April 2014
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ne of the recurring themes in narratives about youth, from biblical times to the contemporary world, is that of the journey — a period wherein the young person leaves home to discover and experience outside reality first-hand, without the shelter, protection, and safety of the home. In all the stories, the journey represents a period of self-discovery, even if the path to that state of awareness is often guided or shaped by dangers. That is the gist of the story of the prodigal son in the Bible (Luke 15:11-32), which tells of a father’s great joy at the return of his wayward son, who had left the fold in order to plunge himself into satisfying his desires and urges. The son gained a deeper understanding of who he was after roaming the world in search of fleeting bodily pleasures. Some of the stories are deeply philosophical in their metaphorical intent, such as the story of Siddhartha Gautama, an Indian prince who was born into privilege. Siddhartha had it all, but renounced wealth and family, leaving home to search for enlightenment and, upon finding it in the contemplation of the everyday little mysteries of existence, changed the society of his era by introducing a new philosophy known as Buddhism.
The theme of the “wanderer youth” constitutes what the great psychiatrist Carl Jung called an archetype — a recurrent motif in human expressive artifacts that comes from a deep instinctual awareness of the meaningful things of the world. The wanderer stories are archetypal, portraying youth as a period of wantonness and foolishness, in contrast with the wisdom and sagacity that comes with aging. The young person seeks self-understanding through self-sacrifice, physical indulgence, or some other experience that breaks the ties to the safety and security of childhood. The youth who leaves home typically cannot understand why. During the wanderings, the youth is transformed from his encounters into realizing that physical pleasures and material wealth are irrelevant to the attainment of wisdom and joy, and that suffering is an inescapable part of life.
digital “escape paths.” The journey metaphor is no longer an intrinsic part of cultural lore, although movies with the journey theme abound, but has migrated to personalized hypertext. The archetypal experiences of young people remain the same at an unconscious level; what is changing are the forms and expressive details that encode and communicate these experiences. The journeys into the digital global village allow young people to explore themselves through the reactions of others. The need for the journey is still as powerful as it ever was, but its main channel of expression is changing. The Internet is now becoming that channel, even though in movies, novels, and other media the theme of the journey, as depicted by others, continues to be prominent. But the Internet has allowed youths to become authors of their own journey stories. And this may prove to be safer and wiser than many might think.
Self-knowledge comes from the journey, imaginary or real. It constitutes a search for meaning to life by cutting the familial umbilical cord metaphorically. Today, the journey metaphor has taken a different form, since young people can escape their real world through cyberspace and the many delights and dangers that it offers. The search for selfknowledge unfolds not through prodigal or Siddhartha-like excursions, but in the digital spaces tendered by social media and other
MARCEL DANESI Professor of Semiotics and Linguistic Anthropology University of Toronto
photo credit: [http://stvdy.net/]
The
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Editor-in-Chief Karen Zhou
Layout Editors
Features/ Arts & Culture Shiaoshiao Chen Science & Tech/ Entertainment Sammie Phung Perspectives / Sports & Health Trevette Deveaux
Associate Editors
Features/ Arts & Culture Sophie Munden Perspectives / Sports & Health Cathlin Sullivan Science & Tech / Entertainment Amina Mohamed
Copy Editor
Michael O’Leary
Contributors
Ananya Biswas Caroline Teng Cathlin Sullivan Claudia DiGirolamo Erica Tsou Janice Lee Julia Meadows Marcel Danesi Marsha Malcolm Peter Radonic Shiaoshiao Chen Sophie Munden
Business Manager Amanda Liao
Distribution Manager Shudipta Shabnam
Perspectives
Wanderlust - The Journey of Youth Marcel Danesi Gambling Between Money and Experience Claudia DiGirolamo; Artwork by Erica Tsou All That is Gold Artwork by Caroline Teng
Arts & Culture
Mechanical Heart Artwork by Erica Tsou New Waters Julia Meadows Sky City Artwork by Erica Tsou
Features
The Course of True Learning Never Did Run Smooth Marsha Malcolm; Artwork by Ananya Biswas Around the Loop in 80 Minutes Sophie Munden; Photographs by Shiaoshiao Chen
Science & Technology
