By Aditi Garg, Grade 11
“What’s the one thing you’d save in a fire (family and pets excluded)?”
Through her short 45-minute masterclass, Linda Sue Park created a session filled with engaging activities, thought-provoking questions, and witty retorts. She began by introducing herself as a Korean-American and delved into the intricacies of her life, which would later be relevant when we got the opportunity to read sections of her book, The One Thing You’d Save.
The book is a unique set of narrative poems, written in a style similar to a Japanese haiku, but one that is far lesser known. The structure of the verse is like a haiku, with three lines, though the syllable count for each line is between fourteen and sixteen. The form is a Korean style of writing called sijo, an art that the author has been bringing to the forefront of her writing, and trying to integrate into education systems globally.
What drives Linda’s book is a teacher’s question to her students: what would they save in the case of a fire, where their family and pets were safe, and the size of the object was not an important factor? When this question was posed to us, hands shot up across the room, though admittedly, it was not the simplest question for most of us. Common answers included family heirlooms, favourite toys and books, and inevitably laptops and phones (to which Linda responded that she hoped we knew that the ‘cloud’ exists).
The question sparked an interesting train of thought in the room, where we questioned the overconsumption patterns in our lives, and how when it mattered, we each had a maximum of perhaps four or five things we would consider priorities to grab in the case of an emergency. We then explored her novel and the answers the fictional students gave, which aligned with some of ours, but also differed based on each individual’s contexts.
The illustrations she had requested for her novel were to be done without drawing any people, so it would allow readers to picture themselves, or individuals they are familiar with. This approach not only highlights the differences that come with belonging to diverse cultures and backgrounds, but also throws light on our commonalities. She showed us how her work explored varying perspectives that were influenced by her own childhood experiences, memories, and treasures, which added another layer of depth to the questions this book pondered. She reflected on how it was extremely gratifying for her to find out that her novel, in which she held up a mirror to aspects of her own culture and identity, resonated with those of completely different backgrounds. This highlighted the ability of stories to bring communities and people together, helping them find common ground and forge connections.
