Limina 2021-22

LIMINA LIMINA

Published by the Student Publications Board at the University of New Mexico. All rights revert to contributors upon publication.

Limina: UNM Nonfiction Review publishes nonfiction work, including academic papers, memoirs, and photography essays, all from undergraduate and graduate students attending the University of New Mexico.

Email: limina@unm.edu Website: limina.unm.edu

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Cover Image: “Empty” from “The Odyssey of Being/Where You are Now” by Liam DeBonis

UNM Land Acknowledgement Statement

Founded in 1889, the University of New Mexico sits on the traditional homelands of the Pueblo of Sandia. The original peoples of New Mexico – Pueblo, Navajo, and Apache – since time immemorial, have deep connections to the land and have made significant contributions to the broader community statewide. We honor the land itself and those who remain stewards of this land throughout the generations and also acknowledge our committed relationship to Indigenous peoples. We gratefully recognize our history.

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Limina: UNM Nonfiction Review is made by students for students. Our staff is comprised of undergraduate (and sometimes graduate) volunteers who solicit submissions, select works for publication, copyedit, design, and market the magazine on campus.

Editor in Chief: Indica Simpson Managing Editor: Zara Roy Morgan Austin Charlotte Gates Marcela Johnson Madi Hogans

Jacqueline Palicio Emma Trevino

FOREWARD

My time with Limina has been one of transformation. I joined the staff as an edi tor while it was still titled “Best Student Essays” in the Fall of 2019. Back then we thought the biggest change the year would bring was with the name. We worked tirelessly for weeks to find the perfect title that encompassed what it meant to be in college. We had no idea it would be the name of a new age, a threshold that none of us had ever seen. The next year on staff, I was managing editor. I felt a sense of leadership and worry. How could I assist the editor-in-chief and my colleagues when courses were fully online and we were all in a different time zone? We tried our best to fight through the Zoom fatigue and make thoughtful decisions through a screen. We were triumphant, even if none of us were able to physically hold the magazine until months after publication. This year, my final year, I was awarded the editor-in-chief position. I was armed with both in-person and online experience and waited anxiously for what the year would bring. I was preparing for the worst of circumstances, being that that was all I had known. However, I was pleasantly surprised. This year’s staff has been extremely dedi cated, excited, and the pinnacle of what student publications are about. I cannot thank the staff enough for reminding me why I had joined so long ago and bring ing back the comradery of college print.

Thank you to the contributors---without the hard work of university students, this publication would not be possible. The perseverance of academia creates the threshold that Limina aims to explore. Please remember, dear reader, that while higher education should be a right, it acts as a privilege that not all get to experi ence. Be thankful that these contributors have shared their hardest work with us in good faith and with sheer vulnerability. Absorb the diversity this collection has to offer with integrity, respect, and above all, curiosity.

Godspeed, Indica Simpson Editor-in-Chief

Table of Contents

1“Unclean! Unclean!”: Infectious Disease and the Cultural “Other” in Bram Stoker’s Dracula

Mercy Rabern Jones

An analysis on vampirism (and illness at large) as a method of perpetrating the “othering” in the novel “Dracula”

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Evaluating a Growing Conflict: A U.S. Policy Recommendation in The South China Sea

Christina Klas

An analysis piece on potential U.S. responses to territorial conflict in the South China Sea

17

Good Girls Go To Hell: How the Portrayals of “Final Girls” in Slasher Films Romanticize Femicide, Sexualize the Female Body, and Reinforce Heteronormative Gender Performance Jordyn Bachmann

Understanding Genocide in Erik Ehn’s Soulgraphie and “Maria Kizito” Spenser Willden

A discussion of the alternate forms of visual media employed by playwright Erik Ehn to de scribe the thoughts andconceptions held about genocide.

Mood: Swing Megan Vlaun

A memoir piece about a mother and her child finding an old swing set and the recollections that follow.

Heidegger, Quantum Mechanics, and Thinking the Same Hank Messinger

A look at the striking similarities between the philosophical approach of Martin Heidigger and quantum physics

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The Odyssey of Being/Where You Are Now Liam DeBonis

A photo essay on looking at the world around us and seeing everyone and everything as a story about to unfold.

Friendly Animals, Dimwit Heroes, and Baba Yaga:

Folktale Elements in Voinovich’s The Life and Extraordinary Adventures of Private Ivan Chonkin Hannah Williams

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Fair Pay for Domestic and Digital Labor

Sachi Barnaby

A look at the unfair economic treatment of women in the digital labor field with further citation of women and domestic labor throughout history.

Tree Canopy, Urban Heat, Public Health: The Case for U.S. Cities to Solve Rebecca Hobart

A look at how recent research shows how limited tree canopy and shade structures can affect the health of high-risk populations throughout Albuquerque.

Jean-Baptiste Grenouille and the Theological Implications of Scent in Enlightenment-Era France Makena Halen

An exploration of Perfume by Patrick Süskind and how his main character and plot draw from Catholic tradition

Unser Driving

Nell Johnson

A memoir piece describing the life and snapshot moments of an individual growing up in urban Albuquerque.

Global COVID-19 Vaccine Inequities

Delia Bradley

A look at the history of the COVID-19 pandemic, the efforts and responses in the re search and creation of a vaccine, and how current systems aren’t providing proper vaccine amounts to countries in need.

“Unclean! Unclean!”

Infectious Disease and the Cultural “Other” in Bram Stoker’s Dracula

Mercy Rabern Jones

Representations of disease in literature vary throughout history, shaped not only by evolutions in science and public health but also sociocultural beliefs and prejudices. Infectious diseases are often used in literature as a means of “othering” marginalized groups, upholding a binary between health and illness in nineteenthcentury Gothic texts. The pathogenic spread of vampirism in Bram Stoker’s Dracula highlights the social consequences of blurring the lines of this binary as its characters violate British norms in the name of illness.

OVERVIEW

Some scholars argue that Dracula is not canonically presented as a pathogenic threat, but rather a distinct species seeking to conquer or “turn” the English public. The ways in which his vampirism is spread, however, underscore core aspects of infectious disease transmission. Dracula’s physiology and behavior mirror a number of infectious diseases that cause fear and anxiety in British society. Additionally, the beliefs and attitudes expressed towards Dracula and his vampirism in the text represent the systemic cultural views of communities disenfranchised by society: communities that often bear the greatest burden of disease. In this paper, I present three disease interpretations that demonstrate the

ways in which dominant cultural beliefs “other” and marginalize the sick and dying using Dracula’s representations of vampirism.

QUEERNESS AS BLOOD-BORNE PATHOGEN

Dracula’s representations of vampirism, which depict it as an infectious disease, directly parallel queerness. In contrast to human procreation, sexual reproduction of the vampire involves contaminating and transforming victims through bite and blood. Dracula infecting his victims is therefore a vampiric equivalent to sexual behavior, in which he engages with both men and women. This is not only depicted as a pathogenic threat, but also as a direct violation of the sexual norms of nineteenth century Britain. Dracula is first revealed to be a vampire when he imprisons and contaminates Jonathan Harker, who soon thereafter becomes a target of Dracula’s attention and desire. Dracula’s treatment of Harker exceeds the confines of evolutionary expansion: rather than simply turning him, Dracula seeks to possess him. When the “Weird Sisters” — three vampire women

“Dracula’s representations of vampirism, which depict it as an infectious disease, directly parallel queerness.”

living in Dracula’s castle — attempt to feed upon Jonathan, Dracula cries, “‘How dare you touch him, any of you? How dare you cast eyes on him when I had forbidden it? Back, I tell you all! This man belongs to me’” (Stoker 51). The possessiveness Dracula feels over Jonathan creates an implicit homoerotic tension that coexists alongside that of the looming threat of infection. This reoccurs later in the novel when Dracula is cornered by the Crew of Light and proclaims that, through the blood of Lucy and Mina, its men will soon become his as well (Stoker 358). With infection causing the spread of vampirism, Dracula’s quest to turn Britain’s men (as well as its women) depicts Dracula as an infectious disease as well as a threat to heteronormativity. The two characteristics are markedly linked, personifying queer identity as a pathogenic antagonist to British culture and society.

While most scholars agree that Dracula is non-normative, few explicitly identify Dracula and vampirism as queer representations. In her dissertation, The Alien Within: Postcolonial Gothic and the Politics of Home, Julie Azzam evaluates the manifestations of reverse colonialism in Dracula Azzam declares vampirism as colonization not only of the nation, but of the body (50). Dracula’s sexually predatory nature manifests through his queerness, wherein “[he] is both male and female; heterosexual and homosexual” (48). Thomas Stuart, author of Out of Time: Queer Temporality and Eugenic Monstrosity, affirms Azzam’s claims, identifying Dracula as having “infectious sexual

fluidity” (219) and “decidedly queer preferences” (220). This queerness is not a neutral feature of Dracula, but rather a key factor in his portrayed monstrosity. As vampirism spreads from Dracula’s castle to London, it represents a clear threat to not only the health of Britain but its heteronormative culture and society. Vampirism is thus used as a means of marginalizing queerness through its manifestation as disease. Dracula uses infectious disease to uphold the binary of the healthy “self” and the sick “other” alongside that of the heteronormative society and the queer antagonist. The embodied queerness of vampirism is demonstrated by both Dracula’s behavior, and by how he uses the exchange of blood in the spread of vampirism. Many scholars emphasize Dracula’s infamous transfusion scene to discuss the novel’s treatment of sexual norms. As Lucy’s condition deteriorates and she becomes increasingly anemic, Lord Godalming, Dr. Seward, Van Helsing, and Quincey Morris each provide Lucy with blood via transfusion. Lucy’s brief episodes of recovery are predicated on her consumption of the four men’s blood (Stoker 181). Not only does the male donors’ blood coexist in her veins, but they are also simultaneously being consumed by Dracula at night. Michael Kline identifies this scene as an example of Dracula’s unison of homosexuality, disease, and blood in his article, “The Vampire as Pathogen: Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Francis Ford Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula.” He states, “[The scene goes] beyond male bonding, suggesting a locker room homoeroticism … Blood thus takes part in suspect or anomalous sexual exchanges, making them dangerous …

“Vampirism is thus used as a means of marginalizing queerness through its manifestation as disease.”

Vampirism is spread like … venereal disease [because] it is blood-borne” (38). Blood by itself is thus an incomplete explanation of the monstrosity of vampirism. Rather, the implicit sexual undertones of the exchange of blood — and the consequential violation of sexual norms by its homoeroticism — connects queerness to immorality and disease in Dracula. The scene thus reveals British anxieties of the nineteenth century surrounding the sexual “other” and the pathogenic threat they represented in dominant culture.

The attachment of blood-borne infectious disease to homosexuality is a prejudicial cultural belief that persists today. More than 150 years after Dracula’s debut, men who have sex with men remain ineligible to donate blood in many Western countries due to outdated ideas that they carry human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) at higher rates than other groups. As Dracula’s popularity boomed in popular culture across the world, even its film adaptations connected vampirism to HIV. For example, director of Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992) Francis Ford Coppola states in his pre-production notes: “‘The whole blood thing in the movie is a little bit like the modern AIDS virus…’” (Kline 43). Such insights indicate that while HIV may not yet have been known, the connection of queerness to pathogenic transmission was at the forefront of the story’s cultural interpretation. Though HIV was not discovered until the late 1900s, the disease’s means of transmission and its association with homosexuality may be interpreted as direct parallels to the vampirism portrayed in Dracula.

Vampirism can therefore not only be interpreted as a pathogen, but also as a means of assigning an “otherness” to those infected.

“THE CONSUMPTIVE,” CONTAGIONISM, AND QUARANTINE

Dracula’s manifestations of using infectious disease to further other marginalized groups during the nineteenth century extend beyond venereal and blood-borne diseases to airborne diseases like tuberculosis. Tuberculosis spread ravenously throughout the nineteenth century and those who fell ill were deemed “the consumptives” and ostracized from society. Severe tuberculosis left consumptives pale, emaciated, and weak, and dominant culture soon stigmatized those with similar appearances. These characteristics distinguish Dracula’s vampires and contribute to their monstrosity. Lucy, in her periods of severe illness, is described by Dr. Seward as “ghastly, chalkily pale … and the bones of her face stood out prominently” (Stoker 145), whereas Dracula is described as having “extraordinary pallor” (27). The vampires’ appearance is explicitly depicted as diseased, similar to the symptoms of consumptives. This diseased appearance is connected to the immorality and horror of Dracula and Lucy. While it is vampirism, rather than tuberculosis that is clearly responsible, the connection of consumptives’ experiences to these monstrous antagonists is evidence of using infectious disease as a literary tool to assign otherness.

Another hallmark characteristic of Dracula’s vampires is their status as the “Undead.” This liminal space Dracula and Lucy occupy not only contributes to their dehumanization and

consequential monstrosity, but also to their representation of infectious disease and the cultural other. Disability historian Alex Tankard evaluated representations of consumptives in nineteenth century medical texts, art, and literature in her article, “The Victorian Consumptive in Disability Studies.” While not evaluating Dracula directly, Tankard found that consumptives were both vilified and had their illness romanticized during this era, so much so that they served as “effective misrepresentation of ‘the consumptive’ as a species whose habitat is the deathbed or the grave” (26). Consumptives’ proximity to death became a tool of their dehumanization by British hegemony, giving rise to the idea of consumptives as Undead. Even when patients managed to survive acute illness, many struggled against chronic tuberculosis for the rest of their lives. Unable to work or participate in greater society and deprived of legal protection, consumptives were forced to the outer edges of society. We can see this echoed in depictions of Dracula and Lucy after her transformation. Referring to Lucy, Dr. Seward states, “I was … beginning to shudder at the presence of this being, this Un-Dead … and to loathe it” (Stoker 237). Well into her infection, Lucy has become a paradox between life and death, but is no longer considered a human being. Rather, she has succumbed to the vampiric pathogen — becoming an “It.” Such parallels between Lucy’s transformation from human to vampire — from healthy to sick –– and the consumptive’s treatment by Western society highlight how vampirism is

used to force the sick and dying into the cultural other in Dracula.

With the sociocultural rejection of the sick came desperate attempts to prevent the spread of disease at the source. However, nineteenth century Europe was in conflict as to how to do so, and turned to the marginalization of the cultural other as the answer. Disease theories underwent great transformation in the nineteenth century into the public health science we know today, but prominent cultural beliefs of the time upheld anxieties of diseased foreigners invading homelands as a form of “reverse colonialism.” Dracula’s departure from Transylvania on the ship Demeter in a quest to spread vampirism to London represents such a tale of the foreign antagonist waging a pathogenic war against British identity. Author Martin Willis identifies three competing disease theories featured in Dracula that demonstrate the cultural urgency of the nineteenth century to uphold the binary of the healthy self and the diseased other. A key characteristic of one such theory, contagionism, was the quarantine: forcefully isolating sick people from the general population. This marginalization of perceived sick people was not only embraced by British culture and society, but also codified in law. Whether quarantine policies targeted “foreign nationals arriving at Britain’s port s… [or] female prostitutes …” writes Willis, “the deliberate and systematic control that contagionist theory recommended … socially stigmatized them as a diseased group immorally endangering a healthy Britain” (305). Part of contagionism’s popularity was therefore related to its policing of marginalized groups in an attempt to protect the sanctity of British identity. This is evident in Dracula, as well.

The novel uses contagionist theory to depict disease as an immoral antagonist — the vampire — that seeks to infect British hegemony: the vampire. Popular culture’s beliefs of disease transmission, in addition to the manifestation of disease, were therefore both weaponized in nineteenth century literature to isolate and marginalize the sick as the cultural other.

Dracula’s departure from Transylvania on the Demeter towards London, feasting upon the crew throughout the journey, is an example of this weaponization. Willis identifies the natural borders of land and sea as one of the boundaries used as a mechanism to protect the pure self from the foreign other, and also against diseased patients in the era of contagionism (305). The captain of the Demeter records an interaction with a crew member who encountered Dracula: “‘It is here; I know it, now. On the watch last night I saw It, like a man, tall and thin, and ghastly pale. It was in the bows, and looking out’” (Stoker 104). Dracula’s description instantly separates him from the crew. While he indeed appears “like a man,” he is only referred to as an “It.” He is dehumanized, depicted as a monstrous entity in the process of infiltrating London’s borders. Tankard’s work can be applied here, as well. Ghastly and pale, Dracula is distinct from British ideals of health. He is simultaneously menacing and powerful enough to overtake an entire crew, yet sickly and pathologized. Such a distinction supports multiple scholars’ identification of disease’s connection to immorality in Dracula. The ship carrying Dracula, now unmanned, crashes itself upon London’s coast, and Dracula penetrates not

only the contagionist boundaries between land and sea, but also the binary of the British self and the diseased other.

RABIES, ZOONOTIC DISEASE, AND INHUMAN ANTAGONISTS

Dracula’s inhuman bodily forms present a connection to zoonotic disease that is historically unexplored by literary and disease scholars. This is surprising, considering the significant similarities between vampirism and rabies — a virus spread from the bite of an infected animal. Rabies is relatively rare; however, it provoked significant European fear and anxiety during the nineteenth century due to its debilitating and often horrific symptoms (Kete 89). Animals and humans alike were closely surveilled for potential infection, which at the time was always lethal. Fear of infection thus occupied a significant amount of European conscience and carried tremendous social implications for those who fell ill, who were often viewed as animals themselves (Kete 91). The sociocultural implications of rabies infection are seen in Dracula’s various manifestations as he fluctuates from human to bat to wolf.

Dracula’s animalistic forms not only explicitly dehumanize him, but reflect these phobias by depicting him as a disease-spreading antagonist akin to a rabid animal. We first come to recognize Dracula as beyond human in the early stages of the novel. As Jonathan looks out the window of Dracula’s castle, he witnesses Dracula transform from human to animal for the first time: “[M]y very feelings changed to repulsion and terror when I saw the whole man slowly emerge from the window and begin to crawl down the castle wall … face down with his cloak spreading out around him like great wings” (Stoker 46). Dracula’s agility and apparent

wings embody a large bat. As he leaves the castle to reign terror on the surrounding communities, he does so in an animalistic form — one known to carry rabies. Later scenes detail Dracula manifesting as a wolf haunting the streets of London as he seeks to spread vampirism. Even in his human form, Dracula has long, white teeth which not only distinguish his vampirism but mirror the two species’ teeth. Dracula embodies not only animals typically known to spread rabies, but the erratic and violent behavior of humans in the late stages of its infection. The disease “transformed man into beast, wild, uncontrollable, and dangerous” while also being known to provoke humans to bite and attack others (Kete 91). The parallels to vampirism are dramatic — violent behavior and biting of the neck are signifiers that Dracula’s victims have turned, as seen in Lucy (Stoker 149). Dracula’s bodily manifestations and his behavior under vampirism personify him of the zoonotic disease threat centered in the minds of many European communities during the nineteenth century.

Such personification not only encourages Dracula’s dehumanization, but also contributes to the othering of those who fell ill and succumbed to rabies. Even though their behavior was beyond the realm of their control (unlike Dracula), animals and humans infected with rabies were vilified in European society. Kathleen Kete, author of “La Rage and the Bourgeoisie: The Cultural Context of Rabies in the French Nineteenth Century,” argues that rabies is a disease ridden with social implications for marginalized (primarily low income) people. “In the phobic imagination of the nineteenth century, the semiotics of rabies centered on violence and sexuality…” she writes, “[t]o a list of ‘meaningladen’ Western illnesses–medieval leprosy, modern

tuberculosis, contemporary AIDS–we clearly must add rabies as it was experienced in nineteenth-century France” (Kete 90). By comparing rabies to tuberculosis and the disease caused by HIV, Kete argues that it also threatened European ideals of the self as those who became infected were feared, othered, and antagonized. It is beyond the scope of this essay to predict Stoker’s reasoning behind the animalistic and infectious characteristics of Dracula’s vampirism. However, it is clear that his reminiscence of rabies is key to positioning Dracula’s monstrosity and immorality as the novel’s antagonist.

The infectious monstrosity and animalistic characteristics assigned to Dracula are similar to those that antagonize another group depicted in Dracula: the Roma. Romani people, referred to pejoratively in Dracula and many other texts, were often vilified by Western European ideologies during the nineteenth century alongside other Eastern European ethnicities. Few scholars analyze the blatant prejudice with which the Roma are regarded in the novel. Author Stoyen Tchaprazov evaluates Stoker’s inspiration behind Dracula’s scenes describing the Roma, finding that he directly utilizes narratives from nineteenth British travelers with prejudicial views of Eastern European populations. In these source

“Deemed immoral, monstrous, and dangerous, their representations in nineteenth century British literature weaponize their sick ness in an attempt to enforce sociocultural boundaries.”

texts, Romani people “function as savage, heathen leeches, a projection of the opposite to the lawabiding, industrious, middle-class Christian Briton” (Tchaprazov 526-7). Tchaprazov even draws parallels here between the Roma and a known vector of zoonotic disease: the leech. Dracula follows suit as Stoker ties the Roma to the animalistic Dracula and vampirism. That is, Romani people serve as Dracula’s means of transportation during daylight and engage in battle for his protection in the novel’s final chapters (Stoker 437). Romani people are thus explicitly assigned responsibility for Dracula’s pathogenic spread of vampirism. Tchaprazov argues that the Roma serve as “vampires in human flesh” (528) because of their allegiance to Dracula’s cause, making them antagonists. Many of the qualities with which the Roma are depicted in Dracula portray them as barbaric and animalistic, similar to Dracula. Jonathan Harker himself describes them as “outside all law” (Stoker 54) and neglects to mention them entirely in the “four distinct nationalities” of Transylvania (9). By making them willing participants in the spread of vampirism (treated in the novel as a dangerous pathogen threatening the British public), the Roma are antagonized and deemed the cultural other alongside Dracula. While they may not turn into vampires themselves, they still function as the diseased conspirators of the novel’s primary antagonist. The Roma’s connection to vampirism is thus used as a means to further marginalize them from British society and enforce the boundaries between British self and other.

