I'm sure I'm not the only one avoiding much of the news these days, the only one who can't bear to read one more disheartening article about the election (spare me the First Dude, please) and/or the economy (spare me the bailouts, please).
But I am a reader, so I've turned my newspaper reading to stories of a softer and squishier nature, like the one in last week's Boston Globe on how Brown University accepted too many freshmen for their dorm capacity, and so is putting students up in lounge areas and dorm kitchens or pretty much any space where there's space.
For some freshmen, this is apparently working out just fine, as in the two guys who lucked into a lounge with 25-inch TV and a full kitchen. They'd like to claim it for all four years.
Others have been less fortunate.
Some upper-classmen had opted out of the dining plan, intending to cook for themselves, only to find that there are now folks living in the kitchen they'd planned to use.
For a handful of unlucky freshmen, it means living in a dorm outside of the complex where the other first year students live, which means they're missing out on some opportunities to make friends.
One such freshman, Sammy F - whose name I won't print fully, as there's no need for his parents to google and find a complete stranger poking fun at the young fellow -
...was stuck in King House, home to a co-ed literary fraternity.
"I was kind of weirded out," F said. "I didn't know what kind of person you'd have to be to join a society designed for people who read a lot. I'm not a part of it, and I don't plan on becoming a part of it."
"....what kind of a person you'd have to be to join a society designed for people who read a lot"?
Am I the only person who would have thought that acceptance to Brown - which is on just about every Top Ten college list I've ever seen - would/should place someone in the society of people who read a lot?
"....what kind of a person you'd have to be..."
Maybe someone who is curious about the world. Who likes to read. Who likes to think. Who likes to discuss.
Wouldn't you think this describes pretty much every student at an Ivy League school (with the obvious legacy admissions and jocks aside)?
I mean, Brown isn't exactly Party State U. Sure, the kids party, but there are some pretty steep admissions standards at play here. And Brown isn't exactly College of the Last Resort, the sort of place that's postcard pretty and that you've heard of often enough that you think it's good, but which - in actuality - has one criterion for admission, and that's parental ability to pay a hefty tuition.
Okay, just because you read doesn't mean you want to hang out with a bunch of literary snobs. Or deadheads who'd rather curl up with a good book than pass out at a kegger.
Maybe Sammy F does read a lot. Maybe he just doesn't want to socialize with a bunch of weirdos who want to sit around comparing and contrasting Pliny the Elder with Pliny the Younger. Who believe that Proust is so much better in French. Who sleep with Middlemarch under their pillows. Who read aloud - truly the only way to go - from Finnegan's Wake at dinner.
(And I really and truly understand that Sammy F is, indeed, missing out on a key experience by not getting to hang out morning, noon, and night with a bunch of fellow freshmen.)
Still, this is Brown.
If kids at Brown sneer at serious reading, what's the world coming to?
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