On My College Thesis
Moving stuff from Facebook for archival purposes.
I’m reading through my undergraduate thesis again - a novel - and find it one of the worst, regrettable things I’ve ever done.
It’s obviously a ripoff of Stephen King’s “Desperation,” unique with Filipino mythologies (like kapre) and local college legends (like the Never Ending Bridge at UP Los Baños). In the end, what came out of the meat grinder is a hodgepodge of the shittiest plot, coupled with a dash of bad grammar and stale characters.
Making a novel was hubris. Throughout college, I garnered higher marks in poetry rather than my short stories, and common sense dictates that I should have made a collection of poems as my thesis. It’s just that I’ve always wanted to write a novel because I see poetry as inferior to straight prose.
In any case, my thesis advisor was no idiot. He knew that my novel was shit and wanted me to extend my college stay for one more semester. I flatly rejected the idea, considering I’ve already set my mind to immediately enter law school upon graduating. My mind was already elsewhere.
In the end, I got a low grade for my thesis course and failed to obtain Latin honors. Looking back, I’d say that’s fair. I basically traded one thing for another - in this case, an early entry to law school for a good exit grade in college. Besides, tacking in one more semester would not have solved a thing. A less shitty novel, maybe, but still shit. I’m just not a good (or even capable) long-form writer.
There are three hard copies of my novel out there. One in the university library, one in my course department’s coffers, and a personal copy. I've already burned my copy to the ether - the goal is to destroy the rest someday.
Someday.