#1-1. A Brief Version of Orthodoxy

"A Brief Version of Orthodoxy" is a short essay I wrote after reading "A Brief Version of Time" (Alan Lightman). I liked Lightman's essay format, and tried to use his format in writing. Maybe you could find out some parallelism, contrast, passive voice, etc.

I could not upload my philosophy essay because it was written in Korean. But I'm proud of this piece almost as much as the philosophy one, since this was a very new try; an alludely-argumentative story of short story structure.

A Brief Version of Orthodoxy

Suppose that everyone is Slytherine.

Strangely, the population of each city splits in two; the More-Slytherines and the Less-Slytherines.

The More-Slytherines believe that pure-blooded stratum is superior to other stratums. They have pure-blooded parents, pure-blooded grandparents, and pure-blooded great-grandparents. Thus, they understand everything about the history of Slytherines, the culture of Slytherines, the philosophy of Slytherines, the identity of Slytherines. Who can argue with this reality? The More-Slytherines believe only pure-blooded stratum is given the right to rule the world. They ride luxurious BMWs, and regard butlers as normal. They sit in cafes sipping Kopi Luwak and discussing social issues. The More-Slytherines view other stratums only as subject to reign over.

The Less-Slytherines perceive that their stratum is inferior to pure-blooded stratum. They may have pure-blooded great-grandfather, less-pure-blooded great-grandmother, pure-blooded grandfather, near-to-pure-blooded grandmother, pure-blooded father, and almost-pure-blooded mother. They, at heart, think they know as much as the More-Slytherines about the politics of Slytherines, the economics of Slytherines, the rules of Slytherines, the technologies of Slytherines. But they never say likewise in front of the More-Slytherines. Who can blame them for this? The Less-Slytherines secretly believe their stratum also has right to rule the world, though they never proclaim it. They ride normal Sonatas and clean their houses on their own. They take out their food from fast-food restaurant and run to their workplace to do trivial tasks in the corner of the office. The Less-Slytherines gaze the pure-blooded stratum with envy and hatred.

The More-Slytherines and the Less-Slytherines have one thing in common. They are always afraid of somebody who has purer blood than themselves. The More-Slytherines are afraid because purer means another subject to share the authority. The Less-Slytherines are afraid because purer means another subject of envy and hatred who will exert more authority on them. Therefore, they start to hurt anybody who looks purer than themselves. The world confronts World War III.

Once the War ends, the world is again divided into the More-Slytherines and the Less-Slytherines. World War IV occurs, World War V occurs, World War VI occurs… War breaks out endlessly. So who will be the last Slytherine left? Who will be the best pure-blooded? How can we gauge the real Orthodoxy?

#1. Reflective Essay: Introducing Me as a Writer

When I was young, I always thought writing was my specialty. I won awards from almost every school writing contest, and adults loved my poems. The first time I vaguely recognized I may not be talented in writing was when I was in 6^th grade. I joined one Internet site where members uploaded their works and exchanged reviews. Those pieces were quite interesting and I enjoyed the club activities. And one day, I uploaded my own poem which I thought to be very well-written. But members’ reviews were not very amicable; one of them even said, “If this is a poem, I’m sure everybody could be a poet.” I immediately broke away from the club, blaming the rude comment. But as I entered the middle school and missed all awards on writings, I started to think maybe that member was right. I took out all of my pieces and read it. The conclusion was; my writing was out of topic, cliché-ish, ambiguous, wordy, and lacked unique opinion. Well, definitely, it was not something to be called talent.

I stopped writing after this realization. During next three years, I wrote few essays for TOEFL and school assignment, but never wrote voluntarily. Even after I was admitted in KMLA and required to write a lot of essays for Ms.Choi’s class, I detested writing and did it very inattentively. Essays were pretty rough; lack of organization, common ideas, compulsory examples, none of those looked intrigued nor special.

It was during the summer vacation that my perception toward writing has changed. I registered to philosophy course that discussed justice, sympathy, art, and other philosophical concepts. Those were completely new to me, but were so fascinating that I quickly fell in love with the course. When essay assignment was given, I was ready to swim in the pool of philosophy.

I skimmed the lecture note once, read essay question twice, scrutinized the lecture note again and grabbed the pen. First I summarized quoted pieces in the question, and related it to important concepts in the lecture note. Based on this abbreviation, I made a detailed outline, and wrote my first draft. As I typed the handwritten draft to my labtop, I amended major flaws including disorganized paragraphs or wordy sentences. And before I sent teacher the final version, minor grammar or thesaurus errors were revised, too.

Next week, course teacher called each student to give advices on writings. When my name was called, I stood up in anxiety. However, the teacher surprisingly appreciated me. He praised that my strength was “neatness” – the essay was less redundant, less ambiguous, and less wordy than other students. It was shock to me; these were, I thought, my weakest part. And now he was saying the very opposite.

So I learned that my vulnerable points could be altered into my fortes if I have enough time, background knowledge and passionate mind. Still there are many factors in my writing that should be improved; the most representative is conveying my unique viewpoint. The essays I wrote during vacation were close to expository than argumentative. That is, I may be talented in analysis, but not in arguing my opinion. I hope to improve this blind spot during this semester, thus conclusively reach my writing goal – writing clear (comprehensible) pieces that provide deep impressions and opportunities to think to all readers.