Staff Writer/ Alex Sorondo
There are pressing questions about the soul, life and death, art and love, that seem to be explored to no end, and perverted by simplicity, in mainstream entertainment, but of which you’ll rarely hear a word spoken on campus.
The idea of somebody being “philosophical” or having a personal philosophy at this age sounds, in the more stylish circles, painfully corny. Consequently, nobody seems to feel they have license to ask their friends over lunch if they believe in love, or if they can define it, or what they think it means to lead a fulfilling life. Questions that have been so aggressively exploited and trivialized by Hollywood that we feel downright foolish to be discussing them with sincerity. But they’re desperately important questions, and they give life — after many hours of serious talk and consideration — to the opinions that define us.
There is one exception to this widespread allergy to philosophical conversation, as I’ve seen it around campus: underclassmen.
J.K. Rowling’s most recent novel, A Casual Vacancy, is her first book since the end of the Harry Potter series, and it’s targeted toward an older audience. Still, her protagonist is, as in the Potter series, a teenager. When Charlie Rose asked her why she chose a teen, Rowling said that, as an adult, one’s mind is consumed with practical concerns: work and bills and family and so forth; teenagers, however, are so free of responsibility that they’re the only ones who have time or energy to grapple with these major questions.
As a senior I see this candid youthful curiosity abounding in freshmen and sophomores (though more in the former than the latter) before it seems to plummet among juniors; and then seniors just talk about the adult world that awaits (and if you’ve ever tried to get a sailor to forget the sharks and waters around him you’ll know how hard it is to change the subject).
The problem in conversing with freshmen though, is that you can keep them seated and attentive for about eight minutes before they look at their wrist and say, “Oh, wait, it’s college o’clock, I need to be drinking or talking about drinking or trying and failing to get laid.”
There are deeper subjects to be touched upon than the ones you’ll find within the strictures of small talk.
Go discuss these things. Everybody considers them from time to time, everyone has an idea; and, if you don’t surrender your integrity to this culture that forbids such talk, you just might get someone to share one.
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