Embodying Infinity Artwork by Janice Lee Romeo & Juliet +Siri Artwork by Ananya Biswas
Sports & Health
Toronto: Better on Wheels Peter Radonic; Artwork by Erica Tsou Argentinian Delights: Delicacies of the Desert Cathlin Sullivan; Artwork by Janice Lee
Entertainment
Graffiti Walk Photographs by Caroline Teng Find Your Fortune Artwork by Ananya Biswas
gambling between money and by Claudia DiGirolamo Artwork by Erica Tsou
“if money is your hope for independence, you will never have it. ”
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ith summer vacation just around the corner many of you may find yourselves wondering what these four months will have in store for you — or rather, what you have in store for these four months. It seems as though the summers of “beaching” and “partying” may slowly be becoming a thing of the past, replaced by months filled with work and education. So what should you do then: go for that summer job, take a course, or do nothing and take the summer off. The reality is that most of us need the financial support of a summer job or the academic support of a credit to make it to the next year. For the fortunate few, the luxury of “hanging out” for the summer is the ideal choice, but even this choice requires a stack of cash for those carefree weekends of fun. As such, even those that choose this option may need to take a parttime job to ensure ample summer spending money and enough financial assistance for the coming year. So maybe it is not the money that is your motivation — maybe it is the experience. Do you plan on enduring experiences within the confines of school in the summer, or an office for that unpaid internship? Both of which will be extremely beneficial to your record and/or application for post-graduate studies. Or do you plan on spending the summer making your own experiences out there in the outside world of U of T? Regardless of who you are and what your situation is, these are questions everyone is faced with at the end of second semester.
A summer job is popular because of the freedom the extra money brings to both our social and academic lives. Along with this, however, there are resume and application benefits as well as networking opportunities within your community and beyond. Therefore, a summer job means financial freedom and seed-planting for the future… two very appealing benefits. Spending the summer in school taking supplementary courses allows you to shorten your university experience (i.e. through spending less tuition money) and fast track your way through your degree. These may seem like very appealing reasons to fill your summer continuing your academic lifestyle, but at the same time you will be trading off summer job finance for shorter academic tenure, and may miss out on expanding your resume and contacts. That leaves the final option: taking the summer off and doing whatever you want that does not involve school or working (although getting a tan by the pool can be tiresome). This option gives you the opportunity to learn through travel and see what is outside your world while networking at the same time (albeit networking via hanging out with friends in say… Europe?). This option will leave you with less money for the school year (i.e. more debt upon graduation) and will do nothing to help bolster your resume, but it will reward you with the knowledge that you did what you wanted to do and you had fun doing it — no regrets! Henry Ford once said “If money is your hope for independence, you will never have
it. The only real security that a man will have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience, and ability.” Although money makes the world go round and academic pursuit is highly regarded, they aren’t everything. While I cannot say that I have been at many deathbeds, I can only assume that many people do not leave this earth with the wish that they had made more money — I believe they wish that they had lived their life with more of the experiences that money cannot buy. Your experience is what defines you, not your material worth; become an independent person enriched with knowledge gained from experience, and an ability to perform gained from such knowledge. When all your cards are laid on the table, I guarantee you will forget that extra few dollars you never made, but you most likely will not forget that experience you missed out on or that opportunity you had to live outside your capitalistic mind and discover what knowledge lies behind the confines of your comfort zone. Make the choice this summer that will allow you to grow as a human being equipped with knowledge, experience, and ability far greater than that which can be learned from a book or training manual. Take a gamble this summer; risk losing some structure. Go out and live life with passion.
