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.