In the aftermath of a Brandeis student’s suicide, a professor speaks.
[T]hroughout the memorial, many expressed their exasperation at the senselessness of [Kat] Sommers’ death.
Professor Sabine von Mering … spoke about how Sommers had come to her office hours the previous week to help plan a trip for the class. Von Mering said she was about to read Sommers’ paper for her class when she received the news of her suicide.
“Is it us? Are we making people show us a face?” von Mering asked. “You have to know that the faculty does not expect you to show a face. If you do that, we cannot help you…”
February 18th, 2011 at 10:37AM
I’m not understanding this. Is this a newer American phrase? I could use a translation.
February 18th, 2011 at 10:41AM
Nelle: The expression “to show someone a face” means, roughly, to pretend to be someone you’re not, to put on a show of something, to hide your feelings under a bland expression. As in the T.S. Eliot lines from The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock: