Past Few Days

Finished HP6. Mmm...as the book approached the end, wanted to slow down, because there was the awareness that when I read the last page, there would be a heck of a long wait more till the next instalment. But as it turned out, I didn't manage to keep myself innocent about the ending. Six hours before I read the twist myself, I accidentally overheard it in school =S Really, walking around in the corridors can be quite hazardous. I have to say that the shock of the twist was undoubtedly compromised, though I did try for a while to fool myself that I didn't hear anything, and then to fool myself that the disappointment I was feeling was actually the sadness of the story itself (and the story is rather sad), and then in the end I gave up trying to scrabble for my innocence back. The mind is a strange thing indeed.

Hmm...but for the consideration of others, I shall not comment too much on the book yet. I imagine it must be a great shock to discover the twist yourself. Which was why I was trying to read the book so fast...but apparently not fast enough. Oh well. The book wasn't as good as HP5, I think. Some interesting insights into the magical world, but I thought that this time round Rowling was more concerned with the character development rather than building up our impression of the wizarding society. Clearly the book was meant for the fans. Which is not a bad thing. But I think she is running out of steam.

It's interesting, this HP phenomenon. It's a rare book (or series) that can engender a whole following, a sub-culture even. The HP books are the core of a whole community of fans who add their own insights to the pool of fan fiction. In a way this does help to make the wizarding world more authentic, as it begins to develop along recognisably sociological lines due to the input of so many different people. HP thus becomes more than just a fictional experience. And it happens to be a good read too, kept me on my toes for five days and nights =P Haevn't had that much fun reading in a long time. Well, not since I finished the Lit S books at any rate. And Rowling is commendable, in that she has managed to write a book that kids actually want to read in this day and age =P

Speaking of lit...got back lit results today, and it's not too bad. 67 gives a solid B, but of course, it hardly feels as good as getting an A for that subject. Congratulations to Bao on her spectacular performance, and of course, to good old Kels who once again delivers the goods, and Jon for writing that is clearly out of my league =P Me, I did well on Frost, surprisingly. As expected, it was Hardy that pulled me down. But it is strange...the paper that Purvis doesn't mark always pulls me up. It may very well be that the novels are harder texts to handle. To be sure, I'm rather discouraged by how little difference all that quote memorisation made...

From what I can tell it's not a stylistic problem but a content one, which is a bit of a relief. So it's just that I'm reading the wrong things into the passage, rather than expressing them wrongly, which would return me back to square one with a methodical problem. I guess the way to remedy that is to look at the book more closely. But then again, I can't help but have the feeling that I have to read it Purvis's way to get the marks. Even if I don't agree with him. It may be that neither of us has the "right" answer. But to be frank, he's the one giving the marks, he's the one with the power, so it makes sense for me to agree with him. Which creates a problem in that it's against my...I guess you could call them principles =P

And it would help if he didn't say it was "disappointing". Well, it's not that I'm overly devastated by that remark. Afetr so long, one learns not to take him seriously at all when it comes to matters like this. I guess in a warped way I have to learn to take it, because he keeps doing it, which seems to signal that he thinks that I can take it. But nevertheless, it would be nice not to have him picking on my sense of humour. Am I really that un-funny? Heh, from where I'm standing, any funnier and I'd be a slapstick comedian.

Okay...exaggeration for effect, but you get the idea =P

Nevermind, it all relies on a sense of perspective in the end. Right now I have more important things to worry about than one word carelessly thrown out in class.

There was an Oxford guy down to talk to us about Oxford and PPE on Tue. Oxford seems like a really nice place, exciting and congenial. But unfortunately I don't see anything I'd like to take there. PPE doesn't sound half bad, but I don't like any of the components of PPE at all, just the approach they take to teaching and assessment. But there are enough people intending to end up there, to be sure, judging from the attendance for the talk.

There's always been that tension, between what I want to do and where people want me to go. Again, people like Purvis saying taht I'd fit in well in Oxford or Cambridge. The notion was always whether or not I should go there merely by the virtue of my being able to go there. But increasingly I'm seeing that as rather daft. My not going there would be a Pareto improvement. And anyway, it's not so much a lack of ambition as it is another type of ambition entirely. I'm just not interested in PPE, and not qualified for their language and culture courses. I have to say that the prestige factor is of course attractive, and yet...I don't think I'll force myself to go there. That just seems inexcusably stupid to me, increasingly.

So if things continue this way, I'll be by the sidelines wishing well to all those applying to Oxford and Cambridge =P Anyway, if I get into UCL, at least we'd be in the same country.

pondered by phoenican @ 20.7.05