to fully understand them, so I try to get some of that understanding from my English classes. I honestly care more about my creative writing minor, though. My favorite author is Curtis Sittenfeld and my favorite book is Prep (which she wrote). I also love her book The Man of My Dreams. Most of my favorite books are about unlikable women and women who feel lost/ostracized/self-conscious/curious about the world. I love Bad Marie by Marcy Dermansky and The Circle by Dave Eggers. I also really love young adult fiction in general. Maybe because I still feel like a teenager or because I think the feelings of teenagers/adolescents continue well on into adulthood and are just better masked and adolescent emotions are somehow purer because they haven't been skewed by the weird falseness expected of you as an adult. However, I mostly hate young adult fiction with premises like "Jane lived a humdrum life until suddenly hot, mysterious John moved in across the street and made eye contact with her..." I would really rather read about anything else than the melodrama of suburban teenage heterosexual dating. Hopefully in the future I will write anything but that.

Comments

  1. AnonymousAugust 25, 2016 at 10:47 PM

    I agree with you about melodramatic books. I would like to read any books you write in the future.

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownAugust 26, 2016 at 7:31 AM

    I think you make a great point about appreciating "the Classics" but not really feeling a connection to them. I believe that might be why so many young people stop reading or lose their love for reading in Middle and High school. We hand them a 200 year old book and say, "Here. Read this. It's the best thing ever written." But there's no connection for them. One of my goals for this class is to learn about new titles (from the class and everyone's great suggestions) that I can offer in my classroom.

    ReplyDelete
  3. UnknownAugust 26, 2016 at 7:31 AM

    I think you make a great point about appreciating "the Classics" but not really feeling a connection to them. I believe that might be why so many young people stop reading or lose their love for reading in Middle and High school. We hand them a 200 year old book and say, "Here. Read this. It's the best thing ever written." But there's no connection for them. One of my goals for this class is to learn about new titles (from the class and everyone's great suggestions) that I can offer in my classroom.

    ReplyDelete
  4. UnknownAugust 26, 2016 at 8:31 AM

    I also have a hard time connecting with the classics but I usually find that it can be done. It just takes time. Sometimes more than we can afford.

    ReplyDelete

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