Leland Quarterly, Vol. 5 Issue 1, Fall 2010 by Leland Quarterly

FALL 2010

KRIS

CHENG PURUN

CHEONG ROSEANN

CIMA KATE

ERICKSON ALL OF 100

leland QUARTERLY 1

Leland Quarterly Fall 2010

leland

QUARTERLY VOLUME 5, ISSUE 1 Fall 2010

Editors-in-Chief: Jaslyn Law and Miles Osgood Managing Editor Graham Todd

Production Manager Jin Yu

Senior Editors Stephanie Caro Johaina Crisostomo Grace DeVoll LiHe Han Nathalie Trepagnier Katie Wu

Art Editor Johaina Crisostomo

Associate Editors Raine Hoover Max McClure Kara Runsten

Financial Editor Nathalie Trepagnier Layout Editors Brandon Evans Blake Montgomery Armine Pilikian Dianne Weinthal Katie Wu Web Editors Alessandra Santiago Jennifer Schaffer

Leland Quarterly: A Statement on Literature, Culture, Art, and Politics is a general interest magazine that showcases the very best in Stanford University undergraduate art and writing.

Leland Quarterly Fall 2010

EDITOR’S LETTER I spent four weeks last July on an archaeological dig in northern England, uncovering the ruins of a Roman civilian settlement. Departments of archaeology, I soon learned, give their undergraduate minions some of academia’s most Sisyphean tasks—including, but not limited to, moving pounds of dirt from the bottoms of large pits to the tops of large mounds, and drawing hundreds of small rocks to scale on tracing paper before smashing through them with pick-axes. But my favorite was this: when an archaeologist digs up a nail, he pulls it out, puts it in a bag with a label, and pounds his own, twenty-first century nail in its place, to mark the spot with a numbered tag. Already, by the end of our month on site, the dirt-mound on the side of the trench was overgrown with shoots of grass and yellow daisies. I can only imagine, then, that two millenia from now, back over in the pit, the tag will disintegrate, the nail will rust over, and some new Californian college student looking for an experience abroad in an untried discipline will hit it with his trowel. He will take it out, clean it, bag it, and hammer in his own nail. This is how the study of archaeology is perpetuated, for ever and ever. Artists are not so different, though. The nails of Roman culture, after all, have been turned up, forgotten, and replaced many times before. Just as, before Rome’s rise, the Greek Classical period had its Hellenistic succession, The Renaissance gave way to Mannerism, Poussin to Rococo, and David

to the Romantics. The new Romes may not reign as long, but they continue to rise. Or, at least, they did until recently. The 1900s had their Terza Roma claimed by Mussolini, and ever since, we’ve been a little squeamish about proclaiming a fourth. Digging for nails is a dirty, difficult job: how much easier, instead—said the abstract expressionists, said the conceptualists, said postmodernism all in one—to stand on the side of the trench, snickering at the very idea of looking for nails in the first place. Much better, no doubt, to build without nails at all. To escape the widening gyre of Rome’s rise and fall for good. But without nails, things fall apart. We visit, now, art galleries of Individual Talent without Tradition, museums where movements and manifestos have been reduced to Me. And so, nothing is built but egos. Archaeologists look for nails because nails hold together doors, and doors hold together buildings, and buildings hold together cities, and cities hold together republics. The artist who digs for nails to put new ones in their place is an artist who cares about a continued correspondence in his own republic, the republic of letters. Nails are the language of those letters: artistic forms, poetic meters, portraits, statues, myths, virtues, histories. The letters themselves are doors, buildings, and cities: conduits and forums of thought. You can still see the cornerstones of these buildings in the Binchester vicus, and the tags we left are still legible under sprouting weeds. There’s time, yet, to climb the mound of dirt already unearthed and to look out at the sky for eagles.

– MILES OSGOOD and the editors of leland

Leland Quarterly Fall 2010

CONTENTS

EDITORIAL STATEMENT

ARTIST PROFILE

Kris Cheng

Kate Erickson

DRAWING

Faccie di Fumo Gabriel Benarr贸s

Maria Lucia LiHe Han

Leland Quarterly Fall 2010

All of 100 Lara Ortiz-Luis, Wyatt Roy, and Chris Rurik

Sophomore College 2010: The Meaning of Life Katie Wu

PAWN: The New Musical Play Nicole E. Chorney

FICTION

The Glass Cathedral of Chutreaux Purun Cheong

MIXED MEDIA

Hundertwasser Sasha Engelmann

FEATURED

Cover

POETRY

PHOTOGRAPHY

Hands Derek Ouyang

Plea Roseann Cima

No Trespassing Natalie Uy

Summer Sonnet Nathalie Trepagnier

Crossroads Jackie Basu

Forethought Claire Woodard

Folly Kate Erickson

Hailing Mary Jackie Basu

Two Girls in Laguna Province, Philippines Kris Cheng

Correction to Volume 4, Issue 3: On page 40 of the Spring 2010 issue, the Leland Quarterly should have printed that “The Weight of Angels,” by Leigh Lucas, was a poem after Robert Hass.