experience
PERSPECTIVES
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ARTS & CUTURE
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New Waters by Julia Meadows Across the expanse of the world they flit, Cutting through clouds that stand idly by. Landmarks pierce windows though peaceful they sit, Paltry land made important when seen by bird’s eye. With velocity unmatched, when the journey’s complete, The winged vehicles swim to the ground Where children will crawl to new territory sweet, They abandon the cabins, the vessels’ wombs downed. The airborne mothers depart with infants bound in flight And leave them beside other marks of culture new, Water that bites into land in so many a bight, Horizons consuming wanderers seeking adventure undue. Yet each mourns none, as she is not alone, Many finned parents glide to destinations foreknown.
ARTS & CUTURE
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The Course of True Learning Never Did Run Smooth
by Marsha Malcolm Artwork by Ananya Biswas
The particulars of course design is not something the students at the University of Toronto ever hear much about. In terms of the actual process itself, the University seems to be holding its cards close to its chest. Yet while there’s still a lot we don’t know, what we do know as we try to remedy our academic iniquities is that two key factors influence our learning experiences most: a good professor and a rock-solid syllabus. Somebody who also knows this is Doctor Vikki Visvis. A well-loved professor of Canadian Literature in the University’s department of English, Visvis has received several awards for excellence in teaching. Her insight into how syllabi are generated shows that those reams of paper are more than just to-do lists of required readings.
FEATURES
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“There are many factors that go into designing a syllabus including making sure that the evaluations are appropriate, students get feedback in a timely manner, [assignment deadlines and exam dates], as well as what learning outcomes I feel are important for students.” “The syllabus is quite involved because it needs to address various aspects of the course: the course description, texts, assignments, due dates, policies, and a timetable of readings,” Visvis explains. “I also need to think about the aims of the course: will this be a survey course that examines centuries of literary development or a specialized course that investigates a particular issue or shorter time period in detail? The level of the course is also an aspect that needs to be considered. When I created the second-year survey course on Canadian literature, for instance, I thought about important canonical developments that an introduction to Canadian fiction, drama, and poetry should acknowledge. However, when I created the third-year specialist course on New Writing in Canada, I was able to choose more obscure, cutting-edge material because many of the students already had a foundational knowledge of Canadian literature and were more experienced dealing with a variety of works.” She goes on to say, “When putting together the syllabus for ENG353Y1 Canadian Fiction, I thought about the overarching narrative I wanted to convey. What kind of story did I want to tell about Canadian fiction, particularly in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries? I therefore needed to develop an organizing principle, and decided on genre, because Canadian fiction tends to conform to certain generic patterns. However, I try to be explicit about the status of this ‘story,’ which is being communicated by the syllabus, as one among many in the first lecture.” Despite running the course for many years, Visvis prefers not to stick to one steadfast syllabus. She added rather that “the development of Canadian fiction can be interpreted in many ways, and so I also tend
to revise the syllabus every year or so to reflect love to test on critical thinking or deep learning skills where students have the opportunity to those various interpretations.” discuss all the learning that they have had — One might question whether the techniques, just not all the details. Students have so many motives and problems addressed by Visvis wonderful thoughts and ideas and I feel like could practically be applied in other course and we are not letting them develop these. Lastly, faculties. However, Dr. William Ju, a popular I have to ask you — when was the last time Human Biology professor whose passions in the ‘real’ world you had a multiple-choice clearly lie with engaging his students, offers test? If it’s not LSAT/MCAT/DAT or some other similar remarks. “[T]o be honest there are standardized test then you really don’t have many factors that go into designing a syllabus these types of tests... so why do we use these including making sure that evaluations are forms of evaluation?” appropriate, students get feedback in a timely manner (i.e. they have marks before the For many, it will be reassuring to know that drop