Marc's Inventions

Some of you may not know me - I was a grad student in French, back in the days when Marc was still in the French department. I heard about his passing from Kristin and Ellen, two grad students who were in the department with me. I have so many memories of Marc - many of them echo the things that have already been said about him here. Those liberating pieces of advice (Dissertation advice: 'Just write it. It's not like anybody's going to read it' - Strangely, that one really did it for me). His laughter - if I could channel it here I would - and his iconoclasm. The way he had of pulling the intellectual rug out from under you, giving you the perspective on things that nobody else would. I loved his exuberant weirdness.

One of my favorite memories of Marc is of a story (a tall tale?) he once told me about a particularly grey, depressing day in the corridors of Sproul Hall. Everyone was shut in their offices, stressing away. So Marc decided to test out what he referred to as one of his 'inventions' (which suggests that there were others-!!). He described this 'invention' to me as a jump rope with weights attached so that you could work out and jump rope at the same time. Marc took this invention into the corridors and started jumping. Slowly, he says, his colleagues started coming out of their offices. He described each of their reactions: 'I saw an eye peering at me from the office across the hall... Then Marguerita opened her door... Maria was terrified! Liz came out... Then Manfred emerged, shook his head, and said "Diderot would not approve"'. I like this memory so much. It seems to sum up a lot of things about Marc. His mischievousness and his humor. It doesn't matter that I wasn't there to see it, or whether it ever really happened. I will remember Marc this way... jumping rope in the corridors of Sproul Hall.

I owe him so much. Thanks for setting up this page - I hope some of you enjoy reading about the Marc that I knew, the Marc that I will miss, even though I haven't seen him in years.