VOL. CLXXV NO.2
MOSTLY SUNNY HIGH 48 LOW 31
TUESDAY, MARCH 27, 2018
HANOVER, NEW HAMPSHIRE
Biron and Mills discuss house Dean of the communities at town hall College to step
down a year early
B y Eileen Brady
The Dartmouth Staff
OPINION
SHAH: NEW THING AND POSSIBILITIES PAGE 4
TRUONG: A DASH OF NASH PAGE 4
ARTS
REVIEW: JACK WHITE MISFIRES ON “BOARDING HOUSE REACH” PAGE 7
A YEAR AFTER ITS RELEASE S-TOWN REMAINS HAUNTING, CAPTIVATING PAGE 8 FOLLOW US ON
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CHARLES CHEN/THE DARTMOUTH
Dean of the College Rebecca Biron and executive vice president Rick Mills hosted a town hall.
B y CHARLES CHEN The Dartmouth
Dean of the College Rebecca Biron discussed and answered questions on the house communities at a town hall with executive vice president Rick Mills on March 21. Around 60 members of the Dartmouth community gathered in Spaulding Auditorium.
B i ro n d i s c u s s e d t h e history and makeup of the house communities as well as the impetus for their founding, saying that the house communities work to provide continuity for undergraduate students. “Because of the D-Plan, students are in and out o f c a m p u s — t h ey ’r e moving all the time,” Biron said. “Without the house
communities, we had a system where students might live in 12 different residence halls across their four years of the undergraduate experience.” The College announced the creation of the house community system in 2015 as part of the Moving D a r t m o u t h Fo r w a r d SEE TOWN HALL PAGE 5
Dean of the College Rebecca Biron will step down from her position at the end of June to return to full-time teaching and research. At the end of this academic year, she will have served three years of her term as dean, which was originally scheduled to last four years. Biron attributed the decision to her “personal” desire to teach and do research, which she has not been able to do since fall 2015. When Biron began her term as Dean of the College, her role entailed bridging academics and student affairs. She worked frequently with the newly-created vice provost for student affairs, who oversaw student life and other areas previously overseen by the Dean of the College. However, when the vice provost position was eliminated in January 2017, Biron assumed many of the
role’s responsibilities. This left little time for teaching or personal academic pursuits, she said. “[The decision to step down as Dean of the College] was an entirely personal decision,” Biron said. “When I took the job as Dean of the College in 2015, that was when we had the vice provost for student affairs, and I was supposed to be able to teach at least one course a year and have a little bit of time for research while I was also doing the Dean of the College work. Given the evolution of the job since then, it hasn’t been possible for me to teach every year.” During her time as dean, Biron has participated in strategic planning for enrollment management, helped lead diversity and inclusion efforts, helped shape holistic advising for students, started developing a co-curriculum for leadership SEE BIRON PAGE 3
Hocus Pocus! Missing dog found after three weeks B y ISABEL ADLER The Dartmouth
While students stayed in the library or in their rooms at the end of last term, studying for final exams and waiting out the seemingly endless torrent of nor’easters, research grant manager Jean Blandin’s red-golden retriever puppy Hocus was missing, likely without food or shelter. Luckily, Hocus has since been found and is now safe and healthy, according to Hanover Police patrol officer Robert
DePietro, who helped guide the dog home. Hocus was missing for about three weeks before a concerned citizen found him in her yard on Occom Ridge and contacted the Hanover Police department, where DePietro responded to the call, he said. DePietro added that Hocus was away from home during two nor’easter storms, likely living outside. Hocus first went missing on Feb. 23 SEE HOCUS PAGE 5
COURTESY OF JEAN BLANDIN
Hanover Police patrol officer Robert DePietro smiles next to Hocus.
