Tony Norman writes for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette spoke, and is someone whom I admire. When I heard that he was speaking at Cal I knew it was something I didn't want to miss. Tony discussed a variety of topics from his personal thoughts on the Pittsburgh Police Force to tips for young writers in the audience.
One of the more interesting moments of the evening came when Tony put himself in the shoes of a dictator, and said that he would only have one totalitarian rule, and that would be for people to read the classics. Tony thinks that people should be reading a book every month or so and that the fact that this is not the case is detrimental to society. As someone who loves the classics and reading in general this really rang true for me. I consider myself to be well read for my age; I count Kurt Vonnegut, James Joyce, Hunter S. Thompson, and Ray Bradbury among my favorite authors.
Tony said that if the deepest thing you think about this year is True Detective then you're pathetic. Pathetic sounded a bit harsh, considering that most of my friends and family would fall within this spectrum. But his statement made an impact on me, not only because of the aggressive nature of it, but also because its true.
He went on to say that as a parent one of the things he is most proud of is that he has raised children who read.
One of the more interesting moments of the evening came when Tony put himself in the shoes of a dictator, and said that he would only have one totalitarian rule, and that would be for people to read the classics. Tony thinks that people should be reading a book every month or so and that the fact that this is not the case is detrimental to society. As someone who loves the classics and reading in general this really rang true for me. I consider myself to be well read for my age; I count Kurt Vonnegut, James Joyce, Hunter S. Thompson, and Ray Bradbury among my favorite authors.
Tony said that if the deepest thing you think about this year is True Detective then you're pathetic. Pathetic sounded a bit harsh, considering that most of my friends and family would fall within this spectrum. But his statement made an impact on me, not only because of the aggressive nature of it, but also because its true.
He went on to say that as a parent one of the things he is most proud of is that he has raised children who read.