Writing Refinement:

How English 110 Helped me Hone my Literary Skills 

I’ve always felt that I was a pretty good writer, not particularly gifted at writing in any special way, but writing papers throughout middle school and high school came pretty naturally to me. I say that not out of hubris or arrogance, but because I was more pleasantly surprised by the turn my writing style would take in this class and for my other classes this semester. The way I used to write was almost robotic; I would take prompts, break down what they were asking, and answer them wholly bit by bit. This writing style has its purposes and uses, however, that wasn’t what I was asked to do in this class. Writing a personal essay and then an open-ended research paper allowed me to develop as a writer and solidify my techniques/process while simultaneously allowing myself to geek out over topics I enjoyed. In the following paragraphs, I aim to take a closer look at my work from this semester, especially in relation to the Course Learning Objectives (CLO), and see how I’ve developed/achieved the goals set by myself and Professor Vicars.

The first CLO of this semester was “Examine how attitudes towards linguistic standards empower and oppress language users”. My approach to this objective was a little unconventional at least compared to the class because the class was dominated by people whose primary language isn’t English and therefore had a more clear-cut way of viewing the objective. Instead, I interrogated the death of one of my favorite rappers Nipsey Hussle and tried to understand why he was one of my favorite artists. What I learned was that he was a business-oriented person, if he wasn’t a rapper he would undoubtedly be successful in another industry, but I also learned that his voice and cadence carried. The power his voice held was inexplicable, but its power wasn’t lost on his fans. As I wrote in my essay “They spread their knowledge freely, and when they spoke everyone in the room often went quiet and listened. The power their voice held and the way they deliberately chose each word they said, should be respected by anyone that hears it”, and the eerie feeling I get when hearing his past interviews and songs proves this. However, this is all to say that Nipsey broke the linguistic norms for his background, ancestry, and social class and it rubbed off quite a bit on me as a bright-eyed 14-year-old kid.

The 2nd CLO asks to “Explore and analyze, in writing and reading, a variety of genres and rhetorical situations”. Having explored letters, personal essays, and articles the rhetorical strategies used by authors are often what favors the argument their trying to make or the purpose they’re trying to serve. This goes hand in hand with rhetorical situations. As I demonstrate in my analysis of Amy Tan’s work on Mother Tongue, Tan’s “ anecdotal style of writing this piece added to the conversational nature. It felt more like someone talking to the reader rather than teaching or preaching to them”, which allowed her to better explain her perspective on the issue of language barriers. This is one of many instances of myself analyzing an author’s writing strategies in relation to their purpose and the genre of their piece and how those three factors come together to tell compelling stories or make interesting arguments.

As I said before I’ve had a vague outline of my writing process, but this semester allowed me to make it more formal to accommodate the increased workload that has come in the first semester of college. The 3rd CLO wants me to “Develop strategies for reading, drafting, processing, collaborating, revising, and editing”. My reflection on my essay writing which is included in my digital portfolio highlights my process in significantly more depth, but generally speaking writing for me is more of a mental process. I spend probably at least as much time thinking about what I’m as I do actually writing it; going on walks, train rides, or watching tv are all times that I could use to think about what I’m going to write for my papers and when I have a breakthrough of understanding I begin writing and all my thoughts spill on the page. The insane amount of writing some of my teachers used to give in high school is probably in large part of why I write this way, but it works for me. In terms of editing and revising I typically do both interchangeably, but ideally, I give myself a day to do both so I have a fresh mind when working on a paper.

Referring back to CLO 2, CLO 4 asks to “Recognize and practice key rhetorical terms and strategies when engaged in writing situations”. In the personal essay, I had previously referred to I provide an anecdote recounting the day I found out Nipsey got shot. Sparing the nitty-gritty details I used the story to highlight how important Nipsey was to me and how his death affected me personally. This allowed me to build some credibility with my readers and show that I was truly affected. I also used this moment to make my essay more intimate in a way, which set up my conclusion and made it more powerful.

