Bryce

The Second Semester

Chapter 12 - A possibility with Marc

            Bryce began Monday morning with a longer than usual workout at the gym.  He got there as it opened at 6:30, and remained until he had to go wake Damon for their first classes: his, the Survey of French Literature; Damon’s, the World History class.  He left very little time for breakfast, and so merely grabbed some pastry and orange juice before turning up in class.  Bryce quipped that he had a continental breakfast to match continental literature, but was informed by another student that the term ‘continental breakfast’ was passé, the current term being ‘euro breakfast.’  Bryce decided to ignore that bit of ephemera.

            Professor Anjot opened the consideration of their second major author of the semester with a discourse on the background and life of François René, Vicomte de Chateaubriand, who was born on 4 September 1768 and died on 4 July 1848.  By some, he is considered the founder of Romanticism in French literature, although others reserve that distinction for Jean Jacques Rousseau, who had been covered the previous semester.  It all depends on one’s definition of Romanticism.  His father, a member of the minor nobility of Brittany, was a sea captain, slave trader, and a dour man, who offered no emotional support to his tenth child.  His mother evidently was a passive type, who likewise provided none of the warmth a child needs.  As a teenager, François vacillated between a career at sea and the priesthood, but eventually at age 17 opted for a military career, and obtained a commission.  When the French Revolution broke out in 1789, he was initially sympathetic, but like so many others was alienated by the excesses of the Terror, and in 1791 left for a tour of North America.  This experience would provide the setting for many of his later novels.  Returning to Europe in 1792, Chateaubriand joined the Royalist cause, but was wounded at the Battler of Thionville, and went into exile in England.  There he subsisted in great poverty for some time, but also became familiar with English literature, which influenced his own later development.  There, too, he published his first work, an examination of the causes of the French Revolution entitled Essai sur les révolutions (1797).  During these years of upheaval, Chateaubriand had lost his early faith, and lived the life of a libertine, but in exile he rediscovered his Catholic faith (1798).

            In 1800 he took advantage of the amnesty offered by the Republic to exiles, and returned to France.  There, he published his Génie du christianisme (1802), an apology for his Catholic faith.  Napoleon Bonaparte appointed him to his first diplomatic mission as secretary to the French legation in Rome, but the rapprochement was short lived, with Chateaubriand breaking with the Bonaparte dictatorship in 1804, after which he traveled through the Near East and Spain.  He remained out of favor until the Bourbon Restoration of 1814.

            Under Louis XVIII and Charles X Chateaubriand filled a number of diplomatic and political roles, but he refused to accept the Revolution of 1830 and the July Monarchy of Louis Philippe, and so was again out of favor.  His checkered career thus ended with years of withdrawal to private life.  He died during the upheavals of the Revolution of 1848.  His life, tossed first one way and then another by emotional fireworks, was in many ways typical of the Romantics of the early nineteenth century, comparable somewhat to Lord Byron among the English.  Like Byron, he was a great supporter of the Greek Revolution of 1821.

            Dr. Anjot discussed Chateaubriand’s Génie du christianisme, published in 1802, the same year as the novel the class would discuss, René, because of its later influence on Romantic thought, more on art and literature than on religion.  In it, the author declares that “Christianity comes from God because it is excellent.”  This kind of Romantic statement is typical of his approach.  Further on, he claims that “only Christianity is able to explain progress in art and literature.”  He is highly critical of the writers of the eighteenth-century Enlightenment, such as Voltaire, but makes a partial exception in favor of Rousseau, whose emotional fireworks appealed to him.  He praised the Christian middle ages, and glorified Gothic architecture.  All the elements of Romanticism are present.  In essence, he claimed that Catholic Christianity was true because it satisfied the emotions.  As a Romantic and as a defender of Catholicism, Chateaubriand was similar to his contemporary Louis Gabriel Ambroise, Vicomte de Bonald (1754-1840), but the latter was more completely reactionary in both religion and politics, holding that all knowledge was false unless based on revelation, and royal absolutism was divinely ordained.

            As the class broke up, Marc Rimbault commented to Bryce in a sarcastic voice, “I suppose you’re a great fan of these guys we have to read next.”

