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In the 1830s, Virginia's public works department decided that railroads were a fad—the future would be in canals. (Folks in the western half of the state were inclined to disagree.) This was, in retrospect, a bad idea. It cost a lot of money, and Virginia didn't get those debts paid off until the mid-1900s—at the expense of funding government. This is why Harry Byrd's pay-as-you-go approach to transportation seemed like such a great idea at the time.
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A college senior's final presentation in his film class was to kill and butcher a live rabbit. It was received poorly. I'm with the student on this one—any school that lets students dissect cats can't complain about another student butchering a rabbit.
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Here's a strange urban legend that I'd never encountered before: that Barack Obama is not the first black president of the United States, but that the title instead belongs to John Hanson, one-time president of the Continental Congress. Now it's true that we had sixteen presidents prior to Washington (including John Jay and John Hancock), but they weren't really presidents as we think of them now. But John Hanson was a white man. Swedish, at that. However, there was a John Handson who was a senator of Liberia in the 1800s, and that seems to be the source of this story.
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Regarding the U of Maine student, I agree with you. Whoever it was screaming and wailing, and calling for this student’s expulsion, needs to grow a thicker skin and probably examine their own hypocrisy.
A couple of things regarding the UM student: One, I don’t think that was really appropriate at all. I am not against the killing and skinning of rabbits (or even showing a film of a rabbit being butchered in a film class), but I don’t think that a film class is the right place to do a live demonstration. “[A]ny school that lets students dissect cats can’t complain about another student butchering a rabbit.” Except that you expect that sort of thing in a biology class. In my mind, you know what you’re getting into. In a film class, I don’t think that’s the same case.
It would have been one thing if he had explained to the professor what he intended to do, and thoroughly explained to the class before his presentation. A simple, “if you’re squeamish, you might want to leave” doesn’t quite go far enough in my opinion. It’s a matter of expectation.
If you go to an open casket wake, you expect to see a dead person, but if you are just out for a jog, and stumble upon a body… that might mess you up a little. If you know what you’re getting into, you can start preparing your mind to absorb the shock a bit.
And, two, you can really buy rabbits for just $10?
I agree with Michael; the context of the situation matters a very great deal. Should anyone who wants to also be allowed to kill and butcher an animal in the middle of Expository Writing 101 or Intermediate Spanish 202?
Shifting into artistic criticism: come the f*ck on. The topic of the class is documentary filmmaking. The presentation thus already falls outside of the scope and context of the class’ subject matter in that it is not a film. Had he shown a recording of him killing and butchering a rabbit, he might have at least had a plausible argument in favor of allowing the presentation to proceed; of course, he would have probably received a rather poor grade because that’s also not a documentary in the sense that director Denis Kaufman defined the genre as “life caught unawares.” He didn’t take a video camera into a packing plant to demonstrate the reality of how live animals are processed down into packaged cuts of meat. This ain’t The Jungle. This is just a twerp who wanted to kill a rabbit for no other reason than to shock his classmates and teachers.
It would technically be qualified as “performance art,” provided the student in question were intelligent to understand that distinction.
Butchering a rabbit in Intermediate Spanish would be hilarious! It is a lovely non sequitur. How to butcher a rabbit en Espanol… I am quite tickled by the thought.
Also, from the article: “All the presentations were meant to be inspired by what they had learned and seen at the four-day film festival, and most students made short documentary videos. A couple, including Bolding, told teachers that they were going to share presentations with the class.”
That suggests to me that they need not prepare a film at all. A film about what you learned at a film festival seems circular to me, but then I studied finance in college. Maybe Roger & Me was playing at this film festival and he was inspired.
“Dominion of Memories” is a great book that outlines a lot of where Virginia went wrong, going from vanguard of Revolution to backwater in a span of just 80 years between 1776 and 1861. Amazing book; highly recommended.
“Should anyone who wants to also be allowed to kill and butcher an animal in the middle of Expository Writing 101 or Intermediate Spanish 202?”
Well, no. Clearly, that’s a pursuit best left for Advanced Spanish 303. One doesn’t wish to just jump into these things without the proper educational background.
Yeesh, Waldo, can you take out the italics tag for me? I edited my comment and clearly forgot to take it out. Sorry!