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!

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.

AQB: The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is generally considered a literary classic. However, you may also remember it, from several years ago, when it was mentioned in the newspapers because Amitabh Bachchan had a cameo in the 2013 movie. (Although the movie starred Leonardo DiCaprio as the eponymous character, I only knew of the movie because of Big B. Leo fans, please don't get mad...)

 I was interested in The Great Gatsby because it was cited in a few sample SAT essays I read a couple of years ago. From those essays, I learned some things about the novel, and therefore when I picked it up to read it, I naturally had some... "preconceived notions".

Now, I had preconceived notions about The Hunger Games, which were dispelled the moment I realised the kids were thrown into an arena- I'd thought the Games were, like, televised gladiator-style fights, but no, it was cavepeople stuff, survive and kill. I was disturbed, yes, but I was expecting action, and that's what I got.

Where am I going with this? See, I was expecting this third-person account of the underworld of a Jazz Age New York City, and how Jay Gatsby fit into that world- so I was anticipating crime and mobster stuff, kind of a 1920s version of The Godfather. Instead I got a narrative by Gatsby's neighbour Nick Carraway about how Gatsby reconnected with Daisy (Carraway's cousin) years after they first met.

Yeah. If you're planning to read it, do not, and I repeat, DO NOT start it with the expectations I had.
Maybe I'm biased. Maybe, since I got something completely different from what I was expecting, I was disappointed. Maybe I just don't have the maturity to appreciate good literature.

Frankly, I didn't really think much of The Great Gatsby.
Set in in the fictional villages of East Egg and West Egg on Long Island, it tells the story of the mysterious Jay Gatsby, a war veteran who rose to riches in the hopes of winning the attention and, by extension, love of his ex-flame, Daisy Fay.

Nick Carraway, also a former soldier in WWI from the same division as Gatsby, moves to West Egg for his job in NYC. Invited by Daisy, his cousin, for lunch, he meets a young golfer, Jordan Baker, whom he starts dating.
Daisy is now married, to Nick's college senior Tom Buchanan, and apparently it isn't a happy marriage. Tom, in fact, has a mistress, Myrtle Wilson, and Daisy is aware of this. So when she meets Gatsby, who is obviously in love with her, again, she falls for him.

And it ends pretty quickly after that. I obviously can't tell you more without "spoiling" the plot, but let's say, with a premise like that, you'd expect an epic smackdown, or a horrifying revelation. Both happen, but nowhere near as dramatic as one would expect.

By the end of the novel, three characters are dead, and Nick quickly wraps up things and goes home, like, I am so done with this place.

To sum up my opinions of The Great Gatsby: it had far less drama than anticipated, it is not light reading, and isn't particularly absorbing.

I would recommend that anyone who reads this is a) in a philosophical state of mind, b) ready to handle the slightly confusing prose, and c) someone who harbours no delusions about the level of drama and action to be found in the novel.

AQB: The Count of Monte Cristo

The Count of Monte Cristo is the first book I've read in my reading quest (which I explained in A Quest Begins). First written as a serialized story in the Journal des Débats between 1844 and 1846, it was later compiled into a novel and is considered a literary classic that remains in print even today. I read the unabridged English translation of the original French (titled Le Comte de Monte Cristo), trying not to blitz through the 1100-odd pages in the small but fat edition I'd borrowed.

I'll try to avoid too many spoilers.

The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas, follows the story of a young sailor, Edmond Dantes. At nineteen, Dantes is happy with his life. He has a caring father, he is engaged to the woman he loves, and he is about to be made captain of his benefactor's ship, the Pharaon.
But two men are jealous of him- Danglars, his shipmate who wants Dantes' imminent position on the Pharaon, and Fernand Mondego, his fiancée Mercédès' cousin, who is in love with her.

Together they plot to get Dantes out of the way. They do this by framing Dantes as a Bonapartist. The late captain of the Pharaon (a known Bonapartist) charged the innocent Dantes to do two things: one, to deliver a packet to a general on Elba with the exiled Napoleon; and two, to hand over a letter to an unknown man in Paris. Dantes has no idea of the political importance of the packet and letter, and only does it to honour the last wishes of his superior- but Danglars and Fernand imply in an anonymous letter that he is fully aware of the contents of his deliveries, and is a fervent, violent Bonapartist.

Dantes is arrested an hour before his wedding.

The deputy procureur de roi at Marseilles, M. de Villefort, realises that Dantes is innocent and plans to acquit him. Then he finds out who the letter is addressed to- M. de Noirtier, a known Bonapartist, and Villefort's father.
Villefort, a royalist, has worked hard to reach his position and still dreams of becoming the procureur de roi of France. In order to safeguard his own career, he pretends that Dantes is, in fact, a Bonapartist, takes the information that there is a Bonapartist uprising stirring to the king, and throws Dantes in the Chateau d'If, a notorious prison, without a trial.

Mere days after Dantes' incarceration, Napoleon Bonaparte returns to France and the Hundred Days begin. M. Morrel, Dantes' patron, tries to petition for his release. Villefort stalls until Napoleon is finally exiled to St. Helena and the petition never goes through. Dantes is given up for dead.

Dantes, languishing in jail, meets the Abbé Faria, a supposedly mad Italian priest who is actually a genius. Together the two plot to escape the Chateau d'If. Faria tells him the secret of a great treasure, but dies before they can escape.
Dantes makes a daring escape after Faria's death. He has been in prison for fourteen years.
He claims the treasure Faria told him about, and proceeds to reinvent himself, as the mysterious Count of Monte Cristo, and search for his enemies.
Danglars is now a respected banker, who has been granted the title of a baron. Fernand is married to Mercédès, and having risen through the ranks of the army, is now called le Comte de Morcerf. Villefort has achieved his ambition and is the procureur de roi.
With his nearly unlimited new wealth and the knowledge Faria had imparted to him, Dantes proceeds to take his revenge on the men responsible for throwing him in prison.

Edmond Dantes' transformation from a cheerful, carefree young merchant sailor, to an enigmatic, bitter man who considers himself an instrument of divine justice is impressive to read. He is a master manipulator, pulling and slicing strings no one can see until a puppet falls and one realises what it was all about. His plans are so convoluted, even Albus Dumbledore (who, let's face it, is a majorly manipulative leader whose plans are far from straightforward) would be impressed.

I'd recommend this to anyone interested in a period thriller, who doesn't mind thick books, or wading through occasionally flowery language. If you want just the story (which is pretty awesome) and would prefer to skip the hundreds of pages and the elaborate prose, I would recommend an abridged version. Either way, it's worth it!

Quote of the Week

'Atticus said to Jem one day, "I'd rather you shot at tin cans in the backyard, but I know you'll go after birds. Shoot all the blue jays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird."

It was the only time I ever heard Atticus say it was a sin to do something, and I asked Miss Maudie about it.

"Your father's right," she said. "Mockingbirds don't do one thing except make music for us to enjoy. They don't eat up people's gardens, don't nest in corn cribs, they don't do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That's why it's a sin to kill a mockingbird."'

-Harper Lee, To Kill A Mockingbird