Why? Well...

[pensnest]

I put a few essays on my website, from the English Lit A-Level I did a few years ago. Atop each one is a brief disclaimer, thus: if you decide to copy my essay instead of doing your own writing, more fool you. I linked them back to my LJ in case anyone ever reads them and feels inclined to get in touch.

A few days ago, to my great surprise, I got a comment! Thus:

why would we wanna copy your essay:S:S?? wats the point we are just getting some ideas :S:S so we know what to do.

Hmm, you're not smart enough to engage in a discussion of what I actually said. So why might you copy my essay? Let me think. Nope, can't imagine.

I wonder if anyone else has ever read them, and what they thought. (sigh - the disadvantage of doing a correspondence course is that you don't get to discuss the subject)

Comments

[buddleia.livejournal.com]

Somebody's googling essays. Oddly enough, examiners tend to know about Google, too.

I had a quick look at some of your essays and I note that you enjoyed the War in Literature module. What did you think of the Pat Barker trilogy? It absolutely blew me away, personally.

[pensnest]

Yeah. I'm pretty sure if I were a teacher regularly marking stuff, I'd fire up Google every time a student submitted something that seemed, shall we say, uncharacteristic!

I had a really weird summer. I was a bit behind, coming in to what would have been the summer term, so basically I crammed myself with WW1 literature. As I was at the same time prodding my Bun into revising for GCSEs, visiting my ailing grandma, and rehearsing "Sweet Charity", it was all a bit odd.

I love most of the books, and yes, the Pat Barker trilogy were standouts. Wasn't sure how much I *liked* Billy, but he was *real*. I can't remember in detail, but there's a very definite difference between something like Sassoon's books and Barker's - not surprising, obviously, but it's interesting to read an "I was there" type of memoir, and a novel written with decades of reassessment to take into consideration. I lent them to my stepsister, who was teaching English, and have recently got them back - I should read them again in a not-rush.

I liked the Susan Hill book, too, and 'Birdsong' - possibly it is easier to connect to a contemporary book rather than one produced at the time. But the first world war poetry is amazing. My dad lent me a big fat collection of poems written by men who died during the war. It seems to have been a natural form of expression for so many people, something which seems incredible now, but so many people used poetry to try to convey what was happening to them, and some of them had so little time...

I thoroughly enjoyed the exam on that module - it probably helped that I was right back in exam-taking mode by then, as it was the last paper. The saddest thing was coming out and not being able to talk about it to anyone! I sat the papers at my brats' school (Bun was sitting in the hall with me at one point, she doing her exam, I doing mine), and of course there were several Eng Lit students in there along with me, but as I didn't know any of them (and they probably all thought I was insane, anyway) I didn't have a chance to discuss it. But it was a really cool module to do.

[buddleia.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean about Billy. One of the most interesting and complete characters I've ever read, but such a thoroughly unlikeable person. He should have been something of a Marty Stu, really, wandering around all those historical characters, but he's not. Siegfried Sassoon is one of my literary crushes, I must admit. Such a conflicted person and I love the way Pat Barker basically showed everyone as at least half in love with him. I did a 'Fin de Siecle' course as part of my English lit. degree and the whole 'poetry in the trenches' thing is fascinating. Having also read a lot of Patrick O'Brian, who delightedly described the Officer poet of the Napoleonic wars, it's interesting to see how views of art and war and the guy with the gun have changed.

[pensnest]

Sassoon seems to have been a very remarkable person. Obviously had plenty of charisma. I love the way he could write scathing poems about all sorts of things, and at the same time be devoted to his men and an excellent officer.

One of the really interesting parts of the module was looking at the differences time makes to the way people have written about the War, and looking at it from the point of view of women as well as men. It was also fascinating to talk to my father about it - he was a, hmm, semi-professional historian and used to run battlefield tours. The prevailing wisdom these days is all about the 'donkeys' of generals and the futility of the whole thing, but looking through contemporary eyes is quite different.