To conclude the term, I want to say that this course is different from what I had initially expected. I did not expect to be exploring the themes that I have in this class, including but not limited to; memory, war, betrayal, and loss. To start off, I enjoyed most of the texts in the […]
Posted in Blogs, Conclusion | Tagged with end, expectations
Ok, so bridging off of Astha’s post (“In sum…”), this is also an end to my undergraduate career, as well a one of the more unique courses I’ve had the pleasure of taking at UBC — RMST 202.
Some flashbacks–I’m not sure if I became a better reader in this course by reading more, but rather by learning how to think more abstractly about novels. Usually, connections or metaphors seemed to far-fetched for me to consider being “true” about a book, however, it seems that this is often not the case. From this course, I’ve learned to dive deeper into metaphors and imagery, and to indulge my creativity and allowing myself the opportunity to imagine strange parallels, deeper metaphors and interesting imagery, as the meaning that I impart from this may have been exactly as intended (but no one really knows!).
My favourite books from the course (in no particular order)
Black Shack Alley
Agostino
W, or the Memory of Childhood
In terms of general thoughts — and perhaps this will be helpful for Jon and TAs — the nature of the course was unique, but also rewarding. Portioning out what is ultimately a lot of writing throughout the term gives you an opportunity to both improve incrementally, as well as experiment with what and how you write. For example, if you have three essays per term, each worth a large chunk of your grade, there is an aversion to a “risky” idea, or a more out-there or experimental approach. By giving us so much freedom with our writing, we have the opportunity to grow as writers, try out new things, and find out how and why we ourselves write well.
Lastly, as an overall reflection, I wasn’t sure how much I would improve as a writer throughout my university career. I surely did, but I believe that it was more a product of courses like this, which deeply examine literature and writing styles, rather than my creative writing courses, which I wouldn’t have thought at the beginning of my time here.
Ok, thank you everyone! This might just be my final ever written assignment at UBC. Now it’s time to go out into the world and “get that bag”, as the kids say.
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Ok, so bridging off of Astha’s post (“In sum…”), this is also an end to my undergraduate career, as well a one of the more unique courses I’ve had the pleasure of taking at UBC — RMST 202.
Some flashbacks–I’m not sure if I became a better reader in this course by reading more, but rather by learning how to think more abstractly about novels. Usually, connections or metaphors seemed to far-fetched for me to consider being “true” about a book, however, it seems that this is often not the case. From this course, I’ve learned to dive deeper into metaphors and imagery, and to indulge my creativity and allowing myself the opportunity to imagine strange parallels, deeper metaphors and interesting imagery, as the meaning that I impart from this may have been exactly as intended (but no one really knows!).
My favourite books from the course (in no particular order)
Black Shack Alley
Agostino
W, or the Memory of Childhood
In terms of general thoughts — and perhaps this will be helpful for Jon and TAs — the nature of the course was unique, but also rewarding. Portioning out what is ultimately a lot of writing throughout the term gives you an opportunity to both improve incrementally, as well as experiment with what and how you write. For example, if you have three essays per term, each worth a large chunk of your grade, there is an aversion to a “risky” idea, or a more out-there or experimental approach. By giving us so much freedom with our writing, we have the opportunity to grow as writers, try out new things, and find out how and why we ourselves write well.
Lastly, as an overall reflection, I wasn’t sure how much I would improve as a writer throughout my university career. I surely did, but I believe that it was more a product of courses like this, which deeply examine literature and writing styles, rather than my creative writing courses, which I wouldn’t have thought at the beginning of my time here.
Ok, thank you everyone! This might just be my final ever written assignment at UBC. Now it’s time to go out into the world and “get that bag”, as the kids say.
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We’re done! This term was as good as I hoped it would be, and this class definitely contributed to it. Now, let me preface this blog post by saying that I hope/intend/plan to keep this blog going. As I mentioned in my introductory post, I’d been looking for a push to start a blog for quite a few years now, and I don’t want to let my current momentum to stop. That said, I’m not entirely sure what to write about. Should I continue writing about the books I read? Should I branch out and write about other things? If you have any suggestions then please let me know!
