Student Blogs

 It was a blessing for me to be able to choose RMST202 out of the many courses I took. I initially chose this class for the credit requirement, and I had no idea about the content of the type. But when I participated in the class, I was pleasantly surprised by the new grading format and the amount of class discussion. In this situation, I found that I could read every novel recommended by the professor without the pressure of a grade, and the weekly blog I was required to write was a lighter load than in my other classes. This assignment felt less like mandatory learning and more like developing good reading habits. When I learned that I needed to complete a book each week, I would schedule my time wisely and read for two hours a day, Monday through Friday, to complete the book in an even but modest way. These two hours of reading allow me to quiet my mind, feel the words, and start my college day. In fact, it had been a long time since I had read a book in its entirety and carefully, and the existence of this class added an extra layer of reading to my schedule.

On the other hand, I was able to read different perspectives and questions from my classmates' blogs for each book, which deepened my understanding and thinking about each novel. It doesn't stop at the end of a book; it's just as important to reflect deeply on what you've read afterwards. I learned a lot of different perspectives on reading from talking with my classmates.

In addition, the class recommended many books that were worth reading. Some of these books I had heard of, some I hadn't, but without exception, greatly increased my knowledge and understanding of the author of each book after completing them. In the reading process, some of the books were relatively difficult for me to read, so I needed to extend my daily reading time to understand these somewhat difficult novels. My favourite of these books was Roberto Bolaño's Amulet. I was fascinated by Auxilio Lacouture's interesting way of speaking and his identity as the storyteller, and the time structure of the book was worthy of careful consideration. Auxilio Lacouture's role as a historical inscriber added to my admiration and understanding of the history that has passed. In other books, we can also find a search for history and its exposition. Although these books tell different stories, they all give me a sense of mission to remember history as the main character.

All in all, the course was advantageous for me.

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This course has been very different from all of my other ones, but very enjoyable! I really appreciated the unique approach with the contracts and the freedom to be allowed to pick the grade we wanted to achieve. Personally, I think this motivated me to be consistent and loyal to the choices I had made, […] read full post >>

“The Society of Reluctant Dreamers” was an interesting one! There were a lot of aspects to this book surrounding the past/future, dreams, love, and politics. Personally I appreciated the letters being included in the pages because it made it feel very personable and you got to see how Moira and Daniel’s relationship formed.   “To […] read full post >>

“I had not ceased while sleeping to form reflections on what I had just read, but these reflections had taken a rather peculiar turn; it seemed to me that I myself was what the book was talking about,” – Combray, Part I. I’ve never done a proper literature course before, save for my GCE A-Levels, […] read full post >>

“The war isn’t over, my friend. It’s only sleeping.” (p.131) At first, it was refreshing to be reading a book set in the modern-day. Seeing mentions of social media and smartphones was a slight surprise after reading older pieces of literature. However, very quickly, I began to forget what time period it was set in. […] read full post >>

The Society of Reluctant Dreamers was a unique read - but not for the reason that I expected. What fascinated me about this book is the setting, the Portuguese-speaking regions of Africa. This is an area that I am not very familiar with, so I do admit that it was difficult for me to follow the plot in certain parts.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

Another aspect of the book that stood out to me was how modern it was compared to the other texts that we have read this semester. The period that the book was set in is fairly recent, with the epilogue taking place in 2017. Daniel's character was interesting, especially because of his dreams and how they were influenced by his reality. It made me ponder how our subconscious thoughts are often influenced by our life and the people in them. This is similar to the associations made in the lecture to Freud and his beliefs of dreams being a manifestation of one's unconscious thoughts.

Furthermore, I found it fascinating that the author decided to combine the political storyline of the book with magical realism. Politics are notoriously controversial and rooted in the 'harsh reality of life' - so it's quite interesting to see how the narrator's thoughts are largely communicated through his dreams. I found the politics a little hard to keep track of throughout the book, especially because I was completely unaware of the entire situation. 

