Tim O'Brien to give William Starr Lecture

Acacia O'Connor Life Editor

“To generalize about war is like generalizing about peace. Almost everything is true. Almost nothing is true,” he wrote in The Things They Carried.

While Tim O’Brien’s works have invited questions about both war and truth, they do not attempt to provide answers. In the same vein, the 2007 First Year Program and the William Starr Lecture given by O’Brien will embrace these themes and the questions they present.

This year’s Freshman Course text is his 1995 novel, In the Lake of the Woods. The Freshman Course book choice is made each year as a topical point of communication among new freshmen. For the past two years the book has been a large part of the First Year Program, a program headed by a committee of faculty and administrators.

“We wanted to have a common text that would help the class, as well as the broader Vassar community, discuss an important topic,” said Associate Dean of the College Ed Pittman, who coordinates the First Year Program.

Those involved in the selection felt that a book addressing the war in Vietnam would strike a chord with community members as the United States handles the war in Iraq.

“We decided that we wanted to choose a novel that wasn’t necessarily new,” said Adjunct Assistant Professor of English Natalie Friedman. “But one that would speak to themes and concerns that we face as citizens in America today.”

Friedman and other administrators involved in organizing the William Starr Lecture expressed hope that the novel and O’Brien’s visit will engage Vassar in the issue and meaning of war.

“It’s easy to forget that we’re at war on this beautiful, idyllic campus of ours,” said Friedman. “We wanted a writer and novel to inspire us to be more aware, and perhaps even more active, citizens.”

In the Lake of the Woods centers on a Vietnam veteran, John Wade, whose campaign for U.S. senator is unsuccessful. After the loss, John and his wife Kathy move to a secluded cottage. Troubling truths about his time in Vietnam that come to light during his campaign upend the couple’s otherwise placid relationship. Kathy suddenly disappears and from then on the novel sets forth theories regarding her disappearance and John’s potential involvement in it. O’Brien, however, leaves the final conclusion regarding her disappearance to the reader.

Part of O’Brien’s strategy is to utilize real and fabricated quotations from newspapers and books to punctuate the narrative in chapters called “Evidence.”

“We thought it would be interesting for students to see how this evidentiary evidence could be used in fiction,” said Dean of Freshmen Joanne Long.

The Things They Carried, O’Brien’s renowned 1998 novel, was a Pulitzer Prize finalist and is now taught in many high schools nationwide.

“O’Brien has become part of our American canon,” said Friedman. “I think that having a living canonical writer come to Vassar is an exciting event.”

During his visit to the Vassar campus on Sept. 27, O’Brien will sit in on two freshman writing seminars, Visiting Associate Professor of English Dean Crawford’s “Autobiography and Fiction” and Professor of History Rebecca Edwards’s “History, Narrative and Fiction.” He will later field questions during the freshman class event “An Afternoon with Tim O’Brien” in the Students’ Building.

The author’s evening speech, entitled “Mystery, Magic and Colonel Mustard,” will be open to the entire Vassar and Poughkeepsie communities. That talk will take place at 5:30 p.m. in the Chapel. After the speech there will be a dinner in O’Brien’s honor with a small group of students, faculty and administrators in attendance.

Last year’s William Starr lecturer was The Satanic Verses author Salman Rushdie.

The First Year Program hopes to continue the dialogue initiated by O’Brien’s visit with a faculty-led panel discussion entitled “Citizenship in a Time of War” on Oct. 4.

Friedman said that the committee is open to suggestions regarding the First Year Book choice for next year.

“After Rushdie’s novel about terrorism and O’Brien’s novel about war, maybe next year, we’ll focus on peace,” she said.