Lauded Times Magazine Cover Author Speaks To Stetson Students

DELAND, Fla. – American author Jonathan Franzen gave a lecture at the Athens Theater on Monday Nov. 22 in DeLand to an audience of mostly college students from nearby Stetson University.  His topics ranged from his new book Freedom, run-ins with Oprah, as well as his favorite authors and writing techniques.

“Good writing accretes almost literally in the form of bad pages,” said Franzen of the process.  “Starting with 20 or 30 ideas and trying to fail for long enough that patterns in the failures start to emerge.”

Franzen appeared on the cover of Time Magazine in August 2010, the first American novelist to appear on the cover since Stephen King in 2000.

 “It’s so insightful and humbling to have such a prolific author speaking here to students,” said Sarah Gray, a Stetson sophomore. “Sharing his experiences and knowledge with us is so invaluable.”

The author of the 2001 National Book Award for Fiction, The Corrections, Franzen also writes for The New Yorker, The New York Times and The Guardian.

Choosing and developing a specific writing style begins in one’s youth explained Franzen.  “It all kind of depends on what you happen to read when you’re 19 or 20 and your eyes are open to literature.  For me it was Shakespeare and Kafka.” 

Although the audience was populated by mainly college students, the open-to-the-public event was also peppered with avid readers and fans, who understood the merit of his lecture to students.

“Having Jonathan Franzen speak to these kids at this age is so beneficial to their learning process,” said local fan and follower Harry Jacobs.  “He brings experience from the outside world, so it acclimates them at just the right time in their lives before they head out there.

Freedom comes nine years since after his last novel, The Corrections, which was named as one of the “100 Best Books of the Decade” by The Times.  “The nine year thing is a little misleading, because I did publish a complete and original memoir in that period.” 

Freedom was named as an Oprah book club selection earlier this year and hailed by US President Barack Obama as “terrific.”  It can be purchased along with his other works on his publisher’s website at http://us.macmillan.com/author/jonathanfranzen.

Democrats Remain Upbeat, Despite Expected Defeat

Republicans To Be Held Accountable.

By Jonathan Romero

ORLANDO, Fla. – Democrats came together Tuesday night in downtown Orlando, for an election night watch party hosted by the Orange County Democratic Party at Ember nightclub. 

As the predictions started trickling in and Democrats realized their inevitable defeat, the mood changed from desperate optimism to acceptance. “We’re highly disappointed,” said Orange County Democratic Party Chairman Jeremiah Jaspon, “but it’s something we anticipated.”

The reactions, albeit overwhelmingly disappointing, were still hopeful of the few positives that could be derived from the results.  Communications Director Bryan Mills saw it as an opportunity for Democrats going into the 2012 presidential election.  “Republicans can’t just stand around and say Democrats aren’t doing anything.” said Mills, “They’re the ones making the law and they’re going to have to do it with consensus.”

Jaspon reiterated this sentiment.  “Republicans can’t just stand on the sidelines and be the party of ‘No’ anymore.  They’re going to have their feet held to the fire like Democrats.”

The word going around was accountability.  With their majority in the House of Representatives, the Republicans now have a say in the discussion and will need to work with Democrats directly to pass legislation.  With the rhetoric now gone, the spotlight is now on both parties, as voters look for answers to what they believe Democrats could not do alone.

Some think that the answer isn’t an idealistic one, and one that Republican policy will be able to fix alone.  “The stuff they’ve been griping about is outside of anyone’s control, like the economy.” said Bryan Valentine, a local Democrat.  “And if in two years, we’re still sitting here having the same conversation with people out of work and unemployment still up, they’re going to be out on their butts too.”

Democrats pointed the finger at themselves for the poor result, as a lack of motivation and mobilization from the Democratic Party failed to energize their own base.  “The spirit should have been there in the beginning.” said Jose Fernandez, President of the Democratic Hispanic Caucus of Florida.  “They can’t just have a surge in the last two weeks and expect to win.”

  

The turnout for Hispanic voters was lower than expected and Fernandez believes it was the party’s fault for not having the resources to give people the information they needed.  “If they would have taken us into consideration more and not just at the end, we would have had everything.”

With politics being cyclical, some Democrats are hopeful that come 2012, the power will shift back into their hands.  In 1994, Bill Clinton lost control of both the House and the Senate, but was re-elected in 1996. “This could not have happened at a better time.  If democrats are going to lose, this is the time to lose.” said Valentine.

History tends to repeat itself, and some realize that the momentum will inevitably shift back into democratic hands in two years, when republican policies will be questioned and scrutinized.  “Two years ago we were celebrating on this night.  Tonight we’re not celebrating and in two years, I expect we’ll be celebrating again.” said Jaspon after the event.

Others were more confident of the eventual transfer of power.  “If we lose the senate and the house, Obama is going to have a second term.” said Mills. 

Whether they are hopeful or not, Democrats will have to be aware of their shortcomings and put their words into actions.  “We’ve got to wake up.  Let’s all stop being negative and all work together to get something done.” said Fernandez.  “We learned today and if we pick up for the next two years, we’ll be able to retain Obama, but we have to learn those lessons.”