John Rose and the Exorcism on Route 5

Features
The Independent
John Rose and the Exorcism on Route 5
By Scout MacEachron
As it enters the eerily grey hour between
sunset and nightfall a man and a group of thirty
students surround a roadside sign off Route 5 in
Brattleboro. They are waiting to perform an
exorcism.
The man, John Rose, an English professor at
Landmark College, has given
his students a list of common
redundancies
such
as
“absolutely
necessary”
or
“basic fundamentals,” and
Allen Ginsberg’s list poem
“Cosmopolitan Greetings.”
With a shower curtain
secured around his neck as a
cape, Rose leaps into the road,
bending, rolling and writhing to
the other side. The exorcism
has begun.
Rose shouts items off the
list, which his students chorus
back until it appears they are
chanting.
He shakes his fists at
passing cars, continuing to yell.
He climbs the wooded hill
While the students wait, buzzing about the
strange performance they just took part in, Rose
hands out the paper version of his final exam.
“I hand out the exams but pretend I’m the
waiter handing out the menu which becomes
interchangeable with the menu they receive
from the other wait staff which
is also their quiz,” said Rose.
“Classroom,
outside
of
classroom, quiz, not quiz; it all
comes back to the idea of
dissolving the boundaries
between subject and object,
art, not art.”
Rose’s written final exam
is perhaps as interesting as the
exorcism. Though they vary
from class to class, his finals
of late generally include a list
of names, places, concepts and
quotes that the students must
match in any manner they see
fit.
“You usually finish most
finals with a sense of how you
did. There are right or wrong
opposite
his
students, Rose stands on the hill preparing to perform
answers,” said longtime
Rose student, Evan ‘EJ’
thrashing through the brush, the exorcism. Photo by Scout MacEachron.
Johnson. “With JR you
tossing dead leaves like
don’t know how it’s going to go and you don’t
confetti.
Cars slow down, some even stop, but they
always have a plan for what you’re going to
go unacknowledged.
write. It’s self-discovery with every answer.”
Fifteen minutes later Rose leaves the hill
After passing out his exams Rose retreats to
and squats on the side of the road, illuminated in
a dark corner of the restaurant. Cyndi Lauper’s
triangles of light from passing cars. It is now
“Girls Just Want to Have Fun” pulses softly in
night.
the background, adding to the moment’s surreal
“Students, to the Marina!” he yells. The
feeling.
exorcism is over.
One student timidly approaches to ask Rose
Rose leads his students to dinner at “The
if there are right or wrong answers on the exam.
Marina on the Water,” the restaurant whose sign
“Ask the reporter,” he says in his velvety,
the group had been exorcising.
deep monotone.
5
Features
The Independent
along to watch, and some are inspired to take his
The girl turns away, confused.
class after attending.
With my head buried in a Moleskine
“Throughout my
notebook
I
suddenly
first semester, I was
realize he meant me. I turn
often told mythical
to her and say, “No, there
stories
of
JR's
aren’t.”
method
and
Another
student
culminating
interrupts dinner to yell, “I
exorcisms,”
said
think John Rose is a
current Rose student
brilliant man!”
Gordon McConnell.
Rose blinks a few
“I thought, ‘I've gotta
times behind his thick,
take that class.’”
dark-rimmed glasses, and
It is common to
then bows his head back
find
students
to his plate of salmon.
‘visiting’
Rose’s
Rose, affectionately Students gather around the “Marina on the Water” sign as
the
exorcism
begins.
Photo
by
Scout
MacEachron.
classes on campus
known as “JR”, is
simply to watch him
legendary at Landmark
teach, perhaps the only time a student will
for his non-traditional teaching style as well as
attend a class they’re not enrolled in.
his puzzling persona.
