One downside about taking a class as an honors student is that I was required to do at least one additional assignment beyond the normal requirements. In most cases, the professor would choose a related book and have the honors student(s) write a paper on it. For this class, the book was The Makioka Sisters. It is a densely written 500+ page, small print book about four sisters from Osaka who are looking for a husband for the traditional third sister just before Japan's entry into World War II. In short, I didn't read it.
It was not a book that was of any interest to 21 year old me, and with working 30+ hours a week, taking 18 credits of classes, and expecting a second child, I did not want to waste time reading a book whose last line talked about diarrhea. Instead, I skimmed it. There were no Cliff Notes on this book and the Internet was still in its infant stages, so I had to figure it out on my own. As a literature major, I deduced some themes and possible symbols and wrote a paper that tied the sisters into the wider fabric of the world on the brink of war and Japan's struggle with maintaining its identity while trying to modernize.
A friend of mine was working as an aide for the professor of this class. During one of the times that we got together, he pulled me aside and told me how much the professor loved my paper. He told me that she had never had a student pull such dynamic themes and diverse threads together in such a way before, and that my paper made her look at the book in a completely different light.
Here, I made a mistake. I laughed ... and laughed ... and laughed. When asked what was so funny, I told him that I had never read the book, but just pulled the paper out of thin air (I believed I used different terminology). ... I did not realize how tenuous our friendship was, nor just how devoted he was to the professor. My grade in the class mysteriously went from an A to a C (which would end up being my final grade). Now, I'm not positive that my friend turned on me, but he did not look me in the eye again ... ever.
On Sunday, a little over twenty-five years after it was assigned, but with a few months still to the anniversary of the paper's deadline, I finally finished reading The Makioka Sisters. It is a dense book, but I understand now why it is called a modern classic of Japanese literature. It certainly shows a great deal about Japanese culture in the first third of the twentieth century. As I read it, I noted the themes and symbols used throughout and remembered more of what I wrote (I never got that paper back and the floppy disk that held it disappeared long ago). I don't think that I would have changed much if I were to revise it now that I've read the novel.
That C was one of only two that I have earned my entire college career. Honestly, I learned a great deal from that class. Not all that I learned was about Japanese culture.