Summer reading isn’t just for sixth graders. Shortly after enrolling, the class of 2010 discovered that they had to read Margaret Atwood’s “The Blind Assassin” and write a short paper about the book before seeing Atwood speak in Gaston Hall on Sept. 9th.
Of course, the First Year Student Academic Workshop is nothing new.
Last year’s freshmen read Ahdaf Soueif’s “The Map of Love.” Before that, the class of 2008 read stories by Haruki Murakami.
The program had a disappointing showing last year, inspiring Facebook groups like “You Know What Sucks? The Map of Love” and leading to countless NSO friendships forged as freshmen bonded over struggling through the 500-page tome (or not, as the case may be.)
Even Prof. Serafina Hager, who has organized the program for the last 12 years, conceded that not every choice for the program is a winner.
“You will always have some students who may not be as excited about a certain choice,” Hager said.
Fortunately, this year the workshop has made a solid comeback, returning to its halcyon days of booking brilliant writers like Amy Tan and Isabel Allende by grabbing Atwood for this year’s event.
When asked what percentage of first-year students attend the event, Hager replied, “It’s mandatory. The attendance has been great. Gaston Hall is packed.”
Of course, one of the first things that Georgetown students learn is that “mandatory” is a relative term. Excuses, valid or otherwise, are everywhere; as I was writing this column, I sent an email to excuse myself from a mandatory floor meeting so I could make it to Voice production.
But for all you freshmen, just because you don’t have to listen to the great Margaret Atwood doesn’t mean you shouldn’t.
This woman is an amazing writer, and the novel you’re reading, “The Blind Assassin,” won the Booker Prize and tops many of my friends’ all-time favorites lists. Another one of her books, “The Handmaid’s Tale,” was one of the first “adult” books I ever read and a defining moment of my preteen years.
It takes a lot to make an upperclassman (or woman) jealous, but several of my sophomore friends and even my former RA, now a senior, were incensed at the fact that your author trumps ours hands down.
Hopefully the upward trend won’t stop here. The workshop is a great opportunity for new kids and returning students alike to be reminded of the intellectual superstars that Georgetown can attract, as hard as that is to remember when you’re toiling through a semester with an inept professor or TA.
And it looks like the program is headed in the right direction, at least for now. “Umberto Eco’s on my list,” Hager said. “We’ve been communicating.”