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Kris Cheng

Major: Energy Resources Engineering Year: Senior Above all, I value the places I visit, the cultures I learn, the people I meet, and the adventures I have. Photography allows me to pass those moments into the eternal.

“Daida—A Lifelong Sheepherder from the Hovd Province of Mongolia” Leland Quarterly Fall 2010

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â&#x20AC;&#x153;A Girl in Her Newly Built Home in Espiritu Santos, Philippinesâ&#x20AC;?

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“Erdenet, a nomad, collects drinking water”

“Title”

“A Boy Learns English in Laguna Province, Philippines”

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PLEA dear lillith, i know you’re probably busy, but i don’t think you drink enough water. or maybe you do but you just drink it too fast? and it “flushes you out,” whatever that means. Anyways, I’ve always thought this, and even just a few months ago, (when you were moving out, and writing “SAN FRANCISCO” in black sharpie on stiff new cardboard boxes), when you kissed me after we ate Our Last Dinner, (mushroom rissotto) and even after the wine and the strawberries, Even then! Your Tongue felt like terry cloth. And maybe things have changed but you’re supposed to get 8 fl. oz. a day okay? Because if you were to faint or get heat stroke or something in a park or at a bar or Sprinting up one of those steeeep steep streets I’d be very sad. -ROSEANN CIMA

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Picture a friendly monster made of mutations. That’s All of 100. It’s been aroaming since its birth on a gray January day, growing legs here, tentacles there, and voice boxes everywhere. Its beating heart remains the act of writing exactly 100 words every day. Picture the friendly monster as your pet. Each day he demands discipline, and as you sleep each night he fumbles around with your dreams, conjuring new fountains of creativity. He’s tricky, and though he aggravates you, you love him for it. To join the project, and to check out the just-published book, click around on www.allof100.org. — CHRIS RURIK

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swivel

“I’d like to get it over with as soon as possible.” The woman sat in a swiveling chair, swiveling back and forth. “I’m sure we can see to that,” the doctor said, making a note on his clipboard. “Thank you.” Swivel, swivel.

After the procedure, she slept. She muttered things, periodically. Things about carnivals, husbands, and plane rides. The doctor made notes. Seven days later, she awoke. She marched straight to the doctor’s office and sat down in his swivel chair. “I’d like to get it over with as soon as possible.” Swivel. “I’m sure we can see to that.” – LARA ORTIZ-LUIS SEPTEMBER 28, 2010; 10:57 AM

NO NEED TO ADJUST REALITY Soft voices against hard beats and hard streets against soft feet and hard dreams against soft sheets when waking feels like dreaming and dreams float into memories and then it’s difficult to grind back into reality but it’s not even preferable, anyway because no one knows you there. And here, it’s perfectly acceptable that light switches open doors and doorknobs turn hands into claws, claws that gnaw and grind and grasp your thoughts like marbles out of a bag. And then the marbles roll off the varnished table onto the floor, wavy and fluid like water. No need to adjust.

– LARA ORTIZ-LUIS MARCH 13, 2010; 12:21 PM

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the pineapple merchant 14

Behind the broken taillight stretched hundreds of miles of potholes sprinkled with occasional chunks of bitumen. The thick air bathed my lungs, and the jungle thrived in tangled masses just off the broken road. An empty water bottle teased my feet and crinkled with dehydration, bouncing lightly with each rut the jeep dove into. We stopped with a squeal, after we saw him: the Pineapple Merchant. Juicier than a bass beat and sweet as your niece in a sundress, his wares awaited. Ten cents and a pineapple later we were back on the road, his smile disappearing in the distance.

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â&#x20AC;&#x201C; WYATT ROY FEBRUARY 24, 2010; 12:15 PM

t h e b e ar sw i ms

Under a green sky the shaggy bear paced to the end of the ice field. The aurora borealis unfurled across the sky in banners that reflected in its lonely eyes. A warm wind blew from the south and tugged at the ancient white hair hanging in clumps from the bear’s stomach. The bear slipped into the water, and the reflected messages of the sky rolled to the horizon in ripples. For a time it swam, each deliberate stroke lasting the length of the night’s slowly fading breaths. The dark movements of the ocean crept and swirled and dragged and welcomed.

