I truly loved this class. I am a Psychology major minoring in Creative Writing, so this class itched the nerve that’s been left neglected for a long time. It gave us openings to history, narratives, validating reflections, and many more. My favourite aspect of this class was our ability to speak freely with no censorship. I noticed censorship, whether a lack of or unwelcomed, was a recurring theme in some of our readings. So I enjoyed that we were welcomed to be utterly uncensored in our words (to some extent).
Some passages I loved dearly and looked forward to recommending to my friends because of the feelings they invoked and the reflections they brought. I also enjoy that I have this blog to look back and admire my writing because I genuinely believe I am my own biggest fan. I love reading, but I mainly read to unlock a part of my mind that ignites and opens after reading something I admire, relate to, or feel strongly about.
In some of our readings, there were passages I did not appreciate. In fact, few of the texts were bigoted. They lacked experiential knowledge, speaking on settings and people they evidently neglected to read. As writers, we learn about the act of conduct when writing. Although writing is an individual journey, reading is just as immersive and taxing. You owe no one common courtesy as a writer; you often write certain things to invoke a reaction that won’t be positive. But we also don’t owe someone a thank you or a please in ordinary interactions. We do not need to greet people when entering a room, and we don’t need to turn the faucet off after washing our hands. Nonetheless, these are all things that we must become accustomed to as functioning and considerate citizens in society.
I missed reading, and this course challenged me to be able to read with the incentive of academic validation, with which you can never go wrong. I would recommend not only this course but Professor Jon to any student here at UBC. To Jon, you are as great a teacher as a listener; to be heard is a gift not many students can say they’ve had. I appreciate your contributions to our class and our learning outside the classroom.
Questions:
Did you take this class as a literature requirement, or thought you would be reading romance novels for credits?
If you would retake this class, would you contract for a lower, higher, or same grade?
Hi Suroor,
I have been thinking about taking a creative writing course and heard many good things about Dr. Tariq. But alas, this is my last term at UBC so I’ll just have to take a MasterClass or perhaps take it as an unclassified student.
I agree that some of these texts were so powerful that I couldn’t but help share some quotes with friends an family, especially from Bombal’s The Shrouded Woman as so many people I know have lost loved ones and have begun embracing their own mortality post covid.
I believe the best way to be a great reader (and listener) is to suspend all judgement and just read. Sadly, most people nowadays are too lazy to read and just want the summary or main points of any work. But unless you read the text yourself, you will only be getting someone else’s take on the work.
Dr. Jon is indeed a great listener and I truly enjoyed our class discussions with him, Jennifer and Patricio. I am so happy I took this course and will definitely be adding more Romance writers to my summer reading list.
Hi Suroor! Thank you for your post:) I relate to so much that you had to say, specifically in regards to having missed reading and loving this course as well as our Professor, Jon. To answer your questions, I took this course for my literature requirement and never thought I would enjoy it as much as I did. I didn’t expect to be reading so many texts, but I’m glad this course pushed me to do something I otherwise would not have done. Regarding the grade I contracted for, if given the chance to retake this course, I probably would have contracted for the same grade.