Online Interviews With William Stafford Essay Research

Online Interviews With William Stafford Essay, Research Paper

Jeff Gundy

from "A Conversation with William Stafford"

What follows is part of a conversation between William Stafford and

myself in August 1988 at his home in Lake Oswego, Oregon. Having received a summer

research grant from my college to explore Stafford’s work in relation to his pacifism and

his experience as a conscientious objector, I had certain kinds of questions in mind. But

our talk ranged widely, as you’ll soon discover.-Jeff Gundy

Jeff Gundy: Einstein remembers his father giving him a compass, and

the critic Gregory Ulmer has also commented that the compass is not something that

restricts, that means you have to go in this certain way, but something that gives you a

sense of direction. This reminds me of the little paragraph that’s at the beginning of You

Must Revise Your Life where you say you have to have security of character to be a writer.

William Stafford: You know, the strange thing, I was thinking about a compass.

Security of character would be like a compass, you know. Other people may say that this

way is north, or this way might be north. But the compass just says-north. That’s what we

count on. And I think writers have to count on something in themselves, that means if

they’re not going to do it when they’re writing, then who is. They’ve got to make the

decisions.

I can remember taking a compass to class, when I was teaching. And I’d put it on the

desk and get the kids to look at it, and sort of spin it around, and it would go north.

And I would say, "There’s something in this room that we’re not aware of, that the

compass knows. We’re surrounded by these things. Why should we assume that our senses are

bringing us what’s happening." And we’d start a discussion.

JG: I’ve had that kind of thought too, that there is always something here we’re

not aware of. Radio and TV signals are another fascinating thing: you go down the road, or

I turn on this stupid radio/ tape recorder here.

Stafford: Yeah, yeah; it’s there. But you don’t know, without help. My son Kim

tells about this woman who went over to teach at the Warm Springs Indian reservation, and

this woman worked up her first lesson very carefully, and she went in, and she told them

what they were going to learn. And she wasn’t getting any response out of them. They were

just sitting there, looking down, looking away. So the next meeting she tried even harder.

But though she thought she really had a lot to give them, and she was giving it to them,

they just sat there. So she had a friend on the Warm Springs reservation, an Indian, a

good friend, so she went to him and said, "I can’t understand it! I’m teaching this

course and I’m all prepared, I really knocked myself out the second time. And he said,

"Well, tell me, what was it like." and she told him how they sat there and he

said, "Oh, it’s very simple. They’re embarrassed for you. They felt sad that you had

to claim all this knowledge. And they just didn’t want to look at you. They were being

kind to you! So she had to go in at the same level with them, get them to respond to her,

things like that.

JG: In college I was in a fine arts class that I was pretty hostile toward

really. And I was in the middle of the fourth row of this great big lecture room. Toward

the end of the term I met the teacher in the hallway and she said, "Oh yeah, I

remember you! You’re Gundy! You sit in the fourth row. I like you! You react!" I was

out there and I was not very good at not acting bored when I was bored or hostile when I

was hostile and she liked that-it surprised me to no end, but she did.

Stafford: I remember someone said in the Civilian Public Service, "I feel

that if struck I should give off a clear note where I am. But I don’t have to go around

beating myself like a gong." You know-this is really getting at little things-but I

have felt sometimes when I’m present, say on a panel or something, and I’m up there where

people are seeing my face, and I’m sitting there listening, and there’s something I don’t

agree with that I can’t show what I’m feeling. But if I keep my pleasant smile, I’m

betraying myself. I can remember even in class, sitting there listening to teachers. And I

didn’t want to keep my pleasant, accept-everything face, I wanted to show enthusiasm or

doubt, or… it’s a kind of feeling of wanting to ride the contours of human relations

alertly and purely at all times.

JG: You want to avoid that kind of mask we put on.

Stafford: A person ought to know, not just when you’re breaking with them, but

when you’re enthusiastic and less enthusiastic and a lot less enthusiastic. I mean, it’s

not just "Everything’s fine until it’s war." It’s a dailiness. I believe it is

part of our responsibility to each other.

JG: And now when I stand up in front of a class, I’m just so thankful for

anybody wh

Внимание, отключите Adblock

Вы посетили наш сайт со включенным блокировщиком рекламы!
Ссылка для скачивания станет доступной сразу после отключения Adblock!

Скачать