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Thursday
January 18
2024
The St. John’s Collegian
A Gadfly Publication
Vol. II Issue 2
Printed Thursdays in Annapolis
Editorial
All college seminar held on
do the right thing
Against the New Housing
Price System
Seminar Scheduled to Commemorate Martin Luther King
Day, Saw High Tutor Attendance
Often, it seems as if a new policy decision by the
College administration is well intentioned but was not
properly thought through, particularly in the impact it
might have on the student body. The new housing
price tier system, recently unveiled by the College, is a
perfect example of this. It has the potential to cause
much harm to our campus community, while also does
not seem to have any actual benefit besides increasing
College housing revenue.
There is a principle of common experience at the
College that I worry the new pricing system endangers.
With the requirement to live on campus for our first
two years here, a community is created of people who
not only read the same books, but who live in the same
buildings, and eat the same food. A special kind of
unity is created, one that really brings together our
small, close-knit community, and which is so solid that
it is kept together even after people begin to move off
campus Junior year. As of now, the differing quality of
dorms does not hinder this campus cohesion: if
someone complains about rats in a dorm, there is
sympathy, as anyone could have ended up there.
Likewise, jealousy over good dorm conditions in the
suburbs only goes so far; it is simply taken as a privilege
of having spent more years on campus, and as a sign of
luck in the housing lottery.
However, with the change from flat rates for housing
to ones based on income, I worry that this cohesion
could be damaged. If someone’s housing condition is
determined by how much they are able to pay for a
dorm, there is not a sense that everyone is on the same
boat: on the contrary, there is a sense some paid for a
much nicer educational experience than others. The
argument that the difference in prices is too small to
cause this kind of socio-economic stratification is
ridiculous: if someone already has difficulty affording
college, which many Johnnies do, every dollar counts,
including the $400 between a Chase double and a
Gilliam split double, without even mentioning the
$2,550 that will divide some residents of Paca.
Students already sometimes go to ridiculous lengths to
save a few dollars on expenses, it is perfectly reasonable
to presume they would do the same if they needed to
on housing, and the divide between those that do need
to save, and those that don’t, would grow much more
visible.
There are also many issues that are (Cont. on Page 2)
This semester’s first All-College seminar was unusual
in two ways. First, it was not hosted by the SCI, who
has traditionally hosted such events, with organization
instead being lead by Assistant Dean Robert Abbott.
Secondly, the seminar was on a film, a medium which
has not been discussed before at an All-College
seminar. The movie, Spike Lee’s 1989 Do the Right
Thing, shown at 4 pm on January 12th, the day of the
seminar, with the actual conversation occurring at
7:30, in the place of a lecture.
The screening, which was attended by several dozen
students, as well as a handful of tutors, was slightly
delayed by audio problems in the FSK, but after
moving to the Hodson Room, the remainder Lee’s
beautiful, chaotic, poignant and thought-provoking
work was shown. The seminar itself was slightly better
attended, although many students who came to watch
the movie did not come to the seminar. Instead, a large
number of tutors turned out for the discussion. There
were enough people to split the participants into three
groups, led by Abbott, tutor George Russel and tutor
emeritus Jonathan Tuck.
Russel began by asking an opening question that
informed the conversation for all the groups, focused
around the statement made by da Mayor which gives
the movie its name: What does it mean to do the right
thing? Groups then split off, with each seminar leader
asking another opening question. The seminar ran for
an hour and a half, with participants congregating over
coffee, tea and snacks afterwards to continue
discussing the film.
Abbott explained that this seminar was intended to
commemorate, and spark discussion about Martin
Luther King Jr. Day, which took place the following
Monday. “In the past few years, the dean has ended up
asking the SCI to have their second semester all-college
seminar on texts that had something to do with slavery
or the civil rights movement. This seemed like an
uncomfortable arrangement since the SCI should be
able to have two all-college seminars every year on
whatever they decide. Also, last year, the president
formed a committee of staff, faculty, and students to
plan an event around MLK day. I volunteered for this
committee and my contribution was to hold a Tuesday
night seminar on a poem by Gwendolyn Brooks, 'The
Chicago Defender Sends a Man to Little Rock, Fall
1957,' but only a few students attended. The then-
dean and I talked this over and decided to have a
separate all-college seminar on a Friday to give the event
more prominence.”
The College does not commemorate Martin Luther
King Jr. Day, a holiday created to honor civil rights
leader Martin Luther King Jr. shortly after his
assassination, as part of a general policy not to respect
religious or civil holidays. ““We don’t recognize any of
the holidays, it just so happens that long weekend often
coincides with a holiday. I just really value that. I feel
like at the college should honor any individual’s
practices, and as an institution, we should be pretty
careful to remain open and neutral… I think about this
in terms of Herodotus. Particular cultures are
important, because they’re a way to understand what’s
universal… I want people to be able to be themselves in
the classroom and out at the college, but we also need
to say, this place would come apart at the seams if we’re
improperly recognizing some individuals and not
others,” explained Abbott. “At the same time, we have
found ways to use the occasion to do something that is
good, that is harmonious or consonant with what we’re
doing at the college anyway.”
The choice of seminar subject was proposed by Xena
Hitz, a tutor. “Ms. Hitz suggested discussing the film,
Do the Right Thing,” said Abbott. “I thought this was
an excellent suggestion for many reasons. The film
speaks to everyone; it asks the viewer difficult, pressing
questions about race, community, history, and
violence, without giving easy answers; it puts Martin
Luther King Jr. in conversation with Malcolm X.
There are a number of reasons I thought it would be
good for a seminar. And for all those same reasons, I
saw this all-college seminar as continuous with
conversations that develop out of reading works on the
program e.g. by Tocqueville, Twain, Melville, Conrad,
Lincoln, Douglas, Washington, and Du Bois, among
others…Human freedom is at stake; I can think of few
things as serious.”
Holding a conversation on a film posed a new
challenge, but one that was successfully met by most
participants in the seminars. In the seminar that I
participated in, the conversation hovered in generalities
at first, before plunging straight into a thorough and
interesting analysis of cinematographic choices, of the
role of characters, and of the (Cont. on page 2)
This Week in Seminar
Upcoming Events:
Freshman:
1/18: Thucydides: Peloponnesian War, VII; VIII, 1–6, 45–end
1/22: Thucydides: Peloponnesian War, IV, 75–end; V, 1–26, 84–116; VI
Sophomores:
1/18: Dante: Divine Comedy, Purgatorio XIX–XXXIII
1/22: Dante: Divine Comedy, Paradiso I–XVII
Juniors:
1/18: Hume: Treatise of Human Nature (see official list for selections)
1/22: Hume: Treatise of Human Nature (see official list for selections)
Seniors:
Essay writing Period
Friday 1/19
5 p.m., Mitchell Museum: Sampling a
Sampler Sampling Exhibit opening
Saturday 1/20
11 a.m., Studio Theater: Careers in Law
Alumni Panel
9 p.m., Boathouse: Pajama Waltz
9 p.m., McDowell Great Hall: Pangaea
Lunar New Years Party
Wednesday 1/24
2:30 p.m., Hodson room: Hodson
Internship info session
- 4 p.m., Conversation Room: Eams Power of
Ten film discussion.
Friday Night Lecture:
Concert by New York Polyphony, 8 p.m. in the FSK
Page 1
�Thursday January 18, 2024
St. John’s Collegian
Vol. II. Issue 2
First measurable snow in two years covers
campus: Two Hour Delay Implemented
By the time this writer exited Mellon for the first time
On Monday, January 15th at 11:30, he saw the snow
which had started in the morning had picked up once
more, and a thin layer was beginning to accumulate
on the grass, although not yet in paved areas. By the
time he returned to campus around 2:15, the snow
had not stopped, and it began sticking even to warmer
brick and asphalt. Speculation began, buzzing around
campus from eager freshmen to weary Juniors: will
they cancel seminar? Do they ever even do that?
When classes ended for the day, the snow was finally
great deal of frolicking going on, and a few snowballs
being tossed around. After receiving a tip-off that a
big scoop might be found on back campus, your
writer continued down towards the creek to find
Johnnies whizzing down the hill on sleds, trash can
lids, cardboard, garbage bags, and their own backs.
The enthusiasm of a child before a snow-day in 3rd
grade was in the air, and everyone was feeling it.
Walking along, this writer crossed paths with a very
enthusiastic Johnnie who perfectly summed this up:
“It’s snowing, it’s snowing!” he repeatedly declared,
while giving energetic hugs to all who went by.
By the 7:30 seminar time, there was no news about
any delays or cancellations, although the snow
continued to fall as the campus made its way towards
Mellon and McDowell. During seminar, however, an
Housing (Cont. from Page 1)
less obvious, but likely to cause problems likely not
foreseen by the College administration. For
example, this new pricing system would make
housing selection far more fraught. If there is
higher demand for the cheaper dorms, as I suspect
there will be, there may be less affordable housing
available for people lower on the list, who may be
penalized and have to pay more, perhaps even
more than they can afford. What happens if
someone can only afford a Group B double, but
when they get their chance to pick there are only
Group A doubles and split doubles left?
Likewise, this causes a problem for dorms set aside
for specific purposes. In the past, Spector has been
designated as a quiet dorm, and one floor has been
set aside as an alcohol-free floor. Would people
who prefer quiet, or to be further away from
alcohol, have to pay extra for that? It is wonderful
that the college tries to accommodate these needs,
but it would be a shameful undermining of what
they seem to be trying to accomplish to have access
to them determined by price.
The reasoning given for this change in housing
pricing is that people “have been asking for it.” I
would like to ask who these people are. I have not
met a single student who speaks in favor of this
system for reallocating housing. The argument
that many other institutions price dorms this way
is also a bad one, since many small liberal arts
colleges do not, and that something being done by
other institutions has never been a reason in itself
for St. John’s to do something.
I suspect the true motivation for this change is not
to respond to some swell of student requests for
this system, but a desire to raise housing prices
without upsetting people as much. At some level,
I understand this; prices need to be adjusted for
inflation, even though they are already very high.
However, if this way of raising prices is likely to
cause harm to our Polity, I think the decision to
implement this system should be reconsidered.
email was sent out by Aly Gontang, Vice-President of
Finance and Operations: “The Annapolis Campus
will be opening at 10:30 am on Tuesday, January 16,
2024, to allow facilities staff time to clear parking lots
and walkways – and to allow time for staff, students,
and faculty to travel safely to campus.”
Gontang explained that this decision was made
according to set College policies. “When we are
experiencing or expecting inclement weather, we
usually coordinate early in the morning to determine
road conditions, how long it may take to clear parking
lots and walkways, and if there are any other
operational challenges to opening on time. We try to
coordinate between 4:30am-5am to have facilities or
public safety staff check on campus conditions – so
we can post a notification no later than 6am by
campus alert, email, and website update. In the case
of [Monday’s] weather, with the extremely poor
conditions we monitored into the evening last night
(some of us were driving home late after work after
8pm) – and with the forecast of alternating freezing
rain and snow combined with low temperatures
during the ‘rush hour’ when most are driving into
campus – we posted the notice last night following
many of the county schools and agencies.
When we expect inclement conditions – just to also
call out the wonderful dedication and care of the Bon
Seminar (Cont. from Page 1)
between the events on the screen and pressing
concerns about communities relevant in our own
lives.
Abbott said that in his seminar, he also found success
in the challenge of discussing a movie. “I really love
film. Scott Buchanan, one of the founders of the
program, thought film was going to have a place in the
cannon. One of my worries about this seminar is that
we would treat the film simply as a text, and only
discuss ideas. I feel like my seminar didn’t fall into
that, which was nice… it was much more about the
way ideas were represented through the film and the
character who speak about them. It was much closer
to a discussion of the film as a film.”
Coming away from these seminars, and into the
discussions over coffee and tea, many participants
expressed a wide range of thoughts sparked by the
movie. By providing a space to reflect on race,
discrimination, representation, identity, violence and
resistance, and community, the seminar provided a
place to touch on many matters that often don’t come
up in day-to-day classes. The conversations begun
that night, however, are still very much alive as this
paper is going to print, at least amongst those who
attended that seminar.
Appetit staff - the dining service staff will oftentimes
nearby accommodations or even stay overnight find
in available residence rooms, that are separated from
students, to ensure food service remains on time.”
This delay, however, did not mean that classes were
canceled. While operations delays are determined by
the Gontang, academic delays are decided by the
Assistant Dean, who instead sent out an email saying
that class cancellations would be determined by
individual tutors, who could best determine whether
they could safely reach campus.
The possibility of classes, however, did not stop
students from celebrating the snow with Johnnie
passion. A massive, all-campus snowball fight
developed on the quad after seminar, with this
reporter being targeted for repeated pelting by a
frequent Gadfly and Collegian contributor who
often goes by his somewhat vulgar initials. After this
spirited combat, this writer set off on a walk with
someone rather special into an Annapolis
transformed into a silent, white mirror of itself. While
the following morning, classes resumed as usual,
(albeit with some confusion as to whether they would
begin at 10:30), the spell cast by the snow on this
campus will be fondly remembered for years to come.
El’ad Nichols-Kaufman
About the St.
John’s
Collegian
The St. John’s Collegian is the weekly newspaper of
St. John’s College Annapolis. We work to bring quick
and timely coverage of important events going on, to
help develop a more informed student body. If you’re
searching for more in-depth investigations and
reporting, as well as essays, art and culture, check out
the Gadfly, our affiliated publication, which is
published once every three weeks.
Want to submit an article? We always need more
writers, whether for opinion or reporting!
Submissions for news articles should be between 400600 words, while opinion should be kept short at 350
words. Just email eanicholskaufman@sjc.edu with
your article, and we will work to get it in print!
Longer form articles and more in-depth exploration
of ideas should go to the Gadfly, which accepts
submissions at lbriner@sjc.edu.
Contributors for this issue:
El’ad Nichols-Kaufman, Editor
El’ad Nichols-Kaufman
An interview for this article was conducted by Meliha
Anthony for the Communications office. We would
like to thank Communications for helping us with our
reporting, and Anthony for supporting journalism on
the Annapolis campus.
Aphorism of the Week:
"Does it make sense?" Says an American. "Does it
become a word?" Says a Korean.
I am clearly the one who is making sense, but who is
the one making the word?
Page 2
You may have noticed this edition only has one
contributor. This, to put it mildly, is a problem. Not
only is it better for the College to have a diversity of
view represented instead of just my ramblings, but it
is also not sustainable for me: I cannot write a full
edition of the Collegian every week. If you want to see
this paper continue to exist, and to continue to bring
up to date news reporting to the Polity, please send in
some submissions! You can write about anything:
enrollment trends, tutor retention, crazy moments in
your seminar, intramural games. Just write. The
Polity needs everyone to pitch in if we are to remain
engaged and well informed.
��
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<em>The St. John's Collegian</em>
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A student newspaper of St. John's College. <em>The St. John's Collegian</em> began publication in 2023 and is affiliated with <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/collections/show/16"><em>The Gadfly</em></a>. <br /><br />Published weekly on Thursday, with the exception of weeks <em>The Gadfly </em>is published. <br /><br />Earlier publications with the title <em>The Collegian </em>and <em>The St. John's Collegian </em>are available in <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/collections/show/26"><em>The Collegian Collection</em></a>.
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Student publication
The Collegian
The Gadfly
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Thursday
January 11 2024
The St. John’s Collegian
A Gadfly Publication
Vol. II Issue 1
Printed Thursdays in Annapolis
From the
polity
College releases plans for new
housing price structure
For the Improvement of
Collegium
Tiered Housing Price System to go into Effect Fall 2024,
Campus Dorms to See Price Increase
Collegium is one of the most wonderful institutions
we have on this campus. It is an excellent way to end
the semester, getting to hear the beautiful result of the
hard work campus musical groups have done, and
seeing the wide variety of campus talent, while also
gathering one last time as a whole Polity. However,
this beautiful moment of community togetherness is
often marred by simply having it run too long. Four
hours is too much for any performance, even if all the
performers are very skilled. With this length, people
get antsy, you have large numbers leave the hall before
it is finished, and few people stay for the other great
campus traditions like caroling.
The good news is that this can be easily remedied. The
students running Collegium are good at what they
do, and with a few changes, could help remedy the
problem of excessive length. While I recognize that
actively screening performances for quality is off the
table, I would like to propose five easy improvements
in the form of rules for performers, which would
reduce the number of acts, and thus overall length:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
No group should be allowed to perform
more than one piece.
No person may be in more than one solo,
duet or trio: we should try to give as many
people the chance to perform as possible.
Solos should be discouraged. While many of
our solo performers are incredibly skilled,
Collegium should be a space where campus
groups share with the polity, it is not a
private recital. A possible exception to this
should be poetry and writing.
No group should perform with backing
tracks: while some of these performances are
quite good, the focus of Collegium should
be on our campus’ artists.
The program should be adhered to, and
organizers should avoid having new groups
added in who were not originally registered.
Hopefully, by adopting some of these
recommendations, or other rules, the organizers of
Collegium will be able to make the event more
enjoyable for us all. If you disagree with me on these
recommendations, or have ideas of your own, please
write a letter in response, we need more opinion
articles!
El’ad Nichols-Kaufman
Shortly before winter break, an all-campus email was
sent out notifying the Polity of a major change to the
pricing system for dormitories on Campus. The
change was first announced at an earlier Committee
on Student Life Forum, but the full details were only
sent out on December 7th. This email announced
implementation of a system widely used in other
institutions of higher education at St. John’s, with
pricing for each dorm adjusted for the quality of each
type of room and the building that they are in.
“Since I’ve been here for four years, every year, I have
received a couple questions, as have my colleagues Ms.
Lico and Ms. Waters, from students themselves, as
well as parents, about why every room is the same
price when clearly some rooms are much newer than
others,” explained Jen Cline, Coordinator of Student
Services. In response to these concerns, the College
administration looked into the issue, and decided to
implement a new pricing policy, aimed at making sure
students pay for the quality they receive. “The
difference between some of the dorm rooms and their
prices just helps some of the prices be more equitable
across campus,” continued Cline.
Many students on campus, however, have raised
concerns that changing the pricing structure will
actually lead to more inequity on campus, with an
unhealthy social dynamic developing between
students who can afford more expensive, nicer dorms,
and those who cannot. Up to this point, the divide in
dorm
quality
has
mostly
been
an
underclassman/upperclassman divide, and a change
from that to a potentially more economically based
divide concerns some. When asked about this, Cline
responded that the price differences are not
significant enough to cause problems with social
dynamics. “I don’t think it will make much of a
difference than how singles are more expensive than
doubles. I’ve rarely ever seen a student choose a
double just to save a couple extra hundred dollars.”
The new system divides the dorms into eight tiers:
four tiers of singles, three tiers of doubles, and quads.
The most expensive dorm rooms will be a special
category of singles, which will be in what are now the
lofted doubles in Paca-Carroll. These four dorm
rooms will be rearranged to allow for a divided living
and sleeping space, and will cost $10,000 per year, or
$5,000 a semester, although Cline noted that the way
This Week in Seminar
Freshman:
- 1/11: Thucydides: Peloponnesian War, II, 55–78; III, 1–87; IV, 1–74
- 1/15: Thucydides: Peloponnesian War, IV, 75–end; V, 1–26, 84–116; VI
Sophomores:
- 1/11: Dante: Divine Comedy, Inferno XVIII–XXXIV
- 1/15: Dante: Divine Comedy, Purgatorio I–XVIII
Juniors:
- 1/11: George Eliot: Middlemarch
- 1/15: George Eliot: Middlemarch
Seniors:
- Essay writing Period
Friday Night Lecture:
All College Seminar on Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing, Great Hall, 7:30 pm
Page 1
the rooms are laid out means that they can be reverted
to doubles should any trouble arise, or if there should
be demand for them as doubles from students.
The next tier of singles, in Gilliam, Spector, Campbell,
Fielding and Pinkney 1, will cost $8,550 per year,
while tier C, in Chase, Pinkney 2-4, and Paca will cost
$8,300. Split doubles in Gilliam and Spector Halls will
cost $7,850, while doubles in Gilliam, Spector,
Campbell, Fielding and Pinkney 1 will cost $7,600.
Doubles in Chase, Pinkney 2-4, and Paca will be
$7,450. Quads, which include the Paca loft and new
rooms in Campbell, will cost $7,670. The current
price of a single on campus is $8,054, and the current
price of a double is $7,340, meaning all housing prices
will be increased by between $246 and $510.
For upperclassmen, the process of selecting rooms will
be the same as in previous years, with selection taking
place first for Seniors, then Juniors and finally
Sophomores, with the order of selection chosen
through a lottery. Cline explained that the system for
freshmen room assignments will also not be changed
drastically. “The prices will be made clear, and if they
have a preference, they can do what is already an
option, which is to request a specific dorm in the
housing questionnaire, which every student fills out to
be paired as roommates… That could be how they
would request a hall if they wanted one that is less
expensive than another.” Freshmen will continue to
be in Humphreys, Fielding and Paca Halls, while the
newly renovated Campbell Hall will primarily be for
upperclassmen.
The renovations in Campbell are on track for
completion by the beginning of the Summer, with
drywall already being installed before winter break.
“The rooms will definitely be done by the end of the
semester,” said Cline. “The rooms are the first
priority.” The basement area, featuring the
Coffeeshop and bookstore, is also important for the
project, but the completion of the rooms will be
prioritized. With the addition of the rooms in
Campbell, and the return of some rooms that are
currently triples to their previous status as doubles,
there will be a total of 390 beds available on campus, a
much higher number than previously, which should
allow for more upperclassmen to stay on campus if
they choose.
El’ad Nichols-Kaufman
Upcoming Events:
Tuesday 1/16
- 3:45 pm, Hodson Room: Career
Services Wayfinding Workshop
It’s a quiet second week back on campus!
Look out for next issue for more information
on upcoming events in Annapolis as the
semester continues to pick up steam.
�Thursday January 11, 2024
St. John’s collegian
Vol. II. Issue 1
Cowards, Every Last One of You, All
Cowards: Or: A Better Gadfly
Dearest cowards,
On the street, in the hallways, at parties, people say
to me: “Hey I liked your articles in the Gadfly. Have
you ever thought about writing on [topic which
clearly interests them and not me]?” Any time
anything even remotely funny happens in one of my
classes, I’ll get a knowing look from someone across
the table inevitably followed by: “You should write
about that in the Gadfly.” Woe is me! Constantly
getting good ideas for articles! (My own fault really: I
write three god damn articles for every single issue. It
gets to the point where even tutors tease me for
using our college newspaper as my own personal
playground.) And you know for a fact that I am a
megalomaniacal narcissist who loves the attention
being solely on me, but my f*cking editors won’t let
me write even more articles per issue.
So let me ask something of you, sweet cowards: write
for the Gadfly. Don’t do it for the sake of school
spirit or civic duty or art. Do it for all the wrong
reasons: do it for your own ego (I know half the
bitches at this school want to be writers); do it
because you’re tired of reading Bennett Scott, Luke
The yellow
coffee shop
I have been sitting in the coffee shop for a few
hours now. I am not sure how many, but I am
alone. It is a rare treat to get the whole place to
myself, but I am starting to get a little nervous.
Though I really have no reason to be. It is nice to
be in the coffee shop alone. With it being so dark
and wet outside, and I am fairly sure I caught a
cold on the way home from break, it is nice to be
somewhere quiet and warm. The lighting is very
warm here. A comforting amber, not really
fluorescent at all. I think it has something to do
with the new paint job. All the previously white
and sterile walls are now a soft yellow color. It is
soothing. I like looking at it. Yet, the more I look
at it, the more nervous I feel. The light casts these
odd shadows on the wall now. Especially around
the fireplace. If I let my eyes focus on one place
for too long it almost seems like the bricks are
moving. Swirling around into hypnotic whorls.
The white of the baseboards seems like it is
bleeding up into the walls, and the chalk dust on
the floor is flowing about as if blown by an unfelt
wind. I have been sitting in the coffee shop for
many hours now. The walls feel like they are
pressing in, and out. Undulating like the stomach
of some great beast. The light is still playing tricks
on my eyes. The shadows are moving across the
lemony walls, they almost look like human
figures. I think that they might be. I'm almost
sure of it actually. There is someone in the yellow
walls of the coffee shop. They are trying to get
out, to escape the canary-colored bars of their
prison. I approach the wall. Scrabbling at the
paint with my fingers, I need to release them. The
light keeps shifting and I keep scratching. I break
through the paint, a layer of drywall, I push past
the studs of McDowell. I emerge out of the
darkness into the light on the other side of the
yellow yellow walls. I am sitting in the coffee
shop.
Briner, Bennett Scott, Luker Briner; do it because if
you don’t this entire publication will succumb to the
inevitable sludge of boring mediocrity that
inevitably consumes all such uncontested empires.
6.
7.
8.
Look, I know you’re worried about how long it’ll
take (a good article takes thirty minutes drunk and
one hour sober, no more) and about not having
anything decent to write on, so I’ll make it easy;
here’s a baker’s dozen of article ideas that people
have pitched around me that someone needs to
write:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
An advice column (multiple people have
said they will. No one has.)
An admonishment of the seniors for not
getting in relationships.
A series of out-of-pocket quotes from
tutors (a game where you have to match
quote to tutor?)
Actual investigative journalism into the
power structures of the college.
A Joseph Smith-esc series of found tablets
telling the real story of the New Program’s
founding.
A little New
year’s sonnet
Like snowflakes falling light upon the ground,
the year in silent rolling passes o’er,
turning over days without a sound
and, sighing, turning hours all the more.
Like drops which drip with sopping coat of rain,
the times with weight of ages slip in rule
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
Dear Incels of the College.
A meta-Johnnie typology (every semester
we get typologies/taxonomies of Johnnies:
why not a taxonomy of taxonomies?)
A declaration of the rights of students
(anyone should be able to get up to the
board during any class. Even during
Spinoza seminars. Fight me on it.)
A dialogue between Socrates and Bad
Bunny.
Interviews with SJC legends like the
PubSafe staff and the Dining Hall workers.
The Classiflieds (Classifieds with an SJC
twist).
A stream of consciousness story from the
POV of a middie entering an SJC Waltz for
the first time.
An analysis of which St. John we are
named after.
I have a dozen more article ideas of my own
which you can come accost me for in person. Just
write one, cowards. Cause I may be your one but I
do not want to be your only.
B.S.
About the St.
John’s
Collegian
The St. John’s Collegian is the weekly newspaper of
St. John’s College Annapolis. We work to bring
quick and timely coverage of important events going
on, to help develop a more informed student body.
If you’re searching for more in-depth investigations
and reporting, as well as essays, art and culture, check
out the Gadfly, our affiliated publication, which is
published once every three weeks.
in bright mosaic when the fire is fierce,
Want to submit an article? We always need more
writers, whether for opinion or reporting!
Submissions for news articles should be between
400-600 words, while opinion should be kept short
at 350 words. Just email eanicholskaufman@sjc.edu
with your article, and we will work to get it in print!
Longer form articles and more in-depth exploration
of ideas should go to the Gadfly, which accepts
submissions at lbriner@sjc.edu.
the ticks and sequent tocks of clocks suspend
Contributors for this issue:
the brazen bells that morn and even pierce—
El’ad Nichols-Kaufman, Editor
and puddle bigly in successive train
and under bearded shadows rise to pool.
Like sunlit leaves how off the bough descend
The thrush and wren together sing their round
like snowflakes falling light upon the ground.
B.S.
Andy Manne
Tarik Mahmud
Tarik Mahmud
Aphorism of the Week:
Ashes are the best fertilizer for new plants.
Are corpses the best fertilizer for new men?
A.M.
Page 2
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
<em>The St. John's Collegian</em>
Description
An account of the resource
A student newspaper of St. John's College. <em>The St. John's Collegian</em> began publication in 2023 and is affiliated with <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/collections/show/16"><em>The Gadfly</em></a>. <br /><br />Published weekly on Thursday, with the exception of weeks <em>The Gadfly </em>is published. <br /><br />Earlier publications with the title <em>The Collegian </em>and <em>The St. John's Collegian </em>are available in <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/collections/show/26"><em>The Collegian Collection</em></a>.
Creator
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St. John's College
Publisher
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St. John's College
Coverage
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Annapolis, Md.
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St. John's College Greenfield Library
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English
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SJCCollegian
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pdf
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2 pages
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Title
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St. John's Collegian, January 11, 2024
Description
An account of the resource
Volume 2, issue 1 of the St. John's Collegian, published January 11, 2024.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.)
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.)
Coverage
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Annapolis, MD
Date
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2024-01-11
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St. John's College holds the rights to this publication.
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text
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pdf
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St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.)--Periodicals
Language
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English
Identifier
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SJCCollegian_vol2_issue1_2024-01-11
Student publication
The Collegian
The Gadfly
-
https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/c2dacafc270b5463f3dd60bca2589513.pdf
85f086662d9e0e8a8ca1b9f4709c49be
PDF Text
Text
Thursday
December 7
2023
The St. John’s Collegian
A Gadfly Publication
Vol. I
Issue 9
Printed Thursdays in Annapolis
From the
polity
Fall 2023: the Collegian’s
inaugural Semester in review
A Message from the Randall
Worms
Looking Back on the First Three Months of the St. Jon’s
Collegian, and Looking Forward to the Paper’s Future
To the Polity:
It has come to our attention that there has been an
attempt from residents of Randall Hall 2 to suppress
the reality of our plight under the guise of “privacy.”
Let the story be set straight. We are the worms.
We are the native inhabitants of the Randall 2 showers
and refuse to be ignored any longer.
In mid-August of this year our modest homes became
overrun with human beings who have incited violence
towards us. We have been wiped away and flushed
down drains. We have been smashed. We have been
bleach-bombed. We have had the higher powers of
Buildings & Grounds called on us, all in a desperate
attempt to eradicate us from our rightful place in the
showers.
We understand we are not the most beautiful
creatures. But if you think it’s traumatic to shower
with us, imagine how we feel. Somehow, we are the
invaders, not you all, the ones entering our homes—
naked, mind you—and attempting to wash us away or
crush us underfoot. There are families who have been
living on these tiles for generations. Childhood friends
have been mutilated by your cruel tactics, and we have
had enough. No longer will we suffer in silence.
This message is for the aggressors of Randall 2: we
won’t be gotten rid of that easily. We have and will
continue to survive your assassination attempts and
will be exacting our revenge shortly.
Stay vigilant.
Sincerely,
The worms
Editor’s Note: This letter was submitted anonymously,
and as a publication we cannot speak to whether or not
any worms do actually reside in the Randall Two
showers, and as to whether or not they can write in
English. However, if there were worms, and if they
could write in English, a letter from them would be so
remarkable, it would be worth publishing here merely
on the chance that it may really be written by worms.
When I first decided to start the Collegian, it seemed
like the task ahead of me was particularly daunting. I
recognized the need for a more frequent campus
publication, but also saw that with our small student
body, it would be difficult to find enough writers to
keep up the kind of regular reporting I was hoping for.
More than that, I saw the task of keeping myself on a
weekly schedule as a challenging one, and a difficult
one to enforce for Johnnies, who are notoriously bad
at deadlines.
The task ahead of me seemed large, and it did turn out
to be so. For some issues, such as this one, I did struggle
to get enough contributors, not for lack of occurrences
on campus, but for the nearly universal lack of time
that all Johnnies, including myself, suffer from.
Likewise, I often found myself cutting precariously
close to my own deadlines, although fortunately
almost all of the paper’s other contributors were far
more punctual than I was. However, despite all these
difficulties, the paper took off, and largely successfully.
Certainly, there were no ends of spelling, grammar,
and printing errors (largely due to my editorial
procrastination), but news was reported on, opinions
were presented, and miscellaneous bits of commentary
and cryptic aphorisms were spread amongst the Polity.
Most of this success is due to the paper’s hard-working
team of contributors. We had, in the nine issues since
the beginning of publication in September, sixteen
different contributors, including, in order of the first
publication their articles appeared in, Caleb Briggs,
Lainey Rendelman, William Marchman, Augustus
Pananas, Georgia Green, Natalie Goldman, Semyon
Andruschenko, Louis Rosenberg, Ron Haflidson,
Andy Manne, Jack Huntley, Susan Paalman, and
Molly Sprout, not to mention the anonymous antismoking crusader, their rival J.S., and the Randall
Worms. I must sincerely thank each and every one of
these people for their contributions- without them, the
Collegian could not exist. In particular, I would like to
thank Briggs, Goldman and Manne, who all
contributed more than once and helped keep the paper
running.
In total, the paper had 36 articles this semester: eleven
opinion pieces, in the form of letters to the editor,
editorials or just very short, opinionated essay about
assorted nonsense; nineteen news articles, ranging
from reporting on the College Creek Connector to a
student attending two seminars, four arts features, on
the Mitchell Museum or KWP shows, and then
whatever this article and the first introductory piece in
the first issue could be classified as.
With all this, the newspaper covered important stories.
Looking back on the semester’s headlines serves as a
sort of summary of the year: September gives us the
summer BVG meeting and the College Creek
Connector, DC Budgeting, and, most importantly, the
incessant ringing of bells during seminar. In October,
dialogue on the bells continued alongside the official
reopening of Mellon and Public Safety’s Cleary
Report, the Polka and Limbo competitions and the
DC Budget Omnibus Bill. November continued to be
just as busy, with another BVG meeting, a tutor
walkout over pay, a suspicious item leading to Mellon
being evacuated, and the College Historical Taskforce.
In different ways, each and every one of these stories is
important to the Polity, and many of them, such as the
BVG meetings or the College Creek Connector, might
never have gotten any notice had there not been articles
written about them. To me with all the challenges the
Collegian has faced, the fact that at the end of the day
the Polity has become, even just a little, better informed
thanks to the work of the Collegian, makes me
motivated enough to keep this paper going to next
semester, next year, and hopefully further into the
future.
However, this will not be possible without other
people’s help. If you are interested in covering
anything, whether it be local Annapolis politics,
College administrative decisions, Intramurals, campus
music and art scenes, or anything at all, please send in
articles! The more regular contributors we have, the
better we can keep up the timely, efficient and
informative publication of the Collegian, and the more
interesting we can make this paper.
Save the Polity from having to read any more “year in
review” summaries from me- find a topic, and just
write! It doesn’t have to be long, it doesn’t have to be
complicated, all we need here are articles on things
people care about, and I know that things like that are
not at all rare on this passionate, busy campus.
Farewell until next semester,
El’ad Nichols-Kaufman
This Week in Seminar
Upcoming Events:
Friday Night Lecture:
- 7 pm, Great Hall: Summerfield Live
Tuesday 12/12
- 7 pm, Great Hall: Collegium and
Assistant Dean’s Winter Party
Freshman:
- 12/7: Euripides: Medea
- 12/11: Plato: Symposium, Beginning–198A
Sophomores:
- 12/7: Christian Creeds, see official list; Thomas Aquinas: Summa Theologiae,
Prologue; Prima Pars (First Part), see official list
- 12/11: Thomas Aquinas: Summa Theologiae, Prima Pars (First Part), see official list
Juniors and Seniors:
- Preceptorials
KWP’s production of the Importance of Being Earnest
Page 1
Friday 12/8
- 7:30 pm, FSK: The Importance of Being
Earnest
Saturday, 12/9
7:30 pm, FSK: The Importance of
Being Earnest
- 10 pm, Great Hall: Pangaea Just Dance
Party
Sunday 12/10
�Thursday December 7, 2023
St. John’s Collegian
Vol. I. Issue 9
Delegate Council semester ends, Shawamreh
elected Dc president
End of the Year for Delegate Council Featured Much Legislative Action, Planning for
Future Budgeting, and Contested Officer Elections
The end of the fall 2023 session was a busy end of the
year for the Delegate Council, which in the past has
slowed down at the end of budgeting season. This
year, however, the council shifted towards working
on legislation aimed at improving its budgeting
process and better representing student voice to the
College administration.
Two committees were formed for this purpose: the
archives committee and the budgeting committee.
The archives committee, which this writer headed in
his capacity as DC Secretary, reviewed current acts of
council, and looked to find ways to improve them
both through amendments and by writing new acts.
The archives committee brought forward three pieces
of legislation: an amendment to the archives act, to
make DC proceedings more accessible to the Polity,
as well as two new acts. The first of these, the
succession act, outlines what happens if both the
President and Secretary are unable to lead a meeting.
The second was the new Club Responsibility Act,
which formalizes the DC’s recommendation that
new clubs receive $500 in their first budget and
requires them to submit an official request do so, as
well as have the budget passed by a 2/3 majority of the
DC.
allocation process and give the Treasurer discretion as
to decide when budgets should be heard, to allow for
more urgent budgets to be heard faster; an
amendment to the Budget Role Clarification Act, to
help distinguish between emergency and
supplemental budgets; and a new act of council, the
High-Budget Sports Club act, which provides new
guidelines for clubs like Polo or Jiu-Jitsu.
The budgeting committee, headed by treasurer
Grace Jang, looked to address problems that have
arisen from the Council’s often confusing budgeting
rules, and pass acts of council resolving them.
Amendments provided by this committee included a
reworking of the Agora Act, which creates a fund any
student project for the benefit of the whole Polity can
request money from; amendments to the Allocations
Procedure Codification Act, to streamline check
Elections were also held for the officers and freshman
delegates. The Secretary and Polity Herald’s races
were uncontested, with incumbents El’ad NicholsKaufman and Rylee Bain being reelected, while in the
Treasurer election, Alexander Paden won in a race
against Rachel Rozsa, and in the Presidential election,
Ali Shawamreh won, running against Lainey
Rendelman.
El’ad Nichols-Kaufman
Behind All that Gadfly BS
A Psychological Analysis of Mr. Bennett Scott
[Note: Mr. Scott has forbidden this article from being
printed, but we shall not be silenced.]
Is he a madman, a prophet of modern decay, or
simply the weird roommate of Ben Maier who makes
those videos? Who really is B.S.? Bennett Scott, man
of many wiles, is known around the St. John’s College
campus as the archon of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, A Senior,
and turtleneck aficionado; lately, he has emerged in
the polity consciousness as the sole pursuer of what
he deems “SJC Mysteries.” His main output,
however, is satire, always signed with his initials: B.S.
Bennett Scott...B.S....Based on what he writes, it’s
enough to make any good wannabe psychologist
wonder whether Mr. Scott would do what he does if
his initials didn’t stand for bullshit. It’s almost too
perfect. Of course the man who writes about the “Bro
Scogan Experience,” the first “Intercollegiate World
National Chopsticks Championship,” and who
allegedly received a cease and desist from the college
for breaking and entering (something he wouldn’t be
so stupid to record himself doing) would write under
those initials. The be B.S. might not just be a tongue
in cheek acknowledgement: it might well be his
deepest insecurity.
The question is then one reminiscent of the chicken
and the egg. What came first? The antics, or the
signature? Did Mr. Scott realize the potential of his
name and begin playing into it, or was he always like
this, sufferer of nominal determinism, the years
passing and proving all too apparent how accurate his
initials are? The answer to this question was provided
by the man himself (in an off the record interview
that he has tried to hide, destroy, and block from
being published). In his wayward youth, Mr. Scott
was a member of Mr. Breck’s sixth grade algebra class.
In this class was also the much smarter, kinder, more
likable Bennie Surketz. As a result, he explained with
clear rage in his voice, his teacher referred to him as
“B.S. 2.” Mr. Scott lambasted Mr. Breck as “the worst
person [he] ever met,” his face turning red, his hands
shaking, muttering the quadratic equation under his
breath.
Not only did the title come first, it’s a name which
represents all of Bennett’s deepest insecurities. To
have to bear such worthless initials and be reminded
that you are only secondary in such worthlessness!?
No wonder Mr. Scott resorts to cheap absurdist
comedy and video podcasting. What respectable
outlet could be left for a man with so little faith in his
abilities that he signs every work with the very
moniker that has blighted and shadowed him since
childhood? Truly, he should be pitied, or at the very
least given a low-level writing job at GQ. Every article
in the Gadfly, every YouTube video, each and every
one is a desperate cry for help. Each inked B.S.
represents the burning soul of a tortured man (just
factor the damn equation Bennett!), a man searching
for answers in the mysteries of his little world, leaving
no cryptic stone unturned or cellar un-rummaged
through, searching for the way to overcome his own
feelings of inadequacy. Pushed aside even in his
weakness, he now presents every sign of narcissism
and “pick-me” syndromes, left in the most absurd of
fights: he tears at himself in search of the angst to
prove that he too is a starving artist. To be B.S, Mr.
Scott needs to do what he does, but to do what he
does, Mr. Scott must truly be B.S.
—A.M. (Assuredly Magnificent, not Ass Magnet)
Pensée of the Week
If religion is the opium of the masses, then revolution is
the crack cocaine of the masses.
Page 2
About the St.
John’s
Collegian
The St. John’s Collegian is the weekly
newspaper of St. John’s College Annapolis.
We work to bring quick and timely coverage
of important events going on, to help
develop a more informed student body. If
you’re searching for more in-depth
investigations and reporting, as well as
essays, art and culture, check out the Gadfly,
our affiliated publication, which is
published once every three weeks.
Want to submit an article? We always need
more writers, whether for opinion or
reporting! Submissions for news articles
should be between 400-600 words, while
opinion should be kept short at 350 words.
Just email eanicholskaufman@sjc.edu with
your article, and we will work to get it in
print! Longer form articles and more indepth exploration of ideas should go to the
Gadfly, which accepts submissions at
lbriner@sjc.edu.
Contributors for this issue:
El’ad Nichols-Kaufman, Editor
Andy Manne
The Worms
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
<em>The St. John's Collegian</em>
Description
An account of the resource
A student newspaper of St. John's College. <em>The St. John's Collegian</em> began publication in 2023 and is affiliated with <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/collections/show/16"><em>The Gadfly</em></a>. <br /><br />Published weekly on Thursday, with the exception of weeks <em>The Gadfly </em>is published. <br /><br />Earlier publications with the title <em>The Collegian </em>and <em>The St. John's Collegian </em>are available in <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/collections/show/26"><em>The Collegian Collection</em></a>.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
St. John's College
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
St. John's College
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Annapolis, Md.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
St. John's College Greenfield Library
Language
A language of the resource
English
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
SJCCollegian
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Original Format
The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
pdf
Page numeration
Number of pages in the original item.
2 pages
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
St. John's Collegian, December 7, 2023
Description
An account of the resource
Volume 1, issue 9 of the St. John's Collegian, published December 7, 2023.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.)
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.)
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Annapolis, MD
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2023-12-07
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
St. John's College holds the rights to this publication.
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
text
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
pdf
Subject
The topic of the resource
St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.)--Periodicals
Language
A language of the resource
English
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
SJCCollegian_vol1_issue9_2023-12-07
Student publication
The Collegian
The Gadfly
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https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/a3682dadaf0b88f5e97bc455e30ea8ae.pdf
962cb804bad4d527fecc548ec50c41b9
PDF Text
Text
Thursday
November 16
2023
The St. John’s Collegian
A Gadfly Publication
From the
polity
Vol. I Issue 8
Printed Thursdays in Annapolis
College Historical taskforce
organizes panel on key
It’s a Road! It’s a Way! It’s a… Taskforce, Created to Examine College History and Examine
Desire Path?
the College’s Responsibility Today, Hopes to Spark Dialogue
Chances are you’ve seen them around and barely
noticed them: short dirt paths eroding away well-kept
sod. Have you ever wondered how they got there? The
answer is base human instinct.
Desire paths are created by humans taking the shortest
route between two points and typically occur when the
paved/planned path takes a longer or more-circuitous
one. In some places, desire paths are actively studied by
landscapers and engineers to learn from the wisdom of
the herd and pave accordingly. In others, they are
roped off to prevent further soil erosion.
In the U.S., due to our lack of pedestrian
infrastructure, desire paths can be found where the
sidewalk ends, along the sides of roads, and between car
parks and stores. Another place is on college campuses
since they are some of the few pedestrianized areas in
the country. Poor planning and hurried students
combine to create desire paths on many campuses
around the world.
In a place like St. John’s, we have few desire paths. 300
years of constant habitation have allowed many of our
naturally-created paths to be paved over in an orderlyangled array of bricks. There are a few left, however,
where the aversion to paving over everything has us
keeping some grassy plots. The Quad may be the most
glaring example, as many different desire paths crisscross the grass square and turn it into a mud patch. A
more classic example would be the one next to ChaseStone, leading to the East side of Pinkney .
Some see desire paths as a nuisance and an eyesore.
Others laud them as they fly in the face of the rigid lines
of modern landscaping. There’s even a whole
subreddit (r/desirepath) dedicated to them. Love them
or hate them, they’re sticking around until we can
always predict the movements of a crowd. And even
then, we may still surprise our landscapers.
Caleb Briggs
Editor’s Note: this is not a typical From the Polity
article, but I did not have any submissions of opinion
this week. I know all of you have opinions, please send
them to me. The Collegian needs them!
St. John’s College has seen much in its 240 years of
history, from its founding in the tumultuous days
immediately following the American Revolution to its
slow and quiet decline throughout the last half of the
19th century and beginning of the 20th, and into the
new program that has defined the past 87 years. This
history is inseparable from the state of the College
today; every aspect of life in the Polity is shaped by it,
with an even greater impact on the relationship of the
College with the wider world. However, much of this
history, especially that which predates the New
Program, is forgotten or unacknowledged, outside of a
few anecdotes about Humphreys Hall having been a
morgue, or McDowell burning down.
We pay lip service to our history, claiming the
distinguished 1696 founding date (a myth that I hope
to dispel in a future article), and displaying pride in our
19th century architecture, but we rarely pause to think
about how the College’s history, and particularly
history of discrimination and slavery, has made the
Polity we have today. While it might be nice to imagine
the New Program as its own isolated bubble, a
Republic in Speech brought forth by the sheer
intellectual will of its founders, it is not. Because of this
reluctance to look back practically, there has long been
a need to reckon with the historical legacy of the
College.
In the summer of 2020, a group arose hoping to do
exactly that. “It was the summer of George Floyd’s
murder,” explained Adrian Trevisan, Chair of the
College Historical Taskforce. “Roughly the same time,
there were two open letters from alumni to the college,
and a webinar.” These events, all calling on the college
to address systemic racism, and to make concrete
changes in the day-to-day operations of the College,
and which lead to the creation of the campus Diversity,
Equity and Inclusion Taskforce inspired Trevisan to
think. “Well, let's look at our Annapolis campus that's
built in the 1700s for a bunch of white kids in
Maryland. So there's got to be slavery in there. And we
really ought to be doing something to research our
history and to figure out some way to acknowledge it.”
Trevisan, who is a board member, reached out to the
then Board of Visitors and Governos chair Ron
Fielding, who agreed that this was an important
project. Trevisan expected that Fielding would then
pass the task to someone else, but instead found
himself responsible for putting his idea into action. By
This Week in Seminar
the Fall of 2020, Trevisan had put together a group of
tutors, students, board members, staff members and
historians to begin examining the College’s history.
Since then, they have been researching, discussing, and
seeking ways to get funding to do more detailed work
on the history of the College.
Central to the work of the task force was the question
of what it means to address the College’s history. Many
other institutions have been struggling with similar
questions, with particular focus on who gets to be
commemorated by names of buildings, or how the
institution’s impact on the community may be built on
legacies of discrimination. In Annapolis, there is a long
history of slavery that is irrevocably tied up with the
founding of the College, but hard to document, as well
as later tensions between St. John’s and the
neighboring Clay Street community. The way we
remember important Annapolis figures is also caught
up in this history: Samuel Chase, William Paca,
Thomas Stone, and Charles Carrol all held slaves, while
the College’s most famous alumnus and the namesake
of the FSK auditorium, Francis Scott Key, had a
complex history as a slaveholder, as well as a lawyer for
Black people suing for their freedom. How to address
these issues remains a major topic of discussion.
At St. John’s, there are additional complications
created by the unique position of the College’s campus
in Santa Fe, which, being created in the middle of the
twentieth century, sometimes seems to have a level of
distance from many of the injustices in New Mexico’s
history. Salomon Cordova, a former student
representative from Santa Fe, argued otherwise.
Beyond the responsibility anyone who purchases land
in New Mexico has to address its theft from indigenous
people, he said, “St. John’s kind of triggered the
beginning of gentrification in Santa Fe, they started to
bring in mostly white facing individuals who are
intellectuals… and they came with money… I think
addressing that requires a bit more nuance and more
work to be done by the College.”
“Knowing history gives people a better, a more
complete sense of what it means to be a Johnnie,”
explained Trevisan. “Slavery, that's part of it… you
need to know about it and then you need to figure out
what you're going to do about it.” For now, the
taskforce has begun by commissioning a series of
Cont. on page 2
Upcoming Events:
Freshman:
- 11/16: Plato: Phaedo, 57A–84B
- 11/29: Plato: Phaedo, 84B–118B
Sophomores:
- 11/16: Plotinus: see official list for selections
- 11/20: Augustine: Confessions, I–V
Juniors and Seniors:
- Preceptorials
Friday Night Lecture:
Marcel Proust's Turning of the Table, Rebecca Goldner
Page 1
Thursday 11/16
- 3 pm, Mitchell Art Museum: 20
minute tour of exhibitions
Friday 11/17
- Noon, Private Dining Room:
Montessori International info session
Saturday 11/18
- 7 pm, FSK Auditorium: Duchess of
Malfi
Sunday 11/19
- 7 pm, FSK Auditorium: Duchess of
Malfi
�Thursday November 16, 2023
St. John’s collegian
Duchess of malfi:
Play Showing this Weekend
Exclusive Interview of Director Jack Domanski about
The play, The Duchess of Malfi, is set to be performed
this weekend in the FSK. To get a better idea of the
dramaturgical delights that await us, I accosted the
director, Mr. Jack Domanski, on a dark Quad.
through the means of their spy Daniel de Bosola who
is a mercenary who served the Cardinal for several
years as a galley slave. What unfolds from this is a
series of death and tragedy.
Question: Without using the phrase “a Jacobean
Revenge tragedy” give a brief summary of the play.
Q. Does it end well?
Answer: It revolves around the Duchess of Malfi who
is recently widowed who has two brothers, Duke
Ferdinand and the Cardinal and they are both jealous
over her domestic life and encourage her not to marry
again–
Q. What comprises her domestic life?
A. Her domestic life is one– she decides to marry her
steward, Antonio, in secret, against the wishes of her
brothers and they lead a secret life with three children
for several years until their brothers find out
Time is of the
essence
New Exhibit at Mitchell
Museum Shows Video Art
The combination of different sounds from different
places in the room is striking. Screens and projected
videos line the walls, and the floor plan is open, so all
of the audio mingles to create a single backdrop.
Nonstop speech collides with the sound of a person
imitating a wolf howl, and it takes a moment to realize
that the majority of the pieces don’t have audio at all,
but are silent by design. The performance art
movement of the early 1960s gradually turned to film
and video as new mediums through which to express
their art. The Mitchell Art Museum’s current
exhibition, which runs until December 10, highlights
seven pieces of film and video art from the late 1960s
and 1970s in the United States. It’s important to note
that the only information written on the labels on the
walls next to the pieces are the artist’s name and the
duration of the video. One piece features a cat eating
out of a bowl while a person circles it slowly (15:37
min), and one shows the artist putting on makeup
and getting dressed for the day (38 min). Don’t
worry, the names of the pieces and the years they were
created are still displayed on the wall near the door of
the exhibit, but it’s important to this exhibition to
focus the most on the element of time. Some of the
videos are more flashy and less mundane, but even
these ones are made fascinating by their durations.
How much time to spend with each piece of art is up
to the viewer, but seeing the exact amount of time the
artist intended for the piece to take up can compel the
audience to stick around to see the whole thing. It’s
illuminating to find out which pieces are worth the
wait.
Natalie Goldman
Pensée of the Week
Dish washers are the prime example of modern
capitalism. We put dirty things in a closed box and
hope someone else would take care of them
Vol. I. Issue 8
A. I think you could well infer from “death and
tragedy” that it does not end well but–
Q. Very good, next question: What part of the play
are you most excited about?
A. I am excited for the Duchess’s final scenes of the
play. I think that Acacia gives a phenomenal
performance and the audience will be quite
astonished by it. I think also the scenes where Ranger
Kasdorf goes wild as Ferdinand will also blow the
audience away. I’m also excited–
Historical Taskforce, Cont.
reports on figures that have buildings named after
them who were important to the College’s founding,
and which should prove helpful for promoting more
informed conversation about their legacies and how
the College can address them. These reports should
be completed this winter, and be distributed
throughout the Polity.
They should also form the starting point for a series
of forums, beginning with one on Key later this year.
The forum, which will feature Annapolis community
members and historians, to help examine who Key
was, what his impact was on the College, and
Annapolis as a whole, and why it matters how we
remember him. In particular, Key’s complex
relationship with slavery, and his close ties with the
College, including his founding of the alumni
association, will be discussed. In part, this
conversation hopes to be a starting point for more
concrete action, whether that may include suggesting
the College rename the hall, work to help mend
legacies of its impact on the Annapolis Community,
or help educate about Key’s complex past.