CONCLUSION

Dracula tells the tale of a horrifying vampire lurking in the shadows of Eastern Europe. But the novel also tells a story of how we villainize the cultural other as diseased and sick. As venereal disease, tuberculosis, and rabies alter their bodies and behavior, those infected are pushed farther and farther away from the self and into the other. Deemed immoral, monstrous, and dangerous, their representations in nineteenth century British literature weaponize their sickness in an attempt to enforce sociocultural boundaries and protect hegemony. Published in 1897, Dracula captures a snapshot in time of the place the sick and dying held in society 124 years ago— and how that viewpoint persists to this day.

Works Cited

Azzam, Julie Hakim. The Alien Within: Postcolonial Gothic and the Politics of Home. Diss. University of Pittsburgh, 2007, ProQuest, search.proquest.com/openview/606423d7727f6249d81f6977e 8c7e7f9/1?pq-orig site=gscholar&cbl=18750&diss=y

Kete, Kathleen. “La Rage and the Bourgeoisie: The Cultural Context of Rabies in the French Nine teenth Century.” Representations, no. 22, 1988, pp. 89–107. JSTOR, jstor.org/stable/2928412

Kline, Michael. “The Vampire as Pathogen: Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Francis Ford Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula.” West Virginia University Philological Papers, 1997, pp. 36–44.

Stoker, Bram. Dracula. Garden City, Grosset & Dunlap, 1897.

Stuart, Thomas M. “Out of Time: Queer Temporality and Eugenic Monstrosity.” Victorian Studies, vol. 60, no. 2, 2018, p. 218-227. Gale Academic OneFile Select, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A546648887/ EAIM?u=albu78484&sid=EAIM&xid=87387395. Accessed 5 Apr. 2021.

Tankard, Alex. “The Victorian Consumptive in Disability Studies.” Journal of Literary and Cultural Dis ability Studies, vol. 5, no. 1, 2011, pp. 17–33. EBSCOhost, doi:10.3828/jlcds.2011.2.

Tchaprazov, Stoyan. “The Slovaks and Gypsies of Bram Stoker’s Dracula: Vampires in Hu man Flesh.” English Literature in Transition, 1880-1920, vol. 58, no. 4, Oct. 2015, pp. 523–535. EBSCOhost, search-ebscohost-com.libproxy.unm.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hl h&AN=102893904&site=eds-live&scope=site.

Willis, Martin. “‘The Invisible Giant’: Dracula, and Disease.” Studies in the Novel, vol. 39, no. 3, 2007, pp. 301–325. Gale Academic OneFile Select, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A169876969/EAIM?u=al bu78484&sid=EAIM&xid=a0021b3f. Accessed 5 Apr. 2021.

Evaluating a Growing Conflict A U.S. Policy Recommendation in The South China Sea

Christina Klas

DEFINITION OF THE PROBLEM

Maintaining state sovereignty through diplomatic means has been at the forefront of global policy concerns since the inception of independent nations. While the international community has widely resolved territorial dis putes through warfare or diplomacy, the dis pute in the South China Sea is yet to be rec tified. Rather, The People’s Republic of China has maintained a firm hold on the territory and its island inhabitants through island-building techniques and military-use construction. The conflict in the South China Sea has become an arena for the People’s Republic of China and various Western state actors to dispute rights to territorial claims and strategic de velopment, but at the cost of the Spratly and Paracel islands, which have been caught in the crossfire. China has made bold territorial claims to a section of the South China Sea that sup ports approximately $3.37 trillion in trade and is a vital artery for 40% of all liquified natural gas transportation. While the United States is currently invested in the conflict militarily, it has made minimal efforts to remove Chinese influ ence from the region. Two tentative solutions to the conflict plaguing the South China Sea in clude a militaristic approach to clear waterways of China’s self-proclaimed exclusive economic zones, or a diplomatic approach by generating a joint development zone in the region to curtail

violence and encourage bilateral negotiation. The most sustainable solution would likely encompass a diplomatic strategy and the development of a joint development zone, as military measures are rarely sustainable long-term, and a peaceful approach is more likely to yield a collective agreement.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Territorial disputes in the South China Sea (SCS) trace as far back as the 1970s, but the dispute in the SCS as recognized today dates to July 2016, when The People’s Republic of China (PRC) disre garded the Permanent Court of Arbitration’s ruling on behalf of the Philippines. The United States, a strong advocate for the 1982 United Nations Con vention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which champions freedom of maritime navigation, has a democratic stake in resolving the conflict.

“While the international community has widely resolved territorial disputes through warfare or diplomacy, the dispute in the South China Sea is yet to be rectified.”

Recent satellite imagery reveals PRC’s increasing military presence in the SCS, which has spurred the U.S. to conduct freedom of navigation operations (FONOPs) and has drawn international attention to Beijing’s encroachment on international waters.

POLICY OPTIONS

The first, and perhaps most accessible policy option regards military action to disrupt the PRC’s claims to exclusive economic zones (EEZs). Legal rights within an EEZ can be disputed under the con ditions of UNCLOS, but a simpler solution would be to remove the EEZ altogether through the potency of the gathered U.S. forces. Given the violent nature of PRC’s encroachment on a peaceful domain, at this point in the conflict, many would argue that the only effective policy option is for the U.S. to employ their extensive military capability to engage with China’s current force in the region to restore rightful sov ereignty (Simon 1013). This would consist of trans porting additional military personnel to the archi pelagos to forcefully end the construction of bases and prevent the construction of any sophisticated war-time technologies (Congressional Research Ser vices 100). Offensive forces may also be employed to halt resistance to international obstruction. Such progression would be done under the banner of UN CLOS standards and free-navigation maritime laws, with the aim being to dismantle the preface of China having a legal EEZ. Looking towards a more diplomatic ap proach may be a suitable alternative to a militaris tic option. Specifically, the creation of a joint de velopment zone (JDZ) would mitigate the harsher spillover of the current conflict and would have the biggest potential to outlive the dispute. While JDZs do not have a formal definition within the sphere of international law, they can be widely viewed as “a joint arrangement to establish joint jurisdiction over the maritime area where such cooperation is under taken based on Article 74 paragraph 3 of UNCLOS 1982” (Aziz 435). JDZs were conceptualized to pro

vide a risk-free and flexible option for nations in maritime disputes to cooperate peacefully. A JDZ as a policy option with China in the SCS would re semble those existing in the region, with access to maritime resources being at the forefront of ne gotiations. In the interest of sustainable planning, it is satisfactory to assume that any JDZ negotia tion would involve nations both capable of and in terested in development and have a geographical location straddling or bordering disputed territo ry — PRC, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Brunei (Li & Chen 136-143). Other relevant state actors like Japan, South Korea, and the United States may have a stake in negotiations, but any territory they “acquire” in the dispute would be formally recognized as international waters un der UNCLOS and JDZ laws. The first hurdle to determining an acceptable boundary is to for mally recognize the Spratly and Paracel archipel agos as uninhabited but rich in natural resources. From there, while any JDZ may have the intended effect, this policy advocates specifically for the North/South Zone plan, where the PRC claims de velopment rights on territory above 125º E25 15’N (which includes the Paracel, but not the Spratly archipelago). This plan uses the equidistance line with the Spratly Islands and the equidistance line with the Paracels as points of reference with an outer restriction of the Okinawa Trough, which is the continental shelf in the SCS (Valencia 160). This covers nearly the entirety of the PRC’s “ninedash-line” territory, as well as preserves the sover eignty of Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, and Vietnam.

POLICY ANALYSIS

Evaluating the advantages of each policy naturally

“Specifically, the creation of a joint development zone (JDZ) would mitigate the harsher spillover of the current conflict and would have the biggest potential to outlive the dispute.”

yields sufficient grounds to support action through those means; however, a more complete view of them both will also reveal weaknesses that may pre vent an efficient outcome. The militaristic approach is a strong policy in that it would be supported by U.S. allies and nations who have ratified UNCLOS, and success in the SCS through force would secure U.S. hegemony on the global stage. Starting with solidify ing the jurisdiction of UNCLOS, the U.S. would gain support from allies should they pursue a militaristic approach. The disputed SCS territory consists of ap proximately 200-nautical miles and the Paracel and Spratly archipelagos, commonly referred to as the nine-dash-line territory (Scott 1028). The U.S. per ceives PRC’s assertion of their rights to the SCS EEZ as a disruption of free transit and international mari time law, whereas Beijing has reiterated that this is an issue of sovereignty and rights to EEZs —which their growing military presence protects (Kim 129). If the PRC does have a legal EEZ, then it would assert the ability to harvest resources in the waters it claims, prevent military opposition, and build its military ca pability without resistance. According to UNCLOS, the PRC would have the right to harvest energy from wind and solar technolo gy through maritime re sources; however, the U.S. and other UN delegations would argue that China’s treatment of their alleged EEZ has been purely mili tary, not exploratory. Some would argue this is espe cially preferable consider ing previous policy solutions have allowed the EEZs under UNCLOS, yet China has

still demonstrated no interest in using the International Court of Justice to compro mise on territory (Scott 1040). Therefore, deferring to UNCLOS would pursue justice in a form that other UN members could commend, which would ultimately benefit the U.S.. On a similar note, by undermining the authority of UNCLOS and international maritime law, the PRC is actively destabilizing the already fragile power dynamic between themselves and the U.S.: “China is challeng ing the foundational right of free access at sea for military purposes, despite great ly benefiting from the global and regional maritime stability achieved by American and allied seapower [sic]” (Dutton et al. 72). Many argue that unfettered sea access is an inherently American policy desire and one the U.S. government has consistently fought for, making the PRC’s illegitimate claims to the territory even more of an international transgression. However, if the U.S. with the support of UNCLOS, were to take significant steps to resolve the dispute, the U.S. would regain both political and economic hegemo ny on the world stage. If the SCS is the are na in which they fight, U.S. success over the PRC through force would signal the strength of the United States and set a precedent for upcoming maritime disputes regarding free access. This has implications for other regional actors; for example, “if U.S. power appeared to be in retreat, Vietnam would have no alternative but to live with Chinese regional hegemony” (Dutton et al. 22). A U.S. win in the SCS would have the opposite ef

fect from creating Chinese hegemony — it would build an international supportive coalition backing UNCLOS and bolster U.S. leadership. Overall, the militaristic ap proach is strong in that it would bolster the U.S. relationship with its allies, and it could signal a boom in U.S. hegemony. This being said, the military ap proach, however effective at dismantling the EEZ to prevent Chinese aggression, is not sustainable in the long run for two reasons: spillover from Chinese retaliation and the risk of falling into a Thucydides Trap. Beginning with the harmful possibil ity of retaliation, it is essential to view the dispute in the SCS as a litmus test for fu ture Sino-American relations. The PRC is not only expanding its influence, but chal lenging U.S. strength and hegemony (Kim 107). If the U.S. responds with force, Bei jing is more likely to reply with their mili tary strength as a “diversionary measure” from threats to Chinese territorial integ rity, meaning Beijing is likely to fight any perceived threat with substantial force (Congressional Research Services 29-30). Any encroachment of U.S. forces on the nine-dash-line territory may spur an over ly militaristic response from Beijing, given that even “movements which [are] not in tended to pose a threat may be seen by others as threatening (since the threat is latent in the forces themselves)” (Dutton et al. 108). Also, Chinese nationalism may encourage a militaristic form of retaliation should the U.S. government threaten what

is perceived as Chinese territory (Kim 111). Any violence of this sort would inevitably spill over to the Spratly and Paracel archipelagos, which from the U.S. perspective, is not Chinese land. It may also reach the surrounding nations of the Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Brunei. Such spillover would result in a loss of human life on both sides as well as further the existing social harms associated with regional warfare. Addi tionally, military force is not the ideal solution to the conflict because it will likely lead to what is known in politics as a Thucydides Trap — an instance where fear of emerging power in the international balance leads to unnecessary conflict escalation. In the status quo, the U.S. can reasonably perceive the conflict as a matter of territorial integrity and rule of law. But should growing U.S. military encirclement in the region spur Chinese action either in the SCS or directly to the U.S., the dispute grows into a bigger test of hegemony (Kim 118). The exact reason that military action would be attractive to the U.S. may be the reason it ultimately fails. One can evaluate who might emerge victorious in the event of increased Sino-U.S. tensions, but in either outcome, the dispute would have escalated past what was necessary and the U.S. could be pulled into a dif ferent conflict altogether without assurance for peace in the SCS. Therefore, the threat of a Thucydides Trap is enough to invalidate the potential benefits the U.S. would reap in its absence. While increased U.S. military presence is an option, it would not prove sustainable

“... the military approach, however effective at dismantling the EEZ to prevent Chinese aggression, is not sustainable in the long run for two reasons: spillover from Chinese retaliation and the risk of falling into a Thucydides Trap.”

nor effective in resolving the conflict.

Setting aside the merits and draw backs of the military approach, the benefits of pursuing a diplomatic approach through a JDZ include the higher potential for the establishment of long-term peace mea sures because of diplomatic trade-offs and improved Sino-Japan relations. There are several examples of JDZs being effective at mediating long-term agreements for re sources. Indonesia, being an archipelagic state near the SCS, has numerous bilateral agreements with neighboring nations in the form of JDZs, most of which have yielded positive relationships and equitable ac cess to natural resources after negotiation. Much of Indonesia’s success has been at tributed to bilateral negotiations that lead to a mutually beneficial establishment of a JDZ (Aziz 432). In essence, a successful JDZ would satisfy each party to an extent by providing them with ample territory to farm natural resources without the threat of international aggression to their claim. The key to a successful diplomatic endeav or is to ensure that all parties, including those prone to violence, are appeased by the effort which also fulfills international legal standards. Establishing a JDZ in the SCS region could “solidify the relationship because of the common goal of develop ing the resources…there will be more to balance and trade-off,” which will inevitably lead to sustainable peace (Valencia 159). Un der the 125º E25 15’N- line plan, China would have access to the natural resources and

seabeds in the Paracel archipelago and would shed the burden of having to defend the territory against the UN, ASEAN, and U.S. accusations. This plan has the greatest probability of sustainable peace, as it takes advantage of mutual interest to craft a solution. Addi tionally, if the U.S. were to partake in negotiations and then support the ratification of an agreement resem bling the 125º E25 15’N- line plan, Japan, a strong U.S. ally, would be more inclined to do the same. In turn, Japan’s legal recognition of China’s claim to the Oki nawa Trough continental shelf could incidentally im prove relations between the two and even encourage the PRC and Japan to explore a tacit or explicit agree ment regarding SCS territory. Dual support from the U.S. and Japan could also dismantle the façade of “ne gotiating with terrorists” by proving that the interna tional community is not yielding to Beijing, but rather driving a zero-tolerance policy. As long as the U.S., the PRC, and Japan entered the negotiations in good faith, they could conduct policy “to determine the size of any hydrocarbon resources in an agreed area,” which may ultimately lead to extended discussions on the use of natural resources in maritime wartime equip ment (Valencia 162). In the core interest of sustainable peace, diplomacy and preventive diplomatic measures seem to yield the highest likelihood for success. Not only would taking the JDZ approach create a habitat for long-term settlement, but it could even improve present Sino-U.S. and Sino-Japanese relations. Despite the apparent simplicity of the diplo matic approach, the most significant weaknesses in the plan lie in the substantial challenge of garnering Beijing’s cooperation, then resolving issues related to interfering JDZ lines and obstructions to negotiation. First, the JDZ plan, however sustainable, is dependent on Beijing’s willingness to come to the negotiation ta

ble in good faith. Amid so many factors, each na tion must approach negotiation with the expecta tion that their enumeration of needs may not be met. As Kim points out, the hope for diplomatic revelations is not a new one, but “the effectiveness and plausibility of success … would increase only if all of those involved let their seemingly irrecon cilable objectives coexist by making some conces sion and changing their perspectives about what should be prioritized” (Kim 133). Beijing, which is historically hesitant to make concessions in nego tiation, may be the very force that prevents talks from occurring. Chinese hegemony may come into question if the PRC opted to agree to concede to UNCLOS, and entertaining talks may threaten the notion that the PRC was justified at the out set (Dutton et al. 14). Especially knowing that this conflict began with the PRC’s rejection of the 2016 Hague decision, cooperation from Beijing may be an irreconcilable roadblock. Due to this, while di plomacy may have the best overall result, it is a harder policy to approach in the first place. An other notable issue with the JDZ approach is that any successful joint jurisdiction in the nine-dashline territory would include a significant portion of an existing JDZ between Japan and South Korea (Valencia 144-145). It is unclear exactly how much of the continental shelf is shared between the Ja pan-ROK JDZ and the 125º E25 15’N- line plan, but any similar regions could prevent the emergence of a legal JDZ and more specifically, a JDZ that Japan would champion and agree to. In addition to this, some surrounding nations may only agree to a plan if there is a 12-nautical-mile buffer zone around the Spratly and Paracel archipelagos that are considered open-access waters. This demand

may be counterintuitive to the intent to allow resource mining, but the notion that the archi pelagoes will be used is presupposed in nearly every plan to split up the territory and could not be sacrificed easily. There also exists the conten tious Woody Island, an island/rock in the Paracel archipelago that has been heavily militarized by the PRC. If a JDZ sanctioned resource mining, development, and research, a military base may not be accepted in the terms of the negotia tion and could prevent a deal from being made. Overall, the primary limitations of the diplomatic approach are that the PRC may not be willing to negotiate for their “rightful” territory and that even if talks did surface, limitless conflicts and overlapping interests would prevent meaningful conclusions.

POLICY RECOMMENDATION

At a time when the conflict in the SCS has been ongoing with no perceivable peaceful end, the threat of hasty decisions looms and desires for simple solutions crowd existing policy rec ommendations. While the militaristic approach appears to be the most feasible for a hegemon like the U.S., the fallout from this decision would be immense and long-lasting, with repercussions that will become deeply ingrained in the societ ies of surrounding states. Rather than sanction violence, the U.S. has a responsibility to, with the advantageous backing of UNCLOS, aim for a more peaceful solution to what threatens to be come a generations-old conflict. Bearing in mind the direness and profound consequences of this event, a diplomatic approach utilizing a JDZ is the most economical and societally-conscious

policy option. While this method does risk being ham pered before it has a chance to develop, it is the only feasible solution for a democratic hegemon who does not crave large-scale war in a foreign sea. Strengthening U.S. military presence in the region risks spillover into surrounding nations as well as threatens a continuation of the problem instead of a swift resolution. A diplo matic approach, on the other hand, must only over come the initial barriers to negotiation before a plan is set for sustainable peace. It should be the hope of the U.S. and other developed, peaceful nations that preven tive diplomacy and discussion are the most honed tools in their political arsenal to pursue international cooper ation and order.

Works Cited

Aziz, Muhammad. “Developing Joint Development Zone in Disputed Maritime Territories.” Indonesian Journal of International Law, vol. 15, no. 4, Research Gate, 2018. https://www.researchgate.net/ publication/338710053_DEVELOPING_JOINT_DEVELOPMENT_ZONE_IN_DISPUTED_MARITIME_ BOUNDARIES Congressional Research Service. “U.S.-China Strategic Competition in South and East China Seas: Background and Issues for Congress.” Congressional Research Service Reports, 2021. https://sgp.fas.org/crs/row/R42784.pdf

Dutton, Peter A., et al. Cooperation from Strength: The United States, China and the South China Sea. Edited by Patrick M. Cronin, Center for a New American Security, 2012. http://www.jstor.org/stable/ resrep06426.

Kim, Jihyun. “Territorial Disputes in the South China Sea: Implications for Security in Asia and Beyond.”

Strategic Studies Quarterly, vol. 9, no. 2, Air University Press, 2015, pp. 107–41. http://www.jstor.org/ stable/26271078.

Li, Jianwei, and Pingping Chen. “ Joint Development in the South China Sea: Is the Time Ripe?”. Asian Yearbook of International Law. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill | Nijhoff, 2018. https://doi. org/10.1163/9789004379633_008 Web.

Scott, David. “Conflict Irresolution in the South China Sea.” Asian Survey, vol. 52, no. 6, University of California Press, 2012, pp. 1019–42. https://doi.org/10.1525/as.2012.52.6.1019.

Simon, Sheldon W. “Conflict and Diplomacy in the South China Sea.” AsianSurvey , vol. 52, no. 6, University of California Press, 2012, pp. 995–1018. https://doi.org/10.1525/as.2012.52.6.995.

Valencia, Mark J. “The East China Sea Dispute: Context, Claims, Issues, and Possible Solutions.” AsianPerspective , vol. 31, no. 1, Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2007, pp. 127–67 http://www.jstor.org/ stable/42704579.

Good Girls Go to Hell

How the Portrayals of “Final Girls” in Slasher Films

Romanticize Femicide, Sexualize the Female Body, and Reinforce Heteronormative Gender Performance

Jordyn Bachmann

The slasher horror genre has a specific fixation on its survivors — the ones smart enough to outlast the killer and finally end their reign of terror — and its popularity directly correlated to the obsession with serial killings that occur in real life. What makes the slasher genre so unique in its construction of its stories, however, is the reclamation of the lone female protagonist trope, also known as the “Final Girl,” a term coined by Carol J. Clover in her popular book Men, Women, and Chain Saws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film that came out in 1992. With serial murders, women are more often than not the victims. However, this trope spotlights women in strong, female lead roles in almost every movie within the genre. Modern-day feminists hold the “Final Girl” trope to a high standard, praising the diversity and inclusivity it offers, as well as how it battles sexism and gender norms, especially when it comes to women and their relation to violence perpetrated upon them by the opposite sex. However, despite the praise this trope receives, I believe that feminism is the opposite of what the Final Girl trope stands for, as I find it reinforces heteronormativity, sexism, and sexual violence against women and their bodies. Instead of placing women in protagonist roles with strong

feminine attributes, the women in slasher horror are only allowed to be victorious if their gender performance of femininity is implemented within the frameworks of patriarchal standards. This usually means an emphasis on virginity, sobriety, and innocence, which are harmful stereotypes of ‘proper’ women that each Final Girl seems to wear like a badge of honor. These dangerous characterizations also glorify femicide, or murder targeted specifically at women, making the heroine prey to the serial killer, the monster, the man.