– CHRIS RURIK JULY 11, 2010; 10:45 PM

“Hands,” Derek Ouyang

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“Faccie di Fumo,” Gabriel Benarrós

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the meaning OF LIFE KATIE WU Since becoming a Stanford student, questions have become a part of my daily existence. Questions that have answers (who’s the best TA for Math 51?); questions that I hope will never have to be answered (why am I a senior still taking IHUM?); questions that I may spend the rest of my life grappling with (what is the meaning of life?). It’s this last category that usually makes us roll our eyes or throw our hands up in exasperation—these are the questions we don’t typically like to bother with. Unless, that is, you’re the kind of person who would pay $600 to spend three weeks hashing out the intricacies of religion and morality and (hey!) the meaning of life with a group of other like-minded kids… and, you know, get graded on your answers. Which, I’ll now admit, I was. Am. Whatever. Juggling existentialism is a tough cookie to chew. “The Meaning of Life: Moral and Spiritual Inquiry Through Literature” is one of the most obscure—and most popular—Sophomore Colleges offered. For the seventh year in a row, Dean of Religious Life Scotty McLennan has led a class (if it can even be labeled in such a way) based partly on literary discussion, partly on religious exploration, and partly on reflection on personal experience. It may seem daunting to sign up for a course geared towards attempting to answer the unanswerable, but that may have been the trick all along: to realize that both asking and answering are lifelong processes, as transient as life itself. But I’m getting ahead of myself. I certainly expected to gain massive insights from the course. Even its title came with its own set of judgmental baggage. The most common question I was asked during Sophomore College was, ironically, “So, have you found the meaning of life yet?”—jokingly, of course, from students taking other courses, like “Great Ideas in Computer Science” (irrelevant) and “Mixed Race in the New Millenium: Crossings of Kin, Culture, and Faith in the 21st Century” (huh?). I, of course, had no answers—and I won’t pretend I have anything close to definitive responses at this point. But the three weeks during which I was challenging myself to find some and hearing the perspectives of others were definitely some of the most…well, meaningful of my life. Whether I was vindicating Gatsby or attempting meditation at a Zen Buddhist retreat or even roasting s’mores at the infamous camping trip to Laguna Seca (a full reason to take the course if you haven’t already been sold), it felt worthwhile to even be pursuing a stance on morality in the first place. “The Meaning of Life” is unique not only because of its odd course title; it quite literally removes you from a classic classroom setting to challenge Stanford students with inquiries about the abstract. If anything, it was an introspective journey during which I was humbled by my classmates, awed by the complexities of unfamiliar religions, and surprised by my own conviction in debates I had never expected to have a stance in. The math nerds and Amazon trailblazers can laugh and poke fun all they want. I may not know the meaning of life, but I have ventured far enough to know that it’s not a fruitless goal to pursue.

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“No Trespassing,” Natalie Uy

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Summer Sonnet Mattress and guitars in the minivan road trip, playing through the day in Memphis sweat. Park the car by the bar, pass out and let the sun wake us from our mobile crypt. Then head for Mobile, we jobless roadies, stopping ‘long the way for roadside peaches. We dogs who broke our front yard leashes. We sundrunk swimmers throwing off our floaties. The A/C broke but our radio screams, bouncer kicked us out but we got a free drink. So we stop in Oxford to piss on Faulkner’s swing and we’re thrown to city limits for being obscene. Hell, that summer was sweet as watermelon, ripping riffs in beer-soaked cutoff denim.

-NATHALIE TREPAGNIER

Leland Quarterly Fall 2010

“Crossroads,” Jackie Basu

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THE GLASS CATHEDRAL OF CHUTREAUX PURUN CHEONG

The Cathedral Basilica of the National Shrine of St. John of Chutreaux (commonly known as the Glass Cathedral), a massive non-denominational cathedral located in Chutreaux, is considered the finest example of postmodernGothic fusion in architecture. Its unconventional style, heavily influenced by Notre Dame de Chartres and Notre Dame de Reims and composed entirely of glass and steel, has been the source of controversy among prominent architects. Privately funded by billionaire Samuel Fields of Fields Corp, it is considered to be one of the greatest manmade works in existence, drawing more tourists annually than the Great Pyramids, the Taj Mahal, and the Great Wall of China combined.1 The town of Chutreaux, self-proclaimed cultural capital of humanity, has several notable attractions aside from the stunning Glass Cathedral, such as the Papier-Mâché Menagerie2 and the Children’s House,3 all of which were the brainchildren of eccentric billionaire Samuel Fields. No matter who tells it, the story of the Glass Cathedral is invariably eclipsed by that of the man behind it. Volumes have been written about the fabulous wealth and extravagance of Samuel Fields, yet the source of his income remains a murky subject. Suffice it to say that Samuel Fields was the first to prove the disaster relief industry a highly lucrative business. As Fields himself put it, “God created everything on this blessed earth so that man could make money off of it. Even hurricanes.” Where others saw a chance to show their concern with fivedollar donations, Fields saw a five-billion-dollar

business opportunity. So at the young age of 25, he withdrew his life savings and a sizable loan, recruited a team of disaster relief specialists from the military, the Red Cross, and the music industry, and started peddling his services to the nearest disaster-stricken country. Governments were initially skeptical of the ragtag group demanding compensation for rescuing people from collapsed buildings, distributing rations in refugee camps, and providing medical services to those in need. But within a few earthquakes, hurricanes, and tsunamis, coupled with the multiple sex and human rights abuse scandals that struck other nongovernmental organizations working pro bono, Fields Corp established itself as the go-to company when hit by an act of God. There was some initial outrage towards this “privatization of human compassion” when the UN designated Fields Corp as its preferred operator in disaster situations, but

