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Tuesday • October 18, 1994
HHI Hi f" * iH <''<&>' Sail Pi PPPPm i /<' w PI v -
o reads into writing life’
Love of words, expression inspires career in teaching
// V on oa; n-fto-r nil n nf in r'CJV'oPi il nnn Qr'i otyPi
The Battalion • Page 9
English
I
t’s easy, after all, not to
be a writer. Most people
aren’t writers, and very
little harm comes to them,” -
Julian Barnes.
He’s right. It is easy not to
write. Writing is a burden. This
explains the long lines behind
phones in the computer labs.
Students are dying to escape
ERIN
HILL
their word processors; even someone’s answering machine
provides respite.
I am an English major so the question asked of me most fre
quently is “Are you going to teach?” Yes, I’m going to teach.
“I hated English,” they tell me. These are the same people
who asked if I was planning a career as a teacher. Perhaps they
detect something askew in my genetic coding and want to avoid
all future contact. Perhaps they see me as a creature from an
other land — a world totally foreign to them.
I am, after all, someone who wants to spend her future in a
high school English classroom.
h Freedom as a writer is life at its most free, if you are fortunate
enough to be able to try it, because you select the materials, in
vent your task, and pace yourself.”
So says Pulitzer Prize-winner Annie Dillard in “The Writing
Life,” a book called “a small and brilliant guidebook to the land
scape of a writer’s task.”
Even more than wanting to teach, I want to write. That free
dom she describes is my goal. To publish the stuff I come up
with. To continue my love affair with words.
It’s a difficult field to break into, a difficult life to live, I am
well aware. But all lives are difficult. And someone has to be
published. Someone is getting paid to do it and I figure I ought
to be that someone.
& “Writing appeals ... to the subtlest senses - the imagination’s
vision, and the imagination’s hearing - and the moral sense,
and the intellect. This writing that you do, that so thrills you,
that so rocks and exhilarates you, as if you were dancing next to
the band, is barely audible to anyone else. The reader’s ear must
adjust down from loud life to the subtle, imaginary sounds of
the written word.”
Committing oneself to a writing life is like committing one
self to working with cobwebs. It is a delicate craft and only the
careful, conscientious and patient survive.
But it is , I might add, totally worthwhile; when it clicks,
nothing is more satisfying.
“The impulse to keep to yourself what you have learned is
not only shameful, it is destructive. Anything you do not
give freely and abundantly becomes lost to you. You open
your safe and find ashes.”
One of my composer friends told me once that he heard
melodies, harmonies and the like in his head. The music he
wrote came to him in the night, at dawn, even in the shower.
His mental composing puzzled me.
Then I started to write prose and sentences came to me from
out of nowhere.
I say them aloud or write them down, just to see if they
are keepers or not. Most aren’t. Most of the stuff I write — the
prose, poetry and even the academic jazz — isn’t worth saving;
but every so often a chain of words comes to me that insists
on staying. A thing of beauty I can call my own, though it
rarely seems like I created it.
I just hear it in my head, like someone gave me a Walkman
and as I listened words came out instead of notes. That’s how I
know 1 need to write; if I don’t the words get backed up and give
me a headache. >„
The last thing I want is the regret that comes upon discover
ing ashes, where creation should be.
‘Writers surround themselves with other writers, deliberately
to enforce in themselves the ludicrous notion that a reasonable
option for occupying yourself on the planet until your life span
plays itself out is sitting in a small room for the duration, in the
company of pieces of paper.”
That’s why I work at The Battalion, I guess.
A) “Why are we reading if not in hope of beauty laid bare, life
heightened and its deepest mystery probed? Why are we read
ing if not in hope that the writer will magnify and dramatize
our days, will illuminate and inspire us with wisdom,
courage, and the possibility of meaningfulness? We still and
always want waking.”
T want to be one who rouses the world from sleep or at least
provides it with something to smile at and take comfort from
when life is too much to bear.
That’s why I am embarking on the writing life.
The Battalion
Editorial Board
Belinda Blancarte, Editor in chief
Mark Evans, Managing editor
Jay Robbins, Opinion editor
Jenny Magee, Assistant opinion editor
editorials a;
the views of the
necessarily reflect the opinions
Battalion staff members, the Tr
student body, regents, administrati
or staff.