            “As a matter of fact, no, I’m not,” Bryce answered.

            “Huh?  I thought you Catholics all stuck together,” Marc responded.

            “There are variations within Catholicism and always have been.  I find Chateaubriand entirely too emotional, and Bonald too anti-rational for my tastes,” Bryce stated.

            “Too anti-rational!  All religion is anti-rational,” Marc declared.

            “Not as I understand it.  In fact, there is a strong tradition of the use of reason to better understand religion going back to ancient times, and is definitely part of the Catholic tradition.  I was talking to someone else about that only Saturday.  If you would do a little research, Marc, you would find that Bonald’s position was rejected by the First Vatican Council in 1870.”

            “You’re kidding!”

            “No, check it out,” Bryce insisted.  “But I’ve got to run.  English class next,” he explained as he took off for the neighboring building.

            In his English class, Bryce was learning about the context, or milieu, of Samuel Johnson.  In light of his own proposed paper on Johnson’s views on evil, and his History research topic involving a comparison of Johnson (1709-1784) with John Wesley (1703-1791), he was particularly interested in Dr. Etheridge’s discussion of the condition of the Church of England in the eighteenth century.  After the so-called Glorious Revolution of 1688-89, and more especially after the Hanoverian Succession of 1714, appointments to high office in the Church were made based on the political loyalty of the individuals, with almost no consideration given to religion.  The Church of England became primarily an extension of the governing elite, with bishops who were of very questionable orthodoxy common, and little or no attention given to matters of faith or matters of charity.  These things were dealt with by individuals and organizations either entirely outside the established church, or only marginally associated with it.  The primary example of that is Wesley’s Methodist Societies, at that time not a separate denomination, but autonomous bodies within the Church of England seeking a deeper spirituality than that offered by the establishment.  One of the leading humanitarian movements of the day, the anti-slavery movement, was led primarily by dissenters, especially Quakers.  Johnson had his work cut out for him when he set out to defend orthodoxy.

            After class, Bryce spent an hour in the library, completing his research proposal for his French class with a topic involving the congruence of the literary and the political affairs of Victor Hugo (1802-1885).  As Samuel Johnson featured in both his English and his History class, he also did additional reading in the works of Johnson.  His topic in History involved a comparison of Johnson and Wesley, so he read in the Journal of Wesley, as well as his hymns, although it was difficult to separate the hymnal compositions of John Wesley from those of his brother Charles on occasion.  They were so similar in outlook, that Bryce wondered whether that mattered.

            Shortly before noon, Bryce made his way to the food court on the ground level of the Student Union, where he snagged places for himself and Damon, who came along shortly after.  They were settled in, discussing their day, when Gary Woodson, the President of the GLBT Club, stopped by.

            “Don’t tell me you’re calling another Executive Committee meeting,” Bryce groaned.

            “No.  Not today, anyway,” Gary teased him.  “I just wanted to tell you that your idea about contacting other student organizations seems to be paying off.  Putting our defense of the protestors in terms of free speech, and contrasting that with the violence of the attackers, seems to have hit a positive note among lots of people on campus.  Of course, there are the negative responses, but this is no longer just a gay issue.  The Administration has to reconsider its decisions of last Friday.  Glad to have you aboard, Bryce,” Gary congratulated his Secretary.

            “You’re welcome,” an embarrassed Bryce mumbled.

            “So, you’re becoming the consumate campus politician,” Damon goaded his boyfriend after Gary left.

            “Can it, Damon,” Bryce insisted.

            Unexpectedly, Marc Rimbault made his appearance.  He approached the table where Bryce and Damon were ensconced hesitantly.  Bryce decided to be as accepting as possible.  “Hi, Marc.  You looking for a place to park?”

            “Yeah, kind of,” Marc replied.

            “We have room.”

            Marc sat.  He obviously had something to say, but had some difficulty getting around to it.  “I don’t really understand you, Bryce,” he finally stated.

            “That’s okay.  I don’t understand myself half the time,” Bryce answered, trying to keep things on a light level.

            “And I don’t understand my boyfriend even half the time,” Damon contributed.

