Here at Penn State the arts are surrounding us every day.
This year the College of Liberal Arts sponsored a marathon reading of the novel
Catch-22, written by Joseph Heller. What even is a marathon reading? I have
never heard of such an event until posters advertising the reading were posted
all over campus. Something like this seemed odd to me at first, but the idea
grew on me as time went by. Being a freshman, I was still learning about all
the opportunities that Penn State had to offer. This event seemed like a great
way for me to get involved, while experiencing the community around me.
The marathon reading began at 1:00
p.m., on the lawn in front of the Paterno/Pattee Library. This reading allowed
students and faculty to come together and read the entire novel in five to
seven minute increments. The reading took over twenty-four hours to complete
and continued through the night. People were encouraged to bring pillows and
blankets to camp out overnight while listening to the reading. Pizza was served
for dinner and breakfast was served for those who were still there in the
morning. People were allowed to sign up for a time slot and then read a part of
the novel. The author of Catch-22, Joseph Heller, was a former Penn State Professor.
He started to write this novel while teaching his first-year composition class. This
information taught me something about the Penn State community, and I ended up attending the marathon reading for a little to
see what it was all about.
I
arrived to the lawn at about nine p.m. There were a lot less people there then
I had originally expected. I was not signed up to read, but my roommate was so
I thought I would sit and listen to her and a few other people. When I first sat
down an older woman was at the podium reading into the microphone. She read
with such enthusiasm and made it very interesting to listen too. Of course I
was very lost in the plot line due to the fact that I came while they were in
the middle of the novel, but it was still fun to sit and listen to such a sweet
woman read with passion. As I sat there waiting for my roommate to read, I began
to get tired. I couldn’t seem to pay attention to the reading and I was still
very lost in what was happening. This event was on a Thursday and I had class
the next morning. Although this event seemed like a very great way for people
of the community to get involved, it was hard for a lot of college students to
attend because it was so long. Attending this event was very
interesting and great to see what Penn State does to honor the people in the
community that have accomplished many things. Although I feel like it would have been better to do over the weekend, it still was a great idea to try again next year!
