I'm writing a paper on the "Slap Bet" episode of How I Met Your Mother and am trying to form (and prove) a thesis that refers to all kinds of power as fundamentally the same -- social capital, economic capital, phallic power -- in order to show why Barney ends up on the losing end of the slap bet contest (for the next several seasons), and why we think that's funny.
Any theorists anyone knows about who have used Marxist, feminist and psychoanalytic critiques all at the same time?
Or should I just stick to one type of "power"?
I feel a bit like Mr. Casaubon writing his Key to All Mythologies, but with an 8-page limit.
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Dreams (and teeth)
I dreamed last night that several pieces of my teeth had fallen out again, including a whole molar. I can never prevent it in my dream, and it's always the result of clenching my jaw too hard.
The funny thing is, I was psyching myself up before I went to bed last night, telling myself I could never lose my teeth in real life because I'd never let my jaw stay clenched that long. I'd pry it open with my hands, or get to an ER where they could inject me with muscle relaxer or something.
Now I wonder if the truth is that I actually clench my jaw when I'm sleeping, and if I am, whether I'm doing it hard enough to actually crack my teeth.
I was probably thinking about this because a coworker went to the ER yesterday with an infection in her jaw and had to have four teeth pulled.
I really need to get to the dentist.
The funny thing is, I was psyching myself up before I went to bed last night, telling myself I could never lose my teeth in real life because I'd never let my jaw stay clenched that long. I'd pry it open with my hands, or get to an ER where they could inject me with muscle relaxer or something.
Now I wonder if the truth is that I actually clench my jaw when I'm sleeping, and if I am, whether I'm doing it hard enough to actually crack my teeth.
I was probably thinking about this because a coworker went to the ER yesterday with an infection in her jaw and had to have four teeth pulled.
I really need to get to the dentist.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Saturday, September 19, 2009
9/19/09 (in numbers)
Number of pages of Adorno and Horkheimer's "Dialectic of Enlightenment" read today, so far: 14
Households immediately adjacent to apartment holding tag sales today: 3
Number of hours spent reading pages of "Dialectic of Enlightenment": 2
Number of episodes of Big Bang Theory watched this weekend: 12
Number of pages of "Dialectic of Enlightenment" assigned for homework: 47
Approximate number of adults yelling back and forth throughout day between tag sale locations: 8
Minimum number of entire books assigned to be read for next week: 3
Minimum number of additional books needed for research paper due Sept. 30: 5
Number of episodes of Mad Men watched this weekend: 3
Number of papers due this week: 1
Number of pages for that paper: 5
Number of emails sent to professors inquiring about paper requirements: 2
Number of emails replied to by professors: 1
Number of those email replies relevant to paper due this week: 0
Number of fishsticks eaten for lunch: 5
Books completed for sake of research paper due Sept. 30: 1
Loads of laundry done and dried on clothesline: 2
Number of papers due next week: 2
Number of emails written tonight: 9
Age of youngest brother: 19
Calls made by me to say "happy birthday" to youngest brother: 1
Approximate ounces of coconut cake eaten by me: 5
Hours before driving back to Waltham: 20.5
Average number of hours it takes to drive between Connecticut and Waltham: 1.75
Approximate number of minutes of seeing P.C. today: 25
Estimated number of minutes of seeing P.C. tomorrow: 120
Minutes until bed-time: 28
Percent confidence in getting through even one more page of "Dialectic of Enlightenment" before bed-time: 12
Households immediately adjacent to apartment holding tag sales today: 3
Number of hours spent reading pages of "Dialectic of Enlightenment": 2
Number of episodes of Big Bang Theory watched this weekend: 12
Number of pages of "Dialectic of Enlightenment" assigned for homework: 47
Approximate number of adults yelling back and forth throughout day between tag sale locations: 8
Minimum number of entire books assigned to be read for next week: 3
Minimum number of additional books needed for research paper due Sept. 30: 5
Number of episodes of Mad Men watched this weekend: 3
Number of papers due this week: 1
Number of pages for that paper: 5
Number of emails sent to professors inquiring about paper requirements: 2
Number of emails replied to by professors: 1
Number of those email replies relevant to paper due this week: 0
Number of fishsticks eaten for lunch: 5
Books completed for sake of research paper due Sept. 30: 1
Loads of laundry done and dried on clothesline: 2
Number of papers due next week: 2
Number of emails written tonight: 9
Age of youngest brother: 19
Calls made by me to say "happy birthday" to youngest brother: 1
Approximate ounces of coconut cake eaten by me: 5
Hours before driving back to Waltham: 20.5
Average number of hours it takes to drive between Connecticut and Waltham: 1.75
Approximate number of minutes of seeing P.C. today: 25
Estimated number of minutes of seeing P.C. tomorrow: 120
Minutes until bed-time: 28
Percent confidence in getting through even one more page of "Dialectic of Enlightenment" before bed-time: 12
PSA: Memorializing Sept. 11
[As promised, here's something I wrote for class:]
I guess I feel the main problem with memorializing Sept. 11 is a narrative one: We're still in the middle of the story, for one thing. And it's shaping up to be the type of story that doesn't lend itself to grand narrative, for another.
