Intercultural Collaborations - Josh Peterken

Ah, Habitus, that great confusing word from Pierre Bourdieu's Outline of a Theory of Practice . At the beginning of the semester, I wrote that my habitus in relation to writing has mostly been of my experience growing up in a household of five boys (myself being the oldest) and of playing games outside with our imagination, and how that has fueled my desire to write fantasy novels. Two and a half months later, I now see that my writing habitus is so much more than that. Not only has it expanded tremendously over the course of Intercultural Collaborations, but I now see that it was always more than I thought. I believe that this class has helped me broaden both my habitus, as well as expand my view on my previously existing habitus. This semester has really been the perfect mix of classes for me, taking The Particular is the Universal , Short Story Writing and Exploring Asian Popular Culture. Through my short story class, as well as the previous classes in my major of creative wr...

For my final creative piece, I have decided to write about a young woman from the quiet town of Sigtuna, Sweden. Cecelia comes from a highly traditional family--her father has never set foot out of the town. But she has always dreamt of visiting more exciting places. She travels to Hong Kong, in spite of her father's wishes. The core of the story is about wanting to experience new things and how some people can grow bored with the mundane, while others desire it. The inspiration for this story came from the interview with my partner in Hong Kong, Natalie. One of the comments that stuck with me in our interview was that Hong Kong isn't a place that you would want to go on a holiday. In contrary to this, my father had recently gotten married in Hong Kong and spent part of his honeymoon there, and found it to be a highly rewarding and enjoyable experience. This got me thinking about how as people we can grow tired of the things we are surrounded by, whether it is a busy city or ...

I'm Josh Peterken, a twenty-one-year-old student, studying creative writing at RMIT. 2018 is the second year of my course, with my first year being completed in 2016. I took a year off from my studies in 2017 due to personal reasons. I particularly like to write fiction, especially popular fiction. While I have never had my work published, I am reaching the finishing stages of a fantasy novel which I will seek to publish in 2019. I have always loved popular fiction for its ability to send the reader to another world, and its ability to tell powerful stories in unexpected ways. Because of this, my two literary heroes are Stephen King and Brandon Sanderson. The most surprising fact about me is that I got married to my partner of four years in February of 2018. We are both students and live over an hour away from our universities, but are enjoying life just as it is, no matter what challenges come our way.

It's the first week of September 2017. Melbourne is alive with excitement. Melbourne's little brother, Adelaide, a ten hour drive away, buzzes with their own two-team rivalry. It's four weeks until the AFL Grand Final and the future is filled with possibilities. There are 36 possible combinations for that last week of glory, and everybody holds their breath. To the outsider, it seems barbaric. Most outside of Australia have never even heard of the Australian Football League, and those who do struggle to comprehend the size of it. Even many people in Australia don't understand it. How can one gain so much joy from a ball being kicked between two big sticks? Week one comes and goes in the blink of an eye. Just like that, two of the eight teams are eliminated. Essendon and Port Adelaide fans prepare for the long summer ahead. Many of them go through a grieving process, for a year that has been wasted. Denial. Anger. Bargaining. Depression. Acceptance. They console each o...

I have always thought of Hong Kong as part of China. I was somewhat surprised to hear that people in Hong Kong, however, do not consider themselves as such. Later, I also discovered that while this is true, many of them do consider themselves to be Chinese. This distinction between whether Hong Kong is part of China or not is so great that it has led to one of the most common examples of the Mandela Effect. For anyone unfamiliar, the Mandela Effect is a phenomenon of collective false memories, named for many people believing that Nelson Mandela died in prison in the 1980s, even though he went on to become the President of South Africa a decade later and only died five years ago. It is common for people to believe beyond doubt that Hong Kong is a separate country, becoming independent in 1997 when in actual fact sovereignty was handed over from the United Kingdom back to China. In light of the fact that the people who live there do not consider themselves as part of China, I suppose thi...

“It’s nice to spend time together like this.” Her words rolled toward me, but I barely registered them. The sand in Barcelona was so warm, so soft. Growing up, we never got to see the ocean. How many times had Tess and I been to a beach together? I could probably count it on one hand. “Jacquie, are you even listening to me?” “Mhmm,” I said, the slight sound coming right back to my ears in the ocean wind. “You’re not, are you?” “Sorry,” I said, “just thinking.” “About?” “Doesn’t matter.” She wouldn’t understand. Tess wasn’t one for the introspective.   After three days enjoying the beach warmth, the feeling of business was finally beginning to fade. Even on the plane over, a paranoia hung over me that I should be doing something. Household jobs, dropping Sarah off at soccer practice, taking a shift that I knew I couldn’t handle. God, when was the last time I’d watched a movie just because I wanted to? “I should call mum, check up on Sarah.” “Jacquie,” Tess sai...