Inktober 5: #Map
In which an in-class essay causes me to ponder big questions.
I taught World Lit a few semesters at a small college. The idea was to give students a #map of the great works of literature across the world, across the centuries. We read Gilgamesh, some of the Psalms, bits of Homer, Arabian Nights, Canterbury Tales, Midsummer Night’s Dream, Don Quixote… I’ve got a soft spot for Don Quixote. Maybe we spent more time on him than we should have. But you know what? I was the professor. If you want to spend less time on Don Quixote, teach your own World Lit class.
Anyway, we got to the end of the semester and I handed out the final exam, which consisted of an in-class essay. And one of the students wrote her whole essay on Donkey Oatey.
Donkey Oatey!
A good essay makes you think. It can cause you to ponder what you will do “with your one wild and precious life” to borrow from the poet Mary Oliver. But no other essay has made me question what I was doing with my life more than that essay about Donkey Oatey. #inktober2023