Also, I found the initial dialogue between Daniel and the hotel owner to be kind of odd, especially when they discussed Hitler's kindness to animals. I suppose it did achieve the purpose that the author intended, which was to make us uncomfortable at the idea of a truly terrible person having any goodness in him. 

Overall, I found Agualusa's The Society of Dreamers to be a unique concept with an intriguing execution. By combining dreams with politics, Agualusa pushes readers to mull over how our reality can merge with something as stressful as politics. My question to the class would be: what do you think of the act of dreaming and what does it say about our subconscious? 

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The Society of Reluctant Dreamers was a unique read - but not for the reason that I expected. What fascinated me about this book is the setting, the Portuguese-speaking regions of Africa. This is an area that I am not very familiar with, so I do admit that it was difficult for me to follow the plot in certain parts.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

Another aspect of the book that stood out to me was how modern it was compared to the other texts that we have read this semester. The period that the book was set in is fairly recent, with the epilogue taking place in 2017. Daniel's character was interesting, especially because of his dreams and how they were influenced by his reality. It made me ponder how our subconscious thoughts are often influenced by our life and the people in them. This is similar to the associations made in the lecture to Freud and his beliefs of dreams being a manifestation of one's unconscious thoughts.

Furthermore, I found it fascinating that the author decided to combine the political storyline of the book with magical realism. Politics are notoriously controversial and rooted in the 'harsh reality of life' - so it's quite interesting to see how the narrator's thoughts are largely communicated through his dreams. I found the politics a little hard to keep track of throughout the book, especially because I was completely unaware of the entire situation. 

Also, I found the initial dialogue between Daniel and the hotel owner to be kind of odd, especially when they discussed Hitler's kindness to animals. I suppose it did achieve the purpose that the author intended, which was to make us uncomfortable at the idea of a truly terrible person having any goodness in him. 

Overall, I found Agualusa's The Society of Dreamers to be a unique concept with an intriguing execution. By combining dreams with politics, Agualusa pushes readers to mull over how our reality can merge with something as stressful as politics. My question to the class would be: what do you think of the act of dreaming and what does it say about our subconscious? 

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I can’t believe I am writing my concluding blog post, this term really flew by! At the beginning of the course I was concerned about having to read a book a week, I did not have much faith in myself to actually do it, but I did it and I feel accomplished in having read […] read full post >>

First I would like to say thank you for such a wonderful semester. This course has allowed me to gain a new understanding of literature as a whole. I do not think I would have found any of these books on my own – so I am really glad I took this course (even though […] read full post >>

At first glance, the title of this novel caught my attention. I really wanted to leave off this semester on a more positive note – and thought that any novel to do with dreams must do so! This was actually one of my favorite books we have read this semester. I enjoyed every single page […] read full post >>

Amulet written by the Chilean novelist Roberto Bolaño is a great book! I liked reading it from start and never found myself counting how many pages they were left until I got to the end. Similar to many of the books we have read I noticed the theme of ‘memory’ coming up again. From the […] read full post >>

I liked this book, the intertwining storylines of politics, romance, and dreams made it an interesting read. While the dreaming and romantic narratives provided interesting psychological thought and emotional elements, the commentary on the political tension was my favorite element of this book. I enjoyed that the dream narrative was not imposed upon by Freud’s […] read full post >>

Cercas’ “Soldier of Salamis has a bewildering jigsaw puzzle- like structure and form, which I thoroughly enjoyed. It invited the reader to accompany the narrator on his quest to piece together fragmented information from the past, through archives, oral history … Continue reading → read full post >>

This week we were tasked with reading the Soldier of Salamis; I don’t mean to sound harsh, but I just did not enjoy this book. It is a book that disinterested me, was too long, and was kind of confusing at times. I hate to be like this, and will try my best to write […] read full post >>

It feels nice to be somewhat stationary in our reading journey as it’s been a while since we’ve last read... read full post >>