ember 2,
Wednesday, November 2,1988
The Battalion
Pages
at 6 p.m. atASiJ
the council rooit I
g about loans f«|
n 308 Rudder.
Rudder,
ampaign meetin
irmen at 7 p.m,j
dder.
p.m. at Rudde:
i. in LoungeBor
e St. Mary's Stu.
erele Neeld we
idder.
>rs of War” and
5 earce Pavilion,
hip and worship
: will meet al 7
minar are avail-
at 6 p.m. in 164
&M professor speaks
f love for Middle Ages
D
MSC
Political
Forum
achry,
ie Edge,
rout from 7 ■ 10
eed McDonald,
Ve only publish
J. What's Upis
issions are run
By Ron Pippin
Reporter
pbert Boenig is a Renaissance man
ie true spirit of the term. The 40-
-old assistant professor of English at
[as A&M would feel right at home
png the poets, musicians, noblemen
| knights of the Middle Ages,
lowever, if he were to return to that
period, he would need to change out
lis purple plaid shirt, green silk tie,
[pants and tennis shoes into something
re medieval.
lut would a real Renaissance man
[ose Arnold Schwarzenegger as his fa
ke actor?
[He’s my hero,” Boenig says. “He’s
|h a throwback to the Middle Ages. If
had to make a movie of Beowulf,
iwarzenegger is the only actor you
[idcast in that role.”
loenig has been teaching English
;e 1974, concentrating primarily on
I literature of the medieval and Renais-
[ce periods. He began as a teaching as-
[ant at Rutgers University in New Jer-
while working on his Ph.D. Boenig
[s he has been interested in books and
[rature for as long as he can remem-
'
I
{‘When I was a kid living in Hoboken,
, I could see the Empire State Build-
from my kitchen window,” Boenig
s. “1 remember that famous week in
1950’s when the Million Dollar
vie was showing King Kong seven
;hts in a row. 1 watched it every night,
one night I rushed to the kitchen to
if King Kong was really standing on
Empire State Building, swatting
n airplanes. That was my first lesson
' will run. ll\/ou jt era t urei the difference between real
and a story.”
[After teaching at Rutgers for seven
, Boenig spent from 1981-1983 as
assistant professor of English at Penn
ite University. Following a return to
itgers in 1983 as the associate director
the writing program, he brought his
ife Loran and his unique classroom at-
isphere to Texas A&M in 1986.
Tressha White, a senior journalism
|ajor from Houston, took Boenig’s
dd literature class in the spring of
Election ’88 Series:
presents
ELECTION AWARENESS DAY
1988
Come get infonnation about the candidates and
vote in our mock election.
Wednesday, November 2
10-4 p.m.
MSC Hallway
This program is presented for educational purposes, and does not constitute an
endorsement for any candidate.
4^
.’enter, will il-
m of the
. , ®“He didn’t try to intimidate us like
manager or p ro f essors do, but he wanted us to
,y what we felt if we could support it,”
ite says. “I had a lot of fun in his
ass. He was always doing neat things
get us involved.”
That’s the way Boenig wants his
classes to be — entertaining, with a lot
If class participation. For instance, when
Boenig took a position as visiting lec-
Irer in English at Purdue University in
US7, he taught a course on the history of
he English language.
“That can be a very dull subject,”
loenig says. “One of the things we had
) discuss was how the Vikings invaded
Ingland and brought a lot of their Norse
rords into the English language. So I de-
iribed the invasions as if they were in
fusions of Viking motorcycle gangs,
riving with leather jackets and new
ords tatooed to their arms and bellies,
f people laugh they feel more comfort-
'Jureyev took jble. Learning can’t happen unless
irector of the ou’re comfortable.”
has created Boenig also strives to give his students
rlassic ballets [lore than just English,
own versions [ “I try to give my students a more ste-
“Washington :oscopic view,” says Boenig. “One of
ie strengths of English is you have to
am a lot about different things, because
uthors of different time periods had as
heir subject their own world and their
^wn outlooks in history, philosophy, art,
nusic and this and that.”
Perhaps it was his dedication to leam-
igwhen he attended college that makes
oeing so thorough in his teaching.
Boenig attended Rutgers as an under-
graduate from 1966-1970. He was a
?hubb Foundation and Lane Cooper
Scholar for four years. He became a
Furnishings,
furniture de-
11 a.m.-noon
ecture Build-
d open to the
>AS
ng ones from
leeping Beau-
id with more
major dance
horeographed
duding “The
ra\ Ballet and
lost recently,
Tempest” for
as
te Democrat#
•oduce Bentsei
t think Dukakii
really hurtirt
1’t really attad
said, especiall)
himself
nan and Ket
he spokesmai
iaign in Texas,
beral, hereall)
'idcnce of thil
ng up in
e term liberal
lovern, Jim®
ale school ol
handlers weit
Dukakis saj
was flying to
lis, Mo.,
in World Wai
at the General
ntsen, Beat
ies yelled out
ash’s running
l him a
supporters i»
heckle or dis-
e-long plant,
t 300 jets a
ie single-seal
• the cameras
its like a wet-
he’d fly it to
meet his en
Dr. Robert Boenig
member of Phi Beta Kappa his junior
year and graduated summa cum laude.