My favourite books this term were probably The Society of Reluctant Dreamers by Jose Agualusa, and The Shrouded Woman by Maria Luisa Bombal. I thought they were engaging and enjoyable, and Nada by Carmen Laforet also gets a shoutout too. My least favourites were probably Paris Peasant and W Or A Memory of Childhood. I found them a little confusing and I never really got into the plots.
Overall, I’m glad I took this class. Though it was primarily to fulfil the literature credits, I would have liked to take it anyway. In my introductory post, I thought that my favourite novels would be the ones about revolution and power, with a special attention to the Spanish Civil War. Having reached the end, I don’t think I was wrong, per se. Nada was set in Spain around the time of the war, and I did like it. However, the other books that were more directly about revolution such as The Old Gringo or Soldiers of Salamis didn’t quite enamour me as much as I expected. What does that say about me? Probably not much, to be fair. Maybe that I enjoy books with strong characterisation and more inter-character relationships.
As already mentioned, a dominant theme throughout the novels we’ve read this term is that of memory. Hopefully this blog will serve to keep my memories of these books fresh. I wish I could say that I was able to integrate reading these books sensibly into my daily routine, but honestly, I treated it a little like my other classes in that I would leave the books to the last couple days of the week and cram them in rather than reading them incrementally throughout the week. Perhaps if I’d contracted for fewer books then I would’ve been more organic about my reading, but hey this is what I signed up for. All in all, I’m just glad that I took this course and was held accountable for reading more books. I still have to take another literature class for graduation requirements and after this one, I’m definitely looking forward to it.
I’ve had a great time taking this class and writing this blog, and again – if you have any suggestions for what I could write about in the future please let me know! (and keep the link to this website handy!)
Posted in Blogs, Conclusion | Tagged with
We’re done! This term was as good as I hoped it would be, and this class definitely contributed to it. Now, let me preface this blog post by saying that I hope/intend/plan to keep this blog going. As I mentioned in my introductory post, I’d been looking for a push to start a blog for quite a few years now, and I don’t want to let my current momentum to stop. That said, I’m not entirely sure what to write about. Should I continue writing about the books I read? Should I branch out and write about other things? If you have any suggestions then please let me know!
My favourite books this term were probably The Society of Reluctant Dreamers by Jose Agualusa, and The Shrouded Woman by Maria Luisa Bombal. I thought they were engaging and enjoyable, and Nada by Carmen Laforet also gets a shoutout too. My least favourites were probably Paris Peasant and W Or A Memory of Childhood. I found them a little confusing and I never really got into the plots.
Overall, I’m glad I took this class. Though it was primarily to fulfil the literature credits, I would have liked to take it anyway. In my introductory post, I thought that my favourite novels would be the ones about revolution and power, with a special attention to the Spanish Civil War. Having reached the end, I don’t think I was wrong, per se. Nada was set in Spain around the time of the war, and I did like it. However, the other books that were more directly about revolution such as The Old Gringo or Soldiers of Salamis didn’t quite enamour me as much as I expected. What does that say about me? Probably not much, to be fair. Maybe that I enjoy books with strong characterisation and more inter-character relationships.
As already mentioned, a dominant theme throughout the novels we’ve read this term is that of memory. Hopefully this blog will serve to keep my memories of these books fresh. I wish I could say that I was able to integrate reading these books sensibly into my daily routine, but honestly, I treated it a little like my other classes in that I would leave the books to the last couple days of the week and cram them in rather than reading them incrementally throughout the week. Perhaps if I’d contracted for fewer books then I would’ve been more organic about my reading, but hey this is what I signed up for. All in all, I’m just glad that I took this course and was held accountable for reading more books. I still have to take another literature class for graduation requirements and after this one, I’m definitely looking forward to it.
I’ve had a great time taking this class and writing this blog, and again – if you have any suggestions for what I could write about in the future please let me know! (and keep the link to this website handy!)
