Chris Morley
A1
The fact that I am a “moderately expressed extrovert” (human metrics website) I find hard to believe. If I had to analyse myself, I would perhaps sing from the rooftops that I like being loud, or write a message on my naked body and walk down the street for all the world to see, I certainly consider myself rather extroverted. However, the results were generally quite accurate and somewhat disturbing, dissecting aspects of my personality that I prefer to have left alone. That I am extroverted I will happily proclaim, yet, the analysis of the ENFP personality type states that the 'Champion' type have a strong desire and intent to “always be themselves”, a trait I have noticed in myself, when at times I seem to go out of my way, and venture from my true self, so that I might better conform to my image of myself. Confusing, undoubtedly.
In application to my literary style; that of how I read, write, talk, interpret; the results are quite correct. I do indeed try to interpret a grander, underlying message behind the simplest of things, looking beyond 'mere facts' to what these facts imply and how they came about. I also take a great pleasure in relating my interpretations or my hastily constructed 'wisdom' to others, whether or not it is welcome. My emotional attachment to my discoveries, the excitement I feel as I learn, can often lead me to be more confusing “spilling”, as the analysis says, “over...[my]...own words to get it all out”. In writing, I always hope to discover a greater truth within myself as I write, I'm always looking to dissect my chosen subject and expose the truth behind it, or, indeed, the lies. I find myself writing many times more than is necessary, expressing everything I could ever want to with ever increasing verbosity, and an ever weakening grasp of grammar. I stretch the syntax beyond its breaking point, leaving sentences incomplete and...
This applies equally in my reading, as I delve ever deeper in search of the writer's true intent, the hidden meaning. As in my writing, when I often get lost in inspection, I find that my reading and synthesis sometimes suffers as a result of my search for deeper meaning, or, quite often, my emotional reaction to the text. As I did with Watt's 'The World is Your Body', I form a strong reaction to the author, in Watt's case, a strong negative reaction to a pompous and condescending close minded spiritualist (note 'close minded spiritualist' becomes the negative epithet, not 'spiritualist' as a description is merely neutral), and seem to blind myself to what value his words may hold.
Ultimately, I do learn a lot from reading and writing, I enjoy it and, I express without a hint of uncertainty, I am good at it, my goal lies in clarifying my methods, attaining a perfect balance of thoughtful and emotional reaction, achieving the 'nirvana' of literature.