If we (and I think we tend to) think of the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, as isolated, non-contextualized events, it should be easy to create a memorial. We could valorize the firefighters and other rescue workers who helped dig through the rubble of the towers, "remember" the individuals (Americans) who died in the towers and in the planes, and mythologize the individuals (enemies) who attacked "our way of life," "freedom," "democracy," or our most deeply held ideals (also mythologized).
It's interesting to me and instructive, I think, that we refer to the attacks as "September 11th." To me, this habit points to an (almost imperialist, or at least narcissistic) American co-opting of an entire calendar day, which appears every year, as a personal/national traumatic anniversary -- which makes it too wide a name, really, for the discrete occasion of the attacks in 2001 -- and at the same time, a flagrant decontextualizing of the attacks, without reference to any of the events that came before (or after), as though it was a one-day event without antecedent or precedent -- making "September 11th" a too-narrow term for what happened then.
So if we want to memorialize "September 11th," we may be able to do it. We may be able to create a physical space that does what calling it "September 11th" does, which is to cut us off from doubts about the purpose or history of the attacks (and possible critiques of, for instance, our foreign policy), and to formalize our personal/national grief so that we'll "never forget." (September 11 rolls around every year, after all -- it's hard to forget that.)
But I think even a memorial that manages to sing the praises of our heroes and vaguely condemn our vile enemies would call up too much doubt and too many questions in our current national environment. Anyone with any secret questions about what the terrorists were trying to accomplish, anyone with doubts about the wars in Afghanistan or Iraq (which were connected rhetorically to Sept. 11th as though the attacks were a talisman that could justify any subsequent action), even anyone whose loved one died in the attacks, who has an alternate memory that contradicts the official "history" of 9/11, would find themselves dealing with those questions in contrast to the memorial in front of them.
Cutting out the context wouldn't necessarily help, yet, in other words, because we're living in the middle of the context.
But it's not possible to memorialize something we're living through, in part because of its complexity, and in part because it's still happening and can't yet be remembered.
I hope that ultimately, the Vietnam Memorial will be instructive for 9/11 memorial builders -- something mysterious, to which viewers bring their own meaning, and which allows for multiple interpretations and a complexity of thought (in viewers) made possible by the simplicity of form (in memorial content). I think this is why the personal grief shown in the countless items left at the wall by family members of the deceased is able to exist in the memorial space; I've never seen a bunch of flowers left at other war memorials (and I lived in DC for two years).
I hope that family members will be able to share similar moments in front of parapets surrounding 1-acre man-made waterfall basins (over the roar of the water).
Unfortunately, I suspect that the 9/11 memorial will read more like the WWII memorial put in between the reflecting pool and the Washington Monument: ostentatious, easy to decipher, and out of place.
I guess I feel the main problem with memorializing Sept. 11 is a narrative one: We're still in the middle of the story, for one thing. And it's shaping up to be the type of story that doesn't lend itself to grand narrative, for another.
