I am “a slave to an age-old trade” - “Down in the Valley” by the Head and the Heart
Some time ago, interviewing the writer V.S. Naipaul, I struggled to get him to do what writers are often asked to do: to apply published insights to new territory — in a way, to become a pundit. I realized, the more I struggled, that Mr. Naipaul, in refusing these prompts, was defending a…
(Source: The New York Times)
Mindful empathy
Apparently, most women think their husbands have Asperger’s when they first learn of its symptoms. In one woman’s case, as told on This American Life, her husband actually did have the syndrome. He began to keep a “Journal of Best Practices,” a characteristically compulsive coping mechanism for overcoming his social limitations. At one point in the story, he reflected: “It’s more intellect than it is raw feeling/empathy and emotional response.” I nodded along, having myself given mindful, but not heartfelt, sympathy. I wondered, does it feel just as good to receive. According to his wife, it simply felt better than no empathy at all.
Was today memorable?
No. I told and was told about last night. The fire alarm went off. I made a forlorn rainy day playlist and teared up in bed. I got a package with only what can be described as moon booties. We all got dressed and made up to do what friends do with each other - have fun. We clicked left on each other’s most recently tagged picture. We watched 500 Days of Summer.
Most days of the year are unremarkable. They begin, and they end, with no lasting memories made in between. Most days have no impact on the course of a life.
The first part of that quote I can certainly agree with, especially given that recently, I have granted myself the pleasures of a neglectful life. The last part I disagree with because regardless or whether today or any day was memorable, it has impacted my life.
That was a memorable day to me, for it made great changes in me. But, it is the same with any life. Imagine one selected day struck out of it, and think how different its course would have been. Pause you who read this, and think for a moment of the long chain of iron or gold, of thorns or flowers, that would never have bound you, but for the formation of the first link on one memorable day.
- Great Expectations
"It’s okay to live in conflict with yourself."
— Nathan Englander’s Fresh Air interview
This is fabulous because some of these issues are exactly what we’re discussing in my classes!
Crazy in Love: The Diagnosis and Treatment of “Female Hysteria” During the Late Nineteenth Century &
Soldier: The Hypermasculinization of U.S. Military Culture
Regeneration by Pat Barker is about “shell shock,” which was coined so as to not emasculate WWI soldiers suffering from “feminine” hysteria-like symptoms.
Videophone: Social Networking Technology and the Deconstruction of the Dominant Gaze
Women of Algiers in Their Apartment by Assia Djebar discusses modern women still figuratively imprisoned in a harem. One story is titled “Forbidden Gaze, Severed Sound” and forbidden at once refers to women’s restricted vision, as well as the forbidden gaze of a man at them.
hahahahhaah this is the best
Baby Boy: The Sociocultural Effects of Prolonged Male Adolescence
Check on It: The Gendered Dynamics of Male Spectatorship in Urban Public Spaces
Crazy in Love: The Diagnosis and Treatment of “Female Hysteria” During the Late Nineteenth Century
Naughty Girl: Disidentification and the Performance of Female Sexual Promiscuity
Cater 2 U: Female Subservience and the Reinforcement of Hegemonic Gendered Power Structures
Get Me Bodied: A Radical Critique of the Sex/Gender Binary
Freakum Dress: The Role of Consumerism in the Construction and Assertion of Female Sexuality
Videophone: Social Networking Technology and the Deconstruction of the Dominant Gaze
Run the World (Girls): Historical Perspectives on Global Female Leadership
Bills Bills Bills: The Dual-Income Model and the Reshaping of the Domestic Sphere
Soldier: The Hypermasculinization of U.S. Military Culture
Independent Women: Girl I Didn’t Know You Could Get Down (to Business in the Public Sphere and Still Be Expected to Perform Domestic Labor During the “Second Shift”) Like That
"For the Arab the location of the person in relation to the body is quite different. The person exists somewhere down inside the body. The ego is not completely hidden, however, because it can be reached very easily with an insult. It is protected from touch but not from words. […] As one might suspect, deep orientations toward the self such as the one just described are also reflected in the language. […] Arab colleague who is the author of an Arab-English dictionary […] “I have spent the entire afternoon trying to find the Arab equivalent of the English word ‘rape.’ There is no such word in Arabic. All my sources, both written and spoken, can come up with no more than an approximation, such as ‘He took her against her will.’” - Edward T. Hall"
— “The Hidden Dimension”
