Anais Nin and Speech Class

Two more weeks and I'm out of summer school. I have really liked my students this semester, with one exception. I even have some who read. I think my favorite moment so far is when Marlena Jarjoura used a quotation from Anais Nin in her self-intro speech. At first, I thought oh she has just found that in Creative Quotations.com or something, but, no, she says she has actually read Anais Nin's diaries! The first student I have ever had who has even heard of Anais.

I, of course, am on a first-name basis with Anais because I wrote a play about her in graduate school. "Anais and Cocteau", about her relationship with Jean Cocteau. There were only two characters in the play. We performed it during a night of one-acts at Circuit Playhouse. Of course that was a long time ago. But Marlena reminded me of college. Discovering new writers and books and ideas. Sitting in bars discussing George Sand and Albert Camus. We really thought we were the intelligentsia of Memphis State.