Wikipedia, accessed two weeks after the completion of the Glass Cathedral. Closed indefinitely after some of the animals were burnt down during an anti-papier-mâché animal protest. Some thought the concept was against the laws of nature. 3 Built in the style of a child’s drawing of a house. Closed for safety reasons. 1 2

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“Folly,” Kate Erickson these detractors were silenced. Soon Fields Corp’s insignia became as common as the blue helmet in lands of trouble. Samuel Fields singlehandedly created the disasterindustrial complex called Fields Corp. Fields Corp’s army of highly trained disaster relief professionals have become essential to any government’s disaster response. For his accomplishments, Samuel Fields was bestowed several honors of the highest degree, few of which he accepted.4 An economist who occasionally wrote a column for The New York Times once favorably compared his single-minded zeal in expanding Fields Corp’s reach to the religious fervor of the Crusades. Fields cultivated this crusader image further, deliberately, by decorating his office with various chivalric artifacts.5 Yet for all his riches, Fields was unlike many of his contemporaries, who spent time in luxury spas comparing the sizes of

each other’s yachts. He wasn’t interested in being near the top of Forbes’ Richest People list6 or creating a lasting legacy in the form of an endowment for generations to come. Fields didn’t see himself as the next Carnegie or Rockefeller or Nobel. He declined to leave an award for humanitarian achievements as his legacy.7 Instead, Fields spent many years visiting UNESCO’s World Heritage Sites in an attempt to see how he could “beat ’em.”8 Fields was unable to find a clear answer to his problem until he ventured into Europe, a region of the world that had “too many pompous jackasses and not enough earthquakes to humble them.”9 At the time, he had never actually set foot in Europe. This was partly because some European officials refused to grant him a visa because of some comments that he made prior. They finally relented after a particularly grateful Pope George I

Estimates suggest that the number of honorary degrees Samuel Fields turned down translate into enough manpower to run a small Latin American country. 5 When asked about the historical significance of the decorations by a reporter from Rolling Stones, he mentioned they were “stuff [that] knights used to use for stuff.” 6 Disaster relief, though lucrative and recession-proof, isn’t quite as hot a commodity as software. 7 Much to his disappointment, he had found that there was already a Fields Medal. 8 To this day, no one knows exactly how one beats a World Heritage Site. Except by setting it on fire. 9 From a speech at the General Assembly of the United Nations on sustainable agriculture in Africa. 4

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invited Fields to the Vatican to induct him into the the Vatican, and therefore, he was going to delay his Order of Christ—an honor previously bestowed only Vatican visit. In Samuel Fields’ words, “if [the pope]’s to rulers of now-defunct monarchies and explorers been waiting for the second coming of Christ forof now-discovered lands—after hearing that he had ever, he can wait a couple days for Samuel Fields.”12 What Fields hadn’t realized was that David personally insisted on securing and reinforcing several sites of religious and historical significance Macaulay’s book was written for the purpose of in northern Italy after a particularly difficult instructing children on how cathedrals are built, earthquake. Samuel Fields, a man not not as a subtle advertisement for some known for his piety,10 was pleased actual cathedral in rural France. Samuel Fields’ to hear that he was to become When one of his aides informed peers with Magellan and other him of the nonexistence of plan was simple: names that he had never Chutreaux (except in some he would build a medieval 11 heard of. online communities of cathedral European town called Fields took it upon himself enthusiasts), Fields reportedly to learn more about Europe brought his senior advisor to tears Chutreaux, just like in before his visit, reportedly and sent his aides flying from his the book. ordering a library’s worth of book office. He was conspicuously absent summaries on European history during from board meetings and other public his preparations. Before he started to read any of his events for the next six months. The Vatican never prepared material, however, he picked up by chance received an explanation for his snub. a book by children’s non-fiction author David Little is known about what Samuel Fields did Macaulay: Cathedral: The Story of its Construction. during the months he was absent from the public An aide had bought the book for the youngest child eye. Despite increasingly indignant statements of King William V of England, but Fields intercepted from the Vatican, the Holy See found itself facing it. The work, which described the construction the same stony silence that reporters, politicians, of a cathedral in a medieval French town called and the occasional telemarketer encountered when Chutreaux, was filled with illustrations of flying contacting the Fields estate. The world had absolutely buttresses, vaulted ceilings that seemed to defy the no idea what Samuel Fields was up to until the Fields laws of gravity, intricate masonry, and enormous Corp public relations office issued a brief statement stained-glass windows far more impressive than inviting journalists to a press conference regarding any of the tapestries and reliquaries that Fields had Samuel Fields’ next move. Amidst a frenzy of media collected in his Fields Corp office. speculation that placed Fields Corp on the cusp of Fields, a man of little reading and great vision, entering the telecommunications sector, suspected found himself much more interested in this book that Samuel Fields planned to run for national office, than in any of the summaries that his interns had or assumed that Samuel Fields had engaged in a spent their sleepless nights writing. The discovery of string of perfectly legal but frowned upon amorous the book heralded the premature end of any plans flings with minor celebrities, no one expected that he had for reading anything else, and visiting the Fields would take the stage that fateful morning Vatican, for that matter. He devoured the 80 pages and announce the “greatest manmade achievement of illustrations and descriptions in a few hours, ever:”13 the Chutreaux Cultural Township. Samuel Fields’ plan was simple: he would build and decided that Chutreaux would be his first destination. The medieval beauty of Chutreaux was a medieval European town called Chutreaux, just far more appealing to Fields than the “Italianness” of like in the book. Or as Fields himself put it, better On paper he was as Roman Catholic as any. Sources suggest he may have converted to Catholicism to become a ‘godfather,’ like Vito Corleone. 11 Fields once remarked that “the only good European is a dead European.” This was not well received in Europe. 12 A Vatican spokesman noted that, to Fields’ credit, he had never claimed to be bigger than Jesus. 13 Fields Corp representatives requested that news outlets use that exact language. 10

