Free Butterfly in the Typewriter by Cory MacLauchlin

sleepy Southern town of Washington, DC, would be difficult to rival the heart-pounding verve of New York. In a promotional map of Manhattan that Toole saved in his scrapbook the tourist is informed, “Manhattan is the financial, cultural, manufacturing, and theatrical CAPITAL of the World!” It was a statement that Toole heard loud and clear, a statement that, for better or worse, returned to his ears throughout his life, both drawing him to and repelling him from New York City.
    In primary school he had strutted upon the stage, but in high school he stepped into the world, observing his city, dating women, and making his first movements toward social critique through satire. Some of the key characters of Confederacy were beginning to germinate. Joel Zelden, a friend and neighbor, recalled how one afternoon they invented the name Ignatius Reilly, finding the mere sound of it funny. And perhaps even then he reflected on how he might use his impressions of Irene Reilly and her boisterous mother. He also gained a reputation for his wit and humor. Jane Pic Adams never forgot seeing Toole through the window and across the green in another class on the other side of the school. Locking eyes, Toole would make hilarious facial expressions. Adams struggled not to laugh, trying to keep her composure as she sang in chorus. And yet his antics never compromised his standing as a scholar. His classmates voted him most intelligent in his senior year, and he was awarded a full merit scholarship to attend Tulane University.
    Most importantly, between writing a novel and managing the school newspaper, he pursued his interests in writing and had his first experience of New York City. And yet, despite his clear passion for literature
and the arts, in his senior year of high school he decided to major in engineering in college. He must have understood his career path would likely have a direct impact on his family’s future prosperity, one that had been compromised, resulting in the loss of their home. After all, there was no one else but Toole to take care of his parents when they would inevitably succumb to old age. His mother claimed that his father persuaded him to study engineering, but Thelma was not one to passively approach these kinds of crossroads, either. She dedicated her life to creative endeavors, and she also endured the instability of it. “He was an artist,” but perhaps he could earn a respectable living creating works in a different discipline. Just like he tucked away his failed novel underneath his bed, he relegated his passion for writing to a hobby. Determined in his career choice, he announced his plans in the school newspaper.
    But Toole would discover that Tulane, the university four blocks from Fortier, was undergoing major changes as it transitioned from a primarily New Orleans institution with a focus on applied technical skills to one of the leading liberal arts universities in the United States. As the university grew, students came in greater numbers from farther away, increasing diversity and bringing with them ideas of progress. The coeds enjoyed a city that unabashedly offered indulgences found nowhere else in the South. They also came to study at a university that was growing in notoriety as it added graduate programs and earned federal research grants, attracting high-caliber professors. The world of Tulane was about to open up before Toole, not just as a means to a job, but also as a place to refine and explore his ideas.

Chapter 4
    Tulane
    B efore Toole started classes at Tulane in the fall of 1954, at the age of sixteen, he spearheaded the search for a new home for the family. Perhaps the scholarship along with the odd jobs Toole would pick up throughout his undergraduate career helped them stabilize their finances. He found a small and affordable second-floor apartment at 390 Audubon Street, and he helped furnish it. So the Tooles returned to the heart of Uptown, living on the opposite