Encountering Incongruity

J. Z. Smith’s work has been a staple in the “Theory and Method” courses I have taught at Grinnell College for nearly two decades. I have always been struck by how his writing grabs and energizes our undergraduates and how Smith himself becomes, on occasion, an object of fascination for them. One year, the Religious Studies majors decided to immortalize Smith with their annual t-shirt. On the front of the pink shirt were the words “Jay-Z?” and an image of the rapper; the back—“Or JZ?”—featured an image of Smith, seated, leaning on his cane, and staring straight at the viewer. My colleague Ed Gilday delivered one of the shirts to Smith, who then wrote a letter of thanks to the students expressing delight and informing them that he had worn the shirt to one of his classes. He also assured them that he knew more about “the bearer of that variation of my cognomen than you might suspect.”

Art · Art history · Front (military) · Object (grammar) · Sociology · Staring · Suspect · Communication · Engineering · Philosophy · Religious Education and Schools