Robyn Bavati: Read, Write, Think: Exegesis Looming

Exegesis Looming

Apologies for having been wanting so long. My course (Master of Creative Media/Creative Writing) is nearing completion and I feel myself with a big mass of form to do and small time in which to do it. I've finished my major project - an adjustment of my novel as a screenplay, or at least a draft ofit- but now I must compose my exegis - a story on the research undertaken to assist in my project.

If I go to finish the exegesis on time, theentire two days will be let in vain.So forgive meif I don't write many posts over the following few weeks. Part of the reason I left it so tenacious was that the more I heard on the subject, the more confusing it became. This could be due to the fact that the sort on exegesis writing is apt to a cross-section of creative practititioners, so that writers are studying alongside photographers, musicians, etc. And for all the explanations of what was required, we were never shown specific examples. A huge thanks to Jacinta Halloran, a writer who was in my novel-writing course in Prof. Writing & Editing several days ago, and who sent me a replicate ofthe exegesis she completed a couple of years ago. Thanks to Jacinta'sfabulous example, I get a much better thought of what's required. Jacinta is the source of Dissection, a wonderful, literary novel about a female physician who is sued for negligence after devising an error in judgement. Short-listed for the Victorian Premier's Award, the novel reveals how a single mistake can ruin lives. Doctors are particularly vulnerable. Years of excellent diagnoses count for naught if a single serious error is made. This is something every parent can refer to. A motherturns her support for a one instant and a child drowns. She is deemed a 'bad' mother. People are so ready to judge, blame and criticise.The one second counts for everything. The hours, days and years she has been a wonderful mother count for nothing. I recollect when my kids were small, how I'd sigh with relief at having made it through another day. It's a feeling thatnever leaves you, thesheer relief and gratitude that they are active and well. Equally memorable is the pain when they are unwell or unhappy. When something happens to somebody else's child through a bit of negligence, you think: There but for the goodwill of God go I. For those of you who are already parents, be grateful for those acts of thanksgiving but yield yourselves a pat on the support for all the things you've done right, for thehours, days, weeks, months and age of sheer idolatry to your children. And for those of you who haven't had kids yet but secretly think you'll be perfect parents, be warned: There's no such thing. Parenthood may be rewarding but no other job demands such constant vigilence, strength and commitment. Parenthood is the definition of responsibility. So why worry aboutan exegesis? If I save it poorly, no one will die, no one will be badly injured, no lives will be ruined. And how happy I am to make that in perspective! Compared to being a parent, writing an exegesis has got to be a part of cake!