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than the book. During his days away from the media the entire area somewhere between Citizen Kane’s spotlight, Fields had read about contemporary Xanadu and Ludwig the Second’s Neuschwanstein buildings that borrowed from classical styles using Castle.15 Everything was imported. Samuel Fields modern materials. He remembered that he had made sure that the cobblestones were stripped liked those designs. So Fields decided that real from rustic villages in Germany, the marble people would live in buildings just like they did fountains hand-carved by classically trained Italian in the old days, except instead of being built with artisans, and the canals dug by family-owned wood and plaster, they would be built with steel Dutch construction firms. Even the residents of frames and concrete walls. And in the city center Chutreaux were imported from the finest European there would be a grand cathedral towering over the countrysides, handpicked by a team of aestheticians and physicians and assigned to a variety of rest of the two to three-story structures, just like visually pleasing medieval occupations in Macaulay’s illustrations. To Fields, it such as glassblower, minstrel, seemed straightforward enough. He There was and bar wench. By the time sent out the orders and his aides filed the appropriate paperwork. Chutreaux’s Teutonic, Latin, no official report on Soon, an army of bulldozers and Nordic occupants-tothe costs of the construcand construction workers be were ready to move into their humble quake-proofed descended upon the cornfields tion of Chutreaux, but conof Fields Corp’s Iowa servative estimates by informed abodes, tourist agencies were touting Chutreaux training complex and tore it experts placed the value of the as the 1001st place to visit down. It was not missed.14 A charmingly rustic and before you die, the greatest entire area somewhere beclearly medieval-influenced historic village experience tween Citizen Kane’s Xanadu village sprung up in its place, money could buy. and Ludwig the Second’s each of the buildings lovingly But this was only the first crammed together between step of Samuel Fields’ grand Neuschwanstein narrow alleys and cobblestone project. To him, the village itself Castle. streets shooting off haphazardly in was merely a frame to display directions that made no sense in terms of his crowning glory: the Cathedral. modern urban planning. A team of the world’s Cathedrals were palaces of God, designed finest architects designed the village itself with the to instill awe among the faithful who visited them input of a team of medieval specialists flown in from with their impossibly high ceilings that seemed Europe. The village was methodically planned to to reach for the heavens themselves. Samuel look as if it had sprung up spontaneously. The houses Fields saw no better structure to pay tribute to his were meticulously designed to look stylishly rickety accomplishments. The cathedral would be built in and their historically accurate layouts enlarged the classical Gothic style, an architectural splendor in accordance with international humane living above and beyond anything by “all those cheesestandards. Each house was built to host a family of eating surrender-monkey cathedrals” combined. It four, complete with modern amenities. would be the finest building in all of Christendom, There was no official report on the costs of “and then some.” Fields had received the final plans the construction of Chutreaux, but conservative and an order for genuine Lutecian limestone when estimates by informed experts placed the value of it suddenly occurred to him: what if the church

14 15

Samuel Fields had declared it his least favorite training complex at a party. Feelings were hurt. Popular opinion maintained that the actual cost was probably greater than the sum of the two.

