First Impressions

Kris Weberg | September 23, 2004
Okay, this is a grad school thing, so beware.

Fredric Jameson is maybe the foremost critical theorist today. In academia, this is hot commodity -- he teaches regularly, and he's famous/infamous for letting anyone into his classes who wants to be there. One year, the registrar hit on the idea of using the room's capacity, as defined by the state fire code, to bar excess students from the class. Jameson simply arranged for everyone thus barred to be in an "Independent Study" such that they were taking the class but, for administrative and legal purposes, were not "actually" in the room.

The first day of his course, I figured there'd be a line, a big one. I went early, very early, and seeing the room empty, tried twisting the doorknob to get in -- no dice. Knob wouldn't budge. So I maintained a vigil in the hall, slowly realizing that this is grad school and no one is there at 9:30 for a 10am class.

Eventually, an elderly gentleman came by. Seeing me standing outside the room like a dope, he asked me if I needed assistance. I told him the room was locked, and he very kindly found a staffer, who told him the room, as a matter of course, wasn't locked overnight. The elderly gentleman leaned in, gave the door a shove -- not a knob-twist -- and it swung open.

They stared at me. Sheepishly, I thanked them, went in to si near the front, and started reading. In the hall, I heard the staffer say, 'Thanks, Professor Jameson."

I'm still in the class, but I don't sit up front.

Your turn.

Erik Bates | September 23, 2004
[hidden by request]

Scott Hardie | September 23, 2004
One of the brainier girls (I'm not putting her down) in a high-school English class developed a habit of hanging out with me, always coming to sit next to me and chat whenever she had the opportunity, sometimes dragging along her bored-looking friend. It took me a while to catch on that she was trying to spark my interest and maybe wanted me to ask her out. At that moment of realization, all of a sudden I went from being relaxed and conversational to feeling immense pressure not to say anything stupid... the very pressure that causes one to say something stupid at the worst time. When she came over to sit next to me during a study session, I glanced at her well-used notebook and joked, "Geez, who would take that many notes?!" She didn't come and sit next to me again.