It is important to note that very rarely are slasher killers women, and if they are made to be one, “women will get identical depiction as both the murderer and the victim,” meaning that their portrayal remains feminine and weak, which still contrasts the portrayal of the Final Girl (Sa’eed & Jubran 16). The gendered violence perpetuated by horror films depends on the presence of masculinity and femininity to exist as foils, which is why these fictional killers are mostly male. It is a deliberate choice when the lead character is a Final Girl, because only when she sheds her femininity can she overcome the masculine killer. She does not win as a woman, but instead as a masculine female that can go head to head with the killer. In this essay, I will discuss the multiple

interpretations and representations of Final Girls, mostly those in cinematic spaces, as well as critiques and discourse from the outside of the films that aid in contextualizing and proving my thesis about the harm that comes from the Final Girl trope.

The male gaze is by far the largest antagonist to the Final Girl, as oftentimes horror films are made by and for men. This leads to the patriarchal idealization of the female lead, and can explain other tropes that linger within slasher films, such as sexualized deaths scenes of secondary female characters. The problem here lies solely in who is in charge of the female story and who is behind telling the stories of these women on-screen, because very rarely is it ever actually a woman. In 2011, author Richard Nowell wrote an article in response to Carol J. Clover’s article “Her Body, Himself,” which discussed in part the importance of the audiences that slasher movies are created for. While Clover argues that women are not considered in the creation of slasher films nor the target demographic, Nowell says the opposite, arguing that Final Girls are, in fact, proof that women are a highly valued demographic in the slasher horror genre. Nowell states that “[w]hereas most scholars have tended to apply interpretive textual analysis to moments of threat and bloodshed, concluding that early teen slashers were male oriented, I focus mainly on the nonviolent content which dominated screen time … which reveals much about how industry insiders perceived and cultivated the films’ mixed-sex target audience” (Nowell 117). Despite his efforts, Nowell comes across as would be expected from a man discussing the film representation of women: entitled. What he forgets to remember is the types of scenes that are more crucial to the plot in violent slasher films, and which scenes aim to gruesomely and provocatively portray femicide for reasons that do not meaningfully contribute to the plot. If this argument is truly believed by most (male) filmmakers, then the slasher movies only exist for and because of the male gaze, because they believe a masculine fabrication of female lives, female sexuality, female bodies, and female fear are what

Instead of placing women in protagonist roles with strong feminine attributes, the women in slasher horror are only allowed to be victorious if their gender performance of femininity is implemented within the frameworks of patriarchal standards. This usually means an emphasis on virginity, sobriety, and innocence, which are harmful stereotypes of ‘proper’ women that each Final Girl seems to wear like a badge of honor.

women want to be represented by. As Clover states, “[e]ven in films in which males and females are killed in roughly even numbers, the lingering images are inevitably female. The death of a male is always swift; even if the victim grasps what is happening to him, he has no time to react or register terror” (200). Nowell and Clover demonstrate the polarizing opinions on the matter of who slasher films cater to and who falls victim to them. The demographic of these victims is another very critical aspect of how the male gaze directs femicide in order to push a social agenda about female promiscuity. It is no surprise that female sexuality is seen as improper and sinful, and the critique of female sexual liberty is so commonplace that it has its own term: the virgin/whore dichotomy. According to Leah M. Wyman and George N. Dionisopoulos, this dichotomy depicts “characters who are moralistic, nurturing, and asexual, and the other consisting of those who are unethical, dangerous and erotic” (209). There are two distinct, opposing categories in which women are placed into, and their label determines their fates within these horror movies, the Final Girl representing the innocence and the female side characters who engage in polarizing behavior and meet their gory demise as punishment. The article “Lady and the Vamp: Roles, Sexualization, and Brutalization of Women in Slasher Films,” by Ashley Wellman et al., analyzes the demographic of sexualized female characters in various slasher movies and how they

die in various slasher films. The data was obtained through the use of chi-square tests that revealed the percentages of female characters that had deaths coinciding with their sexual nature, whether explicit or not, and found that ”[From a study of 252 female characters] more than half the women were dressed is a sexual manner, 47.5% were portrayed with a flirtatious attitude, 36.6% were engaged in foreplay or sex, and 32.4% were nude in the film. Only 37.3% of the females in this group were pure or not sexualized…“ (Wellman et al.). This data further demonstrates the influence of the virgin/whore dichotomy in slasher films and how it deliberately chooses which women deserve to die and which are deemed worthy to live. Wyman and Dionisopoulos also state that this dichotomy “is perpetuated by a societal notion which combines female sexuality with submission and objectification and male sexuality with aggression and hostility,” which only reinforces the masculine killer and the feminine victim while also making a statement about women ‘deserving’ their demise if they have ‘submitted’ to sexuality and sexual impulses (213). This reflects society’s repetitive narrative that the sexual liberty of women is to be frowned upon, especially by men, and gives the impression that men who direct these scenes believe that death is a suitable punishment for the whore.

This virgin/whore dichotomy is almost as commonplace as the Final Girl trope itself, as it is embedded deep within sexism and maintained by men who fear women who are no longer ‘usable’ by the male gaze. This is where the Final Girl trope loses its feministic impact, because its very existence is used to demean, dehumanize, and antagonize ‘Other’ women and their bodies against one another. The ‘whores’,

if we apply these terms to the construal of slasher movie characters, are compared to the Final Girl and made to be an example, because “[t]heir bodies are the perpetual subjects of scrutiny, much more so than any of the films’ heroines, whose bodies are by comparison inconsequential” and therefore the film deems their femininity itself negligible (Trencansky 67). This begs the question: do these films only punish agency in the frameworks of femininity? The Final Girl has her agency, her strength, and her intelligence, but it is aligned more with masculine traits, so her actions are purposefully separated from those in the films who represent femininity.

More so than the actual characters themselves, the Final Girl trope has even more gendered nuances to it, created again by the male gaze and its constructs of femininity. In Kyle Christensen’s 2011 article “The Final Girl versus Wes Craven’s A Nightmare on Elm Street: Proposing a Stronger Model of Feminism in Slasher Horror Cinema,” the author offers a case for the Final Girl, arguing that the trope, while not presenting “inherently” feminist figures, can be used in such a way that the lead female can become a feminist figure through her character’s construction. Christensen’s examples are two of the most popular Final Girls from the late seventies/early nineties: Nancy Thompson from A Nightmare on Elm Street, whom Christensen deems the superior feminist of the two, and Laurie Strode from Halloween, the “antifeminist Final Girl” (Christensen 27). The author’s main point is that compared to Laurie

Strode, who is framed with a more sexist, stereotypical feminine gender performance, Nancy Thompson’s “process for surviving and eventually defeating [the male killer] is twofold: first, she … is constantly monitoring her environment for looming threats, and second, she uses her mind and willpower (as opposed to pugnacious violence) to rise above ...” (Christensen 39). Despite this observation’s validity, what Christensen fails to recognize is the inability for either of these Final Girls to symbolize feminism in their masculine central settings. In Carol Clover’s “Her Body, Himself,” she brings into perspective the use of phallic weaponry such as knives, blades, axes, etc. as a repeated weapon of choice of Final Girls, stating that “Knives and needles, like teeth, beaks, fangs, and claws, are personal, extensions of the body that bring attacker and attacked into primitive, animalistic embrace” (Clover 198). The phallic imagery of these weapons is vital to the understanding of how patriarchal constructs believe that all things begin with and end with masculinity. Nothing about the proximity of a female victim to a masculine killer with a phallic symbol in between them is feminist, because it suggests the only way to end the male slasher is to weaponize masculinity against him. In Christensen’s case about Nancy Thompson, at the end of Nightmare on Elm Street, she is able to overcome the killer by “preserv[ing] her status as a woman so as to “emasculate” Freddy [Krueger] while being knowingly nonviolent, and her rejection of masculine violence occurs in conjunction with … her equally important rejection of the masculine gaze,” however it is quickly

“Nothing about the proximity of a female victim to a masculine killer with a phallic symbol in between them is feminist ...”

evident that her strategy was not enough, as the killer’s rampage continues on at the end of the film (Christensen 41). It is later on in the franchise that it is made known that Freddy Krueger, the killer in the Nightmare on Elm Street series, can only be killed by being impaled by his own bladed glove, which reinforces the notion of masculinity being the only weapon the Final Girl can use to survive. So, while Nancy may not have brandished a phallic weapon in the film, it is clear that without it, her fate is still unknown.

It is my opinion that the Final Girl, due to her proximity to masculinity, represents a smoke screen more than anything, distracting the audience with a seemingly strong female role in a large box office slasher movie. Her heroine role diverts from the real horrors of the glorification of femicide that lie beneath and in between the lines of slasher movie scripts. Earlier I discussed the punishment for sexual encounters that is quite common in the genre, and how female characters are often brutally maimed as a direct consequence of their sexuality, but I want to delve deeper into the reasoning behind this commonality within the slasher genre, and how it directly connects to the oversexualization of the female body and the purposeful way the film industry caters to the femicide-related sexual fantasies of its intended male audience. The best representation of this kink-related violence is the execution of the infamous ‘chase scenes’ that are woven into nearly every horror movie in existence, often involving the Final Girl being chased by the killer in a long, drawn out sequence. The chase scene I will be analyzing is from the 2003 remake of The Texas Chainsaw

Massacre, starring Jessica Biel as the Final Girl named Erin. Though there are multiple in the film, the chase in the slaughterhouse has the most directorial choices that over-sexualize the Final Girl, and exploit her body in the midst of a scenario where she is being stalked and threatened by a crazed psycho killer with a chainsaw.

The casting choice of Biel as Erin by director Marcus Nispel was due to Biel’s success on the television show 7th Heaven where she played a very innocently-coded character named Mary, so “Biel’s role within the Texas remake instantly taps into her previous characterization of Mary … [and by] [r]eproducing Mary’s moralistic and virtuous persona, Erin is immediately established as the film’s moral [center] …” (Frost 73). However, it is visually evident that Biel’s ‘moralistic and virtuous persona’ is not the highlight of her character, as her presence in the film, especially in the slaughterhouse scene, is dominated by lingering, voyeuristic shots of her body. What is different about Biel’s Final Girl is that while she is not explicitly sexualized in the script, the directing exploits her body and intertwines the violence and horror she is experiencing with her appeal to the male gaze.

In this chase scene, Biel’s character is in a meat factory and running away from Leatherface, the film’s main antagonist. There is a part of the sequence where Biel ends up in a freezer room with a plethora of raw meats hanging from hooks, creating an obstacle for both Biel and the killer. At one point, she shields herself from the killer’s view by squeezing

herself into one of the carcasses, and the camera switches from a normal viewpoint to one that settles just underneath her breasts, and her shivering from the freezer puts emphasis on the camera’s angle as well as her hands crossing right underneath her chest to demonstrate the temperature in the scene. When fleeing this area, we also see her character stumble to the floor, and the audience gets a camera shot in between her legs as she crawls away backwards, her two knees on opposite sides of the camera frame. As she exits this area, there is a sprinkler that breaks — with no actual cause — and while she is running away from the killer, her white t-shirt shows off her bra underneath, again unnecessarily highlighting her body for sex appeal as she screams in terror. I question Nispel’s previous reason for casting Jessica Biel in this film, because he does not seem to utilize her innocence or morality that made her the perfect Final Girl of his directorial dreams. Her presence in the film exists solely for the male audience, and Nispel knows that. Putting her body in tangent with the violence and horror in the Texas Chainsaw film makes it akin to a sexual fantasy of hunting a woman like prey, and turns the audience’s participation in her fear into something sadistic. Biel’s Final Girl, despite her sex appeal, still gets to survive because her sexuality is created by the audience and not by her actual characterization; the Final Girl’s bodily autonomy and agency is just an illusion controlled by the male gaze.

It is evident from both the slasher film industry and society that the Final Girl is simply another symbol of society dictating what ‘real women’ are supposed to be from the perspective of men. The predatory nature of these films exists solely due to the large influence that the patriarchy

had and still has on the film industry due to the sheer amount of men in the field and the lack of women. The Final Girl trope is trapped in a vapid cycle of misogyny that makes women into sexualized, brutalized plot points for entertainment. Just as the boy cries “Wolf,” the Final Girl cries “Feminism” as she gains her notoriety and respect off of the backs of real women who have a long way to go before they are accurately depicted in cinema, and a long way to go before their bodies represent more than just a trophy for men to gawk at, to rip apart, and to take by any means necessary.

Bibliography

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Halloween. Directed by John Carpenter, performances by Jamie Lee Curtis, Compass International Pictures, 1978.

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The Nightmare on Elm Street. Directed by Wes Craven, performances by Heather Langenkamp, New Line Cinema, 1984.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Directed by Marcus Nispel, performances by Jessica Biel, New Line Cinema, 2003

Trencansky, Sarah. “Final Girls and Terrible Youth: Transgression in 1980s Slasher Horror”. Journal of Popular Film and Television, vol. 29, no. 2, 2000, pp. 63-73. Taylor & Francis Online, DOI: 10.1080/01956050109601010.

Wellman, Ashley et al. “Lady and the Vamp: Roles, Sexualization, and Brutalization of Women in Slasher Films”. Sexuality & Culture, vol. 25, 17 Oct 2020, pp. 660–679. Springer Link, https://doi.org/10.1007/ s12119-020-09788-4.

Wyman, Leah & George N. Dionisopoulos. “Transcending The Virgin/Whore Dichotomy: Telling Mina’s Story in Bram Stoker’s Dracula”, Women’s Studies in Communication, vol. 23, no.2, Apr. 2000, pp. 209-237. Taylor & Francis Online, doi: 10.1080/07491409.2000.10162569.

Understanding Genocide in Erik Ehn’s Soulographie and “Maria Kizito”

Spenser Willden

In Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett, Vladi mir and Gogo do nothing. They say a lot. They do noth ing. Even when they try to do something — they don’t do it. They wait for Godot and they wait for Godot and maybe he’ll come but he’ll never come, and how long have we been waiting and that’s no matter, we’ll keep waiting, and it’s been five minutes and it’s been three years and it’s been an hour. What is the audience seeing? They never quite know. The links they have to the world of the play (the tramps) are inherently dif ficult to comprehend and even harder to trust. It’s an absurdist abstraction, but in the abstract, a point is made about human suffering and the almost biblical nature of our willingness to put up with a world where horrible things happen. Written post-WWII, like other absurdist and experimental plays (many that it helped inspire), Waiting for Godot doesn’t have answers; it has questions — plenty of questions. Some, there’s a sense that Beckett knows the answer — some, not. After all, in a world filled with senseless violence, what room is there for sense? This abstraction implement ed for discussion of human rights abuses isn’t unique to Godot. In Rhinoceroses, by Eugene Ionesco, a vi olent rhino stampedes through the otherwise quiet streets of a small town in the countryside, only for the townsfolk to one-by-one turn into rhinos themselves, a metaphor for the virulent spread of fascism in preWWII Europe. In Fefu and her Friends, by Maria Irene Fornes, both traditional modes of theatrical convey ance and realism are eschewed for an in-depth dis

cussion of internalized misogyny and the effect sexism has on women when men aren’t around, marked by magical realism and absurd set piec es (the bullet in the rabbit, the invisible slap). Erik Ehn, a former student of Fornes, and a cur rent visiting professor to the UNM department of theatre and dance, utilizes similar abstractive techniques in his lengthy cycle of plays enti tled Soulographie: Our Genocides, which views genocide at home and abroad through the lens of absurdism, lyricism, and expansive Brechtian presentation modes. Through the abstraction of these experimental and diverse theatrical modes, particularly in the fifth play of the cycle, Maria Kizito, Erik Ehn confronts the social and moral challenges at the heart of genocide, strik ing a conversation not only about human rights but about intrinsic human nature as well. Ehn, as Dean of the Brown University theatre department, founded a conference for artists to discuss human rights abuses called “Arts in One World.” It’s in the discussion of these heavy topics — genocide, racism, pover ty, war, child labor — that Ehn finds his spiritu al purpose and his language focused more on mode than meaning. As an artist, he has a fasci nation with the spiritual and metaphorical impli cations of language. In an interview with Randy Gener for Critical Stages, the web-journal of the International Association of Theatre Critics, he

“It’s in the discussion of these heavy topics — genocide, racism, poverty, war, child la bor — that Ehn finds his spiritual purpose and his language fo cused more on mode than meaning.

describes his manner of writing as “burst lan guage,” saying that “that which lives in its gaps can enter into the field of brokenness more deeply.” He describes growing up and seeing his brother argue with his parents at the din ner table “using language way beyond [him],” from which he began to “understand the heat of meaning as abiding on a level just out of reach” (Ehn, “Writing…”). In every written form, but particularly in his theatrical writing, Ehn’s voice is lofty and difficult at times to comprehend. Take the beginning of the first play of the cycle, Every Man Jack of You (Jack being a recurring character through three of the plays, unable to find true happiness and contentment, named after Ehn’s own father). The opening line comes from the ghost of Ju lius Caesar, appearing in the road before Jack’s car: “Pine branches rough into midnight and fiction scours everything to fluid. Pine acids, backwards radio, and motor surge scratch against cruise con trol and the wounds of Julius Caesar too” (Ehn, Soulographie, 12). Though this play is one of the most difficult to follow in the cycle when read ing along (due in no small part to the absurdity of the text and stage directions — how do you represent an odometer turning into a slot machine?), there are still evocative thematic elements being

pushed here. As best as I can interpret, I imagine this as a car crash — the pine branches being the tree he hits, the motor surge scratching being him halting on the brakes, the wounds of Caesar being an allusion and a reference to the ghost of Caesar in the road being hit — but I honestly can’t confirm that. There are still many elements of that line ignored to get this interpretation. What is fiction scouring everything? If it’s a motor surge, is he hitting the gas to go through the ghost of Caesar? If so, what’s the deal with the pine branches rough into midnight? In that same in terview with Gener, Ehn states that “[he’s] with the audience on [the scripts.] A lot of it is really strange and [he doesn’t] know what’s going on.” This isn’t to portray the pieces as lacking in any overt planning — it’s clear that there’s a lot of thought and intentionali ty behind them — but rather to acknowledge the dif ficulty of Ehn’s language, not as a bug, but as a feature of his writing. “Describing the disaster is as impossi ble as describing heaven,” he says, citing the work of literary theorist and philosopher Maruice Blanchot, “[and] genocide really is that, the unspeakable disas ter” (Christopherson). His writing follows this idea of chasing the unspeakable to the point where sense is not always entirely possible. When discussing some thing so horrifying, the only way to witness respect fully is through abstraction, be it of language, circum stance, or even mode. This was Ehn’s intent when he set out to create Soulographie, with assistance from theatrical troupes across the world.

“We wanted to create an event that it would be impossible for anyone to completely get their head around. That, even if you did sit through all twenty-four hours … at the end of it, you re ally won’t be able to synthesize it all. We wanted to create something that intended to get around

something that’s unspeakable without discredit ing ourselves as witnesses by pretending to speak the unspeakable” (Christopherson).

There is clear influence in this from Brechtian and even Fornesian presentational modes, though in a manner that far exceeds their practice; in the same way that Beckett was influenced by Brecht, and Fornes was influenced by Beckett, Ehn is influenced by Fornes, who he states in that same interview that he took workshops with and learned so much about his tendencies as a writer from, years before Soulog raphie. Of course, to describe his work as Brechtian would be doing a disservice to Ehn’s dramaturgy. Though he attempts to “take [the topic of genocide] up in a way that doesn’t sentimentalize it but looks at it, looks at the thing itself, removing, ideally, even the finger that points, until it is just the thing itself,” that doesn’t separate the viewer entirely from the emotional life of the situation. The technique, yes, is Brechtian through-and-through, but due to the in tense subject matter, it’s difficult when reading not to find oneself stirred by the intense violence, particular ly in Maria Kizito, when the titular Rwandan nun aids in the murder of the Tutsi refugees by the Hutu militia: “Maria prays over a wounded woman under a bush.

MARIA: O clement, o loving, o sweet Virgin Mary… She signals the INTERAHAMWE.

REFUGEE: No, Sister – no, Sister – no, Sister – no. The REFUGEE starts to crawl away. Maria holds her down.

MARIA: It is time for the soul to leave the body.”

The language here, in the stage directions alone, is so brutally honest. This piece repeatedly uses this technique — setting the audience up with images

of mercy only to knock them down with Ma ria and Gertrude’s brutality.

Maria and Gertrude were real nuns during the Rwandan genocide, a hundred-day killing spree in which “around 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus had been killed” (“Rwan da Genocide: Hundred Days of Slaughter”). Countless factors led to this event that re sulted in teachers killing students, priests kill ing parishioners, husbands killing wives, and neighbors killing neighbors. Most of the vio lence was aimed at the ethnic Tutsi minority, who were elevated to power by the colonial ist Dutch, implementing “the classic strategy of ‘divide and conquer’ … [to elevate] first the Tutsis and then the Hutus, using the promise of privilege to one group to keep the other in line.” The church, a major force in the na tion of eight million, roughly half of whom are Catholic, followed suit in sowing this division (Allen Jr.). The already terrible violence was only exacerbated by the withdrawal of all UN and French personnel from the country at the time intervention was needed the most, with many western countries content to let the violence settle itself. Refugees fled to neighboring countries as best as they could, both during and after the genocide, but the lack of proper infrastructure for this sudden influx of immigrants in Uganda, where most refugees ended up, created a cholera crisis that claimed many more lives. One CNN re port from 2001 stated:

“The charges against the two Hutu nuns – Consolata Mukangango (Sister Gertrude [Mother Superior at the Sovu

convent]), 42, and Julienne Mukabutera (Sister Maria Kisito), 36 … stemmed from attacks by militia mobs in April and May 1994 on their con vent… in which up to 7,000 Tutsis are estimated to have perished. The prosecution claimed the two encouraged and collaborated with the kill ers, even supplying them with pet rol to burn a garage where some 500 people were hiding” (“Rwan dan nuns jailed for 1994 massa cre”).

