Once upon a time I had dinner in Jesus College, Oxford, under the painting of Lawrence of Arabia. Even though the students were dressed in a contemporary fashion, the oak-pannelled room told tales of academic greatness and quiet bookishness. I have no recollection of the food, or the conversation, but I still remember the sense of feeling very small and completely in awe.
Call it snobbism, if you will.

Many years ago I went to see Eton college. It was around the time of Dead Poets' Society and the chapel only lacked choral song and Robert Sean Leonard for me to want to jump up my desk and recite Whitman.

Got the same feeling in Cambridge the other day. So it's full of tourists wandering aimlessly around, but sneak a peek into the college courtyards and it's all quiet and beautiful.
Of course the spotty kids are all wearing oversize Korn t-shirts and baggy jeans, but consider this: one of them may become the Prime Minister one day.
Scary thought, innit?

Do I wish that my college had had the same atmosphere? Yes and no. Unfortunately I believe that an atmosphere like this can be retained thorugh a perpetual retainment of tradition and habit only and this I do not believe to be entirely good. My college was very liberated, quite arty and open, always, to new influences. And at the end of the day, this is what I would always chose, even over oak-pannelled rooms, the gorgeous pronunciation of Magdalen and world domination.
posted by charlotte at 17:37 - comment