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“Hailing Mary,” Jackie Basu were made entirely of glass?16 A Glass Cathedral, a truly shining beacon of humanity’s capabilities, the capstone to Samuel Fields’ international legacy. The chief architect of the project, a man with many architectural awards to his name, laughed when Samuel Fields proposed this slight modification to the design. He assumed that Fields was joking. It was only a few weeks before the groundbreaking ceremony, and Samuel Fields had already carved the date into a commemorative marble fountain in the town square. The next day, the new chief architect, an equally accomplished expert, was given the same suggestion. He said he’d need more time and that there would still need to be some sort of steel framework. Fields relented to the second request, but said that he’d be breaking ground as planned, with or without a completed plan. During the next couple of

weeks, the architect proposed a series of blueprints he deemed structurally sound. Each time Samuel Fields vetoed the plan, as he saw “too many steel beams and not enough glass.” As the design progressed, the steel framework became dangerously simple, but not simple enough for Samuel Fields. The architect suggested glass bricks to offer more support, but Samuel Fields wanted complete transparency, like an aquarium. So the architect suggested switching from glass to the lighter acrylic, but Fields insisted that he wanted a glass cathedral, or he would’ve sent out invitations to the groundbreaking ceremony for the Acrylic Cathedral. By the day of the groundbreaking ceremony, the architect had nothing. So Samuel Fields cut him loose, traced the outline of the original design with a sharpie, and told the head foreman to place the steel framework along the thick lines.17

There is something fascinating about being able to look at the insides of things from the outside. Hence mankind’s unending obsession with reality shows and jellyfish. 17 The architectural firms involved with the project distanced themselves from the final design. 16

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“Maria Lucia,” LiHe Han A typical cathedral in the Middle Ages took decades, if not centuries, to build. With Samuel Fields’ limitless funding and the marvels of modern technology, it would only be a matter of months before his was completed. Over the next couple of weeks the steel framework quickly rose over the 18 19

town of Chutreaux. As the townspeople went about their daily lives, accomplishing modern tasks as medievally as possible, they were blinded by the massive glass panels toted by Fields helicopters. Soon the panels of the first level were set, then the second level, then the third level clad in shining glass walls. It seemed that Samuel Fields’ ambitions would yet again be fulfilled. To pass the time, Fields experimented with art, first drawing sketches of houses, then crafting animals out of papier-mâché. He wasn’t very good. Suddenly, one windy day, two months after the construction crews set about laying the foundation for the cathedral, disaster struck. The walls, which were far too thin, came crashing down. Naturally, Fields Corp came to the rescue. Some several hundred workers were saved, but dozens of others died.18 Fields ordered thicker panes of glass and bigger steel beams. The walls went up again. There were no further mishaps, except for the collapse of a sizeable portion of the ceiling, some sixteen weeks after the first accident. Again, some workers were hurt. Many more were traumatized. Samuel Fields didn’t care. Law firms did. Crews were replaced. Conventional glass-cathedral construction practice suggested rebuilding the entire area damaged by the collapsed roof. But Fields was never one to abide by conventional practice. He told the foremen to simply work around the damaged areas, patching up the twisted beams and broken glass as best they could. No one would be able to see them anyway, he said.19 Makeshift repairs were made, and the roof rebuilt. The bell towers went up, and plastic model bells with built-in speakers were installed. (The bronze bells originally cast for the cathedral can now be visited at the Smithsonian American History Museum.) Stained glass windows were set into the glass walls, and soon after, the glass gates were opened to the public. It took fifteen years and seventy-eight lives, but the Glass Cathedral of Chutreaux was finished. Salmon are known to swim thousands of miles, up waterfalls and past countless dangers in order to

Such incidents are expected when large shards of glass fall from very high heights. Why Fields believed that no one could see the inside of a cathedral made almost entirely of glass, no one could say.