Rose often teaches creatively focused
“I have heard many eccentric things about
English courses such as Introduction to Creative
this man, yet once I experienced [the exorcism]
Writing, Beat Literature, Contemporary
I began to understand what all the talk was
American Poetry and Enlightenment Through
about,” said student Katie Kauffman, who
Literature, in addition to some basics such as
attended the exorcism with a friend in Rose’s
College Composition and Rhetoric.
class. “I had no idea how to take the
In class Rose is known for performing
experience.”
peculiar antics, ranging from sitting under a
A nonplussed Kauffman went on to suggest
black umbrella for the duration, to speaking
that perhaps Rose had ‘lost some of his
through an orange construction cone as if it
marbles.’
were a megaphone. He will also clean the
Since 2000 Rose has performed over 30
classroom walls with Wonder Bread, throw or
exorcisms of the restaurant’s sign as a part of
spit at the clock, climb on chairs, play mindhis student’s final exam. His aim is to rid the
bending music or documentaries and film clips,
sign of its redundancy.
walk a tight rope, draw on his clothing or
“The exorcism failed, which I count as a
perform passages from his own 1000-page poem
success because I have to go back,” said Rose.
he has committed to memory.
“One student claimed that the sign changed for
Recently Rose has taken to sitting behind a
seven seconds while no one was looking but he
giant piece of paper which his students
was for some reason sold on the uncertainty
spontaneously covered with a mural made of
principle I try to apply to everything: that which
cake during an in-class birthday party.
is being observed is always altered by the
Since 2000 Rose has tied the concept of the
observer.”
redundant restaurant sign into his courses.
Rose’s exorcisms have become a famous
“It started when I was accidentally hit in the
event among Landmark students, including
faculty lounge by a paper airplane and I realized
those outside of his classes. Many simply go
I could work that into a narrative,” said Rose.
6
Features
The Independent
“In class I talk about the problem with this
Rose incorporates the work of artists ranging
restaurant title. I applied the possible levitation
from Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs, Jimi
of the Marina with the light-speed concept
Hendrix and The Beatles, to Emily Dickinson,
towards the flying paper airplane, and fused that
Robert Frost and William Carlos Williams.
with the redundancy and potential paradox of
“At college in general everyone’s always
the restaurant title, which allowed the students a
telling you to be a critical thinker and question
chance to scrutinize the menu.”
things. I don’t think any teacher does that better
While seemingly bizarre, what Rose does
than JR. He teaches you not to take things for
has a purpose.
granted--everything from American history to a
“I have always been interested in
restaurant in Vermont,” said Johnson. “It gets
performance art, and I started
you to think about what you
realizing I could assume a role or
really want to question for
a character in class that somehow
yourself, not what teachers
allowed me to both distance
want you to question. In JR’s
myself from the material while at
class I feel total freedom to
the same time helped me to
write about or explore
involve the students,” said Rose.
whatever I’m interested in at
“It was a way of turning my own
the moment.”
introversion into a form of
Many students report
extroversion.”
never being the same after
Rose’s odd teaching style
taking a class with Rose or
may serve him, but it is largely
witnessing his exorcism.
intended to inspire his students.
“JR directs his students to
“I think willingness to take
a conclusion, allowing them
risks, seem silly or perhaps even
to arrive there on an
absurd frees up the students to
individually unique and
take risks, which is so vital when
meaningful
path,”
said
they’re trying to find their voices
McConnell. “Because of JR's
unique style and infectious
in any class be it composition or
Rose chanting alongside the rode. Photo by
brilliance, I not only
creative writing,” said Rose.
Scout
MacEachron.
And it does.
learned a great deal of both
“After you see a man
general
and
domain
covered in his own shower curtain running
specific knowledge, but changed my major and
through Route 5 and up the hill next to it
in turn, the course of my foreseeable future.”
screaming at cars, you don’t really feel too
Rose deeply impacts the way his students
embarrassed to write personal things or stuff
perceive their world, teaching them to question
that might seem odd,” said Johnson.
and look deeper.
Rose also aims to free his students’ minds
When asked what he took away from Rose’s
through the subject matter he addresses in class.
class and the exorcism, student Chris Hawkins
A few of the many subjects Rose
said, “I learned things I have a black-and-white
opinion on actually have a grey area.”
emphasizes include the time-space continuum,
time as a non-linear entity, laymen’s physics,
Towards the end of dinner one of Rose’s
students told him a man pulled over during the
conceptual art, lucid dreaming, pet rocks,
exorcism and joined in with the student’s
Woodstock, the Vietnam war, Robert F.
chanting. Rose paused and with a slight smile
Kennedy’s assassination and the Mind at Large.
murmured, “I hope it’s still with him.”♦
7