According to Ehn, who attended the trial, the nuns were “rightfully con victed of [their] crimes,” saying that the evidence was clear and plentiful (Ehn, “Channels of Witness…” 73). Their tri al, which took place alongside the trial of two other collaborators, a universi ty professor and a businessman, was a landmark trial in the punishment of human rights abuses, as it was the first case under a Belgian law that gave local courts jurisdiction over violations of the Geneva Convention no matter where they were committed. They were convicted “in Belgium’s top criminal court, meaning they [could] only appeal legal technicalities, not the facts of the case” (Rich burg). Though they were convicted and sentenced to 15 years (Gertrude) and 12 years (Maria), they are both now out of prison with Maria having returned to the convent at Sovu, still a nun after all she did. Though human rights activists lauded her convic tion, many Hutus objected to it happening in a Bel gian court — if they were the ones to cause the vi olence through colonialist action, when will they be put on trial?

Ehn was raised a devout catholic, still ac

tively practicing his religion to this day. What drew him to the case and to ultimately writ ing about it was the fact that it was nuns who did this: people who prayed daily, people sup posed to shelter and protect God’s creatures, betraying those who had trusted them al most like Judas to Jesus — “I feel

I am reading the Bible for the first time,” she says, “the early days of the insistent inhuman” (Ehn, Sou lographie, 86). Returning to Ehn’s earlier commentary on present ing without pointing, this tech nique is pushed to its limit with Maria and Gertrude. Though he paints them as honest portraits, intending to discuss their char acter, as a reader it is difficult to see them as anything other than inhuman monsters — but this is the point. “The nuns of Sovu continued to ray through the many days of their campaign against the refugees …” Ehn said, describing the role of nuance in Soulographie. “The terrible fissures in the logic of their goodness allows the light of soul through. Sealing their actions under the verdict of evil keeps us from compassion and forgiveness and even effective rage (rage that makes contact) … I am talking here of poetic involvement” (Ehn, “Channels of Wit ness…” 73). The play could have painted Ma ria as a caricature, someone to otherize and hate for her unworldly evil, but who we can believe is defeated, vanquished, in some sort, at the end of the night, a traditional ending of good having won the day. Instead, he takes a

‘... through the witnessing of ab stract ideas, the perspectives surrounding genocide are explored with a depth of meaning impossible to replicate genuinely in more traditional theatrical modes.”

more nuanced approach where the audience sees genocidaires as people too: deeply flawed, horrible people, but still people, operating under their own internal logic, as stunning as it might be. The read er sees this in Maria’s (and, to a lesser extent, Ger trude’s) prayers: “Now I know what the owl meant / When he told us so -- / Little sister, we don’t have far to go. // Angels learn to fly by / Falling, / Falling.” (Ehn, Soulographie, 94). There’s a theological abso lution in her prayers, like she believes she knows the word of God and what he wants for her. She’s jus tifying her actions through devotion to her flawed human interpretation of God: “By being absolute in these actions, Maria is, in deep error, praising” (Ehn, “Channels of Witness” 73). This is what fasci nates Ehn with her character, and what fascinates the character of Theresa, an American nun present at Maria’s trial, who might be read as a stand-in for the playwright’s own spirituality and belief. Theresa both serves to mediate the facts from the trial and to mediate the audience’s understanding of Maria as a character. She is information, but she is also interpretation.

Ehn uses nonlinearity and verse to abstract the events of the play away from the reader. The play jumps back and forth in time with little to no consideration to audience understanding – one moment Maria is on trial, then she is serving milk to the murders. Then, she is supplying the petrol. Next, she is fleeing Rwanda after the RPF seizes the capitol, fearing retribution. After that, she is convicted in Belgium. Next, she is burning the ref ugees in the garage. Then, she is buying the milk, the matches, and the petrol. These are all shuffled and rearranged so many times that it’s hard to grab onto the narrative as a dramatic arc, with it

settling more thematically. As far as the versifi cation goes, it follows the traditional Ehn style of speaking through broken language, shattered and difficult to understand, yet heavily thematic and tonal. Much of it seems to be sung. It’s ab stract and weird, but that’s the point, to urge the audience to attempt to understand something that is simply incomprehensible. The story of Kizito is presented in a way that explores her nu ance without creating much sympathy for her, save at the very end, where it is lightly implied that Maria was sexually assaulted by Rekeraho, the militia leader. Even this is done through lay ers of abstraction away from the point — a ref ugee, one of those killed by Rekeraho and the Hutu militia, enacts a memory of “one of [the militia members] [taking her] for his wife” — Maria shadows in the background (Ehn, Soulog raphie, 101). Again, this is a very unclear image, open to interpretation, and saved for the end, not to create sympathy for the genocidal nuns, but rather to understand them slightly more. There’s also the recurring use of milk, a sub stance symbolic of nurture and purity, repeat edly poured by Kizito, both in serving the militia members, praying, and even directing the trag edies and massacring the Tutsis. This goes back to the title, Soulographie, taken by Ehn from a poem by Jacque Prévert, meaning drunkenness, wondering about the condition of the earth; is it drunk or sober with blood? (Christopherson). There are also some abstract elements that have been seen countless other times in plays like Angels in America, such as the use of multicasting. The play can hold many actors, as nuns and general chorus members, though only

one role, that of Rekeharo, is played by a man. The rest are doubled between refugees, nuns, militia members, and any other ancillary or primary characters. Maria, Theresa, and (perhaps) Gertrude are the only nuns who stay their roles, while the rest keep their habits while trading between perpetrators and victims of genocide.

Ehn’s writing comes alive in the discussion of human rights abuses; it’s where the burst language fits in the most, in moments that do not make any sense to communicate rationally. The language, as well as many other textual elements inspired both by alternative theatrical ideas (such as RAT, the Regional Alter native Theatre movement started by Ehn) and more traditional modes that aren’t often utilized in the west, such as puppetry and the Japanese Noh style serve as abstractions, working a different role than in works like Mother Courage and Fefu, which often entice the audience to attempt to solve the issues presented. Ehn, of course, is interested in an end to genocide, but what he’s primarily focused on in Soulographie is wit nessing, and through the witnessing of abstract ideas, the perspectives surrounding genocide are explored with a depth of meaning impossible to replicate genuinely in more traditional theatrical modes.

Works Cited

Allen Jr., John. “Priest’s conviction a reminder that Rwanda’s wounds are still open.” National Catholic Re porter, ncronline.orc/news/priests-conviction-reminder-rwandas-wounds-are-still-open. Accessed 30 April 2021.

“Arts in One World.” Brown University, https://www.brown.edu/academics/theatre-arts-performance-stud ies/arts-one-world-0, Accessed 30 April 2020.

Christopherson, Jody. “Playwright Erik Ehn on Soulographie: Our Genocides, a Commemorative Cycle.” Huffington Post, https://www.huffpost.com/entry/playwright-erik-ehn_b_1415597, Accessed 30 April 2020.

Ehn, Erik. Soulographie: Our Genocides. 53rd State Press, November 2012. Ehn, Erik. “Channels of Witness: Space, Abstraction, and the Commemoration of Genocide.” Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism, vol. 27, no. 2, Spring 2013.

Ehn, Erik. “’Writing Can Be Torn Up, Strange, Misfit’ – Interview with U.S. Playwright Erik Ehn.” Randy Gener, Critical Stages, no. 7, 2012. https://www.critical-stages.org/7/writing-can-be-torn-up-strange-misfit-in terview-with-u-s-playwright-erik-ehn. Accessed 30 April 2020.

Richburg, Keith B. “Rwandan Nuns Jailed in Genocide.” The Washington Post, www. washingtonpost.com / archive/politics/2001/06/09/rwandan-nuns-jailed-in-genocide, Accessed 30 April 2021.

Mood: Swing Megan Vlaun

Grant has Lexi’s leash tied to his scooter han dlebar — maybe this isn’t a great idea, but …

Helmets on, we zoom side-by-side down the hill, wheels clattering over the chipseal. Our scooters are rickety on this pavement, cracked and pitted from the passage of thousands of heavy campers. We claw at the handles to stay in control, teeth chattering, minds scrambling. My hair lifts off my back, and wind roars in my ears. My scooter pulls ahead. Lexi yelps and launches into a sprint; she won’t let me leave her. I am her person.

We giggle and squeal, faces split with smiles, to the bottom of the hill where we each use a foot to push hard, turn right, and head for the other loop of campsites.

The idea was to race both loops and head back to our site where Brian and Keira lounged lazily, but as the trees whip by, I notice a clearing behind one of the campsites and slam my foot down hard on the brake over the back wheel, skidding to a stop.

Lexi turns, notices I’m no longer beside her, and halts mid-stride, forcing Grant to swerve left. Off-balance, he leaps — a paroxysm of skinny arms and legs — and his scooter crashes in a ditch on the opposite side of the road, yanking Lexi sideways.

I watch this unfold with a mix of horror at the catastrophe and awe at my son’s dexterity.

Both boy and dog are fine.

“Mom! You almost killed us!”

“I am so sorry! I didn’t mean to … but look!” I wave my arm at the clearing, where a behemoth playground slumbers: lonely, deserted. A set of swings rise up, up, up into the sky – the tallest swing set I’d ever beheld … as they sway and creak in the gentle wind, their siren call beckons … and I must go.

“Can we hang here for a bit?” I ask.

“Uh, Yeah!” His eyebrows lift and his eyes widen; my kids always love playing with mom. It doesn’t happen too often anymore now that they’re older.

We pick our way through the rear of the empty camp site, wheeling our scooters by hand over mulch and dead weeds and fallen branches, then squint as we break into the clearing.

The space is vast, warm and brilliant in the sun, car peted with lush grass and ringed with trees displaying their autumn glory in shimmering metallics: gold, copper, bronze, even rust. September in Metigoshe is nature’s treasure.

Puffs of cloud meander across the sky. Lazy. Relaxed. In no hurry whatsoever.

With the exception of a dog barking intermittently at Lexi from across the clearing, a light breeze ruffling the leaves, and the soft song of the swings, it is blissfully calm.

Grant loops Lexi’s leash over a park bench by a lone some sapling at the center of the clearing, and she lies

down, panting, all smiles. He heads to explore the play structure while I head to the swing set and hop on.

These swings are perfect: they’re made for bigger kids and hang far enough off the ground that I do not have to squinch up my legs. The crossbar is high, too, so there is ten or twelve feet of chain — plenty of room for a satisfying, long swinging arc.

It’s been years since I’ve swung, and pumping my legs hard to get started re minds me of a night long ago at my grandparents’ campground in Avalon, New Jersey. The air was balmy and buggy, but the stars were out — and I let the trees above me blur as I swung alone for what seemed an eternity. As my body moved, I listened to the younger kids making crafts at the social event in the barn … and I heard the teenagers across the field as they clung to the old wood fence, flirting and laughing. My solitude was equally upsetting and soothing. I didn’t know any of those people, and that carried with it deep discontent. I am always an interloper. But then, the swing made it not matter so much. Moving through the air blots out darker thoughts and feelings.

Today is much the same: flying through the air, I can let go of my unfinished lesson planning and ungraded papers. I can release the anxiety of not knowing if I’m good enough or if my students are learning. I can pretend Brian’s not disap pointed he never caught a fish on his birthday. I can surrender my frustration that Keira would not come have fun with us on the scooters. I can just … be.

I can feel.

Eyes tearing, hair tickling my face, I roll my head backwards and let the world tumble around me. At the bottom of the sweeping arc, my hair trails on the ground, flicking up mulch, and the bottom drops out of my stomach like a roll ercoaster. Dizzy, crazed, I pump harder, go higher, fly faster. At the upper limit of my arc, I push so high my body lifts off the seat and chain, weightless — for that moment, I become a bird, soaring without limits. But then I’m reminded I don’t have wings. I drop like a rock, confident that the seat and chain will rescue me. Adrenaline rushes to my scalp, fingertips, the back of my calves. My body’s in stinctual response to a near-death experience washes over me, courses through me, and then it is gone.

I am alive. This is everything.

At the upper limit of my arc, I push so high my body lifts off the seat and chain, weightless –for that moment, I become a bird, soaring without limits.

“ ”

Heidegger, quantum mechanics, and thinking the same

Hank Messinger

In Being and Time, Martin Heidegger embarks on the search for fundamental ontology, the singu lar answer to the question of the nature of what is; of existence (1962). Heidegger does not succeed in this quest, but in the search he does describe many important aspects of existence, even if not in a singular ultimate fashion. Physics is also a search for the fundamental constitution of what makes up the world: that is, of what is. Physics also, in its own way, has failed to describe the ultimate con stitution of being in failing to unify quantum me chanics and general relativity by its own admission. But physics has also brought forth an enormously successful and wondrously intricate description encompassing a significant portion of what there is. These descriptions by Heidegger and by physics share a number of characteristics.

There are five interrelated areas in which this similarity appears. They are: (1) the world consists of possibilities, (2) the showing up of being for humans, (3) the uncanniness of the world, (4) the inexhaustibility of what is, and (5) the absence of a division between subject and object and instead being-in-the-world.1 I will propose that these sim ilarities are defining characteristics of these two seemingly very different ways of approaching the object of inquiry, that is, of their thinking.

(1) Possibilities: What exists in quantum me chanics are possibilities. These are inconsistent

possibilities. In the classical sense, they are mu tually exclusive, but nonetheless exist together. The basis of quantum mechanical analysis is the wave function. A wave function is the sum of the possibilities which could manifest in the exam ination of a given phenomenon.

A standard interpretation of quantum me chanics holds that what is is the totality of pos sibilities, existing as possibilities, a global or uni versal wave function encompassing everything that is or, in other words, every possible possi bility. It is the nature of possibilities which allows the co-existence of mutually exclusive states.

In proposing his thought experiment with the cat, Schrödinger demonstrated that this co-existence of mutually exclusive possibilities was the accurate understanding of reality, even if his intention was the opposite. Similarly, in quantum computing, instead of each bit being 0 or 1, each bit is simultaneously both 0 and 1. Both possible states exist together instead of being restricted to one or the other. Werner Heisenberg, a key developer of quantum me chanics, lecturing in the 1950s, confirmed the foundational aspect of possibilities, saying, “the atoms or elementary particles form a world of potentialities or possibilities rather than one of things or facts” (2007, 160).

For Heidegger too, the world consists of possibilities: “Higher than actuality stands pos sibility” (B&T 63). Furthermore, “possibility as

an existentiale [that is, as a structural character istic of being human] is the most primordial and ultimate positive way in which Dasein is charac terized ontologically” (183).2 Humanity is often characterized by what it is not, but possibility is the both the beginning and the end of the way in which Dasein is characterized positively, as the way that it is.

One of Heidegger’s most basic descrip tions of Dasein, of being-there, is as “thrown.” It is Heidegger’s term for how we come to find ourselves in the world, with parents we did not choose, speaking a language we had no part in making, in a society and culture which was there before us. We are, that is, “thrownly abandoned in the ‘world’” (458). It also indicates the way in which we have a self before we are aware of hav ing a self, before we can ask who we are. Being thrown is the basis of being Dasein and Heidegger asks, “And how is Dasein this thrown basis? Only in that it projects itself upon possibilities into which it has been thrown” (330). That into which we are thrown, the world or what is, is possibilities.

(2) Being showing up for humans: Among the difficulties posed for the initial acceptance of quantum mechanics is that the inconsistent possibilities which make up the wave function are not manifest. There is more than enough evidence for them, but they are not “there.” To have one of the possibilities appear requires an observation—usually, in the dominant Copenha gen interpretation, a “measurement” by a “con sciousness.”3 This results in what is called the col lapse of the wave function, the reduction of the multiple possibilities to one outcome.4

In Heidegger, Dasein constitutes the hori zon within which being shows up as intelligible 5 Humans have a sense of what it means to be. This is the basis of Heidegger’s inquiry and why Da sein, as the being-there that humans are, is the focus of his investigation. It is through this sense of what it means to be that Dasein constitutes the horizon of intelligibility 6

To be, generally, is to be something and to be intelligible is to show up as something. The co-existence of mutually exclusive possibilities is not, in the ordinary sense, some thing. The col lapse of the wave function, the appearance of a single state of affairs out of the co-existence of mutually inconsistent possibilities, that is, there being a 0 or 1 instead of both together, is the appearance of intelligibility. It is in a human ob servation, in Dasein as the horizon and site of in telligibility, that the superposition of inconsistent possibilities shows up as something.

(3) Uncanniness; not being at home in the world: For Heidegger, we are not at home in the world into which we are described as thrown and abandoned. Not being at home in the world is a central concept for Heidegger, and, manifesting as anxiety, is a basic state of being human. Heide gger most often expresses this using the word unheimlich, translated, as with E. T. A. Hoffmann and Freud, as “uncanny.” In its initial treatment in Being and Time, “‘uncanniness’ also means ‘notbeing-at-home’” (B&T 233).

We are also not at home in the world of quantum mechanics. The empirical world de scribed by quantum mechanics is incomprehen sible in the terms in which humans engage the world and their existence. As Heisenberg puts it,

in comparison to early technology which could be seen as an extension of manual crafts, “many people find some thing uncanny” in electrical technology, but “atomic tech nology is exclusively concerned with the exploitation of natural forces to which there is no entry at all from the world of natural experience” (1958, 17-18).

(4) Inexhaustibility: Modern physics is, together with Heidegger and, in his view, the poet Hölderlin, the most far-reaching unfolding of the enigma of being as an enig ma.7 Modern physics thinks it is engaged in finding the ultimate truth about existence, but being, in its inexhaust ibility, continues to elude this attempt at a final definition. Physics does, however, continually succeed in posing par tial explanations which are perhaps unmatched in demon strating the incomprehensibility of being in its totality. What physics has shown to this point is that, in its ever ex panding, increasingly comprehensive explanation of what is, there is always something that escapes the explanation.

It is only in later Heidegger, with the failure of funda mental ontology to encompass the totality of what is, that Heidegger recognizes that what is necessary is to “expe rience and examine what is inexhaustibly given to the human to think” (Heidegger, 2010, 156, tense changed). Physics, for the most part, still holds that its goal is to en compass the totality of being in a single formulation.

In both modern physics and Heideg ger, the aspect of possibility adds another aspect of inexhaustibility. A given actuality has a unitary aspect, but possibilities, espe cially the co-existence of inconsistent pos sibilities, promotes multiplicity and allows an inexhaust ible proliferation of possibilities. Experiments in quantum mechanics, for the sake of the experimental result, usually artificially limit the number of possibilities to two, but in

the global wave function the possibilities are inexhaustible. For both modern phys ics and Heidegger, it is in the nature of a world in which what is is possibilities to be inexhaustible.

(5) Being-in-the-world: Being-in-theworld is perhaps the central concept of Being and Time. Most of its first half is devoted to explicating being-in-theworld. Human existence, (and in Heide gger’s terminology, only humans exist) is being-in-the-world.8 A key part of Heideg ger’s project, extending beyond Being and Time, is to undo the influence of the Car tesian understanding in which what thinks is of a different substance than what phys ically is (B&T 247, 271-72). Heidegger also wishes to dismiss the skepticism associ ated with the problem of how something which cannot interact with the world can know the world, except through repre sentation (ibid.).

“A given actuality has a unitary aspect, but possibilities, especially the co-existence of inconsistent possibilities, promotes multiplicity and allows an inexhaustible proliferation of possibilities.”

It was taken as one of the problems regarding quantum mechanics, and one of the most serious deviations from classical physics, that the observer affects the observation, but this is not an oddi ty.9 In being-in-the-world, there would be no divi sion between the subject observer and what is observed. Quantum mechanics demonstrates that there is no possibility of drawing a demarcation where the ob

server is on one side and the experiment is on the other.

One aspect of the attempt to draw such a line is the issue of whether the measuring appa ratus is on the side of or part of the observer or is part of the experiment. There are debates about where to draw the line, but they are inconclusive because there is no division. The observer and the experiment are in the world together as part of the same wave function. Although Heisenberg, at least at one time, thought that it was meaningful to draw a line between observ er and experiment, he agreed that “the common division of the world into subject and object is no longer adequate ” (1958, 24).

In the Schrodinger’s cat thought experiment, the es sential purpose of the box is to draw a line be tween observer and event. If this boundary is breached by having an external signal, say a light, display on the outside of the box that the event of radioactive decay has taken place, there is no unobserved state and because of this, there is no superposition, no co-existence of the incon sistent possibilities that the cat is both alive and dead. Only if the world of the cat and the world of the observer are separated can there be an alive/dead cat.

CONCLUSIONS

These similarities are not the foundation of either Heidegger’s thinking or quantum mechan ics, they are not axiomatic. They arise in the work ing out of the thinking of each. Two very different

approaches to very different objects, albeit with the same initial goal, in apparently different ways, find the same central characteristics to describe the world they encounter.¹⁰

What relationship between Heidegger’s thinking and quantum mechanics do these sim ilarities indicate? The similarities seem the result of confluence rather than influence. Once again, Heisenberg agrees: “The great development of natural science since the sixteenth and seven teenth centuries was preceded and accompanied by a development of philosophical ideas which were closely connected with the fundamental concepts of science” (2007, 51).

Heidegger’s long-standing friendships with Heisenberg and their mutual friend and student Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker would ultimately have given Heidegger a familiarity with quantum mechanics, but it appears that Heidegger’s rela tionship with each of them began only in 1935.11

If perhaps Heisenberg’s philosophical writings from the 1950s indicate Heidegger’s influence, this is no indication of an influence on the work Heisenberg did at the center, with two or three others, of the small group responsible for the de velopment of quantum mechanics in the 1920s. An interesting coincidence is that the 1927 Solvay Conference, at which the Copenhagen interpre tation of quantum me chanics became set tled, occurred in the same year Being and Time was published. It does not seem pos sible that Heidegger would have had any significant knowledge of the development of quantum mechanics during the

“Quantum mechanics is open above all to the mystery it has unveiled.”

