How To Buy Time In Lit Class

If my literature teacher finds this post, I'm in so much trouble.

Seriously, have you ever heard of this?

I take English A Literature HL. What that means is I have to read quite a few essays, poems, novels, and plays. A bunch of these, I have literally never heard of (before I got my list of works, I had absolutely no idea who JM Coetzee or Saul Bellow were). Others are just hard to find. I mean, it's really easy to get yourself a copy of Jhumpa Lahiri's The Namesake, especially living in India, and ditto to Shakespeare's Hamlet, but where the heck do you get Bertolt Brecht's Mother Courage and her Children without trawling through Flipkart? It's a German play set during a European war like four centuries ago, what are the chances of it being in your local JustBooks?


Also, some of these are...dull. (I don't want to put you off, but you are incredibly likely to be forced to read at least one very boring text you struggle to finish during IB, whether you take Literature or Language and Literature)

Basically, sometimes class discussion and analysis of a text starts before you actually read it, whether that's because you haven't gotten a copy or it's slow to the point of being soporific or you have more pressing assignments. I get it. I do. You're going to have to eventually read it (I can say with the authority of experience that reading the book tends to majorly improve your scores) but here are some ways you can buy time to do so.


SECRET #1: Google Zindabad

You're gonna have to do the research. Google the text. Stuff like Wikipedia and Sparknotes will get you through several classes while you read the book. Get a basic understanding of the plot - even if sometimes you feel as if there is none - and some of the main characters.

Don't go into class with the vague knowledge that The Namesake is about a dude named after a Russian author. Go in knowing that it's set in the Indian diaspora in New England, spanning several decades and following the story of Gogol Ganguli, a whiny ABCD kid traumatised by the fact that his parents named him after depressed Russian author Nikolai Gogol. (Can you tell I'm not a fan of the book?)

SECRET #2: Pay Attention in Class

What, you thought I'd give you an easy way to sleep in class? Pay attention, kid, and you'll pull through IB.
This one's fairly self-explanatory. Pay attention. You'll learn stuff. It'll help you understand what on earth is going on when you do read the text.

SECRET #3: Sound Intelligent

I mean, I'm sure you're smart. But when I say "sound intelligent", I'm talking about asking smart questions in class. Stuff like "Could you give an example of the use of irony?" or "Does <character name> exemplify <philosophy that the author subscribed to>?" instead of "Who is this random character who came in during chapter 5?"

SECRET #4: Know Literary Terminology

You don't really need to know obscure literary terms like "lipogram" (which, by the way, is kind of random), but make sure you understand the difference between metaphors and similes, and know stuff like irony, personification, allusions, euphemisms, and hyperbole. This helps you with #3, sounding intelligent.

And finally, once you've bought your time, there's one more thing to do: read the text. To do this, keep one thing in mind-

SECRET #5: Persevere

Okay, so you finally access a copy of the work, and you don't have any immediate assignments, and you start to read...
...and it's boring.
Not every literature text is interesting. And with all the work you have, you might want to just relax and coast off your Sparknotes.
Don't. Give. Up.
My classmates were surprised when I read one of our texts in about an hour because, although it was barely over a hundred pages, there was so little plot that they had struggled for a few weeks.
Do you really want to spend weeks on a text when you can read it in a few hours? I didn't much like that text either, but I had no intention of prolonging that boredom. I refused to get up until I finished, and I read the book faster than anyone else.

My point? Persevere. Push through unwillingness or boredom when you read a text. You'll save yourself time, and you'll get it done with. It's a weight off your shoulders.


Good luck!

To My Fellow Fans

For the past few years, I've been posting on the 31st of July, writing open letters to Harry Potter and his creator, and an excited rant about how much I was looking forward to Cursed Child.

This year is kinda more special. I mean, sure, last year we had a NEW CANON BOOK (that half the fandom subsequently rejected but still) starting from the last scene of Deathly Hallows, but this year marks twenty years since the publication of Philosopher's Stone.

To be honest, I was kind of stumped about what to write. I mean, I did use up a lot of good material in three years. Then I found this collection of emotional tributes that genuinely gave me goosebumps, and it nearly sent me down a rabbit hole (oops, wrong fictional universe) of Harry Potter content calculated to make me tear up.

Which got me thinking not about the wizarding world and its inhabitants, but the people of our world who are so invested in it. My fellow fans, in other words. And this letter is to them.


Dear fellow Potterheads,

It's the 31st of July! Harry's birthday, JK Rowling's birthday, pretty much OUR day. It's been twenty years since Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone came out, twenty years since the fandom was born, twenty years since the doors of the wizarding world were thrown open to our world, twenty years since someone opened a book on a shelf to read of how proud Mr and Mrs Dursley of Number Four, Privet Drive were to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much.

Can I just say what a massive community we are? There must be Potterheads on every continent- except maybe Antarctica, unless a scientist studying weather patterns and penguins there turns out to be one.

