A crusade against rigid rationalism, the Sturm und Drang movement had always interested me as a writer. It marked an era in which self-expression was paramount, an era in which one’s darkest emotions and most triumphant accomplishments could be celebrated with explosive honesty and sincerity. It honed in on our desire to express our most troubling and persistent feelings without succumbing to the soothing detachment of empiricism and emotionless objectivity. Sturm und Drang, traditionally translated as “Storm and Stress” or “Storm and Urge” is thus the pinnacle of individual subjectivity and free expression.

When you eat dirt for the first time and leave your family to build a shack in the woods