“Only if the world of the cat and the world of the observer are separated can there be an alive/dead cat.”

formulation of this early great work. Heidegger’s thought and quantum mechan ics appear to be two independent ways of think ing which arrive at remarkably similar conclusions. Heidegger’s thought and physics share another similarity. They both characterize the past as divid ed into epochs, dissimilar or even discontinuous periods separated by watershed events, such as the Cartesian posit of the cogito or the Newtonian re making of physics.12

The past has been identified as composed of ages at least since Hesiod, but the notion of iden tifying a specific thinker as marking the demarca tion, as far as my knowledge extends, is new with modernity. This identification with specific thinkers is warranted because what distinguishes the ep ochs are different ways of understanding the basis of existence. Both Newton and Descartes ushered in radically new understandings of the world which displaced prior modes of intelligibility, as did Heide gger, quantum mechanics, and Einstein.13 The simi larity of the conclusions reached by Heidegger and quantum mechanics speaks to the idea of an ep ochal change.

Physics does not, as part of its inquiry, track its epochal changes into other fields. For Heidegger, being is not unchanging. It has a history and it is the history of the different ways in which what ex ists shows up for humans. Epochal change comes about with a change in being. Thinking which is re ceptive to this will then also change.

In an age when being shows up for humans as uncanny, as inexhaustible possibilities without a separation between humans and the world, then those are the characteristics that a rigorous think ing will disclose. Heidegger, because it is based on calculation, will deny this title to physics, but the

similarity of their findings calls into question his view that physics is determined by technology. Calculation may be central to quantum mechanics and, methodologically, it can be said to approach the world as composed of meaningless objects, but from its beginning, quantum mechanics has been open to being taken beyond any mere calculative showing, both accepting the non-continuity of the world and the absence of a separation be tween humans and the world. Quantum me chanics is open above all to the mystery it has unveiled. Despite being committed method ologically to a technological outlook, quantum mechanics appears also to be a route to a post-modern conceiving and embodiment of an existence which does not separate human being from an uncanny, inexhaustible world of possibilities.

Works Cited

Cassidy, David C. 1992. Uncertainty: The Life and Science of Werner Heisenberg. New York: W. H. Freeman and Company. Heidegger, Martin. 1962 Being and Time, trans. J. Macquarrie and E. Robinson (New York: Harper & Row, a translation of Sein und Zeit (Tübingen: Max Niemeyer, 1927), cited as B&T.

Heidegger, Martin. 2010. Country Path Conver sations, trans. Bret W. Davis. Blooming ton: Indiana University Press.

Heidegger, Martin. 2014. Hölderlin’s Hymns

“Germania” and “The Rhine,” trans. Wil liam McNeill and Julia Ireland. Blooming ton: Indiana University Press.

Heisenberg, Werner. 1958. The physicist’s con

Footnotes

1 Complementarity is a quantum mechanical concept which applies to pairs, and there are many pairs in Heidegger, specifically counterturning pairs and linguistic pairs arising from translation such as living and dwelling in Wohnen and room and space in Raum. Complementarity, while an important phenomenon, appears misnamed, and although Heidegger’s pairs could easily be called complimentary, this does not appear to connect Heidegger and quantum mechanics.

2 Dasein, the ordinary German word for existence is com posed of two parts Da and Sein, there or here, and being, so being-there. It applies, in Heidegger, only to humans. In the majority of translations of Heidegger, it is not translat ed, so presented, unitalicized as an English neologism.

3 Reference is commonly made to the Copenhagen inter pretation but there is disagreement as to just what the Copenhagen interpretation entails. Heisenberg and Bohr, usually seen as its originators, had disagreements and other interpretations of quantum mechanics also feature collapse of the wave function with or without a role for consciousness.

4 In the “Many Worlds” interpretation there is no collapse of the wave function, but, following an observation, there is a division into separate worlds, each of which manifests, as to the observed phenomenon, a single defined state rather than the superposition of multiple states.

5 Dasein gives this horizon its being and is also that which the horizon is. Heidegger makes frequent use of this kind of ambiguity. Heidegger’s project involves lessening the rigidity of the subject-object distinction and finding an equivalent for the Greek middle voice.

6 “[T]he horizon within which something like Being in gen eral becomes intelligible” can only come out of “the under standing of Being … which itself belongs to the constitution of the entity called Dasein” (B&T 274).

7 Science studies and physics, discounting the science of Aristotle, have different naming conventions than most other fields of study. Newtonian physics is called classical physics and post-Newtonian physics, quantum mechanics and, for the most part, relativity, are called modern physics. For Heidegger’s view that an enigma is not a puzzle to be solved but that in which what is inexplicable is to be understood in its inexplicability, see Heidegger 2014, 224-25.

8 Dasein ex-ists, from ex-sistere, to stand out, that is, into the world in which it is.

9 Despite the problems Descartes creates for knowledge, in the Cartesian world, a phenomenon is safe from being affected by the observation of consciousness.

10 Uncanniness does not need to be as defining a char acteristic as the others. It is possible that people could become accustomed to the strangeness of quantum mechanics and Heidegger, with Nietzsche, would have us come to be at home in homelessness.

11 Von Weizsäcker, of a renowned German family, is an important source of information about the relationship between Heisenberg and Heidegger. As he relates it, von Weizsäcker met Heisenberg in late 1926 when he was 14, and Heisenberg, 25 and in the midst of the development of quantum mechanics, was invited to their house by von Weizsäcker’s mother (1988, 3). A few months later, von Weizsäcker, at Heisenberg’s invitation, connected with Heisenberg again when Heisenberg was passing through Berlin (3). Von Weizsäcker went on to become Heisen berg’s doctoral student, close friend, and a physicist in his own right.

Von Weizsäcker met Heidegger in 1935, when it was arranged for von Weizsäcker’s father and Heisen berg to meet at Heidegger’s cabin in Todtnauberg for a discussion with Heidegger on “the introduction of the subject into the natural sciences” (230). Von Weizsäcker is explicit that this is his first meeting with Heidegger (230). He refers to the meeting as the idea of someone other than the participants, implying that Heidegger and Heisenberg did not have a prior personal relationship (230). Von Weizsäcker’s relationship with Heidegger continued through periodic mutual visits that lasted up until 1972 (231-235). Von Weizsäcker also remained a “colleague and confidant” of Heisenberg up unto Heisen berg’s death, especially during the period of their postwar internment (Cassidy 1992, 13, 505.)

12 This similarity differs from the numbered similarities in that for physics, and, at least initially, for Heidegger, ep ochality does not arise from the inquiry into the funda mental constitution of what is.

13 On the connection of epochality as a shift in modes of intelligibility to Heidegger’s inquiry after Being and Time, see Thomson 2005, 8-9, 54-55 and 2011, 8-9.

The Odyssey of Being/Where You Are Now

Liam DeBonis

The streets are a fluid space; in the course of each new visit the explorer finds a new world, with the main characters and plot rearranged in a new and fascinating display to wit ness and be a part of. In these characters we see ourselves, those we’ve loved, those we’ve lost. We notice the girl under the awning smoking her cigarette in silence, or the couple laughing together at the next table from us in the ramen shop. We can follow the odyssey of their everyday lives like a television drama or a late-night sitcom — in fact, we are drawn to both in the very same way. And though the street signs and skyscrapers may remain fixed (and not even them, in time), change flows through the streets and washes through the boutiques and bars, bringing new faces and lives and loves and stories. In essence, the street cements the im portance of photo documentation; our only recourse intan gibly capturing and preserving these marvelous displays is through the lens, unless in our memories alone.

“Cowboy (and His Dog)”

Friendly Animals, Dimwit Heroes, and Baba Yaga Folktale Elements in Voinovich’s The Life and Extraordinary Adventures of Private Ivan Chonkin

Hannah Williams

The Life and Extraordinary Adventures of Pri vate Ivan Chonkin by Vladimir Voinovich follows the hapless adventures of the title character, a dense Red Army soldier instructed to guard a downed plane in a small Soviet village. Through a flurry of misunderstandings, Chonkin comes to be regarded by the secret police as a potential German spy lead ing a dangerous resistance. The following encoun ters serve to uncover the absurdity at the heart of the Soviet system. While The Life and Extraordinary Adventures of Private Ivan Chonkin is first a satir ical work criticizing Stalin and multiple Soviet-era policies, Voinovich also imbues his work with the structure and familiar characters from popular Rus sian folktales. Voinovich crafts his portrayal of Ivan Chonkin, his partner Nyura, the animals that sur round them, and the plot of the novel to mimic the anatomy of a popular Russian folktale. Voinovich uses the structure of traditional Russian folktales in order to reclaim them for himself and for Russian readers, and to further his satire by using folktales, which were often a vehicle of Soviet propaganda, to instead offer a biting criticism of life under Soviet rule.

Before discussing Chonkin, it is helpful to re view Vladimir Propp’s structure of a Russian folk tale, as outlined in The Russian Folktale. According to Propp, the tale begins with the background and physical features of the hero being told to the reader before the hero departs or is kicked out of his native

land. The hero then begins his journey, encoun tering a donor who puts him through a series of tests and rewards the hero with a magical tal ent or helper if he passes them successfully. The hero then arrives at a foreign king’s court, offers his services, and is soon indispensable. In help ing the king, he undertakes a series of tasks or adventures, reveals the truth about why he had to leave his home, and unmasks the villain. The hero will then return home, establish his right to the throne, marry the princess, and live happily ever after (17-18). The plot of Chonkin follows this general outline, which would be immediate ly recognizable to anyone familiar with Russian folktales. The hero of the text, Ivan Chonkin, is orphaned at an early age, and then again when his foster parents disappear. After joining the military, Chonkin becomes a laughingstock be cause of his dimwittedness and is made to be a stable boy. He is then sent to a village to guard a military plane where he meets a young woman named Nyura, falls in love, and settles into a rou tine. But this relative peace is short lived as ene mies appear and threaten Ivan and Nyura. While Ivan initially conquers these enemies, they reap pear and overpower the hero. The novel ends as Ivan and Nyura are separated.

In purposefully aligning characters like Chonkin and Nyura with the well-known and well-loved characters of traditional Russian folk

“Voinovich uses the structure of tradition al Russian folktales in order to reclaim them for himself and for Russian readers, and to further his satire by using folktales, which were often a vehicle of Soviet propaganda, to instead offer a biting criticism of life under Soviet rule.”

lore, Voinovich sought to divorce these characters from the So viet propaganda at the time. Even traditional folklore had not escaped the Soviet effort, and writers of folklore were “enlisted in the service of the five-year plan” because traditional folklore was recognized “as a powerful force to advance communism” (Oinas 46-47). As Propp notes, a folktale cannot be divorced from its cultural and historical roots; it will always be inherent ly tied to the nation it originates from (302). Narratives about “collectivization of agriculture and life in the Red Army” were solicited, although they were only accepted if they praised the new way of life under communism and condemned the old (Oi nas 48). Voinovich cleverly situated his novel in a quaint Russian town, showing that confusion and corruption run rampant in both the farm collective and in the Red Army. Relying on the emotional, nostalgic effect that folktale has on Russian readers, Voinovich sought to rescue folktale from propaganda, and also further his satirical rebuke of Stalin and Soviet-era policies.

The very beginning of The Life and Extraordinary Adven tures of Private Ivan Chonkin imitates a Russian folktale. Russian folktales have a timelessness that allows them to be passed on through generations, and Voinovich imbues Chonkin with the same treatment of time and events. Voinovich begins Chonkin with “now, it is impossible to say definitely whether it all really did happen or not” (1). The narrator continues by saying that they “heaped up everything I’ve heard on the subject and added a little something of my own as well” (1). Although the reader is told that the story did happen “just before the start of the war, the end of May, the beginning of June, 1941,” (1) the previous indefinite description of time cues the readers to think of a folktale. Additionally, the narrator addresses the reader directly in the first paragraph of the novel, saying “if the story seems uninteresting to you, or boring, or even foolish, then just spit and forget I ever started telling it” (1). The humorous addition of the narrator speaking directly to the recipient of the story can be seen in multiple Russian folktales, furthering the connec tion to folktales in the reader’s mind. For example, in “A Cun ning Trade” the narrator ends the story by saying “And, prithee, my tale is told, a mug of ale, if I might be so bold” (Afanasev

“

”

111). Thus, the beginning of the novel is imparted with the familiar ambiance of a Russian folktale, priming readers to no tice other similarities.

Russian folklore is filled with an imals, both those who appear normal and those with magical abilities (Kadyr bekova 408), and per the folktale tradi tion of having animal agents, Voinovich fills Chonkin with animal characters. From the beginning, Chonkin is linked with horses. As a child he grew up car ing for horses, and when he arrives in the army, his commander immediately sends him to the stable, “the very place for Chonkin” (Voinovich 23). Animals are typically put in the story to help the hero in some way — the animals are often able to cover great distances and speak with the hero, offering him comfort and advice (Khan 508). Chonkin’s original dis satisfaction with his assignment to guard the plane is based on loneliness; Chonkin remarks that previously, “he’d been able to talk with his horse … he even liked talking with horses better than people … whether the horse understood or not, it would still wave its tail, nod its head – the horse would respond” (Voinovich 38). In one popular Russian folktale, “The FireBird and Princess Vassilissa,” the horse speaks to his master, offering sage wis dom and even casting a magical spell to save his master from death (Afanasev 70-72). Chonkin’s closeness to animals again reminds readers of a traditional

Russian folktale and primes Chonkin to be understood as the hero of this story.

While Chonkin finds himself horse-less in his new post, Nyura has two animals: Beauty the cow and Borka the pig. Both Beauty and Borka are described as having human-like qualities. Beauty relates to Nyura “on a per son-to-person basis,” run

“As Chonkin is incorporated into Nyura’s household, he comes to relate to her animals on a human level, allowing Voinovich to further his satire by portraying animals to be more intelligent than the humans they live with.”

ning back home to Nyura and hooking those who give Nyu ra a hard time with her horns (Voinovich 46). After Nyura nursed Borka back to health as though he was her own child, he escapes the typical fate of a pig and instead fol lows Nyura loyally, squealing gleefully when she returns home. As Chonkin is incorporated into Nyura’s household, he comes to relate to her animals on a human level, allow ing Voinovich to further his satire by portraying animals to be more intelligent than the humans they live with. When Beauty eats pseudo-scientist Gladishev’s prized tomato/ potato hybrid, Ivan resolutely protects Beauty from Gladi shev’s wrath, narrowly escaping being shot. In this instance, Beauty is shown to be a rational character in the story who understands the only appropriate use for Gladishev’s plants by eating them. Chonkin’s relationship to Borka is more complicated. Based on a piece of vicious village gossip, which Chonkin takes for the absolute truth, Ivan believes Nyura and Borka have a sexual relationship. Chonkin’s fool ish inability to understand he is being teased serves to allow Borka to take on the very human trope of “the other man.”

After being thrown out of the house by Nyura, Chonkin dreams he attends Nyura and Borka’s wedding, where he is terrified to see human guests transform into pigs; said pigs

then admonish him for not grunting properly and happily devour humans, including Stalin. While this dream is meant to show the inherent paranoia and absurdity of Stalinism (Ryan-Hayes 298), Kadyrbe kova points out that the role of animals is to “in struct and guide the human protagonist. The hu man turns out to be poorly equipped to deal with this world. In order to survive and overcome chal lenges, he has to rely on the animal’s wisdom and guidance, while the animal is understood to arrive prepared” (422). Voinovich guides the reader to understand that if Stalin is playing the role of evil doer in Chonkin’s fairytale land, then it follows that Borka’s presentation as a pig helps Chonkin understand Stalin’s inherent lack of morality. Finally, as Chonkin refuses to leave his post and engages the soldiers sent to arrest him, Borka stays by Ivan’s side, ostensibly to re ceive affection. However, by fighting alongside Chonkin, Borka is further humanized based on the secret po lice’s mistaken belief that Chonkin heads an entire gang of German spies. Voinovich’s animal characters not only mirror the typical animals found in folktales, but they also al low him to mock Stalin and Soviet policies.

“...Ivan Chonkin’s passive stance and inability to understand simple things allow him to be maneu vered through the story, calling attention to the inane policies the characters are forced to live with under Soviet rule.”

The narrator’s introduction of Ivan Chonkin immediately links him to a stock character of Rus sian folktales, Ivan the Fool. The narrator admits that the reader has “already noticed that Ivan Chonkin, the soldier with one year left to serve, was short of stature, bowlegged, and even had red ears” — all qualities that do not exactly inspire hope for heroic actions (Voinovich 20). The nar rator is forced to admit that all the suitable charac

ters “had already been grabbed up and I was left with Chonkin” but he accepts Chonkin, saying “the hero of your book is like your child … still you love your own more just because he’s your own” (Voinovich 21). As Khan notes, the equally popular character of Prince Ivan is a more appro priate hero, “dependable and selfless, motivated by altruistic reasons” (510). On the other hand, Ivan the Fool is often dimwitted and lazy, looked down upon by his greedy brothers because he seems incapable of following society’s unwrit ten rules (Smirnov 146). Those who are smarter than Ivan the Fool exploit his labor or use him as a scapegoat to avoid trouble (150). In one instance, Chonkin is encouraged by his sworn en emy to ask the senior politruk whether Stalin has two wives, an incredibly dangerous ques tion, yet “kindhearted Chonkin, who didn’t know how to refuse anyone or anything” asks it anyway (Voinovich 27). Ivan the Fool’s general ignorance makes him a laughingstock of Russian folktale readers, yet at the end of the tale, the fool is often re warded, while his cunning, greedy counterparts are punished (Smirnov 155). As the hero of Voi novich’s story, Ivan Chonkin’s passive stance and inability to understand simple things allow him to be maneuvered through the story, calling at tention to the inane policies the characters are forced to live with under Soviet rule.

Ivan Chonkin’s attraction to Nyura and eventual partnership clearly shows that Nyura plays the role of the princess or fair maiden in

the text, but Nyura also operates as the donor. Propp defines the donor as one of the seven es sential roles in a fairytale, someone who tests the hero and gives magical assistance to the hero when they succeed (148). In this way, the reader can also see that Nyura bears resemblance to perhaps the most famous figure of Russian folktales, Baba Yaga. While Baba Yaga is more infamously known as a villain, she also inhabits the role of a donor in a variety of folktales (Johns 145). Grădinaru ar gues that it is just this complicated status as part villain that allows Baba Yaga to prepare the hero for the journey is about to undertake and impart her knowledge of different worlds (315). Nyura is Chonkin’s guide to the small village he finds himself in, often explaining the characters and customs of the villagers. Khan notes that the hero often meets Baba Yaga “in an open field or in a forest” and lives in a hut “where the hero too must stay in order to go through a transformation to prepare him self for the subsequent journey” (503). In many Russian folktales, the hero happens upon the hut (which is propped up on chicken legs) and must provide the correct incantation to get the hut to stop, often claiming that they intend to only spend one night, and that they are in search of basic food and water (Johns 179). In Chonkin, Ivan first sees Nyura as she works in her vegetable garden and, seeking a reason to speak with her, asks for some water (Voinovich 42). Thus, Voinovich paints Ivan’s first encounter with Nyura as similar to a hero’s first encounter with Baba Yaga.

In continuing Nyura’s role as the donor to Ivan Chonkin’s hero, Nyura doesn’t directly test Ivan, but instead sets him to work in completing various housekeeping tasks. In their first meet

ing, Ivan helps Nyura with the task of mound ing her potatoes, impressing her with his talent and speed (Voinovich 43). As they settle into their routine, Chonkin “had fetched the water, chopped the firewood, fed Borka his bran, and cooked dinner for himself and Nyura… to make time pass more quickly, he’d do his embroidery” (Voinovich 68). Clearly, Chonkin excels at main taining the household, to Nyura’s benefit. By pleasing the donor, the hero is rewarded with a magical gift or talent (Propp 148). Nyura’s gift to Chonkin is revealed when the NKVD agents come to arrest Chonkin. Much like the magical plot of a fairytale, Nyura empowers Chonkin to triumph over the soldiers. After begging him not to resist the coming soldiers, Nyura kisses Chonkin three times and “without quite know ing how to do it, made the sign of the cross over him” (Voinovich 215). Despite being only one man, Chonkin is then able to arrest and unarm the soldiers and their Lieutenant, succeeding not only in avoiding bloodshed, but also in main taining his post. Nyura’s role as the donor is re alized when her devotion provides Chonkin with the power to triumph over the enemy despite the odds against him. In addition, Nyura’s role allows Voinovich to show that simple country people can triumph over the chaos instituted by Stalin.

Vladimir Voinovich’s The Life and Extraor dinary Adventures of Private Ivan Chonkin al lows Voinovich to lampoon both Stalin and his absurd policies by showing them through the eyes of Ivan Chonkin, a bumbling Red Army sol dier living in a small Soviet town. While Chonkin is first and foremost a satirical work criticizing

Stalin and multiple Soviet-era policies, Voinovich also imbues his work with the structure and familiar characters from popular Russian folktales. Voinovich crafts his portrayal of Ivan Chonkin, his partner Nyura, the animals that surround them, and the plot of the novel to mimic the anatomy of a popular Russian folktale. Voinovich could have crafted Chonkin without the obvious allusions to folklore, but by including these folkloric allusions, Voinovich goes beyond satire to impart on the reader a sense of hope. Folklore at its core deals with general themes of destiny, fate, quest, recovery of station, true love, and a happy ending. The prince who is forced to work as a stable boy is recognized by the princess and

Works Cited

Afanasev, Alexander. The Three Kingdoms: Russian Folk Tales. Translated by Kathleen Cook, Raduga Pub lishers, 1985.

Grădinaru, Olga. “Myth and Rationality in Russian Popular Fairy Tales.” Caietele Echinox, vol. 17, 2009, pp. 315–322. Humanities International Complete, https://doi.org/https://search-ebscohost-com.libproxy. unm.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edo&AN=48046119&site= eds-live&scope=site.

Johns, Andres Rainer Bormann. Baba Iaga, the Ambiguous Mother of the Russian Folktale. 1996. Universi ty of California, Berkeley, PhD Dissertation. ProQuest Dissertation Publishing.

Kadyrbekova, Zora. “Animal Agents in Russian Fairy Tales.” Canadian Slavonic Papers, vol. 60, no. 3-4, 2018, pp. 407–425. MLA International Bibliography, https://doi.org/10.1080/00085006.2018.1512792.

Khan, Halimur. “Folklore and Fairy-Tale Elements in Vladimir Voinovich’s Novel The Life and the Extraor dinary Adventures of Private Ivan Chonkin.” The Slavic and East European Journal, vol. 40, no. 3, 1996, pp. 494–518. JSTOR Journals, https://doi.org/10.2307/310145.

