Supporting details presented. Not good. 3/5. Urgent support needed. Heck, I need to throw everything that I have into the bin. Not because its rubbish, but it lacks substance.
This is bad. Really bad. I'm going to throw my towel soon.
But this shouldn't be the case.
I must persevere. Else everything that I've learnt arrives at zero. I'll insist that somehow, somewhat, I must make something out of it. My deconstructionist mind isn't kicking in.
'The Broken' Wings is a tale of two lovers, which puts Kahlil Gibran himself and Selma, in a Lebanon society that is dogmatic (not religious) and fearful (instead of a serene society). He (Kahlil) hits out at the people having powers and positions in the institutions of faiths (be it Christians, Muslims or Zoroastians). It is a book that compels the readers to be sympathetic to the protagonist of the story.
The idea of religious heads manipulating the masses isn't exactly a theme foreign to most readers, be it atheists or theists alike. The idea of a wolf in a sheep's skin, the lamb who lead the other lambs to the wolves, Romeo & Juliet love story, personal desires vis-a-vis conformity of society's codes of conducts and accepted practices, all rolled up in one package. All in one book in one perspective, drawn out of experience.
It is a wonderful book (although not exactly an inspiring one) to read. I can see how Kahlil Gibran manages to live through this living nightmare, and instead of killing himself (which may be posed as a romantic notion), he chooses to fight the fight. In his own way, in his own style. Maybe that is why he is such a celebrated personality back in his time.
But there must be something that I can attribute to his 'survival'. Guess I'll just have to read the book another one good round.
Saturday, January 19, 2008
3rd reload: Incoming Position Paper !
so we had thought of what we wanted to do.
I wanted to do Kahlil Gibran and "The Broken Wings". Why Kahlil Gibran? Why "The Broken Wings?" Nothing in particular. It was just that I had the desire to see whether could I use what I've learnt thorough all of my years spent as an undergraduate (and still an undergraduate) in UPM. I've wanted to see whether I could, or could not use everything that I've learnt in my intellectual arsenal to hop on a new literature piece and give it a shot.
People always say it is always better to be safer. I think the 'safest' way to really gauge my abilities is to jump to a new story/narrative/novel that Dr. Malachi Edwin will approve of, and see how I progress through.
Some of you may be asking, "what about your academic marks? Don't they mean anything to you?"
I always believe in a strong outcome learning process where I'm one of them who takes the learning process down to earth; take it, use it, check it. I am more interested to see whether I've developed as a literature scholar to be. Yes, there are many things that I would like myself to be groomed into; possibly psychology, or literature scholar, a teacher, and few ideas. Irregardless, I had thought that the best test is to literally jump into the fire. It may be unnecessary, but the best trial is always in the form of 'trial by fire'.
That was the reason why I chose Kahlil Gibran. I happened to read two of his books, and I felt I should try myself out.
More on the piece 'Broken Wings' later.
I wanted to do Kahlil Gibran and "The Broken Wings". Why Kahlil Gibran? Why "The Broken Wings?" Nothing in particular. It was just that I had the desire to see whether could I use what I've learnt thorough all of my years spent as an undergraduate (and still an undergraduate) in UPM. I've wanted to see whether I could, or could not use everything that I've learnt in my intellectual arsenal to hop on a new literature piece and give it a shot.
People always say it is always better to be safer. I think the 'safest' way to really gauge my abilities is to jump to a new story/narrative/novel that Dr. Malachi Edwin will approve of, and see how I progress through.
Some of you may be asking, "what about your academic marks? Don't they mean anything to you?"
I always believe in a strong outcome learning process where I'm one of them who takes the learning process down to earth; take it, use it, check it. I am more interested to see whether I've developed as a literature scholar to be. Yes, there are many things that I would like myself to be groomed into; possibly psychology, or literature scholar, a teacher, and few ideas. Irregardless, I had thought that the best test is to literally jump into the fire. It may be unnecessary, but the best trial is always in the form of 'trial by fire'.
That was the reason why I chose Kahlil Gibran. I happened to read two of his books, and I felt I should try myself out.
More on the piece 'Broken Wings' later.
Thursday, January 17, 2008
2nd Strike: Icarus & Daedelus, and Ovid's painting
For today; Icarus and Daedelus.
Now, here's something that used to be an old bedtime story that my elders (parents!) would tell to scare the living lights out of me (so that I'll be an obedient son), with wings, suns and lots of wax.
