Porcupines at the University and The School by Donald Barthelme

This week's selections are by Donald Barthelme, a literary giant in the world of short story authors. He's known for his exceptionally compact stories, wordplay, and occasional epiphanic moments caught in absurd incidents. Porcupines at the University can be found in his collection 40 Stories and The School can be found anthologized in many short story collections, readings, and in 60 Stories. Porcupines at the University is about a university president's fears about the approach of porcupines that he doesn't want at his university and about a porcupine wrangler, who's not actually bringing them there. Is it an allegory? Or is it just funny images put to words? The School is a fun little story about a classroom dealing with the reality of death, whom my favorite short story author, George Saunders, gives an excellent analysis of its mechanics and perfection.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

The School
1. Comments on style? (POV, language, tone, etc.)

2. How do we deal with death? When a student dies in one of our buildings, how do we respond to support those who knew him/her? What's the typical university response? How do we respond to support the residence hall population? How do we respond to individuals?

3. Are we equipped to confront death on campus?

4. How do we answer questions from our mentees to which we don't have an answer? Can we say "I don't know," and maintain credibility/authority/value?

5. What do you think of the story's resolution? Do you, like the children, cheer wildly?

Porcupines at the University
1. Comments on style? (POV, language, tone, etc.)

2. Do you read this as a funny, absurd tale with strange characters? Or as an allegorical fable?

3. There is a clash of cultures between the world of the porcupine wrangler and the world of the dean. Their different assumptions and expectations almost lead to a tragedy. What clash of cultures do we experience in our work at a university?

4. Are there fears about the possible over-enrollment of any particular population and the campus' ability to manage that population?

5. The dean and the wrangler embody too different ideas of accomplished men. How do their views/treatment of women (dean's wife / fancy women) reinforce or undermine their masculinity? What roles of manhood do our male students seek and do those roles affect their treatment of our female students?

6. In the final paragraph, Barthelme writes,

"The citizens in their cars looked at the porcupines, thinking: What is wonderful? Are these porcupines wonderful? Are they significant? Are they what I need?"

Assuming the porcupines are an allegory for "the other," how do the citizens' thoughts compare with how the dominant culture views "the other."

The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (excerpt) by Junot Diaz

Our selection for Sips and Stories this Thursday will be the fourth chapter of the first section of the acclaimed Junot Diaz novel, The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao - Sentimental Education. The novel has gotten numerous accolades* and great reviews; there's a good chance you already have it on your bookshelf! The selection we'll be reading is set on Rutger's University and deals with a variety of issues including: Assignments, Roommate Conflict, Masculinity, Suicidal Ideation, Family, Immigrant Experience, Alcohol use, etc.

The wine will be any Sauvignon Blanc, which is typically dry, (so I'll also have a bottle of sweeter stuff if you don't like it!)

*Awards: Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards, National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction, John Sargent Sr. First Novel Prize

Possible Discussion Questions

1. How does the style of writing affect the telling of the story? (conversational tone, untranslated Spanish, allusions, etc.)

2. How does reading what happened through Junior’s point of view affect the telling/receiving of the story?

3. Junior has a strong sense of who he is. He frequently identifies being a Dominican male with having a lot of sex with different women. When discussing why he chose to “fix” Oscar he says, “What I should have done was check myself into Bootie Rehab. But if you thought I was going to do that, then you don’t know Dominican men. Instead of focusing on something hard and useful like, say, my own shit, I focused on something easy and redemptive.” Junior calls himself a “playboy,” and “the biggest player of them all.” In the excerpt, in what ways does Junior identify himself with his idea of masculinity? How does he exclude others that don’t fit this ideal? On our campus, how do our male students identify themselves as “manly?”

4. Junior discusses how after his fight with Oscar, “they acted like roommates act when they’re beefing.” How does their experience compare with other roommate conflicts you’ve dealt with?

5. What unique aspects of residence hall living (in this case, a living-learning program experience) did Junior mention in telling this story? What were positive, what were negative?

6. Junior speaks disparagingly of his residence hall and its reputation. How does Demarest’ identity affect Junior and Oscar? What reputations / identities do our buildings have? How does that affect the students we work with?

7. Oscar attempts suicide because he cannot “get a girl.” He worries that being a virgin means he is a failure. In the news recently, a young man shot and murdered several campus sorority members in California for what appears to be the same reason. Are these isolated incidents or is the idea that to be a man (or to be fulfilled/happy/whole/etc), a young man must be successful in “getting girls?” Is this a realm of identity that we, as student affairs professionals, have any influence? How can we help the students we work with, both male and female, navigate this time in their lives when not being able to get sex seems to equate to being a failure?  

8. What student development theories help to explain the development of the characters in this story?