Oinas, Felix J. “Folklore and Politics in the Soviet Union.” Slavic Review, vol. 32, no. 1, 1973, pp. 45–58. JSTOR Journals, https://doi.org/10.2307/2494072.

Propp, Vladimir Jakovlevič. The Russian Folktale. Translated by Sibelan Forrester, Wayne State University Press, 2012.

Ryan-Hayes, Karen. “Decoding the Dream in the Satirical Works of Vladimir Vojnovic.” The Slav ic and East European Journal, vol. 34, no. 3, 1990, pp. 289–307. JSTOR Journals, https://doi. org/10.2307/309066.

Smirnov, Alexey Evgenievich. “Ivan the Fool: Folklore Portrait and Way of Existence.” Concept: Philoso phy, Religion, Culture, vol. 2, no. 6, 2018, pp. 145–159. Directory of Open Access Journals, https://doi. org/10.24833/2541-8831-2018-2-6-145-159.

Voinovich, Vladimir. The Life & Extraordinary Adventures of Private Ivan Chonkin. Translated by Richard Lourie, Northwestern University Press, 1995.

Fair Pay for Domestic and Digital Labor

Sachi Barnaby

Throughout history, one of feminism’s central issues has been promoting economic justice for women. Women and people of oth er marginalized genders face many barriers in the struggle towards fiscal equality with men, and problems such as the wage gap increase under an intersectional lens that considers racial and class differences. More specifically, women have often been expected to shoulder unpaid domestic responsibilities. In addition, as the United States progresses technologically, there are new areas of economic development where women are not paid for their digital la bor. This digital labor includes “a range of tasks performed by humans on, in relation to or in the aftermath of software and hardware plat forms” (Gregg and Andrijasevic 1). Both sourc es of this unpaid labor contribute to the gen der pay disparity because women are working more hours but are paid less. However, there are policies that could help properly pay wom en for their work; two of these policies are universal basic income (UBI) and paid parental leave. UBI refers to a system where every adult in the U.S. would receive a set amount of mon ey at regular intervals of time throughout the year (operating similarly to the COVID-19 pan demic stimulus checks). Paid parental leave is a policy that would establish a set number of weeks with paid leave for new parents (regard less of gender) and guaranteed job security until they are ready to return. Though both UBI and paid parental leave address issues foundational to the income disparity between

men and women, universal basic income will be more effective in compensating women for their unpaid la bor. Unlike paid parental leave, universal basic income gives all adults (not just parents) more choice over their work, and it can create income stability for both domestic and digital labor.

BACKGROUND

First, it is important to note that both domes tic and digital labor are foundational to how the Unit ed States operates. Domestic labor has always been essential because it encompasses the labor needed to raise children and maintain a home life, which pro vides security and comfort. Historically in the United States, gender roles insist women be responsible for most domestic labor, and this labor is generally un paid. Today, this trend remains as “within-couple gen der gaps in unpaid work are around four times higher when there is a child (under age 18) in the household than when there is not” (Adema et al. 34). When part ners have a child, they are more likely to split domes tic labor unevenly, which usually means that women spend more time and effort taking care of the family’s children than men. This labor is not only unpaid in it self, but it can also take away from women’s available time to work paid labor. After all, mothers “are least likely to be employed when their child is an infant, and when they are employed, they are more likely to work part-time hours” (Adema et al. 33). Parental respon sibilities, particularly for young children, require sig nificant commitment from mothers which then pre vents them from working in paid positions. Because this type of commitment is not expected from fathers, inequality and pay disparity are present.

Digital labor follows patterns similar to do mestic labor because it is simultaneously vital and undervalued. One subset of digital labor is online community management which is essential to cre ating safe spaces on the Internet, and “such work continues, largely uncompensated, with women of colour, queer and trans people joining other minority activists to moderate online interactions and call out a constant stream of sexist and misog ynist content” (Gregg and Andrijasevic 1). Without this moderation, many people would find the Inter net to be hostile and therefore more inaccessible, which would exacerbate inequality as only some (likely privileged groups such as cisgender and het erosexual white men) would be able to operate comfortably online.

Although the freelance form of digital la bor is supposed to have benefits such as significant flexibility for the employee, workers can be exploit ed because “digital platforms supply an actual la bour market with large numbers of individuals ex cluded from formal employment and consigned to permanently unstable working conditions” (Gregg and Andrijasevic 3). Little regulation makes it diffi cult for these margin alized groups to main tain job security, and it puts them in a po sition to work much more than they will be compensated for. Finally, corporations knowingly use the so cietal expectations of women to contribute to their digital prod ucts. Google’s Local Guides provides information about places around

the world that can be utilized by tourists, and it is one example of “how the exploitation of unpaid digital labour in the production of local knowl edge is compounded through its intersection with the everyday placemaking of working-class people of colour in cities” (Tarr and Alvarez León 92). Though they may not even realize they are being exploited, the people who add their knowl edge to Google’s database are doing work for which they are not compensated. Google capi talizes upon “millions of hours of labour clocked by everyday people on behalf of the corporation” and advertises specifically to women; after all, “[r]eviewing places to eat and shop, and adding missing information to the map, are all coded as feminine activities that are both fun and nec essary for empowering a community” (Tarr and Alvarez León 90). This targeted advertising to women demonstrates how women are especially vulnerable to digital exploitation. In fact, because this exploited digital worker population in all of its forms consists of mostly women and other mi norities, digital labor falls into the trap of increas ing gender pay disparity.

POLICY OPTIONS AND ANALYSIS

The first policy option that could address the issue of women’s unpaid domestic and dig ital labor is Universal Basic Income (UBI). UBI is defined as “a policy that provides money transfer on a regular basis to any citizen of a country re gardless of gender, socio-economic status or pro ductive and reproductive capacity” (Lombardozzi 317). The main purpose of UBI is to provide a baseline income amount for people who can then spend the money as they choose. Though this can be executed in different ways, one important as pect is that an individual needs to be able to sur

“Though they may not even realize they are being exploited, the people who add their knowledge to Google’s database are doing work for which they are not compensated.”

vive on the UBI alone. As Roisin Mulligan writes, “unless the basic income is of a reasonably high level such that an individual could subsist upon it, the potential for radical change is much reduced” (154). This radical change would include addressing some of the contributing factors to the aforementioned unpaid labor and would give wom en (and all adults) financial autonomy to support their quality of life. Some argue that UBI will not do enough to tackle gender inequality and its root causes, but the policy does have significant benefits. Lombardozzi writes that:

“In other words, UBI can help recognize women’s contributions to society through pay instead of forcing them to participate in a labor market where domestic and digital labor are undervalued.”

“If the sources of such poverty, such as gender-based discrimination, wage gaps, an andro-centric welfare system, unequal care duties and lack of job oppor tunities persist and remain embedded in the dominant social relations of produc tion and reproduction, the UBI will only amount to a short-term solution unable to transform the underlin ing causes of such poverty and unable to stop the cur rent pervasive socio-eco nomic disenfranchisement (321).”

As an economic policy, UBI does not initially ap pear to be equipped to handle the more social causes of the gender pay disparity and the devaluation of wom en’s work. However, it will still have profound effects as a short-term solution that should not be disregarded. UBI has great potential to “increase the quality of life by incentivizing people to spend more time on leisure and care, providing space to deal with the insecurity of society, and creating the conditions to redistribute the burden of reproductive work along more equal gender lines” (Lombardozzi 319). When people are not as wor ried about working to survive, they are better able to

choose how to spend their time while maintaining financial security. This gives both men and women the chance to de cide what they want to do for work and provides opportunities for men to take initiative in sharing the burden of repro ductive work. Moreover, measuring the effects of UBI should not be limited to how well work is redistributed. As Mul ligan writes, “[t]he solution to an un just, asymmetrical division of labour is therefore much more radical than mere redistribution, although this is clearly an integral part of the granting of esteem” (158). In addition to some redistribution, UBI would also allow traditionally unpaid forms of labor to be recognized as valid work worthy of pay. Mulligan states, “It is important to note that UBI does not aim to secure equal recognition for paid and unpaid forms of work. Rather, it opens up a space whereby more individuals are given the opportunity to secure ade quate esteem for their unpaid contribu tions to society” (167). Because women would not have to rely on traditional paid work to maintain their quality of life, they could instead focus on the domestic and digital work they previously did without pay. In other words, UBI can help recog nize women’s contributions to society through pay instead of forcing them to participate in a labor market where do mestic and digital labor are undervalued.

The second policy option which could contend with the gender pay dis parity is paid parental leave. As men tioned earlier, paid parental leave is a

policy to compensate and protect the employ ment of parents who have a child, and for wom en, it aims to address the domestic labor (as well as emotional and physical labor) that they do as new parents. In places such as the U.S. where new parents usually only have access to unpaid leave, “women are nearly twice as likely as men to report that they needed leave but were un able to take it, while nearly half of those with unmet need for leave cite lack of affordability as the key reason” (Heymann et al. 7). The respon sibilities of parenthood often fall on women, but the current policy does not sufficiently sup port them. However, paid pa rental leave “has been found to improve women’s employment outcomes, children’s health, de velopment, and well-being, and fathers’ behaviors” (Adema et al. 47). The policy is shown to have expansive positive effects and adequately addresses the do mestic labor expected of women at the beginning of parenthood. Furthermore, various studies have confirmed that “paid leave has been associated with in creases in both women’s earnings and their long-term attachment to the labor force” (Hey mann et al. 5). This demonstrates another way paid leave contends with the gender pay dispar ity: by enabling women to earn more money for their work in the long term.

“If men are expected to contribute to parent ing to the same extent as women, and women have the choice to pri oritize traditional paid labor, it is possible that the burden of other unpaid domestic labor will be more fairly distributed.”

However, the policy does have its lim itations. For one, its explicit benefits end once the leave period is over, whereas domestic la bor does not end; women will remain uncom pensated for the domestic labor they complete

after the leave. This could be partially addressed through equal parental leave regardless of gen der. According to several studies, “when available to both parents, paid parental leave can support gender equality at home and at work. By contrast, when paid leave is available only to women, it may reinforce the idea that women are primar ily responsible for caregiving, while men are the primary earners” (Heymann et al. 6-7). Paid pa rental leave, when implemented correctly, has the potential to encourage gender equality through more equal distribution of domestic work. Further, fathers taking leave “is associated with higher female em ployment, less gender stereotyping at work, [and] less gender stereo typing at home” (Adema et al. 40). These positive trends could point to longer-term progress. If men are ex pected to contribute to parenting to the same extent as women, and wom en have the choice to prioritize tra ditional paid labor, it is possible that the burden of other unpaid domestic labor will be more fairly distributed. This could help address the gender pay disparity by lessening the amount of unpaid work expected from women. Even so, another limitation is that paid parental leave focuses completely on do mestic labor and does not manage unpaid digital labor. Domestic labor retains a significant portion of the overall unpaid labor women complete, but to fully address the gender pay disparity due to these types of unpaid labor, a broader solution will be necessary.

RECOMMENDATION

Though both UBI and paid parental leave offer benefits that would help women ease the

pay disparity with men, UBI is the better policy option to combat the issue. Paid parental leave sup ports the domestic labor women provide when becoming parents, but it does not completely ad dress long-term domestic labor nor general digital labor. Therefore, UBI, which addresses both do mestic labor and any digital (and often less stable) labor that women complete, more fully supports the population of U.S. women. Its drawbacks can and will have to be supplemented through addi tional policies and practices implemented by the various players in the economy in order to ensure progress toward gender equity. In addition, the cultural shift needed to truly close the gender pay disparity cannot be solved through one policy. Nevertheless, it is clear that paying women what they deserve will create greater fiscal justice in our world.

Works Cited

Adema, Willem, et al. “Paid Parental Leave and Other Supports for Parents with Young Children: The United States in International Comparison.” International Social Security Review, vol. 69, no. 2, 7 Sept. 2016, pp. 29–51., https://doi.org/10.1111/issr.12100.

Gregg, Melissa, and Rutvica Andrijasevic. “Virtually Absent: The Gendered Histories and Economies of Digital Labour.” Feminist Review, vol. 123, no. 1, 2019, pp. 1-7. ProQuest, doi:http://dx.doi. org/10.1177/0141778919878929.

Heymann, Jody, et al. “Paid Parental Leave and Family Wellbeing in the Sustainable Development Era.” Public Health Reviews, vol. 38, no. 21, 15 Sept. 2017, pp. 1-16. ProQuest, doi:http://dx.doi. org/10.1186/s40985-017-0067-2.

Lombardozzi, Lorena. “Gender Inequality, Social Reproduction and the Universal Basic Income.” Political Quarterly, vol. 91, no. 2, 2020, pp. 317-323. ProQuest, doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1467923X.12844.

Mulligan, Roisin. “Universal Basic Income and Recognition Theory – A Tangible Step towards an Ideal.” Basic Income Studies, vol. 8, no. 2, 2013, pp. 153-172. ProQuest, https://doi.org/10.1515/bis2013-0025.

Tarr, Alexander, and Luis F. Alvarez León. “Will Review for Points: The Unpaid Affective Labour of Placemaking for Google’s ‘Local Guides’.” Feminist Review, vol. 123, no. 1, 2019, pp. 89-105. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0141778919879763.

Tree Canopy, Urban Heat, Public Health

The Case for U.S. Cities to Solve

Rebecca Hobart

1. ABSTRACT

Examining the interdisciplinary nexus between vegetation and urban planning has become an increas ingly common focus in environmental justice – yet few studies examine the relationships between income, urban heat, public health, and public transportation. Rising tem peratures, insufficient tree canopy, and consequences of heat stress all constitute a need to mitigate urban heat is land and are a call to action for the City of Albuquerque. There needs to be a push to quickly identify and serve populations vulnerable to the impacts of extreme heat in urban areas which also lack adequate shade structures to foster cooler conditions. Mapping data shows a correla tion between temperatures and tree canopy throughout the city. The city of Albuquerque should move to identi fy high-risk populations who are suffering health conse quences from more frequent and severe heat stress in urban areas, also considering environmental and social factors which lead certain populations to be more vul nerable to experience heat-driven consequences. This paper looks to illustrate the interconnectedness of so cial, economic, and environmental factors in the context of a larger problem: warming temperatures and vulnera ble human and environmental health, as well as to inform urban forest sustainability initiatives to limit the impact of urban heat islands, with a focus on Albuquerque, New Mexico.

2. INTRODUCTION

Urban expansion has fueled a feedback loop of in creasingly negative environmental consequences. Some

components of climate change include the amplification of heat in America’s cit ies. The IPCC Sixth Assessment Report indicates that anthropogenic warming has intensified in cities and that further urbanization will “increase the severity of heatwaves'' (IPCC). This is especially prob lematic for low-income communities, who are oftentimes subject to the brunt of the change.

Scientific assessments indicate global temperatures will continue to rise and consequential extreme heat events are to be expected (Conti). Climate cy cles are exacerbated annually as problems beget problems: urbanization causes a greater need for highway infrastructure and sprawl, carbon emissions from ve hicles increase, greenhouse gases trap more heat, and surface temperatures rise. Urbanization can be characterized by low vegetation density and greater impervious surface cover than surrounding areas. It is commonly known that trees can serve to help mitigate heat stress through their natural cooling effect from shade/cooling and carbon capture (Schwarz). A study on green areas and urban heat islands con cluded that the loss of evapotranspiration vegetation in urban areas, aggravates the urban heat island effect by warming sur rounding air (Wong).

3. CLIMATE CONTEXT

Climate change and the warming of cities pose a serious threat to human health. 55% of the world’s population lives in urban areas, and that’s expected to increase with urbanization (World Bank). The urban heat is land effect, UHIE, is a concept used to explain how urban areas are vulnerable to abnormally greater temperatures than surrounding areas and is often discussed in relation to human disturbance and “anthropogenic heat.” Within an urban area with heat island characteristics, the impacts of rising temperatures happen to everyone, but not all communities will expe rience the frequency of heat events or their inequities the same way. As climate change continues to inform greater temperatures, ar eas will suffer from a worsened UHIE, with a greater number of hot days and exposure to extreme heat events in urban areas (Tan).

Cities are oftentimes subject to this heating phenomenon due to the geospatial breadth of impervious surfaces, such as as phalt parking lots and concrete buildings. Sur face air temperatures, those near the ground, in urban areas are consistently higher com pared to rural areas due to changes in land use. The greater shift toward urban infrastructure development does impact local climate pro cesses. Higher temperatures during day and night in urban conditions are predicted for fu ture conditions (Van den Hurk).

In the United States, the urban heat is land effect experiences variability due to geo graphic location, time of day, external weath er conditions, population density, structural makeup, and functions of the region (Ma). As

a general metric, the urban heat island produces pos itive temperature differences of 1-7°F in daytime con ditions and 2-5°F in nighttime conditions, in compari son to outlying, non-urban areas (EPA). A culmination of these differences in conditions intensifies the met rics associated with space and temperature.

4. URBAN HEAT ISLAND

UHIE is more pronounced at night in urban areas, due to emissions of heat retention in imper meable surfaces, roads, and buildings from the day time (Tan). A study about energy exchange in Central London, an urban area in the United Kingdom, said up to 35% more heat energy leaves surfaces than is received via long-wave solar radiation (Kotthaus). As sunlight is directly overhead in cities, especially those lacking adequate shade structures, impermeable, dark surfaces will absorb solar radiation and heat up due to low albedo in the afternoons. Nighttime effects of UHI deprive urban residents from access to cool relief (Clarke, 1972).

Land surface air temperatures are derived from remote sensing data, which picks up and cat alogs emitted and reflected heat radiation by sat ellite. The sky view factor (SVF) is used to describe net radiation of a surface based on the height of sur rounding infrastructure (Dirksen). A lack of ecological infrastructure, such as trees, influences how urban areas engage with heat and trap it – trees provide im portant ecosystem services to cities. The albedo ef fect assures a degree of warming on its own as dark surfaces, evapotranspiration (Et), and shade absorb and radiate heat, which is shown through the remote sensing data. The thermodynamic properties of the surface results in higher heat capacity with absorp tion (Rahdi).

Urban heat islands impact cities as a collec

tive. An increase in hotter days will positively inform the use of cooling energy in a building and water consumption (Anand). A study on UHI and energy consumption illustrated increased cooling and decreased heating demands and that UHI directly influenced building cooling en ergy consumption with a median increase of 19% and median decrease of heating by 18.7% (Li). Within regions that have abundant impervious surfaces, some areas also are characteristically warm due to a multitude of underlying social and economic factors.

5. GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE

The urban heat island effect is worsened by insufficient green infrastructure (Wong). Urbanization and expansion are the main causes of UHIE, as population influx into urban areas necessitates the destruc tion of tree canopy and development of buildings and asphalt roads to meet housing and other community infrastructure needs. Urban sprawl lends to the development of freeways and roads, which are notorious for retaining surface radiation and contributing to higher temperatures. Sprawl is also problematic for pedestrians and public transportation users, which we can see in Albuquerque. The speed and scale of ur banization is expected to accelerate demand for public transit systems (World).

The city’s 2021 heat watch report detailed tens of thousands of temperature and humidity data points across Albuquerque, illuminat ing discrepancies in where communities experience heat. The report showed a 16.9°F differential between the hottest and coolest parts of the city, and also identified income and underlying health conditions as key factors in identifying at-risk populations.

Urban areas which experience direct sunlight overhead can ben efit the most from increased availability of shade structures, which can take the form of trees and other shade structures. Trees can lower the air temperature and heat transfer of a city, through evaporative cooling, by converting sensible heat to latent heat. A case study on how trees can serve to cool down cities attributed substantial economic value to the cooling practices of trees (Moss).

Adding vegetation to man-made built environments to support evapotranspiration, which is characterized by the Bowen Ratio (B), has

”

“

“Metropolitan areas across the country are experiencing the urban heat island effect and the multitude of negative consequences that come with it, including rising temperatures, public health vulnerability, and threats to public transportation infrastructure.”

”

a cooling potential for cities. Tree species richness and diversity are sensitive to the strength of the cooling effect, with species diversity being positively correlated with the amplitude of temperature reduction (Wang). The impact of cooling could be maximized by tree species and leaf area and would require climate-ready trees. The City of Albuquerque has developed a climate-ready tree list, which considers regional adaptability and species diversity, among other aesthetic and ecolog ical factors (CABQ). A tree canopy’s success in mitigating urban heat is contingent on leaf area for a given tree species (Moss). Cities can maximize the potential cooling impact of trees by investing in trees that are well-suit ed for the climate. The City of Albuquerque’s ‘Climate-Ready Tree Species List’ should be utilized to inform planting decisions to ensure the greatest possible success for growing trees in the Southwest. The goal should be to determine low-income areas in Albuquerque with high temperatures and insufficient tree canopy to prioritize tree planting efforts.

6. PUBLIC HEALTH

The distribution of tree canopy begs an inquiry into possible correlation between socioeconomic variables and abundance of ecological resources. The distributional equi ty of urban tree canopy cover and adjacent ecosystem services, such as providing shade, are positively associated with the median in come in a community (Riley). Though urban tree canopy data illustrates a correlation to income, it is neutral or negatively correlat ed to markings of disadvantaged individuals,

including percent minority (Riley). A study on cities across the United States on urban tree canopy and wealth found the two variables to be strongly asso ciated and hypothesized a positive feedback loop situation at play, factoring in the positive impact on property value that trees have (Schwarz). Urban tree canopy is related to some social characteristics of communities, but variabil ity does exist from one city to the next based on climate, size, racial, and ethnic composition; race/ ethnicity was not consis tently a significant fac tor in bivariate analyses (Schwarz).

