The Tripod

Issue date: 11/13/07 Section: Features

The intimate atmosphere of the Rittenberg Lounge allowed for an equally personal Q&A session that followed Friend's lecture. He mentioned that he had spoken in front of "huge crowds at big auditoriums and also at intimate classes" but that he generally mixed it up, "With anything, you get a new, fresh insight because people have unique interpretations, and that's really heartening." Friend invited his audience to ask questions. Hands were raised rather slowly though, as the potential thought of posing an intellectual question to the man who identified "Deep Throat" is somewhat terrifying. "I've been on sort of a whistle-stop tour of campuses and as much talking about the book is leaving myself open to students and professors' opinions of the book," Friend said. "To be called a scholar brings it to a whole new level, considering myself a journalist, an editor, and thinking that I'd always be a closet academic."

Watching the World Change is being taught in classrooms nationwide, including Purdue, Stanford, Amherst, and Indiana, among other places. His book is being used here, at Trinity, in the American Studies senior seminar, "Visual Culture" taught by Professor Lou Masur. Students in the seminar were fortunate to attend a dinner in Friend's honor proceeding the lecture and were able to get to know him and ask questions throughout the night.

He received an extremely positive response from all that attended his lecture; Amanda Dorian '08 commented, "He was very humble. Having him speak about the material in his book brought a whole new level of profundity to it." Friend was humble indeed, as he invited his audience to "rip apart" his book because "to see anyone spend any time with anything you've worked on is extremely gratifying." I immediately went home and re-read his book. Go and do likewise, gents.

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