Roger the Writer, Not the Reader

Another strange thing to talk about is how when Roger (i.e. Kenneth Lobb) starts out on the trip, he’s a writer but not a reader. That's a flip from the norm. He’s been keeping a daily journal for quite some time, but keeps reading material at arm’s length. Just by virtue of typing out this story in day-to-day format shows that. “I never read any Huck Finn books, but I knew the themes,” Roger says while being camped out at the Mississippi River. But how did that pan out? It doesn’t seem to follow the usual scheme of events—being a writer but not a reader. But that is true. I was always writing . . . always had the need to express myself, to jot something down. That’s probably because I never had the friendship outlet or the security bond with my parents to express all I felt I needed to express—even with Otto. There was always something more that needed to be said, to be pondered, to be withheld from the verbal realm.  So I turned to writing it down. It never occurred to me I needed to know another person’s (i.e. author’s)  viewpoint before I could properly “join the conversation.” It didn’t strike me until I hit Hanford Library and decided that I'd better start reading (it didn’t happen THAT starkly, by the way, but it’ll do as a good point of reference). However, I believe I actually said to Otto, as Roger does to Otto on page 219, “I’m going to write a book someday if I ever find a subject.” Otto actually said back to me, “Don’t forget to put me in it.  Mention this ice could water foundtain, why don’t ya. This spouritn’ stream eased this kid’s dry innards.”