Lilia Qian
Writing 101: Last Night a DJ Saved My Life
Instructor: Michael Dimpfl
Crisis Makes the Identity,
Identity Makes the Crisis
Biography
After a pandemic gap year during which I’d become uncomfortably comfortable thinking and writing exclusively about one small and particular handful of ideas, I felt an urgent need to choose a writing class that would ask—perhaps force—me to write about something I’d never ventured to think about. So, I chose a topic area I had no prior experience or interest in, disco. My disco semester involved acquiring the short-lived ability to quote Marx verbatim, publicly dancing in a dim, sparkly room to very loud music, and learning what other people mean they say they “feel alive.” Having grown up in a fairly standard east coast suburb, my range of sensory experiences had, prior to class, seldom exceeded the stimulation of an aggressive car muffler passing by on the highway. (This is only a slight exaggeration.) The texts, beats, and lyrics I encountered in writing class provided me a window into new worlds and impossibly foreign value systems, mental tools I continue to use today.
I would like to express my sincere thanks to Dr. Michael Dimpfl for sharing his convictions with the class all semester, for having faith that we might listen, and for his encouragement to be alive in our lives. (I am still considering switching to a flip phone—any day now.) Thanks also to Dr. Sheryl Welte Emch and the Deliberations editorial board for their sharp feedback, without which this essay would be decidedly
incomplete.