One of the real strengths of <em>The Nature of College </em>is the illustrations, mostly provided by St. Olaf student Jens Matson, who graduated in 2010. Jens was one of the wise students at St. Olaf, having wholly avoided my classes, but his sister (and American Studies major) and an art professor both told me that he had immense talents--and they were right. I gave him a draft of the manuscript and asked him to work from his own inspiration, which worked beautifully. But sometimes I asked him to imagine a visual for a theme I had in mind, and he did that brilliantly too.

My favorite illustration, I think, is one of Thoreau playing beer pong, a juxtaposition which asks us to think carefully, as Thoreau did, about the purposes of life and the sources of joy:

<a rel="attachment wp-att-160" href="http://natureofcollege.org/2010/11/the-real-world/159-revision/"><img title="341--In Wildness Is the Preservation of the World" src="http://noctest.danieledwins.com/wp-content/uploads/341-In-Wildness-Is-the-Preservation-of-the-World.tif" alt="" /></a><a rel="attachment wp-att-160" href="http://natureofcollege.org/2010/11/the-real-world/159-revision/"><img title="341--In Wildness Is the Preservation of the World" src="http://noctest.danieledwins.com/wp-content/uploads/341-In-Wildness-Is-the-Preservation-of-the-World.tif" alt="" /></a><a rel="attachment wp-att-160" href="http://natureofcollege.org/2010/11/the-real-world/159-revision/"><img title="341--In Wildness Is the Preservation of the World" src="http://noctest.danieledwins.com/wp-content/uploads/341-In-Wildness-Is-the-Preservation-of-the-World.tif" alt="" /></a>

<a rel="attachment wp-att-160" href="http://natureofcollege.org/2010/11/the-real-world/159-revision/"><img title="341--In Wildness Is the Preservation of the World" src="http://noctest.danieledwins.com/wp-content/uploads/341-In-Wildness-Is-the-Preservation-of-the-World.tif" alt="" /></a><a rel="attachment wp-att-160" href="http://natureofcollege.org/2010/11/the-real-world/159-revision/"><img title="341--In Wildness Is the Preservation of the World" src="http://noctest.danieledwins.com/wp-content/uploads/341-In-Wildness-Is-the-Preservation-of-the-World.tif" alt="" /></a>