The books of Gargantua and Pantagruel have elements that remind me of the years I have spent in college. The parallels and lessons learned are similar and have at one time been experienced by all college students at some point in their exploration for higher education. I will explain these parallels in hope to allow you, the reader, get a closer insight to why the carnival style writing of Rabelais’ books is easily related to my four years in college. In the first book, chapter thirteen, “How Grandgousier Became Aware of Gargantua’s Wonderful Capacities, When His Son Invented an Ass Wiper”, Gargantua goes into length about different things he has use to wipe with. I too have been in situations that have taken much consideration. Going to a party and discovering that there is no more toilet paper left, for instance. What should a lady wipe with then? There is the obvious choice of just not wiping at all and doing the ‘drip dry’ technique, but what if that guy you have been talking to decides he wants to get fresh. It is only natural that a lady be just as fresh as she is groomed. There is no point in spending an hour with a razor around a cod piece area to just have it smell like a toddler’s diaper, so drip dry is not the best answer. The silk shirt you are wearing, yet how would that be explained to the dry cleaner. What about your hand? Ew gross, no way, this is not Europe. No, you need something that is not your own, scan the bathroom. Ah-ha, leave it to a good host to leave a towel in the bathroom to wipe one’s hands after washing. They should have made sure there was enough nether-region cloth more so then hand cloths. It was situations like this that prove most useful later. I learned 1: when throwing a party always have enough toilet paper, 2: if one must, a terry cloth towel is a very suitable form of ass-wipery, and 3: never leave towels in the bathroom during a party. Throughout all of the Gargantua and Pantagruel books there is always drinking, and random reasons to drink. College students find a reason to drink for everything. Sporting events; drink for winning, drink away the sorrow of losing. It’s a birthday, drink. It’s a holiday, drink. I don’t have class today, tomorrow, ‘til 4, drink. The parents are coming to visit; we have to clean out the fridge. I need a break from studying, my significant other, and life. There is actually a calendar that has an excuse to drink every day of the year if one does not want to think of a reason for themselves. But much like Gargantua finds out, if one wants to be well educated one must drink in moderation. Many freshman find this out when it is too late. It is only natural that one, who frequently drinks, frequently pees. Coming home from the bars it is almost expected to see a friend “…smiling broadly, he unbuttoned his handsome codpiece and, sticking his tool out into the air, bepissed them so violently that he drowned two hundred sixty thousand, four hundred and eighteen people, not counting women and children.”(1.17.42) Of course there would not be any drowning of people, but the length at which a drunkard can piss is impressive, and many a times in public places. To be so intoxicated one must be socially drinking, unless they want to be labeled an alcoholic. Where else is better to drink than at a theme party? Here students are able to dress up and imitate leaders of the nation and US royalty. This is what carnival is about. The lower class society would dress up like nobility and release steam. The second book has Pantagruel traveling Europe, going from school to school, trying to find one that interests him and teaches him something of value. This can be related to transferring colleges, and or the practice of changing one’s major repeatedly. I have changed my major once, but I have friends who have transferred through four different schools and seven different majors just in three years of college.And finally the grotesque body: something that is unstable and unfinished as Bakhtin says. There is nothing more unfinished and unstable than a college student. The transition from child to adult takes place over the years spent attaining a higher education. College is not only a time for educational growth, it is also the years in which one is free to experiment with their physical appearances without much repercussion from the ever judging ‘adult world’. Dread locks, unnatural hair colors, funky hairstyles, body piercings and tattoos are all accepted. One is able to try on a variety of clothing styles, and bizarre approaches to make-up to express their views or anti-views on social norms. This is much like how “the grotesque artist inverts social order, mocks dogma and parodies official authority.” (Bakhtin) Whether one is living in the present or living in the day of Rabelais it seems like people express themselves and relieve stress in much the same way. The celebration of carnival lives on in college towns everywhere.