I’ve just been informed that a literature professor of mine, long ago, has passed. It wasn’t recently, but the news was recently passed onto me by someone who had stayed behind, got further degreed, and taught English Lit at my old alma mater.
While reading Tom Jones and Tristram Shandy, I turned in a paper before being asked to write one. But I was that “guy” who spent summer months gobbling up the next semester’s reading list and often handed in a paper on day one. This way I could get ahead of the rest and drink tequila sunrises while they were all cramming for finals.
He read the piece three times. He gave me a Double A Plus. He’s often shown it to other profs saying it’s the most brilliant thing a student ever handed in.
So I thought I’d post it here, for laughs.
It is a pastiche.
A pastiche is a creative work that imitates the style, tone, or characteristics of another artist, genre, or period — usually as a tribute or affectionate imitation rather than a parody.
Because it was written on a typewriter, and there’s something about a paper handed in that was written on a typewriter, just something tactile about it, I’m posting the images of those typewritten pages.
So, here goes.
Someone once said, “To be a lover of the written word is to find the magic in the quiet geometry of sentences.” When one devours the writen word you are a, “verbivore”, while a true lover of all things written, a “logophile”, who consumes every book, blog, and paragraph. One consumes, digests, and…should I continue with the anology? What we normally get when an author, or in this case, authors, and their works are discribed to us is a regurgitation. Here, instead, in the student’s report we are treated to an impression of the language and a real feel for the authors as people. Without necessarily relating either story we hear the authors in the book report, through a tautly held tongue ‘gainst cheek, but no less tautly than the subjects themselves. I thoroughly enjoyed how the author captured the language and a real feel for both author’s personalities, an amazing feet for a college student during summer vacation! A great paper, right down to the footprint.
I have to admit that I needed to look up the definitions of a bunch of those words, but it was a good exercise for my brain! Incredibly well written! Thanks so much for sharing! 😊
Thank you for reading.