introduction/Mr. Tupper

Lagusta P. Yearwood (ly001f@uhura.cc.rochester.edu)
Thu, 10 Jul 1997 22:45:12 -0400 (EDT) 

Hello, 

Like Rebecca (who is apparently a grad student at my school, so hello
there, fellow Rochester Salinger lover!), I've been lurking around
for a while, reading and saying "exactly!" a lot and once in a while 
murmuring in distaste (but for the most part it's been "exactly!"), and
learning a lot. I finally decided to post, and for some reason I'm a
little nervous. :) I guess it's because although I've been fairly
breathing Salinger for years, I'm not really used to discussing him with
people who actually know much about his works. But I've been learning
tons, and I've started reading books from authors discussed here: I read
_Life is Elsewhere_ my Milan Kundera (_The Incredible Lightness of Being_
was reported "stolen" from the univ. library, which I figured was a fairly
good indication that it was a decent book) and loved it, copied lots of
poetry into my journal from it. I'm going to start _End Zone_ by Don
Dellio tomorrow. So I've been nejoying the posts. 

A little about me: my name is Lagusta Yearwood, I'm a sophmore at
University of Rochester, English/French major and Women Studies minor.
Hmm...I thought there was more to say about me. In the preface to _Welcome
To The Monkey House_, Kurt Vonnegut said something (in a lovely little
paragraph all my itself, apropos of nothing, that made me smile for days)
like: "I shimmer in the rain." or else it was "I am lovely in the rain." I
don't know. Anyway, I thought that was a wonderful way to describe
yourself, although I'm not sure why (and I reeeally hope there is not some
deeper theme I'm missing here in that line), so maybe I'll say that about
myself: "I shimmer in the rain." and leave it at that. 

Continuing (and I am terribly sorry this is so long!), the reason I
finally decided to post was because of this comment from Rebecca: 

>   My question is this (this goes out especially to all of you who are
> doing theses, etc., on Salinger works...):  Is there anyone else out there
> having trouble doing academic work on something one feels utterly
> passionate about?  Every time I approach writing on something I really
> love (in music or literature), I suddenly want to protect this piece of
> beauty from the long cold fingers of Academia, whose touch sometimes seems
> to kill anything it comes into contact with.  Is it possible to work
> within the Ivory Tower without being too disheartened by (or, heaven
> forbid, even turning into one of) the Mr. Tuppers of the world?  [This
> dilemma re Academia is in some ways related to the recent discussion of
> Salinger's allusions to / quotes of philosophy, literature, etc.  It must
> be possible to be that well-read, thoughtful, and wise, without needing to
> be an academic...]

Hmm. I've always had many passions, and for as long as I can remember I've
tried to spread the word about them, explore them, get in deep and swim
around in them as much as possible, so I've written papers about them. And
yep, every time I turn one in I feel like a little chunk of something I
love deeply has been given into hands that might not respect and
understand it, and I hate that. Nothing worse than to pour out your
love for a writer to who you thought was an understanding prof. and
have them vivisect your love until you feel it's not even yours anymore. 
I had this happen last semester with Sylvia Plath, and I'm not sure if
I've recovered. This prof. tried to tell me "Lady Lazarus" was a
metaphor for the death of the lyric...ahhhh! (non-Plath people, forgive 
my rant).

And yes, I'm always afraid I'm going
to turn into a Mr. Tupper (who I had almost forgotten about, he of the
pre-class mussed wolly white hair and Sanskrit/Pali-correction fetish),
too hung up on Ego and the details. OK. Umm...Half way through this
enthusiastic paragraph I realize I hopped in without any solution at all
to your question. Just reasurrance that I feel that same way. 
Well, I definately think it's posible to be well-read and intelligent
without succumbing to the Ivory Tower and it's emptyness. There is a way
to discuss things and be an academic without pretension, phonyness, etc
etc, and I think the path to that way (path to that way??) is to not
become jaded and to remember the passion that lured you to that lifestyle
in the beginning. I truly love the things I am passionate about, and
because of that love and the happiness it gives me, I am able to live
within an incredibly phony environment, the one that Holden and Franny had
so much trouble with, the school system, and be okay. 

And now my housemates are yelling to use the phone, so, 

I hope this makes sense!

Lagusta

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i know, in my soul, that to eat a creature who is raised to be eaten, and
who never has a chance to be a real being, is unhealthy. it's
like...you're just eating misery. you're eating a bitter life.
        ~~alice walker
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