A CLO I’m rather familiar with is CLO 5; “Understand the use print and digital technologies to address a range of audiences”. In previous classes, I’ve actually had to perform Ted Talks that coincided with written pieces which gave me a rather good understanding of the differences between the two. Both digital and print mediums are privy to entirely different audiences. People who watch Ted Talks for example are very different from those who read newspapers, this allows speakers/authors to tailor their purpose more toward their respective audiences. Safwat Saleem’s Ted Talk harkens back to a point made earlier, Saleem presents his audience with various personal anecdotes about his speech impediment (if that’s the right word), and therefore creates a more personal environment for his audience which allows for more empathy/sympathy and understanding. This goes without mentioning that he’s physically talking to his audience which is much different than writing something, but as I said before, both mediums are tailored to different sorts of people who interpret written and spoken information differently.

Locating sources has always been one of my weaknesses as a writer. Call it laziness or lack of foresight, focus, or something else, but I always fail to collect adequate evidence unless I’m prompted to do so. This semester, however, I was given access to the god-sent websites of JSTOR and Google Scholar. CLO 6 wants me to “Locate research sources in the library’s databases or archives on the Internet and evaluate them for credibility, accuracy, timeliness, and bias”, I do just that in my research paper regarding Sci-FI/Fantasy and the roles they play in Modern literature when referring to a man named Karl Schorr. He wrote a journal entitled “The Rewards of Reading Fantasy”, so his bias is pretty much undeniable, but in many ways, I agreed with him objectively. However, he makes a rather stark claim in the article stating that “Perhaps one of the reasons that we enjoy experiencing wonder is that it returns us to a childlike state of innocence, of naivete”, which although agreeing with him, I flipped on its head to show how Sci-Fi/Fantasy isn’t taken seriously even by its own fanbase. This analysis helped me further my argument, all of which was derived from the article I pulled from JSTOR.

Piggy-backing on the previous objective number seven wishes that I “Compose texts that integrate a stance with appropriate sources, using strategies, such as summary, analysis, synthesis, and argumentation”. While I would love to copy-paste an entire paragraph from my rather long research paper, just to inflate my word count, I can confidently say that I follow a relatively consistent structure where I; Introduce my idea, contextualize the source evidence I’m about to use, analyze it, and then argue why it favors my beliefs. If I were to point to one specific paragraph where I do this, the best example would be the aforementioned paragraph regarding Karl Schorr, which is perhaps my most argumentative paragraph in the essay and consequently pulls from everything I’ve said throughout the paper.

The final objective is rather straightforward; “Practice systematic application of citation convention”. Considering I opted to introduce my sources pretty directly and contextualize them I didn’t have to worry much about citing them appropriately, but my citations from the Odyssey are about as textbook as I can get (I think). I pulled moments from the books regarding King Nestor and Nausicca and I like to think I contextualized them properly and prepped my reader for the analysis that followed.

As much as I would like to indulge myself and brag about my work I think I would become overly redundant. But seriously, I learned a lot about myself as a writer and a person this semester and this course provided a great outlet for it. I hope I at least made a convincing case for the improvements I’ve made and that I’ve accomplished the objectives the course has set. I would also like to say thank you to Professor Vicars for making the class a welcoming, enjoyable environment.

TMC

Ever since I was young, music has been a large part of my identity, culture, and personality. Even now it’s rare to be in the Estrera household when absolutely no music is playing. Especially on Sundays. We often would make Sunday breakfast and play all kinds of music until we got ready for church. It was the one day we could hang out, so we often rotated who played what music. My family listens to all kinds of music from slow rock, to blues, to RnB, to rap, but of course, I was particularly attracted to hip hop both because I was younger and my brother listened to it. In many ways, my brother along with rap music informed how I spoke and understood the world. 