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THE DARTMOUTH NEWS
Researchers study perceptions of anxiety and women in STEM B y Wally Joe Cook The Dartmouth Staff
A study by a team of researchers from Dartmouth, the University at Buffalo and Carnegie Mellon University has found that gender affects an individual’s perception of women’s anxiety in science, technolog y, engineering and mathematics disciplines. Men are more likely than women to attribute this anxiety and self-doubt to internal factors, while women usually attribute such emotions to external factors. The study, titled “The Effect of Gender on Attributions for Women’s Anxiety and Doubt in a Science Narrative,” was published in Psychology of Women Quarterly in February by Dartmouth postdoctoral researcher Gili Freedman, University of Buffalo associate professor of communication Melanie Green , Dartmouth film and media studies professor Mary Flanagan, Buffalo graduate research assistant Kaitlin Fitzgerald and professor at Carnegie Mel lo n’s Human Computer Interaction Institute Geoff Kaufman. Kaufman has also worked at Dartmouth’s Tiltfactor lab, which designs games to spur social change. Freedman said the study used narratives about women’s experiences in STEM to research gender-based attribution biases, focusing on how men and women may differently attribute anxieties in a STEM class. Participants in the study read one story, among a selection, about an undergraduate woman taking a STEM class. “The narratives were reflecting women’s real-life experiences in STEM,” she said. “This particular research comes out of a series of experiments we have done using narratives.” Flanagan said that the narratives referenced the experiences of actual undergraduate women in STEM. “In the stories, [the female main character] expressed having anxiety or self-doubt,” Freedman said. She added that in the stories, which all focused on women’s experiences in STEM, it was ambiguous whether the instructor harbored any biases against women. For example, in one of the stories, a professor asks all of the women in the course to stay after class for extra help, but not any of the men. After reading these narratives, the study’s subjects were asked why they
believed the main female character was experiencing anxiety. “What we found across these three studies was that women were more likely than men to think that [the character] was experiencing anxiety or self-doubt because of factors like instructor bias or being aware of stereotypes about women in STEM,” Freedman said. “Men were more likely than women to think that her anxiety stemmed from just not being prepared enough for the class.” She added that while this was the average trend in responses, some men and women still responded differently. Flanagan said that the study’s results, which demonstrated gender differences in reactions to the stories, were compatible with current understandings of stereotypes and other types of biases. “There is a disconnect in male students’ understanding of the difficulties that women students face,” she said. “Men were much less likely than women to attribute the student’s anxiety to any institutional bias, professor bias or stereotypes.” According to Flanagan, who led the research team, the study is part of a larger project funded by the National Science Foundation to investigate the difficulties women in STEM face. The project is currently in its fourth year, she said. Flanagan and Freedmen both emphasized the importance of studying women’s experiences in STEM. According to Freedman, there is still an underrepresentation of women in STEM and negative stereotypes about women’s abilities can affect their willingness to enter those fields. In order to increase female representation in STEM fields, it is important to understand how people think about the presence of women in STEM, Freedman said. She added that the study’s researchers were interested in discovering whether gender impacts attributions of emotions. Fitzgerald said the study provided an opportunity to address bias in education in a new manner. “Much of the research has centered on how women and other minority students are affected by bias and how we can educate those students about how they are affected,” Fitzgerald said. “This research is important because it goes beyond that to attempt to
CORRECTIONS We welcome corrections. If you believe there is a factual error in a story, please email editor@thedartmouth.com.
increase gender bias literacy for the population in general. The question should be, ‘What is everyone else’s role in the problem?’” Flanagan said that the goal of the research is to change the mechanisms that create bias and make STEM fields more inclusive for women. “Women identify the problem as something that is familiar and men identify the problem as something that is a particular student’s problem,” Flanagan said. “Men are not seeing the systemic biases as much as the women are. That is something that we need to address in deeper conversations about STEM classrooms.” She added that a large problem is the culture created by STEM classrooms that is inhospitable to women. Fitzgerald said that in order to change this culture, the next stage of research may look into crafting narratives with micro-affirmations instead of micro-aggressions. “We’re shifting from ‘How do we raise awareness about these negative things?’ to ‘How do we use narratives to introduce these positive welcoming experiences for women?’” she said.
TUESDAY, MARCH 27, 2018
GILMAN HALL IS FALLING DOWN
MICHAEL LIN/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF
Renovations have begun on Gilman Hall, which was previously used for the biological sciences. The building has been vacant since 2011.
