Postscript: An Open Letter to Professor Bubbles
GLOSS #12
Next Time: Postscript: An Open Letter to Professor Bubbles
[this is a GLOSS on the Postscript, which has been linked here for your convenience. This chapter will also be reshared on Substack Notes.]
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As I wrote before when re-publishing this Postscript on my Substack as an essay called ‘Ire,’ I’m still not sure I want to include this piece as part of the whole. When the events described herein happened, I wrote this Open Letter out as a sort of writing exercise, a character workshop or maybe just a way to process this final insult to the decades of injury I was beginning to get fed up with. And when my writing coach Herb said that it would make a good postscript, I added it to the then-finished manuscript, as I tended to believe and execute all of his suggestions through our process. But this was before my own Big Quit, which has become the bookending frame of the whole enchilada. So I don’t know if this Postscript has a place here as its own thing, or maybe I should add some of this info into the Epilogue instead? Let me know what you think.
‘I first wrote this in a storm of ire, after having received the deeply insulting email and subsequent communication from Professor Bubbles just the day before I spouted this into my keyboard. I was right in the midst of completing the conclusion to my memoir, still being honored with Herb Childress’ help, and having not quite quit the college in question (that I’ve renamed Subway University), though this event was one of a few that comprised the straw that broke that camel’s back. I was ranting about this, and my partner (likely so that he didn’t have to continue to listen to me rage-loop) suggested I write about it. I had just read a really lovely open letter style article called Not A Pretty Girl that was immediately inspirational to all my tying up of memoiry loose ends, and so I decided to write an ire-filled open letter to Professor Bubbles (not her real name either). I shared it with Herb, and he encouraged me to add it to my memoir, as a Postscript of sorts, since my Outro (Chapter 10) had just been talking about this stuff. He also tended to appreciate my writing the more emotional I’d get, and Partner always cheers on my righteous, cleansing, noble anger whenever I am pushed far enough to finally let it out.’
If I do cut it, though, the whole enchilada will be even more too-short for market standards, and so I wonder what I should replace it with if I do cut it.
My book was used as a textbook for that university and a few others at the time, though now there are more of these types of manuals out there that serve a similar purpose and are just as good as mine, and so mine hovers on the edge of going out of print.
My author name on that book is different, as I included my then-husband’s last name, which I shared. I discuss this in my essay on Realism with a few more details as to that choice, and how I feel about it now.
‘I remember very clearly, when this book was about to come out, agonizing over whether I’d use my own last name, or my husband’s, as my author name on this book. I hadn’t hyphenated my name upon marriage, but just tacked his name on to mine, and as I have no middle name, it worked out great. I called myself Jenn Zuko Boughn, and my online handles were mostly ‘bonzuko.’ I thought hard about it, and decided on Zuko Boughn. Now? I absolutely regret the decision, obviously, but ehhh what can you do. It’s a name of mine from a different time.’
This was an April Fool’s Day joke video the [Subway] University Stage Combat Club made in 2010. To this day, I don’t know what a ‘hot cup of beverage’ is, but to this day it makes me laugh. (Sorry about the early 20-teens quality of my laptop camera.) Appearing: Geri C., Nate T., Nick B., Scott M., and Paul S. Oh, and Yours Truly.
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TODAY’S BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Boughn, Jenn Zuko. Stage Combat—Fisticuffs, Stunts and Swordplay for Theatre and Film. NYC: Allworth Press, 2006.
Inouye, Kevin. The Screen Combat Handbook. NYC: Routledge, 2020.
Zuko, Jenn. ‘Method (Realism part 2),’ from Zuko’s Musings. Aug. 4th, 2023. (Link)
My vote is somewhere between “cut” and “dissect and use in epilogue.” I like the outrage of the open letter, but where do you want to leave readers at the end? I’d lean into who you are now because of weathering such betrayal on the part of colleagues, examining your own changing self, as a personal essayist would do. I’m not one for resolutions or bowtie endings, but I do like a nod to self-knowledge and resilience amid all the uncertainties we continue to live with.
Hi Jenn. I linked back to the letter. It's full of authentic rage and hurt. And it's so damn authentic. From the heart. So, yeah, I'd include it.