Hold My Hand - Lashton

Chapter Four

Chapter Four

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Is it better to be too early, or on time? Luke had yet to figure out what he preferred. Whilst being early prevented the fear of being late. Being too early meant he had to stand uncomfortably waiting for the given time to come.

Standing in a corner outside of his lecture hall, Luke was frantically scrolling through his phone. He had no reason to, other than to make it look like he was busy. To prevent new people sparking a conversation in attempt to create a friendship.

Every now and then he would raise his eyes to scan his surrounding as more and more people entered the building and was stood waiting to be let in. He found himself judging them. Not critically on their behalf. But comparing himself to them.

How they were dressed better than him. Some were dressed smarter - they had shoes on in comparison to his worn down baseball boots. He was worried he had dressed too casual. But, there were people who were wearing jogging bottoms and looked like they had just rolled out of bed. So maybe he was dressed too smart. Luke's head was spinning with confusion and all he wanted was to sit down.

As soon as the lecturer entered the room, and everyone followed, Luke quickly joined the crowd as they flowed into the room, dispersing across the theatre into seats. Some sitting with friends, others sitting alone with space next to them to make friends.

Luke, on the other hand, wandered about halfway up the stairs and sat at the end of the row so he was against the wall That way only one person would be able to sit next to him.

Opening up his bag, Luke pulled out the minimal amount of things he had brought with him. His bottle of water, a notepad and a pen. He didn't need anything else. People around him had pulled out their laptops, coloured pens and some even had multiple books. Luke didn't see the point, the desks were thin and narrow anyway.

Zoning out Luke watched the lecturer stand at the front of the theatre set up her presentation. Luke thought she was beautiful, in a powerful way. He was was indefinitely gay, but he could recognise and appreciate when a woman radiates beauty.

Not even necessarily because she had nice features, but because she had a voice, she had opinions; she wanted change.

Luke didn't want to make assumptions, but his mind wandered to those embedded stereotypes that society had entrenched into him. She seemed to be of African heritage and rightly proud of it. She was an English professor, but Luke assumed she disliked the literature syllabus. It was too white.

Secretly smiling to himself, Luke found his mind wandering to his curly-haired flatmate. Luke criticised Ashton for voicing his assumptions of people, like calling Luke an introvert and such. But, wasn't he doing the same thing, just silently and potentially more dangerously?

Luke suddenly gained some respect for Ashton then. He realised that by voicing his opinions of individuals characters he was then vulnerable to critique and objections. By admitting his incorrect opinions he could fix them and become a better person.

The blonde was snapped out of his thoughts about his flatmate as the lectures voice was picked up on the microphone. She introduced herself, her name (but they could just call her Terri), her profession and what she specialised in. She was fascinated by Achebe, a lecture she told them she would be giving in the near future.

Her English was broken at times but she didn't bother to correct it. It was authentic and liberating. She wasn't being imprisoned by one language; she was capturing her identity whilst highlighting her intellect through being bilingual. Her mother tongue was not going to be lost in translation by a perceived universal language by ignorant nationalists just because it didn't match the text in the books she was teaching.

Luke had done the pre-reading, he knew they were going to be studying the literary canon today and he suddenly felt more excited to learn about the topic, he knew it was going to be an interesting lecture.

The blonde got lost in her voice, and scribbled down everything he liked the sound of, relevant or not. Because he knew it would help him as a person, not only to write a good essay.

Terri started by introducing the canon. "The canon is a bunch of books that are considered important and influential. But, they are mostly books by white men, added to the canon by more white men a fair while ago. So books like Robinson Crusoe, Gulliver's Travel's, even Pride and Prejudice. Whilst some of the books in the canon are quite liberating. Austen was one of the first females to the make the canon, and Wilde writes about homosexuality - if any of you have read these books you will realise that any character of importance is white. And often racism lies implicit in the language used.

For this reason, the canon is now named the western canon. The canon is the values of Western Europe. T.S.Eliot called in the 'storehouse of western values'. And these values are considered to be assumed universal values. Toni Morrison, an incredible writer we will also look at more wrote that 'canon building is empire building'. So if there is a threat to the canon, then there is a threat to national identity.

Do we see the problem here?

Now there are very few non-British writers in the canon. And this is slowly breaking down. And education will play a huge role in this change. By exposing you to the issues of canonical literature, post-colonial theory and works by people of colour who are excluded by the canon, this course aims to allow you all the perpetuate the change that needs to occur. So when you all go off to get your jobs instead of referring from an anecdote from a white author that is actually oppressive, you can use a more liberating one."

Luke's mind was soaring with ideas. He wanted to learn more about African literature. He had some to read for the course and he was now more excited to do so.

He left the lecture hall with an unknown smile on his face. His eyes radiating curiosity. As he began walking back to his accommodation, Ashton was walking towards him.

Ashton grinned as he saw the blonde and waved at him enthusiastically. Luke waved back shyly and didn't expect to stop.

"You're smiling," Ashton remarked standing in front of the boy who was a little taller than him. Luke looked down shyly and bit his lip. "You're buzzing with new knowledge and I want to know it," the curly-haired boy admitted.

Luke shook his head. "It's not that interesting."

Ashton disagreed. "We're having dinner together tonight and you're going to tell me all about it!"

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Not every chapter is going to be like this, but every now and then I wanted to throw in some actual real-life problems. I feel it gives the book more substance and is why I wanted to set the book at a university. 

The canon was something I learn about this year and actually made me realise the books that we are told to read at a young age - Robinson Crusoe being the main one - are actually filled with implicit racism, sexism and so many more moral problems. And why are they still cherished after so many years, because white males still determine the syllabus!

I am also fascinated with intertextuality. I love when writers incorporate books to symbolise something so I'm trying to do that - so sorry if you don't get the links but please do ask me what it means and read the books yourself!

Please let me know what you think of this style of writing.

Thank you so much for reading.