Years ago I read The Astronaut by James Blumgarten, the story of a TV journalist searching for the truth about an astronaut who never returned from space. The novel has been on my mind ever since.
Hey Arnie. This was a good read. Also, thanks for remembering the NIU shooting. That one often gets forgotten in the firehose of mass shootings that followed on its heels.
Thanks, man. Glad you liked it. There's a reason I used the NIU shooting in that piece. The day after it happened, one kid came into my Triton classroom. She was wearing dark sunglasses and a red NIU shirt. I asked her "are you in solidarity with your peers?" She said "I lost two friends yesterday." I took her into the hall, where she collapsed sobbing into my arms. Afterwards we went into the classroom, and we talked about the shooting. I let out early, and talked with the student. I was nearly done with Bath Massacre at the time. I told this student about Josephine, how she talked her brother decades after his murder, and that like Josephine, she (the student) must bear witness and the the story of her friends so they will not be forgotten or a footnote in some academic study on school shootings. I went to Mike's office afterwards to let him know what happened, that I dismissed early, and had the talk with the student. He got his doctorate at NIU, so he was kinda shaken up himself.
Holding a sobbing 19 year old girl in my arms as she worked through unimaginable pain had a profound effect on me. I saw in her face the face of Bath on May 18, 1927. I haven't heard from her in years (she must be in her late 20s/early 30s by now). But I've never forgotten her and that moment. She's the reason I included NIU
If you are not familiar with S.J. Perelman's essays titled "Cloudland Revisited:" let me recommend them. (I read them in The Most of S.J. Perelman). Each is a latter-day rereading of a book that thrilled him in his adolescence and, being dime novels, come up short in the rereading.
Never heard of it. I know Perelman from his Marx Brothers scriptwriting and some of his other comic essays. I'll have to check this one out. Thanks for the tip.
Hey Arnie. This was a good read. Also, thanks for remembering the NIU shooting. That one often gets forgotten in the firehose of mass shootings that followed on its heels.
Thanks, man. Glad you liked it. There's a reason I used the NIU shooting in that piece. The day after it happened, one kid came into my Triton classroom. She was wearing dark sunglasses and a red NIU shirt. I asked her "are you in solidarity with your peers?" She said "I lost two friends yesterday." I took her into the hall, where she collapsed sobbing into my arms. Afterwards we went into the classroom, and we talked about the shooting. I let out early, and talked with the student. I was nearly done with Bath Massacre at the time. I told this student about Josephine, how she talked her brother decades after his murder, and that like Josephine, she (the student) must bear witness and the the story of her friends so they will not be forgotten or a footnote in some academic study on school shootings. I went to Mike's office afterwards to let him know what happened, that I dismissed early, and had the talk with the student. He got his doctorate at NIU, so he was kinda shaken up himself.
Holding a sobbing 19 year old girl in my arms as she worked through unimaginable pain had a profound effect on me. I saw in her face the face of Bath on May 18, 1927. I haven't heard from her in years (she must be in her late 20s/early 30s by now). But I've never forgotten her and that moment. She's the reason I included NIU
If you are not familiar with S.J. Perelman's essays titled "Cloudland Revisited:" let me recommend them. (I read them in The Most of S.J. Perelman). Each is a latter-day rereading of a book that thrilled him in his adolescence and, being dime novels, come up short in the rereading.
Never heard of it. I know Perelman from his Marx Brothers scriptwriting and some of his other comic essays. I'll have to check this one out. Thanks for the tip.