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return to their place of birth, just to lay their eggs. Corps sold the abandoned housing to American Once their mission is complete, they waste away entrepreneurs looking to turn the place into a and die. Samuel Fields was not a salmon. Even after tourist attraction. Entire neighborhoods of beautiful boasting that the Glass Cathedral would medieval houses were demolished in favor be the single greatest thing a human of fancy high-rise apartments that being could achieve five years into dwarfed the Glass Cathedral. One construction, he kept on looking ambitious developer purchased Even after boasting for ways he could outdo himself, the petting zoo that Samuel that the Glass Cathedral establishing a petting zoo Fields had built, renaming it would be the single greatinhabited entirely by animals the Chutreaux Papier-Mâché est thing a human being could Menagerie and expanding it to constructed with papier-mâché achieve five years into and building a mansion for include an entire zoo’s worth 20 construction, he kept on children. His later plans, which of papier-mâché animals, are currently on display at the complete now with a safari looking for ways he could National Archives’ exhibit, “Samuel and giant panda exhibit.21 None outdo himself... Fields: Visionary, Leader, American,” of their ventures succeeded, and show a pattern of increasingly erratic and in some cases, like the Papier-Mâché desperate projects that border on the avantMenagerie, things quite literally went up garde, including a light installation to replicate the in flames. The high-rises failed to attract tenants Aurora Borealis over Salt Lake City. and several construction companies had to file for As the cathedral neared completion, Fields bankruptcy as a result, playing a part in the nation’s became increasingly reclusive, shutting himself recent financial crisis. up in his Chutreaux estate, sometimes for weeks And the Glass Cathedral? Admittedly, it’s an upon end. Though he was seldom found near the impressive building to look at, as long as the reflective construction site, workers continued to slave away glare doesn’t become too blinding. Unfortunately, on the cathedral out of fear of their mercurial the mass of high-rises that sprung up around it after employer who they believed could and would the untimely disappearance of Samuel Fields has show up at any moment. But he didn’t. He was seen diminished this effect, as the cathedral can no longer only occasionally at shareholder meetings, usually be seen from afar. Those who visited the cathedral sending a surrogate instead. When the cathedral in recent years have been sorely disappointed, as was finally completed, one of Fields’ aides went to they found that the interior was not only a web of the manor to inform him of the news, only to find mangled steel beams but also just as hot as a solarthat Fields was nowhere to be seen. An ultimately powered oven.22 No one wanted to be boiled alive in unsuccessful nation-wide manhunt for the five- what Time Magazine called “the closest thing to hell time TIME Magazine Person of the Year ensued, but you can experience in the continental United States,” somehow the most recognizable businessman in the and soon the trickle of visitors stopped completely. And so, the derelict cathedral, where God probably world had vanished into thin air. Without the sheer will of Samuel Fields to push never presided, now rests among the empty highit onward, the fortunes of Chutreaux plummeted. The rises and the remnants of the medieval village of villagers found that it was much more profitable to Chutreaux, which is now number two on the list move on to modeling and acting jobs, as Americans of Lonely Planet’s must-see ghost towns, right after were drawn to their looks and their accents. Fields Petra, just before Dubai. 20 21 22

The predecessor of the Chutreaux Papier-Mâché Menagerie. Plans to add a Papier-Mâché aquarium were scrapped after the project was deemed unviable. Which scientists determined that it was. The half-melted bells might have tipped them off.

Leland Quarterly Fall 2010

LAY P L A C I S MU THE NEW NICOLE E. CHORNEY

Last spring, STAMP showcased Abraham Niu and the Friendly Fires, a folk-rock musical, at Roble Dorm Theatre for their second annual Spring into Action Play Festival. The musical was presented in the form of a workshop, with the actors holding scripts and time allotted after the show for discussion and audience feedback. Nevertheless, ANFF received much recognition and praise not only for its enchanting qualities, as Henry W. Leung remarked in his review released in the Stanford Daily, but also for its balanced pace of humor intermixed with drama, PAWN has materialized into a musical music and poetry and its play that is “a call to prayer and arms for use of an “all-live ensemble of mostly folk, pop and all who believe that human beings are rock including throat singing from the Mongolian capable of more – more intelligence, tradition and…undertones empathy and creativity than war” of Chinese influence twanging through Western sounds.” ANFF certainly helped celebrate STAMP’s tradition and mission to support “grassroots theatre,” which strives to promote, as it is so eloquently put in a Note from the Producers of Spring into Action, “innovation and making ideas come to fruition through creative collaboration” and to provide “opportunities for new voices to thrive,” truly pushing the envelope to create diversity in the world of performance art. Due to Karmia Chan Cao’s persistence and dedication to her undergraduate creative writing career, we are fortunate enough to be receiving PAWN, a more polished, improved and expanded edition of ANFF this fall—the title, of course, actively alluding to the chess piece that can “never float across the board like a bishop, rook or queen” but can “only ever move forward, step-by-step.” Karmia Cao spent many hours editing and resolving issues of competing stages of temporality between the different trends featured in ANFF—“Abraham Niu’s death and his mother slipping into a coma; their escapades together in the Pawnshop of Time; and