            “See, that’s part of what I don’t understand.  You’re gay, and yet you claim to be Catholic,” Marc complained.

            “Not claim to be.  He is, believe me,” Damon answered for his partner.  “I’ve seen him at work on that, and I’ve heard him talk to others about it.  There’s no doubt both things are true of this paradox of mine.”  At that Damon hugged Bryce, to his considerable embarrassment.

            “What brought this on, Marc?” Bryce asked.

            “What you said after class this morning.  About Bonald being too anti-rational, and about Vatican I.  I did a little checking in the library, and you’re right about the First Vatican Council.”

            “Yeah.  I learned about that last semester from Father Miller.  He’s the Catholic chaplain over at the Newman Center.  I was seeing him pretty regularly, trying to work out this thing about being gay and Catholic.  Like you implied, it does take some working to get the pieces to mesh,” Bryce explained.

            “I was under the impression that the Catholic Church dealt in all kinds of emotional devotions and ... I don’t want to offend.  Not this time, anyway.  But what I was going to say was ‘hoaxes’ ... like Fatima or Lourdes,” Marc said.

            “I’m not prepared to defend all the various devotions that have been used from time to time.  All I can say right now is, the Church has to satisfy a wide spectrum of individuals.  What’s the phrase St. Paul uses?  All things to all men.  For the average Joe in the pew, it’s enough to know that he is part of a great and certain tradition, and to observe the devotions he is accustomed to, without thinking about them too much.  For those cursed with intelligence above the average, reconciling the faith with the developments in other areas of human endeavor is a constant struggle.  We each have that interior struggle, what the Greeks called agathon, in order to remain true to ourselves and to our heritage.  Jesus told his disciples, In my father’s house, there are many mansions.  I see this as a recognition that there are many ways of understanding the faith.  I’m completely turned off by some of what I think of as Mediterranean devotions, like climbing the scala sancta on one’s knees at the Basilica of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme in Rome, or the liquefying blood of St. Januarius in Naples, but if that satisfies some inner need of someone else, I have no objection to it.  In my case, I had to be convinced by Father Miller that what I knew intuitively about being gay, and what I believed as a Catholic, were compatible.  For those who accept the challenge, who engage in the agathon, the rewards are great.  I’m looking forward to absolute fulfillment, physically, intellectually, and spiritually.  I want to be a complete human being.”

            “That’s an ambitious program.  One I don’t think possible of achievement.  But I guess I have to accept that you’re serious.  I wasn’t all that sure before,” Marc confessed.

            “Marc, I barely know you, but I sense there’s something you’re struggling with as well.  I had a lot to learn last semester, and the process is by no means complete.  If I can help, I will,” Bryce assured his fellow student.

            ‘Okay, here,” Marc said, reaching up to his right shoulder, and pretending to remove something.  “I’m taking the chip off my shoulder.  I’d like to talk to you from time to time, and I’ll try not to be confrontational.”

            “I appreciate that, and, like I said, I’m willing.  I assume you have no problem with Damon being part of any discussions.  Of late, he seems to like hearing me rattle on,” Bryce poked his lover.

            “Yeah,” Damon said.  “Sometimes you even make sense.”

            “What’s your schedule like for the rest of the day?” Marc asked.

            “Biology from one to two, History from two to three.  You’re in that class.  After that, I’m flexible, although I do have some work that needs to be done,” Bryce answered.

            “How about after History?  We could go someplace like Pat’s Tavern, which I’ve discovered is pretty understanding about checking IDs,” Marc proposed.  “My treat.”

            “Yeah, we discovered Pat’s last semester.  And this term Damon is free, too.  Last term he had his favorite class from three to four,” Bryce said, showing a face of perfect innocence.

            Damon scowled and growled.  “It was Math, and a long, long way from my favorite class,” he informed Marc.

            “Okay, we meet at Pat’s after class lets out at three,” Marc confirmed.

            Bryce and Damon made their way to Audubon Hall and their Biology lecture with Dr. Harris.  Struck by inspiration, when class was over, Bryce approached the professor.

            “Ah, Dr. Harris, I’m Bryce Winslow.”

