The Classmates

Colby-Sawyer College Hosts Geoffrey Douglas for Reading from 'The Classmates: Privilege, Chaos, and the End of an Era'
NEW LONDON, N.H., 10-28-2008 — Colby-Sawyer College will host author Geoffrey Douglas, who will read from his new memoir, The Classmates: Privilege, Chaos, and the End of an Era, about his and his classmates' experiences during and after St. Paul's School, a prestigious private school in Concord, N.H.
The reading, part of the Humanities Department's Word by Word Series, will be held on Monday, Nov. 10, at 4 p.m. at the Archives of the Susan Colgate Cleveland Library/Learning Center. The event is free and open to the public.
A member of the St. Paul's School class of 1962, Douglas reconnected with fellow alumni through an e-mail group when their classmate, Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, ran for the U.S. presidency in 2004. His renewed contact with classmates led Douglas to explore what had happened to other alumni following their graduation and coming of age in the tumultuous 1960s, which became the inspiration for the book.
Tim Clark, in a book review for Yankee Magazine, describes the memoir as three books: a memoir of his Douglas's years at St. Paul's, from which he was expelled in 1961; a travelogue of the turbulent decades that followed; and a portrait of his former classmates, including Senator Kerry. Douglas is a long-time contributing write at Yankee Magazine and currently teaches creative writing at the University of Massachusetts in Lowell.
Douglas's stories about his classmates--he follows the lives of six of them, including Kerry--all include what Clark describes as “the burden of expectations”: “Some of his classmates buckled under the load. Some, like Kerry, rose to the pinnacle of success -- yet even then, Kerry remained the outsider he had been at St. Paul's.” Clark concludes that Classmates “is a touching, troubling book that should be read by every commencement speaker before dropping the leaden mantle of expectations on another graduating class.”

ANOTHER WRITER/AUTOBIOGRAPHER!

Geoffrey Douglas, author of The Classmates: Privilege, Chaos, and the End of an Era, will read from his memoir Monday afternoon from 4 - 5:00 in the Archives in the Library and will attend our class on Tuesday. There is an excerpt of his memoir outside my office for you to persue, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest.

The conversation in class today with Rev. Dr. Katharine C. Black was eye opening for me, however it left me with two distinct things to think about...

First, how should one truly end an autobiography? If it is supposed to be the story of one's life, then when should someone write it? Should it be ended at a point to leave the reader thinking? Should it be ended at a point to leave the reader satisfied? I understand this is a bit rhetorical, however when Rev. Black was speaking about he "Hate Letters Narrative" she said that she may never get to finish it because the torture may never end. In my mind she should still publish what she has, however it wouldn't be a complete story without a conclusion.

Second, there was an inteserting conversation between Jackie, Ann Page, and Rev. Black about how being a well read individual makes it harder to write. Therefore, if one is to become a writer, would it be easier to write without being well read. Would one write better without being acquainted with Virginia Woolf, because to be honest, duplicating Woolf's brilliance is an adventure not worth pursuing, one would fall short. I guess the answer best came to me when Rev. Black said, "Other writers can't write my story." That is why we write for ourselves, because no one else, no matter how talented they are, can write what we have gone through. In my mind it can only benefit a writer to be well read, it will open their eyes to different styles. The only problem lies when the writer tries to "become" who they have read.

Ann Page, thank-you for bringing in Rev. Black. It was fascinating to see how much writing has changed the life of someone who is not a writer by trade. It goes to show that anyone can benefit from this form of art and that we are all better off being English Majors.

Feel free to respond because lord knows I might have completely missed the boat with this...

Katharine C. Black

In Katharine Black's story, she references a divine spirit (or lack thereof) at the end of the chapter.

"Odd that the sanctuary light had blown out. It was always burning showing that there was consecrated host present. It was always burning. That would be nearly a first for the fastidious altar guild of the church."

Though this happens literally, I believe Black means it to be a symbolic absense of God when the character needs Him the most, as something bad is about to happen. How often do we feel like that - a need to give up our control to a higher power when we feel helpless or beyond repair? The light that's always burning is a comfort for many; it is a tangible representation of an intangible power.

Katharine C. Black's "Dirty Secret"

"I thought that I should keep the letters as my dirty secret and not ever mention then. (It was several years before I told either my husband or any of my children about them.) I thought the letters would blow over. I thought they'd stop" (p. 6 of "The Beginning")

How difficult is it to keep secrets? Is secrecy a form of mental exile? What makes a person decide to keep something a secret? Do you think withholding information from a loved one is a form of deception or the right of a human being?

I wonder how hard it was for Katharine to not share this information with he husband or those who were the closest people to her heart. It seemed like she had a mental conversation with herself about letters, and she obviously spoke to her sponsor and the Bishop about the letters, but she really never got to vent her frustrations to anyone. Is that why she has chosen to share this memoir?

"The Box"- Katharine C. Black's Place for Memories

Rev. Dr. Katharine C. Black's first entry in our packet details reasons for saving things, more specifically saving information and items that will help a person plan and prepare for a big event. In Katharine's case, this event was her ordination (def: to officially be made a priest by a church). Katharine proposes that an individual obtain two boxes, one for documents and another for small pieces of notation on topics such as possible clothing, hymns, dates, invitation information, etc. that may relate to her ordination.

