I think it’s time we talk about Jonathan Safran Foer.

If you haven’t heard of him, do a quick google search and read about his books, his publishing career, and the amazingly polarized views of his status as a prominent post-modern writer. Anyone who has read his books has an opinion, and it’s likely to be a strong one. Personally, I’m a fan, but I can see how others would be put off. That’s not what I want to talk about. I want to talk instead about writing as a life rather than a craft.

I first read “Everything is Illuminated” in 2005, and I can say it was one of those books that really changed my outlook on writing. Not long after that, I read “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” and I found myself attached to the characters more so than I’ve ever been attached to a character before. I was there, in it, with Oskar as he searched New York City. I subsequently taught the book to my students at two different schools. To this day, many students hold ELIC as one of their favorites, which in my mind is a victory, because this means they actually read something.

Criticism of the books aside, Foer has done something quite astounding with his writing: he has developed more than just a style, more than just a career. He has developed a new way to communicate, one that resonates with a generation of texters and sexters and facebookers. Many blew off ELIC as a gimmick, with photos to keep the children in the room entertained. But after reading the text and taking the photos in context, those in the generation of mile-a-minute news and five-minute internet celebrities can see the combination of text and visual and come to an understanding. Synergy can exist in this combination, and anyone who has received a picture message might be able to understand that.

Don’t get me wrong: I’m a writer, and I mourn the days when people, especially the youth, had attention spans that stretched slightly beyond 140 characters; when a first draft of a book was written on a typewriter, or, GASP! by hand. I also recognize, however, that the most tried and true methods are not always the most efficient…or the most interesting.

So Foer’s approach appeals to me, even though his books can get bogged down sometimes with their own cleverness. I grew up on the cusp of the technology revolution, so I can look back and see a typewriter, and look forward and see an iPhone. I’m often torn as to which way to turn the majority of the time. As a writer who struggles with a changing publishing paradigm, a rapidly evolving modernist or post-modernist atmosphere in literature, and the transferral of literary fiction to the back burner in lieu of the hotter, easier to digest YA fiction (some of which is worthy of no more than a text message review anyway), Foer’s approach appeals to me…and scares me to death. It takes a unique voice to do what he is doing, for better or worse. That’s a high bar to even remotely approach.