Grad School Glimpses #1

This is going to be a new feature at Bibliophilic Monologues about which I will tell you more shortly.

So past Tuesday, I started my grad program at the University of British Columbia which is also the place where I did my undergrad. Woot. I am pursuing an MA in Children’s Literature and considering that this blog is almost wholly dedicated to young adult literature, I think (okay, I made an executive decision) to share these glimpses of my continuing program and the classes I take for it. My MA program is interdisciplinary which basically means that we take courses from a variety of faculties such as English, Creative Writing, Library Science, even Psychology (child psychology). It is very exciting stuff and well, I am ridiculously happy to be in it.

On Tuesday we had both classes and orientation and it was a very full day at the end of which I was teetering from what felt like information overload. Grad school people, as my friend Krystle observed in her entry about it, are very big on being social. The MACL (masters of arts in children’s lit) program is small enough that you get to know everybody and you “fall into friendship” as one of my cohort said. (I love that word, cohort.) There are only 9 incoming students this year and I hope we will all get along really well.

(I am thinking about roping them into making the occasional guest post. We will see, hohoho!)

I am taking four classes this term. They are New Media for Children, Contemporary Children’s Lit, Creative Writing for Children and an independent study where I study translated versions of the same work for children and adults and see what changes there have been made to the children’s version and what this says about children’s literature. New Media for Children is going to be challenging but I have a wonderful professor who makes the three hours pass by very swiftly. Contemp children’s lit – okay, you know how we in the book blogging community use “contemporary” as a subgenre in YA genre to refer to books  with realistic themes? That’s not the way they roll in academia. Contemporary children’s literature is all children’s literature published in the last thirty years. What we refer to as “contemporary” they call “realistic fiction.” It makes sense, I guess? I always get tangled up in the distinction though.

I am in the advanced class for creative writing and jeez, you guys, these kids are MFAs, they are strong writers, future novelists and I am intimidated beyond belief. I don’t know how strong or how bad my writing is but I do hope to improve so I guess I am in the right place. I mean, if I am really awful, they’ll tell me how to get better, right? Contemporary Children’s Lit is taught by the MACL chair and she’s absolutely awesome.

As for the general atmosphere in grad school environment, it is competitive, yes, but it is convivial. People are actually glad to see you and there is this sense of camaraderie, of fellowship that I found lacking in my undergrad years. People are passionate about the same things you are and they don’t think you are weird for waxing poetic about that obscure thing you like and your friends don’t get. As for the work load, it is intense but more than that, people expect you to be responsible for the work. You have reached a level in your academic life where your performance, your results depend entirely on you.

It’s thrilling. And a bit scary.

I hope you enjoyed this first glimpse. More as I experience life as a grad student.

Finals, Translations, Sunny Days, Absolute Despair and I

I had been wracking my mind for a while about my blogging topic for today and kept on coming up empty handed (minded?) when I figured that I should give you a glimpse into my life. Not the picture-ey kind as that would involve getting up, finding a camera and you know, all that stuff that takes energy that I don’t have. So.

You may have heard me allude to it for a while now but I finally graduate this May. YAY! My undergrad took me a long time to finish simply because I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do but once I did, I finished it in two years. I will be graduating (barring the world ending) with a BA in English Literature from the University of British Columbia. I have had an incredible time learning all about literature, people and just culture and I fully realize and appreciate how blessed I am to have been able to go to school. Education is important stuff, guys.

However, questions such as “what’s next?” started haunting me and I simply didn’t know what to do. I mean, I could possibly find a job and then go back to school in a year or two for my Masters but I had a feeling that if I put it off, I would end up growing complacent and not returning so I applied to a program at UBC – Masters in Arts in Children’s Literature. Sounds fun? Hell yeah. And I was very surprised when I got accepted. It’s generally a year or a year and a half and I start this coming September.

But before all that, I have to survive finals. I’m taking a Korean translation class. Korean is my um…4th language and I am far from fluent in it. Which is why translating is so painful. Looking stuff up, placing it in the correct cultural context, the freaking grammar. When I translate one sentence, I celebrate for about fifteen minutes, haha. But the story I am translating is very, very interesting and I just hope I can do it some justice. I will post it once it has been handed in and marked/returned. But yeah.

