Bridging the Gap Between Fiction and Reality
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, in his Biographia Literaria (chapter
14, 1817), called drama "that willing suspension of disbelief
for the moment, which constitutes poetic faith." The suspension
of disbelief is an interlude when we drop our guard, willingly flowing
with the action taking place on the stage or the page before us.
For a little while we are able to join in the fun, tragic or comic,
where the unreal and untrue is artfully contrived to beguile and
entertain. Fiction can be described as a form of play with the imagination,
a time-out from the paramount reality of life. As an English professor,
fiction, and in particular, drama, has always been a close friend
of mine, an intimate.
In our post-modernist times, the boundaries of art and life can
be confounding, and, at times, difficult to distinguish. These hot
August days of California summer have brought us an interesting
turn in the history of state politics, and possibly a new brand
of drama. Between the time I write this Participant column and it
sees print there is a distinct possibility that a new governor of
California will be elected having accrued a tiny plurality of the
recall/election votes costing budget-plagued citizens of the state
an additional $75 million at minimum. The news media's reaction
to this chain of curious events appears to be rationalizing the
potential benefits of such an outcome. This play with the election
process makes me uneasy, and glancing through the morning's papers
at other local and national news only serves to deepen my concerns
about fiction and reality. I read that shortness of stature (subjectively
perceived) has been redefined as a correctable medical condition,
that organized religion and the federal government are reinventing
the debate over the normalcy of nonheterosexual orientations and
what logical limits should be placed on gay rights, and that intelligent
professional women are crippling themselves with the latest shoe
fashions (I tuck my feet under the chair as I write this for no
particular reason, thank you). In the coming months, in what other
ways will we be challenged to suspend disbelief? Leaving aside the
whole realm of geopolitical theatrics, how much more can the boundary
blur? I imagine the answer will be entertaining, and disconcerting.
Just more than a year ago, my family moved into Harvard House and
I began my work as President of Pitzer College. This is a good place
to be in uncertain times. Daily I find that my interaction with
brilliant and diverse faculty, students and staff keeps my feet
on the ground. Reality in the world beyond the Pitzer College campus
may be adrift, but the critical atmosphere of the liberal arts college
campus provides a vantage point, based in intellectual traditions,
that gives us a grip. There is a glaring irony at this historical
moment that reverses the trite observation that the "real"
and the academic worlds are hopelessly divided. The perspective
of a Pitzer College education, which brings a questioning that is
based on ethics, logic, an appreciation of history, principled and
creative thought, and social activism, is a tradition that has never
been more needed or more real than at the present time.
Part of our ability to play our role in this period of history
stems from our youth, and that is something that we can also turn
on its head, something of which we can be proud. Last year emeritus
faculty member Carl Hertel sent me a letter expressing his thoughts
about the College. Carl wrote that experimental colleges of the
1960s like Pitzer were meteor-like. That is, it was their nature
to burst brilliantly across the academic skies and then disappear
forever. Yet Pitzer remained long after others had vanished. After
40 years it is clear that we are more a comet and less a meteor.
We reappear over and over again as light and direction are needed.
In an era of photo ops and sound bytes, when some technological
innovations have a shelf life of six months before they go stale
and are replaced, when enormous corporations burst into being and
then explode leaving employees and stockholders penniless, 40 years
is a long time.
The world outside has changed and so has Pitzer College. Our earliest
graduates are approaching retirement. The generational wave that
followed them are senior members of their organizations. As for
faculty, this past year saw the retirements of Susan Seymour, Ann
Stromberg, and Jackie Levering-Sullivan. In the spring, the respected
and beloved Barbara Beechler passed away, and this summer we bid
an emotional final farewell to John Rodman. This issue of the Participant,
with its emphasis on the environment, is dedicated to John. He was
a driving force in the environmental movement. John founded our
Environmental Studies Program and poured his considerable energy
into creating gardens to emphasize regionally compatible species.
All of these members of the community personify the Pitzer scholar,
a person who is grounded in concerns for the world we live in, who
is influential within the academy, and someone who leaves a practical
legacy. Pitzer College's faculty embodies Gloria Anzaldua's observation:
"I change myself, I change the world."
Last year we proclaimed that as a college we had come of age. That
is true. Our academic success is remarkable, and this year we celebrate
a national record of graduating six Fulbright Fellowship recipients
in one year. We will continue to build on what we have already accomplished:
This and all our future years will be years of accomplishment. Our
goal will be to raise the College to the next level of achievement
and recognition. We will do that by continuing our tradition of
preparing students who are committed to positive goals of creating
social change, integrating our students with different cultures,
and by becoming even more publicly well known. We will do so as
our faculty continue to make their mark within their disciplines
and, I am confident, in their tradition of speaking out as experts
and citizens on social issues. There has never been a time when
our identity as an institution has been more needed to bridge the
gap between fantasy and reality, and there has never been a time
when we have been more ready and respected as an institution. As
concerned as I am about the willing drift of the popular mind and
social events toward a fictionalization of reality, I am proud to
be a part of an institution that refuses to suspend disbelief when
it comes to issues vital to the welfare of our fellow beings. Let
us rededicate ourselves to our tradition of full participation in
maintaining reason and relevancy during these interesting times.
This column originally appeared in the Fall 2003 Participant.
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