Tang Dynasty Wagon

Tang Dynasty Wagon. Station wagon, that is. But I shouldn’t make fun, this was meant quite seriously—okay, maybe a touch tongue in cheek. A drawing from sometime in  2004, one of the Analects (already a Chinese connection, you see…), not long after I’d returned from Hong Kong and Guilin. Made that ancient journey down the  Li Jiang—where through the rainy mist those same mysterious peaks emerged—as in all the old paintings. I was in heaven. But here there’s a leavening touch, of course—for the wagon is the Dubow family Pontiac, from Oceanside, maybe 1958. (I’m not so good at car years.)

Overall, it’s another flyer—this one for my VS280 seminar (Beginnings). Where we’d all soon be making a journey together as well…
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Last week, late, a girl working again at the table outside my office. She had a book—always a bit of a surprise in Wurster, so pragmatic and goal-oriented a place. Marguerite Duras. I commented on it, and she asked if I was a professor here. Told me she was studying French and Comp Lit. So I stepped back into the office, and picked up one of these flyers (recently surfaced!), brought it out and gave it to her. She held it in both hands—the piece of 8-1/2 x 11 paper with xerox copy--then, in a quiet voice, uninflected, “This is beautiful.”

Best review I ever got… 

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And it was a good semester, too!  Here's the link to the project mentioned above: Analects


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