However, much of my favorite music was derived from what my family listened to, between middle school and early high school I felt that I lacked identity in many ways especially musically. As a result, I began listening to more artists; artists from the west coast, east coast, singers, young, old, etc. My music taste since then grew to be quite ironic in many ways. One of my favorite rappers is undisputably Jay Z, but I frequently listen to people like Redman, Game, 50 Cent, Jadakiss, etc. My love for more old-school hip hop earned me the label “oldhead” from my close friends in high school which expanded into a larger joke that pretty much everyone I was even acquainted with was in on, even teachers. If rap was my favorite genre of music, then RnB would be a close second. People like Usher, Ty Dolla $ign, and Brandy, were on my playlists, but unlike rap, I listen to many current artists that make RnBish music. These include artists like Emotional Oranges (an odd name I know), Maria Isabel, H.E.R, Lucky Daye, Chiiild, and the list goes on and on. The irony in liking RnB and Rap music is that I can basically go from listening to Southern Gangster Rap from Clipse and then switch to intimate love songs by Usher at the drop of the dime.

Long music tangent aside, by 2018, my freshman year in high school, I had found an artist that I could consider my favorite. They were an artist, but they also advocated for larger change, socially, economically, and spiritually and it translated to their music. They spoke most often about something I never understood; independence and ownership. They spoke it both in a business sense and creative sense and therefore opened my language to a space it had never been open to before. Before listening to them I never thought of ownership or independence. After listening to them, I knew what a 360 deal was, I knew record sales today are both actual record sales and several theoretical record sales that are proportional to total listens, and I knew that most people didn’t “own” the rights to their music and that sometimes is okay not to. All of this I acquired by listening to their music and interviews. In terms of life they taught me business, respect, and self-worth, in terms of language they taught me the complexities of word choice, tone, and cadence all of which were foreign to my younger self.

They were also well known for how they spoke, when they did interviews or rapped it felt more like they were preaching rather than speaking. They were only 32 at the time and they spoke of things only people well above their social class, age, and background spoke about. The way they voiced their opinions on business, respect and life has been compared to people like Prince, Jay-Z, Nas, or even activists from years past. But they also said things in a poetic way that simply appealed to anyone listening. They spread their knowledge freely, and when they spoke everyone in the room often went quiet and listened. The power their voice held and the way they deliberately chose each word they said, should be respected by anyone that hears it whether you agree with what they say or not, or what your beliefs on people from their background are. They were a prime example of someone who understood language and pulled language from others. That may be the biggest thing this artist has taught me, the best way to improve your language and speaking is to pull from those before you. There’s no better way to learn more about yourself linguistically than by listening to those whom you respect and admire.

I deliberately haven’t named this artist for a reason. This is because their name was Nipsey Hussle. If you don’t know his story, he was a gang member from the Southside of LA, who since the early 2000s has been making music, and was renowned since his teens for being business savvy. He would release various mixtapes and singles and sell them out of the trunk of his car as well as start a clothing business, “The Marathon Clothing (TMC)”, that would grow alongside his music career. By February 2018, he would release his debut album, “Victory Lap”, to critical acclaim and Grammy nominations, officially putting him on the map for all hip-hop fans (HipHopScriptures.com).

Now flash forward to March 31st, 2019. It was a Sunday, so of course, my mom was making fried rice, eggs, bacon, and other things of the sort, while my dad and I laid lazily on our couch probably watching NBA highlights on Sportscenter, and my brother, well, he was taking a shit. Mellow music played in the background while my dad and I argued in circles about the Knicks. Then, we heard a flush, we both glanced over, realizing it was just my brother and went right back to arguing. Then came the sound of the sink running, and perhaps a few sprays of Febreze, and finally the door opens. My brother stepped out and stared right at me. I look up from our argument and the look he gave me was that of confusion, shock, and sadness all tied up into one. It was one of those looks where a person wants to say something, but they don’t know how. I tried to decipher what the expression on his face meant, but all I could come up with was that something was very wrong. My mind raced, thinking through all the possibilities of what could’ve happened. I may have sat there for 10 seconds thinking until my brother breaks the silence and in a manner, I’ve never heard him speak before he says “Yo, Nip just died…”. I processed what he said for what seemed like ages until I googled what happened, and an article from TMZ popped up. The headline reading “Nipsey Hussle Dead at 33…Coroner Says Fatal Shots to Head and Torso” My memory goes almost completely blank after that. All I can remember is my brother and I hanging out in his room, me on the steps, him on his bed blasting Nipsey music for hours. There are various lyrics from Nipsey’s songs that hit a lot differently after he died, but while listening to the song Racks in the Middle, we sensed a strange eeriness when these lines play:

Damn, I wish my n*gga Fatts was here
How you die at thirty somethin’
after banging all them years? 
Grammy Nominated,
in the sauna sheddin tears
all this money power fame 
and I can’t make you reappear
But I don’t wipe ‘em though
We just embrace the only life we know
If it was me, I would tell you
“N*gga, live your life and grow”
I’d tell you, “Finish what we started
Reach them heights you know?”
And gas the V-12 to the pipe and smoke

Racks In the Middle (Feat. Roddy Rich) by Nipsey Hussle

I saw my brother shed a tear. It’s been a while since I’ve seen him do so. He wiped the tear off his cheek and looked at me and in a soft tone said “It’s okay to cry”. Those words and Nip’s will forever leave a fundamental mark on how I look at myself and the world and I don’t see myself forgetting them anytime soon.

Although Nipsey wasn’t in the spotlight for long, there is much to be learned from someone who lived a life like his. There’s also much to be learned from his personality and character. After his death not only have his ideas and beliefs lived on but how he conveyed his ideas and beliefs has lived on as well. He spoke with conviction and certainty, and although I for sure do not speak that way, I believe that I and many others should strive to communicate and speak as well as he does. Nipsey also demonstrates, that his music and his ideas have permanently altered the city of LA and have influenced the minds of millions of people. There are very few who could say that their words have deterred gang culture, and fewer still that could say that their death paused violence in one of the most violent places in America. Prayers to Lauren London and Kross, their son. RIP Nip, and as he used to say, “The Marathon Continues”.

The Literary Gatekeeping of Sci-fi/Fantasy: 

How Sci-fi/Fantasy has pushed past its cliche roots and developed into a complex, modern genre

I fucking love Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Warhammer 40k, Halo, and more recently First Law, The Dresden Files, and the list goes on and on. I’m a nerd, don’t let the baggy clothes, Yankees fitted, and Jordans deceive you, I’m a nerd and gamer to the core. So when I say that Fantasy and Sci-fi are criminally underrated and underused in academic circles, as well as severely misrepresented in the media I may be a little biased. On a more serious note, it is a fact that fantasy and sci-fi are not taken seriously by the average person, and in fairness why should they? It’s hard to take dragons, elves, death stars, sandworms, and other things of the like seriously, however, it’s not like academic institutions haven’t done that before. It’s always been odd that Western students have an extensive understanding of ancient texts like the Odyssey, The Divine Comedy, etc., and absolutely no understanding of Lord of the Rings or Star Wars. Many of these epics contain incredibly fantastical elements and in many cases should be considered outright fantasy, instead, they’re labeled as “myths” or “classics”, and framed as some of the best writing that humanity has produced, not saying their not, but by framing these texts that way the conversation of whether or not these texts are actually fantasy is dismissed. Hypocrisy aside that isn’t the only issue of ignoring fantasy/sci-fi. Many fantasy series exist that interrogate the human psyche, society, and morality, thanks to writers like Brandon Sanderson, RF Kuang, Terry Pratchet, J. R. R. Tolkien, and many more authors. By skipping over sci-fi/fantasy students miss out on very profound lessons and understandings of the world that they may not get elsewhere. So in writing this essay I hope to garner the respect for fantasy and sci-fi that the genre, its fans, and its authors deserve.

Every western student has had to read some form of the Odyssey, Dante, Gilgamesh, or any of the various other “classics” of western literature. These “classics” are exceptionally well-written texts, but they serve a larger purpose than mere literary entertainment. “Classics” are relics of their time and consequently represent the societal norms and beliefs of their given era. That is why students are taught it, great literature lasts far longer than anything else as evidenced by the “classics”, and therefore much can be learned when analyzing them.