I have seen strange and wonderful things in my years as a member of this fandom. I've seen fanart, Tumblr posts, fanfiction, homemade merch, cosplay, edits, GIFsets, quizzes and more. I've dedicated an entire folder on my computer to fanfiction I write, most of which is set in the Potterverse. As I type this, I'm wearing a T-shirt I painted with "DRACO DORMIENS NUNQUAM TITILLANDUS", and the initials of some of my favourite characters (I had so much trouble choosing them!) are written on my fingernails.

I've encountered fanfiction from the enthusiatically but confusedly written to the beautifully crafted. I've read POVs and AUs and things in between. I've seen casual sketches and intricately coloured paintings. I've come across ships I never would've thought of - ranging from the somehow perfect to the slightly weird to the downright strange - and theories that answered questions I never realised I had. I've become emotional at heartbreaking headcanons, I've laughed at hilarious posts and compilations of overlooked Potter-sass, I've scrolled through DIYs for a Tonks cosplay, I've watched amazing fan videos, listened to medleys of the movie score, taken all kinds of how-well-do-you-know or which-character-are-you quizzes, whistled Hedwig's theme anywhere and everywhere and had people turn around to smile or join in. I've quoted characters in class, in random conversations, even in speeches - just today I ended an official speech with the words "mischief managed".

This is a fandom that has consistently captured my attention. I may go through phases of other series or TV shows, but the Potterverse and this fandom has been there the longest for me. When I'm stressed or tired or having a bad day, it's often a single Harry Potter post or image or video, sent by a friend or popping up on my YouTube suggestions, that can cheer me up.

It's you who cheer me up.

We may have ship wars, disagree on choices of AUs, fight over characters' motivation and portrayal, argue over whether Snape was a "good guy" or not, have passive-aggressive exchanges online about random aspects of this incredibly detailed universe. But there's a reason we're a community.

We're people who were drawn to the adventures of a young wizard named Harry James Potter and his incredible friends (who deserve appreciation posts of their own) as they fought for equality and goodness against a heartless villain.
We're people who were charmed by the detail and intricacy of this world.
We're people who almost unanimously hate Dolores Jane Umbridge.
We're people who still sometimes feel annoyed by CALMLY.
We're people who understand each other's immersion in the Potterverse, who know there are others who feel as strongly, to whom it means as much or more.
We're people who love the Wizarding World. People who question it, marvel at it, but ultimately, feel like we're a part of it.
We're people who believe in magic. Maybe not the kind that allows someone to regrow bones overnight, make a broomstick fly, or teleport groups of people. We believe in the magic of a story, in the power of words to evoke emotions. Words are, after all, the most inexhaustible source of magic at Hogwarts.

So thank you, my fellow Potterheads. Thank you for sharing this universe with me, for opening up unprecedented parts of it for me to explore with you. This has been a fantastic five years for me, a fantastic twenty years for the fandom, and I look forward to many more.

Happy Potterverse Day!
-Purple Dragonfly

A Guide to MUN Jargon

A teacher walks into your class and announces that there's a Model United Nations conference being held somewhere or other and is anyone interested. You've heard about these MUNs. People dressing up fancy and going and debating about international issues. You raise your hand. It'll be your first MUN and you're excited.
You walk in to the venue and you're surrounded by other delegates. A lot of them are far more experienced than you and are talking, quickly and loudly, about all sorts of things. They mention UnMods, RoP, reso, blocs- it's as if they're speaking a foreign language. You didn't know that there would be a whole new dialect of English you have to know.

This situation sound familiar? To put it mildly, it's not fun. Luckily, I, with my *cough* staggering *cough* wealth of experience in MUNs, bring to you a crash course on the basics of this strange language.

(Before you go for any MUNs, though, I recommend you go to some introductory sessions where they explain everything and you can ask questions.)

Agenda: the issue you'll be discussing in committee

Allocation: this is what committee and country or body you have been assigned; for example, you could be Mozambique in the UN General Assembly, or the UNHCR (the Office for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees) in the UN Human Rights Committee

Bloc: this is a group of delegates who have decided they have similar goals and want to work together to produce a resolution; they are bros...for the time being

Chair: the group of people sitting at a table in the front of the room, directing the debate, and trying not to cringe when a delegate makes the same procedural mistake multiple times

Chits: notes; you're allowed to send notes to other delegates in committee or the Chair; you can discuss possible alliances, ask about procedure, say something you didn't get a chance to say in formal session (if you have good points, these can boost your chances of getting an award if you send it to a delegate via the Chair or directly to the Chair), complain about boredom, or flirt; however, if you plan to do one of those last two things, keep in mind that someone will read your chits and derive great enjoyment from them

Crisis: the bane or saviour of committee, depending on when it comes (dull time in committee? nearly close to resolution?), a crisis is exactly what it sounds like, a sudden high-stakes emergency the committee must immediately address; there is an entire panel of people who make up crises and I kid you not they are out to make your next couple of hours as stressful as they possibly can, and if you are a P5 country or some nation important to the agenda you my friend are going to be their running targets and let me tell you, in this metaphor they are snipers

GSL: an acronym for General Speakers List, this is your chance to give a 90-second speech about your (country's) foreign policy and stance on the agenda and show the Chair you're participating; if you make sure to put yourself on this list, you are far less likely to be called upon without warning to say something when you're unprepared to do so because you're not active enough (the Chair will do this to you); there is also something called the SSL or Special Speaker's List, which is basically a GSL during a crisis

