Dear readers,
wow, so this is it? This is it! I am not sure if I should formulate this sentence as a question or not because I just can not believe first year is already almost over and this is my last blog post for this year. Well, I guess I will stick with the “This is it?“. Time went by so fast and so many things happened since my first year of university started, that I want to take the time and reflect on what has happened and what I will take from this time (and especially from this ASTU course) to my second year.
I have to say ASTU100 took away a lot of my fears regarding scholarly articles. Before, I did not know how to approach such a text without getting overwhelmed. Furthermore it really taught me how to ask critical questions, questions that were results from thinking outside the box. A good example for this “Thinking outside the box“ was today’s lecture. Reading The Reluctant Fundamentalist, the narrator immediately stands out through his unusual approach of the story, appearing as very one-sided at first. It never came to my mind to question the narrator and claim that he is unreliable and further more dig deeper. Of course you get a little annoyed with the main character telling his story only from one perspective, but would you question him? And would you try to find the answer for his irresponsibility in something that could come after the ending of the actual book?
These questions reminds me of one of my older blog posts about Kogawa and the Archives “Don’t forget to remember“. This blog talks about how I came to the conclusion that a story begins with the first thought about the work and the first research the author does. It is not the first page of a book that determines the beginning of a story hence, the last page of a book is also not the ending of the story and you should never forget that. If you really want to understand a book you have to take the risk and think past the last page. And never stop asking questions.
This course has taught me more than I would have expected at the beginning of the year and I it makes me a sort of sad that this is my last blog post for this year.
So far so good, thank you for your time and I hope you enjoyed my blogs.
Have a great summer!
Paolina