Columns, guest columns, ca
letters express the opinions of the a
Contact the opinion editor for i
on submitting guest columns.
JhDITO
Objective Observers
Erin Hill is a senior English major
Newspapers serve to inform readers
—
The news media sometimes can be
incorrectly perceived as a participant
in controversies when it reports tense
or sensitive subjects. To clear up any
misunderstandings - The Battalion
exists to inform the students of both
the facts and opinions
around them. — : L.
The news presented
in The Battalion is
neutral. News stories
are based on facts and
interviews, and contain no “opinion”
content. The news reflects what the
readers need to know to be well-in
formed on the topic, not what they
need to think.
A “conservative,” “radical” or “liber
al” viewpoint has no bearing on what
is reported in a newspaper. A re
porter’s job is to discover and write
about events — whether they con
cern sports or politics, the MSC or
the world.
The Opinion section of The Bat
talion contains columns that ex
press the opinions of various writ- .1
ers. Columns are written by differ
ent individuals who practice almost
every belief. They do not represent
a single doctrine — the ideas they |
express try to present unique view- f
points and perspectives.
When the Opinion page is most suc
cessful, it presents arguments from sev
eral sides of an issue, not just the most
popular or sympathetic.
Editorials are written according to
the opinion of the editorial board, not _
an individual staff members. The edi-^
torial statement, which appears on^
the Opinion page to define its perspec->;
tive, states: “Editorials appearing in T
The Battalion reflect the views of the
editorial board. They do not nec
essarily reflect the opinions of
other Battalion staff members,
the Texas A&M student body,
regents, administration, fac
ulty or staff.”
lx The Editorial Board, con
sisting of the Editor-in-
Chief, Managing Editor,
Opinion Editor and Assis
tant Opinion Editor, dis-
f cusses topics for editorials
that are important in cur
rent events or popular con
cern. However, they do not
expect to subvert or control
other beliefs.
The Battalion staff is made
up of writers from countless dif
ferent backgrounds, beliefs, politi
cal orientations and nationalities,,
all of which help contribute to a well-
rounded newspaper. The Battalion’s
only agenda is to preserve and expand
its objectivity, diversity and expertise.
As a news source for students and
faculty, The Battalion does not endorse
any doctrine. It simply serves to in-'
form, entertain and enlighten - the
three aims of any newspaper.
Y Mail 0-1
LA/YTYA
Senator clarifies new
preregistration bill
I would like to take this opportunity to clarify a few
miscommunicated issues. The Battalion reported that at
last week’s Student Senate meeting a decision was made
concerning the student workers preregistration bill. This
information, reported by The Battalion, was incorrect.
The actual made by the Student Senate last week, after
an hour and a half of deliberation, was the following: se
nior and junior student workers register on the last day
of honors registration; sophomores register on the last
day of senior registration; and freshman register on the
last day of junior registration. The reason for all the de
bate and questioning revolved around two main issues.
The first reason was that the system that had all student
workers registering on the same day of senior registra
tion was logistically impossible. Last year when this was
done for the first time, the phone registration system
overloaded and crashed. The second issue of debate was
the concern that seniority should be taken into account.
The other aspect of this concern was that we need to
take into consideration that without these jobs, some
students wouldn’t be able to stay at A&M. Through de
bate, we worked out what the Student Senate felt was a
compromise regarding the issues at hand.
This whole issue has turned out to be a miscommuni-
cation. The Battalion incorrectly reported the original
bill passed by the Student Senate. Then a concerned stu
dent, rightfully, aimed his comments at me based on
what The Battalion reported. Upon sorting out this mis-
communication, the student who wrote to Mail Call on
Oct. 14, has apologized for the misunderstanding. The
lesson to learn from this situation is easy to see. Take
the time to call your senators and voice your questions
and concerns, and remember, the media aren’t perfect
and do report things incorrectly at times.
Ryan Shopp, Class of’95
Student Senator
The Battalion encourages letters
to the editor and will print as many
as space allows.
Letters must be 300 words or
less and indude the author's name,
class, and phone number.
We reserve the right to edit iet-
fers for length, style, and accuracy.
Address tetters to:
The Battalion - Mad Cal
013 Reed McDonald
Texas A&M University
College Station, TX 77843-1111
Fax: (409)845-2647
E-mail: 8att@tamvm1.tamu.edu
Cuban rockers use death to find freedom
'Revolutionaries' infect themselves with AIDS
soul to nothing but bitterness.
Rock and roll stars, busy changing girl-
T here is a lot of talk around the world
about freedom, about democracy. There
are people who speak of freedom, rally for
freedom, fight and kill for freedom.
Some people, however, die to find freedom.
Some are those whose fellow human beings,
in rage or evil determination, slaughter them
for their beliefs and values.
Some decide to take their own lives.
The New York Times Magazine recently
published a story on young men in Cuba, self-
described rockers, who were so hated and de
spised by their own society that they fought
back — with AIDS.
In Cuba, young people are not allowed to
have the kind of independent childhoods that
the common American enjoys. From birth, they'
are told that the state is everything, that
thoughts and actions not prescribed by the
state are evil.
Then they hear rock and roll, angry lyrics
from across the ocean, and realize that the
thoughts they have - the disappointments and
the confusion of being young - are not just
theirs. Around the world, teenagers are discov
ering that life is nothing like they thought.
From black market record covers, these
teens find idols. Men, dressed in ripped blue
jeans and T-shirts, long hair flying through the
air, guitars slung low across one hip, become
their voice. Like the rest of the world, they
want to copy their idols, so they start playing
that music and dressing that way..
The local authorities, however, see things
differently. These kids are “revolutionaries,”
“problems,” and “different,” and for this they
must be punished. Constantly beaten, the
Cuban rockers quickly learn a lesson so many
of us forget, freedom is not free.
So the rockers, abused and disenchanted,
decide to take fate into their own hands and in
flict a cash loss and bad publicity on the gov
ernment in the process.
Learning
about AIDS,
the rockers find
the means to do
harm, the only
weapon left in a
society that
hates them.
Some take
JOSEF A.
ELCHANAN
syringes, dipping into infected friends, and in
ject themselves with the deadly virus.
Some find young ladies, dying and needing
companionship, whom they join and quickly
leave after a caressing moment that leads to
horror and death.
Many of the rockers’ girlfriends, young girls
in love, decide to go with their mates to the
grave, so that they will be together forever.
These living horrors then are dependent on
the government. The rockers, girlfriends in
tow, are left in sanitariums, far away from the
rest of the population, and in the grasp of a
We blast ourselves for being so entertain
ment-oriented ... Without our poetry, our
movies, our literature, our music, would
we, as a people, be worth anything?
slow death. Their deaths are bought and paid
for by the country of Cuba, which provides
them with better food and housing than are
available to common Cubans.
And then they wait.
It must be horrible, knowing that the dis
eases spreading through your body, weakening
your mind and soul, were caused by your own
extreme hatred of the surrounding world.
That no one around you could appeal to the
basic sense of all people to survive and be happy.
That an evil regime could simply crush your
friends and making money, probably have no
idea how important they have become to the
young of the world. When a young man wants
to show defiance, he can rip his jeans, grab a
drum set or guitar and scream his thoughts to
the world.
While in the United States, this is normal
and part of growing-up, young people around
the world are relying on our entertainers to
speak for them.
So many young people find themselves in
circumstances without help or support, without
anyone to care for them ... They need someone
who can express their desires for them.
Someone who can help them dream past
their unfortunate circumstances.
We blast ourselves for being so entertain
ment-oriented, not realizing that maybe what
we consider entertainment can save souls.
When all these rockers die, people will again,
forget how much people need the freedom to
express themselves, how dark and worthless a ”
life is without pure interaction. Without our
poetry, our movies, our literature, j
our music, would we, as a people, be '
worth anything?
Can life without expression be
more worthwhile than death as the* 7
ultimate expression?
As these thoughts accumulate, —
we must look around ourselves and
decide if we have done our duty to
assist the special, if failed, patriots of a long-
forgotten cause.
Have we lived our lives to their full poten
tial, have we stood-up for what is right and
just in America, one of the few places that al
lows this kind of power to flow freely?
Maybe such self-evaluation will protect fu
ture generations from deciding if liberty is
worth dying for.
Josef A Elchanan is a senioffjf
business management majors
II
■ mm