Motion: almost anything you want to do in committee must be raised as a motion; motion to start a debate, to open the GSL, to move into a caucus and so on; the most fun one is the Motion for Entertainment, where you can have confessions, dares, and crazy things to appeal to the senses of immature and hormonal delegates

Pre-ambs: short for "preambulatory clause", the kind of words you use in the beginning of a resolution to outline the problem you're trying to solve and how much you hate the existence of the problem; one of those fancy abbreviations experienced delegates use

Reso: this is a shortened form of "resolution", the big document of solutions for your committee's agenda that some delegate puts forward and everyone votes on; this term can be used by anyone, but I first came across it when some fancy kind-of-arrogant delegate with a bunch of awards casually threw it out while talking to me, probably hoping that I'd get intimidated (I didn't and yes, it is possible I'm being paranoid about that guy trying to intimidate me, but it's normal to find delegates showing off, for example me)

RoP: this stands for "rules of procedure" and is basically the list of rules for how MUNs work and how everyone behaves (hint: formally)

UnMod: short for "unmoderated caucus", this is considered informal debate; basically you can get up and walk around and talk to people and write drafts of working papers or resolutions to be presented in formal committee session; more importantly this is an opportunity to suspend formality and use slang and words like "legit" (which is, for some reason, frowned upon in formal session)


And there you have it! A non-exhaustive but hopefully useful guide to MUN jargon. To those of you about to go for your first MUN, I hope this helps you and that you have fun! And to those of you who have been to MUNs before, let me know in the comments if I missed any important terminology calculated to mess with the mind of a nervous delegate.

IB Without Hashtags

"Sooo much work 😢😢 #IBLyf"
The number of variants on this that I've heard from my classmates deserves a sarcastic #noreally because I've heard/seen it on Snapchat screenshots far too much. (Snapchat...captions? What do the social-media-savvy people call the text they carefully put over photos?)

And even though my FB news feed largely consists of fandom posts, photos of acquaintances who have social lives, and feminist articles, every once in a while there'll be an IB meme like:

This one is probably true, tbh

Welcome to the community of IB students. So far what I've seen of it is dire warnings and complaints about the amount of work we have. Literally the only positive things I've seen about it is on ibsurvival.com - which is proving to be helpful in figuring out the many odd things IB requires you to do - by people who've graduated IB already (yes, such people exist) saying "It'll help you in college, just get through this!"


I'm...hopefully going to do neither. Since I'm not an IB graduate but a current student, I will not be the encouraging "I got through it so can you" kind of person, but nor will I be the "IB IS DEATH" kind of person (in my personal experience, the people - at least in my class - who complain the most tend to do the least work).

I'm starting now, at the end of IB-1, and if you're graduating with me, good luck, folks. If you're not, sit back with some popcorn. It's going to be a rollercoaster ride.

...and even if it's not a rollercoaster, it's not like you need an excuse to eat popcorn.

AQB: The Red Tent

One kind of story I really enjoy is when an author takes a classic tale- a fairy tale, folk tale, mythological epic- and puts their own spin on it or writes it from a new point of view. In fact, two of my favourite books are this kind- Susan Fletcher's Shadow Spinner, a new spin on the classic story of the One Thousand and One Nights, and Gail Carson Levine's Ella Enchanted, a retelling of the Cinderella story.

Anita Diamant's The Red Tent kind of fits into this category: it is based on a section of the Bible. Now, I know very little about the narratives of the Bible (so I'm not sure how the plot of the book matches with the Biblical narratives), but I did some research - because I believe in understanding at least some of the context - and here's what I understand from my Googling.
The Book of Genesis narrates the story of several generations. The last two of these individuals (representing their generations) are Jacob, also called Israel, and his son Joseph. Jacob is said to have had twelve sons - of which Joseph was the eleventh and fated to be the supreme - and one daughter, Dinah. Dinah is a minor character in Genesis - there is one story about her called "the rape of Dinah", a violent episode which ends in her brothers committing a massacre/genocide - but The Red Tent is her story.

The red tent is a sacred spot to the women of Jacob's family - it is where they must spend their periods and when they are in labour, a place where they give each other support. It's symbolic of the bond between women, and of the stories kept alive by the womenfolk. The Red Tent is the story of a woman in a man's world, an account of the sweeping stories of Jacob and Joseph but also of the small stories of forgotten characters.
 "...It is terrible how much has been forgotten, which is why, I suppose, remembering seems a holy thing..." says Dinah.

I decided to read The Red Tent for multiple reasons- it was on the Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge, I had a copy at home, it was a suggestion when Emma Watson's feminist reading club (Our Shared Shelf) on Goodreads was voting for a book of the month, AND my mom recommended it (I trust my mom's recommendations).
I'm really, really glad these factors came together and I read it because it is one of THE best books I've ever read. And that's even though I didn't know anything about the Book of Genesis until my research. Seriously. It's fantastic.

P.S: If you read The Red Tent (and I hope you do, because it is REALLY good), I'd recommend knowing at least a little about the stories of Jacob and Joseph, just to provide context.