The Balliol College Annual Record
Balliol College was founded some time before 1266 and they've been sending out their annual record to alumni, I suppose, since the invention of the printing press. Mine arrived this morning. Reading this thing is always an exercise in melancholy. Inevitably I discover that someone I knew has died. Often I then realize that I had not thought of that person for twenty years.
Almost as melancholy is learning that most of the people I knew are still alive, just a lot older. Some, it would seem from the record, are exactly where I left them, doing exactly what they were when last I clapped eyes on them.
Herewith the highlights, which may better convey to you Balliol College, frozen eternally in time not only in my memory but in reality:
Time, similarly, will judge either visionary or profligate our controversial motion to purchase two new handmade carbon-fibre croquet mallets ...
Hilary term saw the annual Bacchus Dinner, with very good attendance. Sconces began with the revelation that Mr. G. Allcroft had to visit hospital after an ammonia-heavy session in the Inorganic Chemistry Lab. ...
His explanation of quantum teleportation was conducted with the help of some kindergarten toys, some rope, some boxes and some triangles. This flowed seamlessly into next week's talk from World Trade Editor of the Financial Times, Alan Beattle, who told us "Why Everything You Think You Know About Trade and Globalization is Wrong" ...
Of course, the most interesting part is reading between the lines. I see the Master of Balliol is stepping down--an event you will understand if you've read The Masters by C.P. Snow.
"One of the year's great disappointments," I see, "was the cancellation of what surely would have been a fantastic summer ball." No explanation is given. But that does not happen for no reason, detective.
"The charities officer," it seems, "organized a brilliant musical rendition of the Wizard of Oz."
You could construct a whole novel from that sentence. Actually, Evelyn Waugh pretty much did.
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Jul '10
Re: The Balliol College Annual Record
My notion of Heaven is a place where our limitations of intellect and memory and temporal navigation are relieved and we are able to pursue those side streets and culs de sac and redeem those opportunity costs as we will. Chat til exhaustion with a thousand old friends and acquaintances.
Academe, with its tenure rules and its bizarre susceptibility to ideological subversion and intellectual clannishness and vanity, as well as its place as the last gate between childhood and adulthood for the upper income group, is susceptible to all manner of odd and not always harmless eccentrics. This has been much on my mind as I prepare my eldest to contend. I am glad to say that he shows some gift for seeing what is between the lines.
Nov '10
Re: The Balliol College Annual Record
Nov '10
Re: The Balliol College Annual Record
I read this and chuckled, since it might be the description of Hell for some.
Sep '10
Re: The Balliol College Annual Record
Evelyn Waugh pretty much did.
Scoop. How many times have you read it Claire?