Amateur Fiction and “Things Fall Apart”

The BYU English Symposium was an awesome experience. First I attended a lecture on Chinoa Achebe’s “Things Fall Apart” that included several essays reflecting different messages and viewpoints. The most interesting of these was an essay by Sara Doyle entitled “Nothing but a Tortoise: Animals as Symbols”. I found this essay to one fascinating because Doyle went against what so many of the critics have said about the tortoise in “Things Fall Apart”. Acccording to her, most critics hold with the opinion that the tortoise is a representation of Okonkwo, the novel’s conflicted, occasionally violent protagonist. This has to do with many of the similarities between the tortoise and Okonkwo, such as being generally scornful and cunning. However, Doyle gives a different statement, saying that the tortoise doesn’t necessarily Okonkwo, rather better represents the white man who comes to the village to live there, and eventually build a church. This comparison is made because in the story the tortoise is a creature that decides to live among the birds, with the final goal of reigning over them. He convinces the birds to give him feathers until he has enough to make his own wings; but he is still a turtle and the birds still don’t accept him, until he finally conquers them all to his will. In a similar manner, the white man comes to the village, deciding he’d like to live among them. He finally asks them for land, and they give him some, in the cursed forest. In this way, he becomes like them, but he is still an outcast, until eventually the white men DO take over the village, along with the rest of Africa. This was a great fresh take on Achebe’s story.

The other event I attended was the Creative Writing Undergraduate Fiction winners. This was also a treat, on the whole the most entertaining event I attended. All three authors wrote very different stories, with very different styles. My favorite was the story from the winner, Jessica Holcomb, who wrote a story around a fascinating idea: what if an emperor had to face the very harbinger of death upon his passing in order to enter in to paradise, but needed one of his wives to face it with him? This is exactly what happens in this story, which occurs in a counsel of wives of the emperor immediately after his passing. The wives are made to draw straws from a cup, and the one who gets the marked straw will die with the emperor, to be his guide as he faces death itself. The story was ripe with tension, over all a fantastic experience.

Vive La Education

Whilst attending the two English seminars this last Friday, I attended both Children's Literature & Film and British Literature and Social Change, I have to admit that my expectations were exceedingly low. I'm happy to announce that my expectations were wrong beyond measure. I found the seminars interesting, enlightening, and thought-provoking. The first speaker I heard, Meagan Andrus, spoke about the taboo religion in YA literature. I never thought of it as so. The books we read shape who we are, how we think, the way we act, and how to handle social situations. None of which are done so with a religious mindset, or with a character who turns to God or Christ in search of solace, and if they do, it's rare. Meagan brought up this point that we emulate what we read, and that we need to take the taboo of religion and use it in books. I liked it a lot. Another paper that stood out to me was by Elizabeth Smith talking about British Literature and Social Change. She talked about this girl whose beauty was found in her hair and her looks, in comparison who's friend and her beauty was found in her merit. We had a conversation after about the poems, talking about if we think the social norm has changed. I think this is a question that plagued 18th century Britain and there is still some residue in the 21st century America. With education and advances for women socially, luckily, there is more of a chance for women to establish their eligibility for more than just their looks. Overall, the papers and conversations were interesting, stimulating, and fun to think about. I also think that as a school there should be more of an emphasis placed on visiting other majors and seeing the fruits of their labors so that we appreciate more the work that others are doing. I know I can say that I was blown away.

Thank You to People Who Ask Questions

The first session of the English Symposium that I attended was the Writing 150 Award Winners and going into to it I didn't know what to expect. My reaction to the fact that it would simply be a reading of people's essays did not deter me however, I drew the entire time to make sure I kept my focus. It didn't really surprise me that most of them were personal essays, I just didn't know that was an option to write on. I did enjoy the two research papers that there were, particularly the one on 3-D printed firearms. Maybe it was because it contrasted so much with the other essays, but it was very interesting and well thought out.

The second session I attended was the My English+ Stories and it was incredibly interesting and diverse. I enjoyed the format of the presentations as they each had 20 slides, 15 seconds per slide, with a total of 5 minutes per slide. There were a few that covered their study abroad trips and although that did not rekindle my old desires to do that, I found it fun to hear their stories. One person in particular named Isaac mentioned Doctor Burton several times, I bet he is proud to have had an influence in this young man's life. There were a few entrepreneurs in the group which was fascinating and really cool to see what they have been able to accomplish. Overall it was cool to hear how important an English degree can be, and how passionate people are about it.

To give an explanation to my title, we had time at the end of each session for questions. Neither of the groups were very large and the threat of awkward silence was imminent. Thankfully a soul or two would ask questions, and the participants did their best (more or less) not to answer so awkwardly that anyone spontaneously exploded. For the English+ panel someone asked how to respond when you tell someone you're an English major and they ask if your teaching. There were a few good suggestions, some more sassy than others.