- Jason Roth

[From a senior-year paper on the Ramayana, a story of Indian mythology:]

"The Ramayana is a timeless tale which can be appreciated by people of any age and culture. This epic still has the same importance and value now as it did when it was first written. Although it is basically a rip-off of Greek myths which were conceived centuries earlier (well before 1500 B.C.), some originality can be found if one digs deeply enough into the book. There are several reasons why The Ramayana has remained so popular, and possibly it has even gained popularity over the years. I will discuss the reasons for this remaining popularity, and also the positive aspects that can be found in it by a contemporary reader. Why is it that Indians continue reading this story even though it could be considered extremely outdated and utterly worthless reading material? There must be some sort of cultural expression contained in The Ramayana or no one would want to read that kind of primitive unrealistic trash. The idea that Indians are mentally undeveloped compared to people living in the Western World could not be the reason, because different types of epics exists in many cultures and civilizations. The country from which these epics originates holds them in an extremely high position, so India is by no means an exception. I am not saying that the people of India are uncreative, unoriginal, or moronic, I am simply stating that a similarity exists between all peoples, and the consideration of their national story to be held in the highest esteem is not peculiar...

"There is another large factor which contributes to the the [stet] popularity of The Ramayana. The story does not include any deep messages or overtones, thus the story is easy to understand...The following is an example of the shallow, unintellectual action and gore contained in the book..."

[And I closed with the following:]

"The Ramayana is a story containing much more worth than what it seem [sic] to contain, and one does not have to look very far to find the many good attributes."

[At which point, the teacher wrote the following comment:]

"Well? What are they? You neglect to mention any"

[But perhaps my favorite comment from her was written on the attached note, in which she wrote, among other things:]

"...you seem to be engaging in a form of "culture bashing"...you seem content to take some fairly cheap shots at the epic without taking the time to support your own points adequately."

[I got a C+ on the paper.]

[From a junior-year paper entitled "The Problem with the Political Extremes":]

"Although both extremes are very far apart, they are very similar in the fact that both have the faults of useless antagonism and robot-like 'beliefs' on important issues...

"Liberals and conservatives both can be very stubborn at times, because they have a specific set of ideologies and want to stick to them. Many liberals admit the bad things that have been done by the United States, but go to the extreme by denouncing almost everything about the country. Often they do not see how lucky they are that they live in the freest country in the world. Conservatives, on the other hand, try to stand up for almost everything, blocking all of our mistakes from their mind."

[I got an A- on this one.]