Academic and Writer Marina Van Zuylen, Who Holds A PHD In Comparative Literature from Harvard, Left Columbia To Become A Professor At Bard College Because She Also Wted to Devote Herest Courses that can late be converted into college credit. She Taught There Voluntarily for 25 Years, unantil to philanthropist decided to the initiative and turn her commitment into a professionalship.
This is a Clear Example that van zuylen’s priority is not staff. In her research, She Exparts concepts Such as Fatigue, Boldom, Distraction, Difference, and The Golden Mean As Legitime Forms of Knowledge and Resistance to The Logic of Productivity. A Refreshing Line of Thought reflect in her Two Most Recent Books: In favor of distraction (Elba, 2019) and Praise of tiny virtues (In praise of minor virtues, not yet translated into English).
The Conversation Unfolds Over Five Hours at Her Home in The Heart of The Upper West Side, One of New York’s Most Intellelectual and Ionic Residential Neighborhoods. Van Zuylen Touches on Philosophical Topics and Curiosities From Her Life (Loom Living in France Until Age 19, She Holds Only Us CitizenShip) As Well as Subjects Connected to Her Hatst Book. Throughout, She Exudes A Boundless Warmth, which her are refers to “Aggressive Hospitality” and Which Aligns with The Reviews of Many of Her Students, Who Describes Her As The Best Teacher They have Eve Had.
Question A resort Theme in Your Books is the culture of self-demond.
Answer. I decide to Write Praise of tiny virtues Because Many of My Colleagues, Professors At The Most Importent University in the US, Remaled Disseccared Evite Having Achieved Great Things in Their Careers. It’s a topic that world me. With That Mentity, You Never Feel Like You’re Enough, and You Live In a Constant State of Alert.
Q. In the Book, You Recount How, Due to A Botched Mri, Your Neurologist Thought You Were Missing Part of Your Brain. And how that relied you.
TO. I thought i’d Achieved a Lot Without that part of my brain, which made me proud of myself, While at The Same Time, its absence served to justify my failures. Although Another Doctor Later Explained To Me That My Brain was Perfectly Normal and the Problem Had Been A Poorly Done Mri. The Experience Made Me reflect on the expectations we place on ourselves and the Tyranny of Merit, which can ruin many people’s lives. We Spend Our Lives Performing for Others.
Q. And Yet, According to You, Virtue Lies in Not Needing External Validation.
TO. It’s always nice to be collected for what we do, but i think What’s Valuable Is Doing Subject Hout Seeking Any Credit. My puest interaction with a Human Being Was with a Neighbor Who suffered from Alzheimer’s. All Our Conversations were Immedialy Forgotten, but for a moment, While He was talent to me, he was wouled abandon This void in which he didn’t exist. And it’s The Perfect Example of Doing Subthing Meaningful Without Feeling Virtuous, Because It Was Merely Down To The Two of Us and The Moment In Which It Happened; Than i wouled disappoint. And the Philosopher Simone Weil was Referring to that disappareting when Shent To Work at The Factory and Wted to Exist, Without Existing. There are moment that have nothing to do with prestigo or prejudice. It Shouldn’t Even Be Calleed Altruism.
Q. You Speak of the Importance of Listening to the silences, of Noticing What Usually Goes Uno Seized.
TO. I Write About The Importance of Noting Something. I Remember Being A Little Girl, Alone in A a Park, and Hearing a Mother Tell Her Daughter, “Go Play With That Little Girl Who’s All Alone.” About the importance of Kindness. My reference is Chekhov Baser Almost All of His Characters are Secondary. One of My Favorites Is Astrov (The Alcohol Dr. In Uncle Vanya), Who Plants Little Trees Without Anyone Seeing Him “For The Future, Because at Suba Point They’lll Help Russia’s Forets.” And for me, I have a greate example of virtue beset trees are invest in a Better Future, but no Will Know Who APPRED them. My book tries to make visible tose virtuous People Who has invisible their entire lives. For Example, I Mention The Maid in Octavio Paz’s The Labyrinth of SolitudeWhen She Knocks On The Door and Says, “It’s Nobody, Sir, It’s Me.”
Q. You Also Mention An Emily Dickinson Poem, which has the line: “I’m Nobody! Who are you? Are You Nobody Too?”
TO. That’s a fantastic poem! I also really like French Philosopher Who Changed My Life: Édouard Glissant, Who Talks About The Right to Opacy, That There’s no Need to Reveal Oneself to Anyone. You Can Keep Things to Yourself, Even Success, Because If You Feel The Need to Share It with Everyone, Deep Down You’re Showing that you’ve intellly desired it for a long time.
Q. Your way of Achieving Success can be considered Atypical.
TO. I’ve Never Compete, I Never Thought I’D Get A Good Job. It’s True That i’ve Managed to Achieve Success in A Transversal Way. My doctoral methods, Difficulty as ansthetic mainFocused on 19th-Century novels that didn’t aspire to be Commercial Successes. I’ve Written About Melville, Flaubert … Writers Who Didn’t Aspire to Please The Public. I also Wrote About Monomania, Jealousy, Hypochondria, and Other Aspects that have destroyed part of my life and definitely my first Marriage. Many People were intersted in me Talking about My Failures Instead of Boasting about Successes, and they invited me to teach at Harvard, Columbia University, and Princeton.
Q. You Direct The Clemente Course in the Humanities. Have you been affected by the socio -political situation in the us?
TO. The Political SITUATION HAS CERTAINLY IMPACTED THE COURSE, BACASE IT’S AIMED AT STUDONTS WHO ARE IN MORE VULNERABLE SITUATIONS, AND MANY ARE AFRAID OF BEING ARRESTED AND SPORTS. We Started The Year with 22 Enrolled Students, and Now We Only Have Eight. WHEN I DIE, I’LL BE MORE PROUD OF HAVING HELPED THM THAN I WAS OF OBAMA GIVING ME A HUG KEN HE AWARDED ME THE NATIONALITIONS MEDAL IN 2014.
Q. Besides The Threat of Political Interference In Academia, The Arrival of New Technology Is Also Proving Disruptive. How are you addressing this?
TO. All Teachers Who Care About Our Students’ Lives try To Reure that Assessments are driving in class and are more interactive. I Don’t Accept The Use of Any Type of Technology; Cell Phones are prohibited. I ASSES STUDONTS THRUH EXAMS AND ESSAYS THAT I HAVM WRITE BY HAND IN CLASS. Before, There was at the end Project they completed at home, but now i’m suspicious.
Q. Do you have faith in the future of education?
TO. Today I read that in France People Read Five Books A Year, But in America Only One. It’s very sad. Students are Increasingly Focused on the Goal, Not The Process. Many Take Adderall (an amphetamine used to treat adhd) to concentrate, but they are not longer to read poetry.
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