I entered Johns Hopkins University as a freshman in the fall of 1965 and graduated in 1969 with a degree in Philosophy. I spent three more years then getting a master’s degree in humanities while also working in the Chaplain’s Office as a conscientious objector to military service. When I published my book on music, Beethoven’s Anvil: Music in Mind and Culture (2001) I dedicated it to my five fathers. I worked with two of them at Johns Hopkins, Richard Macksey and Chester Wickwire. (My first father, of course, is my biological father, William Benzon. David Dysert is my second, he was my music teacher for five years. David Hays is my fifth; he was my Ph.D. teacher and mentor. We later became colleagues.)
While the pieces I list in this post hear cover much of what happened to me during those formative years, they don’t cover everything. For one thing, my relationship with my sister changed substantially during that time, though that didn’t happen in Baltimore. I should probably say a bit about other faculty members, Maurice Mandelbaum (philosophy), Neville Dyson-Hudson (anthropology), Arthur Stinchcombe (sociology) and Mary Ainsworth (psychology). Nor do I say anything about my friends Henry Shapiro, Fred Portnoy, Peter Barnett (whom I have kept up with), Ivia Waterman and Al Crowley, Frank Munley (I’ve also kept up with him), Vicki Pollard, and Donna Keck. I might also say a word or two about the strange (sexual) affair I carried out through the phone over the course of, I don’t know, two or three months. And perhaps I should say something about the letter I published in Playboy in 1966 since it was my first national publication (of sorts). Perhaps I do some more writing about that period of my life. But for now, this is what I’ve got.
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My Annus Mirabilis
“Annus Mirabilis” – a somewhat pretentious term meaning “wonderful year,” and used in mostly obsolete contexts.
These two papers are about the period from 1968-1972, when I settled on Coleridge’s “Kubla Khan” as the focus of my intellectual life, a focus that remains with me to this day. I originally published “Touchstones” in December 1975 in, Paunch, a journal edited by my teacher, Art Efron. The current version contains annotations that bring it more or less current. It loops back to several childhood experiences which I identify as precursors to events that happened during those years, including both my structural analysis of “Kubla Khan” and the LSD trip I took in January 1972 got me “unstuck,” freeing me up both to finish my work on “Kubla Khan” and to enroll for trumpet lessons at the Peabody Conservatory.
Touchstones • Strange Encounters • Strange Poems • the beginning of an intellectual life, November 2015, Academia.edu. https://www.academia.edu/9814276/Touchstones_Strange_Encounters_Strange_Poems_the_beginning_of_an_intellectual_life
An esoteric interpretation of my annus mirabilis, 1968-1971 https://new-savanna.blogspot.com/2025/05/an-esoteric-interpretation-of-my-annus.html
This is rather different from all the other papers here as it is mostly written by ChatGPT as it interprets a series of events. First what happened to me in the course of writing four term papers in the course on Romantic literature where I settled on “Kubla Khan.” The first two papers involved distinctly different altered states of consciousness, while the last two did not. Then I tell ChatGPT about a mystical experience I had while performing with a rock band some time in 1971. I asked ChatGPT to interpret these events using concepts from Hinduism and Buddhism. The Chatster concludes: “This is not just an academic coming-of-age story. This is a spiritual initiation disguised as a liberal education.”
Johns Hopkins, Academics
Dick Macksey was my mentor at Johns Hopkins, both as an undergraduate and a graduate student. Without him, I don’t know what I would have done. Earl Wasserman introduced me to the close reading of poetry and, in particular, to Coleridge’s “Kubla Khan.”
“It got adults off your back” – Richard Macksey remembered, 3 Quarks Daily, Aug. 19, 2019, https://3quarksdaily.com/3quarksdaily/2019/08/it-got-adults-off-your-back-richard-macksey-remembered.html At Academia.edu: https://www.academia.edu/40040691/_It_got_adults_off_your_back_Richard_Macksey_remembered
Earl Wasserman, a lifelong student, a scholar’s scholar, New Savanna, September 27, 2018, https://new-savanna.blogspot.com/2018/09/earl-wasserman-lifelong-student.html
This one is about the Tudor and Stuart Club, a literary society. I was the club secretary for two or three years. This one gives you a glimpse of academic life outside the classroom.