It’s sunny today and I have been staring outside longingly. I WANT TO GO OUTSIDE!! T.T Which is what brings me to absolute despair. Sigh.

This is a bit of a copout. I was supposed to talk about books, yeah?

I’m reading The False Prince and it is absolutely fantastic right now. I hope it stays fantastic so I can write a fantastic review when my brain is not squiggling inside my…wow I almost said chest. That would make it very awkward, wouldn’t it? If my brain were inside my chest, I mean. Anyway, as you can see and perhaps realize, my sanity is on the verge of breaking down with a margarita in the backyard. So I will go back to my translations (noooo!!!) and you can go enjoy the sunshine.

 

Let’s Talk Literature

I’ve been thinking about writing this post for a long while but never gotten around to it. So now when I am on the verge of passing out due to exhaustion, my brain decides it has to write this piece or die. So while, as always, I shall try to make some sense, if I don’t, please blame my brain. Now on to my thoughts.

Literature: What is it?

The widely accepted definition is (thanks Wiki) that Literature is “the art of the written word, not confined to published sources.” I am going to take it one step further and say that literature is narration which can (and, indeed, does so frequently) include pieces which may have begun and completed several cycles as strictly performed oral traditions.

The beauty of literature is that every culture, no matter race, ethnicity or location, has their own literature, in vernacular or the official language.

Debates are still raging whether literature can be seen as an accurate reflection (and representation) of culture.

In the context of this blog, let me reword this.

Say a person 500 years from now found a book, (God forbid), Twilight and after reading it, decided that it was an accurate representation of males and females and, hell, society of the past.

What would you say to that?

Apart from “OH HELL NO!,” I mean.

Therein lies the dilemma. While I don’t think literature can wholly be seen to reflect society, I think what it does do is reflect the tastes of the society and the culture in which it was written.

To put it in a contemporary context, looking at the dystopian novels flooding the market right now, it would not be inaccurate to assume that North American society at the moment loves dystopian novels  – to go deeper into this and explore why dystopian novels are so popular, one must understand the economics and the instability contemporary people are struggling with at the moment. To take it even further, dystopian novels offer contemporary people not just escape from difficult lives but a peek at solutions should the worst come to pass.

Stuff like that.

Today in one of my classes we were talking about the nature of the novel and the role of the author in a novel. The book we were discussing is “Paul’s Case” by Lynn Crosbie which talks about the serial murderers Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka.

What I found profound about the discussion was the gradual realization I had that writing a book really is not so simple as picking up a pen and some paper or opening up a  new page on Word. Writing, personaly, is the continual recreation of selves.

When writing a book, you cannot simply use YOUR voice to write a character and present it as Character A. You have to create Character A, give her Voice A that is distinct from your own voice in not just the way she expresses herself but also in the opinions that she expressions. And then you have to create Characters B, C, D, E, F and so on and give them their own voices etc. This is complicated stuff, you guys.

And then, as was the case in Crosbie’s novel, comes the case of appropriation of a voice that does not belong to you.

Now things are going to get the slightest bit technical because I have to drag in some post-colonial theory.

Okay, for example, you have Draco Malfoy and Dobby. What if one day Draco decided to write a book as Dobby? Write down Dobby’s experiences as though he knew exactly what Dobby went through?

You would scoff at the idea that Draco could, in any way, understand and correctly express the trials and tribulations of Dobby’s life, yeah? What is more likely is that he will project what HE thinks Dobby went through and thought onto Dobby who doesn’t have a voice.

So that’s the theory behind “the appropriation of voice.” When people write from the perspective of other people who are unfamiliar to them or who do not have a venue of their own in which to speak.

In Crosbie’s case, she appropriated the voice of a rape/murder victim. She projected her own thoughts about what the victim might have gone through, thought and felt and wrote it as though the words belonged to the victim.

And she pissed off many, many people by doing so.

I am always very wary when I see North American white authors (yes, I might as well go out and say it) writing from the perspective of people outside their culture. Can an American, Caucasian author really represent an African American or an Indian or Mexican or whatever? Should they even try?