In arid cities, such as Albuquerque, planting trees necessitates more abundant water resources. Given high water needs and correlation between income and urban tree cov er, these variables may facilitate conditions for arid regions to be more prone to environmental injustice than temperate cities with precipitation (Schwarz). However, residents of the downtown area of Al buquerque and near major freeway corridors are some of the most vulnerable to the health and en vironmental consequences of an urban heat island (CAPA). Communities characterized by higher levels of poverty and high heat exposure are more likely to take public transportation than other users (Pew). Rising urban temperatures are particularly impactful for low-income residents and public trans portation users (Ma). The communities most ex posed to extreme heat waves in these areas are at risk of greater health burdens (Ellena). Prolonged

“Cities across the country should move to consider public health, income, and transportation in their quests to mitigate urban heat through the expansion of tree canopy.”

exposure to heat stress can cause heat-related illnesses, such as exhaustion, cramps, and strokes (U.S.). Symptoms could also include difficulty breathing, dizziness, and headaches (Pantavou). An epidemiologic study of heat-caused mortali ty from the 2003 heatwave in Italy illustrated the disproportionate health impacts on elderly pop ulations from extreme heat events, with 92% of deaths being attributed to individuals 75 and old er (Conti).

Vulnerable populations are more prone to experience serious health consequences as a result of exposure to extreme heat; these popula tions include the elderly, people with pre-existing conditions, and economically disadvantaged in dividuals (U.S.). The disproportionate impacts of urban warming, which lead to heat-related illness es and mortality, necessitate city-wide interven tion in expanding directed public health efforts to procure shade structures and mitigate envi ronmental consequences of social and economic inequities.

7. ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN

Increased frequency and severity of heat stress and extreme heat events impact urban mo bility for pedestrians, bikers, and public transpor tation riders; there should be increased concern on urban mobility for lower-income individuals who cannot afford a vehicle and have increased dependency on walking and public transit. A study on urban bus ridership, income, and ex treme weather events illustrated a sensitivity to days with extreme temperatures and heavy pre cipitation through increased engagement in bus ridership (Ngo).

Though cool pavements can have nega

tive impacts on visibility through being brighter and more reflective, this technology could be uti lized to cool down cities. Traditional (albedo of 0.10) and solar reflective (albedo 0.35) asphalt pavements are different in their heat storage ca pacity, which translate into surface heat released and temperatures. The use of reflective surfaces, with an albedo of 0.35, saw a 10°C reduction for daytime surface temperatures (Anand). To sup port thermal comfort for pedestrians in urban heat island areas, particularly for summer after noons, the City of Albuquerque can invest in tree planting at bus stops (Lanza). The quality of the environment for pedestrians, bicyclists, and other outdoor activities is bolstered by accessible and adequate thermal comfort (Kim).

8. CONCLUSION

Metropolitan areas across the country are experiencing the urban heat island effect and the multitude of negative consequences that come with it, including rising temperatures, public health vulnerability, and threats to public transportation infrastructure. The City of Albu querque's heat watch report illustrated key vul nerabilities and a clear potential for solutions to alleviate discrepancies in how climate change and warming are felt by different communities across the city. Cities across the country should move to consider public health, income, and trans portation in their quests to mitigate urban heat through the expansion of tree canopy. Directed efforts to decide where to concentrate resources can be achieved through spatial regression mod els and consultation of urban planning experts.

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Ngo, N. (2019). Urban bus ridership, income, and extreme weather events, Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment, 77, 464-475. https://doing.org/10.1016/j.trd.2019.03.009.

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ENGLISH

AWARD 3RD PLACE

Jean-Baptiste Grenouille and the Theological Implications of Scent in Enlightenment-Era France

Makena Halen

The novel Perfume by Patrick Süskind follows the life of the infamously unnerving Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, a fictional serial killer known for his superhuman ability to dissect and recognize every layer and dimension of scent pos sible, and even concoct new smells in his mind. Grenouille was born in eighteenth-century France, the heart of the Enlightenment, and lived markedly different than other humans, navigating the world primarily by his heightened sense of smell, yet lack ing an odor himself. Throughout the novel, author Süskind continually ensures that Grenouille is an “other,” both explicitly and implicitly. He writes the character with details that place him in contrast to typical humanity, but he also utilizes much deeper, implicit, and rich tactics to achieve this goal. Süs kind relies on the backdrop of Enlightenment-era France and the rich cultural context to situate Gre nouille and other characters within a social classifi cation scheme according to their scent. By utilizing the theological implications of odor, fragrance, and sanctity, he deliberately associates the victims with purity and denies Grenouille a clear classification, placing him in varying postures relating to mortal humanity and divinity.

Grenouille began killing as a young adoles cent, first murdering a pre-pubescent girl with the primary concern of preserving her scent, which he described as pure beauty (Süskind 42). This con cern perseveres as a consistent theme throughout

his killings, as he accumulates approximately 26 victims in total, striking them on the back of the head and wrapping them in an oiled cloth in order to preserve their essence as a perfume. Twenty-four of these victims act as preparation for his most meaningful kill, Laure Richis, whose scent exemplifies the same pure beauty he ex perienced in his first kill and the enchanting ability to inspire love and attraction. Grenouille is later tried and found guilty of these murders but uses the fragrance he obtained from Laure to instigate his release; he emotionally manipu lates the town and executioner to release him of all charges on the pretense that his intoxi cating scent meant that “he could not possibly be a murderer” (243). Grenouille’s life ends in a dramatic display of the power that Laure’s scent has, as cannibals consume him after he pours the entire vial of her scent on his otherwise odorless body.

IMPLICATIONS OF LANGUAGE AND SAINT TRADITION

In constructing the character of Gre nouille, Süskind communicates Grenouille’s bi zarre relation to divinity by using imagery deeply rooted in Christian tradition, alluding to both the Bible and Catholic saint tradition. The most noticeable similarities come in his utilization of Biblical language to initially position Grenouille

as equal to God in his divinity. In Chapter 26 of the novel, Grenouille retreats to a cave in the mountains as he seeks complete sol itude from humanity. Here, he cultivates a magnificent garden of smells in the valley, and Süskind employs heavy allusion to the story of Creation through phrases that par allel Biblical verbiage: “[t]hen Grenouille the Great commanded the rain to stop. And it was so” and “[a]nd Grenouille the Great saw that it was good, very, very good” (130). This verbiage is reminiscent of the Bible, with the phrases “and it was so” and “and God saw that it was good” repeated six times and five times, respectively, in the story of Creation (NKJV Bible, Gen. 1). By using this language to describe Grenouille’s actions, Süskind relies on strong situational and linguistic allusions to draw a comparison between Grenouille and God, leveling them as equals. However, Grenouille’s classification as God’s equal does not persist, as Süskind cleverly employs a subtler means of classifying Gre nouille in relation to divinity. 1

Upon deeper inspection, it becomes clear that Süskind also relies on Catholic tra dition to call the nature of Grenouille’s divin ity into question, as something holy or de monic. In the circumstances of Grenouille’s life, Süskind draws a compelling comparison with Saint Christina the Astonishing, subtly introducing a deeper nuance to his lack of a clear classification. Murielle Michaud relays the hagiography of Christina Mirabilis, con veying key elements of her life that set her apart from other saints. Firstly, God endows

“By utilizing the theological implications of odor, fragrance, and sanctity, he deliberately associates the victims with purity and denies Grenouille a clear classification, placing him in varying postures relating to mortal hu manity and divinity.”

Christina with unique physical power, and she experienc es three deaths and two resurrections. Upon her first resurrection, she re-enters the mortal realm according to a bargain made with God. The exceptionality of this circumstance is profound and intriguing. As Michaud explains, “[S]he is engaging in a contractual agreement with God with conditions. The only literary precedent for such an agreement is found between God and Satan in the Book of Job” (65). These elements immediately set her apart from the other saints, and even bring the nature of her divinity into question. As Michaud states, her unique circumstances “[elevate] her to a ranking as a saint above other saints, as her ability to bargain with God places her on parity with an angel, although a fallen one” (66). Numerous elements of Grenouille’s life bear a striking resemblance to Christina the Astonishing, most obviously in that both of them experience two resurrec tions of sorts. Grenouille overcomes death twice in the novel, first as he miraculously recovers from a grave ill ness within a week at Baldini’s perfume shop (Süskind 109) and second when he almost freezes to death in the cave (Süskind 137). What is more, both figures have a supernatural sense of smell that leads them to avoid humanity out of disgust for their evil and sin (“Saint Christina”). These similar ities implicitly emphasize Grenouille’s “otherness,” especially when it comes to his bizarre divinity. For Saint Christina, these qual ities immediately set her apart from other saints in both her incredible phys ical power and her ability to bargain with God. As mentioned by Michaud, these

qualities inspire a chilling similarity to Satan, calling the nature of her divinity into question. By placing Grenouille alongside Saint Christina the Astonish ing, Süskind maps the discussion of her divinity onto Grenouille, leaving the readers with considerable dissonance surrounding whether his supernatural sense of smell classifies him as angelic or demonic, and how he relates to the Almighty God.

IMPLICATIONS OF OLFACTORY TRADITION

Süskind further draws from Christian tradi tion in communicating the nature of his characters, employing the notion that one’s scent has heavy im plications for one’s sanctity and holiness. He relies on this with Grenouille’s key victims, emphasizing their purity and sanctity by linking them with garden imagery. Grenouille finds his first victim in a court yard garden, stemming and peeling yellow plums (Süskind 42). Süskind also links Laure Richis to a floral fragrance, placing her in a garden and further describing her as a flower herself: “This child behind the wall, however, this bud still almost closed tight, which only just now was sending out its first fragrant tips, unnoticed by anyone except by him, Grenouillethis child already had a scent so terrifyingly celestial that once it had unfolded its total glory, it would un leash a perfume such as the world had never seen before” (35). Jenny Ponzo, a professor of Semiotics, analyzes the Catholic olfactory traditions surround ing sanctity, providing a lens through which we can interpret these descriptions. She explains that an odor of sanctity works as an index of one’s spiritu ality and virtue and that this “celestial perfume” is overwhelmingly described as floral (Ponzo 111, 113). The inescapable draw of the victims’ scent is signifi cant as well, as it appears in early Christian tradition.

The “sweet-smelling woman” is often regarded with wariness as a dangerous temptress who has the power to tempt and distract men away from holiness (Thurkill 141). Thus, the rich olfactory tradition surrounding the scent of women com municates the victims’ purity, virtue, and allure. In creating this link to tradition, Süskind marked ly sets them apart from the other humans in the story.

Süskind employs the olfactory tradition even more richly with Grenouille, using the as sociations between smell and divinity to paint Grenouille as an “other” outside of tradition al binaries and classifications in a gradually es calating progression. He begins by “othering” Grenouille among his fellow humans using his lack of an odor, which becomes increasingly significant once the cultural context of smell is considered. In the novel, Süskind immediately spotlights this quality as unnerving and bizarre. Young Grenouille’s wet nurse, Jeanne Bussie, refuses to take him into her home because he does not smell the way that human children ought to smell, and must be possessed by the devil (Süskind 10). This alone immediately “oth ers” Grenouille, but the significance of his lack of odor goes much deeper beyond the context of the novel. As historian Abraham Ofir Shemesh states, “Smells were perceived as a mark that set social boundaries, and they made it possible to distinguish the status or identity of groups of people” (52). It is clear that Süskind utilizes olfac tory tradition when communicating Grenouille’s position in society as well, using Grenouille’s lack of an odor to richly portray him as an enig ma that is impossible to classify. This is evident in

Jeanne Bussie’s wariness around the baby, who to her seems something inhuman. By denying him an odor, Süskind places him outside a clas sification scheme that has deep historical roots, inspiring an extreme dissonance and confusion surrounding Grenouille’s place among humani ty.

Süskind later accentuates this disso nance and furthers Grenouille’s “otherness” beyond just humanity, distorting his relation to the divine and mortal by giving Grenouille the power to artificially manipulate his odor. Lat er in the novel, Grenouille ventures to create a scent that would allow him to fit in amongst other humans, who rely on their instinctual use of smell to classify beings as human or some thing else. In a fit of perverse glee, Grenouille rejoices that “all these men, women, and chil dren standing pressed about him could be so easily duped, that they could inhale his concoc tion of cat shit, cheese, and vinegar as an odor just like their own and accept him, Grenouille the cuckoo’s egg, in their midst as a human being among human beings” (Süskind 158). This revelation is significant to his lack of clear classification, as it demon strates that he is able to freely manipulate his odor, and thus his position in relation to mor tal humanity and the divine.

“So, not only does one’s odor serve as a powerful character istic for sorting one into a certain classifi cation among human ity, but it is especially profound when it comes to classifying the mortal and the divine.”

makes odor a particularly useful symbolic vehicle for categorizing different groups according to cul tural values, as it invests classificatory systems with a strong emotive power” (157-158). Suzanne Evans expands on Classen’s assertions, explaining that Christian tradition relies heavily on certain “aro mas of sanctity” that became crucial to “a larger ol factory understanding of the relationship between humans and the divine” (193). So, not only does one’s odor serve as a powerful characteristic for sorting one into a certain classification among hu manity, but it is especially profound when it comes to classifying the mortal and the divine. With this in mind, considering the sense of smell’s power to sort people into groups, Grenouille’s ability to manipulate his own scent so completely and con vincingly doesn’t just place him in the category of the “other,” but also allows him the freedom to move into any category he pleases. This deepens the dissonance surrounding his place in a cultur al classification scheme, making it unclear where he sits among humanity, but even more so where he sits according to humanity and the divine. This instance, when coupled with his earlier discussion of a lack of odor, demonstrates Süskind’s understanding of the cultural tradition surrounding smell, and his utilization of these traditions to place Grenouille outside of the human-di vine-diabolical classification scheme that so easily defines his victims.

Constance Classen, a cultural historian specializing in sensory tradition, ex plains that odors hold profound symbolic pow er in classifying different beings: “The attrac tive/repulsive nature of olfactory experience

IMPLICATIONS OF ENLIGHTENMENT SETTING

The cultural setting of the Enlightenment provides a relevant backdrop for the issues that Süskind presents about Grenouille’s lack of a clear

classification. As explained by Richard Gray, Süskind establishes a strong logical backdrop to this fantas tical narrative, associating the themes of calculating rationality and orderliness with the Enlightenment, along with other ideas such as egocentrism, emo tionlessness, and “justice” (495). Most relevant is the emphasis on orderliness, which famously manifest ed among the population as a surge in taxonomy and biological categorization (Luebering). Another signif icant theme that characterized the Enlightenment is secularization, explained by author Bertram Schwarz bach. According to his paper “Reason and the Bible in the So-Called Age of Reason,” many philosophers began to deny the credibility of the Bible and Chris tian doctrine as a whole, agreeing that “the Bible was not a document that ubiquitously conformed to ‘rea son’” (Schwarzbach 468). Grenouille, who is beyond an “other” and able to fluctuate between the divine, mortal, and diabolical, stands in complete contradic tion to the primary cultural foci of the Enlightenment: objective classification of the natural world and re jecting faith in the supernatural in favor of logical reason. This cultural context is crucial to the novel, as Süskind uses these quintessential Enlightenment themes to make Grenouille’s lack of a clear classifica tion all the more shocking and impactful. In essence, Grenouille’s categorical mobility undermines the so cial and cultural fabric of the Enlightenment, rejecting the paradigms that his society had established.

CONCLUSION

Throughout the novel, Patrick Süskind em ploys numerous techniques to place Grenouille in relation to a social classification scheme meant to distinguish between mortal humanity, the divine, and the diabolical. He begins by setting Grenouille apart

from his fellow humans, denying him an odor and thus a comfortable place among humani ty. He then calls Grenouille’s divinity into ques tion, placing him in varying positions among the classification scheme. On one hand, he uses linguistic and situational allusion to sort Grenouille into the same category as God, applying familiar phrases from the story of Creation to Grenouille’s cultivation of the val ley. On the other hand, he relies on Catholic tradition to draw this classification into ques tion, situating Grenouille as strikingly simi lar to Saint Christina the Astonishing, a Saint whose divinity is often questioned on account of her ability to bargain with God. Finally, he draws from the Catholic olfactory tradition in determining one’s place among humanity and the divine, using scent associations to decisive ly place the victims in the virtuous and pure sect of society but give Grenouille the freedom to move among any classification he pleases. This doesn’t simply place him in the category of “other;” rather, it ejects him entirely from any classification scheme at all. Through all of these elements, Grenouille’s divinity is never clear and impossible to discern. Furthermore, by placing Grenouille against the backdrop of the Enlightenment, Süskind ensures that he stands in complete contradiction to the prima ry cultural foci of his time, “othering” him even further. Because the Enlightenment focused on objective classification and secularization, Grenouille’s existence outside of any clear clas sification and his bizarre relation to the divine deepen the sense of dissonance and confu sion surrounding the character. Almost as if he were a master perfumer himself, Süskind pulls

together a rich assortment of tactics of varying depth and prominence, including allusive language, sim ilarity to Catholic saints, and elements of deep olfactory tradition, to create the complex character of Grenouille, a killer who stands in shocking contrast to his victims and the ideals of his time, not just as an “other,” but as something far more sinister.

Works Cited

Classen, Constance. “The Odor of the Other: Olfactory Symbolism and Cultural Categories.” Ethos, vol. 20, no. 2, 1992, pp. 133–166. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/640383.

Evans, Suzanne. “The Scent of a Martyr.” Numen, vol. 49, no. 2, 2002, pp. 193–211. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/ stable/3270482.

Gray, Richard T. “The Dialectic of ‘Enscentment’: Patrick Süskind’s Das Parfum as Critical History of En lightenment Culture.” PMLA, vol. 108, no. 3, 1993, pp. 489–505. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/462617. Holy Bible, New King James Version. Thomas Nelson, Inc., 1982.

Luebering, J.E. Discover the Age of Enlightenment’s Influence on Biologic Categorization, Encyclope dias, and Literature. Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., www.britannica.com/ video/154401/JE-Luebering-director-Encyclopaedia-Britannica Core-Reference.

Michaud, Murrielle. “Woman, Resurrected: The Lives and Deaths of Christina the Astonishing in the Ox ford, Bodleian Library MS Douce 114.” Magistra, vol. 24, no. 1, 2018, pp. 62–73. EBSCOhost, https:// eds-a-ebscohost-com.libproxy.unm.edu/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=1&sid=836d0a5b-c849-46d0 -b2f1-d36225304358%40sessionmgr4006.

Ponzo, Jenny. “The Floral Smell of Sanctity and the Semiotics of the Halo.” Ocula, vol. 21, no. 6, July 2020. EBSCOhost, www.ocula.it/files/OCULA-23-PONZO-The-floral-smell-of-sanctity-and-the-semioticsof-the-halo.

“Saint Christina the Astonishing.” CatholicSaints.Info, 16 Feb. 2009, https://catholicsaints.info /saint-chris tina-the-astonishing/.

Schwarzbach, Bertram Eugene. “Reason and the Bible in the So-Called Age of Reason.” Huntington Li brary Quarterly, vol. 74, no. 3, 2011, pp. 437–470. JSTOR, http://libproxy.unm.edu/login?url=https:// www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/hlq.2011.74.3.437.

Shemesh, Abraham Ofir. “The Scent of the Righteous vs. the Scent of the Wicked: Body Odor as a Social Indicator of Morality in Rabbinic Literature.” Review of Rabbinic Judaism, vol. 23, no. 2, July 2020, pp. 165–182. EBSCOhost, https://illiad.unm.edu/illiad/ill/illiad .dll?Action=10&Form=75&Val ue=833327.

Süskind, Patrick. Perfume: The Story of a Murderer. Kindle ed., Knopf, 1986.

Thurkill, Mary. “Odors of Sanctity: Distinctions of the Holy in Early Christianity and Islam.” Compara tive Islamic Studies, vol. 3, no. 2, Dec. 2007, pp. 133–44. EBSCOhost, https://eds-a-ebscohost-com. libproxy.unm.edu/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=1&sid =8c685ae4-f9c8-49c4-8f2b-14904d5a9288%

Unser Driving

Nell Johnson

Albuquerque is a place that people come to take pic tures of, but kids that grow up in Albuquerque hang out in ditches and talk about leaving. They say New Mexico is the Land of Entrapment. My friend, who is twenty-four and thinks he already has one foot in the grave, asks me once a week when we’re moving to Chicago. When he was a teenager, he fucked a girl he didn’t love behind the KFC in Moriarty. These are all things that people living in the desert do, along with working for defense contractors, campaigning against nucle ar energy, and learning how to craft pottery with their own hands. It makes you crazy.

The first intersection I ever loved in Albuquerque was Unser and Western Trail. It was monsoon season and there was a rainbow arching over the black mesa of Petroglyphs. Now that I’m neither a tourist nor a student, I live on the West side. I like to see trucks and overhear conversations about girls getting into fistfights at Valley. I travel 30 minutes to Rio Rancho every few weeks to see another one of my friends, traversing speed traps and chain restaurants. I never mind it for a second. In the late hours of the night, my boyfriend and I wait in line at the Del Taco on Unser and Southern. We relish in it, order Mr. Pibb, and ignore the endless miles of planned housing developments to the north. Another friend, who is no longer my friend and who in many ways broke my heart, says that all locals hate Unser. She has no explanation except that it’s a road through nowhere. My dad says that the Tractor Brewing at McMahon and Unser is in BFE (Bum Fuck Egypt), but we still go there when he and my mother visit. Unser was named after a racecar driver, which speaks to its appeal. There’s something about the blackness at night and when you look for respite to the east, and there’s nothing but a gray wall of earth. Purple if you’re lucky.

” ”

“ ”

They’d doubt what they’d seen and dream about it—about micro wave burritos, the black mesa, and the silver body, all rolled into one.

As I was looking at the map to write this, I found a KABQ article about a body that was found not far from Unser and Western Trail, possibly thrown from a moving vehicle. How did they know? Were there drag marks on the body, on half of his stomach from where his shirt was pulled up? A chunk of asphalt wedged into the soft flesh of his forehead? Despite giving in to Forensic-Files-watching compulsions, I can’t figure out exactly what it must have been. I like to think a witness, driving late at night with a watered down Route 44 cherry limeade melting in their console cup holder, saw the body shoved out of the window of a turquoise Toyota Camry and hover weightlessly above the street before hitting the sand and rolling down into a ditch. Maybe the body was wrapped up in a black bag, but in the moonlight, it looked more like the holographic silver material they recovered with the gray alien in Roswell. The witness wouldn’t call 911 right then. They’d doubt what they’d seen and dream about it — about microwave burritos, the black mesa, and the silver body, all rolled into one. After they made the police call, they’d be deterred from midnight Unser driving for a month or two, still having the dreams, a palette of black and white and shiny silver, sometimes red, blood on the asphalt. But they’d come back like a patrol, watching for the next oddity.