The Odyssey, for example, demonstrates how highly the Ancient Greeks held hospitality among other things. They had a word for it called Xenia and the Odyssey has a plethora of moments where characters abide by Xenia or used it to get into the gods’ good graces. One such example of Xenia is when King Nestor welcomes Telemachus and Athena to his feast: “They reached the center of the town, where Nestor was sitting with his sons and his companions, putting the meat on spits and roasting it for dinner. When they saw the strangers coming, they all stood up with open arms to greet them, inviting them to join them” (Homer 3.31-36). Another example of Xenia is when Odysseus arrives on the island of the Phaeacians naked and as a total wreck, and once again Nausicaa, the princess of that island says “Well stranger… since you have arrived here in our land you will not lack for clothes or anything a person needs in time of desperation” (Homer 6.186-193). Given this information, Western students are taught to draw conclusions and inferences about society at the time. They are taught that by reading these classics they can effectively construct a vague image of what the, in this case, ancient Greek, society would look like.

 So from this concept of Xenia what can be understood about the Greeks? The most surface analysis of these quotes would be that the Ancient Greeks believed in being hospitable or kind, but what does that demonstrate about them on a societal level? For any era, it would be odd to welcome any and all strangers the way the Ancient Greeks did, meaning that something had to be compelling them to act that way. Of course, they could have been doing so out of the kindness of their hearts, but considering the many wars that were had between city-states the possibility that the Greeks were especially peaceful and welcoming is unlikely. A more logical explanation would be that their generosity was derived from their fear of the gods. If that were true, that would mean that the ancient greeks believed in gods interfering directly in their affairs. This fear in turn is reflected in the large monuments they built to the gods and the style of masonry greeks sculptors adapted. This also shows that the ancient greeks valued power and wealth and believed in displaying it to others. Although this analysis is a bit presumptuous, especially over only two excerpts of the Odyssey, by pulling from, analyzing, and making inferences from the Odyssey much can be learned about the Ancient Greek world. Theoretically, this style of analysis, with the intent to understand society should be possible for a more modern text.

Lord of the Rings is perhaps the most recognizable adult fantasy series of all time. This is in large part due to the massive success of the Lord of the Rings films from the early 2000s. Unfortunately, the fact that Lord of the Rings as a franchise enjoyed commercial success means the allegorical side of the trilogy is overlooked. Tolkien himself was born in 1892 and was pretty much a genius. Tolkiensociety.org unsurprisingly provides an extensive look into Tolkien’s life: “John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (1892–1973) was a major scholar of the English language, specializing in Old and Middle English. Twice Professor of Anglo-Saxon (Old English) at the University of Oxford”. Tolkien was particularly gifted in language, which was reflected in the prose he uses and the languages he constructed to accompany Middle Earth: “Ronald was already showing remarkable linguistic gifts. He had mastered Latin and Greek which was the staple fare of an arts education at that time and was becoming more than competent in a number of other languages, both modern and ancient, notably Gothic, and later Finnish. He was already busy making up his own languages, purely for fun.” Tolkien also indulges himself thoroughly, The Lord of the Rings itself is filled with psalms and poetry that coincide with the story he is telling. One of his most beautifully written and infamous poems from The Fellowship of the Ring demonstrates just that: 

All that is gold does not glitter, 
Not all those who wander are lost
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost
From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king

(Tolkien 10.193)

The poem comes at a time in the book of uncertainty and serves as a testament to how well Tolkien can tell a story in a few words. The quote is meant to inspire strength and belief and it does so very well. The elegance in his writing was a long time in the making and improved with age. 

Unfortunately, Tolkien’s early work would be interrupted. Tolkien was born at a poor time. By 1914 World War I was in full swing. Unlike many of his countrymen, Tolkien wasn’t quick to join the ranks and was satisfied working at Oxford and improving his craft. “Eventually he was indeed sent to active duty on the Western Front, just in time for the Somme offensive. After four months in and out of the trenches, he succumbed to “trench fever”, a form of typhus-like infection common in the insanitary conditions, and in early November was sent back to England”, during his service Tolkien was privy to the horrors that undoubtedly come with war. “During these last few months, all but one of his close friends of the “T. C. B. S.” had been killed in action. Partly as an act of piety to their memory, but also stirred by reaction against his war experiences, he had already begun to put his stories into shape”. His experiences and his abilities culminated into the trilogy so many adore now. The deeper meaning Lord of the Rings represents is almost undoubtedly a commentary on what Tolkien learned and saw in his time in the trenches.