date), when to plan for midterms and professors do know the trials faced by students final assignments, as well as what learning in such a large-scale learning environment. outcomes I feel are important for students. I Despite the varied subject matter they teach, also have to consider what content goes into both Professor Visvis and Professor Ju stressed courses as well as how the course fits in to a the importance of student evaluations. Visvis program as a whole (i.e. if it’s a core course I has revised her syllabus in the past to make have to make sure that certain key concepts course loads less heavy and repetitive, and are taught and learned well by the students). Professor Ju notes that although criticism is Then, on top of all of this, I personally want to sometimes hard to take, his student feedback make sure that the material is fun, topical, and is generally constructive and what has interesting for students so this is another key encouraged him to take questions in class and post lecture slides and notes for his students factor that helps in designing a syllabus.” in a timely manner. However, Ju is not without his criticisms of the system. He is well aware of the damaging So as the year winds down, whether you are effect on students that some traditional an Arts scholar or a Science student, keep in teaching methods can have: “I think that the mind how hard your professors work to make courses are too large and the emphasis on your courses engaging and enjoyable. Let them memorization is too excessive. While I think know how well they’re doing or what they can that learning the building blocks is important, do better. The journey you undertake after you I think too many students get turned off/ add a course on ROSI should be challenging away from life sciences as a result. To put but not impossible. With the right professor, a things in perspective, I once asked one of my course has the potential to be truly inspiring colleagues off the cuff to provide details of an instead of just another requirement. MAP kinase signaling pathway and he couldn’t do it. Yet he teaches a course on it — mind you, he knew much of the pathway but not the little details that he asked his own students to know. I think that’s not a great thing. I’d really
Around the Loop in 80 Minutes by Sophie Munden Photographs by Shiaoshiao Chen
We’re all familiar with the commuter’s drudge. Heads down and headphones on, the faces and places have a tendency to blur together. But are we missing anything in the monotony? Photographer Shiaoshiao Chen and features editor Sophie Munden took to the subway to see if they could capture the misery and the miracles of Toronto’s underground. They say you can judge a man by the size of his feet, and likewise a city by its transit system. All the greatest cities in the world have them. Londoners know the hostile microclimates of the city’s claustrophobic tubes, and if you’re confidently on the subway in New York you are certifiably gritty. It’s my personal belief that Paris is known as the city of love not for its wine or architecture, but the casual proximity to a tightly trousered groin in which one finds oneself whilst traversing the Metro. So, as an Englishwoman still in the throes of exploring Canada’s largest city, it has occurred to me that I should take my musings underground and explore what the city has to offer “below deck.” As the signs so lovingly put it, I decided to “ride the rocket.” If it’s anywhere as euphemistic as it sounds, it should be a lot of fun. Here you’ll find my thoughts, musings, and encounters at some stops along the way.
Queen A man bats me on the arm with a newspaper and asks me if I’d like to sit. Rough chivalry. As I leave the train, I look up and see a toothpaste stripe ceiling, look across and see murals on a far wall of a neon cityscape. They announce either arrival in a fairground or a city on crack. Rumour has it it’s the latter. As my eyes brush across the top lines of three consecutive advertisements I read “Thinking of suicide? The only god worth worshipping is the hot toasted Panini.” It may as well make sense.
Union
This sto workspa oranges, Eerie glo its own m keep on rats from a cheeky his lunch
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op has the haunting silence of a deserted ace. The walls are plastered in toxic yellows and , through which light and water seep together. ow. Oppressive drip. A cave about to cave in on metal skeleton. Why are they digging? Why do we huddling under our kamikaze constructions like m a storm? Then, there is the roar of a train and y workman who wants his picture taken eating h.
FEATURES
Museum It’s hip to be at Museum. You’re either a student of something artsy, a teacher of something artsy, or a human looking for something artsy or ancient. I count the thick-rimmed glasses on my right hand. Down the centre aisle between the phony hieroglyphs wobbles a guy on a skateboard. He’s doing tricks for me, eyeing up the camera. I’m eyeing up him. It’s acceptable on the subway.
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Dupont Here’s an orange dream. Two floral mosaics reach up the high ceilings, as if they have laid their routes in the tracks. Above you is the glass mezzanine, and there’s a feeling you are in a grubby seventies microcosm, or a specimen under the observation of a maniacal scientist. The walls undulate to reveal exits and escalators curving away from the track. While I wait, a train pulls past and the conductor leans out of a back window. He smiles, “have a nice day, ma’am,” and we wave, anonymous friends, until he too is whisked away back into the bowels of the city.
Yorkdale No longer underground, you realize you have forgotten you’ve been stifled. So much glass, so much air, yet the grey of the city. There are fewer people here, as if waiting in purgatory, neither in nor out. On the platform, a homeless man sits with his dog. He says we can take his picture for three dollars. We decline, but enjoy his sign. “Please help — too ugly to prostitute, too sober to be mayor.”
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
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+siri
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
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Argentinian delights Delicacies of the Desert By: Cathlin Sullivan Artwork by: Janice Lee
S
eventeen years old and there was a it goes for a minute and when it comes out a giant plate of sizzling meat in front coffee drink better and creamier than a latte of me. As a high school exchange sits in front of you. student, I was confronted by a new culture and language before I was even sure how to manage myself as a functioning young adult. I was in a new country whose cuisine seemed to consist 70% of salt, but somehow every scent seemed crisper, like the desert air mixed with the wavering flavours of cooked meat was creating a pattern throughout the sky. It is heart wrenching to lust for a place that you have already been — like a mix of nostalgia and the yearning for new memories. While part of me craves the new tastes of dialects and monuments, I feel like there is a void in my Café con leche will always remind me of the stomach that can only be filled by the delicacies mornings that my Argentinian sister and I were of my old Andean home. able to spend together. Mornings were rushed Medialunas, café con leche, asado, pizza con and the pitch darkness created a silence that huevos y jamon, alfajores, empanadas, mate, only the desert can understand. As the years lomo completo… two nights ago I found myself pass, and we each grow older, I hold onto our spending an hour and a half googling images of memories through the ceramic mugs that we shared. Argentinian food. My mornings started with a cup of café con leche, which literally translates to “coffee with milk.” This translation, though, does not do justice to the steaming, creamy concoction that my host sister brought to my bedside every day at 6 am. I’m convinced the only type of coffee in Argentina is instant, and to make a café con leche you add a tablespoon into a mug and the smallest amount of water — just enough that when you stir vehemently, it creates a mud-like mixture. While some people like to fill the rest of the cup up with water, I always insisted on filling it up with milk. Then into the microwave
At school you never ate too much. There was a little canteen area where they sold Coke in glass bottles and salami sandwiches, but at 1pm school ended and everyone went home for lunch. The lomo complete and the acquired taste of Argentinian pizza are two things I will never forget. The workings of a lomo complete are two thin pieces of freshly baked sub bread with the ripest piece of fresh beef, an egg over hard, ham, lettuce, tomato, ketchup, mayonnaise, and cheese. It sounds simple, but it is a taste
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SPORTS & HEALTH
that I have not been able to recreate anywhere else. Served with papas fritas and a two-liter bottle of Coke covered in glass. I was lucky enough to live with a family that appreciated the incredible complexity of this simple sandwich.
The dough for Argentinian pizza is really more similar to pita than what we would consider to be dough. The lightest layer of tomato sauce and slices of ham cover the dough completely; olives with pits in them, and hard-boiled eggs top the whole thing off. If you are lucky, you can order it with palmitos which I just realized are heart of palms and “salsa golf,” a mixture that should be as easy as ketchup and mayonnaise, but the taste suggests that it requires so much more. This is a theme that I have discovered in Argentinian cuisine — simplicity in the ingredients, almost so much so that I do not believe it. Nothing is created with more than one or two spices of flavours, but when you put it into your mouth it is like an explosion.