If we (and I think we tend to) think of the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, as isolated, non-contextualized events, it should be easy to create a memorial. We could valorize the firefighters and other rescue workers who helped dig through the rubble of the towers, "remember" the individuals (Americans) who died in the towers and in the planes, and mythologize the individuals (enemies) who attacked "our way of life," "freedom," "democracy," or our most deeply held ideals (also mythologized).
It's interesting to me and instructive, I think, that we refer to the attacks as "September 11th." To me, this habit points to an (almost imperialist, or at least narcissistic) American co-opting of an entire calendar day, which appears every year, as a personal/national traumatic anniversary -- which makes it too wide a name, really, for the discrete occasion of the attacks in 2001 -- and at the same time, a flagrant decontextualizing of the attacks, without reference to any of the events that came before (or after), as though it was a one-day event without antecedent or precedent -- making "September 11th" a too-narrow term for what happened then.
So if we want to memorialize "September 11th," we may be able to do it. We may be able to create a physical space that does what calling it "September 11th" does, which is to cut us off from doubts about the purpose or history of the attacks (and possible critiques of, for instance, our foreign policy), and to formalize our personal/national grief so that we'll "never forget." (September 11 rolls around every year, after all -- it's hard to forget that.)
But I think even a memorial that manages to sing the praises of our heroes and vaguely condemn our vile enemies would call up too much doubt and too many questions in our current national environment. Anyone with any secret questions about what the terrorists were trying to accomplish, anyone with doubts about the wars in Afghanistan or Iraq (which were connected rhetorically to Sept. 11th as though the attacks were a talisman that could justify any subsequent action), even anyone whose loved one died in the attacks, who has an alternate memory that contradicts the official "history" of 9/11, would find themselves dealing with those questions in contrast to the memorial in front of them.
Cutting out the context wouldn't necessarily help, yet, in other words, because we're living in the middle of the context.
But it's not possible to memorialize something we're living through, in part because of its complexity, and in part because it's still happening and can't yet be remembered.
I hope that ultimately, the Vietnam Memorial will be instructive for 9/11 memorial builders -- something mysterious, to which viewers bring their own meaning, and which allows for multiple interpretations and a complexity of thought (in viewers) made possible by the simplicity of form (in memorial content). I think this is why the personal grief shown in the countless items left at the wall by family members of the deceased is able to exist in the memorial space; I've never seen a bunch of flowers left at other war memorials (and I lived in DC for two years).
I hope that family members will be able to share similar moments in front of parapets surrounding 1-acre man-made waterfall basins (over the roar of the water).
Unfortunately, I suspect that the 9/11 memorial will read more like the WWII memorial put in between the reflecting pool and the Washington Monument: ostentatious, easy to decipher, and out of place.
Friday, September 18, 2009
Accusation XII
To the woman driving the black Avalon with MA plates, who drove up behind me in the left-hand lane so fast I didn't even see her coming in the rear-view mirror -- and I check it obsessively -- then flashed her brights at me when I didn't move over (into the car I was passing at 70 mph), then swung into the right-most lane and pulled back in front of the car I was passing and then in front of me, so that my front bumper was three feet from her back one, then slowed down to 65:
1. If you're able to slow down to 65 once you're in front of me, just to "teach a lesson," you didn't need to be going 80 to begin with.
2. You might feel entitled to drive like a jerk, but that doesn't make you the highway equivalent of a kindergarten teacher. It's not your job to "teach [me] a lesson."
3. Your lesson failed because it was stupid. I didn't learn how annoying it is to have someone driving "slowly" right in front of me because a) I didn't choose to drive up on your bumper; you chose to drive on (both of) mine and b) I was going 70, not the exaggeratedly "slow" 65 you decided to go when you "punished" me by driving dangerously.
Eventually, that kind of self-righteous, stupid punishment is going to get you in a car accident.
So here's the one possible silver lining to your "teaching" method: If when you get in that accident, you're going 55 to "teach [whoever] a lesson," instead of the 85 you wish you were going, you might actually survive.