Leland Quarterly Fall 2010

the breaking down of their waiting family members in Cold Lake, Alberta, Canada.” She also adjusted Abraham’s motivation to fight in the current war in Afghanistan as a Chinese-Canadian, transforming his sacrificial death—which propels the plot of the play—from an act of fate into an active choice to avenge his brother’s death—itself a colossal loss to Abraham’s family, marked early on as one of the many tragedies of the unforgettable 9/11 terrorist attack on America’s own World Trade Center. ANFF has now evolved, then, into PAWN, which as a piece of writing can stand alone in its effort to introduce itself, to paraphrase from Karmia’s own critical reflections of her work, against the so-called classic hits of the American musical tradition, such as West Side Story, Wicked, Hair, Rent and South Pacific, which negotiate, in their own right, problems of race, class, gender, and immigration along with other social and political issues. However, we wouldn’t be doing justice to PAWN without noticing that it also speaks to the current moment that intersects U.S. and Canadian histories and politics in relation to terrorism, as we are familiar with its fundamentalist existence

today. Furthermore, PAWN encourages its readers, and prospective audience members, to examine the meaning and influence of Terror, offering multiple valences and nuances through which Terror operates—specifically including the AsianCanadian experience to further complicate and expand our understanding of Terror. Born out of a “a gutting image: a frail young woman rising from a bloodied bathtub, clinging a writhing newborn to her chest” and “the endless rhythm of combat boots sinking into the desert sand, a heel set down,” PAWN has materialized into a musical play that is “a call to prayer and arms for all who believe that human beings are capable of more—more intelligence, empathy and creativity than war.” This is not even accounting for the musical and dramatic elements that, undoubtedly, will further bring to life these discussions of Asian exclusion in Canada, Chinese Diaspora, and Terrorism among other cultural and social concerns highlighted throughout the play. Here, after much anticipation, arrives the debut of the entirely student written, composed, acted, produced and directed musical, PAWN.

Works Cited: Cao, Karmia Chan. PAWN: A New Musical Play. Stanford: Stanford Production Copy, 2010. “The Only Way is Forward: A Critical Reflection on Creating PAWN the Musical Play.” “Re: PAWN.” Message to the author. 4 October 2010. Email. Gelender, Amanda et. al. “A Note from the Producers.” 2nd Annual Spring into Action Play Festival. STAMP. 20 May 2010. Leung, Henry W. “STAMP of Approval.” The Stanford Daily. 21 May 2010. Web. <http://www.stanforddaily.com/2010/05/21/1041221/>

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Kate Erickson Major: Art History Year: Junior A summer traveling alone through the United States and Europe, enjoying being on the outside looking in.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Nightfall, Ohioâ&#x20AC;?

Leland Quarterly Fall 2010

“Tchotchkes, Alameda”

“Metro, Paris” Leland Quarterly Fall 2010

“Cardsharks, Samos,” Kate Erickson

Leland Quarterly Fall 2010

FORETHOUGHT On the news they are saying that rare and smelly rainforest mushrooms are shriveling. That rising temperatures are causing bees to abandon their hives. That penguins are having no luck finding fish and that those deep sea creatures with needles for fangs are dying, en masse. I wonder what the equivalent to autumn’s first whisper on the skin is for a Dragonfish. I wonder if the Northern Royal Albatross also treasures the looming thought of a snow storm. Or if Leatherback Sea Turtles have a cold weather custom similar to ours of Sundays spent in the kitchen making stew (posed in front of the stove, swirling peeling, cleaving, chopping, and pouring).

What if winter went extinct? Replaced by summer’s incessant glare, the sweat and stifling stillness of a sheer blue sky. Watermelon weather, indefinitely. Diets composed of popsicles and cold soup. We’d finger the frost in our freezers and try to imagine how this crystalline marvel once fell from the sky. We’d quarrel; lovers would lie stickily on opposite sides of the bed. Softly we’d all melt layer by layer until all that was left of us were stark, bleached skeletons wobbling around on brittle toes trying not to trip over the corpses of trees and flowers, long sucked dry of life, and yearning for nothing more than a single rainstorm; a measly blizzard even just a gust of frigid wind, to remind us of the way things once were.

-CLAIRE WOODARD

Leland Quarterly Fall 2010

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Two Girls in Laguna Province, Philippines,â&#x20AC;? Kris Cheng

Leland Quarterly Fall 2010

CONTRIBUTORS

JACKIE BASU is a senior from Palos Verdes, CA GABRIEL BENARRУS is a senior from Manaus, Brazil KRIS CHENG is a senior from Hillsborough, CA PURUN CHEONG is a senior from Boston, MA NICOLE E. CHORNEY is a senior from Honolulu, HI ROSEANN CIMA is a senior from Fort Worth, TX SASHA ENGELMANN is a senior from Glendale, CA KATE ERICKSON is a junior from Carlisle, MA LIHE HAN is a sophomore from Beijing, China LARA ORTIZ-LUIS is a junior from San Francisco, CA DEREK OUYANG is a sophomore from Arcadia, CA WYATT ROY is a senior from Long Beach, CA CHRIS RURIK is a senior from Tacoma, WA NATHALIE TREPAGNIER is a senior from Limeport, PA NATALIE UY is a junior from San Antonio, TX CLAIRE WOODARD is a junior from Royersford, PA KATIE WU is a sophomore from San Marino, CA

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Leland Quarterly Fall 2010

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