Dear Readers,
One of my favorite Disney characters is Merlin from The Sword in the Stone (1963), based on T.H. White’s book of the same name. In this version of Arthurian legend, Merlin experiences time backwards, and thus frequently confuses future events with what has already passed, living as a sort of expatriate in time. I’ve always really loved this, the touch of magic and tragedy. It’s my last fall semester as an undergraduate at Brown, and it’s easy to feel a little unmoored in time. I blinked and they turned Simmons into a giant pit, a third of the Thayer shops I swore just opened have been supplanted, and I’m no longer a bright-eyed first-year but already over a month into my senior year.
Still, when I’ve felt a tad overwhelmed by the passage of time, it’s been helpful to take a step back and breathe, draw out the little moments that comprise a season. When I chart how my fall has been spent so far, it’s: picking apples with loved ones (making apple fritters soon), interviews and unfortunately more interviews, boiling strawberries into syrup to make homemade strawberry matcha (we have Ceremony at home!), watching old Chinese comedies while nestled into our lived-in couch. Last night I played volleyball in the dark, guessing broadly where to set the ball as the light slipped away. In these moments, time feels longer, more lasting. It’s a bit easier to connect with what and who matters.
This week in post-, our writers are exploring their relationships with connection—over time, place, language—as we move carefully through a busy and bright new semester. In Feature, AnnaLise reflects on transportation systems in different cities and relationships with the people within them. Also in Feature, Violet interviews ex-Congressman Anthony Weiner in an exploration of why we—the public—publicly shame. In Narrative, Katya navigates the risks and vulnerabilities inherent in language, urging us to use language intentionally to be seen fully. Meanwhile, Nina meditates on her experience of time in childhood and in the present. In A&C, Madison analyzes Normal People through the lenses of class and gender, and Sara celebrates the subliminality of pools in coming-of-age movies. Our Lifestyle writer, Liv, advises on staying healthy through the hustle and bustle of the fall semester. In post-pourri, April features a detailed anatomy of the specimen collegium discipulo sacco dorsali (common name “college backpack”). Finally, don’t miss a wonderful crossword by Lily!
I was walking home a few nights ago with a friend, and she commented that it feels like we’re currently living a very transitional period of our lives. I’m inclined to agree, and be a little sad about needing to leave a place in order to arrive at another one. But the time allotted to us is all the time we can have, and there’s so many places I still have to get to. So I’ll venture out bravely, with my first cozy sweater of the season and my tube of chapstick, and see what other little moments there are to love.
Looking both ways,
AJ Wu
A&C Managing Editor
