In Defense of Egotism

"In most books, the I, or the first person, is omitted; in this it will be retained; that, in respect to egotism, is the main difference. . . .I should not talk so much about myself if there were anybody else whom I knew as well." - Henry David Thoreau

I had a talk with my favorite tree, Annie Oakleaf, the other day. She's sort of like my alter ego. "Annie, can you figure out why these web site people don't like creative stories?", I asked.

"Why you askin' me? You know I don't have a hankering for that indoor stuff," she answered.

"Come on now, you always seem to have your feet rooted firmly on the ground. That's why I asked you," I replied.

"You should have asked Sylvia, or somebody else."

"Okay, how would you like it if someone came up to you and started cutting on your roots to make you go into a cookie cutter shape?"

"What's a cookie cutter? Sounds pretty scary," she answered with a flutter.

"Believe me, you don't want to find out the hard way like I did," I came back, baiting her to listen to my vent.

"Well, alright. Lean up here on my trunk and tell me all about it."

So I did, and I had a moment of reverie while I was at it. I must have aroused Annie's curiosity, because she rustled into my thoughts wanting to know more about it. So then I proceeded.

"So many people seemed to be grouchy, almost flaming on the community boards that night. I had requested for one of my stories to be critiqued, and the authoritative lady who did the critique said 'lovely stories'. Barely a week went by, and she criticized the use of the word 'I'. The intimation that I read into her message was that using the word 'I' makes the whole context of the story about the author."

Well, then I cited some famous authors that write in first person using the word 'I'. Then one thought lead to another and it was decided that the right cookie cutter for my stories would be creative writing. Well, you know me, I'm not a category person, and I can't see why creativity and information cannot go into the same mix? You know what I mean?"

"Turn the page, sweetie," said Annie.