So, a quick recap on Daedelus and Icarus. Dad works for king, gets himself imprisoned for his own work. Son follows dad into imprisonment. Dad wants to plan a prison break, and has this marvelous idea involving feathers and wax. So plan A, no cliche, no "sudden" deus-ex-machina element, father plans the escape and tells the sun "don't fly too high, don't fly too low".
So in short, a wingman follows the lead. But our wingman here, Icarus, flew too near the sun (or too high). His wax melted, he stalled, and dived straight into his death. The rest is history.
So we as readers, we cry. Or not.
Now here's an interesting part. Dr. Edwin now shows us "The Fall of Icarus" by Ovid. Now, the funny thing is that Icarus's leg is shown, albeit only his leg, and he's drawn small. Nobody notices, nobody pays attention. Is everyone oblivious?
No. Because the loss is not theirs. The loss is only felt to those who feel the loss. Its certainly not the loss for me (as a reader), or the sheperd, or the fisherman, or the people in the galleon.Not them, but only to Daedelus.
But let's pause for a moment. Rewind back 15 years, and fast forward it back to the present. Check. Take a brief comparison on emotional response. Check. Take a brief look at the reasons. Check. Conclusion? I've learnt to see the event from 2 eyes. One as a 1st party spectator ( a reader/ an audience). Another as a passerby (who may or may not have an interest in the event) who just happens to be where I'm at. And I've learn to accept that other perspectives are equally viable.
And it just evolves. Dr. Edwin says, "go back and think about it". So here, weeks later, I'm here and blogging it. There has to be a change in our views. I realized that when I first heard the story, and many years later now that I'm reading it, there's a shift in judgement, opinion and what I see, and what I don't. There's a change. Its just whether we choose to acknowledge it or not.
Taking a class in literature certainly helps to empower one's mind to look at things from a different angle. And I literally mean "a different angle, a different approach".
So much for Ovid, so much for Icarus.
Now, here's something that used to be an old bedtime story that my elders (parents!) would tell to scare the living lights out of me (so that I'll be an obedient son), with wings, suns and lots of wax.
So, a quick recap on Daedelus and Icarus. Dad works for king, gets himself imprisoned for his own work. Son follows dad into imprisonment. Dad wants to plan a prison break, and has this marvelous idea involving feathers and wax. So plan A, no cliche, no "sudden" deus-ex-machina element, father plans the escape and tells the sun "don't fly too high, don't fly too low".
So in short, a wingman follows the lead. But our wingman here, Icarus, flew too near the sun (or too high). His wax melted, he stalled, and dived straight into his death. The rest is history.
So we as readers, we cry. Or not.
Now here's an interesting part. Dr. Edwin now shows us "The Fall of Icarus" by Ovid. Now, the funny thing is that Icarus's leg is shown, albeit only his leg, and he's drawn small. Nobody notices, nobody pays attention. Is everyone oblivious?
No. Because the loss is not theirs. The loss is only felt to those who feel the loss. Its certainly not the loss for me (as a reader), or the sheperd, or the fisherman, or the people in the galleon.Not them, but only to Daedelus.
But let's pause for a moment. Rewind back 15 years, and fast forward it back to the present. Check. Take a brief comparison on emotional response. Check. Take a brief look at the reasons. Check. Conclusion? I've learnt to see the event from 2 eyes. One as a 1st party spectator ( a reader/ an audience). Another as a passerby (who may or may not have an interest in the event) who just happens to be where I'm at. And I've learn to accept that other perspectives are equally viable.
And it just evolves. Dr. Edwin says, "go back and think about it". So here, weeks later, I'm here and blogging it. There has to be a change in our views. I realized that when I first heard the story, and many years later now that I'm reading it, there's a shift in judgement, opinion and what I see, and what I don't. There's a change. Its just whether we choose to acknowledge it or not.
Taking a class in literature certainly helps to empower one's mind to look at things from a different angle. And I literally mean "a different angle, a different approach".
So much for Ovid, so much for Icarus.
Friday, January 11, 2008
First Blood
Sometime in January, week 1:
Dr. Malachi Edwin gave us our first assignment of the course: Position Paper. Here, I'm obliged to take a stand which is critically arguable. Truistic cases are not position arguments; A position paper is a piece of write up where one takes a stand in an arguable case, and presents the points why so and so, and how so and so works. We're given a weeks' worth of time to think up of a novel and a thesis statement, and my mind was pointing at a novel which I read exactly 365 days ago: "The Broken Wings" by Kahlil Gibran. I remember the story, because I made a blog out of the question "What is Spiritual Affinity". But here's the cliche; I must take a stand that is arguable, yet convincingly argue that my case is true, or at least critically valid in the eyes of the readers and critics alike. This is an academic piece of writing, not some ordinary yip-yap on a certain literary piece.