Katharine also proposes gathering ideas from other individuals' ordinations. She tells her readers that they should observe what people wear, how they answer their GOE (General Ordination Exam) questions, and what types of music might suit her future sermons.

So, as Katharine states, "What will you want to keep track of? What will you collect?" What types of "things" do you hang on to? Are there items that you have kept to help you prepare for a future event?

I really think that Katharine's proposal of keeping boxes is a reminder of Edwidge Danticat's uncle in Brother, I'm Dying. He was constantly taking note of events that occurred around him, even the most gruesome deaths and the trauma that he went through in Krome. Uncle Joseph was an avid notetaker and was clearly preparing to write his own memoirs. What types of items and notes do you think Danticat would have kept in her boxes? What about Eavan Boland?

Descriptive words in Dr. Katharine C. Black

From the packet of works one certain aspect of Dr. Black's writing that stood out to me was her use of descriptive words or phrases. Some of the greatest examples are...
"I had the feeling at first og going out to my parked car and not finding it where I knew I have parked it and looking and looking in the same place." "Beginning"
"Grey, grizzled skies and leaking, soaking rain greeted her on this somber day..." Chapter 15 p.1
"Boats, patriotic colors promising Memorial Day eventually, summer reading books, rings for June weddings, and all the other sings of the season to come looked bright and cheerful." p.8

Issues of Identity

"In my case that mute backward-reaching distance was my own childhood. It had been lived out of my country, away from the signals and clues by which a self, almost without knowing it, finds its way to adulthood." pg. 76

I liked this short passage because in it, Boland deals with the 'issue of her identity. I found it interesting that Boland felt a need to have a physical place to ground herself, to say "Yes, this is where I come from and it is what shaped me". I believe that a place shouldn't define one but rather we should learn from wherever we may find ourselves at any point in time. Identity in terms of nationality is not much of an issue in the States, but I think that we have a monopoly on that because we are 'the melting pot'. Are there other ways that we might try to categorize ourselves in terms of our identity?

I can't figure out how to contact her!

So, I received a comment on my enormous post about Eavan Boland by an actual, real-life Boland scholar, Jody Allen Randolph. Ann Page suggested that I try to contact her... but my efforts at finding contact information have failed miserably. So... suggestions?

This is a page that has some info on her (but no contact info!!): http://www.westmont.edu/_academics/departments/english/dr-jody-allenrandolph.html

I can't find her in the directory, either. If you have any luck, please let me know. Otherwise, we may just have to live with our chance, one-time encounter.

Another work by Eavan Boland that I would like to share

"Anorexic"

Flesh is heretic.
My body is a witch.
I am burning it.

Yes I am torching
ber curves and paps and wiles.
They scorch in my self denials.

How she meshed my head
in the half-truths
of her fevers

till I renounced
milk and honey
and the taste of lunch.

I vomited
her hungers.
Now the bitch is burning.

I am starved and curveless.
I am skin and bone.
She has learned her lesson.

Thin as a rib
I turn in sleep.
My dreams probe

a claustrophobia
a sensuous enclosure.
How warm it was and wide

once by a warm drum,
once by the song of his breath
and in his sleeping side.

Only a little more,
only a few more days
sinless, foodless,

I will slip
back into him again
as if I had never been away.

Caged so
I will grow
angular and holy

past pain,
keeping his heart
such company

as will make me forget
in a small space
the fall

into forked dark,
into python needs
heaving to hips and breasts
and lips and heat
and sweat and fat and greed.


In class we talked about how many poems written by Boland were often criticized, or 
at least noted, to be written almost autobiographically.  My point was because of 
our preconceived notion of writing about "what we know" that we are more likely to
assume that any poetry or prose is written with at least some truth to the author.
Though Anorexia is a very real and serious condition, I do not believe that Boland
was one of the women who has struggled or is struggling with this disorder.  The 
imagery in this poem is striking, and though partially disturbing I think would
benefit readers.  We get a better sense of how Eavan Boland uses her creative mind to
fill in what she does not know.  This idea is also presented in Object Lessons as she
tries to piece together what information she has of her grandmother while at the same
time creating details of which she has no proof... such as the red hat.

Simplicity in Boland

"I wanted simplicity. I craved it. At school I would learn Thomas Hood's poem: 'I remember, I remember/The house where I was born.' But as time went on, I didn't. Such memory as I had was constantly being confused and disrupted by gossip and homily, by the brisk and contingent talk of adults. 'Stop that. Settle down. Go to sleep now.'" ~Object Lessons, p. 38

What I like about this passage is that as Boland talks of simplicity and her desire for it, she manages to keep her sentences from their usual complexities. She is speaking of her childhood at this time, and so the quick and short sentences are fitting to the situation. Where the one sentence expands itself, it is for the purpose (as I see it) of accentuating that her memories of childhood were "being confused and disrupted" by those around her.

Two Quick Side Notes:
-I don't remember the house where I was born because we moved months afterwards.
-Ann Page, I'm sure you were pleased to see "contingent" used in this passage

APS for Jenna

Eavan Boland
page #24 "Poetry"

"The mystique was sustained by prescriptions. Poetry, it was suggested, was something of power and resonance. It was also a good deal removed from that life which was deemed ordinary."