I taught today. I was up there in front of class, being engaging and charming–something we’re told we should not do. But someone had to lead the discussion of reading, and why it’s so nifty, and pose questions that have enough rigor that they challenge students to think. It’s why I’m around.
I was happiest at lunch today, though. There was that glimmer of hope. A student was talking to me about being bored in the class that no longer has a teacher (who never existed in the first place) and how this student goes on tumblr and other social media sites during class because no one cares. The student will look up certain sites and certain facts–supposedly River Phoenix had only done drugs the night he died outside the Viper Room. This fact made the student look up Gus Van Sant’s My Own Private Idaho, with River P and Keanu Reeves.
So I said Gus Van Sant’s name, and another student–hey, not many eat lunch with me, so this is kind of a big deal–knew who he was and asked if I had seen Elephant. I had, I told my questioner, but I didn’t like all the walking the hallways. I told this student that Gus was enamored with walking scenes at that period in his filmmaking, and that this student might like Gerry, too. It has Casey Affleck and Matt Damon walking through the desert for much of the film.
After that, we discussed Van Sant’s studio works (the ones he did with movie stars and a studio’s budget) versus his more personal pieces. I told them I still like one of his studio works best–it’s the Pam Smart story that he made into To Die For, with Nicole Kidman, Matt Dillon, and Joaquin Phoenix. It was a movie ahead of its time, even it was just for its focus on the media.
People wonder why I love Mondays. This is one of the reasons. Subjects were engaged today, and even though these two students might be the only ones on our campus that know who Gus Van Sant is, I’m going to pretend there’s a whole throng of them, waiting to have lunch with me.
And that’s what gets me through until Tuesday.