After his undergraduate work, Boenig
attended Princeton Seminary for three
years and specialized in Greek.
“I learned how to teach at Princeton
Seminary more than anywhere else,” he
says. “You had to take classes in coun
seling, psychology, Greek and theology.
One of the reasons I entered the Semi
nary was I didn’t want to go straight
from college to graduate school in the
same discipline.”
In 1973, he returned to Rutgers to pur
sue his doctorate in medieval English lit
erature. In 1974, Boenig received the
Walter Russel Graduate Scholarsip, and
he graduated with his Ph.D. in 1978.
Boenig reads eight languages: Old En
glish, Middle English, Latin, Greek,
German, Hebrew, Syriac and, of course,
modem English.
“They’re all dead languages except
German and modem English,” Boenig
says. I’ve learned Hebrew and Syriac,
which very few people know and almost
no one speaks.
“I’ve always been interested in things
that people aren’t interested in. To know
something about things that are arcane
always appealed to me.”
For instance, Boenig is interested in
music, but not just ordinary music.
“I build and play musical instru
ments,” he says. “I have a collection of
about 50 or 60 instruments — about half
of which I made — and most are medi
eval or Renaissance.” Boenig says the
lute, which is a medieval instrument re
sembling a guitar, is his favorite instm-
ment to listen to and play.
“I’ve also built and played crumhorns,
which is a late medieval woodwind,”
Boenig says. “Its sound can be best de
scribed as that of an electric kazoo.”,
Boenig says he first got interested in
medieval music when he first heard it in
1972.
“I was ready to enter graduate school
to study medieval or Renaissance litera
ture,” he says. “But my liking for the
music is independent of my liking of the
literature. All classical orchestra sounds
basically alike. If you listen to a consort
of Renaissance musicians you hear a
wider range of different sounds —comic,
serious, pretty, sad, loud and raucous.”
Although music plays an important
role in Boenig’s life, he spends the ma
jority of his spare time writing.
“I am currently working on a mystery
novel set in the Middle Ages,” Boenig
says. “I have about 70 pages written, and
I don’t have it worked out completely.”
Boenig says that other than two or
three poems and the mystery novel, his
writings are primarily literary criticisms.
“We have to write criticism to survive
in this profession,” Boenig says with a
smirk. “I don’t do it to stay alive, but be
cause I can hopefully see things about a
work that other people haven’t seen be
fore.”
Boenig says he believes that too many
people write just for the sake of writing.
“There are too many people who want
to be writers and poets who have nothing
to say at all,” Boenig says.
He is the associate editor of Studia
Mystica, a literary journal devoted to the
study of spirituality in the arts. Boenig
has written the majority of his criticism
on nature and the roles spiritual matters
play throughout our lives and literature.
“I’m interested in literature for mysti
cal reasons,” he says. “When I read a
work it affects me emotionally. Litera
ture is mythical and it helps you under
stand yourself. The mystical approach to
literature gives that myth a reality, and
the boundaries between text and personal
experience disappear.”
\AGGI
INEMA/
(Presents
‘The Mfreci^itckcocfifTftriUcr
'• - -3-'..
l&TOHNWSV
ICCMNICOlOft
‘Wednesday, 9{pvember 2
7:30 p.m. in ‘Rudder ‘Theatre
tickets $2.00 zu/TSPMU I'D
10% to 30% OFF
ALL SHOES
Giving you the freedom to choose from a variety of
styles from the best names in. athletic shoes
without worrying about the price.
Here are just a few of the many values to choose from.
3 DAYS ONLY
Thur., Fri.
Sat.
LADIES AEROBICS
MODEL 400
Reg. 34.95 28 95
NEW BALANCE 476
for men and women
Reg. 51.95
41
95
AVIA 850
High Tops for men
Reg. 59.95 41 95
CONVERSE Cons
High Tops for men
Reg. 52.95 39 95
NIKE Boss Shark
for men
Reg
.44.95 34
95
NIKE Waffle Trainer AC
for men and women
Reg. 38.95.
31
95
NIKE MEN’S & LADIES
CROSSTRAINER LOW
Reg. 54.95 42 95
CONVERSE
CSV France for men & women
Reg. 48.95.
.38
95
Spot-bilt 1
B Soft-Joys II (iSconvEr^j
newbalanco —— .)
ACROSS FROM THE FARM PATCH AND CHICKEN OIL CO,
tri-state
Hours: Mon-Sat 9-6
SPORTING GOODS
3600 Old College Rd.
846-1947
What's missing
from this picture?
YOU!
Last chance for juniors,
seniors, vet, med and
grad students to get
their yearbook
pictures taken for the
1989 Aggieland
The deadline has been
extended one week until
FRIDAY NOV 4
GET IN THE BOOK!
Yearbook Associates
401 C University
Above Campus Photo
on Northgate
S46 - SS56
8:30 a.tn. - 5:00 p.m.