Ideological differences in a writing class evoke the passion of political sensitivities. A graduate student tells of "coming out" as a pro-life advocate in an essay before his feminist classmates and professor. The exchange created instant and irreconcilable enemies, but he also found some unexpected support from a hesitant voice within that classroom.Before my classmate had finished reading, I knew there would be trouble. "Trouble" in a graduate English seminar usually means little more than arguing over whether the ghost of Hamlet's father is real or imaginary. Such disputes don't normally end friendships or make lifelong enemies of strangers. But this one had that potential."Today's memoir disturbed me in many ways," Susan read aloud to the ten of us clustered around a long wooden table. She was a tall woman with dyed-red hair and a tattoo of a long-feathered bird on one shoulder. I'd chatted with her a few times on the elevator, about the program, our research, the eccentricities of our professorcommiserations of grad students the world over. The "memoir" she referred to was our reading for that week, a book by a French woman, Annie Ernaux, who had been shattered by the experience of a late-term, illegal abortion.For me, part of the horror of Ernaux's story came from my own moral qualms about abortion. Not that I'm an expert on the subject-my pro-life arguments, even at their sharpest, are really just rhetorical flourishes that sit lightly on top of gut feelings. But Susan had different reasons for feeling uncomfortable.
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