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It is hard to believe that this is the last post I will make for this class, the term has gone by quite quickly. At the same time, it feels so long ago when our classes were being held on Zoom! Having read eleven books this term was self-satisfying – reading a book once a […]
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Time flies like an arrow, especially for those who have had several dues in one week. Overall, I liked this course so much better than I expected. At the beginning of the term, remember we all wrote a blog post in which we expressed how we felt about the course and literature in general and […]
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I can’t believe we are already at the end of the term. It doesn’t seem like that long ago that I was writing my introduction post. In the past 12 weeks, I have been exposed to so many texts and authors that I otherwise would have probably never encountered. I loved the freedom we had to choose which books we would read each week. I’m not the biggest reader, but I was surprised by how manageable reading 1 book a week was to add to my schedule. While it was a little difficult to get into the habit, it started to become routine and now I feel accomplished looking back at all the texts I was able to get through.
The connections that were starting to form between all the texts were really interesting to see. Whether it was the themes or the narratives, I was able to start seeing patterns of what they had in common. I have really enjoyed the different themes that we as a class have explored. I couldn’t write this conclusion without mentioning memory as it was such a central theme in so many of the texts. I started to look forward to seeing how the authors would describe memory each week. I think the ones that stood out to me in this sense and that explored memory the best were W. or the Memory of Childhood, Amulet, and Combray.
Looking back to all the books I chose to read this term, I think my favourites were The Time of the Doves by Mercè Rodoreda and Bonjour Tristesse by Sagan. I know they are very different but, I really liked the narrators in these two books. I found them easier to follow along with because they were both interesting women and while reading their stories I was excited to see what they were going to do next. I liked to see how they dealt with situations when it felt like they were backed into a corner and while I might not have agreed with every decision they made, I think they were authentic to themselves and it made for a more engaging read.
Thank you, Jon, Jennifer, and Patricio for making this a great term. I have enjoyed reading all the blog posts and hearing everyone’s opinions in person. To end off my final post, my question for the class is what were some of your favourite themes that we have encountered this term?
Posted in Blogs, Conclusion | Tagged with memory
I can’t believe we are already at the end of the term. It doesn’t seem like that long ago that I was writing my introduction post. In the past 12 weeks, I have been exposed to so many texts and authors that I otherwise would have probably never encountered. I loved the freedom we had to choose which books we would read each week. I’m not the biggest reader, but I was surprised by how manageable reading 1 book a week was to add to my schedule. While it was a little difficult to get into the habit, it started to become routine and now I feel accomplished looking back at all the texts I was able to get through.
The connections that were starting to form between all the texts were really interesting to see. Whether it was the themes or the narratives, I was able to start seeing patterns of what they had in common. I have really enjoyed the different themes that we as a class have explored. I couldn’t write this conclusion without mentioning memory as it was such a central theme in so many of the texts. I started to look forward to seeing how the authors would describe memory each week. I think the ones that stood out to me in this sense and that explored memory the best were W. or the Memory of Childhood, Amulet, and Combray.
Looking back to all the books I chose to read this term, I think my favourites were The Time of the Doves by Mercè Rodoreda and Bonjour Tristesse by Sagan. I know they are very different but, I really liked the narrators in these two books. I found them easier to follow along with because they were both interesting women and while reading their stories I was excited to see what they were going to do next. I liked to see how they dealt with situations when it felt like they were backed into a corner and while I might not have agreed with every decision they made, I think they were authentic to themselves and it made for a more engaging read.
Thank you, Jon, Jennifer, and Patricio for making this a great term. I have enjoyed reading all the blog posts and hearing everyone’s opinions in person. To end off my final post, my question for the class is what were some of your favourite themes that we have encountered this term?
Posted in Blogs, Conclusion | Tagged with memory
Throughout the past few months, this course felt like an endless seesaw ride, bouncing against different – yet similar – themes and cultures. In the beginning of the course, I questioned what “Romance Studies” was, or rather, what it could have meant. However, right from the introductory lecture, I realized I won’t be able to […]
Posted in Blogs, Conclusion | Tagged with adulthood, Bricolage, family, literature, Magic Realism, recollection, Relationship, temporality, war
