Faculty Remarks:
Or should I address you with “Ms Woolf” or “Mina” or even… “Mr Kafka?”
Your impersonations of these wondrous artists in the seminar on modernism were so compelling: your moving imaginary diary of Virginia Woolf, the way you channeled Mina Loy’s sarcasm and your ventriloquism of Kafka’s self-consciousness will be hard to disentangle in my mind from the original voices of these writers.
Had you written as only one of these–say Woolf’s superb cogitations –I might have thought you lived in her entourage in 1924 in a previous lifetime. Or that perhaps Woolf’s spirit has taken shelter on a shelf in your room, the way you note in the posthumous entry dated 2002: “I’ve found myself roaming about Richmond as of late, becoming so small that I may curl up in an emptied teacup or so tall as to scatter myself among the leaves of an oak.”
But the other two were equally fine, so the explanation for such accomplishments can only be that they originate in your richly layered intuitions about life, which should probably be called wisdom already, and that you have polished your writing skills to a degree where, when you put down pen on paper, you naturally add clarity and beauty to the world.
You have brought a wonderful energy to our seminar, and class discussions were always enriched by your curiosity, humor, and nuanced observations about texts and art. I have admired the way you invest yourself in every single one of your endeavors, big or small, delivering impeccable work every time, while making it look effortless. Your sparkling intelligence, subtle humor, elegant demeanor, and your supremely beautiful writing will stand you in good stead. I have no doubt we’ll be hearing about your accomplishments, and am only curious what form exactly they will take.
You are well equipped to go out there in the world and shine: I fully expect that you’ll live richly and observantly in the moment, as Virginia Woolf and Mina Loy teach us; and that your “truly enchanting mind” will make the world a more interesting place. It already does.
– Corina Stan
