This year the Second Laird Miscellany will turn the spotlight on juniors as well as seniors. Here then is Henry Southwick (’15).
1. What is one thing your fellow English majors don’t know about you?
I am a terribly slow reader, almost embarrassingly so. My mind is the kind of mind that reads something cool in a novel and then daydreams about it for a solid 3 minutes before moving on.
2. Why are you an English major? Why not History, SoAn, CAMS, etc.?
When I first got to Carleton I wanted to be a Polisci major and either go into teaching or become president of the United States. My A&I seminar was a blend of English and Polisci taught by Beth McKinsey, and it was so warm, and so welcoming, and we had such great discussion that I was fairly convinced that English was also an option. I was tired of literature classes, however, and decided to take a course on American Transcendentalism taught by Peter Balaam. I loved that one just as much, and so I kept going and took poetry in the spring, and then I took creative writing in the fall of sophomore year. Well, winter rolled around and I was enrolled in Macro-econ, American Social History, and a French course on food. I had decided in the fall that I definitely wanted to be a history major, and I was taking macro to kill distros (and French because I like French). Well I hated both macro and that French course and had no idea why I was in either of them, who I was or what I was doing with my life. It was fairly melodramatic, but I was uninterested in everything I was doing and wasn’t sure how I was going to piece together a future for myself. It was then that I realized I didn’t have an English course that term and that I really missed it. On the last day of Add/Drop of Winter term sophomore year I went sprinting into Peter Balaam’s office and asked him to take me into his class on American Realism. He acquiesced even though I was a full book behind. I dropped French like it was hot that day, picked up an American Literature class with a prof who has always supported me, and boom, English Major. Now instead of President I want to be the next JK Rowling.
There are a couple other factors, of course. All my life I have had really great English teachers. Pretty much every year since seventh grade I’ve lucked out with English teachers who have been inspiring, clever, witty, and interested in what they do. The only year that sucked was sophomore year of high school where I was taught by a CUT alum who disappeared 2 weeks before the end of school and I’ve never seen again. Apparently he got in trouble for something at his old school and my school found out about it and gave him the boot. He was hilarious and a decent teacher up until we got to Edith Wharton and he started cussing out Newland Archer in the margins, but I digress.
I cant imagine doing any other major now.
3. What is one book you’d be fine never reading again?
There isn’t a book in a the world I wouldn’t give a second chance if I had enough time.
4. You’re stranded on a desert island and can only bring three books. Which books would you bring?
Dr. Zhivago, My compilation of Emerson essays, and something someone absolutely recommended me with all their heart.
I think I’d rather be given a pen and several reams of paper though. I’m in a big writing phase right now.