[ilds] turn them into literature

[Charles Sligh]

Here is a bit of a surprise, found in the opening sentences of an 
undergraduate paper on one of William Morris's poems.
> Stephen Stills of Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills, Nash, and 
> Young once said, “There are three things men can do with women: love 
> them, suffer for them, or turn them into literature.” 
It is always delightful to meet old friends in unexpected places. Or is 
this perhaps a case of meeting the child or grandchild of an old friend 
far gone and suddenly recognizing the features anew?

But whatever the quality of the rest of the essay, the sense of an 
unexpected alignment is uncanny. Morris's Guenevere. Durrell's Justine 
(albeit indirectly). Tragic triangles, antinomianism, and great 
betrayals. On my desk. . . .

And this student certainly did /not/ know her Durrell; she was most 
likely drawing upon an online search engine that directed her to Stephen 
Stills's recycling of the Durrell line.

Enough mysteries. Back to marking. . . .

Charles

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Charles L. Sligh
Assistant Professor
Department of English
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
charles-sligh at utc.edu
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