Author: Sarah Flocken
Remsen Bird Artist-in-Residence Lawrence Weschler, a writer, critic and director of the New York Institute for the Humanities at New York University, began his four-part guest lecture series at Oxy earlier this month. The Artist-in-Resident, a title given to individuals who work in the arts and repeatedly speak on campus, will also teach a four-session mini-course beginning on April 13. His month-long tenure is sponsored by the Office of the President and the English and Comparative Literary Studies Department (ECLS).
Weschler delivered his first lecture, entitled “All That is Solid: A Contribution to the Books vs. Web Debate,” on March 1 in the Jeffers room of the Mary Norton Clapp Library to an audience of faculty, staff and students. During the talk, Weschler spoke on the books versus Internet publication debate that is currently a point of contention among the American literati.
He concluded that while the internet has much to contribute to our modes of written communication, physical books are superior because of their tangibility and permanence. “Who cares about virtuality when we’ve got this astonishing reality all around,” Weschler asked.
According to the director of the president’s office Rosita Afar, President Jonathan Veitch developed an admiration for Weschler during Veitch’s time as Dean of Eugene Lang College, located in the same neighborhood as NYU. Weschler, according to the Office of the President, had already planned to be in California, working as a guest researcher at the Getty Center. Veitch persuaded him to bring his work and present it at Oxy, said Afar.
The Remsen Bird fund, which the ECLS department and Veitch drew financial support from to bring Weschler to campus, is meant to provide funding for all manner of speakers, professionals and lecturers, according to the senior academic service assistant Susan Molik from the office of the Dean of the College.
Weschler’s presence on campus is a step toward the realization of President Veitch’s inaugural goal to bring more artists to campus. “Los Angeles is a city of artistic ferment. Occidental can and should participate in that ferment by bringing extraordinary writers, dancers, choreographers, painters, sculptors, composers, actors and directors here on a regular basis,” Veitch said in his speech.The lectures have been well-received by the Occidental community. “The response to [Weschler’s first two lectures] has been enthusiastic, not just from campus, but from the surrounding community as well. I expect the next two will be just as popular,” said Afar.
After graduating from the University of California Santa Cruz in 1974, Weschler began his career in 1981 as a staff writer and columnist at The New Yorker, where he remained until 2002. Today he is largely known as an author of creative nonfiction. His most recent works include “Vermeer in Bosnia” (2004), “Everything That Rises: A Book of Convergences” (2006), which won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism and “True to Life: Twenty-Five Years of Conversations with David Hockney” (2008). He has worked at NYU since 2001.Weschler’s final lectures, “When Fountainheads Collide: On 30 Years of Ponging Between Robert Irwin and David Hockney” and “Marvel and the Jurassic: A Natural History of Wonder,” will take place on March 31 and April 7. His four-part mini-course, entitled “Paradoxes in Form and Freedom in Creative Nonfiction,” will be held on April 13, 15, 20 and 22 at 5 p.m. the in Cushman Board Room of the Coons Administration Building. All events are public.
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