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LUMEN | LIFE BEYOND THE CLASSROOM
Patrick Sagaram
Another teacher with an interesting take on the ideas of balance and wellbeing is O Level English and IB TOK teacher , Mr Patrick Sagaram . It is his fervent belief that seeking balance , in particular , is a fool ’ s errand . “ Life is less predictable than we care to admit ; absurdity is all around us ,” he explains with his typical erudition , “ fiction sometimes seems truer than real life .” For Patrick then , his love for reading literary fiction is an attempt to seek refuge in a world where he can connect with the lives of others , gaining valuable insights into the experiences of people from different times and spaces . It also provides an antidote to the terribly reductive world of media , social and otherwise .
“ Reading allows me to immerse myself in the worlds of others , and , sometimes , I am just willing myself to stretch my imagination .” Patrick likens this experience to being a member of a secret club , one which he hopes he can encourage his students to join . “ I hope my first-hand knowledge of a book helps me in encouraging our next generation of young readers to try reading authors they might not be aware of ; authors who have actually influenced contemporary writers more than we otherwise might know .”
One such author is the twentieth century short story writer and poet , Raymond Carver . “ I enjoy his books because of a particular way he uses language . His writing is edgy , terse , minimalist . Interestingly , Carver resented this reputation for stylistic minimalism – perhaps this was because , at least in part , this style owed something to his editor , Gordon Lish , cutting his stories up and removing some words .” Patrick was astonished by this style of writing when he first read Carver ’ s short stories , such as “ Why Don ’ t You Dance ?” He admits that he barely knew what was going on at first , but instead of feeling demoralized or dispirited , this just encouraged him to read on . Stories such as this one also introduced him to the world of blue collar American workers and their lives , which in some ways seemed a world away from the middle class characters populating the novels of Roth , Updike and Tartt , the American authors Sagaram had read before . Nevertheless , Carver ’ s concerns of jealousy , regret and guilt , amongst others , are equally universal in their appeal and the characters are equally
flawed , regardless of their social milieu . “ Similarly , ‘ Cathedral ’ is a seemingly simple story which I recommend to everyone I talk to about fiction ,” Patrick explains . “ A man dissatisfied with life meets his wife ’ s blind friend and finds himself feeling jealous at first . In time , however , this encounter teaches him new ways of seeing .”
This new way of seeing would appear to neatly sum up Patrick ’ s love of reading and the role it plays in helping him feel at one with the world . “ Some people ask me whether the solitary nature of reading makes me feel lonely . Paradoxically , I find it to be an antidote to loneliness . What ’ s more , I find it fascinating that I can talk to someone who has read the same book and they explain how they see it in a different way to me .”
It could be argued that one reason for Patrick ’ s love of literature is that it affords him the opportunity to embrace difference while reminding him to accept the unpredictability of life , and perhaps these ideas of difference and acceptance are two of the threads running through all of our diverse discussions thus far .