 Lord of the Rings itself served as an allegory to the human condition. The literal seduction of the One Ring and the attachment its bearers have to it is symbolic of the plethora of vices and emotions that humans are held captive to. Gandalf, the great wise wizard, in many ways is a physical embodiment of religion or maybe even religious figures such as Jesus Christ, or even God. Given Tolkien’s theologian background, and Gandalf’s often extremely wise and grandiose quotes, Gandalf equating to religious figures is not unlikely. The various races of Middle Earth have been speculated to represent different things as well. An article, quite directly titled “How is the Lord of the Rings an Allegory”, hypothesizes that “The Dwarves in The Lord of the Rings represent industrialization in society”, while “The Elves in the Lord of the Rings represent wisdom and knowledge”. But perhaps the most interesting race, The Hobbits is supposedly representative of the common human. The smaller stature and their almost insignificance to the grander politics that play out in Middle Earth are similar to how an average person may feel. This then places much more significance on Frodo and Sam making the journey and brings out the importance of everyday people. 

So once again, if literature is a representation of their time, what does Lord of the Rings show about early to mid-20th century Europe? The 20th century was a tumultuous time for the world. Many philosophers and scientists from times past have tried their best to explain the human condition, but no one could be prepared for the series of wars that Europe had in store. This left many people in shambles, with different scientists finally claiming the existence of things such as PTSD and Shell Shock. There was also the rise of nationalism, communism, and just overall modernization feeding the fear many had of change. The world Tolkien crafted demonstrated how the world was at a tipping point. The conflict between good and evil is by no means a new concept, but the conflict between capitalism and Communism was. The influence of the struggles of World War I and II and the Cold War is apparent in the pages. The scale of the conflict Tolkien wrote about was just a reimagination of what he had truly seen. The wars that were fought during his time were unprecedented, and it was only right that The Lord of the Rings followed suit.

As demonstrated above both The Odyssey and The Lord of the Rings can provide invaluable insight into the societies that crafted them. However, why do we spend multiple semesters and classes from middle school to college learning one and not the other? Of course, the classic texts that students are so often taught are entirely deserving of the attention they’ve acquired since their publications. But for Sci-fi/fantasy the story is a little different. In the current literary atmosphere, a lot of younger readers who started out reading Harry Potter have grown up and moved on from young adult novels, to more adult novels, nevertheless, there’s still a pretty obvious stigma that exists when Sci-fi/Fantasy is brought up. There’s a sort of connotation that Sci-fi/Fantasy is for children or unrealistic and therefore can’t relate to or accurately represent humanity. This is in part because many writers and readers within the space have yet to shed that idea. An article written by Karl Schorr in 1985 entitled “The Rewards of Reading Fantasy” speaks about fantasy in a positive light and attributes a lot of its success as a genre to J. R. R. Tolkien. Schorr believes that the reason people enjoy fantasy, at least, for the most part, is because of the wonder it provides and how it lets its reader’s imagination run wild. He theorizes that “Perhaps one of the reasons that we enjoy experiencing wonder is that it returns us to a childlike state of innocence, of naivete”. This common pitfall is where many people end up when discussing sci-fi/fantasy. Whether or not imagination should be left to children is another discussion entirely and beyond the scope of the argument for this paper. But for the sake of conversation, let’s say that it shouldn’t and that in adult life there is space for imagination to exist. So again, why do we read the Odyssey and read about cyclopses, nymphs, and gods? That’s every bit as imaginative as elves, orcs, and goblins. If we pull profound thought and philosophy from classic texts, why shouldn’t we do the same for Middle Earth? The line between classic literature and sci-fi/fantasy is drawn awkwardly and shifts from one text to another. So perhaps Tolkien indulged in his imagination a bit too much, perhaps a dark lord living in a volcano is just too damn unrealistic, but Dante Alighieri gets to figuratively walk through the nine circles of hell, then purgatory, and heaven and it works. The concept of contrapasso is brilliantly executed there and it should be taught. In the same breath, everyone who has read any part of the Divine Comedy can agree that Dante was probably a little off his rocker. In other words, listen to batshit crazy Dante, but not obsessive theologian Tolkien.

