Word: finlayson
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Both actors develop their characters particularly nicely in a scene in which the couple participates in an amateur production of Strinberg's The Father. The rehearsals are directed by an eccentric, egotistical fop (Jon Finlayson) who makes Patricia into his new protege and who takes the play so seriously that its absurdity is hysterical rather than pathetic...
DIFFERENCES AMONG the returned missionaries' sentiments surfaced primarily in their attitudes toward Harvard. Finlayson, who grew up in a California town in which his was the only Mormon family, reports little difficulty in adjusting to Harvard life as a freshman. Beck, on the other hand, was shocked and disconcerted by his introduction to the college: on his first night in Cambridge he saw man lying in the street "with blood spurting from both arms," and on his second night he chanced upon two male students kissing on the first floor of Weld. Carson, who grew up in Boise, Idaho...
...missionaries differ in their initial reactions to Harvard, so do they report disparate experiences of their return to school after completing their missions. Finlayson found readjustment very difficult: His friends from freshman year had become seniors during his absence, and the need to concentrate on exclusively personal goals clashed with the missionary emphasis on outward-reaching aims. "Sometimes I find myself questioning the value of what I'm doing here," he admits. Carter agrees: "The problems with getting used to Harvard again were partly cultural and partly not being a missionary anymore." Beck alone reports a smooth transition from missionary...
Academic as well as personal reactions to the interplay between Harvard and the missionary experience vary. By chance, Finlayson had taken Historical Studies A-14. "Tradition and Transformation in East Asian Civilization: Japan," with Edwm O. Reischauer during his freshman year, so when he learned that he was to fulfill his mission in Japan, he was enthusiastic. Before the mission he planned to concentrate in the physical sciences; now he is an East Asian Studies major, specializing in Japan. Beck too changed his concentration--from Sociology to Sociology and East Asian studies--as a result of his missionary experience. Carter...
...Finlayson chose to attend Harvard in part because its Mormon population is larger than those of the other Ivy League universities to which he applied. Beck reports that "the Harvard Mormons mean more and more to me all the time." His appreciation of the warmth and solace provided by his religion was heightened during this past summer, when he arrived in Tokyo, utterly without personal contacts, and the Japanese Mormon community found him an apartment and helped him to settle...