The task force is not primarily aimed externally,
however. It hopes to encourage conversation and
reflection within the Polity, particularly amongst the
student body, who often have not been very well
informed about College history. “Your years on
campus are the beginning of your life as a Johnnie.
You’ll be a Johnnie all your life, so the history of the
college will matter for you for a long time,” said
Trevisan. “I would hope that in addition to students
studying history for knowledge for its own sake,
students would be interested in reading the histories
that we will have, and tell us if it matters or not. If they
read it and say ‘eh, I don’t have any problems with
that, then that’s as good information as saying that we
have to change things. What we’re asking is, read these
reports, and tell us what you think.”
It is not easy to address so many centuries of history,
but in a way very appropriate to the College, the
taskforce hopes to do so by conversation. Only by
discussion, based on the grounding texts of the stories
of our own past, can we, as a Polity, decide what our
responsibilities are to address our College’s legacy,
and what it really means to be conscientious citizens
of the Polity’s present in light of its past.
El’ad Nichols-Kaufman
Page 2
Q. This is a short article; we’re going to move on.
What part of the play has been the most challenging?
Mr. Domanski buried his face in his hands for a
moment before muttering “Jesus.”
A. Almost all of it–
Q. And finally, are you bothered that we look the
same?
A. I am deeply bothered by it.
The Duchess of Malfi, a Jacobean revenge tragedy,
featuring Acacia Burnham, Ranger Kasdorf, Max
Mersmann-Jones, and Khanya Mnisi is coming to the
FSK at 7 p.m. on November 18th and 19th.
Caleb Briggs
About the St.
John’s
Collegian
The St. John’s Collegian is the weekly newspaper of
St. John’s College Annapolis. We work to bring quick
and timely coverage of important events going on, to
help develop a more informed student body. If you’re
searching for more in-depth investigations and
reporting, as well as essays, art and culture, check out
the Gadfly, our affiliated publication, which is
published once every three weeks.
Want to submit an article? We always need more
writers, whether for opinion or reporting!
Submissions for news articles should be between 350450 words, while opinion should be kept short at 300
words. Just email eanicholskaufman@sjc.edu with
your article, and we will work to get it in print!
Longer form articles and more in-depth exploration
of ideas should go to the Gadfly, which accepts
submissions at lbriner@sjc.edu.
Contributors for this issue:
El’ad Nichols-Kaufman, Editor
Caleb Briggs
Natalie Goldman
Notice of Elections
The Delegate Council will be holding elections on
Tuesday, December 5th for four Freshman
Representative positions, as well as the positions of
President, Secretary, Treasurer, and Polity Herald.
People interested in running should contact the
Polity Attorney, Ranna Kisswani, with any questions
about eligibility or election procedure.
�
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A student newspaper of St. John's College. <em>The St. John's Collegian</em> began publication in 2023 and is affiliated with <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/collections/show/16"><em>The Gadfly</em></a>. <br /><br />Published weekly on Thursday, with the exception of weeks <em>The Gadfly </em>is published. <br /><br />Earlier publications with the title <em>The Collegian </em>and <em>The St. John's Collegian </em>are available in <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/collections/show/26"><em>The Collegian Collection</em></a>.
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St. John's Collegian, November 16, 2023
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Volume 1, issue 8 of the St. John's Collegian, published November 16, 2023. Corrected version.
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Student publication
The Collegian
The Gadfly
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PDF Text
Text
Thursday
November 9
2023
The St. John’s Collegian
A Gadfly Publication
From the
polity
Vol. I Issue 7
Printed Thursdays in Annapolis
calls alleging suspicious items
made, buildings evacuated
Why Smoking is Frickin’ Epic Local and State Police Conducted Check of Campus, Found
No Explosive Objects, Investigation is Ongoing
I hear the concerns of a tragically misguided member
of the polity and raise them the age-old aphorism,
“live and let live,” applicable in the sense that you
should let me live my life of peace, freedom, and
looking damn cool whilst you live your pedantic, nitpicky life of cold unfeeling sobriety.
Big Anti-Tobacco has been in the limelight for far too
long, propounding such fiction as “lung cancer” and
“emphysema,” which has poisoned public nicotine
discourse in the way smoking does not poison the
body. It pains me to see the noble gifts of my good
and unbiased friend, Phillip Morris, so treated with
base contempt. We could speak for hours on the
claim that well over 10 people die of smoking related
illness per annum, but I digress. We have issues closer
to home to discuss, and such arguments are beneath
such esteemed sophists as we. Did Socrates ever decry
the baseness of smoking? I think not.
Moving onto my anonymous friend’s claim that
smoking grants one an unattractive nature and an
unpleasant presence. I’d in fact like to argue the
opposite, that you non-smoking squares and your
whining tires my fellow smokers and I, gives us a
headache, and makes us really need a smoke. When
you think about it, you’re the problem. But my low,
sexy voice and existential joie de vivre allow me to
suffer such blows without complaint. If you insist
upon being so bent out of ideological shape, perhaps
you should consider the good of the whole. Does the
presence of smoking not elevate the mysterious and
pseudo-intellectual atmosphere that the polity aspires
to cultivate here? In standing in opposition to
smoking, you stand against progress, truth, and
freedom. After all, academia is best seen as the process
of peering through the veil—in this case, one of
smoke.
Now, to the author of On the Smoking Policy, I hope
this refutation is not deeply offensive to you, but
rather that it has encouraged you to entertain the
truth, that there exists no art more dear to—nor more
conducive to—the St. John’s spirit and culture of
passionate truth-seeking. Please cease your attacks on
the cornerstones of our college, and our intrinsic,
God given right to smoke on the quad.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I need a Lucky Strike. You
know where to find me. That’s all.
–J.S. (Jilted Smoker)
Classes in Mellon on the morning of Thursday,
November 2nd, were interrupted at about 10:40 by the
harsh ringing of the fire alarm. For many students, the
reason for the alarm was unclear at first, with some
speculating that there might be a fire drill that was not
announced, or that there was actually a fire going on
in Mellon. However, the word quickly began
spreading amongst students standing outside of
Mellon, and was confirmed by tutors and staff
nearby, that a suspicious package was reported to be
somewhere in Mellon, and that the Annapolis Police
Department had ordered the building to be
evacuated.
Students who were signed up to the Public Safety
Emergency Alert System received emails and texts
warning them to evacuate Mellon at 10:47, and
students who were in the building at the time were
moved over across the fields of back campus, before
being told to continue down towards the boathouse.
At this time, Fielding Hall, Campbell Hall, Carroll
Barrister House, and the Harrison House were also
evacuated. The buildings remained closed until an all
clear message was sent out to the Polity at 12:44. Due
to this, 1 pm classes were canceled, and the dining hall
was opened from 1-2 pm, with campus operations
returning to normal at the start of 2:20 classes.
The evacuations were triggered in response to a call
made to admissions earlier that morning, in which an
unidentified person suggested he knew that there was
a student in possession of a dangerous object on
campus. “It was Thursday, and I had a 8:30 am to
12:30 pm shift,” explained the student who received
the call, who asked to remain anonymous. “I opened
things up as I usually do, and I was returning calls that
were missed… there was a call that came in at 7:40 am,
which I thought was odd, because admissions doesn’t
open until 9, and why would you call admissions at
7:40?” The student proceeded to call the number
back, and a voice of someone who didn’t sound like a
student responded. “He said, ‘did you know that
there’s a student on your campus that has explosive
material that can bet turned into a weapon?’”
continued the student who answered the phone. “He
said, ‘I don’t want anyone’s arms or legs to be blown
off.’ That is where the call began to feel threatening.”
The student kept the caller on the phone while trying
to transfer him to Public Safety, but was unable to,
This Week in Seminar
and so gave Public Safety’s phone number to the
caller. After the call ended, the student called Public
Safety, and explained what had happened. “They
basically said, please come over right away,” he
continued. After he arrived at the public safety office,
he was given a statement to fill out. “At some point
while I was there, the person actually called public
safety again… as far as I could tell [the Public Safety
Officer] was mostly trying to get his name.”
Upon receiving this call, which specified the
dangerous materials were near a “chemistry
classroom,” the Annapolis Police Department was
notified, and Dean Susan Paalman went around
talking to tutors before 10:20 classes to inform them
of the situation, and to say that they were awaiting the
Police Department for further instructions.
Danielle Lico, Vice President of Student Affairs, who
helped coordinate the response, said in a statement
that “upon [the police department’s] arrival to
campus and after a review of the information
available, the decision was made to evacuate Mellon
Hall… Public Safety continued to work with onsite
law enforcement, including the Annapolis Police
Department, Maryland State Police, Capitol Police K9 Unit, the US Navy Police Department, and the
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives,
including explosive detection canine units, to
determine if any explosive materials were present.
After searching multiple locations on-campus, no
explosive materials were found.”
Paalman, in a statement to the Collegian expressed
appreciation that the response was quick, well
organized, and that the first priority was to keep
students safe. “I'm not sure what led someone to
report that there might be a dangerous object on our
campus. It was frustrating to have to leave everything
for a couple of hours. I am grateful that there was, in
fact, no dangerous object and that students, tutors,
and staff were calm and listened to instructions. I'm
grateful for the beautiful day and the extra time many
of us had to enjoy it. I'm grateful for the people who
were not able to enjoy the lovely day, but whose job it
is to respond to emergencies. I especially note the calm
professionalism of Ms. Lico, Mr. Abbott, Ms.
VanNess, Chief Boston, our Public Safety officers,
and others I'm not thinking of at the moment.”
El’ad Nichols-Kaufman
Upcoming Events:
Freshman:
- 11/9: Aristophanes: Clouds
- 11/13: Plato: Apology and Crito
Sophomores:
- 11/9: Bible, First Corinthians
- 11/13: Bible, Romans and James
Juniors and Seniors:
- Preceptorials
Friday Night Lecture:
All College Seminar on Ecclesiastes, Hosted by the SCI
Page 1
Saturday 11/11
- Noon, Library Patio: Library Book
Sale
- 9 pm, Great Hall: Masquerade Waltz
Tuesday 11/14
- 3:45 pm, Hodson Room: Internship
Search Workshop
- 4:30 pm, Conversation Room:
Shakespeare in the Fall, Coriolanus
Wednesday 11/15
- 2:30 pm, Hodson Room: Maryland
Public Service Scholars Info Session
�Thursday November 11, 2023
St. John’s collegian
Vol. I. Issue 7
Editorial:
The Gadfly Publication Delays, and Why Both Campus Publication’s
Review by Administration and Independence is Important
For the third time this year, the Gadfly’s publication
has been delayed, with none of the three issues
scheduled to come out to date having been
published on the week they were supposed to. The
first time was purely an internal issue, which has
been resolved, but the remaining two times have
been because of concerns over the Gadfly’s content
during its review by the administration of the
College. The most recent issue, which should have
come out last Thursday, is not yet out at the time of
the Collegian’s publication.
Publications are delayed on campus for two good
reasons. The first is practical: we receive our funding
from the College, and the College cannot have a
publication that operates with its money spreading
disinformation or harmful content without
exposing itself to liability. The second is more
philosophical: these reviews often function as a
check for truth and moral character of the
publication. In one incident that occurred this year,
the Collegian was delayed because I had mis-
recorded some important financial data from the
BVG meeting, and the treasurer wanted to offer a
correction. This kind of fact checking is important
for the publication, and was a good reason for a
delay. Likewise, an article in the Gadfly held up the
second issue because some of it might have seemed
insulting to individuals on campus. The author of
the article had secured the permission of the people
mentioned, but the person doing the reviews did not
know that, and it was very reasonable to make sure
that the paper wasn’t personally attacking or hurting
students on campus.
However, the most recent delay caused by these
reviews is not necessary for ensuring the factual or
moral soundness of the paper, and has continued a
trend of more administrative involvement in the
day-to-day operation of the Gadfly. The Gadfly is
currently being delayed because Ms. Demleitner
wants to publish a response to an interview I
conducted on tutor pay. While I respect that there
may be a need to provide factual corrections,
Balancing our books and
our bodies:
Musings on the Campus Problem of Student Health (or
Utter Lack Thereof)
Recently my friends and I were imagining a Hunger
Games-type situation at St. John’s; a fight to the
death with the entire student body. While
entertaining to think of, and maybe even intriguing
(Reality Club... maybe something to work on?),
there was a thought that came to me: we are all
incredibly weak. And yes, this is ignoring some of
the student body that does really have their shit
together and could probably kill a lot of us with their
bare hands. But for the most part our weakness is
accurate and unavoidable. And this isn’t just due to
the student body comprising mostly of previous
high school nerds, and we can hear why in the
conversations we have outside of class. Does any of
this sound familiar? “I haven’t eaten anything all
day” “I only got three hours of sleep last night” “I’ve
just been drinking coffee and eating the dining hall
fries for the past week” “I had ten (10) shots of Jack
Daniels last night” “I have had bronchitis for eight
weeks but will continue to smoke half a pack a day”
This campus is malnourished, under slept, and sick.
With our college’s motto being “Books and a
Balance” one would think that we would attempt to
execute this. Our failure to do so raises the question
of what kind of balance the student body is seeking.
If it is not the balance of a healthy life with an
immersive study of books, then what exactly is it?
With the obsession with acting thoughtlessly and
unhealthily along with the need for our peer’s eyes, it
seems as though we are seeking the balance of
someone on a tightrope, teetering on the thin line we
have created for ourselves, made for the spectacle of
it. Because it is not that we are just drinking too
much or eating and sleeping too little, but that it is
done alongside perfection in school. It is an attempt
to do the impossible; reduce your body and health to
nothingness while turning in a beautiful essay in on
time. We must be the impossible to everyone we
know! And as glamorous as that sounds, being a
functional alcoholic with a great Don Rag, it is
impossible. We can try to convince ourselves that the
essay we turned in after seventy-two hours of not
sleeping is good, but it really isn’t. Instead of
reaching perfection and self-destruction at the same
time all we have done is hurt our bodies and our
minds without anything to show for it. As much as
we avoid this conclusion it is inevitable, and we can
all see it when we cry to our friends about not being
able to keep going as tired as you are.
To offer a solution for this is to throw a stone in a
glass house. I smoke an incredible amount and
absolutely do not work out. So, really what I have
done is offer up useless critique on a mass problem
of young people in academia. But I will say that each
and every one of you would benefit from drinking a
glass of whole milk and eating some vegetables.
Molly Sprout
holding up the publication of the newspaper to give
a greater voice to the administration is an abuse of
the review power. If Ms. Demleitner really wants to
have her voice heard about tutor pay, she should be
able to either offer an official statement outside the
Gadfly, or wait until the next issue.
Once the paper is ready, the primary aim of the
review should be to get a factually sound Gadfly out
as fast as possible. Otherwise, the Gadfly loses its
relevance as a source of news and information. To
hold up this key part of what a campus publication
is just in order to give more voice to people on
campus who already have many other platforms of
communication seems irresponsible and infringes on
the independence of the Gadfly.
I hope that moving forward, the Gadfly and
administration can work to build better
communication, to ensure that we can find a balance
between publishing an independent, relevant
newspaper, and reasonable review of its content.
About the St.
John’s
Collegian
The St. John’s Collegian is the weekly newspaper of
St. John’s College Annapolis. We work to bring
quick and timely coverage of important events going
on, to help develop a more informed student body.
If you’re searching for more in-depth investigations
and reporting, as well as essays, art and culture, check
out the Gadfly, our affiliated publication, which is
published once every three weeks.
Want to submit an article? We always need more
writers, whether for opinion or reporting!
Submissions for news articles should be between
350-450 words, while opinion should be kept short
at 300 words. Just email eanicholskaufman@sjc.edu
with your article, and we will work to get it in print!
Longer form articles and more in-depth exploration
of ideas should go to the Gadfly, which accepts
submissions at lbriner@sjc.edu.
Contributors for this issue:
Pensée of the Week
The observant reader will note that this is now
classified as the pensée of the week, rather than the
aphorism. This is because a new manuscript,
attributed to the same sage of Gorman Street, was
found by my friend, clarifying that these were in fact
inspired by the scattered philosophical musings of
Pascal. Upon receiving this information, I quickly
corrected the title of this reoccurring feature, as most
of these really don’t make sense as aphorisms to
begin with. Whether they make sense as thoughts in
general is another question, but one I feel more
comfortable to let the reader decide.
The Leviathan ruled the wide sea on his majestic
throne. One day, he was sitting on his throne for too
long, and he drowned because he forgot to breathe.
Page 2
El’ad Nichols-Kaufman, Editor
J.S.
Molly Sprout
Enjoy intramurals? Want to see more
coverage of games, scores and standings?
The Collegian wants you!
We are looking to provide comprehensive coverage
of College sporting events going forward, and would
like to have a sports writer on staff. If this interests
you, please email El’ad Nichols-Kaufman at the
email listed above, and we can get started on giving
our campus sports the attention they deserve.
�
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<em>The St. John's Collegian</em>
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An account of the resource
A student newspaper of St. John's College. <em>The St. John's Collegian</em> began publication in 2023 and is affiliated with <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/collections/show/16"><em>The Gadfly</em></a>. <br /><br />Published weekly on Thursday, with the exception of weeks <em>The Gadfly </em>is published. <br /><br />Earlier publications with the title <em>The Collegian </em>and <em>The St. John's Collegian </em>are available in <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/collections/show/26"><em>The Collegian Collection</em></a>.
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St. John's College
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St. John's Collegian, November 9, 2023
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Volume 1, issue 7 of the St. John's Collegian, published November 9, 2023.
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St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.)
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St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.)
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St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.)--Periodicals
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SJCCollegian_vol1_issue7_2023-11-09
Student publication
The Collegian
The Gadfly
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https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/ce997214bf4e7d6f7dda093ade2f6fe2.pdf
46b9309a6f5d40e47f5ec8c775056b91
PDF Text
Text
Thursday
October 26
2023
The St. John’s Collegian
A Gadfly Publication
From the
polity
As a response, the college has been undergoing
austerity measures of one sort or another for 15 years.
That has meant a lot of things, including faculty and
staff salaries that are not where they should be. Since
you have asked about tutors, I will focus on that side
of things, not forgetting that many staff are also
facing difficulties.
The base tutor salary is lower than it was in 2008, if
we adjust for inflation. In recent years housing has
become very expensive in Anne Arundel County.
Tutors are finding it hard even to rent close to
campus, let alone to buy a house.
The good news is that we are here, while many
colleges have had to close their doors. The college has
also not gone through layoffs, as others have. More
good news: according to our pay scale, newer and
mid-career faculty, receive “step increases,”
percentage increases to salary, every year. The college
has always preserved these yearly increases in spite of
the difficult circumstances. Also, our benefits package
is quite competitive with what other places offer. Last
year, the college also increased starting salaries and
faculty base pay across the board for the first time in
many years.
It's a complicated situation, as I said above. No one
doubts that salaries are not where we would like them
to be and that housing is hard to find in this area.
Tutors (and staff!) face real difficulties. On the other
hand, we are better off than we might have been, had
the college made different choices.
Cont on Page 2.
Printed Thursdays in Annapolis
Board of Visitors and
governors meets in Santa fe
Statement From the Dean:
On Tutor Pay
Since the recession of 2008, and exacerbated by the
pandemic, the college’s traditional sources of revenue
have changed. In particular, we have been moving
from a more tuition driven financial model to a more
philanthropic model. In making this move, we have,
since 2008, lost about $10 million in student derived
revenue. That is, if we were still getting the kind of
net tuition we were getting before the economy
tanked in 2008, we’d have gotten a total of $10
million more (not inflation adjusted) over these years.
Vol. I Issue 6
Deficit, Tutor Pay, Enrollment and Retention, Tuition
Increases, and Presidential Search Discussed
The College’s Board of Visitors and Governor’s fall
meeting, one of the three annual meetings that rotate
between the two campuses, occurred in Santa Fe this
year. This meeting, the first to be chaired by Warren
Spector, took place from October 19th to 21st. Most of
the meetings took place behind closed doors, as is
usual for the board, but topics discussed at each of the
committees, along with the reports of the Board
Chair, both campus presidents and deans, were
presented at the Plenary Session that was open to the
public. Spector’s report, however, was not able to be
heard, due to a technical malfunction of the meeting’s
livestream.
During this session, different visions of the College
were outlined by its officers. Nora Demleitner,
Annapolis President, presented her vision of the
“student centered college as a framework that informs
the whole college… a pillar that supports the
program.” She emphasized the needs of 21st century
students, and of remembering that “all student
challenges are institutional challenges.” She
emphasized
career-oriented
programs
and
partnerships with other institutions of higher
education as ways to achieve this.
Mark Roosevelt, Santa Fe President, who is serving
his last year in this position, used his address to discuss
the need for the college to resist trends and maintain
its contrarian identity in order to survive. “What does
it mean to be contrarian?” he asked, “It’s not just a
different path to succeeding conventionally.” He
argued that St. John’s cannot try to sell itself as a
college whose graduates will be materially successful,
since it cannot compete with other institutions for
that, and it should not necessarily value that kind of
success. He claimed that the college should not try to
make itself selective, as a fundamental part of St.
John’s is recognizing that students who did not
succeed in high school might be the best Johnnies. He
called on the board to resist adopting the latest trends
in college administration, and to embrace our unique
identity.
A major topic of discussion during the board meeting
was tutor pay, which has been particularly visible on
the Annapolis campus due to the tutor walkouts
covered elsewhere in this issue. Demleitner
This Week in Seminar
announced in her statement that “tutors and staff
work very hard, but we are not in a financial position
to give them what they truly deserve.” She said that
given the budgeting constraints, the college will not be
able to give them regular raises.
Annapolis Dean Susan Paalman raised the issue in her
report, and called on the board to take action. She
noted that base salaries have only been raised twice,
and cut once, since 2008, meaning that adjusted for
inflation, all tutors are making much less then they did
then. Tutor pay is so low that starting tutors in
Annapolis cannot find housing in the city, and
actually qualify for affordable housing in Anne
Arundel County, but cannot receive it because the
wait list is too long. “This is a serious problem for
retention and recruitment of faculty… we are nearing
the point at which we cannot maintain the college like
this.” She closed her statement by looking at the
vibrant academic life on campus in contrast with this
difficult situation for tutors. “How we put together
campus vibrancy with the tutor pay problems, I don’t
know, but it makes me wonder at the love we have for
the college.”
The chief reason given by the board for not raising
tutor pay was the College’s precarious financial
situation, as reflected in its deficit, which was
frequently mentioned during the meeting. Operating
deficits have returned in the fiscal year 2023, although
they can be covered for this year by a onetime grant of
federal funding for employee retention over the
Covid-19 pandemic For fiscal year 2024, the college is
projecting a $5.4m operating deficit – over $1m more
than originally budgeted, but the board hopes to
reduce the total deficit to $3.4m with tax credit
money., but the board hopes to reduce it to $3.4
million with tax credit money. Moving forward, the
college will be running a $5 million deficit in 2025,
and a $6 million deficit in 2026.
Fueling these fiscal pressures is rising inflation, raised
prices of utilities, and IT costs more than expected. In
particular, Buildings and Grounds costs were over
budget due to many unplanned critical maintenance
projects as well as unexpected price hikes in utilities.
Cont. on Page 2.
Upcoming Events:
Freshman:
- 10/26: Plato: Republic, IV 427D–VI 502C
- 10/30: Plato: Republic, VI 502D–VII
Sophomores:
- 10/26: Bible, Matthew
- 10/30: Bible, Luke
Juniors:
- Preceptorials
Seniors:
- Preceptorials
Friday 10/27:
- Johnnie Family & Friends Weekend
begins, see schedule on website for
more details on events taking place
this weekend.
Saturday 10/28:
- 3 pm, Mellon Patio: Fall Festival and
Pie Baking Contest
- 8 pm, Great Hall: Contra Dance
Sunday 10/29:
- 6:45 pm, FSK: Great Conversations
Wednesday 11/1:
- 2:30 pm, Hodson room:
ScribeAmerica info session
Friday Night Lecture:
What the Heck is Hell?
7:30 p.m., FSK Auditorium, by Annapolis Tutor Ron Haflidson
Page 1
�Thursday October 26, 2023
St. John’s collegian
Tutor pay (Cont. from Page 1.)
Finally, there are many positive financial signs. Our
recent capital campaign was incredibly successful
and showed the generosity of our supporters. Much
of that money, though, is in pledges or bequests,
which are not immediately available. The board and
the presidents have all recognized the need to
increase salaries. I’m confident that we’ll get to
where we need to be.
Susan Paalman
BVG Meeting (Cont. from Page 1.)
In order to address these budget pressures, the
College is looking at various ways of increasing
revenue. Given the stagnation of tuition revenue, the
College aims to continue to build more on
philanthropy. This year, they received a $35 million
dollar gift from the Hodson Trust for the
endowment, the second largest gift in the College’s
history. It brings the endowment up to about $250
million. The net return on the endowment is also up
at 12.1%, a high amount given the low risk
investments the College’s endowment is invested in.
There are also several large bequests willed to the
College, which it should receive in the coming years.
However, this by itself is not enough to provide the
revenue the College needs, and the Board voted to
raise tuition and fees again by 4% this year, which is
roughly on par with inflation.
Another topic discussed during the meeting was
enrollment, which is looking to be a continuing
challenge as the nation faces a demographic cliff of
declining College-aged population. This year,
enrollment in Santa Fe was below target, at 92
students in the Freshman class, while enrollment in
Annapolis was 140. Applications still remain
relatively strong, however, and the College hopes to
pull new students through innovative application
methods and recruitment of international students.
Retention was also discussed in detail, with the
College looking to find ways to help support
students at the College and keep them until
graduation. Freshman to Sophomore retention has
reached its highest level since 2018, but overall
retention is still below similar institutions in the
small college consortium, causing a drop in tuition
revenue as well as damage to community. One way
Vol. I. Issue 6
the College hopes to address that is by a program
being piloted on the Santa Fe campus called the
expanded freshman year. The program will allow
students to spread the work of freshman year across
two semesters and a summer, meaning they would
take a reduced courseload in the fall, a normal
courseload in the spring, and a few classes over the
summer, to be able to rejoin their classmates for
sophomore year. This program aims to provide
support for students who might otherwise struggle
during their transition into College life. It will be
open to students who chose to take the extended
year from the start, as well as those who struggle at
the beginning of the regular freshman year classes.
The other major topic on the board’s agenda was
selection of a new president for the Santa Fe campus
to replace Roosevelt. The board is committed to
holding an internal and external search. So far, Santa
Fe tutor and former Dean J. Walter Sterling (not to
be confused with Annapolis tutor Walter Sterling)
has been selected as the internal candidate search
finalist, and will undergo further interview processes
before the selection of a new president is made.
El’ad Nichols-Kaufman
Tutors organize walkout to About the St.
advocate for higher pay
John’s
Collegian
Tutors and Students Walked Out of Class Ten Minutes
Early, Stand on the Quad in Protest
An unusual sight filled the quad at 2:00 this past
Friday. While the space enclosed by McDowell and
the pair of colonial dorms is usually thriving after
classes, it generally remains vacant until 3:30, when
classes come to an end. However, this Friday,
hundreds of students and tutors gathered together in
protest of low tutor pay.
The walkout was initiated by a letter written on
October 18th by Annapolis tutors Nicholas Bellinson
and Khafiz Kerimov. This letter, which was
distributed by the morning of the 19th physically in
campus public places and sent digitally to their
students and to the entire Polity by the Delegate
Council Herald, stated that the two of them would
walk out “of tutorials ten minutes early and stand on
the quad in protest of the ongoing neglect of tutor
compensation.”
In the letter, they noted that starting salaries, which
has not been subject to annual increases since 2008,
have effectively dropped by $20,000 adjusted for
inflation. Kerimov and Bellinson argued that this
decrease in compensation has meant that it is more
difficult for tutors to do their jobs, since they are
forced to live further from campus, due to high
housing costs in Annapolis, giving them less time to
do their work and making it harder to be properly
engaged with the Polity. They also noted that lower
compensation makes it much harder to recruit new
tutors, especially ones from underrepresented
backgrounds.The letter called on other members of
the polity to join them in solidarity.
On the day of the walkout, most classes in session at
the time ended ten minutes early, while some classes
that were to begin at 2:20 began ten minutes late.
Students and faculty made their way down to the
quad. Once there, students and tutors milled
around, and Bellinson and Kerimov made brief
comments. Bellinson thanked people for coming out
in support, while Kerimov told the Polity members
present that “What you see here is the kind of place
the College is. We should be proud of ourselves. At
the end of the day, this is about instruction, and
keeping our instruction strong.” They both also
urged students to attend their 2:20 classes, to avoid
interrupting too much class time.
Student responses seemed primarily positive, with a
majority of students in class at the time showing up
in support. “It’s good that this many people turned
up,” said DC President Helen Felbek, noting that it
shows that the student body cares. “The quad is
veritably tumescent,” agreed Junior and SCI
representative Jack Domanski. Freshman Andy
Manne noted that it often feels like tutors are backed
up against a wall. “They can’t leave the College, they
can’t leave our community. This is a place that we all
make some kind of sacrifices for. It makes a lot of
sense, if we are really as one community, that we get
involved. It means a lot that the students and tutors
all care about this.”
After the statements by Kerimov and Bellinson,
people milled around the quad for a while, and the
Sophomore music assistants organized a singing of
Sicut Cervus with the classes they had brought over,
which many other students joined in on. After this,
most people dispersed, heading towards their next
class or back to their dorms, the library or other
gathering places.
Further coverage on this walkout will be found in
the Gadfly coming out next week, which will feature
an interview with Kerimov and Bellinson. The
Collegian has asked the President and Dean for
comment on the issue; the Dean’s comment can be
found in the “From the Polity” section and was
coordinated as a response by the President and
Dean.
. El’ad Nichols-Kaufman
Page 2
The St. John’s Collegian is the weekly newspaper of
St. John’s College Annapolis. We work to bring
quick and timely coverage of important events going
on, to help develop a more informed student body.
If you’re searching for more in-depth investigations
and reporting, as well as essays, art and culture, check
out the Gadfly, our affiliated publication, which is
published once every three weeks.
Want to submit an article? We always need more
writers, whether for opinion or reporting!
Submissions for news articles should be between
350-450 words, while opinion should be kept short
at 300 words. Just email eanicholskaufman@sjc.edu
with your article, and we will work to get it in print!
Longer form articles and more in-depth exploration
of ideas should go to the Gadfly, which accepts
submissions at lbriner@sjc.edu.
Contributors for this issue:
El’ad Nichols-Kaufman, Editor
Susan Paalman
Aphorism of the Week
A man who kills one person is a murderer; a
man who kills a hundred people is a murderer;
and a man who kills a million people is still a
murderer, only much worse than the others.
�
Dublin Core
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Title
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<em>The St. John's Collegian</em>
Description
An account of the resource
A student newspaper of St. John's College. <em>The St. John's Collegian</em> began publication in 2023 and is affiliated with <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/collections/show/16"><em>The Gadfly</em></a>. <br /><br />Published weekly on Thursday, with the exception of weeks <em>The Gadfly </em>is published. <br /><br />Earlier publications with the title <em>The Collegian </em>and <em>The St. John's Collegian </em>are available in <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/collections/show/26"><em>The Collegian Collection</em></a>.
Creator
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St. John's College
Publisher
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St. John's College
Coverage
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Annapolis, Md.
Contributor
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St. John's College Greenfield Library
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English
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SJCCollegian
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pdf
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2 pages
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Title
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St. John's Collegian, October 26, 2023
Description
An account of the resource
Volume 1, issue 6 of the St. John's Collegian, published October 26, 2023. Corrected version of the publication.
Creator
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St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.)
Publisher
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St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.)
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Annapolis, MD
Date
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2023-10-26
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St. John's College holds the rights to this publication.
Type
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text
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pdf
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St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.)--Periodicals
Language
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English
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SJCCollegian_vol1_issue6_2023-10-26_Corrected
Student publication
The Collegian
The Gadfly
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PDF Text
Text
Thursday
October 19
2023
The St. John’s Collegian
A Gadfly Publication
From the
polity
On the Smoking Policy
I’ve heard the complaint a dozen, if not a hundred
times. “The college is unfairly punishing students for
smoking on the quad.” “They’re hurting low-income
students with the smoking policy.” “They’re trying to
destroy our culture.”
I hear these complaints, and while I understand where
some of them are coming from, I find them mostly
stupid: no one aren’t entitled to some “right to smoke.”
When some are puffing away on the quad after
seminar, the rest of us who don’t want lung cancer
must deal with their foul-smelling smog. There are
many people on this campus who have breathing
problems, who simply cannot be around smoke for
health reasons. They should not have to avoid large
swathes of campus for smokers who refuse to take the
two-minute walk down to the smoking area. It is the
smoker’s responsibility as a polity member to not
endanger their fellow students and move for them.
Even for students who are not more actively
endangered by smoking, they have made a choice not
to smoke to protect their health and wellbeing, and
simply to be more pleasant to be around. To violate
that choice and force them to inhale secondhand
smoke simply due to being too lazy to walk two
minutes is obscene, and just plain inconsiderate.
There are now several smoking areas on campus, and
our campus is small enough that no place is so far away
that you cannot either walk off campus or walk to a
smoking area in a few minutes. There is no effort
required, just a sense of decency and social
responsibility. Just a little bit of effort on the part of
campus smokers could make so many spaces on
campus more friendly and welcoming- maybe I won’t
have to avoid the quad after seminar if people were just
a bit more considerate. It's not difficult, it’s not
complicated, and it doesn’t keep you from your
nicotine. Just have the decency to respect others who
chose not to smoke. That’s all.
Anonymous submission
Vol. I Issue 5
Printed Thursdays in Annapolis
Delegate council passes
budget omnibus
Bill Includes Funding for Campus Clubs, Passed After Weeks
of Hearings
Disclaimer: the Gadfly receives funding from the
Delegate Council, and the author of this article is the
DC Secretary.
At this week’s Delegate Council meeting, the DC
passed the budget omnibus bill, which contains all the
funding for clubs for the entire semester. Each club’s
budget is heard and approved independently, but this
approval is only preliminary, and the budget may still
be amended until the passage of the omnibus bill,
which is contains the formal approval of the budgets
and the authorization for the treasurer to give Archons
money from the Delegate Council’s accounts.
This semester, the total amount approved came to
$39,527.68. This is more than the $36,000 the council
receives annually, but as clubs rarely spend as much as
they request, DC treasurer Grace Jang estimated that
the council could afford to spend as much as $42,000
this semester. Last semester, the budget omnibus bill
totaled $43,199.921. Money remaining in the DC
accounts after the budgeting season can now be spent
through the process outlined in the Agora Act, which
allows individual students to request funding at any
time after budgeting season for projects and events not
affiliated with clubs that would benefit the polity as a
whole.
The funding was split between 38 clubs, ranging from
$25 for the Yearbook club, who only received money
for snacks, to $4175 for the King Williams Players
who requested funding for two plays and Too Much
Light Makes the Baby Go Blind. Almost all clubs who
requested funding received it, with the exception of
the Rock Climbing Club. funding for two plays and
Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind. Almost
all clubs who requested funding received it, with the
exception of the Rock Climbing Club.
Approximately half of all the funding went to the five
largest clubs, who each requested more than $3,000:
the King Williams Players, who received $4175, the
This Week in Seminar
Waltz Committee, receiving $3,900, Reality receiving
$3,350.78, the Polo Club, receiving $3191.65, and
Energeia, receiving $3180.96. The money was
distributed between many different types of clubs,
with arts, sports, and party organizing clubs receiving
each about 20% of the budget, publications, affinity
clubs and other miscellaneous clubs each receiving a
little over 10% of the total funding.
Particular attention was given by Delegates this year to
the question of how to approach clubs that serve a
limited number of people for a more specialized
activity, which often cost the DC much more per
participant than other clubs. These clubs, such as
Polo, Rock Climbing and Jiu Jitsu, were each
approached differently, leading to calls for an act of
council outlining the process for this type of club.
Such an act has already been proposed by Delegate
Rosenberg, but has not yet been formally introduced.
Treasure Jang also submitted a statement of purpose
organizing a budgeting committee at this meeting.
Such a committee will consider budgeting standards
and procedures for future years.
At this same meeting, the Delegate Council held
elections for members of the Committee on Student
Life. This committee, which has existed at the college
in the past, is now being revived, in order to give
students a forum to respond and take action on issues
outside of the immediate classroom-related
environment. Jack Huntley was elected chair of this
committee, with the other members elected being
Helen Felbek as Secretary and Tabby Rutledge as
Junior Representative. Further elections will be held
later this semester to fill the remaining vacant
representative positions.
All Delegate Council meetings are open to the public,
and members of the Polity may come and speak
before the DC if they have issues they wish to have
addressed. The council meets weekly at 7:30 in the
General Hartle Room.
El’ad Nichols-Kaufman
Upcoming Events:
Freshman:
- 10/19: Plato: Republic, I–II 367E
- 10/23: Plato: Republic, II 367E–IV 427C
Sophomores:
- 10/19: Tacitus: Annals, III–VI
- 10/23: Epictetus: Handbook
Juniors:
- 10/19: Leibniz: Philosophical Essays, see official list for selections
- 10/23: Leibniz: Principles of Nature and Grace; Monadology; Philosophical Essays, see
official list for selections
Seniors:
- 10/19: Kierkegaard: Philosophical Fragments, Chapters I–III (including Appendix)
- 10/23: Kierkegaard: Philosophical Fragments, Chapter IV–end (Moral)
Friday Night Lecture:
Australian Haydn Ensemble
Page 1
-
-
Saturday 10/20: 9 pm to midnight,
Funkenstein/Brewster concert, outside
the planetarium
Tuesday 10/24: 3:45 pm, Hodson
internship information session, Hodson
room.
Have an event you want to publicize for your
club? Want to send a message to that one Johnnie
you met once on that fateful night but can’t
remember their name? Want to confuse the
polity with a cryptic notice? Write
eanicholskaufman@sjc.edu, and we can get a
notice printed in the Collegian, in our semiclassified advertisement section coming in future
issues!
�Thursday October 19, 2034
St. John’s collegian
Vol. I. Issue 5
Local Limbo Pariah Millie Ransohoff Back in
Good Graces Over Co-Victory: Freakishly Tall Graduate
Student Just Consolation Prize for True Adversary Says Ms. Ransohoff
Tensions were high in the Great Hall last Saturday for
the annual Sock-Hop Limbo Competition.
Beginning with around thirty participants the
numbers quickly dwindled with each lowering of the
bar. Moments of excitement included several people
who successfully limboed in heels, consternation over
the validity of Maddie Minor's back-bend and snap
execution, and the eighth round entry of a pair of
cavalier contenders. But the real thrill came when it
became apparent that there were two competitors
who, in some ways against all odds, were on their way
to the final round. Millie Ransohoff '25, the runnerup from last year, and Weston Wright GI '26, who
gave his express permission to be referred to as
“freakishly tall.” Coming in at five foot five and six
foot four respectively, both Mr. Wright and Ms.
Ransohoff outlasted the rest of the competition.
With both failing to make it past the eleventh round,
they were crowned co-winners, too many cheers of
jubilation and awe from the crowd. I had the pleasure
of speaking to the winners in the wake of the
competition.
Like the true athletes they are, Mr. Wright and Ms.
Ransohoff were already thinking of ways that they
could improve. Going as far as to bemoan their
perceived failings, Mr. Wright said that "they could
have gone further, it was just an issue of needing
momentum." Nodding in agreement Ms. Ransohoff
added that the main reason they won at all, especially
over shorter competitors (at least in Mr. Wright's
case), was one of proportion. She stated that "[we
succeeded] because we have even body proportion of
legs to torso, it helps with the center of gravity."
Though she did add that the whole competition
could have been made fairer if everyone had to go
shoeless. A note to the future waltz committee.
Finally, I addressed the elephant in the room. I asked
Ms. Ransohoff how she felt, in the wake of her loss to
a Midshipman last year, about yet again, coming up
*ahem* short. To which Mr. Wright stooped to say
that he "doesn’t even go here either," further adding
salt to the wound (a note to the reader, the question
CSL Chair calls for Polity Members to Participate
Respected Polity – I should urge you to pay
attention to this, my indubitably important message.
Be made aware of the existence of the newly refounded Committee on Student Life. The
Committee on Student Life intends to fill a niche
left by the previously defunct Committee on
Student Life. There is a clear outlet through which
student concern and opinion might be heard
regarding academic issues at St. John’s College. This
is, of course, the venerable Student Committee on
Instruction. Notably, such recourse is absent when it
comes to Student Life. This is where the Committee
on Student Life comes in. Namely, to represent your
Student Life, if you have one. We will host maybeweekly forums during Wednesday Lunches, and
other, secret and unconfirmed, events. In the
hallowed recesses of the private dining hall, we will
discuss issues of the greatest import to the polity.
The forums and other events of the Committee on
Student Life will be wildly and unprecedentedly
successful, if God be pleased. We will communicate
the priorities and concerns of the polity to the
administration, who will love and respect us.
The Committee on Student Life is, of course, a
talking club. It has no power or on-paper relevance
whatsoever. Whatever relevance to administrative
decision making we acquire we must earn for
ourselves by our arguments and guile. Yet, consider
carefully, consider the twinkle one gains in their eye
by complaining, that comradely pleasure resembling
victory. Consider the strength and determination
that arises, should it be necessary, by collective
grievance. Far from forsaking actual changemaking,
the Committee On Student Life insists on it. Even if,
though, you are cynical that a liaison to the
administration on important issues such as housing
Despite Ms. Ransohoff's feelings of inadequacy, not
all were unhappy with the shared victory. When asked
for comment, Dean Paalman stated that she was
"thrilled by multi-generational bonding between the
undergraduate college and graduate institute." So,
perhaps it is not yet time for Ms. Ransohoff to throw
in the towel. It is indeed something to be part of such
a momentous unity event, and after all, what the
polity really cares about is that no Johnnie was beaten
by a Middie. To that end, Ms. Ransohoff has limboed
her way back into our good graces. And who knows,
maybe next year it will be a Santa Fe transfer that she
shares the laurels with, and by her senior year, Ms.
Ransohoff will win for the college once and for all.
Andy Manne
Committee on Student life
Revived
“The struggle itself towards the heights is enough to
fill a man's heart” - Albert Camus
of whether attending the GI counts as "going here" is
best left to another time and place). With what this
intrepid reporter discerned to be signs of tears, and a
distinctive sorrowful sniffle, Ms. Ransohoff replied
that she was "happy with all the results."
will yield any positive change, attend our meetings
anyway. You may be surprised. At the very least, I can
promise that the conversations and events we host
will not be boring. Watch your e-mail.
Jack Huntley, Chair of the CSL
Note from the Editor:
If you’re reading this edition, you’ve probably
noticed the biggest change to the collegian: a smaller
typeface. For this issue, in order to better fit in all the
material that is submitted, and to reflect the large size
at which the paper is printed, the text of the articles
will be in a smaller font. This means the word count
for submissions has gone up, as reflected in the about
the collegian section to the right of this column.
There have also been questions about our publication
schedule which I hope to clear up. The Collegian is
published weekly on Thursdays except on weeks the
Gadfly is supposed to publish. The Gadfly usually
comes out every three weeks, and so the pattern of
Collegian printing is two weeks on, one week off.
This year, the first Gadfly was delayed due to
problems transitioning between layout editors, and
the second one was delayed because of concerns from
the administration about content, but moving
forward they should be published more consistently,
and the campus should see one Gadfly affiliated
publication coming out every Thursday.
Aphorism of the Week
A fool is a better governor than a prince, because he is
less clever but more ridiculous.
Page 2
About the St.
John’s
Collegian
The St. John’s Collegian is the weekly newspaper of
St. John’s College Annapolis. We work to bring quick
and timely coverage of important events going on, to
help develop a more informed student body. If you’re
searching for more in-depth investigations and
reporting, as well as essays, art and culture, check out
the Gadfly, our affiliated publication, which is
published once every three weeks.
Want to submit an article? We always need more
writers, whether for opinion or reporting!
Submissions for news articles should be between 350450 words, while opinion should be kept short at 300
words. Just email eanicholskaufman@sjc.edu with
your article, and we will work to get it in print!
Longer form articles and more in-depth exploration
of ideas should go to the Gadfly, which accepts
submissions at lbriner@sjc.edu.
Contributors for this issue:
El’ad Nichols-Kaufman, Editor
Jack Huntley
Andy Manne
Corrections:
An article in the last edition (Mellon Hall
Officially Reopened in Ribbon Cutting
Ceremony) erroneously said that the Mellon
Fishbowl was completed in the 1980s. It
was instead completed in the 2000s.
�
Dublin Core
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Title
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<em>The St. John's Collegian</em>
Description
An account of the resource
A student newspaper of St. John's College. <em>The St. John's Collegian</em> began publication in 2023 and is affiliated with <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/collections/show/16"><em>The Gadfly</em></a>. <br /><br />Published weekly on Thursday, with the exception of weeks <em>The Gadfly </em>is published. <br /><br />Earlier publications with the title <em>The Collegian </em>and <em>The St. John's Collegian </em>are available in <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/collections/show/26"><em>The Collegian Collection</em></a>.
Creator
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St. John's College
Publisher
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St. John's College
Coverage
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Annapolis, Md.
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St. John's College Greenfield Library
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English
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SJCCollegian
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pdf
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2 pages
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Title
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St. John's Collegian, October 18, 2023
Description
An account of the resource
Volume 1, issue 5 of the St. John's Collegian, published October 18, 2023.
Creator
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St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.)
Publisher
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St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.)
Coverage
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Annapolis, MD
Date
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2023-10-18
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St. John's College holds the rights to this publication.
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text
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pdf
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St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.)--Periodicals
Language
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English
Identifier
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SJCCollegian_vol1_issue5_2023-10-18
Student publication
The Collegian
The Gadfly
-
https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/01e8588472dce7c3ba3a9793dfaf2a24.pdf
8c7fe4f70cfb10a2828db491ba4529e0
PDF Text
Text
Thursday
October 5
2023
The St. John’s Collegian
A Gadfly Publication
Vol. I Issue 4
Printed Thursdays in Annapolis
From the
polity
Mellon Hall officially
reopened with ribbon cutting
Shocking Exposé on the Bells
Ceremony Attended by Local Dignitaries, Campus leaders,
Celebrated Work Done to Improve Campus Spaces
Dear Editors of The St. John’s Collegian,
It is with a heavy heart and strained
conscience that I write to address the mystery
of the bells ("Ding Dongs? Merrily on High?:
Mysterious Ringing Keeps Campus Awake").
Those with discerning ears will have noticed
that the bells have a decidedly Phrygian ring
to them. Recall that Socrates, in Book III of
The Republic, claims that this mode forms
souls to be courageous and moderate. And
now for the shocking truth: our Assistant
Dean, Mr. Abbott, in an intricate and
ingenuous plot, is the one behind those bells.
In brief: he has long been worried about the
influence that years of music in the Ionic and
Lydian modes (e.g.: Tay-tay) has had on so
many of our students—and more than a few
tutors; the mysterious bells have been
designed to counter those effects. Not only
do they ring in the Phrygian mode, but they
do so at the precise times when the circadian
rhythms of Freshmen make their souls most
receptive to the influence of sound. Let me be
clear: I do not doubt Mr. Abbott’s devotion
to the college or his exceedingly admirable
intentions, yet I could no longer remain silent
about this shocking (and tyrannical?) abuse
of power. I also ask all members of the Polity
to assist me in getting to the bottom of a
question that now haunts me: was the
Assistant Dean acting alone?
Your devoted comrade,
Mr. Haflidson
After two years of renovations, the final part
of the renovations of Mellon Hall begun in
the winter of 2021 were finally completed last
week. The patio, which has been under
construction since this summer, was paved
just in time to welcome alumni, donors and
local leaders for a reopening ceremony that
acted as a celebration of all the various sources
of funding and work that made the
renovations possible.
of its original design features, but was made
accessible and received furniture to make it more
welcoming to student use. The Fishbowl,
which was first installed during the
renovation in the 80s, was given a more open
plan, while the conversation room’s ability to
support technology was improved alongside
its atmosphere as a welcoming space to hold
conversations in. New facilities backstage
include a studio theater, although all space
that was usable to build sets and most of the
The idea to renovate Mellon, which had its prop storage space was lost, making the
last major renovation in 1989, was first practical use of the auditorium more difficult
initiated by former college president Pano for campus theater groups.
Kanelos, to attempt to create new public
spaces to form a hub for students, and draw At the reopening ceremony, speakers
them into closer community by making included President Demleitner, Maryland Lt.
spaces like the Mellon Lobby and the Governor Aruna Miller, who spoke about
Fishbowl more welcoming spaces for student the state’s commitment to higher education,
use. The renovations also aimed to increase and State Senator Sarah Elfreth, who spoke
ADA accessibility, allowing both doors into about her role in securing St. John’s a five
the lobby area to be accessible and improving million dollar grant from the state of
accessibility to the backstage areas, as well as Maryland that enabled the construction.
to rebuild the building’s ageing HVAC Maryland is unusual in that it provides
systems. They cost approximately ten million funding for capital projects for private
dollars, and were planned by David M. Colleges, and St. John’s matched this
Schwarz Architects, a firm led by an alumnus funding with fundraising from the college’s
recently completed Freeing Minds capital
of the college.
campaign to cover the costs of the project.
These renovations primarily impacted the Also speaking at the event was William
FSK lobby, the fishbowl, the conversation Rowel, representing Mayor Gavin Buckley
room and the backstage areas behind the who was unable to attend the ceremony, and
auditorium, all of which were substantially Delegate Council President Helen Felbek,
changed. The lobby, which before the who spoke on the student experience using
renovation was one of the only interiors the newly renovated spaces.
designed by midcentury architect Richard
Neutra still intact on the east coast, lost many El’ad Nichols-Kaufman
This Week in Seminar
Upcoming Events:
Freshman:
Thursday, 10/5
- 10/5: Plutarch: Lives, Lycurgus; Solon
- 9:45 pm: Bonfire & Hoe Down,
- 10/9: Herodotus: History, I; II 50–53, 112–120; III 37–38, 66-87
Planetarium
Sophomores:
Friday 10/6
- 10/5: Virgil: Aeneid, V–VIII
- 12:30 pm: Petting zoo, Upper Fields
- 10/9: Virgil: Aeneid, IX–XII
- 9 pm: Selena screening, Mellon
Juniors:
courtyard
- 10/5: Hobbes: Leviathan, Chapters 30–31, 32 (first four paragraphs), 38
- 8:30 pm: Reunion Waltz, Great Hall
(selections), 39, 43, 46–47; A Review and Conclusion (last paragraph)
Saturday, 10/7
- 10/9: Spinoza: Ethics, Book 1 through proposition 29
- 8:30 pm: Rocky Horror Picture
Seniors:
Show screening, Great Hall
- 10/5: Marx and Engels: The German Ideology, Part One; and “Theses on Feuerbach”
Sunday 10/8
- 10/9: Marx and Engels: Capital (see main list for selections)
- 12:00 pm: Tea party and bouquet
making, Quad
There will be no lecture due to the long weekend
Monday 10/9
- 12:30 pm: All-College scavenger
hunt, Quad
Page 1
�Thursday October 5, 2034
St. John’s collegian
Vol. I. Issue 4
Public Safety office releases annual report
The report includes statistics on crimes committed on campus for the past three years,
from 2020-2022, as well as fire safety reports for the same time.
In this year’s public safety report, which is
required by federal law to be issued every
October, the following crimes were reported
for the calendar year 2022: one burglary,
seven drug related violations and eight liquor
law violations. While for our campus that in
2022 had approximately 453 students and
190 faculty and staff, this may seem
significant, it is indicative of large
improvements from 2021. Officially
reported cases of rape and sexual assault
dropped from 17 in 2021 to none in 2022,
drug violations dropped from 33 cases in
2021, and liquor law violations went down
from 57 violations in 2021. However, it is
always difficult to determine whether these
changes can be attributed to changes in
enforcement, reporting, or in actual The email which was sent out by the public
safety office contained last years report, but
frequency of crimes.
this years report can still be found online in
The report also featured a fire safety section, the Clery Act, Crime Awareness and
which showed that all the residence halls had Campus Security Act of 1990 section of the
sufficient fire safety measures in place in college website, or can be requested as a
2022, including fire alarms, a full sprinkler physical document from the public safety
system, smoke detectors, fire extinguishers, office.
and evacuation plans and diagrams. The fire
alarms on campus went off six times, once Included in the report was detailed
each in Gilliam, Humphreys, Campbell, information on campus safety procedures
Chase-Stone and twice in Spector, all of and policies, with many detailed resources
which were due to unintentional cooking for students, and includes the campus sexual
incidents. Most of them took place in the misconduct policy as an appendix.
afternoon or evening, except for one at 10:52
am. None involved a fire that actually caused El’ad Nichols-Kaufman
any injury or damage.
Can’t you dance the Polka?
Oktoberfest Polka Competition features spirited dancing,
fierce rivalry, and much stomping
Two Saturdays ago, the College saw the ‘23
St. John’s College Oktoberfest Polka
Competition. Decked out in dirndls and
lederhosen, members of the polity amassed
to witness the finest endurance test of the
year. With flower crowns secured and sleeves
rolled up, the dancers hit the floor with a
well-timed stomp. Quickly, the crowd was
culled. (The author of this piece and the
editor were cut a very respectable fifth). The
esteemed judges Mr. Dang and Ms. Hile
called out movement changes over the din,
pushing the dancers to new heights—quite
literally, as a dizzying array of aerial moves
were performed—and eliminating pairs left
and right, until only four were left. As the
twenty-five-minute mark was passed the
competition grew fierce. All four pairs
seemed evenly matched. First up, was Millie
Ransohoff, fresh off a victory last year, and
Paolo Medelius. Clearly having fun, they
pranced around the dance floor with an
infectious exuberance and a powerhouse of
side-to-side sashays. Hot on their heels were
Chris Thomas and Charlotte Nicholas, in it
to win it. They maintained an even pace—
focusing on endurance and conservation of
energy—though not without style. Charlie
Mahon and Lainey Rendelman made up the
youngest pair, with Mr. Mahon being the
only freshman to make it to the final four.
They made for a powerful couple, striding
across the floor with an athlete's focus.
Finally, Logan Arendt and Maddie Minor
completed the quartet. Cool as cucumbers
About the St.
John’s
Collegian
and with seemingly effortless grace, they
played off the mishap as a shoe flying off
with panache. As time ticked on, something
had to give. The first to go were Mr. Mahon
and Ms. Rendelman, disqualified—
debatably unjustly—for not being able to
hear directions. Next were Ms. Ransohoff
and Mr. Medelius, felled to an unfortunate
stumble. Despite the losses all were in good
spirits, knowing that they had a few more
years to try for the crown. The same could
not be said for the remaining couples, all of
whom were seniors. With the stakes thus
raised the competition headed into its
fortieth minute with neither pair giving any
ground, and the tension rose to a point
unmatched since the Calydonian boar hunt.
Finally, around minute forty-four the judges
called it, awarding—as they sailed through a
final flip and spin—Mr. Thomas and Ms.
Nicholas with their well-deserved laurels.
With that the polka competition ended,
leaving the victors to their spoils and the rest
to rest their feet, and a beloved tradition to
be laid away until next year.
The St. John’s Collegian is the weekly
newspaper of St. John’s College Annapolis.
We work to bring quick and timely coverage
of important events going on, to help
develop a more informed student body. If
you’re searching for more in-depth
investigations and reporting, as well as
essays, art and culture, check out the Gadfly,
our affiliated publication, which is
published once every three weeks.
Andy Manne
Ron Haflidson
Want to submit an article? We always need
more writers, whether for opinion or
reporting! Submissions for news articles
should be between 300-400 words, while
opinion should be kept short at 200 words.
Just email eanicholskaufman@sjc.edu with
your article, and we will work to get it in
print! Longer form articles and more indepth exploration of ideas should go to the
Gadfly, which accepts submissions at
lbriner@sjc.edu.
Contributors for this issue:
El’ad Nichols-Kaufman, Editor
Andy Manne
Aphorism of the Week
Look at the confidence of a chicken. How
blessed are those who know that they don't
know!
Page 2
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
<em>The St. John's Collegian</em>
Description
An account of the resource
A student newspaper of St. John's College. <em>The St. John's Collegian</em> began publication in 2023 and is affiliated with <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/collections/show/16"><em>The Gadfly</em></a>. <br /><br />Published weekly on Thursday, with the exception of weeks <em>The Gadfly </em>is published. <br /><br />Earlier publications with the title <em>The Collegian </em>and <em>The St. John's Collegian </em>are available in <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/collections/show/26"><em>The Collegian Collection</em></a>.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
St. John's College
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
St. John's College
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Annapolis, Md.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
St. John's College Greenfield Library
Language
A language of the resource
English
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
SJCCollegian
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Original Format
The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
pdf
Page numeration
Number of pages in the original item.
2 pages
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
St. John's Collegian, October 5, 2023
Description
An account of the resource
Volume 1, issue 4 of the St. John's Collegian, published October 5, 2023.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.)
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.)
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Annapolis, MD
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2023-10-05
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
St. John's College holds the rights to this publication.
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
text
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
pdf
Subject
The topic of the resource
St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.)--Periodicals
Language
A language of the resource
English
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
SJCCollegian_vol1_issue4_2023-10-05
Student publication
The Collegian
The Gadfly
-
https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/d4ed42405a2281703907363550204241.pdf
fe53145c6e77826836f7e197f118d1bd
PDF Text
Text
Thursday
September 28
2023
The St. John’s Collegian
A Gadfly Publication
Vol. I
Issue 3
Printed Thursdays in Annapolis
From the
polity
Delegate Council Budgeting
Season update
A Response to On the Honor
Code
DC Hearings Continue, 30 Clubs Funded with Almost a
Dozen Still Awaiting Hearings
Many of us have given thought to Ms.
Paalman's suggestion of establishing an
Honor Code for Johnies in response to the
emergence of Large Language Models. But
while some remained untroubled, others have
embraced the proposition with an
enthusiasm that should not fail to disturb us.
Every time we are to think of our institution
as a πόλις (city-state), we consistently
compare it to Athens (the city of philosophy)
and not to the Media (the kingdom of
Middies). This is because our education here
embraces intellectual freedom. St. John’s
neither cares about grades nor punishes
anyone for a lack of engagement. Indeed,
when one fails to prepare for a class by reading
or produce an original piece of writing, these
actions serve as self-punishment, depriving
oneself of intellectual opportunities. And
should we look within fto uncover the
reasons for such misadventures, we
necessarily discover that the individual is
blinded either directly (through some sort of
ignorance) or indirectly (because of a tragic
life circumstance). The proposal of the code
and all subsequent ideas are necessarily
spoken with an eye on the interests of our
polity. As individuals we also postulate that
one’s freedom finds its limit there where the
other’s start. Yet the exercise of one's freedom
to cheat (oneself) does not compromise
others in their intellectual development.
Hence the interests of the polity are not hurt.
If St. John’s is confident in the dignity of its
Cont. on Page 2
The final day for archons to submit club
budgets for the fall semester was September
7th, and the Delegate Council began hearing
club budgets on September 10th. (While most
DC meetings take place Tuesday evenings,
two weekend hearings were held to make the
process more efficient.) These hearings play a
key role in ensuring that funds are distributed
in a way that benefits the polity. In a policy
newly introduced this year to improve
efficiency for archons and delegates alike, the
DC is aiming to keep debate times to under 8
minutes for most clubs, or under 10 minutes
for clubs that are requesting $1000 or more.
had approved budgets of less than half their
initial request. Not all budgets have been
heard yet, and hearing a budget doesn’t
necessarily mean it will be approved the same
night or at all — at the meeting on the 19th, for
example, a final decision on Polo Club’s
budget was deferred to the following week.
Any polity member who has an interest in the
DC or the budgeting processes is strongly
encouraged to attend the upcoming meetings,
speak to their delegates, and/or read the
minutes from past meetings. Louis Rosenberg
DC Budgeting Statistics:
Amount requested by clubs: $53,654.97
Amount of money received by the DC each
year: approx. $35,000
Amount estimated by the DC treasurer that
can be allocated given club underspending
and surpluses: approx. $42,000
The amount of money initially requested by
clubs ranges from $190 (JSPN and
Storyteller’s Guild, though JSPN ended up
successfully requesting to amend their budget
to include an additional $175 for a rugby
viewing party) to $5855 (Rock Climbing
Club). Approximately 10 clubs requested
more than $2000, while 15 clubs requested KWP: $4,175
less than $500; nearly 40 budgets were Waltz: $3,900
Reality: $3,235
submitted in total.
Energeia: $3,180.96
As expected, larger budgets tended to be Pangaea: $2,305
discussed in more detail than smaller budgets. Jiu-jitsu: $2,120
Some clubs — including Baking Club, Board Cinema: $1,740
Games Club, Insect Farming Club, Folk Life, Futsal: $1,050
and Shammai — had their budgets passed SCI: $1,000
with little to no debate. Other clubs had more HEMA: $887.87
contentious budget hearings, with delegates Darkroom: $800
proposing various amendments. Notably, Board Games: $737.53
Video Games Club (which requested $1445) Peliculemos: $700
and Jiu-Jitsu (which requested $4550) each
Cont. on Page 2
This Week in Seminar
Freshman:
- 9/28: Plato, Gorgias, 447A–481B
- 10/2: Plato, Gorgias, 481B–to end
Sophomores:
- 9/28: Lucretius, De Rerum Natura, IV–VI
- 10/2: Virgil, Aeneid, I–IV
Juniors:
- 9/28: Hobbes, Leviathan, Chapters 12–18
- 10/2: Hobbes: Leviathan, Chapters 19–21, 24–25, 27, 28 (only the very last
paragraph), 29
Seniors:
- 9/28: Tocqueville, Democracy in America (see official list for selections)
- 10/2: Tocqueville, Democracy in America (see main list for selections)
Friday Night Lecture:
Rhetoric and Democracy: Introduction to Aristotle's Rhetoric, Robert Bartlett
Page 1
Upcoming Events:
Friday, 9/29:
- 11:30 am: Mellon re-opening
ceremony, Mellon Terrace
Saturday, 9/30
- 2 pm: Extended bookstore hours and
book signing, Bookstore
- 3 pm: Alumni-Student Networking
Event, Hodson room
- 8:30 pm: Reunion Waltz, Great Hall
Sunday, 10/1
- 7 pm: Film Showing, Coco
Tuesday 10/3
- 5:30 pm: Resume Workshop,
Hodson Room
Wednesday 10/4
- 3:30 Naloxone administration
training, Conversation Room
�Thursday, Sep 28 2023
St. John’s Collegian
Vol. I. Issue 3
Skeletons as Satire
Exhibit Ending this Week at the Mitchell Museum Highlights Work of Posada
When I arrived at the Mitchell Art Museum,
I suddenly thanked my past self for sticking
with Spanish for all four years of high school.
All of the text in the exhibit is written in
Spanish, primarily, with English translations
underneath. The first instance of this is
displayed on the wall, right outside the
entrance to the museum. This wall asks each
passerby two questions: “¿ Debe uno ser
serio para ser tomado en serio ?” and “¿ El
arte tiene límites ?” The translations given
are “Must we be serious to be taken
seriously?” and “Does art have bounds?”
José Guadalupe Posada (1852-1915) has
become one of Mexico’s most celebrated
printmakers and satirists, but he did not
Ding Dongs?
Merrily on
High?
Mysterious Ringing Keeps
Campus Awake
For night owls, insomniacs, and light
sleepers on upper campus, you may be aware
that our beloved campus bell has been
exhibiting a curious behavior over the past
few weeks. Administration Officials and
Public Safety Officers are baffled. The bell
has frequently gone off for ten minutes at
precisely midnight on Wednesdays and at
7:30 on Mondays. It also went off at
midnight on Monday of last week, chiming
thrice. The only clue to go off of is that the
bell may be controlled remotely.
What are we to make of this mysterious
malfunction? Is it ghosts, goblins, gnomes?
Seniors with long-overdue essays? Perhaps
the bell has a mind of its own and wishes to
join the revelers on lower campus in their
ushering in of the New Year. The midnight
Monday chimes make less sense, however.
Perhaps a seminar in the Octagon went on a
bit longer than usual–there’s no end to those
things, you know.
The hunt for who or what is causing this
continues, making this lofty mystery a
worthy counterpart to the underquad. The
answer to this riddle, however, is likely
hiding in plain sight.
Caleb Briggs
achieve fame or recognition during his
lifetime. Spending most of his career at the
publishing house of Antonio Vanegas
Arroyo, he created images to be printed in
Arroyo’s chapbooks. The reason the exhibit
asks us its initial questions is that José
Guadalupe Posada was notorious for his
satire. Calaveras , or skeleton figures, are now
well known as symbols of Mexican culture,
but their popularity is in part due to
Posada—he often used them to satirize
current events or public figures. The exhibit
itself doesn’t seem to prioritize seriousness in
the slightest. The word “ ridículo ” is
splashed across the wall in bold capital
letters, and bright primary colors dominate
Honor Code (Cont.)
enterprise as a college, there should be no
question of an honor code. One will thus be
either a Johnie or not (someone who
enrolled at St. John’s by an accident or
blindness). If we are to help the cheating one
with their ignorance or a tragic event, we
must do so sincerely and only from the
position of love and compassion. These two
qualities are not to be found in the realm of
fear and control, but in the realm of joy of
and wonder in the other. And the same is
true for good essays and discussions.
Semyon Andruschenko
DC Funding (Cont.)
Video Games: $620
Alexander Hamilton Society: $540
Bowling: $503
Catholic Fellowship: $500
Christian Fellowship: $500
3D Printing: $495.10
Historia: $480
Purls of Wisdom: $448
Delegate Council: $415
Baking: $386.22
JSPN: $365
Shammai: $356.96
Swimming: $299
Insect Farming: $275
Project Polity: $270
Folk Life: $250
Storyteller’s Guild: $190
Total approved to date: $32,724.64
Aphorism of the week:
Madness is the only way to immortality by
oneself. That is why it is called madness.
Page 2
the space. There is even a plastic skeleton
lying prone on a ledge, gazing down upon
unsuspecting museum-goers. At the same
time, the calaveras introduce an underlying
motif of death, and it’s true that Posada
wrestled with very somber ideas in his prints.
One of these was the Mexican Revolution,
which sparked a creative drive in Posada,
though he died before Mexico gained
independence. Death imposes on us a hard
and fast limit to creativity, but that doesn’t
mean that we can’t poke fun at ourselves
while we’re still here. Sometimes, humor is
what reveals the gravest of truths.
Natalie Goldman
About the St.
John’s
Collegian
The St. John’s Collegian is the weekly
newspaper of St. John’s College Annapolis.
We work to bring quick and timely coverage
of important events going on, to help
develop a more informed student body. If
you’re searching for more in-depth
investigations and reporting, as well as
essays, art and culture, check out the Gadfly,
our affiliated publication, which is
published once every three weeks.
Want to submit an article? We always need
more writers, whether for opinion or
reporting! Submissions for news articles
should be between 300-400 words, while
opinion should be kept short at 200 words.
Just email eanicholskaufman@sjc.edu with
your article, and we will work to get it in
print! Longer form articles and more indepth exploration of ideas should go to the
Gadfly, which accepts submissions at
djnathan@sjc.edu.
Contributors for this issue:
El’ad Nichols-Kaufman, Editor
Natalie Goldman
Caleb Briggs
Semyon Andruschenko
Louis Rosenberg
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
<em>The St. John's Collegian</em>
Description
An account of the resource
A student newspaper of St. John's College. <em>The St. John's Collegian</em> began publication in 2023 and is affiliated with <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/collections/show/16"><em>The Gadfly</em></a>. <br /><br />Published weekly on Thursday, with the exception of weeks <em>The Gadfly </em>is published. <br /><br />Earlier publications with the title <em>The Collegian </em>and <em>The St. John's Collegian </em>are available in <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/collections/show/26"><em>The Collegian Collection</em></a>.
Creator
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St. John's College
Publisher
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St. John's College
Coverage
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Annapolis, Md.
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St. John's College Greenfield Library
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English
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SJCCollegian
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pdf
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2 pages
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Title
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St. John's Collegian, September 28, 2023
Description
An account of the resource
Volume 1, issue 3 of the St. John's Collegian, published September 28, 2023.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.)
Publisher
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St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.)
Coverage
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Annapolis, MD
Date
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2023-09-28
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St. John's College holds the rights to this publication.
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text
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pdf
Subject
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St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.)--Periodicals
Language
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English
Identifier
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SJCCollegian_vol1_issue3_2023-09-28
Student publication
The Collegian
The Gadfly
-
https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/c41993923c47055cbecd9ef62ce64a74.pdf
8d892c1e74db268c1b36eb63a01c32a0
PDF Text
Text
Thursday
September 14
2023
The St. John’s Collegian
A Gadfly Publication
From the
polity
Opinion: On the Honor
Code
For those who missed it, Annapolis Dean
Susan Paalman has recently announced
plans to implement a student honor code to
combat academic dishonesty. While I am
highly skeptical of any innovation in the
running of the St John's, this one certainly
merits consideration. In an institution
which professes to be not merely a
community, but a true polity, it is
appropriate that students should think of
themselves as citizens with a real stake in the
wellbeing of the College. Since a sense of
personal honor and integrity is vital to
meaningful citizenship, any system which
promotes it should be beneficial to the
health of the polity. There is, of course, the
matter of enforcement. It might well be
asked whether people who are prepared to
cheat on their assignments will be phased
by lying about doing so. To this problem I
propose a two-pronged solution. 1) the
creation of a body whose sole purpose is the
investigation and punishment of honor
code infractions. Since (to my way of
thinking) the reason for the creation of an
honor code is to foster good citizenship and
self-governance, this body would ideally be
composed of students or feature students in
an executive capacity. Self-government is
both an individual and communal exercise.
Cont. on Page 2
Vol. I
Issue 2
Printed Thursdays in Annapolis
City plans to build path on
college creek
College Creek Connector would Link Bike Infrastructure
Across Annapolis, Cross our Campus
Claiming that College Creek is
underutilized, the City of Annapolis seeks to
‘activate’ it. The city’s plan is to connect
King George Street to Calvert Street via a
boardwalk along College Creek, which
would pass under Rowe Blvd and along the
edge of St. Anne’s cemetery and connect to
the trailhead of the West East Express.
On May 9th, Anna Dayton and I spoke with
Andrew Romiti, who heads the Campus
Planning Committee, about this. The city
reached out about 10 years ago, but little
came of it, and only reached out again about
two years ago. The initial proposal given by
Mayor Gavin Buckley and city officials
Special Projects/Arts Coordinator Brian
Cahalan and Chief of Comprehensive
Planning Eric Leshinsky was to cut across
what is currently the gravel road between the
lower field and water, which was rejected by
the College as it would cut the campus in
two and fully invite the outside world to
come in unhindered. The city went back to
the drawing board and in June 2022 came
back with the current proposal to
accommodate the objections of the College:
an elevated boardwalk above the water
which would be separated from the campus
by a gate. This also met opposition from the
College, particularly over concerns about
access to the creek from the boathouse. After
these two rejections,
Mr. Romiti assumed the proposal was dead,
This Week in Seminar
Freshmen:
- 9/14: Homer, Odyssey, XVII–XXIV
- 9/18: Plato, Meno
Sophomores:
- 9/14: Bible, Psalms (See official list for selections)
- 9/18: Bible, Amos; Jonah; Isaiah 40–55
Juniors:
- 9/14 Milton, Paradise Lost, I–III
- 9/18: Paradise Lost, Books IV; V; VI Argument only; VII Argument, 1–39;
VIII
Seniors:
- 9/14: Hegel: Phenomenology of Spirit, Unhappy Consciousness; Reason
- 9/18: Hegel: Phenomenology of Spirit, Conscience and The Beautiful Soul
Friday Night Lecture:
Vital Exuberance: Goethe on What Plants Want by Daniel Carranza
Page 1
until only about a week before our meeting,
when the city reached out again, showing
renewed interest. Knowing now who was in
charge and wanting to understand their
perspective, we sent emails to Mr. Cahalan
and Mr. Leshinsky, who both responded by
inviting us to a community meeting on
May 30 at the People’s Park on Calvert St.
A notable proposal offered by Mr. Romiti
during these meetings with the City was to
cut around Prince George’s St., but the
Mayor let us know this was rejected as it
would have too much opposition, with
many businesses on Main St. relying on the
parking here.
At the May 30th meeting, we saw this
situated within the City’s broader plan to
make Annapolis less reliant on cars, their
specific goal with the C.C.C is to have it
connect the Baltimore-Annapolis trail to
downtown Annapolis, also planning the
‘West-East Express’, a bike path parallel to
West St.
We had a number of concerns, including
the safety of the ducks, light pollution, loss
of isolated space, the creek becoming unsafe
and the potential inability for freshmen to
collect lab samples, which we weren’t able
to get an in-depth response on from the
City at this meeting, so scheduled a meeting
with Eric Leshinsky, one of the officials in
charge for June 5.
Cont. on page 2
Upcoming Events:
Friday 9/15
- Rosh Hashanah begins at sunset
Saturday 9/16
- 5 a.m. Homerathon, Part II
- 4 p.m. Pan’s Labyrinth showing, Mitchell
Gallery
- 8 p.m. Sailing Under the Stars, Boathouse
- 9 p.m. Gimme Gimme Disco, Great Hall
Tuesday 9/19
- 7:30 p.m. Homer Trivia with Mr. Nelson,
General Hartle Room
Wednesday 9/20
- 4 p.m. Reader’s Theater, Agamemnon,
General Hartle Room
�Thursday, Sep 14 2023
St. John’s Collegian
Vol. I. Issue 1
Honor Code
College Creek
(Cont. from page 1)
(Cont. from page 1)
In order to be truly effective, however, this
formal rules-based system must be
accompanied by an informal relationshipbased system which reinforces it. Therefore,
we would also need: 2) a vigorous culture of
shame regarding academic dishonesty. If the
creation of a polity which values honor and
integrity is to succeed, it needs to be
unpleasant to be dishonorable. It needs to be
costly to lack integrity. While I recognize
that this may be a somewhat controversial
position, a more full-throated defense of the
importance of shame will have to wait for a
sequel.
He gave answers to a number of these
concerns: any lighting would be dark sky
compliant, the College would be able to
close a gate which would give access to the
bridge at any time, and they’ll need
environmental safety certifications for any
plan, but the core of the proposal still has its
inherent tradeoffs, like the loss of a quiet,
isolated space on campus. He estimated that
the City is two years from breaking ground,
so despite having 65% funding, it’s still a
ways off, also shown by our interview with
President Demleitner, who said that the
President’s office hasn’t received any
Rendering of the proposed College Creek
updates in a year.
Connector, provided by the City of Annapolis
William Marchman
Augustus Pananas
Student attends
two seminars in
one night
“Bear in mind, Sancho, that one man is no
more than another, unless he does more than
another.” – Miguel Cervantes, Don Quixote
Mr. Peter Quinn (Junior Undergraduate,
Resident Assistant, Greenwave Captain,
Accomplished Cook, Loyal Friend)
attended his first seminar, which was
scheduled from 4-6, without much fanfare.
After all, attending the first seminar of the
year is nothing remarkable.
DC Update
This week, the St. John’s Delegate Council
met twice, on Sunday and Tuesday. The
council elected the following representatives
to the Student Committee on Instruction:
Sophomores Millie Ransohoff and Ian
O'Donnell, Juniors Jackson Green and Jack
Domanski, and Seniors Hannah Fodor and
Dolan Polglaze. They have also continued to
hear club budgets, which will be detailed in
a budgeting update next issue.
Miscellanea
However, when he sat down with the author
of this short article after his seminar, neither
knew that by the simple act of attending a 46, he had begun a great adventure. The
author informed Mr. Quinn that he was in
fact scheduled to attend her seminar, which
was scheduled from 7:30-9:30. After a quick
check of mysjc, he confirmed this. His
schedule had changed since the morning.
A friend of mine recently sent me a
manuscript he discovered, claiming he had
unearthed it from the depths of the
Underquad. I am always skeptical of such
things, especially since I have yet to see
conclusive proof of the Underquad’s
existence, but having read its contents, I
begrudgingly accepted they may be worthy
of publications. They include a series of
Other students might be compelled to aphorisms, attributed to ‘the Sage of
remedy the mistake in the next Quixote Gorman Street,’ which I shall publish here
seminar on Monday, figuring that they had weekly.
done their due diligence for the day.
However, Mr. Quinn is not like other “The poor turn into a multitude; the rich turn
students. He approached this gamely, one into a magnitude. Either way, there is no
might say with a kind of knightly valor, room for human quality.”
shrugging his shoulders and proclaiming,
…
“Then I guess I’ll just go to two seminars.”
This was submitted anonymously:
And indeed, he did, and participated well in
both of them, a quiet act of heroism that
They walk to the quad,
deserves to be known by the college. If the
quote that this article opens with is true,
And step on the college seal.
then Mr. Quinn may be more than all other
men – all other students – on campus. - They shan’t graduate.
Georgia Green
Page 2
About the St.
John’s
Collegian
The St. John’s Collegian is the weekly
newspaper of St. John’s College Annapolis.
We work to bring quick and timely coverage
of important events going on, to help
develop a more informed student body. If
you’re searching for more in-depth
investigations and reporting, as well as
essays, art and culture, check out the Gadfly,
our affiliated publication, which is
published once every three weeks.
Want to submit an article? We always need
more writers, whether for opinion or
reporting! Submissions for news articles
should be between 300-400 words, while
opinion should be kept short at 200 words.
Just email eanicholskaufman@sjc.edu with
your article, and we will work to get it in
print! Longer form articles and more indepth exploration of ideas should go to the
Gadfly, which accepts submissions at
djnathan@sjc.edu.
Contributors for this issue:
El’ad Nichols-Kaufman, Editor
William Marchman
Augustus Pananas
Georgia Green
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
<em>The St. John's Collegian</em>
Description
An account of the resource
A student newspaper of St. John's College. <em>The St. John's Collegian</em> began publication in 2023 and is affiliated with <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/collections/show/16"><em>The Gadfly</em></a>. <br /><br />Published weekly on Thursday, with the exception of weeks <em>The Gadfly </em>is published. <br /><br />Earlier publications with the title <em>The Collegian </em>and <em>The St. John's Collegian </em>are available in <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/collections/show/26"><em>The Collegian Collection</em></a>.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
St. John's College
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
St. John's College
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Annapolis, Md.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
St. John's College Greenfield Library
Language
A language of the resource
English
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
SJCCollegian
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Original Format
The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
pdf
Page numeration
Number of pages in the original item.
2 pages
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
St. John's Collegian, September 14, 2023
Description
An account of the resource
Volume 1, issue 2 of the St. John's Collegian, published September 14, 2023.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.)
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.)
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Annapolis, MD
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2023-09-14
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
St. John's College holds the rights to this publication.
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
text
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
pdf
Subject
The topic of the resource
St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.)--Periodicals
Language
A language of the resource
English
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
SJCCollegian_vol1_issue2_2023-14-07
Student publication
The Collegian
The Gadfly
-
https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/5a02da212645df85bcbf5161dbdee104.pdf
357841f65c9cd31c045d9e7b64cb50b4
PDF Text
Text
Thursday
September 7
2023
The St. John’s Collegian
A Gadfly Publication
Collegial
welcome
This is not because of a lack in the
existing campus publications. The
kind of quick, short and to the point
reporting that I feel the polity needs
to be informed simply does not
belong in the Gadfly. There needed to
be another space for reporting on
campus, ideally one coordinated with
the Gadfly’s extensive resources.
I brought this up to some other
people on the Gadfly staff, and from
our discussions, the Collegian was
born as a weekly newspaper, with
short articles and easy formatting, to
best reach the whole polity.
Informing the polity, however, can
only work with your help. We need
you, dear reader, to help, by
contributing articles for our
publication. It doesn’t take much;
only 200-300 words on a topic you
care about. With your help, we can
build a more informed, more
engaged, and closer connected Polity.
Printed Thursdays in Annapolis
Board of Visitors and
Governors Holds Summer
Meeting
Greetings from the
editor of the College’s
newest publication
At the Gadfly, I’ve long worked to
report on the affairs of the college,
from momentous decisions to day-today events. In doing that, I’ve found
that delivering this news in the
necessary timely manner is often a
challenge.
Vol. I
Issue 1
New Leadership, Enrollment, AI and Fundraising Discussed
The Board of Visitors and Governors meeting this
summer was both one of transition and stability. It
was the last board meeting for our dean, Joseph
Macfarland, who will be succeeded by Susan
Paalman, and Associate Dean for the Graduate
Institute, Emily Langston, who will be succeeded
by Brendan Boyle. Additionally, it was the last
meeting for board chair Ron Fielding (A70), who
will be replaced by Warren Spector (A81).
The meeting painted a mixed view of the college’s
financial status. The finance committee reported
that there will be a deficit of around $1.1 million.
Fielding noted that tuition revenue is stagnant,
while the cost of building repairs and upkeep
continues to rise, putting more weight on the
college’s philanthropic efforts. In the past decade,
the college’s tuition revenue has declined by $10
million, only a third of which was covered by
increases to the endowment. In a more positive
light, Nora Demleitner, Annapolis President,
celebrated the completion of the College’s Freeing
Minds campaign, which raised $326 million,
exceeding its initial goals, while noting that “we do
need to focus clearly on the challenges of the
future.” Chief among those is enrollment.
The Annapolis campus is facing what Demleitner
called soft enrollment: “We are meeting targets,
barely,” while Santa Fe is failing to those targets.
“Low enrollment means stagnant class size, which
means stagnant tuition, which means low
compensation for faculty and staff.”
This Week in Seminar
Freshmen:
- 9/7: Homer, Odyssey I-VII
- 9/11: Homer, Odyssey IX-XVI
Sophomores:
- 9/7: Bible, Leviticus 11, 18-20; Deuteronomy
- 9/11: Bible, Samuel I, II; Kings I, 1–4
Juniors:
- 9/7: Pascal: Pensées (See official list for selections)
- 9/11: Pascal: Pensées (See official list for selections)
Seniors:
- 9/7: Hegel: Phenomenology of Spirit, The Truth of Self-Certainty (177
only), Lordship and Bondage (178–196)
- 9/11: Hegel: Phenomenology of Spirit, Stoicism and Skepticism (197–206)
Friday Night Lecture:
Document Your Optimism: Mexico Writing Humor by Álvaro Enrigue
Page 1
Part of this enrollment problem stems from
the national demographic cliff, with there
being less college age students every year in the
US. While there are more international
students applying than ever before, that does
not entirely make up the drop in domestic
students. To recruit a larger share of that
shrinking pool of domestic students,
Demleitner highlighted national surveys of
high school students that said they are
concerned with four things when looking for
a college: prestige, career outcomes, strength
of the academic program and belonging to a
community. She claims that to recruit more
students we must work on building a
meaningful life and a meaningful career for
students by funding internships for every
student, build resources for different career
paths and highlight internships and
scholarships.
Demleitner also emphasized the importance
of data to these efforts. “We need to overcome
our reluctance to… build measurements and
collect data.” The college will be hiring a
Chief Information Officer based in Santa Fe
to do this and help target the four things high
school students are said to care about. An
additional part of this effort is partnerships
with other colleges and universities for joint
degrees and programs, starting with a
partnership with Johns Hopkins. Cont. on
page 2
Upcoming Events:
Saturday 9/9
- 5:30 a.m. Homerathon, front steps of
McDowell
- 11 a.m. Auditions, Importance of Being
Earnest, Studio Theater.
- 3 p.m. Mitchell Museum Workshop:
Making the Front Page of “End of Times.”
Mitchell Museum, RSVP required.
- 8 p.m. Contra Dance, hosted by the Folk
Life club, Great Hall
- 8 p.m. Sailing Under the Stars, hosted by the
sailing team, Boathouse.
Wednesday 9/13:
-2:30 p.m. Career development office open
house, Mellon 124
�Thursday, Sep 7 2023
St. John’s Collegian
Special dispatch:
Vol. I. Issue 1
The Vital Importance of Being Earnest
Announcement from KWP of a new show coming very soon to a campus near you
The Importance of Being Earnest: A Trivial
Comedy for Serious People is coming to the
FSK at the end of this semester. Set in
England at the turn of the century, the three
act comedy centers around John (Jack)
Worthing and his friend and tormentor,
Algernon Moncrieff. Both end up donning
the name “Earnest” in an attempt to win the
affections of their respective love interests.
The lie goes poorly and misunderstandings
ensue. The entire state of affairs is presided
over by the dower and imposing Lady
Bracknell; Miss Prism, an austere and
nervous governess; and the Rev. Canon
Chasuble, a bumbling parish priest.
While there was an audition on Tuesday,
September 5, there is another round of
auditions this coming Saturday, September
9, from 11 A.M. to 4 P.M. Callbacks will be
held in the evening on Sunday, September
10th. All are welcome to audition with no
prior experience nor prior sign-up needed.
Those interested in auditioning should
check their e-mails for further information.
The characters of Algernon and Lady
Bracknell will be gender blind when cast.
While Algernon is not usually genderblindly cast, Lady Bracknell often is.
Playing Lady Bracknell have been such
notables as Sir David Suchet (Poirot),
Geoffrey Rush AC (Pirates of the
Caribbean), and Dame Judi Dench (Cats).
All College Soccer BVG Meeting
game a rousing
Cont. from first page
start to athletic
Beyond the issue of
year
To kick off the school year the college
gathered for an age-old tradition, the Means
Versus Extremes soccer match. The
“Means” team led by Junior intramural
captains destroyed the extremes led by the
Seniors intramural captains in a thrilling 63 victory. Sophomore Beeri scored twice for
the Means and Sophomore Laish scored an
impressive goal from outside the box.
Junior Captain James Reeher (Hustlers)
laced a shot from the right side for another
goal for the Means. Although the Extremes
lost handedly they still managed to put
some points on the board, with the help of
some alumni and some newcomers.
Freshman Charlie made his splash scoring
his first St. John's College goal, in his first
game as a Johnnie. On the flip side Senior
Andrew Selway tapped one in after an assist
from Santa Fe graduate Sam Housley who
also scored a goal of his own. This was
Selway’s first St. John’s College goal. The
Means of the week were Andrew Selway
and Charlie who both scored their first
goals and the Extreme of the week was Peter
Quinn, who held down the fort in the goal.
Overall, the vibes were good and everyone
who came out had a great time.
Lainey Rendelman
recruiting new
students,
the
visiting
committee
highlighted the college’s difficulties
retaining students who are already here, and
ways they are working to address that.
Retention has improved over the past few
years since the pandemic, but the college is
still not on track to meet its own goals. The
primary reasons students leave, however,
are medical and academic, both of which
the college has relatively little control over.
Despite overall low retention rates,
retention rates amongst Pell Grant
recipients are higher than the national
average, indicating that the college’s work
to make itself more accessible to lower
income students has been somewhat
successful.
Additional topics discussed at the meeting
included the extensive construction
occurring on both campuses, including the
renovation of Campbell Hall and the
bathrooms of Pinkney and Chase-Stone in
Annapolis, continuing to further the
college’s partnership with the United
World Colleges, as well as the challenges
posed by AI. Board members noted that
new large language model chatbots are not
yet threatening for the college, as they are
not good at writing the kinds of essays we
are expected to write and cannot be used in
the variety of oral forms of assessment the
college employs.
From the polity:
The play will run for approximately two
and a half hours with an intermission
between Acts Two and Three. The
performances will fill a 7:30 lecture slot on
December 8th with an additional
performance at 7:30 on December 9th.
The play is directed by Mr. Caleb Briggs,
with Ms. Georgia Green as Stage Manager,
Mr. Nichols-Kaufman as Set Designer, Ms.
Keely Schrantz as Technical Director, and
Ms. Magnolia Vandiver as Costume
Designer.
Caleb Briggs
About the St.
John’s
Collegian
The St. John’s Collegian is the weekly
newspaper of St. John’s College Annapolis.
We work to bring quick and timely
coverage of important events going on, to
help develop a more informed student
body. If you’re searching for more in-depth
investigations and reporting, as well as
essays, art and culture, check out the
Gadfly, our affiliated publication, which is
published once every three weeks.
Want to submit an article? We always need
more writers, whether for opinion or
reporting! Submissions for news articles
should be between 300-400 words, while
opinion should be kept short at 200 words.
Just email eanicholskaufman@sjc.edu with
your article, and we will work to get it in
print! Longer form articles and more indepth exploration of ideas should go to the
Gadfly, which accepts submissions at
lbriner@sjc.edu or djnathan89@gmail.com.
Contributors for this issue:
El’ad Nichols-Kaufman, Editor
Lainey Rendelman
Caleb Briggs
Do you have an opinion? We bet you do! You go to St. John’s, after all. Send short opinion pieces, around 200 words to us, and we will
publish them here, anonymously or with your name attached. If you’ve always thought that what this campus needed was another way
for people to voice their opinions loudly and publicly, this is it! Don’t miss your chance!
Page 2
�
Dublin Core
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Title
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<em>The St. John's Collegian</em>
Description
An account of the resource
A student newspaper of St. John's College. <em>The St. John's Collegian</em> began publication in 2023 and is affiliated with <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/collections/show/16"><em>The Gadfly</em></a>. <br /><br />Published weekly on Thursday, with the exception of weeks <em>The Gadfly </em>is published. <br /><br />Earlier publications with the title <em>The Collegian </em>and <em>The St. John's Collegian </em>are available in <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/collections/show/26"><em>The Collegian Collection</em></a>.
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St. John's College
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St. John's College
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Annapolis, Md.
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St. John's College Greenfield Library
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English
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SJCCollegian
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St. John's Collegian, September 7, 2023
Description
An account of the resource
Volume 1, issue 1 of the St. John's Collegian, published September 7, 2023.
Creator
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St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.)
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St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.)
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Annapolis, MD
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2023-09-07
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text
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pdf
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St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.)--Periodicals
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English
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SJCCollegian_vol1_issue1_2023-09-07
Student publication
The Collegian
The Gadfly
-
https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/04399d6d37157ed4da84722f5d1f18de.pdf
b516d3f25a6e9f8fff5555dafda8297d
PDF Text
Text
we use
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Page 10
One
chair and the scale of colors.
This kind of - - ---....,
ST. JOHN'S COLLEGIAN
conceiving can deal only with what hapA method is scientific in inverse
penings in this limited space-time we
proportion to the degree of emotion
have experienced and their extrapolathat is brought to the balancing.
tions. There is much outside of our
Likes, dislikes, fears, desires, hates
particular space-time that could be,
and all classes of emotion are of
but not being subject to our expericourse prejudicial to an objective dis~
ence, is totally outside of our concepposal of the illlknown facts, and recogtion. Consequently, in the prime mover
nition of the known. Since knowledge
hypothesis as well as many other metais accurate according to the degree in
physical questions where we are admitwhich it has been approached scientifitedly dealing with happenings outside cally, can 'we say that those two parts
our space-time, we have to say that the of man, his lmowing or intellectual
unknown factor is too large for any part, and his emotions or that part
balancing. This, in effect, limits our which lends what warmth and happines s
speculation to such things as have come
1 ife has for him, are opposed? Must
in our experience and are possible of
the advance of the one always be at the
verification by it .
expense of the other? Each pers?n has
The scientific method consists of
his own answer to the problem according
accurate weighing, which in turn consists of 1) an accurate knowledge of to the degree of emotionality and inthe facts on both sides of the balance, tellectuality he has by nature, and
2) a knowledge of what facts pertaining needs expression for. We place a dito the case are unknown, and 3) an ob- viding line at some point separating a
jective disp:>sal of these facts accord- realm for science from a realm for
In the former sphere, it is
ing to probability, or if there is not faith.
agreed that objective weighing of hyenough information to determine the
probability of the individual facts, a pothesis and anti-hypothesis is the
holding them in suspension during the best method of procedure; in the latter, however, since the unknown factor
balancing.
is too large for any determination by
These three disciplines are performed by different people in varying balancing and since we need some belief
degrees. Some are predisposed toward about such things for our happiness, we
extreme hypotheses. They put their believe to be true what we would like
to be true (often adding a priori rafoot on one side of the balance and the
tionalization). Sane need a belief in
m-Os t overpowering and patient piling up
most of the things the doctrine of the
of facts on the other side will not
Christian church has for objects of
budge them f'rom their views. And of
faith; others, such as Emerson, don't
course tney claim the whole body of the care about the particulars but postuilllknown for their side, becoming dog- late only the supremacy of the good in
matic about the illlverifiable facts con- the universe: still others forbear
stituting it. Other ~eople, less exjudging these, to them, hypotheses, but
treme, will allow that there is some~
occupy themsel v~s with the knowable
thing to be said for the other side and
world, needing only the faith that 1)
will listen patiently to an opponent,
the world is lmowable or ordered, and
but will stick tenaciously to the one
2) they can in some measure lmow it.
side as long an the unknown factor will
be enough to outweigh the other's proAnton Hardy
posal.
*
I
,-.,.
I
I
'
II
•
)THE REAL
1
1950
into his
ilted his
seen his
tie his
~=COLLEGIAN AWT~LIS
~igarette
eft Gib.;..
Volume II, Number 2.
March '3, 19 50
mal. He
d across
e cleats
bathroom
RAGRAROK
Mr. c. D. Lewls, \he REAL Dean of John's
College in the twilight of the Golden Age,
frequently remarked to us in private conve~;
satlons that.the world is going to hell.
this point we are inclined to believe him. In
fact, this 1s our explicit editorial policy.
We are concerned only w1th the Manichaean
principles. The revival of
Satanism 1i the
main aim of our contributors, and we are sure
that their efforts will not be in vain.
DEMONOLOGY
Professor R. N. Courant was prevented from
giving his lecture as scheduled by a maximum
audience, a minimum time, and a mediocre cold.
A somewhat condensed version of the lecture he
was to have given follows.
In fortune Magazine (March 1948, June 1949)
some appl1oat1ons of the theory of probabilities to lames and Strategy were discussed.
Strategy was defined as: ~1nteract1on ~•tween
two or more persons , each of whose actions is
based on an expectation concerning the action
of othere over whom he has no control • The
policy followed in aaklng these moves 1s etrategy. •The best policy is one that will hold an
opponent's maximum possible gain below your
minimum possible gain • The mathematics of this
max1mum~m1n1mum
problem has been captured by
Lin only a
hirt and
:he level
his tie.
tn with a
vement he
t;
his reand went
es in the
sole :from
s father
want ducan' t be
After a
.ing them
lw".
1e walked
tbat the
re Rita's
1 in his
gain, but
s soothed
ne, Mr.
exclaimLbout giv-
1
�we use nouns.
kind li:1.
of ab~
diffen
ence a
a subs
given
hers o
distirn
exam:r
subs tr
but is
"this I
definit
tion v
realit) ·
abstra
tion is
it can
ure to
reachE:
tions •
edge.
The
gener~
Nouns are of two kinds.
Page 10
peni ngs
have ex
tion s .
-par ti cu
but not
ence, i~
tion. (
hypo the:
physic a
tedly d•
our spac
unknown
bal ancir
speculat
in our •
verif'ic;
accurat•
sists o
the fac1
2) a knc
to the (
jective
ing to J
enough
probabi:
holding
balanci
believ•
formed
- Tr
contni
Nov
of per
expre~
a dire
ven's
heard
meani
degrees
ext rem•
foot on
most OV
perce1
relati<
thing
We k:
mentl:
gases
ment~
three
betwe
is re<
chair and the scale of colors.
This kind of ----~...
ST. JOHN'S COLLEGIAN
c onceiv~
appan
percei;
mind.
quirin.
We g:
there ·
faculti
jectivE
must :
fore "
have E:
before
as an
comm•
our di
a gre~
knowl
One
ThE
Th
1
of f ac1
budge 1
course
unknown
matic a:
stitut1
treme,
thing t
will l]
but wi]
side as
be enou
posal.
the military and classified as Top Secret. At
best, I am only allowed to hint at solut1one~
Froblems involving minimal values of a group
of funct1one may be solved by a new type
of
mathematics , the so called '"calculus of variations~. In geometrical opt1cs the path of a
ray
of light that 1s reflected or refracted is that
which 1s traversed in the least time. This path
of least time can now be calculated for any
given system by the use of the calculus of var1ation8.
Had the German semi-mathematical
metaphys1c1ans known this branch of calculus , they
would have provided a philosophy based on the
concepts of relativity rather than those
of
Absolute Time and Absolute Space • This is because the calculus of variations can flndfor
us equations expressing all the laws of phenomena, but which , hoever , are independent
of
our system of coordinates, that is, our conception of space and time.
Since mathemat1ce has been taken out of the
hands of the few and given to the many , it ls
necessary to put up guard rails and other
safety devices. The most important of these 1s
the destruction o! the real infinitesimal or
monad. The real inf1n1tes1mal was invented by a
Greek in his cupe(coffee cupz)and not until he
is ignored can Mechanics be put on a firm mathematical bas1s. The problem 1s one of education
and 1f no one taught it , it would cease to
plague us • As an illustration •f thle I will
point out to you Mr. Bixby, who will be unable
to ri~e frGm his chair until he ignores the
monaci.
I hope that I have not hurt anyone'e feelings, but I can see no need for a question period.I am a Pos1t1v1st:there can be no question
concerning facts; and no other questions have
meaning.,
•••••••
The REAL COLLEGIAN has just obtained exclus 1'Ye r 1gh t e to the story , '"•y Tr 1p to
the
Mardi Gras*, or, '"l'hat Mr. i'e1gle Did Not Hear•.
'·-·---
,,.,..
I
I
,
11 _ •
Copies may be obtained by writing Mise Helea
(Five by Five) Andrewe , Mahogany Hall , Canal
St.,New Orleane,La.
1 :..t.:. ~ ·. .,., ...- ....
,
1950
DANTE AND THE NATURAL LAI
lhen ~e read Dante 1n seminar, we treat him
primarily as a religious poet. The reasone for
this are many , because although we realize
that the Divine Comedy
played
a political
role , we tend to bypass the complexity of his
political environment and concentrate upon the
theological content of the poem • Also it is
read in the second year when thoughts of salvation are much more important than
mere
worldly worries such as lower taxes oar !ewer
ware.
Now Dante was a pure White capitalist. This
can be neither denied nor ignored • There are
no Q,uak.ers in the Inferno - and a cureo.r7
reading of Marx's Capital will furnish abundant reasone for their absence.
One could find no more archetypal symbol
than Vergil for the world imperialism
that
will do anything and go anyvhere 1n order to
make a profit. Vergil ls even a privileged
figure 1n the Inferno and the Purgatorio. However, he yields to a higher symbol, Beatrice,
when his protege ascends to the Paradiso.
What is this mysterious motivating force
which compell~ the capitalist dialectics to
rise, as it were, against the very force of
gravity? For although in Adam Smith prices
seek their natural level, nevertheless, as was
pointed out in the question period, Marx holds
rightly that this is in contradiction with the
natural law. Dante, recognizing this objection,
answers 1t in the first Canto of the Parad1eo
by ehowing that Marx's law 1s merely the na~
ural law while Adam Smith's is the divine
law. Ire felt that this was the un.derly1ng
paradox of Mr. Bigongiar1 1 s Lecture.
Daemon·
into his
llted his
seen his
tie his
:igarette
.eft Gib-'mal. He
d across
e cleats
bathroom
Lin only a
hirt and
he level
his tie.
!II with a
vement he
t his re-
and went
es in the
sole from
is father
want du-
can' t be
After a
.ing them
>W" •
ie walked
that the
re Rita's
rl in his
gain, but
s soothed
r
me, Mr.
· exclaim;tbout giv-
�we use nouns.
kind ~ of ab~
diffen
ence a
a subs
given
hers o
dis tine
examr
subs tr
but is
"this :
definit
tion v
realit) ·
abs tr a
tion is
it can
ure to
reachE
tions 1
edge.
The
gener~
appar~
percer:
mind.
quirin.
We g~
there
faculti
jectivE
must ·
fore"'
have~
before
as an
comm1
our di
a gre~
believ1
- Tr
contr2
Nov
of per
exprei
a dire
ven's
heard
meani
kn owl
perceJ
re Info
thing
We k
ment~
gases
ment8
three
betwe
is re1
Nouns are of two kinds.
Page 10
conceiv:
p enings
h ave ex
tions.
particu
but no t
ence, i:
tion. {
hypo the
physic a
tedly d~
our spac
unlmown
balancir
speculat
in our ,
verific ,
Th~
accurat1
sists o
the fac1
2) a lmc
to the c
jective
ing to 1
enough
probabi:
holding
balanci
Th
formed
degrees
extremi
foot on
most OV•
of fac1
budge i
course
unknown
matic a:
sti tu ti
treme,
thing t
will l j
but wiJ
side as
be enou
posal.
One
·
c h air and th e seaIe of colors.
This kind of
___
,
_ __
ST. JOHN'S COLLEGIAN
lhat do you think of the proposed new
dorm1tor1es?
Jack Carr-ph1losoph1st: I am not sure that the
new plane take account of Hegel's 1mpl1o1t
theory of tensions. L'art est toujours le
resultat d'une contrainte.
Richard Warner Edelman- movie mogul: The new
theatre properly should have only one narrow
entrance.
Adam Pinsker-The King lilliam Player:
'!'he buildings should have the form of Berg,
the simple integrity of Wagner, and the torrential exuberance of Haydn.
Price Chatham - a youth: The colonial 5tyle
should not be crossed l\'i th the neo-pagan
Swedish Modern form.
John Alexander-the Libido Kid: Man,that's where
I'd like to live.
Louis Graff- aesthet1c1an: The cantilever construction has the highest safety factor, espec1~ if made out of unpainted reinforced
concrete.
George John Lee-sometime student: Draw the form
of the house conformably to this synthetical
unity of the manifold in space.
Fragment
Let us prey
We 1n Adam Smith
And Marx
Are no more
Than material
And no less than tne Geist
In this day
There 1s no myth
Ro larks
And therefore
Our burial
Certain now without Christ
Bosch saw
And painted
Dante
The Divine Commedy
las understood
In tragic form
Eliot's awe
la tainted
Vant er
The human tragedy
-... broth•rhodd
ud ••ery norm
St. John's Collegian
.
~---------------=----··~'-· o -.- .
Vol. LXIII - No. 6
ANNAPOLIS,MARYLAND
THE BLUNDERER
With. one hand Gibanee lmuckled
the sleep out of one eye, then the
o tber. He blinked once, twice, opened
his eyes wide the third time until
they drew the ceiling into focus and
finally let the lids close, hut
limply. Under his shut lids he saw a
blur of red. Gradually the red turned
to blue. Then polkadots a'PPeared in
the blue. Then one of the polkadots
expanded and changed fonn and at last
became the face of Rita. Gibanee felt
a little saliva leave his ducts lind
trickle over his molars. He swallowed, turned on his side and squeezed
the pillow against his chest in a
brief extasy tl1at filled his legs and
groin with an unbearable pleasure. He
relaxed again. Suddenly he brought
his harrl to his mouth and coughed into
i t -- two throaty barks that left
phlegm tingling in his chest. H~
March 15, 195 0
arette smoke slithered upward into his
eyes, smarting them, and he tilted his
head to one side as he had seen his
father do hwen he wanted to tie his
collar without removing the cigarette
from his mouth. The action left Gibanee feeling like a professional. He
stood up smartly and marched across
the hall to the bathroom, the cleats
on his heels snapping on the bathroom
floor.
After shaving it took hiin only a
few moments to put on his shirt and
pants. He stooped down to the level
of the dresser mirror to knot his tie.
His face looked back at him with a
casual subtlety. With one movement he
pulled his tie to, smiled at his reflection in a subdued manner and went
downstairs.
Gibanee could hear voices in the
front room as he 1 if ted his sole from
the bottom step.
"Yow lmow", he heard his father
saying, "the story is they want duplexes. That sort of thing can't be
had. E,Verybody knows that. After a
raised himself on one elbow and tried
to cough up the phlegm. After a few
tries his throat began to irritate
while you get tired of telling them
him. He got out of bed.
the s rune old story, you lmow".
The lmlds of the square clock inGibanee was aloof as he walked
dicated six like semaphores. Gibanee
into the living roan. He saw that the
shook it incredulously before he realother -people in the room were Rita's
ized that it was evening, not morning,
parents.
He felt an itch in his
and that he had gone to sleep several
throat and wanted to cough again, but
hours before because of a headache.
he swallowed and the itch was soothed
He sat down on the bed again, retemporarily.
lieved, spermy, devoid of strength in
"Hello, Mrs. McShane, Mr.
his arms. From a pack by his bed he
Mc Shane", Gi banee said.
took a cigarette and lighted it. He
"Well ,Jack", his father ex cl aimsucked the smoke in, and then reached
ed with a sure smile, "we' d about givunder the bed for his socks and shoes.
While he was lacing his shoe, the cig- en you up".
�
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The Collegian
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The Collegian began as a student newspaper; became a college community literary publication in 1952 and continued until 1969; became a student newspaper again in 1969; discontinued publication from 1980 until 1989 when it again became a student literary publication.<br /><br />Click on <a title="The Collegian" href="http://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=26">Items in The Collegian Collection</a> to view and sort all items in the collection.
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The Real Collegian Vol. II No. 02
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The Real Collegian, March 03, 1950
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Text
Page 12
ST.
JOHN'S
love? How probable was his existence in time or out of
time? Could Al Quinn have been serious when he said
that I was incapable of playing games, that I took life
too seriously by playing it like a game and disbelieved
his avowed success even in attempting to villify and
exalt the artificial? A. S. Quinn was preparing his rol·e
as king or courtier or traitor, no matter which just so
long as he was allowed the greatest freedom in choosing
a costume prderably of satin and paste, or pearls and
velvet touched here and there with a patch or two of the
fur of an ott<~r. Monstrous conceit Albert had screamed
slafped across Clement's face and had walked off. But
being left alone was the embarrassment for Clement: 0
wash the pain of dying friendship from my face with
tears when I am not alone. Will I learn to trust no
man? Clement hoped.
So wandering through the cold chipped years, since
he remembered only the coldness of the temperate world
and avoided the gatherings of heated discussion, Clement
had returned to the tiny room and locked himself away
afraid of the d.-~ fearing it as a harbinger of the plague
or madness, and set about the task of returning to a far
more distant past in which he felt more like a man of
his world. But what was his world if he as he already
denied had little to do with past, present and future?
Now at this moment there is no past, no pr·esent, no
future perfect. Certainly I have no time for clocks and
sand, let the days measure off themselves, and don't remember for if you do you will have to admit a past.
For some positive is as bad as negative in the minds of
others. I will proclaim the symbol only by rising above
it. Ascend then to the top of the mountain where it is
cold and lonely. Cold and lonely are symbols: I have
not succeeded. I miss the sun already.
He turned to a large pasteboard box tied taut with
heavy string and proceeded to untie the knot. The
light which came through the windows was soft, hazy
and how he wished he could have thought parisian. That
was the only European city he knew well, perhaps he
had known it too well and had taken it so much for
granted that he would never be able to go back and in
any event never alone. That would be the place to die,
he thought, if one wer·e old and tired and still r·easonable.
How graceful one might be there in quittin;s the sun for
the shade. Think of all those lovely shade trees dusty
with August, but r·emember how bored you were so
much so that you had to visit the Carnavalet or somesuch museum and gaze at the cast-off finery of once
famous feet and shoulders, delicately infamous thighs
and breasts and Johanna the Mad's ivory and gold filigree toothpick. The knot defied his well-pared nails
and nervous fingers. He reached for the scissors and
severed the cord, and pulled off the cover of the box,
swept back the tissue paper and falling under a spell
gazed at the contents.
A few moments later Clement thinking all that glitters
is not brass dragged a tall lamp imitation Italian across
the room to .his table and nooded his pr·esenc·e with three
hundred and sixty light bulb watts. He immediately felt
that in this room he would always find the correct setting. Except for the writing table all the furniture was
COLLEGIAN
painted a dull black, the walls and ceiling were gray
as was the floor which was covered entirely by a soft
wool rug. Only books with the most brilliantly colored
of covers were in evidence and the pictures which hung
on the walls ran the full range of a pure palette. On
successive days Clement might conceive for himself the
nec,essity of a stained glass setting or one of breughel
madness or mockery or the dry dust of a choking death,
but at this particular moment the room belonged to no
period and yet could very easily have fitted into any.
He pulled from the bookshelf a thin leather-bound
volume: green-dyed leather smooth to the fingers, soft
to the cheek, strong to the eyes, weakly aromatic to th~
mind. It was a copy of The Lover Pursued by Cassan.
dra Maria Helena Esdava of Torino and Touraine.
Clement was in the proc.ess of translating the book and
opened to the triangular marker of rough brown leather
Here I Fell Asleep embossed in gold leaf to page twenty.
six and began to read aloud the translations of thre~
poems on that page which he had rendered through the
heat of the previous summer. He read:
''I begin the day bountifully, from midnight no sleep;
all has become diabolic planning, and yet it is as if all
· of the past belongs to the devil and now that I belong
to the cl.evil I belong to myself: no longer does evil
exist becaus·e I am evil."
·
He continued:
"The dance of death is the only music which r·eaches
my ears, my blood: I wish today as I balk with a
growl at the rim of the lake with a kitten at tl:e fo ot
of the way . . . ."
Another version of the same:
" I stalk and I prowl, I grimace and I shake, but smit·
ten with the thought I walk upright into my way·
wardn·ess .. . ."
I wonder who Esdava was, he thought, and wrote this
in the margin. And finally:
" When I go in search of love it is like setting out on
a voyage to discover if it has all been a dream."
He stopped reading and slammed the book shut and
hurled it across the room. There it lay conspicuously in
the corner. His averted eye still caught a patch of green
which ate into his consciousness, a sadness provoking
him to find a place for the patch: a green lawn care·
fully bounded and neatly set-off by shimmering poplar
trees before the soot-hegrimed clay building, small be·
cause it had been an over-crowded school. And that
was the only time we were not lonely, and if I might
stop here, recall no more, go on living the lie, but senti·
mentality is a weak emotion and it was nothing more
than the spring and a dream of sailing away. Perhaps
I will go to Italy in the summer next or after and live
in a room with rain-stained walls and have a wobbly·
legged little table on which will stand a cracked white
rerra cotta pitcher filled with potable water.
Clement tipped over the carafe beside his bed and
water a week old spilled over the table sweeping particles
of dust and cigarette ash in its path. He had to move
about the room again to destroy the pattern or purpose
oE his thoughts in an attempt to forego the inevitable,
(Continued on page 5)
·
ST. JOHN'S COLLEGIAN
October, 1949
THE
REAL
COLLEGIAN
·Volume I, Number L
roy. Leroy, as a mat.le thing sadly lacking.
October 14 9 1949
As .the ne w year commences, we 9
the ·Real editors 9
that a statelll:en-t o:f policy should be :forthcoming o
lt
:feel
ts
mrr
desi're to present t o our reade r s the Real t .ruth a11d _10 t
Truth i n any real sense a As Admiral Farragu t once almost
said 9 "Damn the Qu al i :fi c a tion s!
Full speed ahead! " " Due
to the absence o:f the S t , J ohn 1 s Colleg i an 9 the c atego r ical
imperative · reveaied· t o us t h a t w-e h ad a duty to the Freshmen
namely 9 to guide t h em t hrou gh the necessary perplexities of
the First Yea r t o the Real tr uth o This is our policy and
with deep de Yo ti on to the a i ms o:f t he Real progr am, we shall
succeed o
Tf-1e Parable o:f the Returning
Seniors
At the end o:f the third ye ar
Father Klein called his Childr01
toge ther and said ~ "Long have we
labored in the vineyards and ol,lr
Vines have tender gripes o Press
them before me therefore 9 that I
may know whereby to judge you o"
And they pressed, tpey trod
upon the fruit o:f their three
l·ears " Of' the fruits did He see
and did know what was lacking
Re spoke unto his children sayirg~
."I W
ould have y ou go forth into
the world this stnmner and count
the tre a sur ~s which ye h av e
received at your Father 9 3 house o
In the Fall you will r eturn and
we shall judge who is worthy of
the honor o:f tt1e House , "
And his children 1 eft o Some
went into t he Village and r i otous ly live d on t he s ubs t ance of
their Father 9 s ho us e c Some 9
in to the vall e ys we e ping for
they wer~ filled with the fear o:f
their Father vs j udgements " Some
went unto the s ea and wer e happy ,
And some went unto the mounta::ins 9
meditating day and n i ght, hoarding unto the ir hear ts that which
had been given .
They were
disconsolate o
In the :fall, the harvest
time, ttLe faithf'ul returned and
th e y qu~ked with fear in the
secre t p lac es " Four :full days
their Father sat in judgemen t and
many were f'otnd wan ting o
Jnto them who went into the
mo:.mt a.:rl.:·~ and meditated was shown
the error of their ways, for
ditors would have hit
editorial policy." Duns
op1mon. It was certa sheet to the old lab
1t from an un-found
1
eople have pointed out
mow of would use a
do.)
.l\'\,'pe story is closer to
aper in question to be
1tion, minus the page
the page 5 referred to.
tifused in the Treasures of the New Finantrn were sent to the
r the yellow furniture.
mt went to the boiler
~ded it to their headto the switchboard.
·ed, saw, and the Art
:i.s the result, together
d the new lights. Pat
~ last week. At some. Miss Alexander was
we been executed with
,kes itself available, we
·selves so, again as al-
ciera
king
creature,
pon all.
ert J. Pierot '53
�Page 12
ST.
JOHN'S
COLLEGIAN
love? How probable was his existence in time or out of
painted a dull black, the walls and ceiling were gray
time? Could Al Quinn have been serious when he said
as was the floor which was covered entirely by a soft
that I was incapable of playing games, that I took life
wool rug. Only books with the most brilliantly colored
too seriously by playing it like a game and disbelieved
of covers were in evidence and the pictures which hung
his avowed success even in attempting to villify and
on the walls ran the full ran2:e of a oure oalette. On
exalt the artificial'
as king or courtit
the assump t i ons that h e himself
poss i ble ,
they had meditated upon the wr ong
long as he was all
a costume prdera
Mr " F o Kr Br own~n o t ed Shak1 is making c. Kant says that only
things o But even unto them was
velvet touched her
speare s cholar , on the Se r ie~ thoughts are givenc The unity of
nercy given 9 they rep ented and
fur of an ott·er. l\
the sequence of these t houghts 9
Dembumshoul dawon ~rere pardoned .
The y who wer e
slapped across Cle
Mr o S - Kaplan- tal mudist, ( however 9 p-oves that there is
happy by tile s ea were weighed and
being left alone w
the Real Collegians 0 first i ssu s omething more than the thoughts 9
not found wanting, They who went
wash the pain of
tears when I am
How are we t o mder s tand this n namely 9 the "P o That is to say
:mto the v al l eys weep i ng, wept
man? Clement he
that the mind is related as an
publica tion?
ag a i n but for joy 9 f o r their
So wandering t
Mr o J o W Smith- New Testamer object 1 a phenomenon t o b e known
,
Fat.her was comforting , And they
he remembered on
expert 9 whil e p e r using the lit through i ntuition 9 the rest of
who went i n t o the Vill a ge we r e 9
and avoided the ga
the phenomenal universe is given
of enabled seniors ~ I can wonde
of course 9 so re~y chafed for
had returned to tt
afraid of the d~'lY ;
I can doubt, but I can ° t believ1 to the mi n d o Thus Kant proves
un to them w the Father harsh o
as
or madness, and :..
Amadis de Gaul-Not ed Spani! t he existence of the unive rse by
Yet i t was not the Village ,
more distant past
Noble 9 here on a mission to ti s howing that its existence is of
nor the valleysy the mountains_.,
his world. But wl
World Bank stated ~ The reas on o the same order as that of the
1or tr1e sea that enabled the
denied had little 1
your unreasonabl e usag e of~ ~nind , But tl1a t the mind ex is ts
children to enable, but it was
Now at this morr
future perfect. Ce
reason 1 does so enfeeble m cannot be doubted~ therefore the
,
(contirrued on page 5)
sand, let the days
reason 7 th_ t I have reason t phenomenal world exists , Kant
a
member for if yo1
expostulate with your beau ti ha s ammended Descartes to read
ihl CROCOSM AND MACROCOSM
For some positive
Mr - C Leffel-accoust ic! "Intuito, ergo universlllll est" o
others. I will proc
authority 9 on the Chorus ~ Radio
Recent developments in the
it. Ascend then tc
THE ROVING REPORTER
are for the mas ses, give me
cold and lonely. (
nf~ws have inspired many conmen ts
not succeeded. I ri
good phonograph anytime "
on the fate of the world and the
He turned to a
As usual the Keal editors
:,fr r S Ocrat es-gadDy , _ afte
destiny of man 9 etc . In order to
heavy string and
e
reading Aristotle ~ Now I kno w re unable to find anyone who
sho'c the Real integration of tl1e
light which came
would volunteer to r:eview ~ fr .
my mistake
Coilege and the world, we are
and how he wished
We thereupon
Mr ,
K • Smi th,- logician 9 a Klein ~ s lecture
was the only Eure
presenting a list of quotations
asked the retiring Real Dean 9
had known it too
the eternal verities :
~
"'ran some supporters of the Real
granted that he we
things , what they are to be ~.Ir, Seedy Lewis , to jnterrogate})rogram to show that theyJ at
any event never al1
imply motion ,
various members of the ~-te al
least, can integrate o
he thought, if one 1
~~r- A E . Neas- pietist, whil
College on their impressions
:rr > A:!.i~Jan-rnonster, on
How graceful one
sojOtJrning in Scotland Do chang of the E.ssential Dean's lecture .
the shade. Think
the ercuca LlOflal process ~ You
thy self, or turne at thy awn
Mi ke Jackson -Freshman,
with August, but
taught me language, and my profit
much so that you
eis, in al marmer of figuris a Th ere 1 s a grey horse on my
')11' t is, I kl iow now how to curse ,
such museum and
the pleis.o , o
ranch that can pull any horse
iir" _i_,, Scofield- critic ,
famous feet and s
in tl~e world arotnd and I don 9 t
comi:entin~ o:n t.i1e recent Boiler
and breasts and Jo
FROH DESCARTES TO KAN T
care what color he is o
gre.e toothpick. T
:::r iSiS : nut WhO IS tO pay the
~ob Sperter-Sophomore,
and nervous finger
-_piper?
severed the cord, a
Descartes makes the diet~
Super-semantically speaking ,
~~r F , Darcy-ornament, on the
swept back the tis:
11 Cogi to,
the lecture was devoid of any
ergo sum ,
the basi
func t ion of man in an untheoretigazed at the contei
Real si;snificance, however, I
for his 'hilosophy, but Kan
cal socie ty : One must sreak a
A fe w moments 1
regards t1is state:nent much as
feel in some sense that the
is not brass dragge1
little, you know o It woul l l h)K
wise teacher views with detacl1E
integration of the program was
the room to .his tab
odq to be entirely silent for a
hundred and sixty I
amuse11ent the attempt o1 a cle-V!
a roint at issue ,
half an hour together, and ye t,
that in this room l:
· chEc. to solve a prode1n that I
~H clr Congdon- Junior, The
for the ad'·t.: itage :.:,,;· some,
ting. Except for tl:
if' ';,· ·i.., ~ ,; t,r, tio ,_ '1;:-. ..:.. -~ e o.f J.l
.~1 i. iel·:'.' :,_: Add!.J.es i :: :u:'.i .!! il• ;;
conversat i on ought to be so
~ ·1 W~Et ·, ·_evere .~oppe>." "i<~ .=rass
inabilit,,y V:) dis t:iJiLUish be t we
arranged as they ma~' :·lr-.1,ve the
ST. JOHN'S COLLEGIAN
1
w
,
G
t r ouble of s a ying as l i ttle a s
fl"
v:l1at is given Lti t he problem a
can do today
r
October, 1949
Jerry Lan ser - Senior 9 Time
_
is th e sol e j u dge o cc
Mr , Lewi s - e x officio 9 The
over=all gain features a flat
response to 20 9 000 Ccp - s and
a 2% intermodulation distor~
tion ~ with hum 72 de , below
rated output, but Mr Klein
didn't use i L
THE REAL REVIEWE R
The purpose of the critic is
to instruct j that is 9 ·to point
out the directions that any art
form should t a ke - In organ
music 9 for example 9 the composer
must expect to have his opera
compared to similar works of say 9
Bach or FraI1cko A work which has
just lately C')me of age deserves
special mention - For the benefit
of the Fresbmen and to avoid in
the future the present enibarassment of the upper classes while
drinking to organ music, the
words of this composition follow ~
Saint John 9 s aa rch
Saint J olm i s forever,
Her fame can never die o
Fight for her colors;
We 1 11 raise them to the sky
Each loyaJ son
Pledges her his heart and bane_
For her .urii ted
We, as brothers, stando
The tune will ·0e annomced at the
next meet ing of the Chorus _
Please brin ,~ your copy
of
the · ords .
Bibos
eroy. Leroy, as a matole thing sadly lacking.
~ditors would have hit
editorial policy." Duns
~ op1mon. It was cer1ta sheet to the old lab
:nt from an un-found
;>eople have pointed out
know of would use a
l do.)
true story is closer to
>aper in question to be
ation, minus the page
the page 5 referred to.
nfused in the Treasuries of the New Finan1rn were sent to the
r the yellow furniture.
mt went to the boiler
rded it to their headto the switchboard.
~ed, saw, and the Art
~s the result, together
d the new lights. Pat
t last week. At some: Miss Alexander was
Lve been executed with
1
.k es itself available, we
selves so, again as al-
:iera
king
creature,
all.
ert J. Pierot '53
:)Oil
L '-=- c~ntributions for future
i•.:; .sues s 1.1ou1d be addr ::;·~sE:d to
either Box # 4 or r:ic· .>.. y;2fi,
�Page 12
ST.
JOHN'S
COLLEGIAN
love? How probable was his existence in time or out of
painted a dull black, the walls and ceiling were gray
time? Could Al Quinn have been serious when he said
as was the floor which was covered entirely by a soft
that I was incapable of playing games, that I took life wool rug. Only books with the most brilliantly colored
too seriously by playing it like a game and disbelieved of covers were in evidence and the pictures which hung
his avowed success ----- =- _._ ____;__ -~ •.;ll; f .. ~.-.rf
n.-. t-ho UMllc .......... h,,. +1111 ..,,t'IO".P l"\t " n11rP n::ilP:ttf'. O n
exalt the artificial'
as king or courtif
long as he was all
a costume pref era
THE UNINVITED GEIST
velvet touched her
Je suis l e ten b re au . .
fur of an otter. r-,
slai:ped across Cle
AI'A@O~ has wavered thru t he years
being left alone w
wash the pain of
The long , long 9 years 9 the freshman years o
tears when I am
man? Clement he
We rd ~i ch zum Augenb l icke s agen :
So wandering t
he remembered on
Verweile doch ! du bist so schfim!
and a voided the g<
had returned to tl
I yearn, Real truth to learnafraid of the d:'t y ·
or madness, and s1
l ' esprit de finesse .. . . . . I guess
more distant past
his world. But wl
si lunga tr a tt a
denied had little ·
Now at this mon
d i gen t e , ch 'i o non a vr e i ma i c r eduto
future perfect. cf
sand, let the days
ch e mor te ta n t a n' a v e sse disf at t a
member for if yo
For some positive
My world , thi s wo rld 9 the ste r ile world
others. I will proc
it. Ascend then tc
cold and lonely. c
not succeeded. I r
Ge rry
He turned to a
heavy string and
light which came
SEMINAR
and how he wished
was the only Eure
had known it too
I think I mean o c
granted' that he we
I hope I mean a o a
any event never al
I try to mean wha t Pl ato means
he thought, if one
(or in some sense what he sought)
How graceful one
the shade. Think
with August, but
It doesn Q matter what words you u se
t
much so that you
It doesn Q matter what me tho ds you choose
t
such museum and
As long as you get where your going
famous feet and :
AS long as you know w
here your g oi ng
and breasts and Jc
gre.e toothpick. 1
and nervous finge1
Can you make t h i s c l ear?
severed the cord, :
Can you i l lustrate?
swept back the tis
Well cc o man ~ man ~~ Sta te ~ S tat e
gazed at the conte
(understood , of course 9 the courses of f ate)
A fe w moments I
It 1 s getting lat e
is not brass dragge
I t Q gett i ng late
s
the room to .his tab
hundred and sixty I
W
ell c o ,, man ~ :;; ta te ~ ~ m an ~ Sta te
that in this room l
ring. Except for ti
e
0
Jt i s nearl y ten
,,~~ r.;:. happen s then ooo
0
ST. JOHN'S COLLEGIAN
Annapolis, Maryland
Vol. LXIII, No. 1
October, 1949
Editorial
tributed after dark by Leroy. Leroy, as a matter of fact, found the whole thing sadly lacking.
What we have to say is a repetition of what He had hoped that its editors would have hit
has been said before, officially and unofficially. upon a more "discerning editorial policy." Duns
("We" means generally, "the Editors of the Scotus was of the same opinion. It was cerCollegian," and specifically, "the people who tainly neither a new errata sheet to the old lab
wrote, typed, and proof-read this issue.") The manuals, nor a fragment from an un-found
repetition is our saying once more that the Plotinus. (Almost four people have pointed out
Collegian is an organ of the whole St. John's that no Plotinus they know of would use a
Community, depending for its very existence kappa where a chi would do.)
Vie suspect that the true story is closer to
upon the creat ive contributions of that community. The repetition is necessary because the Tale that finds the paper in question to be
contributions so far this year have been so very an old Enabling examination, minus the page
with the questions on it; the page 5 referred to.
slight.
We are assuming, of course, that the Colle- This examination was confused in the Treasurgian should exist this coming year. We have er's Office with the copies of the New Finanno comment on its past history, wondering just cial Policy, which in turn were sent to the
what should be expected from such a child. We decorators responsible for the yellow furniture.
are sure that at no time past has any publica- The furniture requirement went to the boiler
tion in any way represented the whole St. people, who then forwarded it to their headJohn's Community, and now we are only hope- office, who returned it to the switchboard.
There Pat Davis appeared, saw, and the Art
ful that such a publication is even possible.
No doubt Collegian suffers a bit from lack exhibit of last Spring was the result, together
of definition. The only definition we have to with the brass lamps and the new lights. Pat
offer is this issue itself. The definition, we left, as we all know, just last week. At somerealize, wants amendment. That can best be time, an or der recalling Miss Alexander was
accomplished, we feel, by contributions from given, and it seems to have been executed with
the different segment s o:f t he student popula- no confusion.
tion.
If further evidence makes itself available, we
shall certainly make ourselves so, again as always.
Comment
Towar d t he ideal of an Informed Community,
let us attempt to find order in t he recently witnessed bit of what seems to be Chaos herself.
We refer to the once-folded bit of paper found
one week ago in t ruly odd corners of the campus buildings. The or igin of t he bit is still in
question, but we can at this date stamp-out a
good many of t he r umors.
Fir st , it was not a select ion of type-face samples passed out by the Veri-type people to show
off their machine, nor was it written and dis-
Sansefiera
Crowded they stand
In the wide pot,
All wanting and taking
The best place,
But not looking
For better places.
Such is nature and creature,
The sun laughing upon all.
Robert J . Pierot '53
�
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The Real Collegian Vol. I No. 01
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The Real Collegian, October 14, 1940
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Annapolis, MD
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Text
COLLEC;JAN
Operations
;Research ~
..
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Revolution and Rebellion.
Poem
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The Use of Words .,
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The English Tutorial: A. First Report
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•· Carter
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�OFERATIONS RESEARCH
On the evening of Oct . 9, Mr . Hinnri chs gave to the college comm.unity a
lecture entit led noPERATIONS RESEARCH 11
..
o.R
1
as I shall hereafter refer to the
project, is composed of a large and varied group of s cientifically trained men
whose job it is to be the components of a smaller group which pools its resources
to solve a given problem
They must be able to apply their specifi c techniques
i n such a manner that their r esults are of cash value t o their clients.
11
being of cash value
1
means that since they are efficiency experts 1 their recommen-
dations must result in efficiency
group of
This
research~observers,
This review will examine the procedure of a
op=searchers, noting how the subsequent synthesis
of data supplied by t hat analysis results in the solution of the problem at hand
In a given business it may happen t hat a responsible executive finds that in
orde:r to- keep in business with hi s competitors he must radically change his procedure
..
in the making of a particular part of his product
To accomplish this end, he sees
that it is necessary to find a new and more economical use of his present personnel >
or even to get some new machinery .
which he cannot go .
There is J of course ,, a definite cost-limit over
The wise analysis of the problem , with a view to making the
practical choice of alternatives.i is a job that the op-searchers are well qualified
to carry on .
This being a fairly typical
selects from its files of technicians on
problem~
call~
the organizing agency at 0-R.
a team which> at first sight at
is qualified to handle the intricacies of the problem..
least~
In this case the team would
most probably consist of a man who would accurately record the motions of the
personnel at their machines so that he would. have the necessary data to send to
another member of the team) a rne.thematician . This man would so analyze the findings
of the first, t hat he could accurately judge if there were an appreciable amount of
wasted effort on the part of the personnel _ Then these findings are sent to still
another member of the t eam who would see if a new method of working at the already
existing equipment ' could be found .
If
so
1
the question would arise as to whether
�.3
2
or not this change was sufficient f or the needs of' the particular case ~
both areas of human endeavor do admit to the analysis of t,he mod8rn scierit.ist JI
If
not, then engineers would be contacted who would draw up plans for a machine
fitting the given qualifications,
The cost of' such a me.chine would then be
reckoned by a cost-accountant$ and the final results of the whole procedure
would be turned over to the client 1 these results being the factors governing
The above example shows what i.t means for a team of men with certain necessary techniques at their disposal
to
employ these techniques so that they
are able to give possible solutions to problems that men run up against in the
action ~,
see certain things for himself, as well as to say that he is partlyJ at lea st ~ of
such a nature that he can be symbolized in the manner that eJ.gebra calls for " I
think that both of these things are taken for granted by those who call upon O ~ R ~
and those in O') R,,, as well as those
his future choice c)
course of
that of mathematics, is to deny certaj_n things regarding the capacity of men to
These techniques are of special interest for they allow the
experts, so-called, to couch the findings of others in such a manner that
these data are susceptible of a quantitative~ statistical analysis p The above
example also serves to illustrate the need of tea..'1!Work as well as what the
elements of the final analysis are - those things susceptible of a guantitative,
statisti£~, analysis Q This need for teamwork seems to arise naturally from
the great complexity of the problems to which the diverse technologies of the
modern world gives rise ~
Only as teams can men possibly have the know-how that
the complex nature of the problems at hand call
for ~
In such an example as the one above, say in a $10,000,000 a year business ~
there seems to be very l'ttl e P1ace f or questions concerning the necessity of
·
1
such complex organizations as O ~ R v
It does seem to me appropriate, however, to
ask whether to see~ an organization which has as its tools of analysis~ mathematics in the wider sense of the word, and quantitative statistics in particular~ with the end of asldng for aid in the solving of questions of education
and morality is validc The U<, 8 0 government has asked O'i'Ro: for its aid on a
number of occasions 0 Again~ educators have employed the methods of o . R ~ in
trying to solve the age-old problem of truancy in the school$ o To say that
~hose
brain-child
O~Re is .
,
It seems to me that the above men have dedded that onl:y: through experience,
that is in living and acting around men, does any man gain prudence.. It is indisputible that experience is a necessary part of that discipline t.hat leads one to
prudence o I do not think that the Op-searchers admj_t that there are any other
elements involved~
What they do think is very well expressed ~y Hobbes in the first
part of his book, nLEVIATHANn, and I quote ; '~And t,herefore he that has had most
experience in any kind of business , has most signs, whereby to guess at the future
time; and consequently, is the most prudent : and so much more prudent than he that
is new in that kind of business, as not to be equalled by any advantage of natural
or extemporaa ~t: though many young men think to the contrary .~n
I stress this
quote where I do because I think that the point of it lies in a certain low evaluation of the power of the intellect to see into the natures of things " In this
point, at least, Hobbes and the men connected with O~R ~ are in perfect agreement 4
The prime example of this in the activities of 0 -a.R _, is the preoccupation with the
'team' ~
For to see as necessary, to solve all the probl ems of men, several 'experts'
who have at their disposal all of the experience of the laboratory expeTiments, is
really nothing but to affirm the truth of the proverb that itwo heads are better
than onea
0
This certainly according to Hobbes and, as it seems to me , also accord-
ing to the men in 0 R
0
9
means that irrespective of how good any one head mi ght beJ
two less good heads » two having more experience than one, are better than one ~
say that men are so illiberally endowed 'With the tools to see that a group must
To
�5
4
tackle any problem if it is to be solved
assumption for these men to makeo
sucessfully~
Hobbes, at
0
Hobbes that seems particularly relevant ~
seem to haveo
O ~ R.
Also it is necessary for us to
u..~derstand
Cicero, or a Thomas , or any other docto whatsoever 1 IF BUT A MAN .. n
a great
S~RATES:
deal about mathematics before we can concur with some of the applications that
O.R. has made.
The role of the algebra in the mathematical part of the
sis is a great one for a good reasone
algebra is a
0
Descartes says in the
flRegulaev~
for the truth of things which are, &•Qalthough I do not wholly grant that one who
analy~
is examining things there is looking at them in an image rather than in actualli ty"' it
that
We must all make our choice @ Which is the correct one I cannot say"
Does this not fit in very well with the need for
and therefore of fear, makes the latter a hard choicea
sight of ten times the number of things that one can have of these same things
seen in their unabbreviated form.
the cosmos as ·an ordered place, and therefore a friendly one, than as a place where
all things are apart from one another;
--~Richard
OcRe stands under fire mainly because it seems to be based upon
certain assuinptions concerni_g very importan't matters, assumptions which are
n
For to begin by ·saying that we men are incapable-·of
seeing Rbeyond our noses» is a serious mistake a Anyone who knows any geometryat all knows some things about the analitical method
statement~
0
He at least knows that if
although that statement may be denied for the .
sake of the subsequent reductio ad absi.lrdump he is not going to find- out a
The tools that the men have at their disposal. at
O~R 0
are such
This includes men apart from other men as
well as men apart from the ideas ®
alternative method of making that .accilrate analysis 'that must precede ·a -wise
one starts without a
I myself prefer to think of
3
With all these adverse criticisms it seems only fair that I point out some
not wholly warrented.
I can say,
however, that the former one involving us as it does in the tradition of Hobbes,
experience? For with these abbreviations, one man 9 at a glance, can have the
great deal.
"It seemed to me to be necessary to take refuge in logos, seeking there
compendious abbreviation of those objects that present themselves
to our external sightn.
decision ~
but
they are the money of fools, that value them by the authority of an Aristotle~ a
then to say that perhaps there
is this incapacity in men, before we can go along with the prejudices that
those of
An alternative approach that does not
HOBBES: nFor words are but wise men's counters, they do but reckon by them:
existing mode of opinion" It is inctun1:Jent upon all of us to make a very
it~
That the
make this mistake shall be given by a quote from the dialogue, t.he i!pHAEDOn o
problem that is necessary if the answer is to be one based on more than the
thorough search for tru.th. 9 and.9 not finding
that man can know~ or that he
tools at their disposal imply this denial I think I can show by a quote from
It was
m.nnrichs had not made ·t.hat search into the
Mr ~
0
can analyze a human problem and subsequently make a prudent decisiona
saw a great many of the
least~
problems involved in saying either that men could or could not knowc
clear from the lecture that
that they imply the lack of a R
statement u; i e
is a strange kind of
.
.
Carter
�6
7
REVOLUTION AND REBELLION
character of knowing, and no system of symbols can guarantee that insight will
There has from the beginning of the N p rograrn been a revolutionary
ew
atmosphere on the St a John's campus
In the
1930~s 1
the John Dewey progressive
education theories had very real and very practical control of most of American
primary and secondary education, and the practice of the theories was beginning to appear in many colleges and universities (.
occur~
But since we demand of ourselves that we know the truth and yet realize
that we cannot guar antee that it will be passed on to
And indeed how do we discover it ourselves?
others~
what are we to do?
How can one educate or be educated?
The great practical wisdom of the founding fathers of the New Program
Progre sive education in
instinctively furnished the answer - by a revolutiona
Revolution i s more than a
its beginnings was a radical attempt to include the new natural sciences into
movement in opposition to the status quo0
the liberal arts tradition
From a slightly more remote and
inclu~ive
point
view~
progressive education was a chapter in the development of ttscientific
methodtt..
It is the inevitable spilling over of
a genuine insight into the realm of pract ical affairs o The course of a real revolu=
The power of the natural sciences in controlling nature was so great
of
tion follows a line of development which I think can 9 in g~neral 9 be trace d~ and in
terms of which one might almost be able to judge the revolutionary character of any
that a large segment of first, the intellectuals, and following them, the
given series of events"
larger pa.rt of our middle class societyp was seduced into believing that
man~s
control of himself and his inner destiny was merely a matter of the proper
application of laboratory methodo
and formulated a law of nature, we should be able to control
ourselves ~
John
Deweyts analysis of ethics is essentially an attempt to abstract procedures
from the laboratory processes and to apply them to human
believed :r and not entirely without
reason~·
conduct ~
It was
that the most absorbing human
affairs were practical affairs and were consequently subject to
experiment ~
The rise of ·psychology as a matural and experimental science gave great additional wei ght to this view ~
Many events of h~n behavior can be illuminated by
the behavior of rats in a maze o But progressive education forgot one great
lesson of the tradition :; the levels of meaning and the '•likely story••, and it
was the great insight of Scott Buchanan and Stringfellow Barr that this must
be restored to educationa
t he
e~pacity
as a critique of practical judgment about the last fifteen year s at St ~· John's~
The cause of a revolution is an insight ~
If we could only find the secret of the
laboratory technician as he took down his date ,, found a mathematical pattern,
The essence of this insight is based on a paradox,
of the human mind to know the truth and to know at the same time
at i t cannot completely formulate that tr;th ~
Insight is the essential
I should like to sketch in this development and to use it
strength
I want to use this term in its full
Insight is an intellectual .virtue and a revolution is at its conceptionp
intellectualo
As a revolutionary movement comes to be born~ it overflows the limits:
of strict intellectuality and becomes political in the most gener al sense of that
word$ that is the revolution becomes a practical program ~
The organization of the
practical program has for its model the internal order of the original insight e
The
context of feeling which surrounds the insight is one of discovery rather than fabri=
cation and manufacture&
There is the sense that the so called new idea has been right
in front of you all time, and that the strange thing is that it has r emained invi sible
and undiscovered for so long ~
When one sees the idea there is no question of what
it means~ or of how it is to be interpreted0 The idea is what it appears to be and
if it is not i mmediately seen to be what it is, then either it is not being seen
or it is not a true revolutionary insight o The question wrs it true?'ll i s never a
formula with which to begin the investigation of the idea~
The idea~ once seenp is
immediately apprehended and there are only two possible reactions
=
either a judgment
�8
9
is made that the idea exists , that is to say that it is true; or one must
con~
judge t hat it is not an idea, that it has no existence 1 and that it is
sequently false in the only way an idea can be false, that
is~
from the beginning that no particular set of tricks 'Jf the trade were essential
it i.s an
to the success of the revolution
The sole function of annual eBsays 3 don ra.ys9
oral and enabling exams, senior theses and all such characteristic Sto JollllRs
illusionr,
devices was to assist in the reading of the
Then, the revolutionary idea overfl ows the limits of strict intellectuality
and becomes a convictionv conviction demands action, and a program of action
books~
As they -more or less success=
fully fulfilled this function , certain devices were discarded or imprmred, and
other instruments were contrived and
naturally develops from the pattern of the original idea, just as the theorems
added ~
One of the most striking aspects of the revolution was a sense of the
of Euclid naturally flow from the basic assumptions of the definitions] axioms,
irrelevance of all other activities Q At times this seemed to degenerate into a
and postulates o And wherever there is conviction there is devotion, and for
graceless snobbism, but at its best it was devotion to an idealy
the devout there are no possible half-way measures
criticism of St " John's in those days was built around the "ivory towern accusationo
The devout revolutionary
A frequent
will not admit a lukewarm comrade in arms o Whoever is not for the revolution
It was charged that to read books was to escape from realitye
i s against it; and those who are against it must be blind } for the idea re-
have missed the mark more
quires only to be seen to be understood, and ·only to be understood to be
students and faculty made the world beyond the campus seem very remote and very
acted upon.
pale.
and
And so all who are concerned take up arms; there are only friends
enemies .~
widely~
The development of a revolutionary idea into a revolutionary movement is
spontaneous , if the idea is vigorous c.
The discovery that levels of meaning
and the likely story were quintessential parts of a liberal arts education
But the reality to which the bodks led both
There was on the campus an all-attractive excitemento
ment was frenzy, sometimes it was
No char ge could
madness~
Sometimes the excite=
But it most often functioned as an
attractive force that kept the attention of the community on the essential task
and which drew outsiders into the orbit of the
revolution~
The excitement which accompanied the revolution was of-ten, in
itself~
attractives
simply demanded that they be restored to educationo They exist in only the
Even at the beginning the excitement was occasionally mistaken for t he main taske
greatest works of the western tradition/)
Some members of the student body and some members of the faculty felt that the
matter of fact, the initial form
etic history.,
or
Thus these must be studied,)
As
a
the new program has a rather clear gen-
But in retrospect 9 the use of the great books as texts seems
inevitable o But that they should be read in historical order, that
tutorials~
seminar s; laboratories, and lectures should assume the rorm they did, was not
inevitablee.
These c. ::taracteristics
l
or
the program were merely initial instru-
ments that were not contrary to the revolutionary
the
books ~
idea ~
As we began to read
new devices seemed almost to suggest themselves, and it -was known
revolution was failing as the excitement died down~
The coffee shop shook with
metaphysical speculation for only eighteen instead of twenty-four holll"s a dayQ
But a new tension was forcing its way onto the cam.pusj and another kind of
excitement was provided for the old0
of St~ John's was completed ~
The second world was on before t he revolution
The program of great books continued, but the war split
the attention of the college @ The single minded revolutionary zeal for the program
diminished as the war developed to its
climax ~
�10
11
Some members of the community felt that the e c1ll e ge should cl ose f or the
"duration"~
The college remained open t hr oughout the war 9 but t he revolution
was over; finished before it had properl y
This
sense~ I
think~
is very
clear ~
The new program of studies was not
only established philosophically as the proper form of l iberal educati n for
our
time~
but the embodiment of that philosophical understanding had r evived
a moribund institution and was to survive the greatest s ocial upheaval of the
t wentieth
century~
that is the second world
war~
The essential vigor of the
original idea was thus verified beyond any reasonable
establish~
The world war
the earth 9 a large part of the original
scattered~
faculty .and student body would normally at t hi s poi nt have been turned t owards
literally to the fo1ll" ends of
St~ John~s army
of
prevlous five or six year so
For it was time t o settle down~ t o regulari z e~ to functionalize~ to dig
channels through w
hich the ordinary business of the College could be conducteda
No revolution can or should be prol onged indefinitely ~
revolution~
A large
It is emotionally impossible
to maintain the original zeal forever ~ it is immature to expect it to be maintained~
and it is unreas onable to attempt to maintain it beyond the point of the fullest
development of the revolutionary idea ~
doubt~
The sense in which the revolution had not properly mat ured is somewhat more
difficult to
The energy and attention of the
the tu-insti tutionalization10 of the great revolutionary insights and advances of the
matured~
But it is important to distinguish the sense in which the ravolution 1...ras
over ~
the new program should have been t aking placeo
revolution becomes anar chy
overextended zeal becomes frenzy, attenuated
•b
And so the College community was denied the satisfactions of seeing the fruit
of their labor~ whole and good 9 and at the normal time in the development of the
part of the student body and many of the yotnlger faculty members went into the
revolution~
armed servicese . The faculty members who remained at the College 9 fortunately
threats to survival
t he more mature teachers, had to close ranks in order to surviYe
yet to be done.,
that
St~
And the fact.
0
John's College today is still offering a liberal arts education
out serious deviation from the original purpose of freeing
largely due to the staff that simultaneously fought two
men~s
wa~s
'With~
on College Creek
The latter
con~
war had an appropriate culmination in the defeat of the Navyus attempt to
demn and appropriate for military purposes the campus and buildings of
st.
0
But while the war for survival was won, it was a war that had no relevance
effort~
But there was a much worse
aspect~
And the task of consolidating the gains of the revolution had
It was.11 I believe.11 not clearly understood at the end of the war that this was
The war
the major concern of the Collegeo
On the whole they were ignorant of what had
happened on the campus from 1937 to 19450
They were high strung because of their
war experiences~ and, because the war was now behind them, as they thought , they
Their demands on the College werep by ordinary standards~
exhorbitant 9 and the College felt a deep responsibility to try to satisfy the demands a
Even on the orthodox campuses of the country where the formulae of instruct i on are
f or survival occured during the period when the revolution should have been
at least clear$) if often pattyp the strains were great..
maturing~
of instruction were not at all clearo
when the formulation or orderly procedures f9r the continuati on of
The veterans of
the war began to matriculate in the fall of 1945 and in eighteen months t hey were
also felt let down~
Johntts ..,
t o the main revolutionary
0
the all important job 1 for there were obstacles to the clear viewo
minds is
in 1941 to 1946, the World War and the St , John es war for S'U:i:"Vival~
For these satisfactions was substituted a relief at the removal of the
At St ., Johnts.11 the formulae
This was true not because there was obscurity
�12 .
13
or disagreement about the ends, and indeed about most of the means of liberal
frightfully high.,
education, but because the natural maturation of the educational
for others repeated ro..any times and in many other
princ~ples, _
which were clear in themselves, into rules for the conduct of classes, for
And all of you can recognize that this situation is a paradigm
contexts ~
I should like to give one other example o In 1948 I was talking to a fellow
example, had been interrupted by the world war and the local war for survival ®
tutor about a set of don rags that had just ended0 This tutor had his first
The high tensions in the veterans themselves fostered the growth of the dis-
tutorial of the day at lOgOO A @M ~
order that this fault in the College causeda This fault in the College was
said that attendance i n his classes was normal, that is three to five students _out
nobodyVs fault, except perhaps
of twelve attended most of the time ~
Hitler's ~
I should like to give you examples of what I mean "
There was a rule then 5.
don rags i>
We were discussing the attendance problem ~
He
I asked what he had said about this in the
He replied that there was an almost universal student comment something
as now, that attendance at all classes was required, except under certain
like this v n1vm sorry that
clearly specified conditions , When one reads the rule in the catalogue it seems
clock in the morning
0
is
r
can't get to tutorial~ but I donit hear the alarm
And the student would go on to say~ "This is one of the
quite easy to understand$ The rule was originally formulated as part and parcel
most serious problems in my life at St o John 1 s 0 I think we should devote the don
of the principle that there is no election of courses, no adding up of credits,
·
.
·
rag to a discussion 6f how I can ge t up in th e mornin g
no part of the program that can be omitted from the whole e But there was never
from the very beginning any simple-minded hope that all students would go to
all classes unless they were flat on their backs in the Infirmary with a fev-er
of 105 degrees Fahrenheit .
The purpose of the rule was to declare an important
principle, that responsibility for his intellectual development lies ultimately
and irrevocably with the student
himself~
But attendance at classes in those
days can only be described as scandalous. l'1hat then did the application of the
rule, if it can be called such , consist of?
It consisted simply of reminding
the student of his responsibility to himself and a reiteration of the principle
that coercion is foreign to that responsibility.,
What then happened when a
@
1t
The tutor then said to
me almost with tears in his voice,. '3At the next don rags I shall begin each one by
spec~fically
prohibiting the mention of an alarm clocko
hangs on a Big Ben alarm clock, then we are doomedon
And he walked sadly away~
The mournful part of this anecdote is that getting up in the morning ~ a
serious problem for tl1e s t u dent
·:i
But uorst of all, how is one to discuss such a
w
problem rationally']· T.h e dreadful taslc of tearing oneself out of sleep and out of
bed in the morning cannot be made less painful by all the very best dialectic from
Plato to Whiteheade
I do not mean to imply that the College had lost its way at this time o It is
an amazing tribute to the strength and clarity of the original revolutionary insight
student day after day, month after month did not go to ciasses, for of course
that the program of studies remains essentially the same after so many years of so
there were such cases o In almost every case the student found his inability
much tribulationQ And even in the darkest times the reading of the best books of the
to shoulder his responsibility unbearable, and he voluntarily withdrew from
the College.
The mortality, for that is the very descriptive technical term
w
hich deans and registrars use for students who drop out of College, was
western tradition continued; and there was some dialectic in the coffee shap e
*
*
*
*
I have spoken of all this for You (students) who are now here are heirs to it
�15
Much of what I have said you are explicitly aware
all~
sure you have
sensed ~
The rest I am
of~
But the imrna.nent occasion which has prompted m to try
e
to tell you what you already know
~s
an attitude occasionally encountered on
this campus of a nostalgia for the "golden agen . .
There is no doubt that there
and it is frequently a fight for power ~
taneous (I do not mean instantaneous) and at its beginning is no-institutional for
there are no institutional forms in exis tence capable of carrying the revolutionary
idea
0
The institutions must be created from the whole cloth of the revolutionary
was an age different from the one we are now experiencing, and I have tried to
idea a
characterize it as revolutionary .)
drastically,.,
The implication of the golden age story,
namely, that it was a time we should try to copy, I flatly
deny ~
Revolutions
Rebellion always uses the current institutions, though it may change them
A revolution fulfills a need which can no longer be denied 0 Rebell-
ion fosters an adjustment which is more or less good o Revolution fills a vacumn;
have a natural life span 5 and although it is understandable that some members
rebellion replaces ~
of the
is over when the
St ~
John•s community should want to prolong that extraordinary excite-
ment which always accompanies a revolution, this by no means implies that it is
a wise course of action 0
The disorder, and it must be described as disorder 9
which was so obvious at St
John's from 1945- to the present has had two
causes~
A revolution in its conception is spon-
11
A revolution is complete when it becomes embodied; a rebellion
outs 11 are in,,
Revolution is organic; rebellion is artificiaL
Rebellions come after revolutions in time a
The major source of confusion between the two movements is in the amount of
excitement they create . ,
Rebellions can be fanatic ,) And at St o John's I think that
The first I have characterized as a failure of the revolution to mature into
the current rebellious fevers are sometimes mistaken by the rebels of both sides
well-understood forms of social organization and communicationq This defect of
for the animation of revolutionn But I am sure that the revolution is
the College as a social institution was magnified by the unusual tasks which
the College undertook for the war veterans .
over ~
Rebels often sense that their cause lacks the grandeur of revolution, and it
is specifically this sense at St 0 John ' s that has led rebels and counter rebels s
The second cause lies in the normal development of an institution based on
for we are all at the moment one or the other, either to long for the good old days
a revolutionary principle c The grand period of revolution is usually succeeded
of revolution or to overemphasize the defects of the good old dayse
by a secondary period of adjustment, a period which I think is properly denomi=
for the current period of adjustment "' The events in this adjustment have been
nated
rebellious~
slowly to a
close ~
For the College, this period began in 1946 and is now coming
In the normal development of the forces now active in the
important, but not grand 0
This is normal
The major phases of adjustment are easy to list:
the
departure of the founding administration in 1946-47; the formation of first a tem-
College, the current period of rebellion will be followed by an era of relative
porary administration ~ its development into a more permanent form and its sudden
calm, quiet, and obvious social
replacement by the present administration; the reorganization of the language
worth ~,
But I should say more about
It is sometimes difficult to distinguish rebellion from
rebellion~
revolution ~
tutorials and laboratory which began as a conscious reform in 1948 and is still
Rebellion is a smaller movement, less ambitious, less grand than revolution 0
continuing; the admission of women; and recently the accreditation of the College
Its aims are often confused and mingled and it is never idealistic as I have
by the Middle Atlantic states Association; the new rules of residence; the sale
described revolution.
of the Brice House; the progress of the current financial campaign; the student
It is often occasioned by a conflict of
personalitie s~
�17
16
procurement program; the general trend of t he College toward respectabilitya
or combination of these might be a death blow or life-saver for the
this sense these events are extremely importanto
College~
In 48 hoursj) you, the class of 195.3 will become alumnio
Any one
and in
But in the revolutionary days they
later you will return to visit the CollegeG
Someday sooner or
Someday sooner or later you will have
to make some kind of judgment about the College o
You will surely be asked to
would have had an importance secondary to the development of the major ideas of the
contribute money to the College and to make certain efforts in its behalf s
program.
will you know that the College has not undergone an effective collllt er=revolution?
But some of you have expressed the fear to me that these events are indicative of
a collllter revolution that will dissipate the accomplishments of the revolution.
no~
think that they
are~
looking for trouble.
but I understand your concern._
I think you are sometimes simply
When I returned to the College last Septemberj I found, for the
first time at St .., John 1 s, women in my classese
in my classes..
I do
I
was asked how it seemed to have women
The best answer I could manufacture was, "Well, it seems a good deal like
After all it is hard enough to understand what ·. the College is doing while you are
hereo
I do .not laiow the answer to that question, and I'm sure that no one else
doese
But I can warn you not to confuse revolution
aries to rebels to solid members of your communitye
Growing
adult is not necessarily to be
an apparent lack of gallantry, but I think the presence of women students at
St~
Johnus
up~
revolution~
In these transitions you do
them~
And donttt be
becoming more mature is a painful process 9 but to be an
know how _o cope with.
t
And I apologize in advance for
rebeJlionq
not have to lose yo,ur critical faculties; you should sharpen
dispirited~
John's, but the importance attached to their presence
~ith
From this point on most of you graduates 'Will metamorphose from
having women in rrry classes." Actually the question had a kind of irrelevance I did not
The problem seemed to me to be, not women in the classes at st.
How
dead~
I
don~t
think you should be surprised if
the College continues to grow up and to settle downe
Bon Voyage .
--Raymond Wilburn
makes very little difference to the College.
You do well, however, to be critical of these developments, for there are certainly
(This art:icl..e is . substantially .the. t.ext of 1'i1re Wllburn° s , addresa at . the. class day
possibilities of counter-revolutionary moves.
towards inter-collegiate athletics.
I would be very sceptical of a major move
But I am at th$ same time regretful that there is
not more participation in the intra-mural program we havee
There is one great defense against the counter-revolutionc This defense consists of
the revolution which the program conceives and fosters in each of
you ~
No student can
come to Sto John's and participate in the program without having a revolution take place
i nside him.
If this ever ceases to be true, then the program will be deado
The whole
point of the regularization that has taken place since 1946 is to create the optimum
conditions for that individual revolution to take place by eliminating the distracting
and irrelevant influences$
exercises of June L3 9 l.95.3a
=
editors)
�THE USE OF WORDS
18
19
The Chorus
Co~~s
on the Death of Dylan Thomas
George Orwell once composed a sentence to illustrate some horrors of bad
writing:
On Monday was the t urning of the t i de ,
clusion that success or failure in competitive activities exhibits no tendency
The .fier ce r hythYvi broken, and o a Arionrhod,
Screaming her hysteric lust, stabbed t he swaggering
to be commensurate with innate capacity, but that a considerable element of the
Sun ~
unpredictable must be taken into account e'!
In sudden night the rebel current was revoke d;
The bitch reclaimed her
"Objective consideration of contemporary- phenomena compels the con=
You begin to get Mr0 Orwell 9 s point p
or points, when you read the verse in Ecclesiastes which is his original:
child~
0
I
returned, and saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle
In the
attic~
we saw it happeno
to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understandingj
The quick flash presaging qtrl..et dusta
Then the
rain~
nor yet favour to men of skill, but time and chance happeneth to them all., ''
warm on futile pavements,
Mimicked our dry tears 41
The qualities that make the prose of Ecclesiastes better ·than the monstrous
Unconvinced,
We watched the notaries fill out the
stuff of the parody include many of the qualities of good
registe~
,
In the first place, the writer of good prose ordinarily uses short words,
And waited, no requiem to justify your bones.
You~l egacy
A spell of violence and blood.
Sang in the swaying
I want t o
discuss two of themo
We lined your grave with cautious metaphors
Death was a hoax.
writing~
mostly of native origin, rather- than the learned polysyllables that have come to
us directly or indirectly from Latin and
was from the start,
Greek~
Of course he does not always have
a ·s imple choice, since a long word of Latin or Greek origin may be more accurate
The crazy bell
than its shorter equivalent, as acguiesce and agree; or may carry connotations
steeple~
that the shorter word lacks, as conflagration and firee
Finding a sterile echo in shriller voices.
You lured us through the vortex of our
But~
as Winston Churchill
has put it, "Broadly speaking, the short words are the best words; and the old
senses~
words are best of all.ft
A grubby wunderkind, forging sacraments of slime and sex$
The good writer usually chooses building2 not edifice;
Brotherly love , not fraternal affection; end, not terminate; truth, not veracitx;
Your liturgy was anarchy for us; we seized the Chaos, not the Wordo
change, not
transmogrif~;
spit, not expectorate; try, not endeavor.
His hero does
And now your ghost still tracks us down,
not become enamored, but falls in love; does not obtain a position, but gets a job
And molds our mourning to your image.
Good English is made up largely of short words.
Is your
monument~
0
poet~
A ruined generation
we the living
This is a point that evidently needs to be made at
St~
John•s.
I have not seen
Regret youe We see today our cold responsibilities
much of the prose that Sto Johnnies write; but what I have seen, and still more what
Through your dead
I have heard and heard of, suggests that many Ste Johnnies are victims of the poly=
eyes~
and long for what is lost.
-=~James
Taylor
•
�20
21
syllabic plagueo
They are of course not the only ones, for the plague has infected
many writers today; but here it seems unusually banefulo
is probably no reason to blame the Books.,
If this is
true~
there
are guilty of monotonour abstraction
0
Most amateur writing is a string of
"topic sentences," each of which shrieks its need of full development with
The Books ar e good books , and the authors
details~
In good writing the proportion of detail to generalization is often
of good books arenvt lazy or pretentious or timid, whereas people who habitually use
as high as ten to one .
imported polysyllables aree
book-divisions as our units of counting:
Lazy writers recoil from t he task of thinking clearly,
and welcome the great fuzzy words that merely fumble around a thought
writers are simply impressed by size and
sonority~
0
Timid writers 9 those
Pretentious
~ho
are
In Plato's Republi c it is nine to one, if we use the
In Book I all the main ideas of the
dialogue are stated abstractly, and as A."' Ee Taylor says, 9Rtheir real
signifi~
cance only becomes apparent as they are clothed with concrete detail in the
scared to commit themselves, scared of critical scrutiny, welcome long wor ds precisely
full-length picture of the good man and the good comm.unity.n
because these words dongt say anything or say things ambi guously and with loopholes@
Plato•s use of the concrete dialog1.le form is one reason why he is easier to
Whatever the reasons for this kind of
writing ~
the dangers are clear.