Global COVID-19 Vaccine Inequities

Delia Bradley

INTRODUCTION

In late December 2019, an illness presumed to be pneumonia brought a wave of sickness through the Wuhan City, Hubei province of China. By January 5, 2020, the World Health Organization published their “first Disease Outbreak News report” (WHO, 2020) on what would become officially known as Coronavirus Disease 2019 (Thomas Jefferson University, N.D.), more popularly known as COVID-19 or Coronavirus. After China’s recognition of the new virus on January 11, 2020, the illness escalated quickly with the first case recorded outside of China on January 13, 2020, in Thailand. By January 30, 2020, the World Health Organization Director-General declared COVID-19 a “public health emergency of international concern” which put the world at a risk level of “high” (WHO, 2020). By March 11, 2020, the virus was declared a pandemic, raising transnational alarm.

On February 3, 2020, the World Health Organization released a Strategic Preparedness and Response Plan with the intention of creating a safety net for countries with fewer resources to control the pandemic. In the plan, objectives such as mitigating the spread of the virus were claimed to be obtainable by establishing international coordination, as well as identifying and containing cases quickly. Despite international efforts to contain the virus and quickly create, authorize, and distribute a vaccine, many

mistakes were made; the virus began to appear unstoppable.

It was common, especially in the early months of the pandemic, for misinformation to spread like wildfire. Initially, global health authorities thought that the virus was not transmissible between asymptomatic individuals, and this falsehood went unaddressed for two months while “leading health agencies including the World Health Organization and the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control provided contradictory and sometimes misleading advice”(Apuzzo, Gebrekidan, Kirkpatrick 2020, par. 9). Social media, national news networks, celebrities, public health officials, and even the former president of the United States also contributed to severe misconceptions of the virus and its threat to society. In an interview with Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Lee Kum Kee Professor of Health Communication, Kasisomayajula “Vish” Viswanath criticized the former president Trump’s response to the pandemic: “He was singularly responsible for mainstreaming COVID-19 disinformation in this country and within our government.”

“Despite international efforts to contain the virus and quickly create, authorize, and distribute a vaccine, many mistakes were made; the virus began to appear unstoppable.”

The COVID-19 pandemic showcased the world’s unpreparedness in response to a global health crisis. Governments adopted a realist perspective, which ignored transnational public health authorities

and descended their societies into a state of anarchy: “[i]nstead of rallying behind proven health responses, governments and their citizens were fractured. Maskwearing and social distancing became political statements. Conspiracy theories spread wildly. And governments failed to conduct the routine testing and contact tracing needed to control the disease” (Apuzzo and Gebrekidan 2021, par. 16). It became clear that there were critical inequities between the Global North and South, especially with the development and allocation of vaccines. When former president Trump announced Operation Warp Speed, a COVID-19 vaccine development program, the inequities deepened.

THE RACE FOR A CURE

Although the current state of the world demonstrates a poor response to the pandemic, health officials were expecting COVID-19 or at least some version of it. In November 2002, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) hid under the guise of pneumonia in the Guangdong province of southern China. SARS is another coronavirus that, although different in genetic sequencing than COVID-19, was still fatal. The United States’ containment of SARS in 2003 was successful because the virus was largely intransmissible between asymptomatic individuals. In 2012, another coronavirus outbreak under the name Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) arose in

the Middle East and spread to several other countries (CDC, 2013). The containment of this coronavirus in the United States was successful, with only two recorded cases. Given the world’s previous exposure to coronaviruses, an effort to perfect the COVID-19 vaccine was launched immediately.

When the COVID-19 vaccine was given a timeline of a year to a year and a half to develop, many were shocked. This would be extremely fast compared to vaccines created in the past. New York Times reporter Katie Thomas stated, “well, it’s a huge process. I mean, first, it starts out in the lab. And you have scientists who are basically testing out different candidates for a vaccine. And that in and of itself can take years.” (The Daily Podcast, 3:27). She explained that after the clinical trials, the vaccine must also be approved by the Food and Drug Administration (F.D.A.). This process has taken up to a decade and is often abandoned before F.D.A authorization.

In March, 2020, former President Trump met with officials from the F.D.A. and pushed for an even more accelerated vaccine development program that would allocate almost $10 billion to the effort. Michael Barbado, host of the New York Times podcast “The Daily” simplifies the operation:

Under Operation Warp Speed, the government is incentivizing companies to try to make vaccines by giving them billions of dollars. On top of that, it is paying for these companies to manufacture those vaccines even before we know whether they’re safe and effective so that they will be ready at a moment’s notice. And finally, behind the scenes and surrounding all of this, the United States military is basically on call to keep this process moving (2020, 10:10).

The vaccine candidates supported financially by the U.S. federal government include AstraZeneca/Oxford

University, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer/BioNTech, Novavax, Sanofi/GSK, and Merck/IAVI (Siddalingaiah, 2021). An international contest to develop an effective, safe vaccine was sparked.

Clinical trials began swiftly, with Moderna taking the lead in human testing. On May 18, 2020, the company declared “mRNA-1273 [the vaccine] was generally safe and well-tolerated” (Hussey, par. 3). This was based on a trial consisting of eight individuals, but it marked a groundbreaking moment in the quest for a cure. On November 9, 2020, the chairman and chief executive officer of Pfizer, Albert Bourla, released a statement regarding the efficacy results of the vaccine: “[t]he vaccine candidate was found to be more than 90% effective in preventing COVID-19 in participants without evidence of prior SARS-CoV-2 infection in the first interim efficacy analysis” (2021, par. 1). Many other endeavors were making promising strides towards a viable vaccine as well, predominantly Johnson & Johnson, AstraZeneca, CoronaVac, Sputnik V, and Sputnik Light.

While the world waited in uncertainty and fear for a vaccine, many developing countries were faced with a crucial question: how many vaccines will be left after the Global North’s needs are satisfied? In January 2020, when the threat of a global pandemic was seriously imposed, international organizations, governmental

organizations, and non-governmental organizations put certain policies in place to attempt equitable vaccine access between all countries. The first major plan to acknowledge the conflict of vaccine distribution was the COVID-19 Strategic Preparedness and Response Plan; it is still in use by the World Health Organization, funded by the COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund. Top donors to the fund include Germany, the European Commission, Canada, the United States, and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. The total amount of funds raised by all donors is $1.25 billion. In April 2020, the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator was launched by Gavi, the Vaccine Initiative, “the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), The Global Fund, UNITAID, the Wellcome Trust, and the World Health Organization (WHO)” (Gavi 2020, par. 2). These international aid coalitions have been a driving force behind the vaccine efforts in the Global South, but is it enough to be practically applied successfully?

DISTRIBUTION OF VACCINES

As of today, 25 COVID-19 vaccines have been approved in one or more nations around the globe and 95 candidates are in development (Craven, 2021). Many vaccines were already purchased by highincome nations such as the U.S. and much of the E.U. due to contracts and investments created before the vaccines’ approval. International organizations were also allocated a large amount of vaccines to distribute to developing nations that could not afford to buy directly from the producer. While most of the Global North had

“While the world waited in uncertainty and fear for a vaccine, many developing countries were faced with a crucial question: how many vaccines will be left after the Global North’s needs are satisfied?”

enough vaccines for their entire population by summer 2020, “[t]he first purchases for lowincome countries came in January 2021, through the African Union’s pooled procurement approach. Many countries in Latin America, Africa, and Asia still have not yet been able to purchase enough vaccines to cover their populations” (Launch & Scale Speedometer 2021, par. 1).

In order to demonstrate the vaccine inequities between the Global North and South, I exemplify Italy and Tanzania because of their similar population sizes. With the population of Italy being 60,461,826 and the population of Tanzania being 59,734,218, the countries were faced with the task of vaccinating almost the same amount of individuals (Worldometer, 2021). Despite this, Tanzania has only administered approximately 1,699,523 vaccine doses, whereas Italy has administered approximately 99,792,722 based upon the latest reports (COVIDVax Live, 2021). Italy is 74.2% vaccinated; it would take Tanzania until the end of 2030 at its current vaccination rate to fully vaccinate 70%. Only 1.5% of Tanzania’s population is currently fully vaccinated (Redfern, 2021).

Critiques of the developed world’s vaccine purchases are especially prevalent in the United Nations. In this year’s United Nations General Assembly 76 General Debate, vaccine distribution and access in Third World countries were discussed thoroughly. Samia Suluhu Hassan, President of the United Republic of Tanzania, gave a statement concerning the incredibly low access to vaccines in Tanzania, a country with a GDP per capita of $1,076.5 USD in 2020. “It is our humble request that the patent rights on COVID-19 vaccines should be waived for developing countries so that they can

afford to produce the vaccines. This is not only a necessary move to end this pandemic but also the right thing to do in order to save humanity,” (UNGA 76, 4:55:53). This plea to waive patent rights for developing countries is not new. In late 2020, a coalition of developing countries1 led by India and South Africa proposed a waiver, revised in May 2021, that “would apply to pandemicrelated ‘health products and technologies,’ including vaccines, diagnostics, therapeutics, and personal protective equipment (PPE). The waiver would be in force for at least three years, with an opportunity for extension,” (Siripurapu 2021, par. 3). President Joe Biden announced his support for the World Trade Organization proposal in early May 2021, but a stalemate has been struck due to opposition from influential countries, most notably Germany.

Mario Draghi, President of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Italy, gave a statement that echoed concerns about vaccination rates in developing countries. He acknowledged that life has returned to a sort of “normal” in the Global North where large percentages of the population are fully vaccinated: “[g]lobally, we face dramatic differences in the distribution of vaccines. In high-income countries, more than 65% of the population has received at least one dose. In the poorest ones, only 2%” (UNGA 76, 10:39:25). Italy is skeptical, along with most of the E.U., that the vaccine patent waiver will not work due to the lack of production assets in the Global South to both produce and distribute vaccines efficiently. Many countries advocate for other solutions, such as distribution by international organizations, vaccine initiatives, and by developed nations that have a vaccine surplus. Draghi pledged to support

the COVAX initiative and stated Italy’s plan to triple donations from 15 million to 45 million doses by the end of 2021. As of February 3rd, 2022, Italy has surpassed its goal with a total of 49.8 million COVID-19 vaccines donated to COVAX (Our World in Data).

It is clear that Tanzania is trying to take a more independent approach to the vaccine crisis by advocating for domestic production and distribution as a government initiative. Italy and much of the E.U. want to aid developing countries in distribution programs so that supply chains are maintained and the economy remains stable. Unfortunately, with international organizations distributing vaccines, it can take much longer to actually administer vaccines into the arms of citizens in developing nations. A “vaccine nationalism” has arisen in which developed countries are waiting to ensure full domestic vaccination rates before releasing excess vaccines to the Global South (Guterres 2021, par. 4). Even if the COVAX initiative donated all vaccines to middle and lower income countries right now, it would still be enough for “less than half (49%) of the adult population in LMICs [lower and middle income countries]”2 (Kates, et. al 2021, par. 6). Current negotiations are still attempting to resolve the crisis.

AN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS PERSPECTIVE

There are strong connections between the current state of international relations and the constructivist perspective. The theory of constructivism is associated with how states interact with each other and how that influences states’ interests, goals, and actions. In constructivism, “[a]ctors (usually powerful ones, like leaders and influential citizens) continually shape – and

sometimes reshape – the very nature of international relations through their actions and interactions” (Theys 2018, par. 1). Since the end of the Cold War, when the constructivist perspective was introduced, it has become increasingly difficult to define global affairs with one international relations theory. Now that the COVID-19 pandemic has ravaged communities around the globe, another difficulty has arisen in explaining how countries interact. Efforts to vaccinate low-income countries by disorganized international organizations clash with the selfishness of state governments creating conflict in foreign relations.

I believe our modern global society, especially in its response to COVID-19, is undefinable by either of the classical international relations theories of liberalism or realism. States are not operating in an anarchic system, which rules out one of the main components of the realist perspective. There are overarching, transnational powers such as alliances, treaties, organizations, and coalitions that regulate states in their interactions with each other. This is demonstrated in international organizations with intentions of aiding the Global South in vaccine access and distribution.

Liberalism is also insufficient to describe current international relations because it defines the individual as the most important actor in the political system. As we have seen in the current disproportionate vaccination rates between the Global North and South, states’ needs are considered far more than individual needs: “Rich nations have bought up most doses long into the future, often far more than they could conceivably need. Hundreds of millions

of shots from a global vaccine-sharing effort have failed to materialize” (Dahir and Holder 2021, par. 4).

FUTURE GLOBAL IMPACT

As international meetings between countries concerning the pandemic continue, it is impossible to determine what the future could look like. Without a distribution plan set in place for the COVAX initiative, millions of vaccines are useless in mitigating the spread of the virus. Even if the Global South could afford to purchase vaccines, they would have no luck due to the superfluous amount purchased by Western nations. Andrea Taylor, an assistant director at the Duke Global Health Innovation Center, was quoted in a New York Times article: “COVAX is a really lovely idea … It didn’t take into account how human behavior actually works in real life. It didn’t assume that wealthy countries would act in their own self-interest, and it should have done so” (Dahir and Holder 2021, par.13). While we try to repair the damages done by unpreparedness, selfishness, and inequity, it is crucial to recognize that the precedent set in the treatment of the Global South throughout the pandemic is unjust and must be revised before another pandemic strikes.

It is not out of the question to assume that university-aged individuals and younger will experience another global pandemic in their lifetime. The National Academy of Sciences released a report stating that “the probability of a pandemic with similar impact to COVID-19 is about 2% in any year, meaning that someone born in the year 2000 would have about a 38%

chance of experiencing one by now.” The study also found that the probability of a pandemic reoccurring is growing, and “outbreaks will likely grow three-fold in the next few decades,” (Penn 2021, par. 8). The importance of creating an operational, transnational vaccine production and distribution plan is imperative to global success in the next pandemic. It will be essential to set aside economical and financial discrepancies in order to ensure survival against a fatal disease.

To achieve vaccine equity, wealthy nations must acknowledge that the pandemic will not be over until a higher vaccination rate is reached. In May 2021, the International Monetary Fund, in partnership with COVAX, WHO, and other organizations released a plan to contain and reduce the virus around the globe. The plan declares a goal of vaccinating at least 40% of the global population by the end of 2021 (Agarwal and Gopinath, 2021). This goal was successfully reached, with approximately 56.7% of the globe at least partially vaccinated before 2022. Unfortunately, the concentration of the vaccination rates is incredibly biased towards the Global North. The IMF’s proposal had worked in theory, but it had not provided the equitable distribution of vaccines that was initially intended. It is apparent that a new strategy must be taken, possibly in the form of a patent waiver or increased mobilization of domestic vaccination efforts by developing nations, in order to put an end to the COVID-19 pandemic.

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FOOTNOTES

1Countries in the coalition: “Communication from the African Group, the Plurinational State of Bolivia, Egypt, Eswatini, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Kenya, the LDC Group, Maldives, Mozambique, Mongolia, Namibia, Pakistan, South Africa, Vanuatu, the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and Zimbabwe.”

2According to a Duke Global Health Initiative presentation, high income countries have enough purchased COVID vaccine doses to vaccinate 245% of their population.

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Contributor Biographies

MERCY RABERN JONES “UNCLEAN! UNCLEAN!”

Mercy Rabern Jones (she/her) is a fourth year from Santa Fe, New Mexico majoring in Popula tion Health and minoring in Anthropology, with an Honors designation. She is deeply passion ate about health equity and studying the intersection of morality and disease. Inspired by her interests and love of Gothic fiction, Mercy’s favorite part of writing this piece was transforming a problematic cisgender, white man’s work into a radical conversation centering queer and disabled scholars. Outside of academia, Mercy enjoys crocheting, gardening, and spending time with her rescue dog and parrot. She plans on pursuing a Master’s in Public Health following her graduation in the Fall of 2022.

CHRISTNA KLAS “EVALUATING A GROWING CONFLICT”

Christina Klas is a freshman from Albuquerque studying Economics and German. While she enjoys exploring East Asian conflicts, Christina prefers to spend time reading or trying to cook. She would like to thank Linda, Berthold, and Ania Klas for their unwavering support.

JORDYN BACHMANN “GOOD GIRLS GO TO HELL”

Jordyn Bachmann is a Linguistics major with a double minor in Journalism and German. She was born and raised in Albuquerque, and she likes to cook, bake, write, and play video games in her free time. After graduation, she hopes to become a food/travel journalist, and hopefully someday publish a book about the relationship between food, language, and society. She wrote this piece because she is extremely passionate about highlighting the over-sexualization and violence that women’s bodies face every day. Though not discussed in her piece, she implores you to look into how the horror industry specifically treats and views women of color, as it is extremely important to the topic at hand. Also, she asks you to please consider donating to the Battered Women’s Justice Project (BWJP) or RAINN to help uplift victims of domestic and sexual violence.

SPENSER WILDEN “UNDERSTANDING GENOCIDE IN ERIK EHN’S SOULOGRAPHIE AND “MARIA KIZITO”

Spenser Willden is a third-year student studying honors interdisciplinary liberal arts, English, and theatre. After graduation, he hopes to work in publishing or write comedy for film and tele vision. In his spare time, he enjoys playing with his two-year-old niece, Harper. Soulographie by Erik Ehn can be found at 53rdstatepress.org.

MEGAN VLAUN “MOOD: SWING”

Meg Vlaun was born in upstate New York but has spent her life wandering the world. She has lived in Frank furt, Paris, Madrid, ten U.S. states, and she speaks four languages. She is a former military brat turned military spouse and mother of two remarkable teens. Her creative outlets include writing and photography. She cur rently tutors writing at CNM and aspires to obtain her MFA in Creative Nonfiction.

HANK MESSINGER “HEIDEGGER, QUANTUM MECHANICS, AND THINKING THE SAME”

Hank Messinger returned to school after retirement, mainly studying philosophy, and concentrating on Heidegger. A non-degree graduate student, he has long been interested in what appear to be coincident changes in physics, political theory, and philosophy, spanning the history of European thought. His current concentration is on the mystery of time, again, in both physics and Heidegger.

LIAM DEBONIS “THE ODYSSEY OF BEING/WHERE YOU ARE NOW”

Liam Debonis has worked as a photojournalist for over two years, beginning at the Daily Lobo newspaper and expanding his career to local and national journalism organizations. He is the recipient of the Mark Holm Daily Lobo Photojournalism Award for his work throughout 2020 and 2021, including his documentation of protests during that time. Photojournalism is his passion and his calling; he plans to continue his career in this field, with hopes of specializing in humanitarian and conflict photography. You can find his work and contact information at liamdebonisphotography.com or on @liam.debonis.photo on Instagram.

HANNAH WILLIAMS “FRIENDLY ANIMALS, DIMWIT HEROES, AND BABA YAGA”

Hannah Williams is a senior graduating this May with a major in Psychology and a minor in Honors Interdisci plinary Liberal Arts. After graduating, she is looking forward to spending the year teaching English in Madrid, Spain, and traveling Europe. The Life and Extraordinary Adventures of Private Ivan Chonkin is an incredibly humorous work satirizing Soviet life. While she would recommend reading it regardless, Chonkin allows the reader to understand the absurdities and atrocities of daily life under the Soviet Regime, which is especially significant during this current time in our world.

SACHI BARNABY “FAIR PAY FOR DOMESTIC AND DIGITAL LABOR”

Sachi Barnaby (she/her) is a first-year student majoring in Computer Engineering and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies with a minor in Music. She enjoys playing oboe in the band here at UNM, as well as running a Feminist Book Club and being a member of the Society of Women Engineers. Sachi is curious about the inter sections between feminism and technology, and this piece was inspired by that curiosity. She also appreciates music recommendations, so follow her on Spotify @samlw0 to show her what you’re listening to!

REBECCA HOBART “TREE CANOPY, URBAN HEAT, PUBLIC HEALTH”

Rebecca Hobart is a recent Environmental Science and Sustainability Studies graduate re turning to UNM for her M.S. in Geography beginning in the Fall 2022 term. She enjoys cows, cats, and queer culture.

MAKENA HALEN “JEAN-BAPTISTE GRENOUILLE AND THE THEOLOGICAL IMPLICATIONS OF SCENT IN ENLIGHTENMENT-ERA FRANCE”

Makena Halen is a junior who is wholeheartedly pursuing her love of rocks in the Earth and Planetary Sciences department. She is originally from Seattle, Washington, but loves the charm and the gorgeous geology of the Southwest. In her free time, she enjoys hiking around said Southwestern geology, doing crosswords, and swing dancing. After graduation she plans to pursue a career in building a bridge between the geologic community and the general public, hoping to inspire a love and appreciation for the complex and beautiful creation surrounding all of us. She is honored that her deep dive into the humanities is fea tured in this edition of Limina, and would like to point interested readers toward the novel Perfume by Patrick Suskind, upon which the essay is based, and Philip Jenkins’ text Using Murder: The Social Construction of Serial Homicide.

NELL JOHNSON “UNSER DRIVING”

Nell Johnson (Aries, Okie, Gamer) is an eternal student of Russian and a nostalgic onlooker. She loves chicken fried steak, Coke Zero, and the early 00s. She hopes “Unser Driving” is a relatable anthem of Westside supremacy and will encourage the reader to take a late-night drive themselves. You can find more of her publications on her Twitter @peachnells.

DELIA BRADLEY “GLOBAL COVID-19 VACCINE INEQUITIES”

Delia Bradley is a sophomore at UNM double majoring in International Studies and Languag es. In her free time, she enjoys rock climbing, hiking, and traveling. After graduation, she plans to pursue a career in the Peace Corps to work closely with international development efforts. You can keep up with the COVID-19 vaccination crisis through various sources: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/world/covid-vaccinations-tracker.html https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#vaccinations_vacc-people-onedose-pop-5yr