It’s only after a full year of this rough education that Sasha starts to see its possibilities. Once at the Institute, Sasha is set to studying incomprehensible texts and trying to perform seemingly impossible mental exercises. Using the threat that “something terrible will happen” if she doesn’t comply, Farit gives her a series of tasks to complete before informing her that she will attend the Institute of Special Technologies instead of a normal university. Sasha’s plans for college are vague when the unsettling Farit Kozhennikov finds her while on vacation at the beach with her mother. And, until near the end when the purpose of it all is spectacularly revealed, neither do we. Sasha Samokhina, our protagonist, has absolutely no idea why she’s been coerced into attending Institute of Special Technologies in a remote Russian town. But when I read Marina and Sergey Dyachenko’s wrenching contemporary fantasy novel, Vita Nostra (translated by Julia Meitov Hersey), I suddenly saw why they had a hard time understanding why their professors had them slave over obscure, difficult texts for hours. I struggle with this because I don’t understand why students don’t just naturally see the point of it it’s hard to rhapsodize about critical thinking skills, adaptability, and so on to someone who isn’t getting it.

One of the ones that I regularly struggle with is the value of a liberal arts education. There are some research topics that are perennial at the library.

Vita nostra goodreads