Hi, please edit ASAP(preferably in 10 mins since I still have to edit it, etc.)(This thread is closed in 30 mins, obviously)
Yale Essay-> The most transformational book
A common accusation among my friends is that I only read long fantasy novels. That is clearly not true. I read short fantasy novels as well. And fantasy stories. And fantasy gaming manuals. And fantasy graphic novels (eg. Sandman). On a really adventurous day, I might even read science-fiction! (*shocked face*)
Seriously though, I read other books as well, and in terms of effect a book had on me-ie, not how much I enjoyed a book, or an objective assessment of literary merit, but how much it actually impacted me and changed me for the better, then the winner, hands down, would be Patrick Radden Keefe's The Snake Head (not to be confused with Anthony Horowitz's YA thriller of a similar name).
A masterpiece of investigative journalism, wherein every single scene of the 342-page book is at least nominally factual and backed up by primary sources, Keefe's tale is about Chinese illegal immigrants and the snakeheads (illicit agents) used to smuggle them.
If this was an actual novel, it would be nothing short of wonderful. The creation of the many-layered character of black-widow mastermind would have been applauded, had Sister Ping not been a real person. One could almost taste the brilliant, coldly cunning, plots and plotlines, had one not paused to consider that all of them are factual. The story would have been beautiful, had the deaths not been all too real. And even if the immigrants are not real people, normal people with normal families and all-too-normal concerns, their tenacity to enter the sea-washed, sunset gates --- by any means necessary--- is nothing short of admirable.
But the novel is more than a nonfictional thriller or a longwinded report on immigration. It is a tale of the American dream, and what it means to be American. Because America, for all of her drawbacks, for all of her superficiality and decadence and materialism and hypocrisy, is still a shining beacon to Lazarus' "huddled masses yearning to breathe free," still mei guo, the beautiful country.
I want to be a writer like Keefe, albeit through a more fictional medium. Like Keefe, I'll dedicate my life to a variation of (fantasy author) Gaiman's quote: "These people need to know who we are and why we're here."
Because somebody has to tell our story, and theirs.
There is another reason why The Snake Head has affected me so much. I, too, am Chinese. I, too, came to America, albeit legally. And I, too, wish to one day take the test and the pledge and the passport change and call myself an American.
Yale Essay-> The most transformational book
A common accusation among my friends is that I only read long fantasy novels. That is clearly not true. I read short fantasy novels as well. And fantasy stories. And fantasy gaming manuals. And fantasy graphic novels (eg. Sandman). On a really adventurous day, I might even read science-fiction! (*shocked face*)
Seriously though, I read other books as well, and in terms of effect a book had on me-ie, not how much I enjoyed a book, or an objective assessment of literary merit, but how much it actually impacted me and changed me for the better, then the winner, hands down, would be Patrick Radden Keefe's The Snake Head (not to be confused with Anthony Horowitz's YA thriller of a similar name).
A masterpiece of investigative journalism, wherein every single scene of the 342-page book is at least nominally factual and backed up by primary sources, Keefe's tale is about Chinese illegal immigrants and the snakeheads (illicit agents) used to smuggle them.
If this was an actual novel, it would be nothing short of wonderful. The creation of the many-layered character of black-widow mastermind would have been applauded, had Sister Ping not been a real person. One could almost taste the brilliant, coldly cunning, plots and plotlines, had one not paused to consider that all of them are factual. The story would have been beautiful, had the deaths not been all too real. And even if the immigrants are not real people, normal people with normal families and all-too-normal concerns, their tenacity to enter the sea-washed, sunset gates --- by any means necessary--- is nothing short of admirable.
But the novel is more than a nonfictional thriller or a longwinded report on immigration. It is a tale of the American dream, and what it means to be American. Because America, for all of her drawbacks, for all of her superficiality and decadence and materialism and hypocrisy, is still a shining beacon to Lazarus' "huddled masses yearning to breathe free," still mei guo, the beautiful country.
I want to be a writer like Keefe, albeit through a more fictional medium. Like Keefe, I'll dedicate my life to a variation of (fantasy author) Gaiman's quote: "These people need to know who we are and why we're here."
Because somebody has to tell our story, and theirs.
There is another reason why The Snake Head has affected me so much. I, too, am Chinese. I, too, came to America, albeit legally. And I, too, wish to one day take the test and the pledge and the passport change and call myself an American.
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