Luminary days: my school has been a stop for some really amazing people recently. Tuesday, next year’s writer in residence, Herman Farrell, hung out in senior seminar with the drama kids. Talk turned (it always does) to the war and its roots, and, to my shock, I found a fellow mind who was more interested in thinking about them than in screaming for a side. It was to my deeper shock, later, that I realized how thirsty I’ve been for that, and how utterly parched this campus is. Shouldn’t academia be more about discussion than denouncement? (Cynically: has it ever actually been?)
Last night was Wynton Marsalis, of course, and then tonight was Heather McHugh. Confronted by a grinning poet, I found myself speechless. This is a theme recently. She was wonderful, and very funny, and I wanted to tell her “thank you” for the reading and failed utterly. I think she got the idea from my face, though.
Also, as Lisa relates, this has been Dante Marioni week. Centre is a house party!
I can’t segue well into this, but I didn’t get into IU, which is a little strange–they really seemed to like me when I visited campus. It makes me wonder whether Carnegie Mellon was a fluke. Thanks to my standing over them with a bat, Louisville is supposed to tell me yes or no on Monday. Time grows short. The plot, as Ian would say, thins.
Also, while looking up the usage of “denunciation,” I found the single weirdest text ad I’ve ever seen:
