The Wit and Wisdom of Cornellians

The right of Big Red Bears to babble shall not be infringed

The Wit and Wisdom of Cornellians

The right of Big Red Bears to babble shall not be infringed

The University of the Absurd

To be antiracist requires a university to become an antiuniversity.

How does a university become an antiuniversity?

That’s simple. To become an antiuniversity, we follow the prescription that Eugene Ionesco used to turn a play into an antiplay when he wrote The Bald Soprano.

Ionesco avoided the conventional trappings of writing a meaningful play based on a coherent plot and a resolution. Instead, he created a meaningless play based on inconsistencies, contradictions, empty platitudes, and other meaningless banter. The characters were indistinguishable and interchangeable. In fact, if The Bald Soprano had any meaning at all, it was to express the futility of meaningful communication between characterless characters who have no minds at all, and who use words that have no meaning.

As in the movie Groundhog Day, The Bald Soprano ends as it began, but it could have ended with everyone getting a diploma from an Ivy League University.

Interestingly, The Bald Soprano was first performed as a parody but soon it was discovered that it worked best if it were presented as a serious drama.

Today’s university of the absurd has all the characteristics of an antiuniversity.

 

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