After lunch came the siesta. When I found out that everything was closed between 2 pm and 5 pm every day, I knew that I had found a culture conducive to my lifestyle. After napping for three hours, I would awake to tomar unos mates with my friends and family. Mate is an Argentinian tea drink. The mate itself is the hollowed-out gourd in which you place the yerba, or loose teas leafs. Boiling water is put into a thermos, and the person who prepared the mate fills it with water and passes it around the table. Everyone drinks out of the same metal straw called a bombilla; sharing mate is considered to be a social ritual. The ritual of mate fosters connections better than anything I can find in Canada. The time that is put aside for sharing a drink with a group of people, sharing an hour, dedicating a time to conversing and discovering and connecting. While there is so much more to Argentina that I yearn for, everything connects back to food. Walking in the dry conditions and on the cracked ceramic sidewalks to my favorite café on the weekends, the smell of asado, Argentinian barbecue, at my aunt’s house on Sundays. The elements of San Juan made the simplest things taste the most delicate. Everything melted, delicate like butter, like simmering fat on a leg of beef, like memories that slowly slip farther and my taste buds that do not know how to move on.
Other Popular Argentian Dishes El Martin Fierro Empanadas Tucumanas Chorizo Sausage Faina - Garbanzo Flatbread Pizza a Cabello Faina with Chorizo, Blue Cheese and Spinach
Better On Wheels
by Peter Radonic Artwork by Erica Tsou
W
elcome to Toronto, we’ve got fun and games. The only thing that sucks more than snow is walking in the rain. But with a cycle, you no longer go slow, you fly. You no longer have to trek for what can seem like hours just to get across campus. With a bike, the journey from our beloved New College to St. Mike’s can take a speedy five minutes instead of the normal twenty on foot. But, of course, there is more to Toronto than just U of T. As the weather gets nicer, and the snow recedes into memory, the urge to explore the city is sure to crop up in many of us. When it comes time to set out it may seem like the logical choice to either walk or take transit. I scoff at this! A walk to Yonge and Dundas is pegged at 27 minutes on Google Maps, with a TTC trip coming in at 20, but cycling only takes 9. That is a ton of extra time to actually enjoy what you set out to see. Then there’s the added bonus of not having to pay the increasingly exorbitant TTC fees… Time and money aside, there is something magical about being more in touch with your city. Since starting to cycle, I have learned more about the layout of Toronto than I had ever thought possible. Prior to buying a bike in my second year, I felt like I was missing the meaning of what it was to live in Toronto. Things like finding niche cafes on Queen Street West can be difficult while packed like herring into a streetcar. Let alone how hard it is to appreciate the flavor of the Danforth while a hundred feet underground in a cement-andmetal tube. On a bike though? It’s the easiest thing in the world. Once I switched, I wondered how I had ever thought myself capable of getting a grasp on the city at all. Taking transit almost demands a disconnect from your surroundings. Instead of being encouraged to take part in the life of the city, it is almost an expectation that we ignore both the people around us along with the city around us. I have honestly never felt so isolated from the world than on the TTC. Fortunately, traveling by bicycle had the opposite effect. Instead of disconnecting from what was going on around myself as I traveled, it has become necessary to be hyperaware of my environment. Risk of injury from cars aside, zoning out on a bike when traveling at a good speed can put you way past your destination. Landmarks that I had visited in my first year suddenly had a new importance because I valued not just the visit and the pictures I left with, but also the experience of the voyage to get there. With numerous trips to Casa Loma, the CN Tower, Woodbine Beach, and more, I feel like I have become vastly more in touch with the city as a whole. It is fun again to go out and just go places. Not because I need to be there, but more so just because I can. Cycling in Toronto has been one of the best long-term lifestyle choices I have made. I feel more in touch with myself, the city, and the environment as a whole. I have learned more about Toronto than I even knew about my hometown, and I know there is still more I will never find out. In the meantime, though, I’m going to keep riding my bike. Hopefully when you head out this summer you will too. You just might enjoy Toronto a little bit more.
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