1. If you're able to slow down to 65 once you're in front of me, just to "teach a lesson," you didn't need to be going 80 to begin with.
2. You might feel entitled to drive like a jerk, but that doesn't make you the highway equivalent of a kindergarten teacher. It's not your job to "teach [me] a lesson."
3. Your lesson failed because it was stupid. I didn't learn how annoying it is to have someone driving "slowly" right in front of me because a) I didn't choose to drive up on your bumper; you chose to drive on (both of) mine and b) I was going 70, not the exaggeratedly "slow" 65 you decided to go when you "punished" me by driving dangerously.
Eventually, that kind of self-righteous, stupid punishment is going to get you in a car accident.
So here's the one possible silver lining to your "teaching" method: If when you get in that accident, you're going 55 to "teach [whoever] a lesson," instead of the 85 you wish you were going, you might actually survive.
Sunday, September 13, 2009
PSA: Happiness is catching.
I'm happy, readers! It's a beautiful, sunny Sunday with just the right number and amount of cumulus clouds in the sky, I'm the new owner of a DVD collection of season 5 of The Office, I have great friends and an awesome boyfriend, it's verging on my favorite season, and I've been assigned massive amounts of reading for homework over the next few weeks. I can't wait to see what will happen in the next episode of season 2 of Dexter, or what I'll write my upcoming 2 papers on, and I've already paid my credit card bill for this month.
Now go about your days 9% happier.
Now go about your days 9% happier.
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Think about this: If your name is "Dick Armey," you've got two career options:
1. Gigolo and exotic dancer at a gay bar
2. Majority leader of Republican Congress
2. Majority leader of Republican Congress
PSA: Obama health plan opponents don't even understand Batman.
Now, don't get me wrong. I'm all for protesting. Go ahead and swarm the Capitol if you want -- we're a democracy, and the grass on the mall isn't a luxurious, healthy green anyway, so there's not much to ruin -- but if you do, just please, please, have some good arguments.
I don't even necessarily support Obama's health care plans, but at least I don't accuse them of being (Hitlerian) fascist, socialist and anarchist all at the same time.
According to the AP, "[Some] signs — reflecting the growing intensity of the health care debate — depicted President Barack Obama with the signature mustache of Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler. Many referred to Obama as a socialist or communist, and another imposed his face on that of the villainous Joker from "Batman."
I've seen the photo of this sign with Obama's face made to look like Heath Ledger's from The Dark Knight; underneath the image appears to be written the single word "socialism."
Now that's just stupid. Everyone knows the Joker wasn't socialist. He was a malignant anarchist, intending to create and encourage chaos and entropy (of governmental order) wherever he went, which is the opposite of socialist.
This means that the creators of that sign not only don't understand socialism, or anarchism: They don't even understand BATMAN.
I'm a cultural studies student, so maybe I have an advantage over the masses, but I'd like to think it's well within range of average American human intelligence to understand the Batman movies. Then again, maybe it's not a problem with interpreting the movie; maybe the difference is that I know better than to think anything at all "bad" can be legitimately referred to as "socialism."
Or maybe it's because I'm a pinko commie that I've taken a second to think about the Joker's politics; maybe when people do things like that, the terrorists win.
Whatever the disconnect here, it's enough to make me not even want to know what these people think would be a better plan. I know better than to engage in dialogue with promiscuous Joker-image users, just like I know better than to make a sign like that when I'm headed off to protest.
Other, presumably more sedate protesters, dressed up in colonial garb to protest, but I also know better than to dress up like I'm fresh off the Mayflower and expect to be taken seriously. Here's a PSA, Sturbridge Village wannabes: The Pilgrims didn't need health care, socialized or otherwise, because they hadn't discovered germs yet.
I don't even necessarily support Obama's health care plans, but at least I don't accuse them of being (Hitlerian) fascist, socialist and anarchist all at the same time.
According to the AP, "[Some] signs — reflecting the growing intensity of the health care debate — depicted President Barack Obama with the signature mustache of Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler. Many referred to Obama as a socialist or communist, and another imposed his face on that of the villainous Joker from "Batman."
