Hi,
I'm in Year 12 doing After the Bomb for English Ext and I've started reading White Noise by Don Delillo with the mentality of using it as my ORT for the essay. However, I'm at a loss atm because my teacher did some research on the novel and said since it's set in 1984, it's too far out of the ideal time period (1950s-1960s) so she reckons I should steer away from it. She even went to the head teacher to confirm her thoughts, but personally I don't agree—because the novel never explicitly mentions when it's set. Plus, it addresses great existentialist concerns and the sense of distrust and anxiety that are really pertinent to the module (and will be especially pertinent when compared to Waiting for Gadot), so I think it's a well fleshed out ORT. The head teacher said that she would avoid it just to be in the safe net, but I mean theoretically the cold war era ended in 1991, so I don't really understand the issue as long as the text addresses the relevant ways of thinking? I do, to some extent, see their argument but at the same time, I've heard and read a lot of exemplar essays using the novel as their ORT who have done exceedingly well. Plus, it's thoroughly recommended on the ATAR notes and BoredofStudies forums so I'm at a bit of a loss as to whether I should just do it against my teachers' advices or just start anew with an entirely different related. Any advice?