Assignments, homework and exams are so intense now that they occupy students’ entire lives. Aled, on the other hand, is forced into an academic university course that he does not really want to attend, and pays the price for doing so. But then Frances meets Aled, a boy who lives and thrives off his creative pursuits, and Frances begins to question whether academia is really the right path for her, despite everyone in the world screaming at her that it is. Like me, she is a high achiever and is expected by everyone around her to go to university and study something academic, and because of that, she keeps her artistic side a secret. But I had no idea who I was without academia.įrances, the protagonist of Radio Silence, stands where I stood at 17-at the cusp of deciding whether to go to university. Because that is all they were ever told they could do. Most students didn’t even have a career in mind. The joy of learning was practically nonexistent. But very few people were actually enjoying it. Being at a prestigious university, I was surrounded by high achievers who believed that there was little else to which to aspire than to be academically successful-to get good grades, top scores and that certificate and graduation gown at the end. I looked around me and began to realize that other students were in the same position.
Why did I suddenly hate that which made me who I was? Who exactly was I underneath that?
Having been told all my life that being academic was what made you successful, rich and happy, I was terrified. The reading was dull and lifeless, the assignments were boring and painful, and I was finding no enjoyment from the very thing that I believed defined me as human being. I was having a terrible time and could not understand why. I wrote my second novel, Radio Silence, while I was studying for my undergraduate degree at Durham University. So I went to a top university to study English literature. My friends assured me that if I couldn’t get into Oxbridge, who else could? When I showed a slight interest in pursuing art instead, my teachers laughed at me. My parents told me that it would be a waste not to use my academic skills. It was who I was and what I was meant to do. There was no need to consider interest or enjoyment. Going to university to study something “academic” wasn’t even a question. Academia dominated my identity and left little room for much else. I was known among my classmates as the girl who got top grades, took extra qualifications, was loved by teachers and destined for Oxbridge. I have always been a “high achiever.” A “gifted student.” “Top of the class.” Growing up, these labels defined me, completely and thoroughly. Oseman shares a peek behind Radio Silence and how she learned to redefine the meaning of success when surrounded by pressure to conform. Instead, she feels most like herself when creating fan art for a podcast called “Universe City,” and when she strikes up a friendship with the podcast creator, a “partly asexual” white boy named Aled Last, their friendship is the beginning of something uplifting and important.
I’m a very sad person, in all sense of the word, but at least I was going to get into university.” Frances has always been laser-focused on getting into Cambridge, but academic success has never brought her joy. At the opening to Radio Silence, Alice Oseman’s latest YA novel, 17-year-old British-Ethiopian girl Frances Janvier shoots straight: “Being clever was, after all, my primary source of self-esteem.