I learned today that Arthur C. Clarke has passed away. The only book I’ve read by him was Childhood’s End, in one of my worst undergraduate literature courses: Science Fiction. I went into this class excited and eager to read some cool stuff. Instead, we had an awkward teacher with strange quirks and had to read stuff like Childhood’s End. I hated that book. It was one of the many books I disliked as an undergraduate.
I wrote my analysis paper on that book, critiquing the gender roles. The feedback I got was something along the lines of This was okay, but you could have done a more challenging topic. I was flabbergasted, as I was just developing as a feminist. Now I realize that the critiques of the book I did were old, commonplace critiques. Not challenging at all. In fact, the paper was easy to write. It’s easy to condemn something so obviously traditional, especially something written in the 1953. I think the teacher could have explained that a bit better to me at the time, though.
Perhaps some day I will take the time to read more Clarke, but there’s more pressing things to read. For instance, final reports from another 75 students this week.
cross-posted
You know, your arguments may have been commonplace, but they were new to you, and these types of analyses have to start somewhere. It might have behooved the instructor to, instead, encourage you. “This is a good start, but these are well-known theories. Give me some insight in to the challenges that a book like this poses, or, better yet, look at this kind of critique from a different angle. Perhaps it fits into a traditional gender model, but how could it be considered either passe or cutting edge in gender analysis?”
I think it is important for us to encourage students to think outside the box. Students don’t always know how to do that early on. If we start doing it from the beginning, students can be incredibly dynamic writers at the ends of their undergraduate careers.
Yes, Dawn, I agree with you. Your comments are pretty much what I meant when I wrote that the teacher could have explained that. As his comment read to me at the time, it seemed he didn’t value feminist critiques, but now, after a few more years of education, I think it was that he wanted a more sophisticated critique. He could have helped to get me there, as you noted. Thanks for your comments.