Personally, I am rather skeptical when I see authors trying to do so. It is not that previous authors haven’t successfully done so but that took ages and ages of research and a carefully constructed understanding of not just the foreign culture but also the motivations that may be very different from the author’s originating society and culture. One author spent 20 years living among a tribe of First Nations people before she wrote a slim volume called “I Heard the Owl Call My Name” and her experience, her understanding of the people she wrote about is very apparent in the novel. However, if you are going to write about a different culture and your research is limited to “travelogues,” well then.

I often feel that Children’s Literature, being a new genre, is often passed over in talks of “serious literature.” I feel that most scholars do not give much credence to the kind of stories that populate the crowded bookshelves in the YA genre. I think that’s a mistake. I think that to find the true meaning of literature, one should not look at obscure literary texts that are read once in a blue moon but at popular novels that give dreams, hope and entertainment to vast numbers of people. I think understanding culture, society and people is a natural result of studying the literature popular with the culture, society and people.

And next September when I start my Master’s degree (iA), I intend to do just that.

Venting: The Academic Insanity

So I’m in my last term as an undergrad at UBC. And you’d think that since this is the very last time, things would be a wee bit better. I mean, not totally gung-ho and awesomesauce, I go to school to relax kind, no, I don’t expect that but just. I don’t know. I had an expectation of some breathing room. To breathe. But dudes, I am drowning. I have so much stuff to do that I cower in the corner with fear etched on my face wondering if I can do it at all.

I am allowed this one little dip into absolute insanity, yea? I mean, it’s not strictly about books but it is about school which is where books go crazy wild so… Anyway.

I have to translate four stories for Korean which doesn’t sound like much until you realize that each page takes about an hour to translate and these stories range from 20-25 pages each. On top of that I have my own translating project which is 23 pages and needs to be perfect cuz I’m a perfectionist like that. Yeah, the personal project is for class too.

For World Lit, there is a lot of reading which I don’t mind at all because most of it is interesting stuff. The term paper I have finished, the second draft anyway. All that remains for this class is an in-class essay and a final exam. I am good with this.

The third class and the most troubling one is my second English class. There’s a 3000 word research term paper, one 20 minute group presentation, 3 novels to read and ten journal entries.

Now all of the above has to be accomplished within the next six weeks or else I will curl up and die. Alone I could handle it but throw in three hour commute, a sick parent and general life, it seems I’m going to have to do something drastic to handle it all. And I can totally handle it all.

I just needed to whine for a bit.

Thanks for listening.

Book Shelf Purging

Hello. Hi. My Name is Nafiza and I’ve spent the last ten hours writing a paper. It’s worth 40% of my grade so you know I’m understandably troubled by it. But still, ten hours is a long time and whatever little gray matter I had was eaten away by the sadistic people who invented papers.

Anyway, I purged my bookshelf and now I have, like, books? But I don’t have the money to send it to anyone so people, I thought I’d ask the blog word, the internet, if you want the books, it’s yours… just pay for the shipping. I wish I had the money to pay for shipping but I’m a poor starving student. If nobody wants the books, I’ll give it to…well I don’t know to whom but to someone. Anyway, just leave me a comment if you’re interested and we’ll discuss the details. If you’re in Vancouver, so much the better since you’re local and I can just give the books to you. (Providing you’re not creepy. Hur.)

Anyway, the books:

In Camelot’s Shadow – Sarah Zettel (paperback)
The Beekeeper’s Pupil – Sara George (Hardcover)
The Garden – Elsie V. Aidinoff (Hardcover)
Inside Out – Maria V. Snyder (paperback)
Timeless – Alexandra Monir (hardcover)
Wildefire – Karsten Knight (ARC)
Immortal – Gillian Shields (paperback)
Fury – Elizabeth Miles (ARC)
A Touch Mortal – Leah Clifford (ARC)
The Iron Witch – Karen Mahoney (paperback)

Let me know if you’re interested cuz I would like it if these books went to people who loved them and hugged them to sleep or okay, not that but you know what I mean.

Kays. I’m going to go not type.  (Oh, I am in Canada just so you know.)

Eve Sedgwick’s Homosociality applied to some popular YA novels

I’ve been dying to write this article ever since I learned about homosociality in my Restoration Theater class (English Lit). If you were like me and have no idea what “homosociality” is, Wikipedia defines it as:

“In sociology, homosociality describes same-sex relationships that are not of a romantic or sexual nature, such as friendship, mentorship, or others. “

Sedgwick’s theorizing was based on male relationships and while I am not a hundred percent sure, I think this theory targeted males specifically.

