July 11th, 2008
There was so much to grok, so little to grok from.
–Stranger in a Strange Land, by Robert Heinlein, Uncut Ed. 1991.
You remember it: a bell would sound, like the Heavenly Chorus, and a thousand children would simultaneously bolt for the door, depleting a school of its inhabitants with enough speed and force to register a sonic boom. (Ever wonder why teachers always stayed a few days after? They were struggling to regain consciousness.)
And whilst most were long forward to the beach or the pool, it was the free time for summer reading that was my Siren, lulling me over to Border’s with my savings to pick out all the wonderful things I was going to read. No, not the mucky books that we were forced to read – I will never forget the horror of the worst book ever – but instead books that I wanted to read, books of my choosing. We all do this: people flock to Border’s and whatnot for beach reads, for new audio books for the car, or perhaps the new Cussler book. I decided to catch up on a long-held-off project, reading a true scif-fi classic, Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land.
You know that guy, in every class, that sits up front and acts as if he’s God’s gift to intellectualism? The one that corrects the teacher, hands in a thirty page manifestos for journal assignments, and acts as if clearly everyone should know about the Defenestration of Prague, I mean, come on, people, who doesn’t know about the Thirty Years’ War? Why, relating the War to the oil crisis during the Carter Administration is easy!
Imagine if he wrote a book.
(I’ll wait for you to stop screaming in horror.)
The book, while offering a look through the eyes of the charmingly alien Michael Valentine Smith (the Stranger), is also drenched in the character Jubal presenting an endless tirade of his (perhaps Heinlein’s) personal philosophy, most of which is hopelessly outdated for modern readers, particularly his views on women, which are verge on being sexist.
Yet it is because of what I have learned at Chestnut Hill College that I can at least appreciate it for what it is. My studies as a history major show me more than just text; it is a historical document that shows the culture and changing philosophy of 1961, a portrait of a generation that was beginning to develop a real social consciousness. Classes in English literature have taught me how to recognize Jubal as more of a vehicle and less of a character, and to understand his impact on the book. And the art classes I have taken gave me the creativity to use the book as a handsome way to prop up my Xbox 360.
Chestnut Hill provides an education that allows you to look beyond the first layer of any work. Whether it’s a sci-fi classic, a painting at the Philadelphia Art Museum, or a film that you thought “was just really cool,” the knowledge you’ll gain here will make it so that you can see it for what it was meant to be: not just a book, or a painting, or a movie, but a work of art, a mental puzzle from the work’s creator to you, daring you and asking you to look deeper into the work, to recognize the symbols and images used.
So come to Chestnut Hill College. Learn, study, and grow, not only as a person, but as a thinking individual. You’ll see the world in a different, educated light. And then pick up that science fiction classic and realize, “Hey! …
… this makes an excellent doorstop, too!”
(My sincerest apologies to any and all Heinlein fans in the audience.)
Tagged As: books, summer
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