            “Yes, Mr. Winslow.  I know who you are by now,” Dr. Harris replied.

            “Yes, well, I’m the Secretary of the GLBT Club on campus.”

            “You guys made quite a ruckus last week, didn’t you?”

            “Not exactly.  Most of the demonstrators were Club members, but it was not a Club function.  That’s kind of what I wanted to ask about.  Would you be willing to be a guest speaker at one of our meetings?  I recall that last semester you discussed the biological bases of sexual orientation,” Bryce proposed.

            “And I recall that you did a paper on that topic.  What’s the difference between me giving a talk and you giving your paper?” Dr. Harris asked.

            Bryce grinned.  “I’m a freshman and you’re a faculty member.”

            Dr. Harris laughed.  He eyed Bryce carefully.  “No demonstrations,” he laid down his condition.

            “No sir.  Only a meeting with a guest speaker,” Bryce promised.

            “Maybe a joint meeting with TriBeta.  That’s the Biology honor society,” Dr. Harris suggested.

            “An excellent idea,” Bryce agreed.  “I have to rush off to another class, but I’ll stop by your office later to discuss this further.”

            “You do love to get yourself involved in stuff,” Damon commented, as the two went their separate ways for the next hour.

            In Dr. Dickinson’s History class, Bryce greeted Marc, but had no time to say anything more before class began.  Dr. Dickinson spent the hour discussing the Electorate of Hanover, the original home of King George I and the House of Welf, sometimes spelled Guelph.  Hanover was a fairly significant land in northern Germany, controlling the hinterland behind the port cities of Hamburg and Bremen.  It had played a major part in German affairs for centuries, and would continue to do so until conquered and absorbed by Prussia in 1866.  The English sometimes accused George of spending too much time involved in Hanoverian affairs, and spoke disparagingly of the Electorate, but Hanover provided George with half his income, not to mention the fact that it had been his home from birth in 1660 until succeeding to the British throne in 1714.  Moreover, with Jacobite uprisings and the like, George’s hold on the British throne was not all that secure, so Hanover was definitely worth preserving, just in case England was lost to the dynasty.

            “Ready for a trek over to Pat’s?” Marc asked as class broke up.

            “Yeah.  A brewski sounds good right now.  Let’s stop by Warren-Stuart and see whether we can pick up Damon on the way,” Bryce replied.

            “Just so I know where I stand, and don’t put my foot in it, Damon is your boyfriend, right?” Marc wanted to determine.

            “Definitely.  We kind of found each other last semester, and made a commitment,” Bryce said.

            “You two don’t seem to have a lot in common,” Marc commented.

            Bryce laughed.  “I know.  Sometimes I wonder about the sense of humor God has in throwing us together.”

            “You think God threw you two together?” Marc wondered.

            “Definitely to that, too,” Bryce said, as he spotted his boyfriend coming out of the English building.  They gripped arms, in something like a Roman greeting, and the three set out for Pat’s Tavern off campus.

            “I heard that in Germany they have bars on campus,” Marc observed.

            “Don’t know.  I was too small to be interested in bars when we visited Germany.  But they definitely serve wine in student cafeterias in Rome.  I found that out last summer,” Bryce replied.

            “How did we get left out?” Damon lamented.

            “The damn Puritans,” Marc answered, and Bryce nodded agreement.

            After finding a booth off to one side, and ordering three drafts, the guys settled down to continue their conversation.

            “It was the New England influence at first, with all those Puritans, that made us so uptight, but then came the great religious revivals in the later eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries,” said Marc.  “That significantly strengthened the influence in national life of what we might broadly call the fundamentalist denominations.  They got so strong that we even outlawed liquor with the Prohibition amendment in 1919.  Can you believe it?  People were so naive they actually thought you could eliminate alcohol entirely from the entire nation.  We came closer to a totalitarian regime during those years than at any other time, with the federal government spying on private individuals,” Marc continued.

            “Well, at least that’s one thing you can’t accuse the Catholic Church of, Marc,” Bryce noted.  “We’ve never been against alcohol.”

            “Only against sex,” Marc accused.

