CelticBear’s Musings
Posts Feed
In honor of Bill Burling.
Posted by CelticBear on March 9th, 2009
I think that’s the first time I’ve not written “Dr. Burling.” I’d known him since my first day of grad school three years ago and he’s had more of an impact on my life than anyone I’ve ever known, short of my wife and daughter. He was my professor, my mentor of sorts, my scholarly and philosophical model…and he died this weekend from cancer.
I actually first met him a few times at the local astronomy club before I enrolled in grad school. He was the guy who first helped my sight my new telescope in to Saturn, and that’s an incredible sight! Imagine my surprise when weeks later on my first night of English 600, I discover he’s my teacher.
And in that class I was introduced to the concept of questioning ideology. I’d been a born-again skeptic for a couple/few years before that. But Dr. Burling taught me to go even deeper and examine and question the very base of all cultural assumptions and the very concept of “common sense” and “natural law.” It was from him that I learned that “Marxism” was not a dirty word. That I learned about critical theory and cultural criticism, of Lacan and Derrida, and Adorno and Jameson. I learned in that class about the politics of academia, the ideological nature of education, and the value of scholarship. That was literally a life-changing class.
And the next two classes I’d have with him continued that incredible education. I learned that science fiction was not embarrassing genre fiction meant for geek entertainment, but had a special place in cultural criticism. I would never read sf, (which I had always loved simply as escapism but knew just subliminally that it spoke something more to me, but I didn’t know what), the same way again.
He inspired me my first year to write a paper for a conference. I did, and presented it. And would the next year thanks to him. He inspired me to write for peer-reviewed scholarly journals. I have. He gave up his time to help me write at a much higher level than I ever realized I could. He spent a collected many, many hours talking with me in office hours, after class, in e-mails, about everything from the origins of sf to underlying ideological assumptions in current politics.
He was going to have Kim Stanley Robinson, who he had been corresponding with for quite some time and had edited a book about him, come talk to the class he was teaching this semester. This would-be 4th class I would have had with him. Now, whatever synergy of Dr. Burling and Kim Robinson’s time together with us could have gifted us, is gone forever.
I learned so much from him, and I was only just beginning. There was so much more I was planning on learning from him, so much more he could have taught me. It’s a selfish loss, I know. But I’m keenly missing the lost opportunity to confer with him in my future writing and scholarship, to seek his advice and counsel, and continue to learn from him. His wit, his audacity, his brilliance, gone. I’m not ready.
He had on a few occasions called me his peer. That was the greatest honor he could have ever given me.
Dr. William Burling was fiercely intelligent, absolutely committed to his students and the subject of his expertise, dedicated to the ideals of critical thinking and learning which surpassed the confines of organized, institutional education. He inspired me, pushed and challenged me, opened my eyes and changed my life. It’s a little darker of a world without him in it.
March 9th, 2009 at 9:44 pm
This was a great post. I’m looking to do one for my own blog this week. It’s still sinking in for me. Dr. Burling and I met in 2003, when I took his undergrad fantasy lit class, and I think he had much the same effect on me as he did you. In some ways, I imagine I was a bit of a disappointment to him, as I have yet to complete my M.A., but I can definitely say I would not have pursued the degree at all were it not for him. I took two undergrad lit classes (SF/Fantasy), a summer 500-level (American Authors&mdashDick and Gibson, ENG 600, and ENG 680 (Critical Theory), and were I to rank all the many, many classes I’ve been in at MSU, these five would easily be my favorites, the most meaningful, both academically and personally. I imagine I should stop and save some of this for my own post, but I really felt like I needed to say something here, too. Thank you, again, Liam.
–
Brooks Travis
March 10th, 2009 at 4:27 pm
Thanks, and sorry it took so long to moderate the comment–I’m usually more on top it than that. You should be able to comment w/o moderation now.
March 10th, 2009 at 6:00 pm
Weird. Yesterday I cried off and on most of the day. Today I feel like it’s not real. Like it was just a rumor and I know later this week I’ll be seeing him to discuss an upcoming project or something. I’m looking at some of the books on my desk I’ve read because of his advice: Zizek’s _Sublime Object of Ideology_, Suvin’s _Metamorphoses of Science Fiction_, Williams’ _Marxism and Literature_, and where yesterday they made me weep, today I don’t know what they make me feel.
I can’t believe how my life is different because of Dr. Burling. If I hadn’t had him 1st semester of the 1st year of grad school, I would have probably been a “liberal humanist” close-reader of literature. I probably wouldn’t have any real clue about cultural criticism, maybe none at all considering every other professor and every other class I’ve had. Every other professor I’ve had may have given some mention to critical theory, may have brought up feminist theory, or Marxist theory, as some vague concept. But aside from one other professor, they’ve all been passing mentions while we deconstructed literature or history of English. (The one exception is the professor who is filling in for Dr. Burling in the critical theories/Frankfurt School class I was supposed to have with him. While he’s brilliant at philosophy in general, he’s self-described new at materialist and Marxist theory, and isn’t very familiar with most of the theorists/critics we’re studying–who made up the foundation of the cultural criticism Dr. Burling taught and I feel absolutely enamored of.
When I discovered cultural criticism, Adorno, Gramsci, Jameson, Freedman, through Dr. Burling, it awakened something inside and lit a passion for the subject I had no idea even existed before I had his class. I thought English was all about…English literature when I enrolled for my MA. Cultural criticism became who I am, and I know for an absolute fact I wouldn’t have discovered that these last three years if not for Dr. Burling. It’s just not real for me.
March 22nd, 2009 at 9:31 pm
I feel rather like an intruder here — but a sister-student, too. Dr. Burling (even after all these years, that title is more comfortable than Bill, which I think he preferred) was my thesis director in the mid-90s and I am struggling today to wrap my brain around the notion that he is gone. I was sent your blog post by Patrick…
The most immediate image that came to my mind was of sitting with him in his basement office, a much bled upon draft of my thesis on his desk between us arguing about whether “think” or “feel” was a more scholarly word choice. And the second was of Bill playing guitar and singing the Stones’ “Brown Sugar.”
Thanks for your words, too. So many things I had forgotten.
I’d like to be half the teacher he has been — imparting lessons even from a distance.
March 23rd, 2009 at 12:20 am
Thanks for stopping by and commenting.