This whole argument also goes without mentioning that many of the topics discussed in sci-fi/fantasy are not for the faint of heart. No one reads A Song of Ice of Fire out of wonder or naivete or wonder. Martin’s stories are dark, brutal, and unforgiving, but the realism it provides for a fantastical setting is almost unmatched. George R. Martin isn’t the only one writing those types of stories either. Modern sci-fi/fantasy writers have followed the trend of discussing mental health and the human psyche as well as telling dark stories and writing morally ambiguous characters. Books such as the Poppy War provide the gritty side of warfare, and its Author RF Kuang provides a brilliant commentary on conflict. Daniel Greene, an author, book reviewer, and YouTuber in his video discussing his favorite fantasy series puts it best “She is hyper-focusing on the victims of warfare. She refuses to glorify violence, but instead focuses on the ramifications, the chaos, the evil, that will result from the political ambitions of those in power”. There are also books like the First Law trilogy that discuss change. Joe Abercrombie, the series’ author interrogates whether people can change or whether their true nature remains embedded within them no matter how much they try to suppress it. He does this while also framing the series in a setting that loosely resembles the Ottoman Empire and the Holy Roman Empire during the discovery of gunpowder. The racial bigotry between the Gurkish, Northmen, and Unionists is all related to the divide between Western and Eastern Europe as well as the Scandinavians. This relation to history goes for the two aforementioned books too and these three stories are far from the only ones that do so. There’s also Brandon Sanderson’s work on the Stormlight Archive, and greater Cosmere. The depression and anxiety Sanderson aims to depict are well realized. Characters like Kaladin, who in your normal run-of-the-mill fantasy would be the hero, have immense survivor’s guilt and the first book of the series A Way of Kings demonstrates those emotions perfectly. I’ve never been suicidal, but the way Kaladin contemplates suicide and jumping into the “Honor Chasm”, is haunting at best. 

“Kaladin watched the drops of water streaking down toward oblivion in the crevasse. Little suicide jumpers. Thousands upon thousands of them. Millions upon millions. Who knew what awaited them in that darkness. You couldn’t see it, couldn’t know it until you joined them. Leaping off into the void and letting the wind bear down on you”

(Sanderson 11.187)

As I said I’ve never been suicidal, however, I have been depressed. Reading these lines brought back a vulnerable feeling I used to have. From reading various blogs online, Sanderson’s readership agrees that the way Sanderson discusses mental health is important and real and shows that this vulnerability should be more widespread in the literature. This is not to say that this level of writing and thought is only possible in fantasy, but to say that fantasy as a genre has evolved and is discussing deeper and deeper topics than it ever has. 

There of course is still space for the fun, lighthearted sci-fi/fantasy series as well. The current series I’m reading, The Dresden Files, is not quite sunshine and rainbows, but it’s clearly a fight between the “good guys” and “bad guys”, and scratches my itch for more laid-back pulpy fiction. In writing this paper, I in no way want to insinuate that one group of literature is good or one is bad, I’m merely suggesting, albeit aggressively, that sci-fi/fantasy is much deeper than many readers give it credit for. I also hope that future classes aren’t all about Tolkien’s or Martin’s writings. I want schools, high schools, and colleges especially, to provide their students with the tools to understand the literature on a deeper level whether it be classics, literary fiction, sci-fi, fantasy, historical fiction, horror, or the hundreds of other genres out there. I entitled this paper The Literary Gatekeeping of Fantasy because I and many others know how it feels to not be accepted. Seeing an entire genre rejected in academics due to mere genre alone is more than disappointing. In a sense I want the literary community to dispel the concept of genres, this is another discussion entirely, but genres have historically been limiting factors to some books while major boosts in popularity to others. This may be a bit corny and cliche, but what’s important is a reader’s tastes and the content of the pages. The genre of the book should be a nonfactor of who consumes that piece of media. There are so many brilliant books and authors out there and I just want each one to get a fair shot.

