Charlotte Simmons

I am Charlotte Simmons by Tom Wolfe.

Interesting book, I'd recommend it as an interesting read, though not a great read. I'm about seven chapters into it and am only discovering what I already know - namely higher education is nothing more than a joke, a mere excuse to party.

The book does have some excellent points, namely chapter six. Charlotte finds her roommate waking her up at 2:00 in the morning, asking her to leave so her and her boyfriend can have sex in the dorm room. Charlotte, after being horrified at the request, leaves and wonders through dorm aimlessly looking for somewhere to sleep. This point becomes the proverbial "straw that breaks the camels back", and Charlotte finds herself deeply disturbed over the fact that higher education is merely a front for complete decadence.

As a result of this disturbing line of thought, she decides to call a friend from her past, Laurie, who is a sophomore at another university. Being a year ahead of Charlotte, and thus having more experience and expertise, Charlotte believes Laurie will have the guiding words of encouragement to guide her through this troubling time.

Short side note on Laurie: Charlotte recalls Laurie baptizing people in the ice cold river water of Allegheny County, NC - alluding to her incredible spiritual foundation.

So what happens? Needless to say I love this part, though I don't particularly love the entire book:

Laurie answers the phone with obscene rap music blaring in the background. Immediately, within a few lines, Charlotte gets down to business and begins commenting on how life at Dupont, her university, is nothing but a lavish affair of moral decadence.

Laurie, who you would think would be the spiritual foundation in Charlotte's life, begins to slowly degrade the conversation to, "Having sex really isn't that bad, it’s not that serious." Then completely breaks loose and comments on how life back in Allegheny County was merely a prison for the sole fact that life included relationship obligations - if you had sex, you paid the consequences of sex via the entire town knowing what you've done and where you've been. Laurie, being a complete idiot, does bring one well-stated point into the conversation when she states something to the effect of,

"...College is like this four-year period you have when you can try anything - and everything - and if it goes wrong, there's no consequences? You know what I mean? Nobody's keeping score? You can do things that if you tried them before you got to college, your family would be crying and pulling their hair out and giving you these now see-what-you've-gone-and-done-looks? - and everybody in Sparta would be clucking and fuming and having a ball talking behind your back about it?..."

All this coming from the girl who participated in baptisms in the stream of the local river. Though it is a good point, and it alludes to the narcissistic self that removes all social ties in order to live completely free, or as free as one can live, within the world they create for themselves.

The key point I like in this chapter is the concept of Charlotte losing all of her faith and desperately reaching out to try and find someone who can reaffirm what she believes. She frantically reaches out in a last-ditch-effort only to hear blaring rap music on the other end of the phone from an "illiterate rap artist."

Personally, I think I like the chapter so much because of the relation to myself. Maybe we've all been there, but I know for one I have. Trying desperately to find something genuine in the world only to realize that everyone has succumbed to the MTV lifestyle of pure pointless moral degradation.