 "Reading The New Yorker will make you smarter."
Hahn always had some sort of reading recommendation. In Masterpieces of world lit, we read excerpts from Leaves of Grass (something he also quoted often). He suggested that we read all of it (as it is one of the most important documents in literature) out loud in the bathroom. Just keep a copy in there and read aloud during visits. I actually did it. It really is amazing to hear out loud in good acoustics. So I recommend it, too.
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 Hahn often said, read e.e. cummings from cover to cover, over and over, and you will learn all you need to know about life.
One of John's frequent handouts was a page of scattered quotes. Some had no attribution, which was his style. He assured the class that this page had the answer to any question we had about life. I suppose I agreed as I still have my original. My original isn't in the best condition; it has many holes where I pinned it to bulletin boards multiple times. I decided to form my own copy of it (good in case I lose mine). I have tried to repeat the way he angled the quotes on the page. 
One of the few handouts he gave us. A poem entitled Listen, author unknown.
i no longer plead with heaven or go rummaging in books for answers to the questions life contains now i listen listen listen to this inner thing resounding in the pulsing and the pounding of my infant ancient veins. i no longer seek instruction from my father and mother i have mastered all their pleasures and their pain no i listen listen listen to this inner thing resounding in the pulsing and the pounding of my infant ancient veins the feeling in my bloodflow is a simple thing y'see everything and nothing in the parody is me i'm the hero i'm the villain the beginning and the end i'm creator i'm destroyer i'm the enemy the friend i'm an animal a spirit flying high and falling down i am special i'm important i am sacred i am a clown so i stumble through the chaos dragging clumsily behind me all the eggshells and the fish scales and the fur pelts of my past while this thing goes on inside me at one with all the vastness the fantasies and fictions and when all the contradictions come together come together they will fit the feeling in my bloodflow is a simple thing y'see i am it i am it we are everything and nothing but that's how to play the game in these weather beaten bodies with these god forsaken brains we can listen listen listen to the universe resounding in the pulsing and the pounding of our infant ancient veins listen listen listen and it all begins to fit you are it you are it My father said that when he took Hahn's class during the 80s, Hahn would always sit in the lotus position on the table at the head of the class. When I took his classes he refused to use a podium and sat on the table. He had all the chairs in the room formed into a circle so we could look at each other.
My father also said that John would bring a ouija board to class for the students to use as an exercise. There were many student complaints so the tradition had to stop. Another quote: "If you don't like your own writing, why should you expect anyone else to." A quote, related to the above: "If you can't make your self orgasm, why should you expect anyone else to." If you have any regrets, you have wasted your life.  Between 1992 and 1996 I took Creative Writing and literature classes from John Hahn at Rio Hondo College in Whittier. My father, who had taken John's classes in the 80s, highly recommended I take the same classes.
John was one of the most effective professor I've ever had. Many things he taught me still remain with me---I quote something he said in our classes at least every day. I recently discovered that John died in October, 2006 of a heart attack, brought on by lung cancer. I have wanted to communicate with more people who had his class. I've put together this blog which, hopefully, will provide his former students with an opportunity to quote him, provide an anecdote, or offer negative criticism (which is equally important). In many ways, his classes were more like philosophical lectures which, inadvertently, taught me more about creativity than I've ever encountered. I'll start with a couple of things which come screaming to mind: "When a woman puts on lipstick, she's telling the world she's ready to fuck." If a book in a library or bookstore falls from a shelf in front of you, read it. Pray that you die from a long, painful death. |
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