Y1s and Y2s Have Thrown Seminar-Themed Parties For Years

Liana Van Nostrand, ‘16  

April Fools 2016

Until recently, a decade-old tradition of seminar-themed parties thrown by Year 1s and Year 2s had remained a secret. The parties only became public knowledge when a courageous tenth-grader ventured into the CTO and overheard two Year 2s struggling to plan one. The sophomore, who wished to remain anonymous for fear of retribution from Year 1s and Year 2s, said he “went to [guidance counselor Ms. Anna] Azeglio to talk after the incident, because I was confused by what I heard.What is postmodernism anyway? Why is it so hard to plan a postmodern party?” From there the news spread to the faculty, the administration, and the rest of the student body. 

Indeed, the nature of some of the seminar texts has proven to be somewhat of a challenge for would-be-party-planning students. “I thought about hosting an Inferno [by Dante Alighieri] themed party last year,” said Emma Morgan-Bennett, Y2, “but I realized decorating accurately would be impossible. Plus, I don’t even have nine rooms in my apartment. And on top of that there are all those different rings inside the circles.” Other books were similarly left off the calendar. “I really enjoyed reading all of the Greek tragedies in class last year,” said Solomon Dworkin, Y2, “But who would want to attend an Oedipus party? Talk about awkward.” 

One party last fall, which was inspired by Civilization and Its Discontents by Sigmund Freud, garnered widespread praise from attendees. “I know it’s called Civilization and Its Discontents, but from what I remember everyone seemed more than content,” reported Finn Clark, Y2. “Admittedly, we sort of ignored the whole ‘infantile helplessness’ aspect and focused more on the pleasure principle. But that’s what our ids wanted anyway,” he concluded. “It was sort of hard to get into the spirit of the party when I hadn't read any Freud,” said a Year 2, who asked not to be named for obvious reasons. “I mean, c’mon, that was like right when college apps were due. I do wish I knew why everyone kept saying stuff like ‘I’m going to use up my fixed reserve of libidinal energy tonight.’ I still had a lot fun though.” It seemed many other students were in a similar situation and had not even opened their school-provided copy of Civilization and Its Discontents. After having practiced in class, they still managed to have a great time by acting as if they had read the book.

A Pride and Prejudice themed party received mixed reviews. Attendees humorously spoke in English accents the entire evening. Most started off the night acting snobbishly, but then revealed their softer side as it got later à la Mr. Darcy. “At first it was sort of hard to reconcile the heteronormativity of  ‘It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife’ with our grade’s open-mindedness. But of course we all know that Austen was a great satirist,” said Emma Lee, Y2. Some students took to winking whenever they said anything so everyone else would know they were being ironic. While this strategy did reflect students’ recognition of Austen’s tone, some recipients of such winks said that the excessive winking “quickly got weird” and “was confusing because I thought maybe people were trying to convey something to me in morse code.” 

While some of the parties were composed almost entirely of Year 2s because the Year 1s had not yet read the book, Year 2s decided to invite Year 1s to a Halloween costume party inspired by Karl Marx’s The Communist Manifesto if they came dressed as the proletariat. Year 2s came as the bourgeoisie. Students quickly realized, however, that the composition of the party could not accurately represent the class division Marx argued against, because more students came dressed as members of the bourgeoisie than the proletariat. “The wealth and means of production were supposed to be concentrated within a very small segment of the population,” lamented Annalee Tai, Y2, “not the majority of it.” Ella Ezratty, a Year 1 who attended the party, said it “wasn't as fun as I expected because Year 2s kept pulling me aside to tell me I lacked ‘the revolutionary character necessary to reach a Hegelian synthesis of the dialectical’, whatever that meant.”

Seminar teachers seemed mostly perplexed by the existence of such parties. Ms. Burleigh commented, “I'm glad students are interested in exploring the texts outside of class. I just wish they'd bring the same enthusiasm to class. Maybe they could participate once in awhile and not leave the room for fifteen minutes in the middle of the period.” Dr. Holbrook seemed a bit more intrigued. “I think it’s a cool idea. I’m not sure if students are planning a postmodernism one, but if they are I’d love to play some of my music live if they’d have me,” he said. 

If the Year 2s the whistle-blower sophomore overheard can figure out what a postmodern party is, then it seems Dr. Holbrook may just get his wish. But even if they do manage to plan one, it is currently unknown whether widespread knowledge of the parties will end the tradition forever. “I’ve always felt a little iffy about the seminar parties,” said a Year 2, “it just seems to me like they might be diminishing and trivializing important social issues like economic inequality and race relations. And now that everyone knows about them, I don’t know if I want to go anymore.”