To further explain it, as my prof did, homosociality says that:

Guy A goes for Girl A not because he’s in love with her (he may be or not but that’s not the most important thing) but because she has some sort of status and being with her increases his status, his standing in front of his guy friends <— and that, dear Reader, is more important than Guy A being in love with Girl A.

Guy A’s relationship and standing in his coterie of friends/colleagues is much more important than any sort of tender feeling he has for Girl A.

I thought it would be very interesting to see this theory applied to some YA novels. Oh come on, I can’t be the only one who is excited by the potential fun of applying… fine, I’m a nerd. Humour me.

First!

Twilight

The homosociality theory would suggest that Edward is with Bella because she increases his status (or…um…ranking if sparkly beings had those kind of things).

Don’t scoff too soon. I mean sure, I don’t see what’s so great about Bella but we’re not adolescent vampires or canin wolves, virginly or otherwise. Because Bella does have three guys after her, so there must be something that we can’t see. So since Edward falls in true lurve (or if you go for Sedgwick’s theory, wins) with Bella and she reciprocates, he wins her! Which means, like, he’s the winner, dudes! He’s the man. So he can, like, hold his head up high cuz he got the girl, yes he did.

So, Sedgwick’s theory might potentially fit the Twilight structure.

Now let’s flip it about. Does Bella’s social worth increase after she starts going out with Edward? Um. Yes. Hell, yes. Yes to the millionth power.

The Hunger Games

I think Sedgwick’s theory flails a bit here. Or does it? Being with Katniss (okay, eventually, I’m not even sure “being” is the right word for this) does get Peeta a lot of things, mostly his life but can we really argue that he’s with her only for the sake of getting recognition from his fellow…fellows? Is the reverse true? Does Katniss gain any increase in her social value by being with Peeta? Well yeah, she does but… see the conundrum. Does this mean that Sedgwick’s theory is selective and works (or can be proven) in certain contexts?

I have no idea.

But how many times have you read a YA novel where the male love interest is:
a) the hottest
b) the most popular
c) intelligent
d) rich
e) all of the above.

And by the end of the book, the female protagonist has more often than not smooched this paragon of male virtues. Is it because she unerringly finds the hottest, coolest, sexiest boy to fall in love or is it because being with a guy who can admit to owning the qualities listed above gains her some sort of recognition from her female peers. While Sedgwick focuses more on male homosociality, it is my opinion that in YA novels (that are aimed largely at the female teenagers) female homosociality has greater dominance. I don’t think it matters who the guy is on the inside, as long as he is someone the protagonist can use to make her female peers jealous.

One notable exception to this is Nevermore by Kelly Creagh. But you’ll find that this is really a lone exception.

Thoughts?

Devdas (Mostly the 2002 movie)

So I have spent the weekend (mostly) writing a paper for my Introduction to Bollywood class.

I have this love/hate relationship with Hindi movies. I have seen the attitude that many foreigners (or perhaps those unfamiliar to Hindi movies) have for Bollywood but I seriously love the movies for what they are. Colour, passion, melodrama – the songs, the beautiful poetry that some movies have in their dialogues. I don’t watch many English movies. They just don’t appeal to me perhaps because they lack the colour that I am so used to.

Anyway, the movie that I am writing my paper on is called Devdas. Like Titanic is to Hollywood, Devdas is to Bollywood. Since it was written sometime in the 1920s by Sharat Chandra (who was a teenager when he wrote it), there have been 8 versions made. Of those 8 versions, the 2002 version by Sanjay Leela Bhansali has been, to date, the most successful. And that is the version I am writing my paper on.

The story is basically…guy/girl were neighbors, grew up together, fell madly in love sometime along the way but guy’s father sent him to study in long when he was a teenager. He returns ten years later, picks up the threads of his love affair. Except his family refuses to agree to a marriage between the two because the girl’s family is not as rich as the guy and his family. He caves in to father’s commands, says he doesn’t want her, breaks the poor girl’s heart and goes away. Where he has an “Oh shit” moment, rushes back only to find that she’s marrying someone else. Someone richer than guy. Cuz the girl? She’s holy freaking beautiful. Guy’s heartbroken (this might be a massive understatement), decides to sentence himself to death by drink.

