Following our talk with Hanna Alkaf, a Malaysian author, the concept that stuck with me was that of ‘greatness vs diversity’. I have often felt that diversity within literature and within the media in general has been given a bit too much importance as of late, and that the merit of a story should be enough to set it apart, without having to rely on how many minority characters it features. I asked Hanna a question similar to this, which was, “Does literature have to be diverse in order to be great?” She replied that it does not, but reinstated that the definers of great literature don’t exactly make up the most diverse group of people, and that in a modern context, diversity should be considered. This took me back to a question that she posed to us earlier on in the talk, and to a talking point where I respectfully disagree with Hanna. She asked us, “Do you see yourself in your favourite book?” Hanna was framing this question on the grounds of race, so basically, if we saw someone with the same skin colour as us in our favourite book. However, I interpreted this a bit differently. I saw it as if we saw someone who shares personality traits with us, someone in similar situations as us, someone who does the same things as us; essentially, it was if we saw someone we can empathize with. One of my favourite books if not my favourite book, The Catcher in the Rye, was what immediately sprung to mind when I thought about this. Unlike Holden, I am not white, I am not freakishly tall, and I don’t have major family issues, but I see a bit of myself in him. I see someone who isn’t really sure where he’s going, someone who longs for simpler times, someone who is sick and tired of all the necessary and ‘phoney’ stuff going on around him, and in parts, I see me. That is why I raised my hand in response to a question whose goal was to keep my hand from going up.