            “I have to admit it looks that way sometimes,” Bryce said shaking his head.  “You know I’ll be giving you some arguments about that never being official doctrine, so I’ll spare you that for the moment.”

            “How come you’re being so nice to this guy?” Damon asked.  “I never knew you to spare anyone else one of your lectures.”

            Bryce grinned, but replied, “He’s paying for the beer.”

            “I think on this occasion we should focus on getting to know each other better, and leave the serious arguments for another time,” Marc proposed.  “I seem to make all kinds of false assumptions when I begin by standing on my soap box instead of asking where you’re standing.”

            “Well put,” Bryce agreed.

            For the next two hours, the three students spent their time talking about themselves, including family background, interests, majors and ambitions, et cetera.  There was nothing in what Bryce or Damon said which they did not already know about each other, but Marc was virtually virgin ground.

            Marc repeated that he was a native of St. Martinville, Louisiana, something he told Bryce when they first met at the Sigma Alpha Tau party.  The girl who was with him at the time was his sister, and the other guy was her current boyfriend.  The family moved around a good deal because of their father’s job, so he grew up in several places, mostly in the Midwest and Texas.  “My family is Catholic,” he told Bryce, “but I left the Church in high school, when I decided I was gay, and encountered the totally unaccepting position of the Church.  I knew I was gay, and that was just part of me, something I had no control over.  Attending church is not a part of me, something I can control, so I could leave that aside and still be me.”

            “That,” Bryce said, “is something we need to talk about at some future time.”

            “I ran smack dab into hatred and prejudice when I tried to come out in my Catholic high school, so I have had nothing to do with the Catholic Church, or any other religion, since then.  I kept my mouth shut, and finished that year.  Fortunately, we moved that summer again, so in the next place I insisted on a public school.  That’s been my experience, and no amount of talk will change that,” Marc declared.

            “I’m sorry you had such a bad experience.  My own was not nearly as traumatic.  But, like we agreed at the outset, we’ll postpone that for another day,” Bryce insisted.

            “Okay.  You’re right, we did agree.  In fact, it was my suggestion.  So, Bryce is a Catholic and I’m an ex-Catholic, an agnostic.  What about you, Damon?”

            “I’m a nothing,” Damon proclaimed.  “Never went to church, never belonged to any church.  I was too busy surviving in the projects to worry about surviving in the next life, if there is a next life.  I go with Bryce ... well, because he’s Bryce.  I like some things I see, and I don’t like other things.  I’m thinking, but I’ve made no commitments.”

            “You’re pre-law, like me, right?” Marc asked.

            “Right.  Pre-laws can major in a variety of departments, and I selected Political Science, but I’m not all that interested in the theory classes I’ll have to take.  I want to get to law school, and then get out there and make a difference for people like I was growing up,” Damon expounded.

            “You’re more idealistic than I am,” Marc conceded.  “I sometimes think about making a difference, but mostly I’m interested in a career I think I can be good at, and making a comfortable living.”

            “Do you have any special place you want to practice when you get your license?” Damon asked.

            “Not really.  Growing up in all sorts of places like I did, I don’t really belong anywhere.  I guess I’ll just have to see what’s available when the time comes,” Marc said.

            “I grew up entirely in Chicago, but I’m never going back to the projects,” Damon said.  “But I kind of think where I end up practicing law will depend on where my boyfriend ends up.  How about it, Bryce?  Where are you going to teach history?”

            “Who knows what the job market will be like by the time I finish my Ph.D.?  Of course, if I had my choice, I’d like to go back to Lincoln, to be near my family,” Bryce answered.

            “You realize what this involves?” Damon teased.  “Your father is a lawyer, and your brother is in law school.  I’ll end up partners in a law firm with your father and brother.”

            “Oh, no!  I can see it now.  Law offices with a wall of ice between you and Chip, and suing each other on alternate Mondays,” Bryce imagined.

            “I take it you and Bryce’s brother do not get along,” Marc said to Damon.

            That sent Damon and Bryce into paroxysms of laughter, imagining scenarios between the two men, and letting Marc in on some of the incidents over the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.  After all that, the three broke up, with Bryce and Damon heading to El Rincon Latino for dinner and then studying.