from my friend vern walker's inspirational speech

"This unknown is at one and the same time a spiritual beauty, a mystery, but also a force that unsettles us. Why is it that we cannot live without this unknown, in both senses. I think it is easier for us to understand the beauty of it, we must believe in something, in some beyond, but why is it dangerous not to hold on to, or engage in that other part of the unknown that is upsetting to us? How is it that art can aid us in this task, in a way that does not lead into some sort of nihilism?"

"My very modest, yet difficult goal in this course was to try to get us all, myself included, to see our lives differently, and thereby, to think differently. It was certainly not to give you any sort of knowledge, something concrete for you to put up on your mantelpiece as Woolf so poignantly wrote—in fact, I would consider it an accomplishment if I succeeded in confusing you!"

"Another author, one that had a great influence on Woolf, was a Frenchman named Proust—what he truly wanted for his novel was that as we read his work, that we not only read his writing, but become the readers of ourselves, see his words in ourselves. That is why you should all now consider any informational guidebooks or studybooks like cliffnotes, or whatever it is, as a personal insult, and if you do read any introductions or secondary sources, to not just take them as definitive, but to argue with them."

"In this society we are constantly bombarded with images, photographs, statistics, facts, data, all of which tell us what is good what is bad, what is beautiful, what is ugly, what is just, what is unjust, to the extent that I believe we could function perfectly, too perfectly, if we didn’t try to think at all—they tell us instead to go shopping! In that sense, to think, itself, just to think, if it is still possible, becomes a dangerous act to the system, however slight or silly it may sound. It is more difficult than we think!"

"What is a friendship? “A friend, says Nietzsche’s Zarathustra, is always a third person in between “I” and “me” who pushes me to overcome myself and to be overcome in order to live.” The closer we come to another person, the more unsettling, the more frightening, or exciting it is… for the relationship puts both persons into question. That I believe, is one of the greatest gift in a relationship—this unsettling."
(delievered in this semester's last world lit 111 class he was teaching)