The Art Snob Archive

Moriah - March 23 2007

UW Student Becomes Published Author, Sets Example

Close your eyes, dear readers, and think of the golden spires of Oxford. Breath in the air of immaculate academia, where students divide their time between exams and oil paintings, where clubs take not the form of Beer Pong Teams, but rather writer collectives, such as the one forged by Tolkein and Lewis at the Eagle and Child. You may notice students on the main street being literally knocked over with inspiration, scrambling to find their notebook in which they can house this berth of ideas.

Now wake up. Welcome back to UW, where you will find ivy-covered cathedrals replaced by monolithic monuments to mathematics. Here, the students trudge through campus, drones serving the Gods of Engineering and Business, wary of an open mind in case inspiration may send them reeling into a puddle and ruin their Co-Op suit. At UW, an admiration for Gray’s Anatomy is replaced by a fixation with Grey’s Anatomy, and an appreciation for the Classics is diluted by an unfortunate association with “Classic Rock.”

Shame on you, students of Waterloo. How dare you neglect your creative obligations in the face of exams, essays, tutorials, policy reviews, critical analyses, weekly assessments, novel studies, laboratory assignments, mid-terms, quizzes, workshops, debates, and part-time jobs. What happened to our (my) dream of making this University a bastion of artistic energy? Another year lost, friends, and my spirit grows weak.

Next year, I want you all to resume classes with David Tubbs in your minds. David Tubbs, you ask? Don’t I know him as a 3^rd year History major at UW with a minor in Religious Studies, you say? Surely he is as bound to the same torturous chains of University life as I, you whine.

Indeed he is, I answer, but David Tubbs has something the rest of your pitiful lot do not: priorities. At the beginning of the 2006 Winter Term, Mr. Tubbs embraced his creative passions and embarked on a project that would fill every waking moment he had in between classes and assignments. A year later, his labour has come to fruition in the form of a novel: at the beginning of March, Tubbs’ Three Days to Moriah was published.

While the rest of you complain about not having time to eat or sleep between research and reading, David Tubbs is represented on Amazon.com. For shame.

Sitting in Dr. James Diamond’s class on ‘Great Texts in the Jewish Tradition’ last year, Tubbs was struck by the imprecise nature of the Isaac narrative, in which God asks Abraham to sacrifice his own son on Mount Moriah. This passage is perhaps one of the most troubling, challenging stories in the Bible, and while it is a fundamental part of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, it is remarkably absent of detail. Inspired by the intensity of this ancient human drama, Tubbs set out to fill in the blanks.

The resulting piece of Biblical Fiction attempts to illuminate the three days that stood between God’s request and the moment an angel appeared to intervene on the Mount. Imagining a narrative full of torment, trauma, and struggle, Tubbs filled in his vision by researching different rabbinical interpretations and giving new relevance to certain characters, such as Abraham’s wife Sarah.

So, here we have a full-time student who has found the time to be a published author. Surely our valiant Mr. Tubbs will have something to say about the wretched state of art at our school: “I actually think it is very prosperous, especially in the theatre department…”

Right. Well then, I ask Mr. Tubbs, if it’s so prosperous, why did you have to have a U of T student edit your work? “Well,” Tubbs intones, “Jill McCullough is an old friend of mine…” Bollocks. Obviously, David is reluctant to admit that UW students are useless, despite my protests that they need the motivation. After much pushing, however, I discover the author’s disappointment: “I would like to find another writer who at least has the ambition to be published. There are too many writers out there who have written a good book, but don’t feel that they should do anything about it.”

There you have it, ladies and gentlemen; it’s time to get off your arses. For inspiration, check out Three Days to Moriah on Amazon.com. It may also be helpful to note that Tubbs shares an affinity for the work of C.S. Lewis, an Oxford man of the highest class. Just goes to prove my theory: when in doubt, close your eyes, and think of Oxford. Godspeed on your creative endeavors.

posted by HLL @ Friday, March 23, 2007