Today’s interview is with Patrick Hastings, Education Outreach Specialist in the Rare Book and Special Collections Division. An experienced educator and life-long bibliophile, Patrick recently came on staff at the Library to assist in developing accessible educational content that engages a wide range of audiences and supports teachers through direct access to Library collections.
What role has writing played in your life, and what has shaped your desire to share this craft with others?
Patrick:
I think I’m happiest when waking up at 3 am with sentences in my mind. I love the crest of energy I feel when working on a piece, and I enjoy the puzzle of what ideas and words go where. Ever since high school, I’ve found such joy and satisfaction in writerly endeavors big and small – a letter to a friend, a short essay, a book, a careful email, whatever.
The teaching of writing, which I’ve been striving to do well since teaching a poetry class in 2002 to underserved middle schoolers in Atlanta, brings at least as much excitement as writing itself. There’s such gratification in trying to simplify the writing process into manageable chunks, helping students find and trust their authentic voice, and validating a student’s sense of pride as he or she makes progress as a writer. I was fortunate to enjoy that work for nineteen years as a high school English teacher. I had so much fun getting my fingers dirty in sentence-level composition in those writing conferences with individual students.
Which authors still make you laugh out loud even in a quiet room?
Patrick:
James Joyce, obviously. Everyone wants to talk first about how challenging Joyce is, and they’re not wrong, but man is he funny. The quirks of his characters are human and amusing, the depth of irony and irreverence is hilarious, and Joyce’s ear for dialogue and the rhythms of common speech all feel particularly real and funny. We’ve all been with funny, interesting people in bars or basements or classrooms or around campfires – Joyce brings those conversations and personalities to life in his fiction.
John Kennedy Toole’s A Confederacy of Dunces is probably the funniest book I’ve ever read. Ignatius is totally absurd and disconnected from reality, but he’s so committed to his worldview that he kind of brings you along from one ridiculous scene to the next. And the way the multiple layers of plot interweave and coalesce into its comic ending is just delightful.
More recently, I’ve found Sally Rooney’s fiction to be so engaging; her characters’ wit and situational gymnastics are amusing. I loved getting to know Sportcoat in James McBride’s Deacon King Kong. I was cracking up on the train while reading Zadie Smith’s Wife of Willesden, which is her modern translation of Chaucer’s Wife of Bath. I’m slightly embarrassed to admit that I laughed while reading Kill Your Friends because those characters are just such terrible humans. I finally read Moby-Dick this summer, and I found myself laughing a lot at Ishmael’s approach to life and at Melville’s unbothered exposition.
What are some of your favorite books or passages of text to use in the classroom?
Patrick:
This is a tough one because different groups of students can respond so differently to the same text year to year, even section to section. But I always loved teaching The Odyssey to sophomores; Telemachus feels familiar to students at that age – he’s unsure of himself but eager to step up, he’s facing a massive challenge but he has mentors there to help him, and he makes mistakes but ultimately finds the courage and strength to accept responsibility for them. I found that class discussions about Telemachus brought out a lot of wisdom, conviction, and positive aspirations in my students. And then of course Odysseus is attractive and super talented but very flawed. I enjoyed helping students grapple with their understanding of him.
I also really enjoyed watching students work their way through Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast in the “Memoirs of Expatriates in Paris” senior elective I used to teach. Those alluring initial scenes of young Hemingway writing in a Paris café, buzzing on creativity, caffeine, and red wine…swoon. But then as you read more, a student or two will start to poke around the internet about Hemingway, and some historical/biographical details complicate the romanticism of the text. Like, Hemingway and Hadley had a trust fund. They weren’t exactly starving. He could afford that bag of roasted chestnuts. It was always interesting to see how a group of students would weigh truth, fiction, and the stories we tell about ourselves.
How does connecting educators and students to the primary resources in the Rare Book and Special Collections Division expand your vision for supporting accessible education?
Patrick:
I am just barely removed from being a classroom educator, so I am close enough to that experience to know that the opportunity to see in person an artifact of written expression, a literary treasure, or a text of historical significance can be life changing. For centuries, people have protected and valued these books, which inspires teachers and students of writing to see themselves and their work as part of the continuum of human communication of ideas. We have such incredible resources here in the Rare Book and Special Collections Division, and I am excited to bring those materials to teachers and students via in-person experiences here at the Library, through virtual class visits, and in stagnant online content.
What have you found most inspiring in your first month in the Rare Book Division?
Patrick:
My new colleagues. They are knowledgeable about the materials within the division and generous with their time and expertise. I have learned so much from each of them about librarianship, about books, and about the practices and procedures of the Rare Book Reading Room. The professionals I get to work with and learn from are such a tremendous asset to the United States – sorry if that’s too grand – because they are serving scholars, citizens, and the general project of learning with such humility, patience, and grace. It has been truly inspiring to see their good work up close.
What similarities have you found between your career as a classroom teacher and your work here in the Rare Book Division?
Patrick:
Here’s one that I couldn’t have anticipated before starting this job: there’s something really wonderful about walking into a classroom with some plan for what you want to accomplish, but the best classes – maybe even most classes – take unexpected turns in the discussion. A student will make an observation about something in the text you’ve never noticed before, or someone has the courage to express an opinion that counters the prevailing attitude that the other students seem to be building in the room, and the discussion spins in a pointedly exciting new direction. Now, every time I walk into a room in the Rare Book Division stacks, I feel that same excitement about what unexpected item might I discover in here, what wisdom or revelation or connection might I find when I open one of these incredible books and read a page at random. I feel the same sense of wonder when I walk into the vaults to find a book here as when I used to walk into a classroom to teach.
What is the best way to connect with you?
Patrick:
Send me a note through the Rare Book and Special Collection Division’s Ask-A-Librarian! This will allow me to send resources, links, information, and easily connect you with other specialists at the Library.
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