HSC Students Are Coming For This Author After His Text Appeared In The English Exam
Ocean Vuong has been inundated with DMs from students baffled by his novel 'On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous'.
New South Wales HSC students have bombarded an author after his text baffled them during their English exam.
Approximately 70,000 HSC students sat down to do their English exam his week and were asked to interpret an excerpt from On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, by Ocean Vuong.
For those unfamiliar, the book is about a young Vietnamese boy growing up in America. It’s a semi-autobiographical novel that takes the form of a letter to the protagonist’s mother, who cannot read.
The text is non-linear, extremely abstract and features super-expressive language throughout, which makes for a beautiful yet challenging text. During the exam, students had to analyse a scene in which the protagonist plucked hairs from his grandmother’s head while she told him stories, while another scene illustrated the protagonist’s romantic relationship with a book. Obviously, both scenes are open to interpretation and aren’t exactly the scenes you want to encounter in the exam you’ve been stressing all year over.
Following the exam, Vuong’s social media handles were inundated with messages asking him what the hell was going on. “BROOO FFFSSS FAM we gonna fail because of u now why did you make that text. Wat was it bout. Bro,” one student said.
“Ur text was something we had to write about in our major exams, but bro what the fuck was it about?” Another added.
“UR TEXT WAS GOOD BUT SO CONFUSING,” a third said.
Vuong quickly made light of the situation, taking to his Instagram story to ask “what the hell is an HSC exam and why are all of y’all failing it?”
If only Vuong knew the absolute horrors of sitting your HSC exam. But honestly, my question is when did schools start covering new texts and stop making every Year 12 student read The Crucible as if we were preparing to move to 1600s Salem, Massachusetts after graduating.
It all seems to be in good jest with Vuong at this point, but that hasn’t been the case in the past: in 2017 the award-winning poet Ellen van Neerven was harrassed and abused online after her poem Mango was included in the English exam.