For one
read than, say,
Aristotle~)
{Incidentally,
On a smaller scale, most good expository paragraphs
thingp a sentence like Mro Orwell's parody doesn't say anything clearly to the readerp
consist of a generalization--perhaps only implied--and a mass of details .
at l east not till he has re-read it several times.
is not enough to state the theme or topic or point of a paragraphc
And unless the reader himself is
It
Tne reader
a sld,.11fti:J:l ·translator, the most he can get from the sentence is something pretty
of a generalization asks, 'twhat do you mean,
shapeles s.
think, but what of it?" or llThat's clear enough, and significant, but is it
Trying to communicate an idea with such words is like heaving clumps of
wool at a target instead of shooting an arrow at ito
Hobbes calls the result of such
true?"
exactly~n
or "I understand, I
So the good writer stays with his idea t till he has amplified,.and
elabor~
language "palpable darkness@"' For another thing, the mind that habitually wor ks with
ated upon his generalization, piling up details till he has answered all the
heavy, cumbersome tools is likely to turn out heavy, cumbersome thoughts; and after
questions of his reader
a time the tools fit the mind, and the mind the tools.
to communicate.
Somewhere you want to put an
end to this process, and it's certainly easier to begin with the words than the thoughts $
Another mark of good writing is that it is
concrete~
That is, it strikes the senses :
i t evokes picturesp sounds, smells, sensations of taste and touch ,.
More broadly 9
examples~
illustrations, stories, statistics,
descriptions ~
Without them
no WTiting is interesting; without them no writing is likely even to be cleare
irritating~
The
mystifyingQ
You can see it in Darwin, for example, or
Gibbon ~
It is used
over and over by Plato; for example, in The Republic, when Adeiroantus agrees with
Socrates that the young must not hear poetry that distorts the nature of gods
particular things?n
and Socrates answers by citing and quoting Hesiod and Homer
and Aeschylus, and by analyzing and commenting on themQ
opposite of concrete is abstract; and abstract writing--generalizations 9 inclusive
s tatements, abstracted from particulars_,,soon grows dull,
This is the universal way, because it is the best way
and heroes, he yet asks--as any reader would-11but just. what do we mean and what
concreteness includes not only sense-impressions but all sorts of details--instances 9
actions,
0
Socrates proceeds inductively, the details coming first, and then the abstraction
from those details
Though
m
ost people know that as readers they prefer the concretej nevertheless as writers they
Perhaps more often,
0
How often, in his pursuit of abstract truth, does he speak
of pilot and physician, horses and dogs , lyres and sandals and boxers. and
bees~
How often does he resort to parables to make concrete, and therefore clear, the
�22
2.3
m
ost metaphysical
Nat·ur.. in the FiJ.JrIB
notions ~
A quick review cf the
The good writer not only is lavish with detail but chooses concr ete wordso
tar111 n
s
RAM progrJam
S•.' :1
fa,r 'brings to mind at first
When he has to use abstr act words , he follows with a concrete rephrasing of the
a succession of Satu:eday night disappointm
e:.its t•
thoughto
w had been looking for ward too beaause their advanced reputation promised t hem
He knows that sword is more effective than weapon 9 and rapierp saberp
cutlass even more effective .
stri~,
plod,,
tru~.
to be exceptionally
I nstead of vague verbs l ike walkp he uses sidlep
Instead of hors e, he uses pint2,
£8._g~
fill ;r.,
gym
He uses strong ,
like £ang and plunk and
figure~
of speech, and even onomatopoetic words
apply with as much force to speaking as to
writing~
Good writing is , after
St a Johnnies are reputed to be , and are, good talkers
0
concrete~
all ~
0
and silently rephrase them in short , concr ete wordse
This brings me to a well-known
to write an essay collapse into a
problem~
It is good practice,
I am told that St
twitching ~ funk
conj ecture s why this is sos I want to add anotherg
which were uttBeaver Valleyvfi 9 s11Nature os Half....
0
ink~
Johnnies, when asked
oneself~
they write i t down wor d for word, not t r anslate it into something allegedly
~James
Tolbert
loftier~
trees~
non~philosophic
plantsD
In the Walt Disney
films~
animals~
sense
st:r;'eams,
this world specifi-
these occasions 9 he feels he has made a discovery of something both
Oltffi
ordinary experience e
~!} Nature Hs
Half AcreBI} and
remote~
fascinating~
This~
~IJBeaver
I susp
Valleym e
and inevitably attempts to r elate
8
Ct. !)
is what Disney has done .for
His camera crews have penetrated
uncleared areas of this country and have captured with some
accuracy what usually goes on in the natural world when it is undisturbed by a
dis~
course, and so one But I urge those who shudder at the thought of writing that they just
talk~
On
relatively
training in the quick stab-and-withdraw
isten t o themselves out their ideas, and if what they hear sounds like decent
ofteno
us in
They forget that good writing is
of the s eminar as contrasted to the essayvs requirement of continuous and controlled
t hat i sp it consists of the W
orld Outdoorsg
it to hi.s
To the dozens of
Of course there may be all sorts of other reasons
fear of committing
Nature~
Of course 9 I mean Nature here in the rather comtuon
wonderful and terriblep but always
paper, and they knock themselves out looking for magniloquent words and phrases that
books ~
off er som comment on the subject of Man and
e
himD but he disr egards it, and stumbles accross it generally by accident every so
too ~
They think that the ordinary words of everyday use are unfit for
practice~
But the
cally excludes m.anv who is by i..mplication an outsider to it$ Nature surrounds
9 stalk the campus like zombies,
thresh about like impaled beetles, and shed more blood than
like l ack of
sa~w v
and t he phenom
en.a of the seasons.,
It is a
diverting indoor sport to listen for pol ysyllabic abstractions, yours and othersv,
seem mor e like the writ ing in
at lea st four of the fi:lJiw I
good
But I think they would
be better talkers if they used shorter words and spoke more concretely
just good talks
f eeling it was an effort to have sat still i n one place for so long 0
.Acretl}·.ti W
Land W
ithout Bread1D and llUNannok of the North2n 9 all of wh:l.ch seemed to
~ It
Let me niake it clear that these two imperatives, Use short words and Be
talk ~
and entertaining later found ourselves leaving the
same r etrospection also recall,_ an interesting theme that could be traced t hrough
vivid verbs and nouns (much more of ten than adjectives and a dverbs) t o carry the
weight of his idea $ He uses concrete
instl"u~-Gbre
Many of us who went to see f i lms
that
i--oreign intruder$ the audience is being given a rare privileged peek at what Nature
!:_ealJy is like
<9
But :J.n making the final movie$) a number of significant changes
happen to what the camera has recorded 9 so that the total experience is something
quite different from the original eventslD
Nature i s treate d a s a b ody of
act ors~
-
and since none of t hese a ctors was rehearsed$ :Vl.l"a Disney has prm.rided scripts for
them through skillful
ground~
editing~
spoken commentary 9 and a suggestive m
usical
back~
�25
24
point , I thought that the
Without doubt there is both wonder and terror in these films, and even those
stinking=cor pse='With~maggots
gratuitously~
motif was being rubbed
of us who have become numb to such things through being stultified with clinches
in my face rather
about Primordial Life-Urges, and Nature's Gruel Extravagance etc e must have been
movie as an instrument of Social ProtestJ its rhetorical effectiveness is doubt=
really moved and impressed - at times.
f'Ule
But the emotional experience was radically
If the producer» Luis Bunuel intended his
It would be difficult t o feel real pity for these deformed degraded beings
missing~
limited; the narrator may have been only too literal in renlinding us that NatureVs
from whom the human spirit seemed almost completely
Half Acre might be in our ovm back yard, since the animals and plants are made into
the pointless display of a horrible anom.a.lye
familiar human prototypes, and their habits evoke very ordinary emotional responses 0
"Something ought to be done cu. nw but a compulsive s hudder"
You admire , or maybe deplore the sober industriousness of the humorless beaver , you
howeverp ttLand Without Breadrt· is a remarkable counterpart to the Disney pictures o
are amused by the antics of the rascally, impertinent otters, you despise the
animals ~
The most probable reaction was not
For this discussion 9
It also reworks the recorded observations of the camera into terms of
vile~
ht:nna.~
conventions, in this case mald.ng a continuity out of isolated events that are
predatory jackal, and almost invariably you say rtaww-h-h'' at the cute, cuddly, little
baby
and the film became
upsetting and repugnant to human sensibilitye
The clever use of musical as well as spoken analogies reveals a view
"Nanook of the
of Nature that is remarkably like the one in children's literature where alliteratively
North'~
present a radically dif'ferent treatment of Naturee
named creatures, (e ee. Buddy Beaver, Charlie Chipmunk, and also MrQ Disney's Donald
Here we have neither Mr. Disneyvs sunny back yard where the wild creatures perform
Duck) are made to go through_plausibly human adventures .
a staid ballet to the predictable tune of the seasons, nor the demonic, malevolent
I may be misinterpreting
Disney's intention here; it is not impossible that he is insisting that we too are
destructiveness of the land without breadG
ultinately a part of Nature, and share certain elementary experiences with the other
is a world that includes man,
creatures .
is neither sheltering nor
But what emerges much more convincingly is a systematic reduction of Nature
i . e~
hostile~
If it is
anything~
Nature in this film
Nanook and his family, as an integral part and
although both these aspects might be read in
to human connnonplaces, through which this unknown, fascinating world is shown to be
arbitrarily()
reassuringly like our own, and there's nothing more to worry about$
stantially and insensitively cut 1 enough integrity remained to make an intelligible
pattern discernable.
"!and Without Breadn is a rather difficult essay to evaluate, if only for purely
n
mechanical reasons, such as the inaudible narrative 0
.Although I am informed that the print of liNanook" we say was sub=
What is striking, even astonishing, is the artlessness of
'
this film; the cam.era was not a furtive
The film was apparently devoted
eye~
spying on unknowing actors, but a real
t o a study of the Hildanos, a little known race of people who live in the mountains
participant in the life being recorded by Robert Flaherty@
of central Spain under conditions of incredible poverty and degredation.
lar photography in a setting that almost begged for it 9 and the
Here again,
The absence of spectacu=
flat~
neutral tone
Nature is an object of fascination, but in this case a wholly negative fascination&
of the narrative may have caused a few dull spots, but also pointed toward a view
I n this country we are introduced to a demonic, actively hostile, menacing agency that
of Nature as simply impersonal, nothing more than the sunnnation of the realities
fights back the feeble efforts of the Hildanos and their domestic beasts for
of survivalo
ctually, this became so exaggerated as to seem false and
monstro~s;
survival~
In these surrotmdings from which he is
inseparable~
Nanook is seen
as a creature of virtue and dignity who is too immediately and vi tally concerned
after a certain
--
�26
27
with finding food and shelter fcir himself and his family to detach himself from
one , we must look not to the natural world but to the mind of man as artist SJ
Nature, and then to objectify it
and should expect to find something of the answer in the rules of his art
Food is there 9 and Nanook has to hunt it out,
the same snow freezes his fac e and chtlls his bones and provides a houseQ
ably admire Nanook for his strength and skill in hi s fight for
is always with this seal or that storm, and not
Tu~th
survival~
We prob=
but the fi ght
mysterious powers and
agencies~
We seem to have at least three definitions of Nature i mplied in the films we are
considering
here~
all of which can be related to certain famili ar traditions.
give s us a Nature in terms of a comfortable, prossaic
extreme of the "red in tooth and
claw•~
folklore~
Disney
Bunuel states the
myth of the romantics, making Nature
a cruel
and inimical force that bears for man a morbid, obsessive fascination G Flaherty, in
the middle of these two , suggests a Nature in which man is another species that fights
like the others to exist , distinguished only by his arts and his concern with the
But strangely in this picture , which we have claimed to be the most faithful to
family~
Nature ~
there i s no Nature, only the natural world, which is quite a different thinge
In this way, the films offer a r ather striking demonstration of an idea that we
are probably all aware of:
that only m2!1, after having detached himself from the natural
world, looks back on it and rediscovers it as
Nature ~
The abstract and fictive quality
of that term itself implies the t ransformation that actually took place between the
evidence of the camera and the final product in two of the
ins~ances
we have
cited~
since
in tUNanookt where transformation was at a minimum, Nature was never m
ore than a succession
of numerous particular events e Thi.s is not to say that the Disney and Emmel efforts are
necessarily invalid on that
ful film.so
account~
although my opinion remains that they are not succe ss-
The important thing that emerges from this study is the fact that Nature is
a fiction that results from the imposition of the art of the film on the raw material
that the camera sees, but it is never properly speaking the real object of the
camera~
For whatever significance this fiction has, and from its repeated occurrence in literature,
graphic represemtation, and our ordinary experience I suspect it is a hi ghly significant
I
James Taylor
0
�28
The English T1 torial :
29
A First Repor t
which leads us to misunderstand what we are reading 9 and to fail to convey the
When it was announced last sp(t'ing
t l1ere ···oul d be an Eng l'
w
1sh tutorial in the
·P-.at,
ri
intended meaning in w
hat we wri t e..
Thi s ne glect s eems to be the cause of what
(1 ) W in terms of the stated
hy,
s ophomore year, two questions i mme diately arose:
purposes of the language tutorial, was it deci ded to make the change?
and (2)
What
..
the 1949 College Catalog cal ls tTJbabbling minds n
0
It appears then , t hat the syntactical anal ysis , examination of possible meanwill be the particular aims and methods in the proposed tutorial1
These questions are
ings of words, consider ation of contexts , etc
stil l being asked along with the que stion of whet .er
th~
0
l earned and practiced in the Greek
tutorial seems to be accomtutorial may very profitably be appl ied in examining the nature of the misunder-
pl ishing its
aims~
I am aware of obvi ous difficulties in trying to answer these
ques~
standings that occur in Engl isho This may be done by writing with a conscious
tions as a member of the tutorial and with less than a third of the year gone by "
effort toward clarity, and analyzing the re·s ul t in such a way as to avoid errors
Still, there may be certain advantages in such a
position~
in reading and to discover the errors in writinge
The catalog states...
Especially in view of the
rtThe t wo main purposes of the Language Tutorial are to make
·
difficulty in analyzing one's own writing in this way, this sort of analysis would
the student understand the nature of language as the hurnan way to articulate and convey
seem to be an appropriate activity for a St o John ' s tutorial~
thoughts, especially with respect to their own mother tongue; and to support the seminar
.
A great many students have so little formal knowledge of English grammar that
by a much closer scrutiny of texts-..
A. thi r d aim ·
~
an~
one of minor importance - is the
some study of it in the tutorial seems necessary, to make possible the sort of
learning of the three foreign languages themselves?"
The 1tstatement of Educational
Policy and Programtt of 1951 calls for UA greater emphasis on the means to
writing and analysis I have described ~
Many of us even have a tendency to apply
articulate~
Greek grammar to English, where it sometimes fits and sometimes does not o For
to expound and to co-orainate thoughts; i.e . a greater emphasis on the development of
-
synt actical and rhetorical skills
greater concentration on grannnar
, best
shown in writingo
example, a sentence appeared in the tutorial which endedn • • • of that delineated, 11
This, in turn, demands a
using delineated as a substantive participle .
This is simply not English .
0 "
Besides the difficulties in regard to understanding English , there is the
Clearly, communication requires a knowledge of grammar
0
Grammar enables us to
problem of constructing a coherent exposition of some subject, especially in
arr ange words in such a way as to make clear the part· ul ar re 1 a t ionship of the things
ic
. writing a paper .
which they signify,
i.e~
the intended
meaning ~
Few of us have any adequate ability to do this as a legacy from
And this same knowledge enables us, by
our previous education.
examining a given arrangement of words, to discover the in t ended meaning .
·
Fewer still, if any, are touched by the Muse .
Consequently,
A sound
the general reaction to the necessity for writing a paper is a sort of terror .
It
knowledge of grammar is especially important in writing for one cannot ask a writer t o
seems that actually writing a considerable number of papers is necessary to overcome
explain what he
means~
~
It seems th a t b ecause of th e conscious effort required to under=
stand t he grammar of a passage in Greek, the meaning is made clear, often clearer t han
this .
To show how the English tutorial seems to be dealing with these problems, and
that of t he English passages we read.
on the oth er hand we are so accustomed to using
in general what is going on in i t, the simplest approach seems to be a rough,
English t hat we ordinarily get t o the meaning of an Engli"sh sentence without attacking
approximately chronological account of some of the activities of the tutorial of
· gra.mmaro
But , unfortunately, this familiarity often causes us to neglect the grammar
�...
~r--------""!!"""--------------------------------11111111111111
_.--------------~--~----
31
30
Writing a summary of Categor ies · 1=9 was valuable i n showing clearly the
w
hich I am a member, noting at the same time that the other two tutorials are
apparently doing much the same thing@
two possible sources of errorg
We began by writing simple descriptions of objectso
ure to communicate the intended
These descriptions were
misunderstanding of what was
me aning ~
Making a
simpl e ~
read ~
and fail=
brief comparison
discussed in terms of the questions "What . did the writer mean and how did he succeed
of Genesis and Plato's TimaeE..@. and trying to summari ze Mr . Darkey 1 s lecture
or fail to convey his meaning?tt, and 11Wi t.h respect to what may a thing be described?":
on Virgil served similar purposes e W tried usi ng .Aristotle's categories as
e
This latter question led to a discussion of the possible kinds of predication, largely
a method of analyzing an extremely complicated sent ence from
i n terms of the first nine chapters of the Categories of Aristotle @ This one assign=
involved breaking down the seritence into propositi ons and then determining the
m
ent, then, led to practice in analysis of writing, practice in paper-writing, and
category of each preclicate o Then, turning to a little gray gra.mmar, written
f urther, to a discussion of particular problems of language o Many subsequent assign=
by a Mr. Nesfield (it was selected, it seems, on account of being concise ,
ments realized similar multiple purposes.
unpretentious and inexpensive) , we tried to make some sort of comparison between the categories and the "parts .of.
Next, the attempt to write a description of a description prompted a discussion
of impositions.
"The~
A.s an example of the things we
In describing a written word, one may consider its meaning, e $gQ,
This
speech ~ n
discussed~
- it was noticed that of all the
parts of speech, Aristotle defines only nnoun" and 1
•verb, 11
is said to be old1' ; consider it just as a grammatical entity, e.g.,,tttMan·' is
Virgil ~
ttnonnl•
as a sign
a nounn or ttt}fu.n' is used as a subject"; or consider it only as a physical object, eQg0,
having no reference to time, "verb" as having a reference to time and as a
" 'Ma.n 1 is made o.f ink.n
sign which
impositions.
These are examples respectively of the first, second, and zero
Describing a painting, and describing that description brought out new
pr oblems; for example, whether the painting itself was a
description~
11
indicated that something is asserted of something .. u
One might, it
was suggested, understand other parts of speech as nouns in Aristotle's sensec
For example 1 ngreen," called an "adjective , ru is a "sign with no reference to
Here the distinc=
t i on first arose between a sign for something by convention, such as a word, and a sign
time" for a certain quality, and that quality is a
by likeness, which is called an image.
cussed~
Attempts to communicate the meaning of a sentence
thing ~
Another thing dis=
-Aristotle refers to words in the sense of sounds or written marks as
by means of images indicated that there are some "things"· which cannot be clearly commu-
nsigns by conventiona'11
nicated in this way.
sounds, such as an inarticulate scream, while others, like "ouch , " do seem to
fun ~
The attempts were in the form of a sort of cartoon drawing, great
be signs by convention., For we say that
For example:-
I.
\..
'
ouch" may be mispronounced (or if
i1
written, misspelled ) , while obviously no such thing may be said of the
'\1/ E f c~1 T 1-( P~=r·
-
But it seems that some interjections might be natural
scream ~
But the distinction is perhaps shaky.
•
lit about the same time as the ttbeginning of Nesfield," we read and attemp-
ted to paraphrase short, metaphor-laden poems by Emerson and Yeats ..
of interpretations was
-
startling ~
The variety
By syntactical analysis 9 careful examination of
�33
MET ATHALAMION
.32
t he metaphors, etc ., the various interpretations were finally narrowed , in each
case, to something approaching a conrrnon
rmderstanding~
11
0ne can make a determinationo
act in all circumstances the part of a good manQ One must come to ruin.
so many.
l earn.
They are not good.
One can be not
There are refinements.,"
good ~
A ruler has
wishes ~
One can
There are
He can maintain himself .
One can use that ability.
ai
As a final example, one
which brings the accormt almost up to t he present , here i s part of a passage analyzed
into implicit and explicit simple sentences:
nHaving reach nd the age of disi~retionD I .de©ided ag&inst :marriage e o a~
. Memoirs~ ~o - Gordon-=Mau:r>ie
He must
One can neglect that abilitye
The source is Machiavelli ' s The Prince , Chapter 15
.T ry to
r eassemble this into the original version; it may lead, for one thing, to an appreciation of conjunctions.
I
We were poor and _
slept_ together
In iron beds whose
de~or"
Knobs and bars 9 . a.swell were .known
To each of us 9 not as stars
=
Since the sky was _never' seen"
Nor had the meaning whU;h the sly
Greeks have given . .~ 9 . but
a~ Ol.U"'
Where ea.c h of three 9 _nightlr rl,ven
I know nothing about the future course of the tutorial , except that there have
been some vague hints · about Shakespeare .
Perhaps something vtlll be done in accordance
with Mr. Wilburn's recent observation that more attention should be paid to
poetry ~
As to the evident achievements so far, English :grammar is being learned; the members
By their love 9
whi~h
:was habitual
And innocent.si st.cod .above
Excitement and_. were intimat-ely
Borede
of the tutorial seem, in terms of both of the difficulties stated in the beginning , to
be writing better; and the discussions in general have achieved an awareness of a
great many problems of language .
bodies"'
My vantage point is not one that permits a general
evaluation of the English tutorial a Moreover, since the present plan of the tutorial
i s probably tentative, and since in the light of
one year•s experience changes will
undoubtedly be made, it seems that no such evaluation will prove too meaningful until
Prevented_us~ . da'(: k was- broken 9
Fled in many for_got-ten pieces 9
And washing earned_ e~h .. a penny
If our hands seemed. _
newly clean.P
And so we thoughtDaddy 0 slands.P
the tutorial has been tried for several years *
James
w.
Jobes
Riches
skill werre greater than .
The mo~-t we knew~ then . the -~till
Growth had . come ~ __and .I .was left
To sleep
The
alone~ _
otheT~ 9
they had. some 9
knowledge now
How poor we wereo
�35
34
r. r
He, in ambition's slight .illuminationsp
Genny , Genny, G
enny fair
Considered doubtfully his expectations
Who alone can bear
Within the context given; with the sight
The intimacy
Of sweat=shops as .his. surety of rightp
Of me beside _ theeQ
a
He cheerfully. opposed the settl.e-d might
Of ha.bit» toppled inbred piety.P
Sister. sisterp not o:f blood.?
Haphazard formed our new.society<!>
Of chance -&nd not. .intent
Who . alone will at.em. the.. ..flood ·
Of
these~
He organized the labor.it.es in t .e ams;
indifferent.
He fought the Wobbli.es 9 enter ed int.a schemes
To foster .unions in the A.. F 910
Blessed be .t hy birth
Which gave thy mother . mirth. ·
Go teach them
bastards. that. vd gladly sell
And bless 8d thlL death,
Their mothers for .a. buck the little. man 1 s
Has given thee
Woke up g- we u re done. .wi
tu be.in
w
also .... rans! u
Reality
Thi.s shy and powerful... and .stunted mam
III
His hair wa.s slickj) hi.s_ shoe.a .we.re bl&ck and. tanp
In nineteen'!'O'.fifteen, gold"!!!toothetl,. c.ane
a~twirl,
He saw from Pit.tsburgh 1..s streets. the world a.,.,,whirl
In chaos.1' for itu s restl.as.s energies
Accomplished nothing
mu~h.1' . were
bent to seize
The means of a1l production.JI that . is, .squeeze
His gra.sp .:w.as sure.9 . his .lone.line.ss acute.i>
Re ad Dante .o f a ni.ght .ancLf ear.ed the brute.\)
His ignorance
inside..~
he . culled tl;le loot
Of all he fought; . mastered Latinj) . thoughtr,
Read Wells and Shaw_ (whose works . entire he. . bought)
The prof its !rom _ ho.se caµ 1.:t.tlistic swine,
.t
·He was
Whose usuries .forbade . the poor to dine.,
Half=cooked in rented rooms P he heard_the . peals
a~
lonely as before
=
a.t meals 9
Of children laughing; he he.ar1Ltb.L men content o
He belched his lonelinessp-_fell: sentiment
Too inbredj). mocking hi.s experimentc ·
He seldom crie.d i) he often - ra.ged in_vain j ·
He read his
books~
they did not
ea~.e
his .pain
�37
36
In sounds repeated!> which is the womb of nominationv have I not
Remembered thus 9 t he t emporal. r ythms t hat 9
On foreign flesh be go.t h±s
fie.sh -~
He could not know 9 originated
A sexual. argument.I' a .t lif .P
a_
named thee thy .name.s g more infinite are thy names than .the possible
a s·p.it 9
Name5 of God, nor i.s few t he number of thy names. -.ctual o
h im~
whim -
vfuy ha_ving this.> must thou wi.sh more 9
!
Gave purpose to the univer.se.9 the r im
.
And wish a wish that. wounds me.sore?
Of all creation blurred into a childg
The desert spat.. the ..hermit
out~
In eating 21 .in bread and salt and oil and wine ~ upon the table
defiled 0
and the flo or
I am the visible mark of his sin.9
.
9
and on the bed warms coffee in a. cruet.9-- have I
not bl e.s sed thee P· . and .given .thee mine SJ· and taken thine?
The nocence unremit.ting entered in
Why 9 having this» must. thou wish ..more .1>
By innocence 9 whose simple ..ecstasies
He
trusted~
And wish a wi.sh that wounds. me_ sore?
I am _
whom he d.ai]__y ..sees
By accident reforge eternities
I have pressed m warm .and mascul.ineo;=?f'lo:wing veins against thy
y
That were his own·.1> nor have I for him .wept
feminine=willing si.dea? upon thy vents. and stops.1> thl.ne ori !ices
But for his unfree love which he h&s .kept.,
and m
ute flesh 9 have my h~ds.1> and .i> yea_» my b ody grown ti r ed
JI
..
Oji wish we never had .each other met.ll
The r ather than we knew each . othe:r well;
Be guile our
ye.ars~
in praise of
thee~
I
Yet having this.1> thou dost_wish more.1>
And wish a wish that. wounds. me sore ..
=.,,,Bernard Jacob
a.dmi.t nat. .Adam'..s debt,
Where in Great.ion each» hi.s. fatherjl f.ell 0
In my fond and satyr.le morn)) when my -brute and animate
natu r e lie a awake in plea.surel'. ha...ve. I .not rememl;>ered
t hee jJ turned and kissed thine arm in .sati.at.e love?
\rfuy .1> having this .1> must _
thou .w.:ish more 9
And wish a wish that .wo.unde me _sore?
1
eRJllNTfD /'iT THf :,T JOl·INS COLL£&£ PRES'S lEY TACK NADOL
�
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The Collegian
Description
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The Collegian began as a student newspaper; became a college community literary publication in 1952 and continued until 1969; became a student newspaper again in 1969; discontinued publication from 1980 until 1989 when it again became a student literary publication.<br /><br />Click on <a title="The Collegian" href="http://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=26">Items in The Collegian Collection</a> to view and sort all items in the collection.
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Annapolis, MD
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37 pages
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The Collegian December, 1953
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The Collegian, December 1953
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1953-12
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Taylor, James (Editor)
McGhee, Peter (Editor)
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Annapolis, MD
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The Collegian
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PDF Text
Text
we use n
kind r"
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diffel
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a sul
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be l's
dis th
exam
subst
but h
"this
defini
tion
re a lit
abs t r.
t ion i
it car
ure t
reach
tions
edge.
Tht
gen er
appar
perce1
mind.
quirir.
We g
there
facult
jectiv
m ust
fore "If
have 1
beforE
as an
comm
our d:
a gr e
believ
- Ti
contr:
Noi
of pe1
exp r e
a din
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h eard
mean:
know
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Wek
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three
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is re
F.
Pag e 8
ST,. JOHN°S COLLEGIAN
THOMAS CRANMER OF CANTERBURY
In any discussion of Thomas Cranmer of
r"
The twin hungers are loosed ,· an
one mus t be willing~ nay eager,, ·
amphibu.an shape
to allow tchat ih eire is more . !!:~anisan than
monsfrous!y c11awls f1rom dunge ons
mee ts ihe casual perusaL •For h ere , ·Com~
of nered"""r!,"
p ressed into a niber of th e incudent" Charles
Williams has shown us what is to be seen in a nd la ter~
just s uch a developement" :And mo.re, ·there
is here to be read · the· altogether napid
""~,r~uf! .woe. woe to any who s ee
.firidex that Williams ;; ·w ith · his eye; presents
not where the words go
,r,P
to us (with ouir eyes)". :
1
Cante;rb~ry~
·,,
0
The -. opening scene makes this clear. · th.rows little light on the author~s intentions . ·
Clearer perhaps than the embrotic . closing Bur: then, divining our conditipn~ .Williams •• ~· :
.scenes . :. Oearer . evn than ·the . play itself. · or is it fate ? ~,~elucidates . Like a shot lik~ .
From the contrasts of the opening scene 011e · a bolt, ' like · a cold thrust of irridescent
is tarkled and tivernated · by .t he panorama aluminum in a warm sop of velvet brown~ ,
unfolding • .
·
impersonal as a scalpel , ·with the . noncha"
"'In t he .begi nning was the Word, · ,
lant directness of a tired diter=naught hum~
The .Woud was with God and the Word
ming placidly as it wends its way among the
, flock of trivia that is the focus of its being ·
and (O Paradox) the being · of its focus ~ .
Summed up in
scant lines is not blurred perhaps at the edges yet . with an
. only the whole .omnkase of the central di~ ominous clarir:y, we know that it i s past and
' lemna, but J:he .ambitude and cenrism of.J:he irretrievably gone. Nothing we, Williams, the
human- condition. ·And when they £.eceive Archbishop,
not even the cakiUmed out-, .
ilinlentionality, and e\'i>n audibility, as Cran· line of forbidding interstices...·.. the F i gura
mer iritones them die.it reality becomes a Rarnm~ • an make it more clear o r less irree
c
9
promise .and ·q uite vice<·versa. .
tdevable. · Or conversly • more trievable, ·
The story is diti'ained~ ·the ·central char~ And the triad moves on ! 9
·
Picture now, if you will ;; .t he whole speer
acl!:er po.rsid., .. and -Certainly these · are con-·
trasted witl\ the Skeleton with as much proc , tacle. Listen, il you will~ to d~e cacaphony. ~
titude as ahyone thus . constituteq and thus Observe, ,if you will ;; ·the frantic Lords and ·
disposed can ever assemble, Note the
desperate Commoners . : Reca11 , , why
trasts between them. ·Then the similarities you~ · the colours and implications. · Don ~t
as the mind is turned to each in: its turn o ,The they blend into a stunningabligate? Does
effEct is .of an abligate wholly contained and no< your soul quicken <o the Inesperity?
infinidy expandirigo :·Embracing all with the Isn 2 t it all one mad provate of transosis? To
injudiciousness of a lacteron (and cer~ainly say less would beg the issueo To say more
this does not stretch the point!) .
would boas t it. To say nothing, ,ccaye theres
With mas terly control~~and alas uncontrol~ the rub i; (Shakespeare)P , would be the u}
led master.y:--,the author has time race by and treme expressfon of the paradox, · ·
the godly and ungodly join in .a frantic kne,,.
And Io, , women are not eXceplicated
kle .of imprudence. Purposeful and certairily . Therein the nastiness of it all
fateful. But a kne.rkle nonetheless (and lee
Then Henry dies . ·
the . audience never
· What has been written here to illuminate
From .<he time Henry commands, , '';,;your the first act, ,might with equal impidity he
tasks" '~ and the Archbishop does . ·the sta,ge said of the second. ·
is, And so is the audience. AU is hushed by
But to those who
To chose I
an inaudible stillness ,, ;and the latter
must sayP eci disagree
I must perforce
€:Olnes one w.i.~ tdi_e fomier whilsl!: the former disagiree with those· who wruld have it other ..
goes on -quiteunconcemedly
is. fVise ' with those who are .so tarkled by the
Ti me moves on, With _purposefulne ss, and seed of retruity and inespere !!:n es s that they
a~ times wfrh hesitation But it is signifkant can ' t see a simple rapifoirm when it is not
i!:hat it always moves! What could W
iUiams only prespered to them~ ·but gropped on a
ha.we had in mind? Certainly· the Skeleton silver kis~er, Damnk :
9
t~ese
nay~
con~
don~t
·
forg·et~~IMPRUDE.NT).
be~
heing ~whatit
0
disagree~
back.~"
Sandek
Prime
Kinematicianc
Lord Prufrock
THE ASCENT OF MAN AND THE ORIGIN OF THE FECES
or
A SMELL y LITT LE CAMPUS
.
t its last diurnal conflux~ di.s=
Th St Johnis Student Polity.~ a
s· the Administration
e .
11
finances . mce
.
cussed the problem of co. e!: hands of the students the ~oh~y
of the College has .been m
t daily for five or six hours m t e d
has found it exped1:-nt toh~1~e as. reached after much debate an
all
.
Great H t a decis ion. w 1c 1thP Electric Ltgh t C 0 mp any ' Yester=
£ w
.
d
concluded only by. action :f ;rticular note as somethrng was e
day ' s conte s seratton was
p
?
cided.
t which opened the mee t" g ~ sev·~ .
m
1
After the Treasurer s Repor ~
h"
had to be done . One or
. al students concluded that somelt i~g s~ke voiced the opinion
er·
1
lk d for dia ecttcs
'
ld ot
two , who obvious y ta e
Golden Age , students cou n_ .
t bat with all due respect to the .
d that if the present cr1s1s
i
t
f their education an
l"
ld
a the full costs o
.
of the present po tty cou
p y et by raising fees agam many f
1 $50 would bring the
was m
ested increase o on y
.
Th" was gen~
not return . (The sugg
$3500 annually. )
ts
d t to an even
.
d
ost
total costs per ~ u en h theory that if they really ha to, m h .
erally shouted down on t e
without serious danger to t etr
stud ents Co uld clip another coupon
•llliili~ finances .
,.
to take form w h en on e of the stu~ _
The discussion really bet~ idea that the community should sup~
.dents cautiously pro~osed t bin the Outside World neede.d, or
rt itself by producing somet
g ld buy. T his was received
po
d d
at any rate wou
£
y of
thought it nee e ~ or
lways wanted a actor
. ubilantly by the majority who hav: :etaphysical discu~sion as to
)·heir own. From here, there arose
· r in the light of its
would be proper for the
interjected that
ticular nature f to produce , ~ne o hich it does best. A sophomore
St John ' s should produce at w
ointing out that the hen
h • . dly picked up this theme ~ and bby p. . g milk and the Church
'
:lurn best by laying eggs ~ the cow Y gtvtnSt . ·John9s rli~ b est b y .
s
. .
i oe
f Sin intimate d t h a t - .
by teaching a Sense o
· p
k in the Seedbed
.
bove. Sophro and Hy ~ har<l at wor .. , ~ .
• Illustratton a
K
.
of the Amencan - enaissance.
~hat
com;:: lr~shmen
par~
�we use n
kind .r·
of al
diffe1
ence
a sul
giver
be l's
distil
exam
subst
but i1
"this
defin]
tion
realit
abs t r
t ion i
it CaI
ure t
reach
t ions
edge.
Th(
gener
appar
percei
mind.
quirir
We g
there
facult
jectiv
must
fore'
have 1
beforE
as an
comm
our d:
a gr e
believ
- Ti
cont r :
Noi
of pei
exp r e
a dirE
ven's
heard
mean:
know·
perce·
re1nti
thing
We k
menti
gases
ment:
three
betwE
is re
Page 8
THOMAS
In aoy d
Cante~b~ry
to allow ti
meets tlie
pressed in ~
Williams ha
just such 1
is here t<
firidex diat
to us (witth
The · ope
Clearer pe
.scenes . • C
Frnm the c,
is tarkled
unfolding. :
··1n th
ihe W
Summed
-only the v.
lemn~
human-
_.but
C01
dimentiona
mer . in.ton~
pro.mise 11 .ru
The stoi
acfl'. er pors.
trasted wit
titude as ;
disposed c
trasts bet~
as the mini
effect is oJ
infinidy e:
injudiciom
this does 1
With .ma:
led master·
the godly;
kle :of inip:
fatefuL Bt
the . audie
From .. the
tasks ;•~ ar
is ~ And so
an inaudil
i=.omes one
goes on .qu
Time me
a tt times w.
that it ah
have had
in ~ayinK,
!
/
produciQg :Thinkers, A junior pounced on this; and although he agreei that
SJC s hould produce Thinkers t he obj~cted to the way the sophomore looked
at realhy9 d ai:ming that the hen simp~y layed eggs and that because soc=
iety needed eggs more-·t.han feathers egg=laying was the most pdzed activn
ity of hen~hood " milk the reason for keep. n~ cows,. and Reason developed
fo[ governing the Passions . "1!: is for th~ r>roducdon of things necessary
to t he gene1·al welfare that these things axe cultivate.cl and dalled·good~ ''
he concluded, ·"NON=
SENSE!,. sn&pped a senior 1 •:if St, Jo.l\n •s is to 8U.r·
vive on the Darwinian field of batde , it must produc.e that which will en~
able ir to compete on an equal footing with other colleges , i,e~~ that is
good which insures survival; and all else superfluous , inexpedient! and
bad, If all that the hen could con~ribute to the socie ty were feaM-er~ ;·. roos~
ters would be monugamously unhappy~ if all the c<Jw could proTide were ·
hides , bulls would have to woi k for a living. if all that St, John: s produced
was Thinkers ~ the Docers of &:he world would banish us from the field ! Im
Anfang wa fJ die Ta il Wear~ pmdtic~mkers nowi (look at us!); and it
is not enou~h. We mus t act! And we must produce an integrated mass of
thought and action£;;
..
.
'
"
The St udent Polity received this with ~hunderous appla4se.;\ The pfaster
sifted dowA from the tower~ the lights fl.fckere'd:; and (he ivy Oft the sottth"
east comer fell away from the wall, After three hours order .was rel;tored
and the Polity applied itself to the problem as to what should be cione , .
The Wilkinson Memorial Scientific tl~b offered to set up a gamnMM:a'y
produc tion line The King William Players P'?ndered the Chance's of tli~ir
current production making a million on .B 1 way , The Astronomers wondered~'
There was a proposal entertained for a while that would have started bee~
hives in the abandoned housing units for the .eventual production of mead ,
The Phil M Club offered to produce an uncut version of Lysis tra.ta if
enough men would be willing to take part,
All were rejected on the basis mat they did not completely represent the
Program in eo i pso. Or at least; qua Prngrnm, e 'What we want to prnduce is
something which symbollizes in esse the thought and a ction inherent in the
St~ John P Program=1.: stated one s eriior helpfully,
s
The debat~ lasted for four more hours until finally a junior", inspired no
doubt by Candide's garden proposed what was eventually accepted as the
solution . ''If there ; s anything the earth needs~ promote growth ,, hs fer~
tilizer! I propose that the back campus be turned into one large compost
heap ! 19
In reaching this decision the polity was not unmindful of the break in
tradition which this stEp i mplies , It was the consensus of all , however,
that the College possesses 1:he vitality and stren~_t:h to meet its increased
respons ibilities "
In one particulru: sense ; St. John ' s College will be recognized as the
seedbed of the american renai ssance. Here ~ of all places ~ Ulysses should
pl~ni his Qar < Next year, cq , • , a quiet little college at Annap.oli5i Mary<'
land.. witl:i a handful of old buildings ;, 123 studen ts ~ and practically no
~OQ~y~r: will come into its own and once again demand of the ~erican
u:C.ive['sity a cornplete c~tharsis,
0
0
YOUR
I
RE~L
.
REPORTER
The noted logos~ean:er , Jo7n}Ba11'iili Alexandros , e nsconced on ~is Htd~
cathedra under the s7.rrtagonal coffee table, ~ast «:he . followmg noes1sn
scbnitzel under our fee!: 6,s we pranced tliru ~he Dialecto num the weekend
of l ~~{faire Koogle "1 Wfat' s your problem Man? ~ Now wh h rega!fd t~ a
higher ~rder of conce~ual thiqking ~t seems to me that. you arre ~aymg ,
something st&
ange i Q/my undeK'stand1ng namely that this , : . this
en
tity ;, yes , mis enei~j , , ,. nein . . , rn~her . l e t me .rep.ee.tt ~. w.s.~ re ga!l.'d g;o
thi~ highe! m·der.-'/ , level , , . of conceptual ~auo cmaQ'.100 :, u would seem
that by three~ cyllnde r logic there are two pos sible wl!'?~g answers to any
questionf two ke~·s i s enough ~ and God is dead ;, cmc1hed by Jelly Roll
Monon on a sel: of Cartesian coordioates i"'
,,.
Thaok you ML ·A, We 'll pass diis on for publication under me Pen~ees of
a Futwre Alumni Asso~ia tion P rc s idena.:, a rich man with plenty of leisure ,
na tW'al ly, Watch for the next edition of i:he St, J , A. B.
pmk
0
,
FROM THE ACTUALLY REAL BOOKS,
· , " "' but as Molly pronpunced 'these last words ; the V:ick~d rug got loose
from its fastenings 9 ~d dis covered everything hid beh1~d it; where among
ot:her-·female u.~cnsils appeared the philosophell:' Squaite ~ rn a pos[ure as
ridi culous as can be possibly be conceived. Philosophers are composed
of fl~sh and blo~d as well as other h,uman Ci°eatures ; and however s~b~ .
limated and refined the theory of these may be , a Htde practical frailty 1s
as incid~nt to them as to other mortals,
Fielding~
Prnlegomena t o the
F i.ft.h Y ear
�we use
kind . '
"
of al
diffe1
ence
a sul
giver
be rs
dis th
exam
subst
but ii
"this
definj
ti on
realit
abs tr
tion i
it Cat
ure t
reach
tions
edge.
Tht
gener
P a ge 8
ST -. J OHN ° S COLLEGIAN
THOMAS
In any d
Canterbury,
to allow tc
mee ts die
pressed im
Williams h.c
just such :
is here t<
firidex that
to us (with
The·· ope
Clearer pe
scenes.: C
From the c
is tarkled
unfolding. :
FROM THE POTENTIALLY REAL BOOKS;
As Suggested in a Recent Lecture on Great Moments in Lyric P oetry
Der des demden ~
Dieder derdie ~
Dasdes demdas
Dieder dendie~
Phillipus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus
von Klopstock,
The Pseudo~ Ne~ Plus Ultra~ Paracelsus•
0
''In t h
The .W
appar
perce1
mind.
quirir
We g
there
facult
jectiv
must
fore '
have
befort
as an
comm
our d:
a gre
believ
-
Tl
con tr:
N01
of pe1
exp re
a dirE
ven's
heard
mean!
know
perce:
re fa ti
thing
Wek
menti
gases
ment:
three
betWE
is re
Summed
~ only the \\
lemn~ _,but
human-
COi
.d..inl en tiona
·mer . iritonf
pra.mise~ .ai
The sto1
acter .po!'s
trasted wit
titude as ;
disposed c
trasts bet'
as the mim
effect is oJ
infinitly e:
injudidom
t his does 1
With ma~
le.cl master:
the godly ;
kle :of inip.
fatefuL B1
the · audie·
From ._the
tasks ; -, •
ar
is, And so
an inaud.U
comes one
goes on._qu
Ti me me
a t times w.
that it ah
have had
in ~aying,
Der Untergang der Re inen Vemurzft , ode;, Die Benut zurzg der Schnitzel
bankes fur die Geschichtlichsehen swilrdigke it in Unt erslobbov2'a ( gesurzd..
he itn in English ~ Man is a Dreadfu l Animal,
Imprimatur; Moses Cardinal Maimonides
(at Lumpoc ~ Feast of the Circumcision of the B.Vo M, ~ 1066)
Nihil Obstat; Young Markowitzt Censor Librorum
0
·r ·n
'N01NaBJ
:RSS3:H dirlf\fO
9l1
sa1vuo10 °s ·Nan
polf) .Jt:l +.::>v UV -''af'U'r'J Ot..Ua~
J..'0 ~=>J))o-~rod l'O~?!f 'd1"f,+ :).1?
.;1~+:).i:iw .Gi:i.J.!l.4ti.rLJn so p~..1~.11.(~
Lfl?S
�
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
The Collegian
Description
An account of the resource
The Collegian began as a student newspaper; became a college community literary publication in 1952 and continued until 1969; became a student newspaper again in 1969; discontinued publication from 1980 until 1989 when it again became a student literary publication.<br /><br />Click on <a title="The Collegian" href="http://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=26">Items in The Collegian Collection</a> to view and sort all items in the collection.
Coverage
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Annapolis, MD
Contributor
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St. John's College Greenfield Library
Text
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Page numeration
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4 pages
Original Format
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paper
Dublin Core
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Collegian…About Johns' (successor to The Real Collegian)
Title
A name given to the resource
…about Johns. Successor to the Real Collegian.
Description
An account of the resource
Special issue of the Collegian, entitled "…about Johns".
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Annapolis, MD
Publisher
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St. John's College
Language
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English
Type
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text
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St. John's College owns the rights to this publication.
Format
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pdf
Date
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1950 (circa)
Student publication
The Collegian
-
https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/8531452faefe0fec42a63ef348be9c4e.pdf
e8b0948a4ec66cba59dd5dab47cd29ba
PDF Text
Text
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
The Collegian
Description
An account of the resource
The Collegian began as a student newspaper; became a college community literary publication in 1952 and continued until 1969; became a student newspaper again in 1969; discontinued publication from 1980 until 1989 when it again became a student literary publication.<br /><br />Click on <a title="The Collegian" href="http://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=26">Items in The Collegian Collection</a> to view and sort all items in the collection.
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Annapolis, MD
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
St. John's College Greenfield Library
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Page numeration
Number of pages in the original item.
1 page
Original Format
The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
paper
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Identifier
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Collegian Special Issue, Jan. 23, 1951
Title
A name given to the resource
St. John's Collegian, January 23, 1951
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1951-01-23
Description
An account of the resource
Special Issue of the St. John's Collegian. Published on January 23, 1951.
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Annapolis, MD
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
St. John's College
Language
A language of the resource
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
text
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
St. John's College owns the rights to this publication.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
pdf
Student publication
The Collegian
-
https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/c82eea6abeb02e15826e150c95f2db30.pdf
aecb8c2d396788c15d78005d44de4a95
PDF Text
Text
we use
kind ~
of al
diffe1
ence
a sul
giver
hers
dis th
exam
subst
but i:
"this
defini
ti on
realit
abs tr
tion i
it Cal
ure t
reach
tions
edge.
Thi
gen er
appar
perce:
mind.
quirir
We g
there
facult
jectiv
must
fore'
have 1
befor•
as an
comm
our d:
a gre
believ
- Ti
contr:
No1
of pe1
exp r e
a din
ven's
heard
mean
know
perce
rebti
thing
We I<
ment:
gases
ment:
three
betW(
is re
n
Paqe 8
ST. JOHN'S COLLEGIAN
A F!r().gmcru
When :i.nf.'.';nt,15 m o u-qo C!f J.b8 l'.}f birth 9
W<& knew no t dream nor goal.
A l' OOm wr1~ ihen G UT 11 tr".l'"' """-"" · · h
...
-
.J
!:.',,&
~
wind, ithe women who swept tt:he black · dust
from ~heir walks wit1:h wom~down birooms.
would come to pass on these · evenings ~
·Anonymous
~
A word w,;"' then our solll
Usually in the_ ea!dy evenfog 1hen the · a il'
a~d ·the sky '1.nd the leave ,· w =re at peace
wHh t:h,emselves "1e w•Mild walk His gaze
would usually be rJir.~ci:eu. ·toward the c hips
of shale and ash in the curb; Occasionally
he ~~uld look at the sluices of cloud stuff,
notic1~~ how some looked as if they had
b~en JU!ced up while others moved with the
wmd a~d fell apart like rapidly dividing cells
and sull others were so stilly puffed out
that they could have been mistaken for .
props . ·
Everything was quite · c asual at that time ·
In th: side streets he would often notfc~
men m un~ers hfrt•• sitting in a thoughtful .
sad; afoer ·dinner. almost -:inimal like silence .
s?me smoking straight . black pipes , · [!lOS~
simply plumped dm.m in their chairs with
the wei ght of their sins and happinesses
a?d embarrassments · balan~ed · safely but
nimbly on their navels < He would tum a full
phot<?graphic glance . a t them and ·continue
walkmg :. bearing with him the i mage of sorr~owful eyes . grim cheeks blunt bellies . The
11?ages w~uld tutn over and around and in.,
side out 1n his mind like ~is solving ·end; .
t hen further ·gradually down Into the vague
smudgy depths of things remembered
"
!hen the~e w~>Uld be the quick crie s. ·
Y.·you htt me and I 11 tell momma ood ·
you ~u catch it ..
''You was out : I tagged the telee"pole .
y OU was OUt. ~
c "I was not. : ' ·
c' You was , I tagged. ·
('How d you know? ' 1
''Cause I tagge rl that's how . '-'
••cause 1
hy? ·
cecause .
a
c~ why? '
''Cause ..hat"s why. ~
.And the thin cries .would . dw mdle away
~round a comer . leaving behind them · the
~nstant absence that a rabbit leaves when
H darts quick legged into tall grass ·
All .these thing , along with . the fanned
out .br.illance of the sun setting, the . ants
tuggrng stubb_ ~ Iy· at trcmendou.; toothpicks ~
the grass lay mg down like . blown h· it in the
GOSPEL ACCORDING TO
A Sort. of Review
I
·Think and think
But fathom not
Mysteries
Of life , love;; frogs , of fleas ;
For once when close I seem to· come~
Their shadows slip . into the Sun. :
Son!
Hanging there
In God 1 s strange g:::ace ,
C rucified,
Dead., buried? yet quite alive ~
And ear which hears· no out e r sound ;
Of truth er' lasting , truth uncrowned .
Found
Yes , at last 9
MORE CANTERBURY TALES;
·
·An unwatched gate ; .
Liberalized
Firom freecbm »s barb baited prize ;
0
Clear logos smiles and ~inks her eye .
And bids me come prepare · to die . ·
My !
What weird dispatch destroys the dirge ~
I lay seduced
By a demi=urge
Louis Graff
I.
