"But regardless of what weapons they try to use to effect silence, words will always retain their power."
When I was going to school in Paris, I would regularly have these dreams where I was attending graduate school in English. When I got distracted in the BNF, my daydreams would usually involve making comments in class without the ten minutes of double-checking grammar in my head that meant I never actually made comments in class. (I generally confined my speaking to conversations prior to class and required presentations.) But I had
sleeping dreams about grad school in English - speaking English with my advisor, presenting papers in English, writing my thesis in English. It was all so glorious and idyllic in my dreams. But now I actually get to SPEAK ENGLISH IN GRADUATE SCHOOL. Exciting, I tell you.
The irony of this, though... I had my first class yesterday. As previously discussed, it's part of the library science program, where classes are full of librarians. And apparently, even librarians in the novitiate are committed - converted, even - to not speaking. All fourteen of us were in the seminar room, seated around a big oval table, waiting for the professor to come back and start class. NO ONE SPOKE. There were a few comments when people were first coming in, but FOR AT LEAST FIVE MINUTES, NO ONE SPOKE. No rustling, no movement, nothing. I kept wanting to break the silence with some joke about librarians and the sounds of silence or something, but I
couldn't. It would have been wrong. I would have been
shushed.
So... I may get to attend graduate school in English, but I clearly won't be
speaking English.
Title Quote