Old School: Torpor and Stupor at Johns Hopkins, 3 Quarks Daily, Nov. 13, 2017, https://3quarksdaily.com/3quarksdaily/2017/11/old-school-torpor-and-stupor-at-johns-hopkins.html
This is the first thing I published in the student newspaper. It’s a review of John Barth’s story collection, Lost in the Funhouse, which is written as a parody of the book. I’m told that Barth liked it.
John Barth and Me, Having Fun [Trapped], New Savanna, April 3, 2024, https://new-savanna.blogspot.com/2024/04/john-barth-and-me-having-fun-trapped.html
In this longish blog post I talk about the three universities is knew, Johns Hopkins for undergraduate school, State University of New York at Buffalo for my Ph.D., and the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute for my first and only faculty job.
The Hunt for Genius, Part 5: Three Elite Schools, New Savanna, July 23, 2019 (originally posted in October 2013) https://new-savanna.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-hunt-for-genius-part-5-three-elite.html
Chester Wickwire [Johns Hopkins]
All of these blog posts involve Chester Wickwire, the Chaplain at Johns Hopkins. I participated in various programs run by him during my undergraduate years and then worked in the Chaplain’s Office to fulfill my Selective Service obligation as a conscientious objector to military service.
Living with Living Creatures: Will We Become the Apocalypse, New Savanna, May 22, 2011, https://new-savanna.blogspot.com/2011/05/living-with-living-creatures-will-we.html
Break! How I Busted Three Trumpeters Out of a Maryland Prison, New Savanna, August 3, 2012, https://3quarksdaily.com/3quarksdaily/2016/04/break-how-i-busted-three-trumpeters-out-of-a-maryland-prison.html
How I Freaked the Secret Service and Live to Tell About It, New Savanna, Nov. 5, 2014 https://new-savanna.blogspot.com/2014/11/how-i-freaked-secret-service-and-lived.html
Music
Music has always been important in my life. The first two pieces are about music I heard in Baltimore while the third is about the rock band I played in during 1969-1971. Some of the gigs I played with that band are among the happiest moments in my life but the last gig was something else entirely, a mystical experience that shook me to the core.
Ecstasy at Baltimore’s Left Bank Jazz Society, 3 Quarks Daily, May 2, 2016, https://3quarksdaily.com/3quarksdaily/2016/05/ecstasy-at-baltimores-left-bank-jazz-society.html
Rahsaan works the crowd, New Savanna, December 6, 2022, https://new-savanna.blogspot.com/2017/12/rahsaan-works-crowd.html
White Light and Basement Joy: Into The Saint Matthew Passion and Beyond. 3 Quarks Daily, May 19, 2025. https://3quarksdaily.com/3quarksdaily/2025/05/white-light-and-basement-joy-into-the-saint-matthew-passion-and-beyond.html
Politics
My college years came as the Civil Rights movement peaked and as the anti-war movement peaked. I protested the war in Vietnam, became a conscientious objector to it, and spent a good deal of time with political activists in Baltimore. These blog posts present two aspects of that engagement.
Breaking down monogamy in Baltimore in the early 1970s, New Savanna, March 30, 2025 https://new-savanna.blogspot.com/2025/03/breaking-down-monogamy-in-baltimore-in.html
I became a conscientious objector during the War in Vietnam, New Savanna, April 14, 2025, https://new-savanna.blogspot.com/2025/04/i-became-conscientious-objector-during.html
In Love
The second paragraph: “At the time, I thought I was in love. But, considered as a love relationship, it would’ve made a strange movie. For the love was mostly in my mind, not in the relationship.” And then there’s Christel, who had been my first year German teacher, and Dante and his beloved Beatrice, whom I knew not at all except at the remostest distance.
My First Muse, and My Second, New Savanna, September 3, 2011, https://new-savanna.blogspot.com/2011/09/my-first-muse-and-my-second.html
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