There is no conflict in the life of a
skeleton. But iri his drama on Thomas ~ Arch~
bishop of Cant~rbury~ ·Charles Williams not
only wrote lead parts for Thomas and for
King Henry VIII;. he also wrote one for .a
skeleton who registers as Figura Rerum. ·
In the place of conflict in the life of this ·
enigmatic bonehead~ ·there are time lapses
which end with the loppirig of the prefix
from '~prescience PP ; the essential role of
the Skeleton is in each case to fill up this
lapse by the instrumentation of the event
in , qu~stion and while doing so to comm~nt,
The character of this commentary is one .
of the least apparent things about a play
where many things are not apparento It never
conveys information necessary to the busi~
ness ~ ' but the commentary does sometimes
hint at some of the business not yet ace
omplished in the play ~ ·opening to us its
secrets ~ in this functiOn we have a dramatic
device f~r relieving the auµience of any
solemn tendency it may have to feel itself
not in need of the play,,~a tendency which ~ .
when it is not frustrated by some such de<
vice p ·often issues iri tha t hopeless condes.,
cension many ignorami allow themselves
to feel in approaching historical plays. :A
prescient being is a stroke of dramatic
genius for making the (known) f~cts organic
to t he play: thru him the dd1matist may
treat his facts as he does hi~ characters:
they need not happen~- they ar~ made ~ . ~nd
the artist thus asserts his pow~r over what
has been as well as over what he makes In' o~
Another function of the Skeleton' s com
mentary is the relation and comparison of
the events of the play to each other and to
the persons of the play and (at times) to the
persons of the audience as well. ·Tnis chorus
like func tiOn is a difficult thing to handle
and I . do not think Williams can be said
wholly to have succeeded at ire ·One ob
vious difficulty such a device . presents
-
i s the tendency to prose up the plar=to
state for the audience what the drama itself
should make t~em feel or think. :If they do
feel or think 9 then the audience resent being
told ~ ,for their participation is lost ~ and if
they donF feel or think9 the play is no good
t
anyway (or they aren •t) . One way Williams
seeks to avoid this for his Skeleton is by .
going to the opposite extreme.,~ he purples
up the Skeleton;s speeches to keep from
prosing up the play ~ ·and the Skeleton is
consequently willfully obscure (if not mean~
ingless at times) though seldom is he hard
to listen to and .ocassionally he rises to the
levels of first rate verse . The overall result
of this purpling techni~ is to make the
audience dig more in the play itself for what·
~hey should find in their .response to it
Much of the Skeleton 2s commentary is
taken up with telling us who he is ~ he gives
us long lists of his title·s , . tqe scope. of ·
which ranges from cc nothing ;r to ceverr
thirig 9 ' .and from - ~ t:he jaw~bone of the ass cao .
on which Christ rode "" to (Qa functi orung ·
spectrum of eternity o 9 ~ He seems indeed to
be compounded of all the brilliant and frag ,
mentar y modifiers a poet from time to time
puts down in his notebook and which he
cannot · bring himself to abandono ·One of
the most provocative of these . and one of
the most sustained in the play itself is
(and this one is lost on the Arians) 9 .r. ~l am
the Judas who betrays men to God.r~ The
Skeleton ' is all the court has for jester and
all the church has for "cGod or the Devil ~~
it is the fatter two who i n the Skeleton
receive ' the poorer repre§entation for the
distinction between them is drawn in terms
more of :endurance than of love . Whatever
the unclarities of conception in die part of
th e Skeleton, ·it is without a doubt one of
the mos t richly written parts in the whole of
modern drama . ·
.<
My soul is the . power of God over the·
land. says Henry, :~' Can any man anywhere .
unmake t:he King? "'' Mr Williams ? Kirig is a
man with a kingly · sense of self augmented
~y , ~trong will ~nd an unkirigly · sense pf
,.utJ.bty eug_ed with SCP-!puleusness < He AS
shown (as ~he was) in die old pat adi'gm df
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1nf.-1N ' ~
C.O LLEGIAN
ST ~
the Augusti nian man who makes i t all right by now quite departed from orthodox doc ~
through chapter Vil but can-t qui te cut i t trine" To be sure Cranmer p refers his own
to t he end of VIII. ·
doctrines ,, but his first recantation follows
The essential conflict for Henry in the from t he old logic together with an unwi 11 ,
play lies in his attempt to be that which he ingness to break tha t logic in the face of
thinks he is ; .supreme head of church and the fire , ·he being, ·as he says , c: purblind ~ ,
stat e 9 unto whom nothing can lack" He turns weak :", When he finds that he cannot avoid
to the Archbishop to bolster his desire of the fir e . anyway he revokes hi s old pledge
superiority over the Pope but he is not in° to the prince and makes the new one to his
sensible of the Popes ':nodr. o ·He turns hear t, His discovery that his first desired
away from the archbishop: s pleas of mercy a,llegia nce is to himself marks in. the play
for Anne and others but he is careful to his tragic enlightenmen t. ·
secure confessions when he can from those
CranIPer assents to the Skeleton 's final
he condemns o ·He unrelenting seeks the solicitation , .~c u the Pope had bid you live ~ .
wives he wants and as unrelenting seeks you would have served him / ~' As though
their dissolution. He feels strongly the re·· turning the screw a last twist , ·this serves
lation of his happiness and his business to signify the depth of Cranmer ?s conflict,
to that of the land and people but he ends Beyond that; ·the meaning of the Skeleton?s ·
unsure of what the sense of his kingship is . · parting riddle is unclear, It may merely re"
He ends not knowing who he is nor who his . mind us that Cranmer would not have bro-,
wife was ; " l have always lost the thing I . ken the old logic had he not been condem~
sought to find o.~ I shall be IP .shall I not? r~ ned: or it may intend that the conflict is
He is a king who needs cno help " only one not after all resolved and had Cranmer been
to °'' stand somewhere near .~= So he says ; pardoned after the second recantation ~ . a
but the play suggests that there was no such third would have followed; or Williams ~ay
wish us to presume by it that had Cranmer
king . •
Cranmer in the play is a holy and calming been finally pardoned some doctrinal com
(albeit conscience striken) presence who promise could have been effected between
although he " is everywhere out of place him and the Pope . •The first is unlikely
except among books >~ puts himself in court considering its superfluity and the climactic
and pulpit to bring there his conception of position given to the statement; the second
the body of the Lord; cc Make your .commun° is inadmissable dramatically and would
ion on love and peace o'~ The essential constitute a flaw . The third is good drama·,
conflict for Cranmer lies in his attempt to tically ~ ·making Cranmer more a martyr and
accommodate himself to the loyalties he Mary more a villain (and it incidentally
feels obliged to pledge : he makes no clear helps to throw the blame on the Church of
distinction between Churc h and State and in Rome for what ultimately followed~,~ the total
submitting himself to the King , makes ober severance of the English Church) , •
isance to both. Henry is ~' absolute head 91
II
·he says and adds that the oaths he took to
Rome have no force to alter his duty to the
The play inakes a bold attempt at telesKing . It is to the King that he submits his coping the action of many years and sue~
Bible for approval. •
ceeds fairly well at the resulting problem
The conflict does not become clear until of sustaining dramatic continuity . Bowever
the Second Part although the Skeleton tor~ it never quite loses the episodic character
ments him with ill defined t hreats at the which marks it from the true unified drama. ·
end of the First Part. ~ Under the reign of For a play , ·i t both talks too much and too
King Edward he finds himself through his little ~0 too much to hold of itself the interest
pledge subject in fact to the Lords who which action entails and too little to seduce
while they '' protect '~ the King · plot for the the audience into being satisfied with some·
throne , and he sees his pledge now directed thing at least understood ~ for the latter, .
ironically tc against the kingship ~~, At this footnotes are iridispensable . ·
A production of the piece depends for
point the king dies and Cranmer finds him"
self (following his same logk) pledged to its success on poetry and pageantry ~ visual
Mary ~ .which now means ~ 0 by renewed act of and auditory brilliance must be so used
parliament0 ~ a pledge to the Pope . But he has that the audience neither realizes nor cares
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Page 3
STo JOHN ~ S COLIEGii\N
J OHN ' S COIJEGIP~t.1
that it hasn 1 t really seen a play. This the and it is much to the credi t of Meo Edelman
producer Richard Edelman clearly grasped that from his troop he demanded poetry " •
Who can thi nk of the poetry of Williams
and there can be no doubt that his work had
now without remembering Hugh McGr ath ' s
that double brilliance < ·
The stage construction emphasized the superbly sensitive and superbly sonorous
pageantry by assigning the King and the reading of Cranmer? Mr. ·McGra th did much
Archbishop to separate realms which were to secure for the drarna . the genuine sym
pathy toward Cranmer which Williams in ~
crossed only with dramatic design. ·a de
vice which gave excuse for the exhilarating tended; he does for the Archbi shop ' s iw
luxury of Hstained glass windows ' 9 beauti molation what Flagstad did for Brunhilde ' s , .
fully executed by Harry Martin. They were and his playing , always goal, rises t o fine
thematic pieces ~ one of Samuel anointed by heights following the entry of the queen •.
Al Sugg as the Skeleton read with passion
by his (significantly) subject Saul; and one
of St. Jerome i ·doctor and translator of the and intelligence ,, ~a rare combination in
Bible . Both themes were provocative in the student performances ; his voice followed
context of the play i ·the St. Jerome one es ~ with fine skill the appalling range of inflec ~,
·
pecially not only because he directed the tions which the part demands . . A lesser
faithful to study the Bible but because he player would have been floored simply by
criticized the authenticity of the seven the speed of reaction and alteration which
' qapocryphaP 1 books and gave the Protest ~ the play requires of the Skeleton (the more
ants cause to exclude them from their canon so since Williams ' writing often deni es to
of the Old Testament 9 · thus emphasizing him any clear indication of just what the
response and shift should be). _ ugg proved
S
their" breach with the Roman Faith.
The design of .the stage was pulled to himself a virtuoso and took upon himself
gether by a central cross behind which in addition almost t he whole of the respoo~
<louble doors were made use of quite strik si5ility for providing the talky play with an g
ingly for ~nuance and e:1:it. •The weakest iridispensable minimum · of continuous ener- y ~
thing about the stage design was the nature whether in the form of movement or of pos
of this cross ; thin ~ bread -pieces were ·used . ture . Often one had the experience of finding
in a double construction which permitted that a motion of Sugg vs body had clarified
the audience to see through it easily. to ._
the for him the meaning of lines read by one or
doors behind, ·but which made the thing · too another character. Admirable as fwhat I can
modernistic to relate propedy to the other only call) Mr. Sugg ~ s choreography was ~ ·it
furnishings (throne and prayer . desk) and would have been more germaine to the part
had it been less lithe and . more angular. •
the costumes. · ·
We would not have had a play a t :all i f
The · visual brilliance of the wel1°lighted
Paul Rickolt had not become a king after
production was increased by expert make
up and dazzling costumes with ingenious dark on each of four occasions . •Make up
regal and ecclessiastical do dads designed and costume gave him all the help any play~
and made by Dorothy Hammerschmidt and er could expect and the rest was up to him. :
Josephine Thoms, . who all by herself as It is hard to resist saying that the best part
Ann Boleyn did a great deal for that same of Rickolt's response to this challenge was
brilliance . Drama wise the portrayal of Ann his beard, . but that is only because the
would have profited from more hardness beard was so roagnificent. :As -a matter of ·
mixed with the quite adequate sirenity : she fact he was at moments a better king doubt~
did not want the crown 1 qbecause it lay in less than Henry was ; still it is true that
my way '~ (to something else)~ 0 she wanted had he been a still better king it would
have been a better play . At no time was one
it because it lay in her way (period). •
To watch the Edelman production was a of the most difficult scenes of the pl11y, the
stunning feast for the eyes, but for the ears death of Henry t really well 9 played. However
as well : here the producer received his this was not all Rickolt s fault~ · for the
initial stimulus of course from Williams ' scene is badly (tho ~ brilliantly) written. It
uneven but sometimes fine and always in° is wantinr; in IPaterial which could make it
teresting verse . •However ~ · the delivery · of convincing, and has an excess of material ·
lines in verse is a task to which professio~ which could not make fr so .,for instance
nal actors more . often than not fail to rise ~ · the King is made to say ~ ,qe l had a dream./
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Pa~
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Page
4
l(")l-IN ' ~
l.()I LEGIAN
STc JOHN '' S COLIEGIAN
STo JOHN Q COUEGIAN
S
I saw a creatu~e run about the world;/ everye
god 1ik_e way, ·at any rate , .by the Muses
where at all tlmes .H •• ~Now one can believe
For rnstance P who could have been certain
he saw such a creature ~ but he simply can~
that Midas would indeed touch the lids from
not d!feam that he did. ·
bean cans? Or who told the Archbishop •to
Adam Pinsker and Richard Congdon were
spend so much time in just that .position
excellent as the Landed Gentry of the play . · where his head hid the candle and gained
They comprised a kind of · Machiavellian · the aurora of its flame? And did the Ske'leo
Mutt and Jeff. Pinsker who had more occ~
ton plan it so that when he descended irito
a~ion . to spe~k , pressed this opportunity to
the audience and at a crucial point turned
his highly literate heart and did some of
to the stage , ·his voice issued ominously
th~ very best reading of the entire produ~
f~om behind the cross? Finally ~ from the
c~1on . • Furthermore, · his acting showed 9 • e~trance of _
the :xe~utioners we were graced
Wlth respect to the fur on his cap ~ a delio
wtth sheer rnsptratton ~ above the hand~pain°
c~te and proper balance of disdain together
t ed hair but home~grown muscles of Tom
with a sense of the indispensability of it. · Carnes P chest the audience was startled to
J ohn°David Robinson and W, · C. ·Davis . se.e a g:eat black hood. It was an unmanly
cavorted hatefully and gleefully thru the
thtng this hood symbolic of the executiono
roles of the priest and preacher. Though the
er •s role by the simple replacement of a
parts are written in broad comedy, there was
cone f~r a sphere much more surely than by
almost too much scab and in Davis ? too
castrat10n are men emasculated : it is not a
much subservient Chinese wobbly. ·Queen
surgical operation but is done by Mr. Edelu
Mary was played in the very best blackuand~
man ' s geometry. • The resulting angularity
red by Kathleen Asplin ; the staging of her together with .that of Mary •s hatred, the
entrance is one of the memorable moments
Skeleton p bones p ·and the torches 1 flame
s
of the production. ·George Miller was sure
formed a diagram for the play 1 s ending and ~ ,
prisingly good as . the · Bishop ; he spoke
from that day to this P for Chri stendom ' s
strongly when it was required but maintained
fractured me in . The . great doors slowly clo
d:rtoughout that appearance of a whiteufaced
sed and the Figura Rerum standing between
to~dyiog e~ch which is I suppose best
and b~hind them s~ri~ks
form, _.show!ng
~uited to the representation of ecclessias ~
only his bones ; theu tmpnnt remained with
ti~_l , _ ignitaries in plays about the Refor
d
the audience . HNow for ·our sin / ·' Cranmer
mat1on . ·
had said ~ ~~ time ' s anguished anger ·and ~itter
The reading of Marilyn Hall deserves
clangour begin.' P
special note among the chorus of commoners
. Perhaps the reason for the special graces
which Williams employs to register the effe.,
given the play was that so many people in
cts of the court and church doings upon the
the College worked so hard at it, not only
people . •Mr. Edelman brought off very well
those who obviously come in for credit~ hut
· the special puzzle of dramatic . directing
those untiring , · freely giving 1 . behinduthe
which such a group posesc ·
scenes people like Robert BartP Phil Lyman
. To the audit.o ry brilliance of the produc~
(assistant to the producer) ~ , Larry Sandek
tlon ~ ,James Lrnsner ' s music and the solo
(lights) ~ Ray Starke (construction) and Steve
work of Mary Lacey P Martin Dyerp and Glenn
Mainella. Perhaps the reason was that wives
Yarbrough added gracefully. Liosner ~ s music
and friends from the community worked so
provided sensitive and provocative settings
enthusiastically with the students and tutors. ·
for texts in a variety of moods largely drawn
Perhaps it was because a community of .
for Psalms , ·His setting of 'Q How Amiable
~rts ~ ·always a good thing , ·Came into being
Are Thy Dwellings " was singularly beauti
Just for the playo I should judge that these
ful. Unfortunately the mq,sic was sometimes
special graces which raised ~~ Thomas H far
poorly performed and imperfectly balanced
above other plays of any recent year here ~ ,
with the reed organ. ·
were some ktnd of recognition of the arres
Certain thi~ abot1t the production showo ting fact that whereas it is d~votion to ideas
ed a kind of genius that even Mr. Edelman ~ s
which have made St. J ohn ~ s , it was devotion
unusual competence could scareely have
to a poem which for a time made . it one b •
given hope for. They showed that although
indications from Higher Up were discreetly
John Logan
wanting, , the production was favored in a
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·
The r e " s no use i n a st r: ong
impulse . if it is all or nearly lost .in
bungling transmiss ion and technique ,
Page 5
sion occurs when coming to cc blindly cover ~
ed •• ~ • etc. ~ 0 the pras ing is suddenly
inverted and one expects to hear what , ' the
·
fresh creature n '~ is bid/ rid itself oP ' for
the function of " that n in ''that panoply:s
art" is ambiguous . It could mean Hblindly
covered by that panoply ' s it was bid rid
itself of o • ·• • • (e . g . ) the bare step of the
Lord n or c(fr ~a·s bid rid itself that panop ~
ly ' s art by which it is blindly covered H" .
Considering what the listener has been se t
to expect the first guess is not so absurd. :
The kind of ambiguity which occurs as
a result of his incessant insistence or or,,
namenting the material at hand even if
(some of the clarity is lost is a damnable
sickness ; a canker which the robs his playu
based on a fine plot·,~of the opportunity of
bec;oniing realized. :If the difficulty lay in
expressing ideas perhaps even beyond th e
"realm of reason ' one might sympathize with
Mr WiUiams for his valiant attempt. But .
amo~g others , John Donne has managed to
deal with certainly as difficult material. •
And to illustrate this I .have chosen one of
-his longest sentences which let it be ne')ti~ftf
though it i~ n~t meant to lte shouted t~ an
audience nonetheless its ~ense is clear and
we find no cJ.i~~ortion of lit.e lan~ge to_ fit
the Versification ~
.
E. P . ·
Thus ornament is but the gu iled shore .
To a most (i.ange rous sea, ,
Wm. Shkspr. ·
No extended consideration of Williams ~ work
is needed to reveal those influences bear
ing more immediately· upon his use of r hy
thmic· measure ~ .rhyme and alliteration. •He
accepts T . • S. • Eliot' s adaptation of the
alexandrine anti employs G. M, Hopkins '
devices in alliteration and rhyme . And out
of these various components he has occas'"
ionally made some good poetry, ·but with
them he never seems to have made some.,
thing completely his own. :How a play can
be affected by verse ~ ·though it is a com
pletely different thing than a poem, will
become clear, I think , as we proceed. :
Unhappily Mr. •Williarns 1 lines can prove
trying to a listener not on}y for the surely
unmeant cacophony but even for the obscu"
rity of the ima.gery and the ambiguity of the
sense caused not by any difficulty in the.
SUbject matter but father .by the . author Y
s'
restrainti , as· is evidenced. only too often; ·
from constructing a decent werse paragrapb. . Let lllans .SOule be a Spheare , aild then , iu tafs
The following passage is a typical example ~
'lbe intellige1:1ce that moves , aevotion is ,
AM as the other ~he ares , by being growne
But now is man ' s new fall : now the fresh creature • SUbject to rorraigne motions , lose their QWAe
his second nature , nurtured by grace from the old • And being by others hurried every day ,
lusts to withdraw itself and withhold
scarce . in a yeare their naturall forme ot>ey ·
from the lawful food of God's favour : it lies Pl~asure · or ousinesse , so , our Soules adnut
on the sea-broad floor of the dmtch; and its eyes · Fot ·~tl1eic first mover , and are whirld by ito
shut themselves on the steep sacramental way ' Hence is ' t , that I am carryed towards the west
for it beats its heart in a halfcsleep ,
This day; when my Soules forme bends toward the
blindly covered by that panoply's art it was bid
East !
rid itself of ; multiple show and song
throng in its dreams the bare step of the Lord
There was much confusion while the play
and are adored in comfortable fearful respect · was being produced and after even amoug
. those participating just as to what k~nd of
The phrases do not fall into a proper order. ·play was being dealt with . I would hke to
Much of the obscurity lies in his construe" assert that this play could have been remarktion •. For example , . why is qqhis second ably bett~r if it had been written in a straig~
natur~ H left in such an awkward position?
t
htforward prose . : However ~ · 1et me say o
1-!is use of this phrase in this way confuses those who would rashly agree ~ . that only
even more just what all the q 'itself"~ ·:cit ir9.' poetry cap. be. employed to enforce the sense
qc its i~ for the next ten lines refer to~ .for to the greatest possible degree and that
in his string of phrases his repetition of only poetry. can take the reader into t.he
this pronoun with the piling . u~ ~f more most precise and controlled ~ shade by shade r ·
images as he goes along makes It impos~~ intensification of . meaning •. • But the po~t
ible for any liste.ner to be sure of what is only · succeeds when he has so for~~d his
being said. In these lines a further confu idiom that he can do with it anythtng he
0
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kind ~
of al
diffei
ence
a sul
giver
be rs
dis th
exam
subst
but ii
''this
defini
tion
realit
abs tr
tion i
it CaI
ure t
reach
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edge.
Thi
gener
appar
perce:
mind.
quirir
We g
there
facult
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must
fore'
have 1
beforE
as an
comm
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a gre
believ
- T1
con tr:
Noi
of pei
exp re
a dirt
ven's
heard
mean:
know
perce·
rebti
thing
We Ii
ment:
gases
ment:
three
betWE
is re
r-r
rt1 I I !:Cl A
ti""'.u1..i •c
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pleases as l ong as he doesn ' t distort the
Many identities hath the Sacred Word
language. ·
So widely is he bestirred r or our beatitude:
Mr. :Williams ~ main defects ., ·then 9 ·extravo
agance and weak construction are due to The rhymes are composed of light words ~
his absorbing · interest in arranging an overo mann than ~ ·boys noise; and those of medium
whelming number of similar syllables and a w~ight~ sweai>slander> . doom-room; appropleasurable pattern of rhymes . A few lines priate to the movement of the line but the
mentioned above for inversio~ of phrase heavy noise ' bes tirred 1 is more than unplea ..
show this quite well .
sing, Heavy words ~ ·however, ·can be used
for rhyme e .g . ;
blindly covered by that panoply ' s art it was bid
rid itself of ; multiple showand sung
And therefore , of his wise purveiaunce ,
tbrong in its dreams the bare step of the Lord
He hath so . well biset his ordinaunce ,
·
and are adored in comfortable fearful respect
Purveiaunce and ordiaunce do not bring their
But not only is the general sense obscured lines ' rhythm to an end as ' bestirred ' shat"
by ch_ese devices but they also prove unr. ters its line. •The phrases ~' the noise of
pleasmg. :(I would dislike to have to main~ your lackeys n ~ · " to spare and to swear H
tain that a meaningless 'poem ~ in whieh a re far from trying like · ' 1 reading to riding n
such devices are used skilfully is good~ . or Hsteeds and studies H or °' ' reined and
but then Edward Lear has managed some~ spurred '~ for though there is an obvious
thing · iri this way~ ·and Robert Herrick has play in all in the latter phrases there ~ s an
wroittei_i some very fine qempty ' lyrics . ) In over~emphasis on the heavier consonants . ·
th.is J?Iece · the din of syllables is irritating . · One wish es Mr. ~ Williams had shown more ·
B~d~r_1dp · song._-throng · are rhymes tripping · ofte_n the control he displays occasionally.
o~el· each other. 'Lord~adored separated by
Stn~e the line·-by line prose sequences of a ·Jew words do not result in so deva- tating t~e .pncst and the preacher~ as at the begirio
s
an effect. Obviousli Williams P use of these n1ng ~ and later of the Lords and the commons
devices can reach depths of bathos. In his are -writte? without a view to ornament they
work they. seem for the most part to have are effecuve and provide a good deal of the
lo~~ any ~ignificance . He could not have motion whic'h makes the play. A few encum' proceeded ~ in this play with any definite berances can even be found. among these
plah or pa~tern for their use except that of as the Stumbling n crown's need VS Sake? > •
J
abundance; and he has managed it successo but taken altogether they prove to be the
fully to the play' s loss . However, ·when he most vigorous parts .
controls these devices he can yield some
A speech of the Skeleton ' s well deserves
very fine verse as in one of the best passao to be singled out. Jt is not like Cranmerss
ges.:
clumsy opening speech or lines like c~Christ
laughs his foes to scorn n, , but rather its
~eep him waiting , do you , among your boys ,
lyricism commends it. ·
'
in the scurvy noise of your lackeys , your runabouts , hey?
.
Friend , do you hear the
I say~ by my faith I have a fine council ; this man
horses , the horses?
that Is better than the proudest of you , .
Do you hear the gentlemen riding to town?
and dog-chase on to his doom
Lord Williams of Thame and Sir Robert Bridges ,
with fellows that will find room to spare and to
and Su John Brown and his Oxford neighbours
swear
·
'
the gentlemen riding into town?
this or that slander for a crown or two? " " , ,
0
,
construction ; .saying more directly and con ~
cisely what he wanted to say without getting
bogged " :
.
.
A good bit of the pantomlfile-actlon succ·eeded in telling a story that the words were
failing to tell and almost altogether .hampering. :And feeling that the action for the
most nart was concerned with the play I .
would• hardly censure it for its actually
surpassing prolix speeches in dramatic
effect.. But if some of the speeches had been
shortened into effective language it would ~ !·
think ~ . have been more easily recognized
that this play o· far from being a pageant -is a tragedy" ·
0
SONNET
When
ine rt ma tt~ r had decayed in time"
And deat h•s gray flowe rs :ro t rupugnent smell
Hi s scyt he with dull gray blade will tell
0
•
0
,
0
•
•
"
,
•
•
But when t he
s:Jul~s
sub sttJcnce is immortal
Then life is only wisdom's golden portaL
0
The. ear is not offended by this . The rhymes
falling on a metrical off~ beat do not lengtho
en or stretch the line and so do not disturb. ·
Though as you notice he matches his end
rhyme in the middle of the next line ~ ·his
usual method whenever he is able ·the line
does not stop or pause, the rhyr:ie is not
forced as in :
.
And this is not spoiled by one's memory of
Ye~t s s lines : ~QSaint~ do you weep? I hear
amid the thunder/ The Fenian horses :~? etc . H
for Williams has made the cadence hi s own~ ·
This is one of the few passages untouched
by rhyme or alliteration~ anJ though he has
used these devices well a few times he
might have chiselled an idiom for himself ·
had he stuck to such simple phraseology and
PavU.r:als exploding making life impossible
Th e blo od its e lf turning w hite and c olo•·c
less
Th e s k in deadening
And finally ke blood itself unn ing away,
Awaken new born s ouls 11 •
Th is s oul is yet to be bomr
Th is soul w dl be bomr
Let blessings fa ll lik~ dandru ff;
Infe ct hr.m w ith y our birth" ,
May he be bom
May he be
May he
He .
May he
May he be
May he be doo:med,
The tr.iste and somber. reason with the irr . Step softly" the old one has gone
The .new one must now ta ke its. place
rhymeo ,
Becoming to be i~g as .be ing to perishing
The reason fo r life . wh ic h we call sublime" · Oh, hear my lamen tation , , r ,
1
The tales of demiurg e, of heaven and hell; . Go 0 g o ~ soft ly and lightly
Go 0 Go-0 Go ' r i ,
Though h is c olor . be dull . ·his v oice w ill
shell
Oh, Gods on h igh, hear our lamentations 11
A truth of knowledge , of beauty and grimeo Give . us reason
' Wha t i~ th~ reason ?
Give ·us lov e
Then shall we know t hat . life is maladyo So tbat we may lov e w ithout know ing what .
to z~ve
That l i fe is fed by other liv es again, ·
Giv.e .zis ..' Give USp But {/o not take awayo ,
And li fe will sp read till none in t ime remain;
Pier.at
For death, his scythe. will come w ith remedy"
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Page 8
ST o JOHN; S COLLEGIAN
THOMAS CRANMER OF CANTERBURY
In any discussion of Thomas Crnnmer of
r'The t win hunge11s a1te loosed, an
Canter buryD one must be willing~ nay eager,, .
amphibian shape
to allow tthat the~e is more 8:mnisan than
monsfltrously re11awls {irom d ungeons
meets die casual perusaL •Fo.r here" ·Com"'
of needr"oof,p,o
p!'essed into a niber of th e incudent, Charles
W
illiams has shown us what is to be seen in and later;
just s uch a developement•. And more, ·there
is here to be read · the altogether . napid
""~~r~ut woe" woe fl.o any wh o see
flridex that W
illiams , ·with his . eye, presents
not where the words g o :,0 1 ,r;
to us (with our eyes), •
·
.
. .
?
• .
•
The · opening scene makes this clea.r • .: throws littlC: ~t~ht on the au~h~r s m_te~uonso .·
Clearer perhaps than the embrotic closing Bu~ th.en, dtv1nmg o.ur condu~on~ .Wilham~ •• ~: •
.scenes . : Oearer . evn than me play itself. · or ts tt fa_te ? ~~~eluc1dateso Like a shot, like
From the contrasts of the opening scene one · a bolt9 · hke · a cold thrust of irridesce nt .
is tarkled and tivemace.d by the panorama aluminum in a warm sop of velvet brown P ,
unfolding. :
,impersonal as a scalpel., ·with the . nonchau
••in t ~e .begi nning :was the WmL ,
lant directness of a tfred diter naught humn
The .Wo;d was with ·God .arid t he Wob"d
ming placidly as it wends its way among the
flock of tr,i.Via that is the focus of its being
and (O Paradox) the being of its focus •.
Summed up in these scant lines .is not blur.red perhaps at the edges yet . with an
only the whole .omnkase of the central die ominous
we know that . t i s past and
i
• lemna, .but the .ambitude and cenrism of .the irretrievably gone. Nothing we, Williams, t he
hwnan- condition. : And · when they receive Archbishop, nayi not even the calciumed
dimentionality, and even audibility, as Cran" line of forbidding interstices..... the F igura
mer . in.tones them their _reality becomes . a Rmrum; • an make it more clear o r less irre=
C
promise~ ..an.d quite vice<·versao :
trievable ., : Or conversly p , more trievable, ·
The story is diti:ained~ ·the central char~ And the triad move s on!
·
acter porsid, . and .certainly these are con-,
Picture now~ -if you will~ ,the whole spec~
trasted with the Skeleton with as much proc., tacle , Listen ; if you will., to the c acaphony. :
titude as ahyone thus . constituteq and thus Observe, ,if you will ;; •the frantic Lords and
disposed can ever assemble . Note the con~ desperate Commoners . : Recall, , why d n >
t
0
trasts between them. ·Then the similarities you~ , the colours and implications .. ·Don ' t
as the mind is turned to each in its tum. The they blend into a stunningabligate? Does
effi>ct is of an abligOte wholly contairied and not your soul quicken to the JQesperityl
infinitly expandirigo :Embracing all with the
it all one mad pcovate of transosis? To
of a lac teron (and certainly say less would beg the issue ,
say more
this <loes not stretch th e point!) .
would boast
To say nothingi; ·"aye theres
With .mas terly control~~and alas uncontrol~ the rub H (Shakespeare).., would be the ul,
le.cl mastex:y~".the author has time race by and treme expres sion of the paradox ,
·
the godly and ungodly join in a frantic .kner
And
, women are not exceplicated. ·
kle :of imprudence. Purposeful and certainly T herein the nastiness of it all. ·
·
fateful, -But a kne.rkle nonetheless (a nd let
Then Henry dies. ·
·
0
the . audience never
: What has been
here to illuminate
F.rom .. the time Henry co mmands,
the first
·might with. equal impidity be
tasks ; ~ ,and the Archbishop does ., ,the s~ge said of the second. ·
is. And so is the audienceo All is hushed by
But to those who disagree .. To those I
an inaudible stillness,, •and . the latter be~ must say~ PT disagree back. I must perforce
comes one wJ.dl me form.er ~hilst the fofmer disaglfee with those who wruid have it other·
goes on quite unconc'e rnedly being what it is .. ~ise ' with those who are so tarkled by t he
T ime moves on. With . purposefulness, , nd seed of retruity and inesperetness that they
a
a~ ti.mes wi[h hesitation, But it is significant can .' t s e e a simple tapifog-m when it is not
that it always moves~ What could Williams only prespered to them~ ·but gtopped on a
have had in mi nd? Certainly · the Skeleton silver kister , Damnit.
in . ayfog ,
Sandek
0
0
clarity~
out~
Isn~t
injudicfous~ess
~To
it~
0
forget ~1MPRUDENT).
'~~~~.~your
lo~
act~
writt~n
0"
f';, (/
"I
.!!,~-
.
~ "~~
~
M
&V"
III
~
n
........
-'I
~
v
<t
,,.,t:C.i=:'-~~~I(
0
b - Li. t
TME
a HNS
·
J
0
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~
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REAL
C OLLEG- IA.N
0
0
c-ccccccccc
La
Prime
Kinematician '
Lord Prufrock
39 Gramercy Pk,
St , John ' SoaoWay "
FromoStr John' s
At The Height
of the
Golden Era
THE ASCENT OF MAN AND THE ORIGIN OF THE FEC ES
or
A SMELL y LITT LE CAMPUS
.
"ts las t diurnal conflux ~ di.sQ
Th St J ohn's Stude nt Polity.~ at t
s·
the Administration
e •
11
fmances , rnce
l"
cusse d the problem of co. e~: hands of the stude nts the ~o Hy
of the Colle ge has been m
daily for five or six hours m the d
.
h d afte r much debate an
h
found it expedient to ~eet
as
d cis ion which was reac _e . .
Yester=
Great Hall, a e
.
f thP Electric Light Comp~y ,
de~
concluded only by. action ~f ;rticular no te as something was
l ' s conte s serauon was
p
c ay
cided.
,
t which opened the mee ting ~
After the Treasurer s Repor , - hin had to be done . One ~r.
era! students concluded th~t s:i~:cti~s sake , voice d th e opm10n
two, who obvious ly talked or ~olden Age , stude nts could n_ot.
. h all due res pect to the
h
"f the present cris is
that , wit
f h . ducation and t at 1
ld
ay the full co s ts o t eu e .
of the present polity cou
p
et by raising fees agam many f
l $50 would bring the
was m
d · crease o on Y
•
( The suggeste m
not return.
an even $3500. annua lly . ) This was gen ~
st
total costs per s udent t~ theory that if they really had to, m~ .
erally shouted down on t e
n without serious danger to t etr
stud e nts co Ul d clip another coupo
sev·~
n to take form ·when one of th e stu~ .
The discussion really bet: idea that the community should sup~
dents cautious ly pro~osed t hin the Outs ide World ne e de_d, or
rt itself by producing somet
g ld buy This was received
po
t any rate wou
•
f
f
thought it needed~ o~ a.
ve always wanted a act~ry o
jubilantly by the ma JOrtty who ha a metaphysical discuss10n as to
h . own From here, there arose
.
i n the light of its parw
"
t eu
•
f
h commumty >
h
what would be proper or t e
f the freshmen interjected t at
0
One hich it does best. A so phomore
cicular nature , co produce . th
5t John' s should produce at w b ointing out that the hen
.h • . dly picked up this theme s and by p. . g milk and the Church
urn
the cow Y givrn
'
b
h
does best by laying eggs; . .
d that St, John 9s rlid est y .
of Sin , inumate
S
by teaching a ense
·
..J
k io the Seedbed
· ru at wor
• Illustration above~ So ~ bro and H y , ha ·
. __
.
of the Amenca n Renaissance.
ll•liEi!: finances .
�
Dublin Core
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Title
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The Collegian
Description
An account of the resource
The Collegian began as a student newspaper; became a college community literary publication in 1952 and continued until 1969; became a student newspaper again in 1969; discontinued publication from 1980 until 1989 when it again became a student literary publication.<br /><br />Click on <a title="The Collegian" href="http://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=26">Items in The Collegian Collection</a> to view and sort all items in the collection.
Coverage
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Annapolis, MD
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St. John's College Greenfield Library
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8 pages
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paper
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Collegian Vol. LXIV No. 05
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St. John's Collegian, May 11, 1951
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1951-05-11
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Vol. LXIV, No. 5 of the St. John's Collegian. Published on May 11, 1951.
Coverage
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Annapolis, MD
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St. John's College
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English
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text
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pdf
Student publication
The Collegian
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https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/5b1eb04119c2a11488631fd38b43ef40.pdf
24ddcf0453292f11098d48d0d2994db6
PDF Text
Text
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ST. JOHN'S COLLEGIAN
P age 6
ST, JOHNG S C01J.EGIAN
THE
LAST
TRIAL
Watching behind a thousand-cloaked doubt
Life, dancing .in eyes i glancing at me
Roundabout , I mourn , '
Mourn for the death of a dowiy look, ·
Feasted on in the shrouded synpathy
Of a time when ---------- Alone
I walked in meditation through an enpty night 1
Cast in reIIDte vacuUtn'ii of silent death , ,
Rene\\ing a love of another love 1 s plight ~ .
Lost forever v.ith ~ loves breath . :
Of a tiire now ----------- Together
Balanced .on a perimeter of careful delight
Can I . again~ · blankJ y expecting response
Smile (and Eghtly fro~) at her, .
Or through the appeal of a fiery calm
Do I dare then suddenly ask
uls it all right if I love you? "
- Robert Hazo
ON MY FATHER 'S DEAFNESS
FROM
DESIGN
A pair of cinnamon vines
Reached
For the l edge of my windows ill? ,
And wra pped their unexpe cted finger tips
Around each other in the upward verticil;
Nature ;s phylacteries eclipse
T he Circean spell of reason's shrines . ·
A winged and holy bard
Preached
The nus es r verdurous dogna 9 •
While reptilian veins darke ned my room
With their weirdly inspired botanical pneuma;
I drew the blind and chose the gloom
Of rootless dream in mindi s graveyard. ·
~
Louis 'Graff
A Qm.ck At inomy
A-whisper of the sea;
•
The. faintness of the distant surf
Repeats a rrelody
Of notes that float above the bar
like \\bite wings circling for a sign
To reassure G>d's fugitives . :
Not far from-shore a pharos braves
The rushing tides of truth;
Lone Ptolemy observes the stars , ,
Of heaven '·s twinkling cryptograph
Whose brilliant mysteries protect
A lonel y ·sailor on th e waves . •
A di s tant buoy bell fo re warn8
Of uns een coral reefs ;
The depths of inner reckonings
Three naked heart•shaped leaves
Pleached
The resurrection on my screen
And formed a bloodless trinity before
My sleepy eyes could divine the clever scene ;
Morning pierced the spermophore
And furnished Bernard with premises . :
ANNAPOLIS - MARYIAND
Inside the conch a whisper lives, ·
And makes his earth the sleuth
ARGUMENT
Vo lo LX!V , No, 4
Give sailors no relie f
From sirens of an unlauncbed soul
Inundated by a pool
Of semen 9 s geocentric scorn,, :
A Copernican novation
Breaks the curs e;
The center of the universe
Is Zion ' s new born Son•.
Louis Graff ·
A lecture in Baltimore sponsored by the
Americans for Democra tic Action on
Oc tober 11 was a political speech , a tut~
odal 9 and a t times ; ·a sermon • . The ADA
invited Mr. -Stringfellow Barr to lecture . .
He did , and delivered an extremely ·impor~
tant lecture. · .To .a halfgfilled auditorium
Mr . · Barr spoke on Foreign Policy~ ' its
problems and its function. : Because ·of
the lecture ~ s importance · this review w ill
attemp t ·t o rec apitula te and extend the
essentials of Mr. Barr' s talk so that it
may be considered by the s tudent body.
Primarilv ' Mr. Barr said that a realistic
,
foreign policy should be based on a clear
and precise statement of what pmblem
the world faces . · This presupposes 7 ·.of
course , the solution of what the worl? ~s
basic problems are, ·and the formulation
of plans in accordance with tha t view.
But we have two worlds ; ·separate and
opposed; not qqOne Wald '" , : These two
worlds a re ba ttling for power~ and there.,
fore , the ir foreign policie s clash ~ ·each
offering the wod d a solution to her prob··
le ms . · Foreign policy deals essentially
with foreigners . ·, :· we forget that some times
. , and who are most foreigners ?
The world has 2,2 billion people and most
of these are neither Russia n nor Ameri=
can s ~ .nor are they ' white . : Three =
quarters
of th e s e pe ople ~ .or over one a nd a half
billion are sick ~ .hungry , .ille terate , a nd
carryiC:g dis e as ed bodies for . their . brie f
time on this earth . They live i n continual
misery . a nd it i s extremely difficult for the
we ll=fed we stern mind to conceive of their
pligh t •. Nearly all of these people . belong
t o th e colored ra ces . of the ·earth a.nd all
are terribly oppres s ed. · ·These are . the
people we inten~ to lead in c;m r ~rus·.ad.e
against Commumsm • Our policy 1s ant!n
Cornmunistic , but much to the embarnss =
ment of the State Department, ·t he wodd ~ s
problem · is misery< :
.
When these people . look· at · Russia · they
see liberation from landlords . ·money
Have you ever lot'lked within yourself'?
Last night I d i d
And found a stranger
Whose i dentity dangled like a crust
Of' slee p
·
From uncertainty's heavy lid .
Louis Graff
changer s and corrupt politicians . · ·They
also see a planned ·development of their
country on an iridus trial basis , : When we
look a t Russ ia we see Totalitarianism
To die oppressed people of the world this .
means nothing . : They have always known
tyranny. · They want to live ; ·and to end
the ir exile from L ife and to leave their
inheritance of misery< . Russia ~ s solution
t o the problem is Communi sm. : But it
offers a lso to mankind freedom from pover .
ty ., . s ta rva tion , . plagues and i gnorance _ ·
Our solution i s an almost unheard and
very weak cry to the s tarving of the world·
Point Four ; ·the economic aid program to
u nderdeveloped countries . : But . Mr. :Barr
l e t us know - the Senate Committee 's funds
appropriated for this brave plan was not
as muc h as New York C ity s pent rn 1949
to sweep its streets and dispose of its
garbage 9 .that is i .when it gets around to
dispose of its garbage . : To the two~ thirds
of the world ~ s population that live in
mis ery how does this sound?
Russia
offers revolution. · Russia offers planned
industria l economy. : Our Senate · Committee
o ffered garbage swe eping ·funds . : Obviou
sly ~ . Communism has ·no competition iri
the world today. :
Yes 9 .you can shoot a Communis t ~ but
can you kill an idea? Communi sm is an
i dea .·
T his idea Russia ·claims is the on!y
solution to save mankind from this walking
death of misery , : She offers a positive
program . . Mankind has slowly , become .
awakened and ·is ·convinced ·tha t misery
i s no longer · necessary : ·With scientific
�we use
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Paqe 8
ST. JOHN'S COLLEGIAN
Page· 2
knowledge. and :mass production .she sees rebuilding from the cha0s of :War .to .a stand~
misery ·need ; not be · toleratedu: Knowirig ; this dard for which they . can . only dreamo : Yet,
the :underdeveloped : countries : are : sttuggling Mr u Barr ;let it , be · known . that :if we , were . to
for ~.the . freedom they ~need : to bring .about. this -cwatch ''. over governments to which we
end ~ which :is why the policy · of.isolation: is loaned money~ , the · charge of imperiali.~In
nonsense a ·This . is . the new . factor ~ the world· might be . justified. : The oppressed · rese.nt
is ,awakening . and · is determined · to · solve its ineffective plans . and are thinking and acting
economic _problems · with . os: .without, us. What more towards rebelliOn, ·
is the ·solution the ·Wes t proposes
the
Third,., ·.that '"free enterprise •t can do · the
p.wbleur? Anti°Communism9 ••but anti"Commu job ~etter than government" ·But. " free enter~ .
nlSm •is guns :and:not breado Is it an· answer? prise''·;; ·which · most Europeans : call. private
Is our Foreign · Policy , dealing :with the real enterprise ·(for they · realize that · even before
world?
Pearl ·Harbor .only 250 Corporations owned
Mr •. · Barr : offers . another alternative : a 2/3 of -the vast manufacturing : facilities ·of
positive ~ ·realistic policyo' ; First~ ;we mus t the United States) .can not attempt the job
enquire why ·· Point . Four _offered : the world and if ·it did it would only be capabie . of
so .much and received so litde .from · the Sen·, building temporary :shacks .'. for what ,is : the
ate Committee • .: Mro : Barr ·suggested the history of .mano :·Private capital ~ ·o r capital
answer lay in what:: he considered to .be four ism; ·g oes where it can make money" • And it
false assumptions __governing . our thought and moves where the . maximum profit . is possible .
the thought of · the Senate Committee: That To have profits one · must have cheap labor,
Russia . is all that is in the way . of. mankind no currency restrictions" and a friendly gov
and a stable peace; That America : can reu ernmento To the oppressed peoples this
build the world economy 9 .•or .enough·: to ·stop spells ·Exploitation and ·Colonialism. ·Essen., __
Russia ·in ·the wodd struggle ; That · free tiaJly ., ·i t is the wrong job for private : enter=
enterprise : can do a . better : job · than · govem pdse 9 for it hasn ' t worked and it won it work, ·
ment; ·That : the : job : can . be ~ done : on ·small They need a return for their money •. An in· ·
yearly appropriations ; : ·
vestor who demands a return on the dollar
If. Rus sfa and : all · the · Communists · were · to is going to do some serious . voting against
vanish · tomorrow; ·would not the · problem be the corporation dire(:tor who endorses : his
here? Would not the ·hungry ·millions · still funds for · non°profitable ends . · And he ·is
seek equality or would? with the . Communists, , right 9 he wants a return,
·
the hungry : millions .. vanish ·too? ·These mil~
The underdeveloped countries · need roads 9 ,
lions · are · going · to struggle : with or without schools , hospitals , ·electric power and · ird,,
Russia · for they · have nothing : to . lose " : But~ , gation befotre there are .· these things ;in a
Russia · is not gone ·and she -offers · to two country. : The busiriess man who does not
billion people freedom: from misery •. Mr • .'Barr consider this does not deal with the world"
~sks ·us , ,. ~~why · allow ·the Communist~ -to A country · must already be healthy and pro- ·
be · the only · people · to· whom · the oppressed ductive to enjoy · American business . · You
and hungry ; can · tum _Jru: _understanding · and can 9 t sell gasoline to a man on a donkey
- a.ction? "'
travelling on a dirt road. ·
The second premise ·when investigated
The concept of ·American Business ·is
came to thi.S . :. That the ·addition ·of Point that corporations are formulated for profit~.,
F ?~ pr.og.ram ~ for . world ·development ·to our the quicker the better c ·This profit1.·drive ;can
mll.ttary and : arms : program : would : leave · to not build · schools , "roads ,, ;. hospitals ~ :.irriga
Pomt Four . ju.st ·what we did · leave them~< <: . tion or electric power projects~ ,. simply . be
gamage :. funds . ~ Nor _w.ould the government cause it does not payc..If they were .to invest
. abolish the ,. Anny, . Navy . and ·Air : Force . at in these plans there would be : no . check from
this time · to facilitate ·world development" : your Corporation to buy Christmas presents
: ~hat of the· Marshall ·Plan? : To the Asians or anything else for quite awhile . :Nor is
1t allowed t he Fre.p.ch ·and : Dutch: to . fight Uncle Sam able · to prnvide for · the world. when
Colonial Wars.; : fo.r : the Asian ·thought , it we ourselves al'e not . fully developed u The
was not a. coincidence , .that : MMShall ·Plan Tax~payer would . have . a legitimate . gdpe if
Funds : to . the · F ren.ch: and· Dutch · equalled: the money .were to be spent -in North Afrita for
war : funds : spent ·in Indo:.. China . and ·Indo schools ·when- not enorigh is spent· :in his own
nesfa. :. Agiiri, ; the Asians ·watched · Eurnp.e community ·for "the · run=-down : school: house .
to·
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
Only the combined efforri:. of the woirlid ca:n the answeR' wh:hout ginrmg any alternativ e
.
m
surmounlt tthis piroblem, For it is i:he world's The poor and hungry w still be without
prnblem, : One wodd, We must irebuHd our b!fead , and a decent place i'.o Hve . The last
world economy. it will s:ake massive funds warr cost us . H we can t alk of money next to
of all nations . The only suitable agency for blood : ~en ~rHlion dollarn _ , . wha~ w.i.11 ~he
:th!is plan is the United Nations becau§1e next c os t? Should we conl::airi Russia m emnadons of fl:he wodd fa.ck a common · gove;m- brnce the WotrM? Our: wodd neighbors· mu s t
menlt, But we a~e faced with world govern , be consulted and planned w ith for wodd
development or for world wai' . Which will ic
meilt of another kind , · acruaUy ~o govem ~
ments ; · the two wodds , each desiring to be? Po-• or •u;,'th? ~Jr . Barr looked up and said
force its own kind of peace up:m the res~ of al~os:t i:elucta!.!tl}' , for I chink he might have
the world , which is war, Iri the next war the thotTght th'1t the time is already getting late~
' The day the UN sets aside the funds for a
victor must rule as the conquerer and that
is a:otalitarianism. Each · is seeking to sway World Development Corporation to plan for
the ~' free nations H but when have the pleas the world , h0pe would again sweep the world
of the poor been heard by the rich? Will th•e where now there is nothing but fear and that
!}0
oppressed believe in a Point Four through day '.l.'01_ be marked as one of the greatest
the United Nations? Or will they think this dates in the history of man .u
The UN would have to is sue Bonds, low
too has strings attached? Could the U. N. :
priced bonds 1 so that the world ' s population
tackle the job?
The United Nations is still a group of could bnyttrem , Jtlt of us . ·n.e ititerest could
representatives from · national governments be paid in ~ ~':or_ld0 peace" , The fund~ ~o.~ld
and subject to the dictates of their states , . be used to irrigate the des"'!'." ~::-~~------- -An agency of such importance as a world Africa , control r.he ri~r<:>~~ of 1.._,tiiria. and build
developm ent corporation should not be fou~ indusny and nations so that war would not
·
nded upon the shaky s tability of national be a necessity _
I:,. too ~ believe . Mr. Bant the people would
whims , Mr. ·Barr here suggests ·we look for
the key to ·this problem in our Tennessee buy . . they would invest. Nations would
Valley Authority. But what did TV A do ? It. fall in lirie, People all over the earth would
gave us the basic answer to the problem of hear and , .if the ir rulers would not respond 1
poverty in the Tennessee Valley, :By dam , actions wculd be taken against these rulers ..
9
ming up only one tributary river system of Is Mr . Barr s plan too idealistic? No - i think
nost of us woncler why it has not been put
t he vast Missouri River it brought prosperity
to the · valley, The funds · came from ~he public forth before this time . We have been awaitof which the Valley was only a part 1 an ing this challenge , It: is our . challenge. :We
undeveloped section of the countryc=actually; · have offered too many war . speeches ; too
an c ' underdeveloped country'' , :Dictatorship much time has already gone down the drain;
and foJt"ced labor battalions were not nee es , we must act togethei::. :
There is an alternative . The third world
sary s but we did it~ and there are now many
war i Mr. Barr outlined · that ~ too. Then when
more smiling people in the valley. Here is
our answer to Communism . The TV A was a it is over ; if anything . is left ~ including us ,
product of Congress and responsible to iti , we might well have learned that we are not
yet was free to develop i ·make contracts , alone and must work together. It would inand . make a· Hprofit1 9 • It did not live on gar·~ deed be harder then ~ ·with mu~cP. of our res bage funds and · therefore those living .· in the ources and men gone ? but; perhaps · we would
valley were not made to feel like poor rela~ be compensated by a little more wisdom in
tions. · The directors were Congressmen, · our poverty , Yes ~ Mr . Barr, ·r ich folly might
voted to office by the people ; ·re sponsible have to , fail where ·simple tools and men
to the people of America. The T :,V.A .w as_ might not 1 but the price would be tremendous
·the devestation of a Third World War.
America's answer to poverty and misery in
· ~Jr. Barr finished ; folded his papers , ack
the Valley. The world is asking .us when we
will be able to give the world a world TV A, : nowle•lged · rhe applause and sat down, The
Is ihis realistic or is war realistic? If it speaker from the A nA said a few words to
is wru:~ then we aire planning ' /or the wodd Mr, · Barr, then paused and · addressed · the
what is best for it~ Not with · k We will . be group. He remirided : them that · there · were
dictating to the world ~hat · Communism: is not some petitions ·in ·the ·rear . to sign as they
�we use
kind '"
of al
diffeJ
ence
a sut
giver
hers
dis th
exam
subst
but ii
"this
defini
tion
realit
abs tr.
t ion i
it car
ure t
reach
tions
edge.
Th t
gener
appar
perce1
mind.
quirir
We g
t here
facult
j ectiv
must
fore'
have 1
befor'
as an
comm
our d:
a gre
believ
- Ti
contri
No1
of pe1
exp r e
a dirE
ven's
heard
mean
know·
perce·
rebti
thing
We Ii
ment1
gases
ment:
three
betw•
is re
Paqe 8
ST. JOHN'S COLLEGIAN
__a~g_
P e_4--------------~--~-----S_T__•1._I._ ~L
. oI N''.§:.£.O ~rE~P•G•IaAN-...~------------------'
·
----------walked outt. :As we passed · rthe ·dear doo~ I . o cc upad ons ~ cs
ll'ea d , · ~".i . pledge · ito ·re sist a g1 :ssion and
u
F rnm this " ·we can a l:: leas tc · conside1r ·the .
li:yiraim:hy anywhere· in ~he world~;· But, agi es ·
phrase ;; . .,;• the · real fun\'.'.: d oning ·of thou3ht .c• s:iion and tyranny are born ·from · miseiry ·and
somehow, .
ma n 's indifference to man _ To i:e s .iStt aggre
The r;- eal funcdon.ing · of adolesc ent and
~ sfon and' tyiranny is only t o slay the product
pg>e adoles c ent tliought ·cannot be thought . to
w {tth U So .
differ ess e ndaUy fro m moire · maru1!'e though~
l iri.otk.ed that · I .was· reading . ~he third Hne
proc esses <· The contfouum, or; more s td c dy, ·
o f tthe c'Crusade for F!l:'eedom -' ne tia:ion • , ,
the evol ution of ~hought behavior, etc~ ; must, .