Amy Tan Rhetorical Situation Analysis

Context and Exigence:

Mother Tongue by Amy Tan was published in 1990. It is a text that discusses language, and how in Amy Tan’s case specifically, her mother as an immigrant, communicated in a different form of English, and therefore a disconnect existed between her mother and Americans. The implicit and explicit bias brought about by this disconnect is what Tan aims to discuss in her piece. 

Author:

Amy Tan is a writer born on February 19, 1952. She is most known for her novel the Joy Club, published in 1988, which was later made into a film. She’s known for speaking often about the lives of Chinese immigrants as she is the daughter of Chinese immigrants. This makes Tan personally attached to the discussion regarding immigration and language and is what most likely compelled her to write Mother Tongue.

Text:

Mother Tongue, is a personal essay and as a result, Tan can speak much more conversationally. So instead of lecturing to you about her experiences as the daughter of a Chinese immigrant, it feels more like she’s telling a story. This allows the reader to become more intimate with the text and become more invested in it. The fact that the text is a personal essay allows the reader to sympathize with the point Tan is trying to make more easily and too many readers may even be relatable. As stated before, the personal essay format of the text demonstrates how Tan is in fact personally linked to the struggles of immigrants.

Audience:

The audience of the text early on seems to be more ambiguous, but as the text goes on it becomes abundantly clear that the audience is Tan’s mother. The text tells a series of anecdotes all of which are centered around her mother and her manner of speaking and consequently, her mother in all likelihood, not only agrees with what Tan writes but remembers it vividly. Tan also highlights how important it is that her mother approves of her writing of not just this text, but every text she publishes, in her last line “Apart from what any critic had to say about my writing, I knew I had succeeded where it counted when my mother finished reading my book and gave me her verdict: ‘So easy to read.’”.

Purpose:

I believe Tan is attempting to educate people on the bias that many people have towards people who can’t speak their language fluently. Tan provides examples of how her mother speaks, and to most people, it is clearly difficult to read and comprehend, however, she follows that by saying that her mother is extremely intelligent and can read complex English such as Forbes or stock-related writing, which Tan herself doesn’t understand. She also highlights later in the text how her mother’s different way of speaking essentially prevented her from getting critical information from her doctor because they didn’t take her and her English seriously.  

Argument:

The argument that Amy Tan makes in Mother Tongue is that a person’s ability to speak a language is not indicative of their intelligence or comprehension and that it is unfair that based on their ability to communicate alone, many people are treated poorly compared to others. As Tan states in the text “I believed that her English reflected the quality of what she had to say”. 

Evidence:

As Amy demonstrates in the text, her mother was denied information that was important to her health as a result of her English. She even states that “people in department stores, at banks, and at restaurants did not take her seriously, did not give her good service, pretended to not understand her, or even acted as if they did not hear her”. Tan is not the only person discussing the barrier that exists between people who speak different languages; An article by the BBC calls the issue “linguistic racism”, and cites multiple cases where employees at large companies were being discriminated against because they spoke with an accent or didn’t speak perfect English.

Rhetorical Strategies:

The text being a personal essay allowed Tan to speak more conversationally, and her conversational tone made the text much easier to digest. As she demonstrates, at points her language can become very complex, but that wasn’t the intent of this piece. Her anecdotal style of writing this piece added to the conversational nature. It felt more like someone talking to the reader rather than teaching or preaching to them. 

Citation:

“The Pervasive Problem of ‘Linguistic Racism’.” BBC Worklife, BBC, https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20210528-the-pervasive-problem-of-linguistic-racism. 

Notes:

Although it is not related to the discussion of language, I appreciated Tan’s perspective on her mother and how what she used to see as an embarrassing aspect of her mother, then became something she was proud of. Tan wanting her mother’s affirmation of her writing only proves that point and I think that, that’s a philosophy that many people should live behind.

Other

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