Posts filed under ‘College of the Liberal Arts’
Two New Views of Hemingway
Two books released just this week—both with Penn State connections—offer new insights into one of the most analyzed writers ever: Ernest Hemingway.
Cambridge University Press has just published the first volume of The Letters of Ernest Hemingway, 1907–1922, edited by Penn State English department faculty member Sandra Spanier ’76g, ’81g.
Our upcoming Nov-Dec issue includes a feature-length interview with Spanier on what it’s been like to track down Hemingway’s unpublished correspondence—thousands of letters, telegrams, postcards, short handwritten notes—and what those writings tell us about a very complicated man. That next issue won’t be out until the end of October, but in the meantime you can also hear Spanier talk about the letters in this four-minute video, which also includes a conversation with Hemingway’s son Patrick.
Here’s a news release from Penn State that offers more on how Spanier became interested in Hemingway (this is a career project for her—she tells us that there could be as many as (more…)
High Praise for — and a Few Lessons From — Diane Ackerman
Like a lot of writers, I read both as a reader (for pleasure) and as a writer (to figure out how other writers do it). So when I came across this interview with Diane Ackerman, whose latest book, One Hundred Names for Love, we excerpted in our July/August issue, I was psyched.
Interviewer Roy Peter Clark of the Poynter Institute is an Ackerman fan, too; he thinks One Hundred Names for Love is better than Joan Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking, which won a National Book Award. (I loved that book, too.) Clark extracted a lot of interesting nuggets about Ackerman’s writing process, including this description of her writing space: “Shelves of white three-ring folders, labeled and organized, some filing cabinets, overflowing bookcases, big windows with a view of the backyard and woods, and a bay window to curl up and write in, one that looks out onto the garden and a big old magnolia tree.”
Somehow, that’s exactly how I imagined it.
Lori Shontz, senior editor
Catch Diane Ackerman in the New York Times
If you fell under the spell of Diane Ackerman ’70 by reading the excerpt from her latest book, One Hundred Names for Love, in our July/August issue, you can read her a little more regularly these days. She’s been a guest columnist for the New York Times this month, with a piece inspired by the turtles who slowed down traffic at Kennedy International Airport and another one that melds her research into the senses with a recent report on consumer research.
I’m hoping her columns, which are running in the Opinion section, will continue for a while. If you’re not a New York Times subscriber, this is a great way to use up a few of the 20 free clicks you get every month.
Lori Shontz, senior editor
Yet More Wisdom from Frank Clemente
So I’ve done the math, and it appears that I never had the pleasure of taking Frank Clemente’s much-loved SOC 005 course because back when I was a student here, Clemente was heading up the sociology department, unaware that he had a gift for teaching.
According to the colleagues interviewed on Frank Clemente: A Simply Wonderful Life, a video made by the Department of Sociology and Crime, Law, and Justice to commemorate Clemente’s retirement, he was excelling as an administrator, making tough personnel decisions and encouraging everyone in the department to do better work.
That’s one of the things I learned from watching the 11-minute video. The tributes on the video range from touching (colleague Sam Richards says Clemente was “one of the people I secretly hoped would never retire”) to touching and hilarious (colleague Eric Silver likens Clemente to “Garrison Keillor on steroids”).
The most revealing words of all—no surprise here—come from Clemente himself. He recounts his academic career, how it moved from research to administration to teaching and how he had never envisioned himself as a teacher. He didn’t show up on campus in the late 1970s with the goal of making himself a popular and influential teacher. Says Clemente, “It turned out it was a joy just waiting to be found.”
How beautiful. And inspiring.
Thanks to the crew at Onward State for pointing me to the link on Twitter.
Lori Shontz, senior editor
The Story Behind John Rogers: American Stories
Rogers sculpted this scene from The Merchant of Venice.
Early in Chris Castiglia’s gallery talk last Friday at the Palmer Museum of Art, he made clear that he wasn’t a scholar of art. So as far as commenting on the actual art—sculptures by John Rogers, the most popular sculptor of the 19th century—he wasn’t the guy.
But what Castiglia did talk about was just as fascinating. A liberal arts research professor of English, Castiglia rooted Rogers’ work in a specific time and place. Speaking specifically about Rogers’ sculptures of dramatic scenes—from Shakespearean plays and dramatic adaptations of Washington Irving’s novels—he explained that they reflected Americans’ search for a national identity after the Civil War.
One of the display cases in the museum’s exhibit, John Rogers: American Stories, is filled with sculptures depicting scenes from plays such as King Lear and an adaptation of Rip Van Winkle. Even without knowing any of the context behind them, they’re stunning. Rogers sold more than 80,000 sculptures in his career, not just because (more…)
Japan’s Troubles are Personal for Penn State Student
Smith, volunteering at the Japanese Friend Association/Red Cross tables in the HUB, is holding a sign that says, "Keep fighting Japan! You are not alone!"
Penn State junior Caitlyn Smith experienced her first earthquake not long after she started her semester abroad in Japan at Ibraki University last April. She was celebrating a new friend’s birthday at lunch in an Indian restaurant, and she thought the person sitting next to her was bouncing his leg to shake the table. “That’s really annoying,” she told him. “I’m not doing anything,” he answered. When no one else admitted to moving the table, everyone realized it was an earthquake.
“I was freaking out,” Smith said. “And it was only a level one.”
For her Japanese friends, however, such tremors were a way of life. They’d been having earthquake drills since they started school, so when Smith arrived at the university, she received only a packet with basic “what to do” information. And soon Smith got used to the tremors, too. The next earthquake was a level three, and although it awakened her, it stopped before she could get out of bed and under a table. So she went back to sleep. “It’s really just a way of life,” she said. “My friends didn’t freak out. Earthquakes are normal.”
So when she and two Japanese friends from the university who were visiting for spring break heard the news of an earthquake in northern Japan last Friday, they figured it wasn’t such a big deal. Until they went to YouTube and saw the damage caused by the earthquake, at a 9.0 magnitude the worst in Japan’s history, and the resulting tsunami. (more…)
Professional Driver—Do Not Attempt This Yourself
So, out of the blue (oops, bad pun there), we received this photo today from a reader who is a lieutenant commander in the Navy—a photo of him going, oh, about 400 mph in an F/A-18F Super Hornet fighter jet somewhere over the Pacific Ocean.
The pilot in question is Dustin Hagy ’97 Lib, and somehow he managed to take his eyes off the road (OK, the sky) long enough to smile for the camera while holding a Penn State patch.
At the time the photo was taken, Lt. Cdr. Hagy was deployed on board the USS Ronald Reagan, as part of a squadron called VFA-22 Redcocks. He tells us he’ll soon be attached to a squadron called the VAW-123 Screwtops, stationed on board the USS Enterprise.
I asked him which of his crewmates took the photo, and (more…)
Frank Clemente’s Final Lecture
One of the stories I had an exceptionally fun time reporting for our March/April issue was about sociology professor Frank Clemente, who won the undying loyalty of thousands of students by not only teaching sociology, but by giving some practical, grandfatherly advice about life. He retired at the end of the fall semester to so much acclaim that he had to give an encore presentation of the semester’s last lecture: Frank Clemente’s Rules for Life.
If you never took Clemente’s class—or if you took it and just want to relieve it—you can experience his final lecture with this video from the Department of Sociology. (It’s more than an hour long, so plan accordingly.) You can also get to it through the department’s website by clicking here. Just scroll down to the bottom of the page, and enjoy!
Lori Shontz, senior editor
Herschel Leibowitz’s death noted by New York Times
This photo from the Penn State archives shows Leibowitz in the lab back in the 1980s.
One of Penn State’s most noted researchers, Herschel Leibowitz, died this week, and he received a lengthy obituary in today’s New York Times. Leibowitz, who was an Evan Pugh professor of psychology, was among the first scientists to study the effects of night vision—among them, a increased risk of traffic accidents. His research helped lead to increased lighting on roadways and additional reflectors along guardrails to aid motorists.
Leibowitz and his wife, Eileen, have also been pillars of the State College community, as you can see from this write-up when they were named Renaissance Man and Woman of the Year in 2003.
Lori Shontz, senior editor
Former Walk-On Troy Drayton Is Still Moving Forward
Back in my undergraduate days, Troy Drayton was one of my favorite Penn State football players. He was a terrific tight end, and I also really admired the backstory of a former walk-on who didn’t receive a scholarship until his senior season — then went on to play nine seasons in the NFL.
The York Daily Record on Sunday ran a nice feature on Drayton ’08 Lib, who finally finished his degree nearly 15 years after he left school (you can read more about his maternal motivation here). The guy has hardly relaxed since finishing his pro football career: He’s got his real estate license, he’s studying for an MBA, and he’s working as a middle-school science teacher in Florida.
Ryan Jones, senior editor
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