David Werner

David Werner
“I work and working, I transform the world.”

The words of Freire adorn David Werner’s wall, as do the words of an eclectic variety of thinkers and writers, something one would expect from an English professor, the most ardent protectors of the sacred written word.

However, one would not expect Werner’s retreat from the written word, his escape from delving into the “noblest thoughts of man,” his propensity for using his hands rather than strictly his mind – carpentry.

“I’ve always liked building things,” said Werner, who worked part-time as an undergraduate and graduate student doing room additions with a friend.

Now, he continues to work with his hands, as evidenced by the bookshelves he crafted in his corner Miller Hall office. In addition, when able, Werner works on his second home in Los Osos, Calif.

“I needed another project,” he said, “so we bought another house.”

The chair of ULV’s English Department has even built a boat: “I taught myself to sail by building a sailboat,” he said. Werner built the boat around 1980, sailed it for a couple years, then sold it to a friend. Then, two years later, he realized he missed it and bought it back.

Werner recognizes this love for carpentry and building as a product of genetics, as he recalls his father’s ability to build. But carpentry is not the only genes that made it down to David.

“Although I did the standard teenage rebellion, I woke up when I was 30 and realized I was a college professor,” he said. His dad, he said, was a professor of agriculture at the University of Wisconsin.

With a relatively laid back demeanor, Werner conducted the entire interview with his feet up on the desk. Staring back at Werner from his office wall hangs another quote from a published author, Jeff Kahan: “Dave Werner is the kindest, most gentle man who walks the planet,” as published in the Campus Times.

Werner not only relies on carpentry to pry his nose from a book, but also limited exercise, generally in the form of tennis, hiking or bicycling.

“I’ve always hated solitary exercise,” he said. “I want to have somebody around so I can chat when I’m doing it. I get exercise, but I spend way too much time reading to get that much exercise.”

Indeed, as Werner says, he can only retreat from books for so long before his love for his livelihood pulls him back. And the associate professor of English’s reading interests span the gamut of publication, ranging from men’s issues to theoretical physics to astronomy, sociology, criminology or biology, he said.

“Being an English major, you can get into everything,” he said, pointing not only to his profession but also his innate curiosity as reasons behind his wide base of reading interest. “I’ve always been interested in almost everything. One of the things I like about being in a university is that there’s always interesting people.”

And this interest extends not only to literature and people but to a penchant for other arts, such as music and film. In addition to enjoying music – mostly classical and folk – Werner also tries to keep up on current and classic film. Recently, the best films he’s seen are “Million Dollar Baby” and “Sideways.”

The “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” still frame on his wall also reveals an affinity for the Coen brothers, which Werner confirms, also admitting to be a fan of “Fargo.”

But the greatest movie of all-time, said Werner, remains “Citizen Kane.”

“The film and photography in that,” he said. “You could take individual scenes and frame them on your wall.”

In fact, the reason that “Citizen Kane” is widely regarded, not only by Werner, but also by legions of film buffs everywhere, as the best film ever largely involves the filming and cinematography rather than the actual story. “Citizen Kane” pushed boundaries, something that Werner admits to enjoy in all films. He said Stanley Kubrick also does this well.

After talking about film and his penchant for the arts, the conversation with Werner is nearing an end, but not before he is able to share a few more quotes cut and pasted to his desk.

Robert Frost: “The final belief is to believe in a fiction, which you know to be a fiction, there is nothing else. The exquisite truth is to know that it is a fiction and that you believe in it willingly.”

The last stroke of the conversation arrives, and it could not be further from the content of the beginning. Far from his talent of building, the most material of all hobbies, Werner delves shortly into his interest in the intangible subject of spirituality, “the dimensions of one beyond oneself, I don’t know,” he said, pausing. The words of another quickly help Werner express his thought.

“Campbell would say there’s a self that we’re constantly evolving into,” he said, “developing into who you’re going to be, an acorn into an oak tree.”

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David Werner

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