I’m making it sound much more simple than it really is. There are all sorts of underlying themes and allusions to philosophy that I am not at all familiar with (for example, fanaa, to completely lose yourself in love, more Sufi than anything else actually but it’s often used in Hindi movies). Anyway, it is as melodramatic as it sounds. And the ending, oh my god, the ending. The ending takes what heart you have, stomps on it, grinds it into dust and then turns to you and smiles, “How’s them cookies?” It is seriously painful. Romeo and Juliet? Have nothing on this ending.

Anyway, this version has Shahrukh Khan (the man is like a legend in all the world except North America) and Aishwarya Rai (who is the pretty woman) and Madhuri Dixit (who could provide light for the world with the brightness of her smile). And here’s a video clip. I go work on draft two.

Where I Talk About Book-Related Things

So I use Goodreads quite a lot. Actually, truth be told, I’m sort of addicted to it. Today, on my feed, there were many authors who were addressing what people (Book Bloggers, I’m looking at you) call the YA Mafia. Most authors are scoffing at the idea that there might be a group like that and they probably are right. There’s no organized group with T-Shirts (YA Mafia R Us) and secret passwords and handshakes to get into the club headquarters. But I reckon there probably does exist some unofficial…I wouldn’t go so far as to say group but an awareness of the number of bloggers (names, sites, stats) who did these authors wrong.

I have thought about this quite a lot. This ever growing sense of animosity…should I say divide?…between the authors and the bloggers (the grocery shopping list writers, heh). Reading is a very subjective activity and needless to say, the way a piece of work is interpreted depends entirely on the person reading it. It reminds me of the foreword in Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray where he talks about how most of the value of art is the emotions/stuff it evokes in the audience. It is really the same where reading is concerned. However. And this is a very big however. Being an author means being aware of the way your words can be construed. Being aware of the many ways your words can be interpreted. Be aware and be prepared to defend your work. Be prepared to take responsibility for your words. Because someone will call you out on it. Trust me. Someone will read it and be bothered enough to ask you about it.

I will give you an example.

If you have read Gail Carson Levine’s Ella Enchanted, you may (or may not) have noticed the way in which Centaurs were portrayed. The book (both Ella Enchanted and Fairest, I believe) entirely discounted the human part of the Centaurs and treated them as animals. We read this book for the Fairy Tales Retold seminar course I am leading at a tertiary level. It bothered us. Enough that we emailed the author about it. We didn’t get a reply or any acknowledgment. We just wanted to know why she chose to portray the Centaurs as she did. We wanted to hear her justification for it. None was forthcoming.

Another example is in the retelling of Sleeping Beauty we read this week: Twice Upon a Time, No. 2: Sleeping Beauty, The One who took the Really Long Nap – Wendy Mass. At the end of the novel, the nameless prince finds a name. It is “Prince Rosa’s Husband.”

…

No, seriously. That’s his name. Now, tell me what little girls who are 8-10 years old and reading this novel will take away from it. Or, what was the author thinking? Can she justify her reasoning?

Slut shaming, rape culture and perverting the meaning of “love” are some of the issues that have flooded the markets along with books that deal with fantasy, vampires and other fantastical creatures. People will question books that hint at issues like this. And if authors cannot answer or are unable to justify their characters/plots/whatever, there are going to be ill feelings all around. This does not mean that either the reviewer (or grocery shopping list writer) is wrong for airing their opinion or the author for not liking the opinion. However, I take umbrage at the fact that my questioning will somehow lead to me being blacklisted. Or “unblurbed.” There may be no YA Mafia but the threats abound.

There is this approach to literature or the study of it called the New Critic’s approach which, if I’m not wrong, views the book as an entity on its own. It does not consider the author or any outside factors in its study of a piece of work. It’s rather limiting in its scope and normally I am not a fan of it but considering the drama llama going on in the blogging/author/publishing world today, I have decided that from now, I will be looking at the books as universes of their own.

I used to fan authors on Goodreads, stalk their twitter, facebook etc. Because I wanted to know the people behind the books but honestly, I do not have the time or energy for the drama that is almost choking the blogosphere. I have bought many more books since I started blogging than I used to before I started. I reckon, if someone were to do a survey, that book bloggers might make for the majority of the book buying public and I reckon we should get some respect for the money we spend. Anyway, as I was saying, I used to fan authors etc but I have decided that I will no longer do so. I think I require some distance from the author if I am going to read their work. Because honestly, personally, I have found that I can be turned off by an author’s remarks or blog post which leads to all my previous interest in her books draining away. Simply because of a comment or a remark she/he makes that I may not agree with or simply dislike.

I hope, with this decision, that authors who may, in the future, stumble upon my blog and find themselves reading reviews I have written of their books will realize that it is not a personal attack. It is my reaction to their work which I view as being entirely separate from them. They may not feel the same way (and indeed, I expect them not to) but it should make the sting of the review (should it turn out negative) a bit less.

That’s all.

Please Let Me Not Drown in What People Call School

How apt is this?

If there was a class that tested you on your ability to write interesting post titles, I’d get an A. As it is, there isn’t and I don’t. I am taking five courses this semester. Three English Lit, one Asian Studies and third year Korean. Of those, I am leading one.

My university has this program where students are allowed to create their own course, (which is a seminar in structure, meaning no professors), make up their own rubrics, readings, grades – essentially, you do all the work with a lovely faculty sponsor to help you out when you need it. It’s called a Student Directed Seminar (it’s a course, 14 weeks) and the student directing it is also a student in the class. Anyway, after a lot and I do mean, a lot of work and pain, I have it going on and so far, fingers crossed, knock on wood, it’s going good. I have awesome people in the class with me (hi Emily!), a lot of enthusiasm and fun reading material.

The work, however, is tremendous. Not by itself alone, but in addition to all the other classes.It’s fun though so I don’t mind.

The Asian Studies class that I’m taking is called “Introduction to Bollywood.” This requires some background about me. My ancestors were from India, the British took them to the Fiji Islands and I grew up as a Pacific Islander until my parents decided to move to Canada. Don’t talk to me about heritage. I have identity issues. I have been watching Hindi movies for a long time so when my professor insists on (in an introductory level class) showing movies by one actor (who is the lead) and claiming that it showcases the Hindi movie history/scene – I have problems with that. Why would you do that?

However, his word is law in the classroom and I missed the Drop date so here I am. Enduring and being tormented. His requirement for papers are that they be interesting, fresh, new and original (and yes, you can tack on to that any other adjective that well describes fresh). My first paper? Didn’t go down so well. I think I wailed for one long moment after I got the grade. Then I got angry but…we’ll just keep it pleasant. I have a paper to write for this due on the 22nd. And I am crippled by insecurity. And annoyed by my insecurity to write a paper that he finds interesting.

Then there’s the Shakespeare class I am taking. I love Shakespeare but I reckon I should have taken an on-campus course than the online course. Ah well, it’s still interesting. But I’m going to have to write about Titus Andromenicus (and justice) and cue flailing. This is due on the 27th of February. I’m getting a bit antsy just thinking about it.

Then the paper on Canadian lit, specifically drama, that was due two weeks ago. It’s a good thing the prof does not deduct marks for late papers. (Distance courses rock that way.)

Throw in some weekly Korean tests and a daily commute of three hours, volunteering hours at this wonderful place called Crane Development and you’ll understand why I sometimes want to run away from it all. Now that I have spent about six minutes procrastinating, I shall go plan my three papers.

Oh right, this may explain my erratic presence on the blog. I’m too enamored by book blogging to go completely missing but I probably won’t be able to blog daily as I have been wont to do. But hey, at least this time you’ll know that when I review a book, it’s worth reading (only if you trust my taste, of course).

She Does It Again

Well, I don’t really want to but…it’s my blog right? And it’s related to books. In the way the sky is related to the stars. Or the way a tree is related to the forest. And the way nail polish is related to M.A.C stores.

You see, I realized that school (or School) (my school in particular) has somehow become a sentient being.

And it’s trying its darnest to kill me.

Like, murder.

Like so tired the spots in my eyes see spots, that kind of tired.

I have to go learn some Korean proverbs. And some other stuff. And school is still sucking the soul out of me.

I think I need to go find my mellow at a library tomorrow.