I've seen the photo of this sign with Obama's face made to look like Heath Ledger's from The Dark Knight; underneath the image appears to be written the single word "socialism."
Now that's just stupid. Everyone knows the Joker wasn't socialist. He was a malignant anarchist, intending to create and encourage chaos and entropy (of governmental order) wherever he went, which is the opposite of socialist.
This means that the creators of that sign not only don't understand socialism, or anarchism: They don't even understand BATMAN.
I'm a cultural studies student, so maybe I have an advantage over the masses, but I'd like to think it's well within range of average American human intelligence to understand the Batman movies. Then again, maybe it's not a problem with interpreting the movie; maybe the difference is that I know better than to think anything at all "bad" can be legitimately referred to as "socialism."
Or maybe it's because I'm a pinko commie that I've taken a second to think about the Joker's politics; maybe when people do things like that, the terrorists win.
Whatever the disconnect here, it's enough to make me not even want to know what these people think would be a better plan. I know better than to engage in dialogue with promiscuous Joker-image users, just like I know better than to make a sign like that when I'm headed off to protest.
Other, presumably more sedate protesters, dressed up in colonial garb to protest, but I also know better than to dress up like I'm fresh off the Mayflower and expect to be taken seriously. Here's a PSA, Sturbridge Village wannabes: The Pilgrims didn't need health care, socialized or otherwise, because they hadn't discovered germs yet.
Friday, September 11, 2009
PSA, revised: TV shows with whiny protagonists that are saved by "side characters"
Ally McBeal
Grey's Anatomy
Scrubs
Sex and the City
Will & Grace
Grey's Anatomy
Scrubs
Sex and the City
Will & Grace
Thursday, September 10, 2009
New word: Tethichnician
n. a person who formulates moral rules or paradisms by strict logical criteria; neg., a person who makes decisions by rote formula and logic, heartlessly
PSA: L.A. wildfires
If there's anything I've learned from Deep Impact, it's that when you're staying behind instead of evacuating, you should make sure to have a motorcycle on hand.
Saturday, September 5, 2009
PSA: Dancing baby on DVD
Okay, so the "ooh-gha chaka" dancing baby was the worst part of Ally McBeal -- second in worstity perhaps to Ally's incessant whining and arguably third to the show's "third wave feminism" (in this case, tiny, tiny miniskirts and legs like toothpicks [Calista Flockhart was the Kate Moss of our generation]) -- and yes, the fifth season is total crap, but if you're like me, you're relieved to finally be (almost) able to own the series in the U.S.
Actually, if you're exactly like me, you already own two copies of the series in bootleg and copied-from-bootleg Chinese versions, so you're probably not going to rush to buy it at about $130 on October 6th.
But it's still good to know Vonda Shepard will be belting it out from official American TV sets across the nation again, soon.
Actually, if you're exactly like me, you already own two copies of the series in bootleg and copied-from-bootleg Chinese versions, so you're probably not going to rush to buy it at about $130 on October 6th.
But it's still good to know Vonda Shepard will be belting it out from official American TV sets across the nation again, soon.
Friday, September 4, 2009
PSA: You have the power.
The He-Man movie (yes, I think it is the same He-Man movie that led to some of us writing seminar people calling ourselves "the green light of jealousy" and "the yellow light of fighting," thanks to the use of obvious color-coding of scene types in this big-screen He-Man) is on sale on DVD at Amazon.com.
It is only $5.79.
But before you put your money where your blue light of dialogue is, consider the people in your company in the virtual line to make such a purchase. Read the reviews. One reviewer states, for instance, that "the true highlight of the movie is Frank Langella as Skeletor. He was made to play the role. He is very scarey and at most very evil in the movie."
The reviewer means, of course, that Frank Langella was born to play Skeletor, that he's perfect for the part -- which I realized about a minute after I assumed the first interpretation that popped into my mind, which was that he'd been forced, possibly at gunpoint, to play Skeletor, despite his objections.
The next most helpful reviewer explains why this version of He-Man is so weird to those of us who loved him in the 80's: This movie is actually based on a different comic book series, and uses He-Man characters the way a puppeteer might use Hansel and Gretel puppets to tell the story of Snow White.