Curious thatt tlle di.lld line wHi lead us ·
in an ireasona.bleness ; be though a: to be . ju.st
t ne Third Wod d War. ·
1\:hatt: an eYolving of cause and-effe ct.actions
and ~eactions : ti:hrough dme " as one unceasingly pa!1'dcipaoces .fin some kind of though:tful
iritegia'tlon wM1 exitema! and absolute -K"ea- ZERO -FOR . CONDUCT
Hty coo •
Fireud ,says, ·f ' Leonardo da VincF \ .Ran''Zeiro for Conduct' 9 demonsttates a pre
dom Hoth~e , · New Yotk,, · 1947) '"Impor:i:ant
~ ump1
don . about ~he ·reality . of childhood biologkal anafogies ·have taugh(( us ithait the
(essentially fantastic) , an audacity about . psychk developmen~ of the · individual is a
the stature of mannity a violatioo of sur shoirtt repedtion of the cowrse of ·developll' ealism (which, .in tum, may well be a vio · ment of ilie %at~, and we shall therefore not
lattiOn of A.rt) die story has · no theologkal; ' Hnd. improbable wha~ die psychoanalytic
philosophicalr. psychologkal or pathologkal invesdgation of ihe ·child ' s psyche asserts
meaning; and, aie · las ti: the words of the pro concerning the ·infantile esdmation of ~he
logue submiu:: to a certain immense -vacuity genhals .n
with the candid '(and,· I suspect,. ,desperate)
Hubbard, · howeve!"? ·says ~ _. C ' Diianet.ks 7 - , •
.statement· · 'qThis is an ode to childhood;.''
Hermitage · House , ·New Yoirk) ccPersons ., as
First . childhood as such is not real , and
they live forward from childhood, .suffer,,~:\
anythi!Jg · said about ·i t is necessarily pre
losses", ~.and each loss takes from them· a
sumptious ~ •Particularly when one goes so
litde mo~e of this ·@ (life for~e) oc~ quantiJ!::¥, • .
far as to say it is umeat If_ it were unreal : ·
it certainly could · not then be fantastic ,, for .
. in either evem:, that this (R ,· F " of thought)
what is more real than phantasty? ·And · such should be expressed fo . te['IDS of ri:OSe'.'bfown
"l phantasy : as . that . is always iri the special
toy r;rumpets , . balbons 'l . boundng rubber
pm-Vince of a Cel'Vantes< .
balls ,. . swinging lanterns and · floating fea·
In this way. ·we proceed to · mat urit:y (nolt- the.rs is umhinkable. A childish sensitivity
he!!:e , ·audaciously, .but with some kind of which cannot extend beyond an adorntion of
disciretion,. Maturity 9 after · all, i s not some-merely Chaplinesque qualities in one -s
thing be~een ttain smoke and · cigar smoke tutoir,. · for example ; · (otherwise, . a rather
which ·sleeps and ·is proclaimed -dead -by .
excellent fellow ~, I must say), is a lamenta
hlase' moppets (who later were heard to say -, .
ble---rather 0 a disturbing possibility:. •
.
.in effect? , " Don 't wake . him! .If you wake.
( oo~ llOweve[' , ·t here ·was with this : HugerL~
9
him; · you U ·km him.Y rr ) Nor is it bearded
singular kind oL ~ ()f rapport~ .. <. )"
dwarfs _1 . dumb thieves , "or glass1:entombed
.In fact 9 ·B1rel!:on peremptority : states. in: his
derbies . :It. is ·wrong · to ·associate ·maturity
'"Second Manifesto ,rr (1926) '" Everything
with blind~folded · lamp~lighters ·and · corpu·
suggests the . belief : that : there: is . a . c,ertain
lent; ·homosexual · skeletons"'"'ilt is oo~1Da1turity
point of the mind wheie Iife .. and · death ,· '.the .
real and the imaginary~ ·the past: · and · the fu ( Q'est ce cque je .disl?) .
ture" ·the · communicable and the · iricommuni~
Andre Breton' s 1924 ~'Manifesto '' defined
cabie , ·.t he high and the low are no longer
surireaU.sm ·as ' 'A psychic automadsm wi~h
the . : help - of-: which we -pmpose , to . express · peirceived as conttadicdons ,. It would be vain
the-real funcdon:irig: of thooghti: either: oral! y,. , to look for any . motive · in sw:realist activicy
or .iri . writing,: >OR" :. iri .any: other · way. ~Ardfo., other ll:han me .hope of . determinjng that:
0
'',
tto ·
n
0
tation of thought without any ·· control . by
:reason ,. ·outside all . aesthetic . or . moral ptre
point ~ re
Or (Really) ,
' 'A pleasant and more hopeful!
'ST o JOHN'S' COLLEGIAN
1
Ufe i.6i
generab~~and
aev~r think (we : intimate)
that the woman stays for fo od
alone9 ·
.
whatever the wits say
about women ~~has
a high survival potential ;
and that
can overcome a very great deal
of
L , Ron Hubbarrl
Charles Powleske
DIAIECTI C: IN1 LIMBO .
Suppose morning
.
·
Closed the frail petunia 9 s lips9
An~ dreaming violets were
Bled;
Could you be sure?
Inside the visce,r.al :pains
Betray
Tinkerlngs: of' a frigid
Head~
Suppose you woke
. .
Fee:Ung dew on your :pillow
And' heard· echoes, of' last' night 0 s
Tea.rs'
would you trembl.e?
.
Oftimes impatient streams
. Annoy ·
.
.
Proud Pacif'i.c " s .w.b.ite. "capped
"
Seer.
. Suppose the q~rk
Agreed to polinate God-0 s breath
But earth refused to join the
Rite'
How would you know?
Jup iter• s hoots his. arrows
Cl eanly
And robs Achil.les. ot' his
Fli ght~ ·
Suppose the. b ridge
Let· loose· his aching hol d
And broke' the· arc: fr om .truth to
Truth~
Could you recall?
' Determined Corioli
Burned
The corn where. onee.. sobbed
Ruth~
Louis. Graff
Page 5 -
PORTRAIT ' OF ' A ' MAD'PAINTER
A. scrap ofpeeli:ng fresco illustrates the Talmw
And teases impatient eyes for stolen light;
· The rapid . glance . .of'; impious youth;;
Otherwise pledged to vowelless blight9
Beholds the vision of' a prenatal pe:i'."iodg
While canvas soothes.the beardless demigods.
Parchnent buries de.ep the priestly truth.
· As nomads :feast on flat bl"ead and f'~tid garlic9
And practice the c.omrenant .anrmg the sphinx3
.· Their. children toy.wi:t,h-Eucli.dean means
· Of fioee ing the triQe-from what it thinks
Is J aweh 11 s sequestered kosher picnicg
3-4! 21 becanes .the g.olden chemic
Fran which is brewed a graven scene.
•A head annointed .w.i th wormwood on
Construes an elongated Ubang:L dre~
And..sntea:u..be.r dress with jtmgle juice;
Instead af'breasts j a sermon screams
Serving tip God a reborn gargoyle ~
T~ sp:it'it leaps from solll to soil,
Leaving at altars fresh prepuce.
A stolen pear-uw..kes us saints9
Whose magic conf'uses
· The artist with what he paints
, Loui s Grraff
'f<·
A
FREUDIAN- ' MA-GNITUDE
· I:i"ony
'. P revents mecfr.om.s_aunding the w.e11,
T h~ depths. :re turn
A somber knell
And· l e ave me
W
ith an ominous. visi.on
Of' dea t h 0 s . taciturn
P arody0 ·
tiet. imagery
,:-poses my :rat..ional. . .f'light~
he i ghts: unveil
I\ raw ·insight · .
Iiito t he
· Indecencies of'. a mind: s
Passion: for; f'r.an
Novelty.
.e:
Louis . Graff
�we use n
kind
Paqe 8
ST. JOHN'S COLLEGIAN
r--
of al
diffe1
ence
Page 6
a sul
giver
bel'S
dis th
When lnf."-nts tn <JUf' cirJb!i' r.rf' birth 9
We knew not dJrl:?am nor goel
exam
A room
A word
subst
but ii
"this
defini
ti on
r ealit
abs tr
t ion i
it ca1
ure t
reach
tions
edge.
Thi
gen er
appar
perce1
mind.
quirir
We g
there
facult
jectiv
must
fore'
have
1
before
as an
com m
our d:
a gre
believ
- Ti
con t r:
No1
of Pel
exp r e
a din
ven's
heard
mean:
know
"'fl"'
Wl'l-,;
wind, the women who swept the black· dus~
from their walks wii!:h wom~down . birooms,
would come to pass on these ·evenings '
·Anonymous
then r.; u:r li tt le "'bl' :- h
then our smd, - - . ,, "'
Usually in the e~u!y eveni ng rhen the air
a~d ·the sky <tnd the leave~· w ~~.re at peace
wnh d~emselves _ wnulr! walk His gaze
e
would usually be rffr.ecte~ ·toward the chips
of shale and ash in rt:he curb. -Occasionally
he ~<;>uld look at the sluices of cloud sruff, ,
not1c1~~ how some looked as if they had
b~en JU!ced up while others moved with the
wmd a~d fell apart like rapidly dhiiding celk
and std! others were so sdlly puffed out
that they could have been mistaken for .
props . ·
Everyt~ing was quite · c a sual at that time. ·
In th~ side streets he woulG. often notice ·
men m un~ersh.irt ' sitring in a thoughtfuL
§ad, after ·dmne!' . almost 'lnim~ l like silence: .
s?me smoking srra.ight: black pipes ; · mos ~
simply plumped dmm in their chairs with
the weight of their sins and ·happinesses
a?d embarrassments balanll; '. ed ·safely but
nimbly on their navels . He would turn a full
phot<:>graphic g lance at them and · continue
walk.mg;, bearing with hi m the image of so!'~
~owful eyes . grim cheeks blunt bellies. The
i~ages would tutn over and around and in.,
side out in his mind like dissolving cud- .
then further · g!'adually down into the vague '
smudgy depths of things !'emembered
"
~hen the~e w uld be r:he quick cries.
Y-·you htt me and Ill tell momma ~d ·
you 9U catch it' "
' ' You was out · I . t agge d t h e te1ee·-pole . •
You was out . <.o
1
~1 was not. ', ·
c'You was . I tagged< :·
( rHow d you know? ' I
'<(Cause I tagge . thats how .''
~q
Cause ·hy r
"
'(Cause
'Q Why? ·
''Cause rnaf s why. '
.And the thin cries ·.would .dwindleaway
~round a comer ; leavmg behind them · the
~nstant ab.se nce that_ a rabbit leaves whm
H darts quic k legged mto tall grass . ·
Ali .these' thingi;;; a.Jong with the fanned
out _brillanc e of the sun settinK the . ants
tuggrng stubb !rly·at tre mendou. - too:thpkks.
the grass layi11g dov; n like . bl 1'/ll h· .i.r in the~
GOSPEL ACCORDING TO
MORE CANTERBURY TALES;
A Sort.
-Think and think
But fathom not
Mysteries
Of life, .love, frogs , of fleas ;
For once when close · I seem . to come ~
Their shadows slip . into the Sun. ·
Son!
Hanging there
In God 1 s strange g;:-aceCrudfied ,.
Dead., buried 9 yet quite alive ;
·And ear which hears" no outer sound ,
Of truth e!' ' lasting, truth uncrowned
· Found
Yes o at las t ;; .
·An unwatched gate ,. ,
Review
I.
There is no conflict in the . life of a
skele ton. But iri his drama on Thomas ~ Arch~
bishop of Cant~rbury ~ ·Charles Williams not
only wrote lead parts for Thomas and for
King Henry Vlll9 he also wrote one for .a
skeleton who registers as Figura Rerum. ,
In the place of conflict in the life of this ·
enigmatic bonehead~ ,there are time lapses
whiCh end with the loppirig of the prefix
from '"prescience 9 ~; the essential role of
the Skeleton is in each . case to fill .up this
lapse by the ·instrumentation of the event
in ,qu<lstion and while doing so to comment.
The ch·a racter of mis commentary is one
of the least apparent things about a play
where many things are not apparento It never
conveys information · necessary to the · busic
ness~ · but 'the commentary does sometimes
hint at some of the business not yet ace·
omplished in the play ~ ·opening to us its
secrets ; in this functicin we have a dramatic
device f~r relieving the auP!ence of any
solemn tendency it may have to feel itself ·
not in need of the plar~a tendency which, .
when it is not frustrated by some such de
vice ~ .often issues iri that hopeless condes·"
censiOn many ignorami allow themselves
to feel in approaching his torical plays. A
prescient being is a stroke of dra matic
genius for making the (known) f~cts organic
to the play ~ thru him the dt;amatist may
treat his facts as he does hi~ characters:
they .n eed not happen-,~ they ar~ made ~ ,~nd
the artist thus asserts his pow~r over what
has been as well as over what he makes~ o~
Another function of the Skeleton' s com mentary is the relation and comparison of
the events of the play to each other and to
the persons of the play and (at times) to the
persons of the audience as well. Tnis chorus ·
like function is a difficult thin.g to handle
and I . do not think W
illiams can be said
wholly to have succeeded at k ·One ob
v · ous difficulty s uch a device ·presents
0
Liberalized
From freecbm ~ s barb baited prize ;
0
Clear logos smiles and winks her eye ,
And bids me come prepare to die . •
My!
What . weird dispa tch destroys the dirge ;
I lay seduced
By a
of
demi~urge
Louis
Gmfl
is t he tendency to prose up the play 0 ~ to
state for the audience what the drama itself
should make t~em feel or think. H . they do
feel or think, then the audience resent beirig
told? ,for their participation is lost;; and if
they don 2t feel or think ~ the play is no good
anyway (or they aren ' t). One way Williams
seeks to a void this for his Skeleton is by .
goirig to the · opposite extreme~~-he purples
up the Skeleton' s speeches to keep from
prosing up the play ~ ·and the Skeleton is
consequently willfully obscure (if not mean~
.ingless at times) though seldom is be hard
to listen to and -ocassionally he rises to the
levels of first rate verse. The overall result
of this pmpllng ·.technique .is to make ·the
audience .dig more in the play itself for wbat~ hey · should find in their response to it
- Much of the Skeleton"s commentary is·
taken up with telling us who he is ; he gives
us long lists of his titles, . tqe scope. of·
which ranges from ccnothing n to rc everyn
thirig " and from ''the jaw~bone of the ass
on wh_ich Christ rode ~: to caa functionrog. ·
spectrum of eterni tyo ~~ He seems irideed to
be compounded of all the brilliant and £rag-mentary modifiers a poet from time to time
puts down in his notebook and whiCh he
cannot ··bring himself to abandon" ·One of
the most provocative of thesen·and one of
the. mo.St sustained in the play itself is
(and this one is lost on the Arians) ~ .C T .am
the Judas who betrays . men to Godo''' The.
Skele ton ' is all the court has for j e ster .and
all the church has for ~c God or the DevilH;
it is the fatter two who in the Skeleto~
receive · the poorer . representation
the
distinction between them is drawn in terms
more of :endurance than of ·loveo ·Whatever
the unclarities of conception in the part of
the Skeleton, ·it is without a doubt one of
the most richly written parts in the whole of
modem draTPa . ·
'' My soul is the· power of God over . the
land, '· says Henry, _'Can any man anywhere .
;
unmake the King? ''i Mr Williams ? Kirig is a
man with a kingly · sense of self augmented
~y 0 .~trong will ~nd an unkfogly· sense pf
... uuhty eag_ed wu:h sc:mpulousnes:L -He is
shown (as -=-he was) fo die old paradigm tJf
0
•
00 ;, · ·
for ·
�
Dublin Core
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Title
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The Collegian
Description
An account of the resource
The Collegian began as a student newspaper; became a college community literary publication in 1952 and continued until 1969; became a student newspaper again in 1969; discontinued publication from 1980 until 1989 when it again became a student literary publication.<br /><br />Click on <a title="The Collegian" href="http://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=26">Items in The Collegian Collection</a> to view and sort all items in the collection.
Coverage
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Annapolis, MD
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St. John's College Greenfield Library
Text
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6 pages
Original Format
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paper
Dublin Core
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Collegian Vol. LXIV No. 04
Title
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St. John's Collegian, April 04, 1951
Date
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1951-04-04
Description
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Vol. LXIV, No. 4 of the St. John's Collegian. Published on April 4, 1951.
Coverage
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Annapolis, MD
Publisher
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St. John's College
Language
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English
Type
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Page 8
ST. JOHN'S COLLEGIAN
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St. John's Colleqian
Vol. LXIV .. No. 3
ANNAPOLIS 9 MARYLAND
on
THE VISIONARY
reading e
e
cummings
out o:f the powder
From the first, ·she felt herself to be a
blue
stranger. Qi the long cide dov.n the charac.a.
a-coming
ter of the land changed until it all seerred
hail
alien to her--the gullied red clay fields,
and :farewell
the sv.ept bare earth around the cabins in
out o:f a somewhat
the comtry, the lush gro\\th of ..-reeds pressodd(-)
ing close . to the s\\ept yards 9 and the thick
ly worded
t\\isting live growth of vines .in the ravines
tell
and hollows. ·
ing of'
·And the people whom she saw through
t
the. ·spotted windows of the coach ·she
0
would never know, they would remain for0
eign to. her. She watched them as the train
passed, gathering its earfuls of the ·scent
H. V. - Herman
of honeysuckle--the barefoot women standing in the open doorways of their .·shacks,
their listless eyes following ·the train, lation and disuse. Far back, down a long
their ·shoulders drooping from childbearing chipped walk through a densely green and
and water carrying and hoeing and lifting cool campus, was Jefferson Hall, w.ith its
under the crescent heat of the sun, and the ·shadows of elegance. Graceful tall columns
men, the tall lank slow-moving men, drudg- line? the portico of the main building, and
ing behind horses and mules on the dusty at nght angles was a weather•grayed frame
ell, fronted by a long veranda. The curving
roads, in the deep fields.
Then there was the town, Berkton, its graveled driveway which passed the portico
streets filled with red dust and heat, its was tangled with weeds ~ scars of missing
people lounging and indolent, rocking and bricks spotted the main building ~ and the
watching from their porches. And over unchecked growth of vines and brush
everything was the washing, .insistent heat, mocked at the past formality of the grounds.
coming with the sun in the morning, batter~ But as she walked down the chipped walk 9
ing at the houses and · streets ~ and only for the first time ~ Marsha felt at home.
reluctantly subsiding into its holes with About Grandon College there was a suggestion of the south she had knov;n from the
the late darkness.
In this land, in this town 9 Mar,sha felt stories of her childhood, a place of leisure
lonely and .insecure , a stranger to the earth and languor and chivalcy. ·.t\id the ·silence
and to the people~ their customs and bee of the ·slow waiting nvrrents in the shade~
darkened anteroom (the office was ·still
liefs. And she was glad to get a job at the
locked and the corridors deserted when she
college, for a college was a faniliar place ~
arrived) , the enchantment of the almostQ
and it v.ould take her out of the daily soli·
tude of the hot little room which Jim had familiar ·south c.rept upon her. Oak and mag~
found for them when he came to take over nolia trees interlaced their branches high
above the window, and the sun spattered
his duties at the airport.
·As she approached the campus~ brisk! y off their glossy leaves to fall in a broken
and promptly, the first morning ~ she fel t. . pattern upon the ground. ·Sounds drowsed
·she was reaching an oasis both .in time and through the halls of the building-distant
place p in the center of the harsh ~ · sun~ unknown footsteps ; mellow voices ·speaking
beaten town. There was an air about the unheard words, dl,l~ky silence. Perhaps the
place of faded fashionableness and isolaQ genteel traditions of the old south did still
1
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ence
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1
Ilj
Pag e 8
ST. JOHN 'S COLLEGIAN
ST., JOHN "S COLLEGIAN
6
Page 2::__~~~~~~--~~~ T_ _OHN - c.oLLE ~I AN ~~~~~--.~
S_ ._J _~ S~ __~G -__
survive, she thought-~in just such places ,
old and quiet, and protected by green walls
of trees and shrubs from the bright, blank,
har&•shelled present. · And here, perhaps,
there might be escape from the tight-lipped
beliefs and hatreds of · the heat-wearied
people of Berkton. ·
Slow steps echoing down the corridor
woke her from her musing. ·A big colored
man c arrying a bucket and unp crure even
w.i.th the door, s topped~ l ooked fro m her t o
t he o ffice door. ~'Nobody h e re ye t, " he s aid
softly. q~Pll le t you in."
H e unlocke d the door a nd backed away)
bobbing his cropped h ead a t her as she
th_~
~~.: , l - -!!irn;· then shuffled back in to the
·- :J ail to start rhe slow rhythm of his nnp
against the boards of the floor. ·
Miss Cramp ton hurried in a few minutes
later, a slenderJ fussy woman, dressed in a
flowered and flounced cotton dress. ·''Oh,
my dear, good morning," she said, touching
her fingers to Marsha' s •. HI ' m just so glad
to hav e you here . -I' m not usually so late ,
but everything happened this morning, just
eve rything. Now it won ' t happen again, but
if it does Dobbs will lee you .in and you can
go right to work. I 'll explain what you' re
to do. u
Marsha followed her into the small inner
office which was hers as registrar, publi
e:ity director and assist ant to the president;
and waited while she opened some envel~
opes and placed the enclosed letters on two
piles . One stack Mi ss Crampton put to one
side~ the other she handed to Marsha,
eq
You 're to answer these," · she said in her
soft quick voice. · c ~ Copy this letter," she
leafed through a confused pile of sheets
and pulled one out. · " Putting in the appli~
cant ~ s nanr and address, of course ," she
added) looking at: .Mu-sha brightly. · Ht\1d if
you find any naire \\hich is checked "\\ich a
little check mark, bring it co me, and Pll
explain about .it. There •s a different letter•.
but PU explain that later. ·Is everything
clear? If you have any question, any ques·
tion at all, just come .in and ask me, you
hear," she sai d. · ~'Just come in and ask
me. 1 :
The letter which Marsha was to type
was a r esponse to requests · for information
about the college, ·Whether the writer asked
for a cat alog or an application blank or the
requirements of a specific subjec t. t he
same flowe ry and unbusiness like letter 1
0
0
with an additional paragraph concerning
the course inquired about, was sent in an°
swer. Marsha laughed softly to herself a s
she typed the flourishing ·sentences extolling the colleges advantages ••~: t he 1 oo
cat i on .· o f · On:11;0'<, 1;. College (the let=
ter said},, •on t he shore of lovely .Grando n
Lake , and t h e c limate. are unsur·passed oo
a la r g e a n d ext e nsi v e campus and fa ci lia
ti e s f or a ll spo r ts , o oho r seback r iding .
can o e i n g n g o l f • t c; nnis a r e among the
ou td o o r spo _·r: s fa c i l i t i es , , , unexcel l ed
educ a i:i ona l a d v a n t ag es(Th i s \VaS a smtll
s taterren t a t the end of th e third para
graph) •• ~ w e shoul d be g l ad (the let ter
ended) to c onsi de r you r a ppl i cat i on.
0
As ou r en r oll ment is alm o s t c omp le ted 3
we suggest t h a t you wri t e aga i n at an
ea r·ly da te ,
~iting these phrases in the slow quiet
of the morning, sitting in the scrambled disc
order of the dark office, Marsha hugged the
atmosphere like a shawl around her shoul
ders. · The pleasant disarray of unfinished
wor_k, the typewriters set on a shelf against
one wall as if the southern gentlewoman
had only reluctantly discarded quill pen
for these modern conttivances, the occasional low flowing voices, ·formed a background for the gentle ineffectuality of the
office. ·Remembering the brisk and severe
rooms in which she had worked in the no rth ~ ,
the brusque stereotyped lett ers which she
had written ther e, Marsha again ·smiled with
a delight in the softness and languor of the
office, This was indeed a pleasant place in
which to work. ·
The colored man who had let her .into
the office came in twice during the morning, .
once with a mail bag on his shoulder, ·then., ·
about eleven, with a pitcher of ice water
from \\hich he poured glasses for Ms s
Ganpton, · and for Musha and the other
typist. · Mss Ganpton rustled to her door
and called to him as he started out. ·" Qi ~ ·
Dobbs. '_
:
HYes-um, · yes-um," he ·stood a little
stooped, •waiting. ·
" Mrs. · Peters , · this .is Dobbs," Miss
Crampton said to Marsha. · HDobbs card.es
the mail and brings our ice water and does
other little jobs around the college , n she
said lightly. n Mrs . ·Peter s .is our new sec~
retaryf 9 ' she added in an afterthought to
Dobbs. ·
~c Yes~ um , · y es 0 um~'" . he sai d, ·bobbing
0
his head, waiting uneasily.
HGood. . moming/P- Marsha said clearly.
"I met•••, " she didn ~ t know whether Dobbs
was his first name or his last, she was
thinking. He was introduced as a child
might be introduced 1 with a pat on his head
and a list of his talents ••. ""Ue nrt th i s
morning," she added carefully . At least she
"\\Ould let him know that she knew him, that
she had looked at him
Then he had shuffled out the door to his
other little jobs, and Musha sat in front of
her typewiter looking at the faded picture
of a gentle people \\hich ·she had illllgined.
There WlS only tw:> dimensions on the pie ture, chivalry and gentility. But behind the
c.anvas, in the third dimension, were such
waiting, ·stooped people as Dobbs.
In. the days that followed Grandon Co-liege came into focus. Here there was a skim
of kinline.ss over the accepted base of repression, and rigid, just below the surface
of th..e kindliness, could be seen the shape
of the conduct which must be followed.
This, th.en, was the patina of the south.
And under this thin, lusterless patina
showed another harsh pattern, clearly drawn
by a second form letter, protecting the girls
with good southern name, the familiar and
accepted sound of Ashe, Tipton, Pendergrass, Quinn, Pate, Sewell, from girls
whose names suggested a difference in
background or religion. The answer to
these girls was brusque and discouraging,
()ur enrollment is almost filled •.• the
very h _
ighes t standards of scholarship
are required ••• we do not anticipate any
vacancies •••
In this atmosphere when she spoke to
Dobbs the amenities of greeting echoed
their vacant umreaning back at Marsha. Her
voice, she felt, had the sanr sound of rigidity and indifference as the others in the
office. If there was tine she \\Ould add SOire
thing about the unming news, the "\\eather ~
the heat, but her sentences sounded ungainly, and at times a feeling of half-shame
would catch her, a wondering if her efforts
seemed those of pity rather than honesty.
But a man's a human being, she. thought
stubbornly, and was made to be treated as
such. Even if I9m the only one who does so .
And the morning Dobbs answered her with~
out his usual prefacing Hyesaum ~ yesQ n;
um
she felt that he had recognized that, to h er
at l eastr he was not just a shadowy cutout
0
Page 3
of a man, to be spoken to only when there
was something to be done.
In August she left the college, left the
false kindliness of the staff. Her re ason
was a practical, northern reason. After
weeks of typing the same form letter she
had suggested that it could be lithoprinted,
leaving a space in which the n.aur of the
prospective student \\Ould be typed. The
lithoprinting could be done from a photograph of a n:aster copy done on one of their
owi typewiters, she explained, and, .if the
heading ~re carefully aligned, the letter
"°uld ·still look like a personal one. ·Ms s
Gandall at first ·said she \\Ould think ~bout
it, and later, prodded by Musha, ans"\\ered,
"N>, ·oh no, "\\e just can't do that, the letters must be written to each prospect--tbey
must be .individual letters."
"I don't feel I can spend my time typing
the same letter over and over," Marsha
said. B.ut that would make no differ.ence,
she knew. She saw now that at Grandon
they were holding fast to all the gestures
of the past, whether they were meaningless~
or viscous, or false. :And .in the. bright heat
of the present the gestures showed that the
chivalry which onc. .imbued them had been
e
lost.
For a time Marsha didn't see Dobbs,
then unexpectedly, she met him in the
supermarket. He had been sweeping the
floor, and had stepped aside to let her
pass, watching with a waiting look in his
eyes.
Marsha glanced by him, then back. "I
didn' t expect to see you here,'' she said
with sU:rprise . . " Aren ' t you working at the
College anymor~ 71
1
tNo-um," Dobbs said. n No-um. They
didn ' t pay ire llllCh so I came over here."
n N> , they didn > pay JWch," she agreed.
t
She had been paid fifty cents an hour--the
other typists thirty-five,. Mss Ganpton h.ad
told her . privily. Dobbs must have gotten
even less . HDo you like it here?"
n oh, yes-um. It' s good work • . I like it
here. " He bobbed his head at her.
u That' s good. I changed jobs too," she
added. '~ P m working in Quinby's law
office. 11
e yes-um. I knew you left, n Dobbs told
her.
They st ood for a moment, waiting and
awkward ~ until Marsha said 'q Well , P ll see
you again then, a an d s tarted on down the
�ST. JOHN'S COLLEGIAN
we use n
kind,..
of at
diffe1
Page 4
ence
a sue
giveIJ
be rs
distir
0
subst
but h
''this
defini
tion
realit
abs tr.
0
tion i
it car
ure t
reach
tions
edge.
Tht
gener
appar
perce]
mind.
0
quirir
We g
there
facult
jectiv
must
fore'
have
1
befon
as an
comm
our d:
a gre
believ
-
Ti
contr:
Noi
of pe1
expre
a dirE
ven's
heard
mean
know·
perce·
relnti
thing
We ll
ment:
gases
ment:
three
betw1
is re
alleys of canned goods.
Their mee.tings were not frequent dur
io,g the long fall and the late winter. Some
times on her way to work~ Marsha .would
see his shambling figure and would wait. to
walk the courthouse block with him 9 speak
ing awkwardly of the news 9 the weather, or
asking again if he still liked his work ~ but
one morning~ a crisp morning in November~
was a day for more than ordinary greetings.
She was walking with a delight in the slim
tendrils of clouds lying softly above the
low buildings of the tOVill square, in the
cerulean sky, and in. the air, fresh as spring
water. It was a crisp fall day, strayed down
from the north, . from the nountains, from
hone, and she filled her nind \\i.th .it. ·
nwhat a wonderful sparkling nnming,,,
she said when she met Dobbs, and her
voice was glowing. nit's like .•. like mountain water 9 clear~ cool water. · And the
clouds~= have you noticed them? -they're
beautiful today."
~~No~um1> I hadn~t looked," Dobbs an·swered , his face surprised.. He lifted his
head to look above the roofs of town.
'iThey are pretty /~ he said slowly, apprec~ .
iation in his voice . He walked on a little
way, watching the changing shapes and
colors ~ and still , when Marsha left him , his
eyes were on the low~streaking clouds.
They met only once again. Jim had been
transferred and th ey were returning north
after Christmas . Her last time in the super-~
market} Marsha looked especially for Dobbs,
: I came to say goodbye ," she told him
when she found himo e> Pm going back up
north , back to New England.'' Her voice
was full with anticipation.
. Dobbs stooped slightly over his broom ;
his face inexpressive . HYes~um,n he said
sloW.y, n rmsorry you 1 re going,)'
u Perhaps '\\e 1ll nret again so~ ti~ ,''
Marsha said .
~ ~~ Ufi\ I guess not. ' ~ Ihbbs paused and
looked past her., u Are there a lot of jobs up
north? " he asked unexpectedly .
Marsha was quiet a moment5 doubts and
qualifications crowding into her mind,, the
cold of New England, of New York; the ex~
pensive, squalid tenements of which she
had r ead~ Dobb~ s age, his inadequate cloth~
ing~ his experienc e in, so far as she knew ~
only menial jobs ., and northern intolerance.
Would he be better off up there 9 or had she
somehow repre!!>ente d a place where there
0
exam
STo JOHN ~ S COLIEGIAN
ST. JOHN eS COLLEGIAN
was respect and humility before man?
HI don't know about jobs .~:' This . was
true~ she told herself; she was evading the
other questions but this was the .o ne he had
asked. ~; There might be .some in New Y~rk,
but I don ~t know. H If only .she knew sonr
one. If she could just tell him to go see Mr.
So~and 0 so if you want to .go north, or Fll ·
talk t~ him, he ~ll get you a job. O if even
she knew enployrrent figures and needs ,.
and discrini.native practices She was fail,.,
ing him and herself. "'I \\i.sh I could tell
you 9 but I can' t. n
His face was inpassive again, and hi s
voice. "Yessum," he said. "I just \\Ondered."
He had seen her doubts and qualifica,;.
tions, she was sure. And there was nothing
she could say to soften the shattering of a
dream. qqWell~ good luck to you," her voice
was awkward again. c" And goodubye."
1
'Yes um. Goodbye um. '-'
When she went out the door he was still
standing motionless, his eyes on the clouds
which hung over the alien roofs of Berkton.
0
0
0
D. L. Hammerschmidt
THE ROMANCE OF URINE
Appendix to a Lab. Report
...,.
Greek ~
-ro 0 1 fO'Y
nominative)
Sanskrit ~
(neuter accusative or
var i or var a water
Icelandic: ur / drizzling rain; ver 1 the sea
AnglO'>Saxon: woer 1 the sea
Etymological Dictionary of the English
Language; Skeat~ W• . W.; 4th Ed., Ox
0
-
Mlcdum 'Xhat three things does drink es~
pecially provoke?
Fbrt er: MUTy ~ Sir~
and urine.
Shakespeare
Ma c beth, i i.
0
noseapainting,
I . cheapened sprats ~ and at St. :Markes 9 I
specialization , · the myopia which makes
vrin 9 d. 9 ~
Which seems somewhat pointed
h.1s microcosm swell and fill the world
reference. ):
which contains .it. Jn such a way ·may ·urine
Its metaphorical use had passed into a
com e to be merely the waste product of cats
commonplace vhen in 1662 Mithew advera
and frogs and (possibly) m~. :But although
tised ~i (He) meets with my pills •• ~md •• quite
urine may be this and little more, ·the con°
stopt his Uine of Blood." .B.lt a vestige
c ept of uririe and the force of literary allu~
of sobriety renained .in the cocked eye of
.s ion to it is infinitely greater. ;
observers and Bacon j after W:iat nust have
.Aristotle uas saturated \\ith concern for
been extensive experimentation~ , pontifica
th e ohenon:enon and .inquired 9 , q ~uhy is it
ally reported that ~q The quantity ~. qf•• cirink ~ ·
that ·s\\eet•snelling seeds and plants prowhich a nan •• receiveth into his bodyi .is •• ::
mote the flow of urine? 9 9 but ran into a snag
when garlic v.as attributed the sarre faculty •. rwch IIDre than he voideth again .a l:>Y urine ·
or by sv;eating :~
In the ·same milennium some Freudian im\Ulen in his Fancies (1638) ~ ·Ford pro ~
port must have been attributed Herodotus '
claimed 9 .~Q I : .w.ill •• \l[ine .in thy bason ' (l,ii), ·
report of Mandane u .. . _whom, ·hyr father on
how was the listener to take him? Was he
a night dreamed to haue let her vryne in •• ::
showing contempt? or was he accepting · a
great aboundance. ' ~ And Pliny observed the
touching token of hospitality? Boyle (Exstartling phenomenon of somebodies ' fq•~\1[ 0
position of Natural Philosophy, ·1663)might
ine (after it is made) congealeth into a cer
have taken the negative attitude for he
tain ycie substance."
wrote, ~~ Vriri is a Body 9 ·which •• i _ to be •• ::
s
By l325 (at least insofar as records
homely and despised.'~ On the other hand, ·
show) the amber fluid was begirinirig to be
a Flemish husbandryman might have taken
looked on with less weightiness. :At that
another view (largess) because it was noted
time Cambden sung, · i'He . wole wagge his
(1837)
HThe carrots •• }Jy the help of the
urine in a vessel of glaz. H This apparently
W"ine~cart , soon swell to good size. ':' (Note
set .a precedent which was, .however, .not
the dignity the word had achieved, ·it was
immediately exploited, for it was J02 years
being hyphenated!)
befor.e someone accepted the irreverence
With the muscular advent of science to
enough to josh about it: and then it was dissharpen his eyes 9 • Fleming .in 1828 marked
paraging. ;In 1623 Hart expostulated on the
a new milestone in man' s mastery of nature. :
title-pag~ of his work "The manifold errors
Solemnly he reported that u (The dog) urines
and abuses of .ignorant Vrine~monging
sidewf se , lifting his hind leg ", , and this
Empirickes", .and then in 1625, .apparently
was - unquestioningly (and we hope g rate
in fatuated with the epithet, he wrote of
fully) ,incorporated into the corpus of man' s
''The .· ordinarie sort of vririe-onngirig
accumulated knowledge. :
Physltians. " The reference is to the diag.;
nostic practice first nrntioned .300 years
Saruiek
earlier in [Bunce of Michabree 9 · to -Mt:
" Miister of Phisike, .W:iich on your vry.ine
so looks and gase and stare agaynst the
sunne .u
About this time the "\\Ord took on an
idiomatiC value, .and Massinger has one of
his play characters report on .an ambitiOus
youth apparently aspiring to a position of
some eminence : uThis hopeful youth Vdries
vpon your monument. H Once the poesy
started7 - he trickle turned into a stream and
t
we have p . ·Fletcher in 1633 write in his
Purple Isl. :· (II • .: xxiv) i~lnto a lake the
Urine-river falls ". ·
(By the way ~ Ben Jonson must have been
taken with the miracle he could produce al~
most at will ~ . for he conceitedly boasted
about it in his Volpone (IV, i) qc By ·the way,
0
0
0
0
0
Original sense: water
ford , 1924
Page 5
sleep ~
3 0 32
As to grinning when jobbernowls urin'd
upon me ~ ' Tis false.
.
q Pasquin 9
A.,
New Brighton Gu i de, 1796
Any minute and extended examination of
a phenomenon inflicts upon the .examiner
the risk of myopia. The myopia of over
0
�we use
kind,.
ST. JOHN'S COLLEGIAN
n1
of al
diffe1
ence
a sul
giveIJ
be l's
distir
exam
subst
but i~
"this
defini
ti on
realit
abs tr,
tion i
it car
ure t
reach
tions
edge.
Tht
gener
appar
percei
mind.
quirir
We g
there
facult
jectiv
must
fore'
have 1
befor•
as an
comm
our d:
a gre
believ
-
T1
con tr;
No
1
of pe1
expre
a dirE
ven's
heard
mean
know'
perce·
relnti
thing
We ll
ment:
ga.ses
ment:
three
betvn
is re
Page 6
---------------------------------·--~--~ ,- ----~·
THE
LAST
TRIAL
Watching behirid a thousand-cloaked doubt
Life, dancing .in eyes J glancing at me
Roundabout 7 I mourn , '
Mourn for the death of a dowiy look, ·
Feasted on in the shrouded sy11pathy
Of a time when---------- Alone
:I walked in meditation through an enpty night1
Cast in reIIDte vacuums of silent death ~ ,
Rene\\ing a love of another love ' s plight , .
Lost forever w.i.th ~ loves breath. ·
Of a tiire now----------- Together
.
Balanced .on a perimeter of careful delight
Can I . again~ · blankJy expecting response
Smile (and Hghtly frowi) at her, .
Or through the appeal of a fiery calm
Do I .dare then suddenly ask
~tis it all right if I love you? 11
- Robert Haza
ON MY FATHERYS DEAFNESS
FROM
DESIGN
A pair of cinnamon vines
Reached
For the ledge of my windowsill 9 ,
And wrapped their un expected finger tips
Around e ach other in the upward verticil;
Nature ~ s phylacteries eclipse
The Circean spell of reason •s shrines. ·
A -winged and holy bard
Preached
The nuses ' verdurous dogrm ~ .
While rep tilian veins darkened my room
W
ith their weirdly inspired botanical pneuma;
I drew the blind and chose the gloom
Of rootless dream in mind; s graveyard. ·
~
Louis Graff
~
No, 4
Collegian
ANNAPOLIS ·· MARTI.A.ND
April
4~
195!
A Quick At inomy
A. whisper of the sea;
.
The. fairitness of the distant surf
Repeats a rrelody ·
Of notes that float above the bar
like mite w.i.ngs circling for a sign
To reassure Cod's fugitives. :
Not far from·shore a pharos braves
The rushing tides of truth;
Lone Ptolemy observes the stars, ,
Of heaven's twinkling cryptograph
Whose brilliant mysteries protect
A lonely sailor on the waves. :
·
A distant buoy bell forewarn8
Of unseen coral reefs ;
The depths of inner reckonings
Three naked heart•shaped leaves
Pleached
The resurrection on my screen
And formed a bloodless trinity before
My sleepy eyes could divine the clever scene;
Morning pierced the spermophore
And furnished Bernard with premises . :
Vo l, LXIV
John·s
Inside the conch a whisper lives, ·
And makes his earth the sleuth
ARGUMENT
s
Give sailors no relief
From sirens of
~n
unlauncbed soul
Inundated by a pool
Of semen ' s geocentric scorn.. :
A Copernican novation
Breaks the
curse ~
The center of the universe
Is Zion 's new born Son•.
Louis Graff
.A lecturre in Baltimore sponsored. by the
Americans for Democratic Action on
OctobeK' 11 was a political speech, a tut~
odal, and at times ; ·a sermon, . The ADA
invited Mr. ·Stringfellow Barr to lecture . .
He did. and delivered an extremely imporn
tant le,cture. ·. To a half filled auditori um
Mr. •Barr spoke on Foreign Policy 9 ' its
probl ems and its function. . Because of
the lecture ~ s importance · this review will
attempt ·to recapitula te and extend the
essentials of Mr. Barr ~ s talk so that it
may be considered by the student body.
Primarily; Mr. Barr said that a realistic
foreign policy should be based on a clear
and precise statement of what problem
the world faces . · This presupposes 7 ·. of
course , the solution of what the worl? 9 s
basic problems are , ·and the formulation
of plans in accordance with tha t view. ·
But we have two worlds , ·separate and
opposed; not qQOne Wcrld '" , • These two
worlds a re ba ttling for power~ and there.,
fore , their foreign policies clash ~ .each
offering the wodd a solution to her prob"'
lems . · Foreign policy deals essentially
with foreigners . •· •· we forget that sometimes • . • and who are most foreigners?
The world has 2.2 billion people and most
of these are neither Russian nor Ameri
cans ~ .nor are they ·white . : Three ~quarters
of these people ~ .or over one and a half
billion -are sick ~ .hungry , ·ille terate , and
carryi;g · diseased bodies for . their . brief
time on this earth . They live in continual
misery . and it is extremely diffi~ult for th.e
wellefed western mind to conceive of their
plight. • Nearly all of these people . belong
to the colored rac es : of the · earth and all
are terribly oppressed. · ·These are . the
people we intend to lead in our crus·.ade
against Communism. • Our policy is antin
Communistic , ,but much to the embarnss
ment of the State Department, t he wodd ~ s
problem · i s misery. •
.
When these people . look· at· Russia they
see liberadon from landlords , ·money
Have you ever looked wi t h in yourself'?
L&s t night I did
And found a stranger
Whose identity dangled like a crust
Of sleep
·
From uncertainty's heavy lid.
0
0
0
Louis Graff
changers and corrupt politicians . · ·They
also see a planned ·development of their
country on an industrial basis , • When we
look at Russia we see Totalitarianism
To the oppressed people · of the world this
means nothing . • They have always known
tyranny. · They want to live ; ·and to end
their exile from Life and to leave their
inheritance of misery. • Russia ps solution
to the problem is Communism. : But it
offers also to mankind freedom from pover '
ty ; . starvation ; . plagues and i gnorance ,
Our solution is an almost unheard and
very weak cry to the starving of the world ,
Point Four ; ·the economic aid program to
underdeveloped countries . : But. Mr. •Barr
let us know. the Senate Committee ' s funds
appropriated for this brave plan was not
as much as New York City spent rn 1949
to sweep its streets and dispose of its
garbage ~ ·that is ~ ·when it gets around to
dispose of its garbage . • To the twouthirds
of the world ~ s population that live in
misery how does this sound?
Russia
offers revoluticin. · Russia offers planned
industrial economy . : Our Senate · Committee
offered garbage sweeping ·funds . • Obviou
sly, . Communism has ·no competition iri
the world today. •
Yes 9 .you can shoot a Communist ~ but
can you kill an idea? Communism is an
idea .·
This idea Russia ·claims is the on!y
solution to save mankind from this walking
death of misery , • She offers a positive
program . . Mankind has slowly , become
awakened and ·is ·convinced ·that misery
i s no longer · necessary: ·With scientific
�
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The Collegian
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The Collegian began as a student newspaper; became a college community literary publication in 1952 and continued until 1969; became a student newspaper again in 1969; discontinued publication from 1980 until 1989 when it again became a student literary publication.<br /><br />Click on <a title="The Collegian" href="http://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=26">Items in The Collegian Collection</a> to view and sort all items in the collection.
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Annapolis, MD
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Collegian Vol. LXIV No. 03
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St. John's Collegian, February 07, 1951
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1951-02-07
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Vol. LXIV, No. 3 of the St. John's Collegian. Published on February 7, 1951.
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Annapolis, MD
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St. John's College
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text
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The Collegian
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https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/7a00866cf7a56a4ad50d1f84efcde057.pdf
a985f31f8ae242873422c78901400ce9
PDF Text
Text
we use no
kind r
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a sub
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hers
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subst
but h
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defini
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realit
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there
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believ
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con tr~
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heard
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1
1
Pa ge 8
ST. JOHN'S COLLEG IAN
other. In the Fifth Book Rabelais speaks of
the necessary love of contraries for one another. "No king under the arch of Heaven,
were he ever so powerful, could do without his
fellow men ; no pauper, were he arrogance
personified, could dispense with the rich. Not
even the philosopher Hippias, who boasted he
could do everything, was able to eliminate his
fellow men from his existence. Well, then ...
man could not do without a sack. But how
much less could he do without a drink. That is
why ... we hold drinking, not laughter, to be
the essence of mankind ... Remember friends,
that by the vine we grow divine." In this passage there is an abrupt change from the need
of contraries (or, in this case, men in contrary
relations) for one another to drinking. Is
this change a reasonable one? It has been
stated previously that wine is in Rabelais a
symbol of mirth and mockery. Also, more
generally, it has a dual significance which has
been pointed out- a mirthful intermingling of
men of contrary stations; the wedding feast.
Stated succinctly, the conclusion to be culled
from this discussion is this: the love and strife
of contraries produces in man the essential
activity of laughter-of which there are two
kinds, mirth and mockery.
Here again the principle, "war is the parent
of all good things" can be invoked. It will be
noticed that in the catalog two sets of cont raries have an intermediate term. One of
these is comedy-tragedy, satire being the intermediate term. The Rabelasian distinction
between satire and comedy is the simple one
of "laughing at" and "laughing with." It is
evident that satire is a hybrid form of tragedy
and comedy-it involves laughter on the part
of the satirizer and weeping on the part of the
satirized. This "laughing at" arises from the
comparison of a certain harmony with its corresponding discord. This comparison provokes
laughter at the discordant object. This comparison rests on an opposition between the two
objects, and the laughter itself is a declaration
of war against the derided object. Insofar,
then, as satire involves laughter it is good;
but insofar as it involves war it is evil. Also,
satire is the road to comedy- "laughing at"
precedes "laughing with." We must first recognize the opposition of contraries and laugh
at the discordant object before we can grasp
the order arising out of this opposition and
have our laughter transformed from mockery
to mirth. Until we have grasped this order
presiding over the warfare of contraries despair lies at the root of our laughter (mockery). When we do grasp this order a sense of
peace and relief arises within us and replaces
the discord of despn.ir. And in this way our
laughter is turned to gaiety.
But why does the vine (mockery and mirth)
make us divine? Because in progressing from
satire to comedy we are becoming more like
God. God is pure laughter without any admixture of satire. His knowledge contains all
contraries, but the relation of contrary to contrary is a relation of sweet harmony and bliss.
A giant is a man whose eros (love) and capacity for wine of pure laughter is gigantic. He
is a god among men because his comic wisdom
enables him to meet every difficulty with serenity. He recognizes his dependence upon
God, for he knows that it is God's omnipotence
which makes comedy pos sible.
It will be helpful to end the discussion of
Pantagruelism with a consideration of another
set of contraries- one that has a more intimate relationship to men's lives. This set of
contraries is that of procreative and excretory
organs of the body. The former is designated
heavenly by Rabelais when he has Gargantua's
codpiece lined with a "flaring blue damask"
("blue denotes things celestial"). The codpiece is described in the following manner:
"Inevitably you would have compared it to
some proud cornucopia such as you see on
ancient monuments, or such as Rhea gave to
the nymphs Adrasta and Ida, nurses to her
son, Jupiter.
"You recall the tale doubtless. The goat,
whose milk nourished the divine infant, happened to break one of her horns against the
rock. Str aightway the nymphs filled it with
fruit and flowers to present it to Jove, who
made of this horn a source of eternal abundance.
"Well, Gargantua's codpiece was like that
horn: forever lively, succulent and resinou ;
full of juice, atlower with pistils and teeming
with fruit." Th~ copulative and generative
organ is a physical imitation of the divine
abundance and joy. The excretory organ is
contrary to the procreative organ in a manner
analagous to "before" and "behind." The
excretory function is derided consistently in
order to enlighten its polar relation to the
procreative and copulative function. The excrement is useles s waste matter, stuff cast off
from the organism. These are the aspects
which are stressed. However, there is one
additional factor involved in this relationship.
The procreativ~ organ has itself an excretory
function. This indicates, it seems, that thi.s
most heavenly part of the body has a disgust
as well as admiration attached to its use. This
point will be helpful later in the treatment
of the purpose of Theleme.
(To be con cl u<le<l)
St. John's Collegian
Vol. LXIV - No . 2
ANNAPO LI S , MARYLAND
THE WAKE
Darlrness, within and wi t hout; and
a r ound Stov e r's house, along window
and wall and roof and under the floor,
the r i verlike and husheo unending f low
of the wind.
S tover sat in his living
r oom a lon e, and felt its smallness aro u nd h i m even i n t he dar k, and fe lt
t he dif fer en ce between the sm a ll room
whe re the piec es of fu r nit ure, worn
n o w, c h e a p whe n they had bee n n e w,
crowd ed e a ch o ther , a nd t h e e ndl ess
r us h o f the wind again s t his house .• s •
It wa s t h is s e as on of t he yea r , he r emember e d , whe n hi s son h a d b een h ome
on his last fu r lough.
The same s e ason , a no ther year , a ruined year n ow,
like al l the others , scatter ed, s we p t
a long wi t h al l the others ••• • Nowhe r e .
Davy , h is s on, when he had been h ome
tha t time, had sai d t he hou s e wa s like
s om e thing g uy ed down wi th a light
line .
"Gosh, you 'd think it would
take off l ike a kite , the wa y th i s
wi nd sounds . " Stover wa s g lad t he boy
had said tha t.
It s howed the c ommuni o n betwe e n t h e m, that it was t here,
no matte r t hat Davy c ared not h ing for
r e ading, for •••• Davy had liked to hold
thing s in his h a nds, to t nne a nd a djus t pieces of e quipme n t .
He h ad be e n
~ s cuff ling boy, . s ome t i mes a brawler.
And whe r e might he be now • • •• Nothing.
Nowhere.
Fa r a way.
Everything was
far aw ay. Vague.
No matter anymo re.
Nothing for a long time.
The pain i n his e ar too , f ad i ng
a nd gone.
He had take n one o f h is
sedative caps ules a while bac k, and i f
he sat careful l y, if he would be careful not to move now, sit l i ke this for
a while •••• Since now the pain, that
had bee n a while back jolting him,
jagg e d, sickening ••• it was far- o ff
too
and there wa s onl y a sort of
'
vague lump of dul l nes s where it had
be e n
Low a n d solemn n ow, not re a l l y
unpl~ a s ant e ven, like the wi nd. And
Nov. 11, 1900
GANEM CAMPU MQUE CANO
N o da n c i ng on th e g r ee n t o day,
No r walking on t he g r as sy clay .
Bu t i f t h e sw a rd mu st n ee d s be trod,
Inspect e ach e l ement of so d F o r e x cr e ment i n tidy mo u nd s
Adorns the once-a s eptic grou n ds ;
And w a d s of h ai r, hal f - eate n fr a nk s ,
A n d pa p er p l at es l ie t her e in ra n ks.
Wh at mor t al d tire s appr o ach th is p l o t,
This scene o f ov e rwh e lmin g r ot?
(Abo ve in t h e emp y re a n heights,
T he vult u re s , s ee king da nk d e li ~ht s,
Wou l d rath e r keep th e i r al tit ude
Than claim the stews b e l o w as f ood .)
Bu t r es t r e sifined; do not a t tack
Th e nobl e cynomaniac,
Wh o come s t o show, and having sho we d,
Mov es d o wn his beblueribbon e d ro ad .
N o r all y o ur piety a n d wit
Can can c el out one p i e ce of. <. it.
- Parslow
he t hought o r where the wind might
have come from before it ever reached
houses and towns, and wher e i t would
go afte r all the houses and fi elds and
wilder~ess had bee. left behind.
And
Da vy was lying in the d a rkne ss. far
off, oh, and n obody cou l d ever c al l
hi m home aga in.
Th e wind migh t be
blowing t he r e t oo , t he s ame in Normand y a s in Virgini a , and Dav y would be
alone there , having the ul timate p r iva cy.
So on I'll nee d to ge t up a nd be
a r ound people a g a in. Get up and go t o
work.
Ha d to ~e t to work on time, and
pay the b i lls, and g o th rough the motions of raising wh at was le f t o f h is
family , go t hr ough t he mo tions o? pre t e nding he was somebody compe te nt to
do that, and keep on with them, and so
eventually he wou ld be an old man .
He
was forty-six already, and there was
nothing to do e xcept ke ep on the job,
and ge t through t he d a ys.
Sometime s
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quirir
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1
1
1
Page 8
Page 2
ST. JOHN'S COLLEGIAN
ST. JOHN'S COLIEGIAN
self to work when time came for him to
he had a midnight to morning shift, as go on shift, and when he came off, he
now; someti mes one of the others.
was sapped and done for.
What he had to do was easy enough, for
One of the children in the second
he knew the work from years of repeat- bedroom made a little low cry.
Four
ing the same tasks, and all he needed
children. He and Hilda had four left.
was some patience.
All were girls.
Davy had been their
The cheap virtue. Who had called
only boy.
It was Evelyn who was comit that?
Schopenhauer, maybe.
plaining in her sleep. She would soon
Nietzche:
Strange to think there had
be sixtee n.
He waited.
She was
been a time when he would have known
quiet.
He relaxed then. She had gone
at once.
Could have taken whichever
back to sleep. Poor kids.
book it was in, and opened the book to
Sometimes he thought about the
the page and paragraph. All of them,
first few years after he and Hilda had
the philosophies, the poetries, in his
been married. He could not recall any
bedroom now, in the cheap bookcase
particular thing, but only the way and
with the varnish that was blistered
the feeling of back then, when things
and peeling. That he had read once,
had been so cheerful and eager, and
and some of them many times, and studDave had been . a little boy.
It was
ied, dreamed.
A time when.
Not any
true, all that time was, even if he
more.
Far off, and no matter to him
could not recall any specific thing to
now, no mat~er either that once he had prove it, true and actual and genuine,
•••• that all the boo ks, what they
and for that reason he would absolutemeant, what he did about them, had
ly insist she had not essentially albeen the justification.
The raison
tered •••• His parents had disapproved
d'etre.
The right phrase? Once he
of the marriage.
They had said--his
would have known.
No matter, now.
mother had said, Hilda was perhaps
The just ification, against a menial
just a little bit cormnon, and that no
job, low wages.
His wife, back then,
one they knew had ever been acquainted
had been impressed with all that.
with her fami ly.
But they had not
With his convictions that property and known her, and he had.
And, certainprosperity were meaningless, and only ly, Davy was proof they were wrong,
the poetry and the philosophy were imfor Davy had been a fine upstanding
por tan t.
She had even been proud of bo y.
Something she had said •••• "He
him, in her dull way.
h~s got the sweetest disposition of
Tonight she was at Tuckett's
anybody I ever saw. And I lmow where
Tavern, three miles out of town on the he get s it from, too. He gets it from
road to Richmond.
He supposed she
you, you old slowpoke. Davy takes afwas.
Maybe she was going to another
ter his Daddy.
Junior Stover takes
place now.
Anyway it used to be
after his Daddy, yes he does, yum,
Tuckett's. Wnerever it was, the place
yum."
She had been proud of him.
would be crowded, and lit with neon on
There was a time.
Without actually
the outside, and dim on the inside,
comprehending, she had been impressed
booths, a jukebox making racket, beer,
with him for declining to calculate
dancing.
She would be sitting in a
and contend for a high salary job, and
booth with one of her crowd, or else
she had said she didn't mind one bit
out on the floor dancing, dancing,
doing without some of that stuff that
dancing, to the string music from the
didn't matter anyway when you got
.1 ukebox. She was only a year or two-- right down to it,since he didn't think
it was two--only that much younger
it mattered.
She had said, I think an
than himself, but she had not grown
awful lot of ideals, and I'm just as
tired and sad.
She had become just
glad as anything you have some.
plump enough, and from time to time
Gone now; after it the phase
she bought herself new dresses, chargwhen she liked to say just because he
ed them for him to pay for.
And she
thought he had so much fancy education
had spirit and energy enough to dance
was no reason to go out of his way to
and dance, but he needed to drag him-
ST. JOHN'S COLLEGIAN
be shiftless.
It would be . just as
easy for him to get a decent respectable . ob as the one he had where they
i
had to live in a cheap rented house
and worry about bills. And he had answered that he Goddamned well didn't
thing it was worth the bother to get
what she called a respectable job.
And that the bills would be all right
if she would stop buying the Halloween
costumes she took for attractive
clothes, for lack of better taste.
Oh
God.
But that phase had also ended.
The rage, the quarrels, petered out to
bickering, eventually to nothing. She
did what she would, and he had, at
first no will, later no inclination,
to say anything about it.
All that time now, when she had
been young, and he also, the later
time of fury and wild accusations,
taunts, scattered now, lost. What became of people? •••• And even so, he
held out that somewhere she was essentially the same as in those early
years. Something like an echo of it,
the old fair flash and gayety--not
gayety, actually, but anyway, gentleness--the last few days of Davy's furlough, and a. shor t space of time after
Davy had gone. He had seen again how
she had walked and spoken so long ago,
when they harl been a young married
couple. When he himself had .iust been
discharged from the ot he~ war. For a
while back then they ha ~~ ;1een desperately poor, and yet it ~ •. u been such a
fine ti me.
Avalon.
They had been
beachcombers, but they had been on a
magic island.
Davy would have been twenty-one
years old this y ear.
Stover himself
had been that age the year he had got
married.
He and Hilda had lived in
the same town, in Portsmouth, but they
had never met until after he had come
home from the army. They had moved to
this town from Portsmouth, since he
had got work here, and Davy had been
born here, learned to walk, had grown
up, and Evelyn and the other three
girls had come, and he had gone
through the rotation of shifts on the
job, the daylight, the four to twelve,
the midnight to morning, and gone
through them, and repeated them. This
Page 3
week he had the twelve to eight, the
graveyard shift.
He thought ahead to
how slack and depressed he would be
when he came off the job at eight tomorrow morning. Old, drained.
Sometimes he thought he must be the oldest
man in all the world.
And oh Davy,
Davy.
Now he moved his hand slowly and
slowly toward the table lamp, and pulled the corde
Dave's f ac e looked at
hi m from its frame on the table.
Davison Stover, Junior, and all young,
grave, and friendly, turned a little
away .1 ust to the world the ws.y he used
to hold his head.
People had often
said Davy loo ked like him.
He mused
now on how Davy's face was blocky and
serious, like his own, Davy's hair also short and thick and black.
And
they had been the same build, after
Davy had got his growth.
Neither one
tall, nor yet little enough to be called Shorty; both slow-walking, broad
in the chest.
His own hair was gray
now.
And in the picture, Davy was
somehow different at the mouth, and
his eyes had got a hard straight look.
Hilda's eyes were s ometimes hard that
way. The boy looked tou.~h, but ·l -i- was
only a friEmdly capable toughne:: s, mtd
he never nad spoke n smartly to his
father, the way the girls sometimes
did.
He remembered when they had got
this picture made.
It had been during Dave's last :furlough, when he was
on hi s way to the port of embarkation.
Dave had never liked to be photographed, but since they had no ~i cture of
hi~ at all •• •• "Well, hell, Dad," Davy
said that afte rnoon.
"How come you
want to insist? I'd feel like a monkey sitting in front of a camera."
"Come on.
It won't take long,
Anyway, I don't s uppos e it'll be a new
feeling for you, hey?" He punched at
Dave awkwardly, and hoped Dave would
get up and come along.
And in fact, he did get up, and
turned off the radio, and they walked
down to the studio.
Stover was pleased.
Dave was hardly ever at home,
and he had caught him during one of
the short times he happened to be in
the house.
The photographer took
�we use no
kind r
of ac
diffe1
ence
a sub
given
bers
distir
exam
subst
but h
"this
defini
tion
realit
abs tr:
tion i:
it car
ure ti
reach
tions
edge.
ThE
gener
appar
percei
mind.
quirir
We g
there
facult
jectiv
must
fore'
have
befon
as an
comm
our d:
a gre
believ
- T1
con tr:
No1
of peJ
expre
a din:
ven's
heard
mean
know
percc
rel:.1ti
thing
We :H
ment:
gases
ment:
three
betwc
is re
1
Page 8
Page 4
ST. JOHN'S COLLEGIAN
ST. JOHN'S COLLEGIAN
three poses.
When the proofs came,
all three were good, but one, one, had
speared him, and Hilda herself had
gone on about how good it was.
Then, five months later, the telegram had come, and Hilda had wanted to
send that picture to the newspaper.
He had refused absolutely.
He gazed
at it now. Darkling I listen, and for
many a time.
All things gone, crwnbled and broken and scattered, but
some ••• Caught somewhere, detained, no
matter that they were tattered and
useles~, caught the way things are
sometimes on a tree bough or a strand
of barbed wire, and held there in
spite of the insistent steady windo •• 8
Dave was tearing around a good
deal that last furlough.
As for himself, he had been on the daylight
shift then, and he left the house at
seven each morning to be at work on
time, since he walked. Usually he wa.S
working overtime then, because of the
war, and by the time he got home from
work, Dave would be gone for the night
again.
But a couple of times, as he
was leaving the house in the morning,
he had met Dave who was just getting
~
home.
One time Dave got out of a
Richmond taxicab; the other time, some
girls and some other servicemen had
brought him in a car.
Both times Dave was drunk, and
Stover, through his annoyance and embarrassment to see his son intoxicated, had been glad.
For he remembered
his own army time and the necessity to
get drunk.
He had been glad, but
deeper than that, it seemed to him
that his very heart must break, for
Davison was young, and tough in a decent friendly way, and drunk at seven
o'clock in the morning.
The boy had
been talkative, and had stayed at the
front-yard gate after the others had
driven away, and told his father about
this and that in the army. But Stover
was on his way to work, and he had to
keep on down the sidewalk while Dave
went in the house.
When he came home for dinner at
noon, Dave was still asleep.
He had
taken off only his shoes and socks and
shirt, and lay sprawled on top of the
covers.
Late flies buzzed in the
room.
Dave's shirt lay on the floor,
for Hilda hadn't got around to cleaning up the house.
He saw how brown
and solid the boy's biceps were, how
they stretched the sleeve& of his
white skivvy shirt.
Hilda left the funny papers in
the rocking chair and fried some eggs
for his lllllch. She washed a plate and
cup, and found a clean fork for him.
All the time he was eating, he hoped
Dave would wake up, but his dinner
hour was over, and he had to hurry
back. When he crune in again a :few minutes after four, Dave was gone, and
Hilda said when he asked, It so happened she didn't have the slightest
notion where.
But the day following that, when
Davy's delay en route had only four
days left, he came home and Dave walked out on the front porch to meet him.
He said Hello to Dave, and went on inside to get some as pirins, since his
ear had started banging again.
But
the box was empty.
He asked Hilda if
she had got more at the grocery, and
she said she had :forgotten the blamed
things.
"You got a headache, Dad?"
"Oh, it's just that old ear of
his, Junior.
The one he complains about , you remember how he used to go
on about it.
I guess you don't,
though.
I guess you didn't hear him
say anything about it since you been
home.
He probably thinks he's something if he doesn't say anything
ab out--"
"I'll go get a box for you."
"No," he said quickly.
"Not now.
It's all right." While Dave was around, he wanted him to stay.
Also,
he did not want little services done
for him.
"Anyway, let's drink a cup
of coffee first."
"Yeah, he can wait for those old
aspirins. You said just a minute ago
you wanted some coffee, Junior." She
turned on the gas under the percolator, and washed three cups.
"And I
might as well drink me a cup myself.
Say, that was a pretty wild time at
Tuckett's last night, wasn't it? You
see me dancing that fast piece?"
"I--saw you."
"I thought you'd come over and
set with us.
I wasn't sure you saw
ST. JOHN'S COLLEGIAN
Page 5
and Dave met at the mill gate at noon
me, I was about to yell at . you when
so that they could eat lunch together
you started to leave with your bunch,
in the cafe. In the evenings they sat
but you'd done gone.
It sure did get
on the front porch together, or in the
wild in there for a while."
"You think so."
town's little park, and at supper time
"Oh, you left before the best back to the cafe.
Dave wanted to pay
pa.rt of it started.
I don't guess it
for all the meals but Stover also
was so wild at that while you were wanted to pay for each one. They setthere, but after you left, boy!
That
tled by taking turns.
The . care food
fellow--.
I mean, the folks I was was welcome, after Hilda's cooking.
wi th, one of them passed a compliment
Dave wanted him to see a doctor
about you.
I wanted you to come over about his ear, and learned how the
trouble had been caused.
During the
s~ I could introduce you to him, and
Argonne battle, mud had ' been jammed
•••• What's the matter?"
The boy was watching her.
into it by a shellburst. He had heard
"Well, all right, so what?
I the shell coming, but he hadn't had
Still
like to have a good time as much as the spirit to get down quick.
it had done nothing except drive mud
anybody.
As much as you do yourself.
And he never will go out with me, so into his ear.
He refrained from telif he won't I'll go by myself.
I cer- ling Dave he had been too exhausted
to get down when he had heard the
tainly will."
He didn't want Dave to lmow
"Yes.
By all means, then." He shell.
The in.1 ury had not
looked at the piled dirty dishes in • things 1 ike that.
. taken e:ffec t until some years later.
the sink.
"That coffee fresh?"
Before the boom of the second war, the
"Why, it's right fresh, Junior.
It's what was left over from break- money cost for an operation had been
The pain wa s severe only
fast, and it saves making it new, just too much.
now and then anyway, although at those
to heat it up again."
"Couldn't you have
He took the percolator as she times it was hell.
talked and dumped the coffee from it got credit with the doctors, couldn't
you?"
into the sink.
"I suppose • But it doesn't real"Why, we always drink it that
If
way, Junior," she said.
"It saves ly have anything to d o with me.
making it new every time, and what you start thinking about accidental
with coffee being rationed and every- things, you'll get snarled up with
them worse than you were before. "
thing, it saves using so illUCh coffe e,
Dave seemed to be thinking that
if you <ion 1 t make a ne w ;.·ot ful every
time.
You bee n having it that way over .
One of those times, late one afev er since you got home and you never
ternoon, at supper, his friend Andrews
noticed."
who was his boss at the mill, came in
He scalded ,t he pot under the hotfor cigarettes, and came over to their
wa ter tap and made a fresh potful.
table.
"Dave sure grew into a fine
"I like coffee.
I don't like bilgeboy, Stover," he said.
•where you
water."
"Oh, is that so?" She turned and stationed, son?"
Dave had remarked that people
left and went to sit on the front
continually asked him where he was
porch.
But he answered Andrews
Dave with his hands in his poc- stationed.
kets stared at the coffee pot.
He pleasantly, and explained he was going
turned to his father.
"What say we go to a port of embarkation.
"Going over, huh," Andrews said.
down to the cafe and get supper? You
Right away he
and me.
Oh, come on.
I went to the He looked disturbed.
"Say, Stover, how about
picture studio with you.
We can get spoke again.
you and your boy and Hilda coming to
your aspirins down there too."
Then from that time, Dave stayed supper at my house tomorrow night?
with him whenever he was not working. Wife and I would like to have yo~
On each of those last four days, be over."
�we use no
kind,..
of at
diffe1
ence
a sub
given
hers,
distir
exam
subst
but h
"this
defini
ti on
realit
abs tr;
tion i,
it car
ure ti
reach
tions
edge.
Tht
gener
appar
perce1
mind.
quirir
We g
there
facult
jectiv
must
fore ~
have'
befor1
as an
comm
our d·
a gre
believ
- T1
contrJ
No1
of pe1
expre
a din
ven's
heard
mean·
know
perce
refati
thing
We 1A
ment:
gases
ment:
three
betw1
is re
Page 8
Page 6
ST. JOH N' S COLLEGIAN
ST. JOHN'S COLLEGIAN
Stover looked at him, and at
Davec
If Andrews had asked only him
and Dave.
"I'd like to, myself," Dave
was saying smoothly.
"But I'll be
leaving in the morning. 8 Then Stover
also declined the invitation. He had
known Dave was leaving, but now that
it had actually been said, it was almost as bad as finding out.
He had considered speaking to
Dave about things. But anything to be
said about some of them, he saw, could
only be an explanation, a defense.
Anything he would talk about in that
line would only be some irrelevancy
anyway, with nothing to do with him
finally, as the ear injury had nothing
to do with himl pain was only a pointless adjunct.
It was desirable to
keep decent silence.
He would have
talked about other things also, and
said some kind of words to Davy to
counsel him or give him courage, or,
if that was a stuffy idea, give him
some way of looking at things that
would enable him to be amused by them.
But he put this thought away with the
other. Whatever he meant by courage,
by amusement, it was not something
that could be transferred from one to
another •••• Presently, he discovered
his conviction that there was no occasion for him to say anything to
Dave. And so his despair passed away,
and it was replaced by most solid
Pride that this was the boy, out of
all the possibilities, who was his
son.
And he thought he was luckier
than any man at all.
That last afternoon, after
Andrews had shaken Dave's hand and
left, they finished their supper, and
paid the lady at the cash register,
and went out into the beginning of
twilight together. Hilda was coming
toward them down the sidewalk.
She was dressed in such a way
that she was lDlfamiliar. Instead of a
sleazy housedress, or a dancing costume, she had on a plain skirt and
8 Where you-all
blouse, and a .Jacket.
going?•
8
No place in particular," he told
her.
"Well •••• uh ••• if you want to••••
I mean if you will •• if you could ••• •
She was twisting one foot about.
He
noticed her shoes were white and damp.
She had only recently polished them.
"I mean if you don't aim to go anywhere," she said, 8 why don't you come
on back to the house? Because I fixed
a big nice supper, and I wanted to get
here before you ate, but it took me so
long--and I worked so fast, sure enough, and--. But I guess you-all had
supper already.
I bet you had something nice, huh?"
8 0h--not so much, 8 Dave said.
"What did you fix·?" They had both ha<1
steaks.
8 Why, sure,• Stover said.
"What
did you cook? 8
The hous~ was shining.
She had
cleaned every room and waxed every
piece of furniture.
All the dishes
were stacked away, and the coffee pot
that was once sticky and stained,
glittered.
She had made Evelyn and
the other three girls put on their
best dresses, and before they sat
down, they brought Dave a present. He
unwrapped it, anq it was a billfolder.
"Look inside,• t~ey said.
It contained a five dollar bill.
The four girls giggled.
"That's
fr om us •
The b i 11 f o 1 de r ' s fr om
them."
"I happened to be downtown today
and I ,1 us t happened to see it, " Hi Ida
said.
"It looked right nice, I
thought I might as well get it. I--"
she glanced at Stover.
n I had to
charge it.•
"Looks pretty nice, " he said. He
saw he would have spoiled things if he
said it was all right she had charged
it.
She had roasted a chicken for
supper, and with it she had six different vegetables. Afterwards, there
was a cake. After supper, they sat in
the living room.
Later, in bed, he lay awake and
saw the light grow against the windowpanes, and thought of how strange it
would oe if he turned to her now, if
they .1 oined with each other. He could
believe, it had been so long, he had
forgotten their tricks, their suggestions and alternatives, the things
they had used to think of and perfect.
She bad used to insist that some of
the things he wanted were immoral.
ST. JOHN'S COLLEGIAN
And later, during the quarrel time,
she had accused him ••• But now, if he ••
•• He declined to use a special occasion as an opportwiity. Towards full
daylight, she woke and tiptoed into
Dave's room.
"I thought he might of
got the cover off him," she said when
she returned and saw that he was a8 And it was." She giggled.
wake.
"He
always used to kick it off."
He had told Andrews he wanted
that day off. The girls also stayed
home from school. Dave's belongings
were packed into his gray-green duffel
bag.
They were at the station. Hilda
said she wanted a piece of pie and a
cup of coffee, and urged Dave to come
on in and have one with her, but Dave
stayed on the platform. The two men
stood together on the platform during
the fragment of time that was left.
The train arrived. People got
off and got on. Hilda ran from the
lunchroom still holding a piece of pie
in her hand, and hugged Dave with her
free arm. She kissed him.
He said
goodbye to the girls, who told him in
return goodbye, and they giggled at
him because he had meringue from the
pie on his mouth. He brushed it off,
and shook hands with his father, and
got on the train.
In the time after that, Hilda always got up ahead of hi.m and had his
breakfast ready. At no on, she always
had a good meal ready fo r him.
The
house stayed clean, and she kept herself neat. A few times, the telephone
rang, but each time she said to the
caller she was sorry but it so happened she was busy.
She crocheted a
mat for Dave's photograph. They visited the Andrews family, who lived a
few blocks away. Andrews and his wife
and child came to see them now and
then.
Hilda baked cookies to serve.
When his ear gave him a spell once,
she stayed up all night to keep a hot
poultice on it, and the next morning
called a doctor, who prescribed capsules for him. But the pain left him
alone after that, and he didn't need
the capsules. He en.1 oyed now, in a
way, the mill and the men who worked
there with him. He was an electrician
in the mill's powerhouse. He went to
Page 7
work, and the time passed before he
knew it, and when he came off shift,
he was hardly tired at all.
And he did admit finally it was
going to be sustained. The night after she had met them on the sidewalk
had not been a special occasion.
Things really were possible, and rediscovering, both of them mature now,
tried and deepened •••• The girls
brightened, and spoke to him respectfully, and hardly ever bickered with
each other anymore. Thanksgiving; and
soon Christmas; they began to make
plans for Christmas.
Sometime in the winter, the telegram came. That day, Hilda walked to
and fro and wrung her hands, and now
and then made a harsh noise.
Stover
could only sit in his chair, without a
word.
Mrs. Andrews came in a ~ew
times to be with Hilda. But presently
Hilda went downtown and bought herself
a new dr e ss, green satin with a wide
silver belt j and two lucky-charm
bracelets, and when Mrs. Andrews called the next time, ililda was not in.
Mrse Andrews bothered him for a few
minutes, and she went away then, and
he was left a l one , and he was gra t et'nl
f'or that nruch.
Davy's picture, and the telegram,
killed in action, Normandy, the War
Department regrets to inform you.
Absalom, Absalom, oh my Absalom, would
God I had died for thee 3 oh Absalom,
my sonJ my son.
The wind, continual, on and on around his house, against and t.mder the
puny house where he lived. He looked
toward the photograph, without will to
focus his eyes. Evelyn in the second
bedroom complained again in her sleep.
In the drawer of the table, locked, he
had Dave's letters, along with the
telegram. To have the body brought
back.
Sometime.
He moved his head carefully, and
found that the motion brought no
twinge at all now.
Good.
The capsules had taken erfect. He was ready
to go to work. The graveyard shift.
He got up and went to the bedroom
where the girls slept. He straightened the dirty counterpane over Evelyn.
And this was what it had come to.
All the books and the determination,
�we use n
kind r
of ab
diffei
ence
a sub
given
hers ,
distir
exam
subst
but i~
"this
defini
ti on
realit
abs tr:
tion i:
it car
ure ti
reach
tions
edge.
ThE
gener
appar
perce1
mind.
quirir
We g
there
facult
jectiv
must
fore'
have
beforf
as an
comm
our d:
a gre
believ
- Ti
contr;
No1
of pe1
expre
a din
ven's
heard
mean
know
perce
refati
thing
We :k
ment:
gases
ment:
three
betw1
is re
Page 8
Page 8
ST. JOHN'S COLLEGIAN
ST. JOHN'S COLLEGIAN
ST. JOHN'S COLLEGIAN
Shakespeare, Lucretius, Whitehead, and
others,· the thinking and the excitement, the proudness not to contend.
Andrews once, looking at the books in
the cheap bookcase, had said he had a
lot of respect for an educated man.
Andrews also had confided to him how
he too had wanted things, and failed
with them. Fellowship there; and once
he had seen, probably always had seen,
had been able to tell in their faces,
that all the other people •••• Presently
Andrews had got on his nerves, and the
man's wife, her solicitousness.
Not
to contend, and work the angles.
Evelyn had drooled on her pillow.
Only to sit still now.
Perceive, no
response.
That was the good way.
Next to the best.
Andrews and all of
them, beaten.
And the best way--not
even to perceive. Af'ter all, Davy was
only a fraction of the general matter.
A whole lifetime.
All of" it, finally,
had turned out to be something that
had nothing to do with him.
For all
of it a final sedative, anesthetic,
blankness, presently. Reprieve.
Davy
had a permanent furlough.
He went to the kitchen and in the
darkness found his lunchbox.
Home is
where you can find things in the dark.
Home is where you hang yourself.
Where the bedclothes were stale, and
crusted dishes stayed stacked in the
sink.
It would pass.
He would have to hurry now to
keep from being late to work.
He
buckled his lunchbox cover down, and
turned off the light on the living
room table.
He left the front door
unlocked, since he had the only key
and Hilda would be getting back sometime.
"You shut up," she had said.
A very long time ago.
"You sit arotmd
and •ope, and I don't say anything about it.
All right then, I'll go out
and have a good time by myself." To
Tuckett's.
Anywhere.
Dancing meant
as much as anything else. The general
thing, the lifetime.
Dancing and
dancing and dancing, or the keeping
silent. However, he'd better not hear
of her bringing anybody to the house,
where he had to pay the rent.
He shut the front gate behind him
and turned up his collar against the
wind.
No moon tonight. And this part
of the town had no streetlights.
Only
the wind; and he tramped on away from
the house to go to work.
James Bal lard
WHAT'S SAUCE FOR HOMER IS
MEED FOR THE FRESHMEN
Book
I
Sing, goddess, the intrepidity of
St. John's sons. The plan that to
these ~ons honor might have accorded.
How the plan unwrought was and many
fled, and of the undaunted few that
held to their meed of honor.
Who then among the gods brought
forth the plan, and who its frustration? The son of Zeus and of Hera,
even Ares, ever hungering after the
scraped knuckles and outraged oaths
of men. He was it who appeared unto
The Scribe and said to him; "Ye sons
of St. John's, even Freshmen, wherefore art the gods on eternal Olympus
sore displeased? Wherefore do they
afflict ye grievous with declensions
of Greek and propositions of Euclid?
Hear now, and know. On this hallowed
campus there exist objects of history
in numbe r as unto the bastard sons of
Zeus, and of sanctity even as unto the
gods. And this it is that displeasure s them, for none is the mortal that
may put up a thing as unto the gods.
Even The Cannon, kin to Francis Scott
Key. Of valiant spirit are the generation of your predecessors which stole
from the Bell of McDowell - (which is
to King William's-land as Helios is to
the planets) the clapper which makes
its silvery throated peals to peal;
voiding it thereby of undue sacrosancity. Honored are they whose godlike dauntlessness have caused windows
to shatter and ceilings t'o fall.
And
as leper is unwith a nose so are you
unwi th meed of honor."
Thus spake he and like the Mist
did vanish, leaving only a puddle of
blood and a half-chewed thigh bone to
show that he was even there.
Now then did the Freshmen call to
council their numbers, and rose the
scribe and spake he the word that Ares
had spake and sate him down.
Now rose the son of Nestor's son,
ev en T he Deacon, and he it was that
augered an auger. Obeisance toward
the library made he, and in lack of
h
·ne or hecatomb, an hundred times e
W1
spat on the ground the stuff of his
digestion. And in supplication did
chant;
Page 9
even The Cannon, and swiftly did Wiellf' t
der of the Great Wrench set himse
o
-violating the bolts which held the
f th
meed to its concrete couch. 0
ese
i ht
d of' them did
there were e g
, an
seven allow reluctant removal, but he
who had wrought The Cannon, even
Bephaistos the lame, contrived that
tbe eighth bolt should budge not.
Horrified Minutes ran swif'tly by.
The while a company of the Freshmen
horde belabored the doors to the Siland vibrating in ecstasy like the ver-throated Bell. Three Gordian-like
string of a lyre, spake he in brevity ninges were there, and of these did
uncommon in Freshmen, "The Cannon has two succl.Illlb to the lever's persuasion.
- ut the third moved not. And the door
B
got to go!"
did stoutly defy the Freshmen onAnd he sate.
Like Stentorian chorus then did a slaught. Then did he of the abundant
mighty cry go up from the horde, and perphrasis, even he of the Great Axe,
dialectical gibberish was gibbered.
attack at the hi nge, committing unThen did Bacchus appear by the side of 5peakable outrage against the door and
The Wielder of The Great Wrench, ann his gods. But the door yielded not.
he did cause the host to be smitten Nor did the gods.
into silence with his tongue and quiet
The whil e greivous tried cannon
reigned like unto the Womb but with men faced the dread spectre of' defeat.
sore heavier breathing than therein. Verily was the plan unstrung, for
Then in somber council were plans of' wa~ned by the herald of the sore wroth
war made for the well-greaved Freshmen flephaistos, the Watchman, even Tootsie,
fosterling son or velve t-breasted
to claim their meed of honor.
Night did lumber towards the field of
Book XXIV
contention. And Stentor did lend h im
voice to cry, "Hey wadaya doin' dere?"
Now all the other hope-bearing And as a tower of sand doth dissolve
men did return to rest and some to before the wave, so did the horde
make libations multitudinous and some dissolve before the call. Full tail
to ponder the Riddle of the Conjuga- did they turn. Full fa~ di~ they run.
But the wielder of the Great
tion. Only The Scrib~ -rulS not holden
of sweet rest nor libation nor pondery; Wrench fled not. He entangled in his
rather was he pondering in his heart weapon was become, unable to rise. By
how he could procure the splendid his side did a few noble men of good
instrwnents of war wherewith to claim courage remain, ever ready to shelter
their meed. And then did Athene appear him with shields of nonchalance
against the piercing darts of' v ituperto his side in the guise of an urge to
micturate, and _whilst he stood thus at ion, even curses. And many such did
smite them on the ears beside the hea~
divested of the dignity, was the simSated now with the manifest dec iple truth able to assert itself.
Thus was it that he called to his mation of the ranks, even of the
Freshmen, now did Watchman, even Tootside the sharp-witted Nut-Bearer, even
sie, turn his peregrinations. Of venthe of the f'our eyes; and with speed or
fleet-footed Dream did they stea1 ed spleen was he.
Now then _ id Athene by the Scribe
d
forth to procure the tools wherewith
appear, "Out <n it, verily now, mindhonor might be forged, and not without
eth the men attacking the silversuccess did they return.
Then whilst Helios was floating throated Bell. For no whit, lest they
in his cup by the stream of' Ocean, now be warned will they escape the wrath
did the brave-hearted Freshmen con- of Watclnnan, even Tootsie.• Thus spa~
she end did wrap The Scribe in a nox
verge upon the god-of'fending relic,
"meaning of Meening,
knowledge of Knowledge,
virtue of Virtue ••• "
�we use no
kind,..
of at
diffe1
ence
a sul:;
giveIJ
be1·s
dis th
exam
subst
but h
"this
defini
ti on
realit
abs tr.
t ion i
it car
ure t •
r each
tions
edge.
Thi
Pa ge 8
ST. JOH N'S COLLEGIAN
Page 10
ST. JO HN 'S COLLEGIAN
ious cloak of miasmic mi st and set him
down within earshot of the threatened
men. Spake he: "Withdraw, flee, avaunt
• • • commeth the Watclunan!" Without reek
they withdrew, fleed,avaunted. Outwitted was the Watchman, foiled was he.
Even unto frustration.
0 goddess , thus hast thou sung ,
the intrepidity of St. John's sons.
Even now are they ruth riffen, heinous
remorse fills full their breast beside
the nipple . Unstrung the ir plan, e yes
of bright valour bernisted by foul
failure. Yet doth the i s sue stand. Yet
is the honour unproven. Yet doe s the ir
meed point with sullen arrogance in
its time-worn direc tion, a di s pleasure
to g ods, a symbol of defeat to Fre s hmen. How long? How long?
gen er
appar
perce1
mind.
quir ir
We g
there
facult
jectiv
must
fore '
have 1
before
as an
comm
our d:
a gre
believ
- Ti
cont r:
Noi
of pe1
exp r e
a dirE
ven's
heard
mean
know·
perce
refati
thing
We Ii
ment1
gases
ment:
three
betw1
is re
-Sand ek
IMAG I NA TI ON
Pers o n s
of t he Dial o gu e :
Hunti ng ton,
The Sc ene:
Stud e nt s ;
S tanton
Th e
C o ff ee
S h op p e
Hello, Stanton, what did
think of tonight's lecture?
Stanton: It has left me a little confused. For somehow I cannot accept the
notion of fancy and imagination being
the same thing. Can you conceive of
it?
Hunti n gton : \\ell, I must confe ES that
Hun t in g ton: Well, I must con fe ss that
I missed t he lect u re tonight and it
has been quite a whil e sinc e I have
speculated on this particular problem.
But perhaps if you will tell me what
imagination is and what fancy i s , we
will together be able to s ee whether
they are the same .
Stanton: Always, Huntington, when I
have a problem I am able t o fi nd some
satisfaction in discussing it with
you, but somehow I can never get a
concrete answer. This time I hope that
you will be able to tell me without
doubt what I want to know.
Huntington : O, Stanton, why is it that
you must always have a definite black
and white fact? I will tell you at the
start that I can probably not give it
to you. If you will be satisfied with
Huntington:
you
an appraisal of the factors and an
idea of what the i r relationship migh t
be, then will I be g lad to speak with
you. But if you will be satisfied with
nothing less than a textbook definition then I am afraid I can be of no
service to you and you will have to
searc h e l s e where . Now t he n, will you
be content with what I have to offer
or do you think you wo u ld b e b etter
satisfied if you asked one of the
sophists in the sophistorial?
Stanton: How can you ask me that whe n
you know how I distrust the sophists?
Although I will not be f\1lly satisfied
by what you will show me, I am sure
that I will be nearer to a decision
than I am now.
Huntington : At t h e start I s ay that I
promise nothing; but let us get on.
First of all shall we see what is
fancy and what is imagination?
S t a nton: Yes , Hu n tington, let us.
Huntington: J ust what would you say is
the nature of imagination?
Stanton: Imagination, I would say is
the power to see things which are no t
real ly there.
Huntington: Then if you were to see a
house and you imagined that t he re wer e
peopl e in it •••• it woul~ fo llow t hat
people were not really there.
Stan to n: Not of necessity.
Hun t ington: Then surely imagination i s
not a power to see things on l y whi c h
are not there. But on the other hand
is it a power to see onl y that whic h
is there ?
Stanton: But that would be kno wle<lge,
not im agination.
Huntin g ton : Then what would you say
imagination is?
Stant o n: Then I would say that imaginati on is the power t o see what may be
the re.
Hu ntin g t o n: And in orde r to see what
may be there you must have a "there"
into which to look.
St a nt on: Ye s , that i s right .
Huntin g ton: And if imagination searche s into an established "there" then
you would say that it works with some
discipline?
S tanton: Yes, I would say that.
Huntington: Then we can say that we
have decided upon certain qualities of
imagination. Namely that it is a dis-
ST. JOHN'S COLLEGIAN
ciplined power by which we _
can l o ok
into something and s ee what may b e
ther e .
Stanton: Yes, t hat is right! Now we
know what imagination is!
Huntington: Take it easy, St anton. We
are far from knowing that. All we know
is some of the qualities of imagination. Now what can you tell me ab out
fancy?
Stanton: Well fancy is free . It is unrelated pictures of things that do not
exist.
Huntington: And if it is free is it
disciplined?
Stanton : Assuredly not.
Huntington: And does fancy look into a
definite thing?
Stanton: No, indee d . Becaus e it sees
things which do not exist anywhere.
Huntington: Then we can assume that
fancy and imagination _are not alike.
Stanton: But I h ave bee n told by the
lectu rer t ·hat fancy and imag ination
are the same thing . Perhap s he _meant
that they are the same because fancy
mi~ht be considered prior to imaginati~n as some people consider intui tion
prior to logic.
Hun ti ng t on: Then if' we consider fan cy
n ecessarily prior to imagination the n
the one could not exist without the
other and we might consider them p arts
of the same whole?
Stan ton: Yes. Or fanc y a component of
ima~ination the whole .
0
'd
Huntin g ton: Yes. But if we cons1 er
fancy and imagination as p arts of the
same entirety then what sh a ll we call
the en t ire ty? And on the othe r hand,
i f fancy i s to be s uppo s ed a par t of
imacrination then what shall we call
tha~ p or t i on o f ima g i nation which i s
not fancy?
Stant o n: o, Hunting t on, I might have
known i t ! You hav e an s we r e d my que stion with a quest ion and I am still in
the dark.
Ar no l d L. M
arkowitz
THE
Page 11
ABBEY
OF
THELEME
Th e Inscr i ption on the Gate
Here enter not
Smug Hypocrites,
holy loons,
bigots,
sham-Abrahams
imposters of t he c l o t h,
mealy-mouthed humbugs,
h o lier- t han-thou b ab oons,
lip-service lubbers,
smell-feast picaroons,
sn e aks,
mischief-makers,
colpo r teure o f lies .
Being foul you would befo ul
Man, woman, beast, o r fo wl.
The vile n ess of y o ur ways
Would sull y my sweet lays,
Owls - - and your own b l ack cowl,
Be ing f oul, you would befo u l.
Defend e rs of disho ne s t pleas ,
clerks,
barristers,
attorneys who make f re emen slaves
Canon Law pet t ifoggers ,
censors,
Pharisees ,
judge s ,
a ssessors,
arbitra t ors,
referees wh o blit hl y doom g o od
people to untimely g raves .
Tangle, wrangle, bran g le
We loathe, from any angle.
Our aim is joy an d sport,
Tim e 's s wift, youth's fleet,
l i fe 's sh o rt,
You, go and disent a ngle
T a ngle , wr a ngle, brangle !
Curmu d g e on,
loan s har k,
muckworm,
hu nks ,
bloodsuc k i n g u s u re r,
e x tortio n er,
penny s t i n t,
laws u i t -c h a sin g c rim p s,
li c k g olds,
h a r pyc l a ws,
�we use m
kind,..
Page 8
ST. JOHN'S COLLEGIAN
of al
diffe1
ence
a sul:
giveIJ
be rs
distir
exam
subst
but ii
"this
defini
tion
realit
abs tr.
tion i
it car
ure t
reach
tions
edge.
Th~
gener
appar
perce1
mind.
quirir
We g
there
facult
jectiv
must
fore'
have 1
befor1
as an
comm
our d.
a gre
believ
- Tl
contri
No1
of pe1
exp re
a dirE
ven's
heard
mean
know
perce
rehti
thing
We li
ment:
gases
ment:
three
betw1
is re
ST. JOHN'S COIJEGIAN
Page 12
ST. JOHN'S COLIEGIAN
crunchfists,
jaundiced zealots of the mint.
Those grim and grisly faces
Bear all the ravaged traces
Of hidebound avarice;
We cannot stomach this.
Banish from all blithe places
Those grim and grisly faces.
Churls,
sour boors,
invidious fools
old, jealous brabblers,
scolds,
grumblers,
soreheads,
sulkers,
badgers bred in schools of
ghosts of maleperts,
firebrand's ghouls, fiercer
wolves at bay.
hat~
,
than
Those not to enter the Abbey are
divided into four groups. These groups
may be classified in the following
way: (1) hypocrites, (2) the malicious,
(3) the avaricious, and (4) the hateful.
1. The class of hypocrites seems
to be made up almost exclusively of
monks. The regulations of' the Abbey
make it clear that the refuse and excrement of society are not wanted. The
Abbey does not welcome those who come
because they cannot do anything else
and are useless to everyone. Gargantua
states his opinion of monks quite succinctly. "Do you lmow the peremptory
reason why humanity eschews monks?" he
asks. "I'll tell you: it's because
they eat the turds of the world, or,
if you prefer, because they fatten upon the sins of men. That is pretty
disgusting! ••• So help one God, if
they pray for us, do you know why? Because they're terrified of losing
their white bread and savory stews ••••
Take the ape. Can you explain why a
monkey is invariably scoffed and teased? Well, then, understand why monks
are invariably given wide room by old
and young. The monkey does not watch
the house like a dog, draw the -plow
like the ox, yield milk like the cow
or give wool like the sheep, nor, let
me add, bear burdens like the horse.
What, pray, does he do? He spills shit
over everything and befouls it: there
lies the reason for the mockery and
beatings we allot him." Aside from the
fact that many monks are the excrement
of society (Gargantua said, "I mean
lazy-time-serving monklets.") this
passage makes it clear that these
very excremental monks are thrown
by their motiv es into the disgusting light of growing fat on the
sins of the world. Their hypocritical
condition would lead them to have a
quick eye for the sins of others
(spilling their shit over everything)
and to be unable to contemplate the
integrity and goodness in men that
transcends their petty sins. Their
eyes are fixed upon the excrement of
the soul in a way that rivets their
attention upon the vile clay of men's
being and blocks their recognition to
that part of man which is like God.
2. The class of the malicious is
peopled by those who use their power
to in,jure other men unjustly - judges,
lawyers , assessors. The members of
this class are, in a later part of the
book, called "cannibals, a monstrous
African race with faces like dogs, who
bark instead of laugh." Whereas those
in t l1e first class are lacking in self
respect, these seem to lack a respect
for the right s of other men. They are
dev oid of a moral sense. They use
other men as cannibals use their victims, as means of their own gain. When
t h ey laugh (and they only laugh "at"
never "with") they laugh at the stu~
pidity of men. They are convinced that
man is a thing of no worth, because
all men exist for their sakes, and
they know that they themselves are
worth nothing. They are cynics.
3. The avaricious are typified
for Rabelais by Crassus, the Roman
consul, whose ruling passion was the
love of money,and "who smiled but once
in his life." The avaricious, therefore, are also the agelasts - haters
of laughter. They are, for the most
part, too concerned with possession of
something exterior and foreign to
their true nature to even notice the
men about them, except in a semi-con-
scious way. Their "grisly faces" betoken some grim pursuit of their trifling goal.
4. Those in the class of the hatef'ul are called misanthropes after the
example of Timon the misanthrope, an
Athenian, who, in consequence of the
ingratitude he experienced, and the
disapp ointments he suffered, from his
early friends and companions, secluded
himself from the world, admitting only
one or two persons into his company.
These people are those who are so
soured and embittered against their
fellows that they despise and refuse
to artmit to themselves their need of
being honored by other men. In their
haughtiness they think themselves superior to all men, but in despising
honor they also despise what is honored among men - which is virtue. Even
worse, they finally become habituated
in the war of hate within them and
despise even their natural inclination
to peace.
But enter here
of goodly parts,
Men
Gallants,
noble gentlemen,
come proud,
come wise ,
come gay,
mellow,
courteous,
true sophisticate,
come worldling,
come good fellow.
Comrades, companions,
friends,
Assemble from the ends
Of earth in this fair place
Where all is mirth and grace.
Felicity here blends
Comrades, companions, friends.
Nimble-witted scholars of the Holy
Gospel
The Holy word of God
Shall never be downtrod
Here in this holy place,
If all deem reason grace,
And use for staff and rod
The Holy Word of God.
Ladies
fair of eminent degree,
Page 13
flowers of loveliness,
angels of harmony,
respendent,
proud,
yet of the rarest modesty.
1. Those gentlemen are welcomed
to the Abbey who possess the attributes contrary to those of hypocrisy,
malice, avarice and hate: Namely, self
res-pect, respect for the rights of
others (a moral sense), generosity and
friendliness. The four latter attributes are indes-pensable to those who
contemplate practicing the Art of Living, the subject matter of which is
Honour, Praise and Pleasure. The attributes are arranged in a de scending
scale of necessity. The first, selfres-pect, is most neces sary. The hy-pocritical man is in no way fitted for
the life of Honour. He whose very life
is a li P. cannot even respect his own
judgement. Re spect for the r ights of
others is slightly less necessary but
also indespenS'l ble. A. man must have
not only self-respect but a sense of
justice before he can honour others
wisely. Be fore he c an prais e he must
be generous of spirit and ungr udging
of honour when it is due. He must be
friendly if he is to at tain to Pleasure or Felicity, since this third part
of the Art of Living is attainable
only in his relations t o other men.
2. The expounders of the Gospel
are laugh ing mediators between men ana.
women. They are priests who offer up
the wine of comic wisdom to God and
who ins truct the young men and women
in the "new Faith of Pantagruelism."
Not that Pantagruel ism supplants traditional Christianity. On the contrary,
it is based upon it. It has already
been shown how Pantagruelism depends
on a trust in the omnipotence of God.
The importance of Christ will be pointed out in the last section of the paper. The scholars, then, act as mediators in the war of male and female.
They are primarily the teachers of
sexual peace.
3. Women are the natural complement of men. The state of marriage is
proper to natural felicity. Therefore,
women who are wangels of harmony" are
�we use n
kind,..
of al
diffe1
ence
a sul
give11
hers
disti1
exam
subst
but h
"this
defini
tion
realit
abs tr,
tion i
it ca1
ure t
reach
tions
edge.
Tht
gener
appar
perce:
mind.
quirir
We g
there
facult
jectiv
must
fore'
have
befon
as an
comm
our d.
a gre
believ
- T1
contri
No1
of pe1
exp re
a dirE
ven's
heard
mean
know
perce
relnti
thing
We Ii
ment:
gases
ment
three
betw•
is re
1
Page 8
Page 14
ST. JOHN'S COLLEGIAN
ST. JOHN'S COLIEGIAN
an essential part of the Abbey.
The Life of Honor and its goal.
1. The only rule of the Abbey is:
Do what thou wilt. There is the important assumption that "men who are free,
well-born, well-bred, conversant in
honest company, have by nature an Instinct and Spur , which always prompte th them to vi r tno11s actions and
withdraweth them from vice; and this
they style Honour." Honour, insofar
as it is an inclination, is a motion
in the human soul the end of which is
being praised. The end of true Honour
is being praised by one who bestows
pra.is~ justly. Thus, true Honour presupposes a respect for the p erson honoring. This seems to mean that honoring (or respecting - which is a. silent
honoring) precedes being honored. Another way of stating the definition of
Honour is to call it the desire of
plea.sing those whom one respects. Now
this desire of pleasing is an inclination towards peace, for pleasing and
displeasing and being displeased is a
state of war. Therefore, peace is the
goal of Honour. Furthermore, it will be
seen that once again the principle
"war is the parent of all good things"
is to be applied. The method of Thelemite Honour is Emulation. This is a
rivalry by which all wish to excel in
doing what they see will please one
another. More precisely, it is an imitation by which all wish to become
more like those whom they respect, and
in which a friendly sort of rivalry or
war leads to virtue and peace.
All Abbeys are preparatory for
some future state of beatitude. The
state of marriage, the crown upon natural virtue and the completion of natural felicity, is presented as the
state of beatitude for which the Abbey
of Theleme prepares its young monks
and nuns. The young Knight honors most
and wishes most to please the young
Lady who has chosen him. It is said
about the time of de-parture that "when
the time ca.me for a man to leave the
Abbey (either at his parents' request
or for some other reason) he took with
him one of the ladies - the particular
one who had chosen him for her l«lightand they were married. And though they
had lived in devotion and friendship
at Theleme, their marriage relations
proved even more tender and agreeable.
Ind eed to the end of their lives they
loved one another as they had on the
day of their wedding."
2. Friar .Jolm and the anago.:;ical
level. ·
Referring back to the point made
some pages back that the excremental
and procreative f11nctions are combined
in the use of the most heavenly part
of the body, we now invoke it as a
slight but signi fi cant token tha t the
state of marriage is not the happiest
state for all ~en. It seems that Fr iar
John, the Abbo t of Theleme, is one o:f
these men fo r whom the state of marriage is slavery and the state of
ch astity fre edom. At the end of the
Fifth Hook wh en he is inspired in the
pres ence of the Holy Hottle (the wine
o f whic h promp ts men to utter truth)
Fri ar John sin gs:
Bett er drain a cup of shame
Than to play the wedding - game ,
Better wall ow in the mud
Th Rn spill hymeneal bl oo d .
Neve r shal l a wife rob me
Of my treasured liberty,
Whom earth's loftiest commander,
Pompey, C aesar, Alexander
Word d no t find a p t to behave
Like a bondsman and a slave.
It seems that we must remem b er the
state of war begun by the sin by which
"Adam and Ev e d.isobeyed the commandment of the Lord their God: mortalit y
was their punishment. Hy death the
magnificent mould in which Man was
fashioned vanished into the dust of
oblivion."" We must say that Friar John
is seeking some more glorious harmony,
peace between God and his soul, and
some more glorious Emulation, the Emulation of Christ.
Ste wart McRaney
S T. J 0 H N'S C 0 L L E G I A N
ANNAPOLIS,
l
A.lJ
,\~ ARYLAND
JANUARY 23 9 1951
~DIT UF.IAL
a.ttiL....
,·-j r
·· :cnit y ':.ill en t~ r a ~-i::::,:: ·./!kl., we:.~.:~,·· ,;
;iL .in s .J.' .:: S l'!.! }Z ~. at l east hf· [n:.ltful.
·::.:0liq;::-: .!:":C.'r L:·_! I.as b ~~ e n callee,. Ly
th - Executive C ·.)1111nitt e e for Tuesday Jan.
2 ~ at 8: 01- p.m. t~ ~~ rov _:,J e: t11e co!le-~e
c r~munity (administration, faculty anrl
Student Polity) with an opportunity to di scm;s how co-edncation will affect St.
Jnhn's. It will be impossible at this time
to anticipate the many situations which
":7.l ill arise when wo !!"!en come to live on
this campus, so that this meeting can not
p0s sibly have for its purpose a solution
of these problems, but rather must come
to $One agreement on the . attitude with
which tl -ese problems must be faced.
lt is unfortunate that the society in
'vhich we live has found it necessary to
establish separate codes by which the
rn ral life of men aud 'Nornen must be jud·
g e!"l. In considering the attitude with which
,,:e \Vill me et these problems likely to
aris e next fall, w e must have in mind not
. -o much the a10re s qf the society in which
'Ve live, as the simple fact of human digg
nity and respondbility to that dignity.
The fact that th ere is an anticipati_
on
f tension over what will <:ome about next
fall indicates that a sharp dicotomy bet.-. •een male and fe male doe~ not represent
a healthy rdatioe ship in c-o·~nmmal life.
'Therefore in consid ering this problem it
is advocated that '.<:e da not !!12.ke the fatal
n i~tal>:e of consid ering '='"'- :nen as other
tha'1 stud ents.
r· arents of prospective students quite
ri gb.dy c oncern thcr\ r~dv-:::: ~.,·ith the moral
~- f
.z , .;.
C:O J •
·_a ' .i.~;.:-~ i: ·~ r 1 -.-~ a l o-:.l
'
t~
;. r~..
J
t: a L L c _r ,_, .
,li..:. o v~- ~·-'.~ ~
,.. :)~ . ,..
un c<. crstc~.- .. ,:
h - t :ia t hi:> act t -;.;.
ca. : ·1t
be jmge c~ i n t <.:: rr.1 ~ o f t~1 ,; r~le s ::-· -·· r :...:; ,_i· ations fo;p os -.::.J en ti1c co;,,clJOity, b: t ratb_r
tb.is auitu ',; can be j1v,.£v·l or.:.- i l t ·r .::-:
of C e rules a rr; regul a tior'. s ,-,~.._ .ic :~ t h:.:
C<L.munity .. ropos e . · to itself a __ J ace :~- t s
or rejects.
Females as such have certain p·,i ten tiaiities peculiar to th ~: m selvc.s. It i r.:
only in rerms of the::: c, that resill.at.i. .;-;:-L>
h ;lVC: any co :1 ce iv ::.t~le j 11 ~1ificatio . It
:::· ust be realized, h ::) vever? that n o a '.;. u-·, of regulation can prevent the st:: p:)tem.: 21 itie~~ froi.i • being actualize-1.
J··1p0sed regulati·'..)tlS can eot be enforcer _
,
All they can possibly r~present is anticip at _d irresponsibility, an;. all t!.ey can
possibly accomplish is to p rese nt a sur:ac ~ respectability. Th e- ') ~1:y c--n1c ·ivab •'.:
·..:ol ;ion is tha t e ach s t,i ..' \.·ut, •.i"J. · <inL!
fc , .ale, as :. ~::-.e s c~y·1pl ~. te · r e s;;on .~~ b ..~it;
for his action . '.•. Th i·. is thi~ <: ubj ,~ ct for
ue ·~ay ' s ·.!isc t.ssion.
It h as been :;ut~. u:: te d thf'•t a te: ,ti-'orary
"l"" 1 of
·
r <:" stric tL n :. b·..: flL, f ~-.::
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Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
The Collegian
Description
An account of the resource
The Collegian began as a student newspaper; became a college community literary publication in 1952 and continued until 1969; became a student newspaper again in 1969; discontinued publication from 1980 until 1989 when it again became a student literary publication.<br /><br />Click on <a title="The Collegian" href="http://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=26">Items in The Collegian Collection</a> to view and sort all items in the collection.
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Annapolis, MD
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
St. John's College Greenfield Library
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Page numeration
Number of pages in the original item.
14 pages
Original Format
The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
paper
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Collegian Vol. LXIV No. 02
Title
A name given to the resource
St. John's Collegian, November 11, 1950
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1950-11-11
Description
An account of the resource
Vol. LXIV, No. 2 of the St. John's Collegian. Published on November 11, 1950.
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Annapolis, MD
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
St. John's College
Language
A language of the resource
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
text
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
St. John's College owns the rights to this publication.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
pdf
Student publication
The Collegian
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