My name is Liam Jarot. I’m a senior at Lewis University, majoring in English with a concentration in writing. My hobbies include watching movies (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, The Incredibles, and Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World being my favorites), reading comic books (Saga and Invincible are some definite highlights), and listening to music (classic rock is my comfort music, but I enjoy listening to a newly discovered label out of Chicago called Numero Group). Some of my favorite authors include Charles Soule, Stephen King, and Brian K. Vaughan for their endlessly engaging writing. After graduating, I plan on working with organizations through technical writing while pursuing creative writing on the side.
What book might we find on your nightstand right now?
I’m always reading something by my three favorite authors, including The Colorado Kid by Stephen King, Chronicles of the Lazarene by Charles Soule, and Ex Machina by Brian K. Vaughan.
If you had the chance to co-write with one author, who would you choose? Why?
I would love to co-write a book with Charles Soule because of the way he breaks stories down. For example, one of my favorite works by him, Eight Billion Genies, asks the question, “If everyone on Earth got a genie and one wish, what would happen?” There’s an endless number of stories that could come out from that, so I would’ve loved to have been in those meetings, listing off every kind of possibility I could think of, including where any loophole or inconsistency might show up, which Soule works out as well.
Describe the perfect reading atmosphere.
For me, the perfect reading atmosphere would be to have the house to me and my dog, Henry, lying by my side on the couch. My favorite season is winter, so I would also include a blanket and the fireplace going.
What piece of literature can you reread over and over again?
Forgive me for continuing to mention one of my favorite authors, but I would have to go with Star Wars: Light of the Jedi by Charles Soule. It was the first novel in the High Republic publishing line, meaning that an era in Star Wars started out in novels, with no TV or movie adaptations planned at the time. I can easily reread this book because of the many characters in it with their different perspectives. Every chapter introduces or reintroduces a character’s point of view and perspective, so the story never feels like it’s centered on one character for too long. I also love the inspirational message of fighting for a better tomorrow, as this book came out at a rough time for me and my family personally during the pandemic. Reading this book for the first time (and my reread a few years later) brings a sense of escapism and wonder that I can rarely find in a book today.
Share your top five favorite pieces of writing (anything included, be it movies, books, etc.)
5) Back to the Future – I chose this movie because of how deceptively simple yet entertaining the plot is, considering that it deals with time travel, an element of a movie that can easily get convoluted and confusing. The way that Marty McFly uses a photo of his family to signify the impact that he’s having on spending too much time in the past is a simple but effective method in telling the audience the stakes of the story. There may be plenty of inconsistencies that I don’t know about, but Back to the Future never gets old to me in how funny, lighthearted, and memorable its story and characters are.
4) Gravity Falls – I remember watching some early episodes of this show at my grandma’s house when those came out, but it wasn’t until just a few months ago that I started watching the show again from the start. I was shocked at how well the show held up, especially given the fact that I watched the show over 10 years since it started when I was so young. I didn’t just love it again out of nostalgia, but at how the characters feel as real as animated Disney characters can feel. Over the course of the show, most of the characters go through a genuine arc, dealing with both paranormal and personal issues as they spend the summer at a shack in the woods. This is one of those rare animated shows that a kid can enjoy just as much as an adult.
3) Saga – The best comics can only be told through that specific medium, giving a visual story while also not being limited by some sort of budget that some movies easily exaggerate with. Saga is an adult sci-fi fantasy series about a couple raising their kid through an always-chaotic world. As of this writing, it is 68 issues in (with a planned total of 108), and has been going since 2011. To me, Brian K. Vaughan writes the best dialogue in comics, if not in any medium. Every character has a quirk to them, whether subtle or obvious. If a character dies (with a couple exceptions), they stay that way, with the rest of the characters having to deal with the impact of it. That can’t be said for any book at Marvel and DC, as killing off a character from those companies brings a ton of controversy and backlash, so Vaughan is able to keep control of his universe as he sees fit with his co-creator, Fiona Staples on art. Another major part of why I love Saga is that Vaughan is not interested in having it adapted in any medium, as we all know how those go.
2) IT – The next two choices are pieces of media that I enjoyed at the right time in my life. When I first read IT, I was in 8th grade, going into high school. The way that Stephen King writes a story made it the most accessible to me at that age, as I was so curious about getting lost in long novels or TV shows that I hadn’t before, acting as a “step up” in what I was consuming. Regardless, any novel that is over 1,000 pages tends to have scenes that could’ve been edited out (and if you’ve read IT before, one specific scene should come up to you immediately), but I have fond memories of reading my white paperback copy in the car, outside my family’s house on our porch during the sunrise, and so on.
1) Once Upon a Time in Hollywood – Talk about something that came out right when I needed it to. Before I saw this movie, Quentin Tarantino was my favorite director, as I thought he made the most entertaining movies that could’ve been made. He has infamously said that he will only make 10 movies, of which Hollywood was his 9th. Even before I saw the first trailer, I was anticipating it to no end. Once I saw it with my dad on a Thursday night preview show, I immediately loved it. The reason that I choose this as my favorite movie is because of how I was able to enjoy it at the time of its release. I used to have a different favorite movie, but it never felt unique, as it’s a pretty popular choice. For this one, I feel like I’ve seen it more than most people, and watching it for the sixth time and over never gets old, as Tarantino writes dialogue in such a unique voice (praise that has been said time and time again, but I’d agree with it).