Hence, the two foremost question that pops in everyone's mind (including yours truly): (1)What novel to take up, and (2) what position to take into. But before I can really make up my mind, there's a lingering question that happened to be in everyone's mind: "Can we stick to the stories / novels that we've done in our course?" A prompt answer from Dr. Malachi himself was "yes". He did not make statements about encouraging students to go through texts that are not taught, but neither did he discouraged it. However, I thought it would be fun, and academically challenging at the same time to go through a text that one has never gone through critically.
That would put all the skills and knowledge that I've acquired after semesters and years of training as an undergraduate to a test; I mean, why not? Why choose to be safe, when you can exercise what you've learnt? I'm very sure, even though that I'm walking a path that very few will choose; I'm confident that I'll learn to be a better student of literature through this path. I am very sure of the fact that I may fail, or even do badly for this course; but my resolve is adamant. Like it or not, I must find a literary text that I've never touched in my academic life. This would be my resolve in testing my mettle as a student. It is necessary for my own good to develop my persona as a student of literature (I actually do harbour the wish to be a scholar of literature). Why bother about marks? If I do good, I'll deserve it. But even if I'm not that academically inclined, I've got nothing to lose. I've certainly got nothing to lose at all.
I guess its time to work on the thesis statement then. I have something in mind, three concepts; Persona's survival, Love, and social injustice. Let's see how can I construe a statement out of this. All in the novel "The Broken Wings" by Kahlil Gibran.
Just a spoiler; apparently Dr. Malachi doesn't think that it (the novel) makes the cut as a novel. Dr. Malachi is adamant that the book is more of a motivation empowering book. We'll see next week. I hope I can push forward this position paper.
Dr. Malachi Edwin gave us our first assignment of the course: Position Paper. Here, I'm obliged to take a stand which is critically arguable. Truistic cases are not position arguments; A position paper is a piece of write up where one takes a stand in an arguable case, and presents the points why so and so, and how so and so works. We're given a weeks' worth of time to think up of a novel and a thesis statement, and my mind was pointing at a novel which I read exactly 365 days ago: "The Broken Wings" by Kahlil Gibran. I remember the story, because I made a blog out of the question "What is Spiritual Affinity". But here's the cliche; I must take a stand that is arguable, yet convincingly argue that my case is true, or at least critically valid in the eyes of the readers and critics alike. This is an academic piece of writing, not some ordinary yip-yap on a certain literary piece.
Hence, the two foremost question that pops in everyone's mind (including yours truly): (1)What novel to take up, and (2) what position to take into. But before I can really make up my mind, there's a lingering question that happened to be in everyone's mind: "Can we stick to the stories / novels that we've done in our course?" A prompt answer from Dr. Malachi himself was "yes". He did not make statements about encouraging students to go through texts that are not taught, but neither did he discouraged it. However, I thought it would be fun, and academically challenging at the same time to go through a text that one has never gone through critically.
That would put all the skills and knowledge that I've acquired after semesters and years of training as an undergraduate to a test; I mean, why not? Why choose to be safe, when you can exercise what you've learnt? I'm very sure, even though that I'm walking a path that very few will choose; I'm confident that I'll learn to be a better student of literature through this path. I am very sure of the fact that I may fail, or even do badly for this course; but my resolve is adamant. Like it or not, I must find a literary text that I've never touched in my academic life. This would be my resolve in testing my mettle as a student. It is necessary for my own good to develop my persona as a student of literature (I actually do harbour the wish to be a scholar of literature). Why bother about marks? If I do good, I'll deserve it. But even if I'm not that academically inclined, I've got nothing to lose. I've certainly got nothing to lose at all.
I guess its time to work on the thesis statement then. I have something in mind, three concepts; Persona's survival, Love, and social injustice. Let's see how can I construe a statement out of this. All in the novel "The Broken Wings" by Kahlil Gibran.
Just a spoiler; apparently Dr. Malachi doesn't think that it (the novel) makes the cut as a novel. Dr. Malachi is adamant that the book is more of a motivation empowering book. We'll see next week. I hope I can push forward this position paper.
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