It's no three wolves howling at the moon T-shirt, but it's not bad for ironic/camp purchase and review.
Consider adding your own voice to the masses'.
It is only $5.79.
But before you put your money where your blue light of dialogue is, consider the people in your company in the virtual line to make such a purchase. Read the reviews. One reviewer states, for instance, that "the true highlight of the movie is Frank Langella as Skeletor. He was made to play the role. He is very scarey and at most very evil in the movie."
The reviewer means, of course, that Frank Langella was born to play Skeletor, that he's perfect for the part -- which I realized about a minute after I assumed the first interpretation that popped into my mind, which was that he'd been forced, possibly at gunpoint, to play Skeletor, despite his objections.
The next most helpful reviewer explains why this version of He-Man is so weird to those of us who loved him in the 80's: This movie is actually based on a different comic book series, and uses He-Man characters the way a puppeteer might use Hansel and Gretel puppets to tell the story of Snow White.
It's no three wolves howling at the moon T-shirt, but it's not bad for ironic/camp purchase and review.
Consider adding your own voice to the masses'.
Confessions IXL
I'm not really sure that Roman numeral is accurate for this confessional, but I'm not going to bother looking it up.
I sometimes pretend I'm trying hard to accomplish something I don't really have to try hard at, in order to get more time to slack off, or to gain sympathy.
I sometimes choose to pretend to try hard instead of actually trying, because I'm really not that disciplined, and because then if I fail, it's not "really" my fault.
I sometimes pretend I'm trying hard to accomplish something I don't really have to try hard at, in order to get more time to slack off, or to gain sympathy.
I sometimes choose to pretend to try hard instead of actually trying, because I'm really not that disciplined, and because then if I fail, it's not "really" my fault.
PSA: Menu at Alicia's Fake Restaurant
Appetizers:
Chips and homemade salsa (black beans, corn, cilantro, etc.)
Wrap wheels
Soups:
Black bean
Tortilla (prepared by P.C.)
Salads:
Yard salad
Crab salad with ginger and watercress
Entrees:
Tuna sandwich on toasted wheat bread with potato chips on it
Black bean-sweet potato burritos
Fried chicken fingers
Gourmet Frito pie options: Choose one or more of each category. Extra ingredients cost $1 each.
Fritos: regular, Scoops, spicy
Chilis: Hormel chili with beans, Hormel chili without beans, homemade chili
Cheeses: Cheddar, Pepper-jack, Monterey Jack, Mexican blend
Desserts:
Cocoa Krispie treats
Sharon's vegan chocolate-tofu pie
Chocolate mousse pie
Chocolate covered fruit (variety)
Mini candy bar medley
Candy Rice -- mix-in options: coconut, fruit (fresh, seasonal), gummy bears, Heath bar, Hot Tamales, Milky Way, Nutella, pineapple bits, Twizzlers, Twix, various other candy bars as available
Chips and homemade salsa (black beans, corn, cilantro, etc.)
Wrap wheels
Soups:
Black bean
Tortilla (prepared by P.C.)
Salads:
Yard salad
Crab salad with ginger and watercress
Entrees:
Tuna sandwich on toasted wheat bread with potato chips on it
Black bean-sweet potato burritos
Fried chicken fingers
Gourmet Frito pie options: Choose one or more of each category. Extra ingredients cost $1 each.
Fritos: regular, Scoops, spicy
Chilis: Hormel chili with beans, Hormel chili without beans, homemade chili
Cheeses: Cheddar, Pepper-jack, Monterey Jack, Mexican blend
Desserts:
Cocoa Krispie treats
Sharon's vegan chocolate-tofu pie
Chocolate mousse pie
Chocolate covered fruit (variety)
Mini candy bar medley
Candy Rice -- mix-in options: coconut, fruit (fresh, seasonal), gummy bears, Heath bar, Hot Tamales, Milky Way, Nutella, pineapple bits, Twizzlers, Twix, various other candy bars as available
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