TUESDAY, MARCH 27, 2018
THE DARTMOUTH NEWS
Biron will return to full-time teaching and research after the spring FROM BIRON PAGE 1
and helped launch the house communities program, among other responsibilities, she said. Executive vice president Rick Mills, who recently discussed Dartmouth’s house communities with Biron at a town hall, praised her engagement with administrative colleagues. “Dean Biron understood the role of staff and administrative support services and always took the time to engage with her colleagues on the administrative side,” he said. “Coming to the town hall and talking about the house system was a perfect example of how she is always engaged and did it with respect. I enjoyed working with her and found her bright and articulate, and I will miss her.” Interim provost David Kotz ’86 will be responsible for finding Biron’s replacement once she officially steps down in June. “I have been extremely impressed by her work and very grateful for everything she does, and her passion and commitment to the mission of the division of student affairs and to the many issues that relate to the success of students at Dartmouth,” he said. Kotz added that the position will
be filled by July 1 through a search an email statement that she is happy committee comprised of faculty and to have Biron back in the department. staff. He said he plans to appoint “[The department of Spanish an interim dean for “a year or and Portuguese] has been quite two” before the under staf fed position is filled during the past “[The department permanently. few years and To fill the of Spanish and her expertise in Dean of contemporary Portuguese] has been the College M e x i c a n position, he quite understaffed culture has said he looks for during the past few been a huge candidates who gap in our share Biron’s years and her expertise curriculum,” passion and in contemporary Spitta wrote. commitment, “That said, I Mexican culture has in addition am sorry to t o h a v i n g been a huge gap in our see her leave e x p e r i e n c e curriculum.” her position as leading an Dean of the org anization College since at the College, -SILVIA SPITTA , she has done such as such a superb DEPARTMENT OF SPANISH having been j o b i n t h at a department AND PORTUGUESE CHAIR capacity.” chair or dean. Biron B i r o n , said that her who was hired as a Spanish and experience as Dean of the College comparative literature professor in has been “amazing,” and that she has 2006, will return to teaching in these been inspired by the dedication of disciplines in fall 2018. student affairs staff to the experience Department of Spanish and of each individual Dartmouth student Portuguese chair Silvia Spitta said in during her term.
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THE DARTMOUTH OPINION
TUESDAY, MARCH 27, 2018
STAFF COLUMNIST RACHNA SHAH ’20
STAFF COLUMNIST VALERIE TRUONG ’21
New Thinking and Possibilities
A Dash of Nash
Gender gaps begin — and can end — during our undergraduate education. When you think of a typical economics major, who comes to mind? One of the predominant stereotypes is the “econ bro.” A glance around an economics classroom during my Dimensions experience last spring provided evidence of a gender imbalance in the major, a suspicion that was reinforced while taking economics courses my freshman fall and winter. Economics is Dartmouth’s most popular undergraduate major. As the gender gap in economics fails to shrink in graduate education and in the workplace, it needs to be addressed at its roots. The gender gap in undergraduate majors has begun to close in fields ranging from biology to business. Women make up 57 percent of biology majors and 42 percent of business majors in the top 100 universities that offer bachelor’s degrees in these disciplines. Closer to home, between 2007 and 2011, 28 percent of Dartmouth’s bachelor of engineering degrees were awarded to women; in just five years, in 2016, Dartmouth made history by graduating a majority-female undergraduate engineering class at 54 percent. Joseph J. Helble, dean of the Thayer School of Engineering, attributes this success to the College’s engineering courses that focus on design and real-world applications. In addition, the Women in Science Project (WISP) employs intervention strategies ranging from mentoring to early hands-on research experience to help women succeed in science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields. However, economics is one area of study where the gender gap has not been closing, both at Dartmouth and across the country. The share of female economics majors was at its height in the 1990s and has declined ever since; today, for every one female economics major, there are 2.9 male economics majors nationwide. At the University of California Berkeley, it is 1.47; at Harvard, 1.83, and at Dartmouth, 2.32. This gender imbalance leads to economics being a field viewed through a male-dominated lens rather than the neutral one it ought to be. Gender diversity is correlated with viewpoint diversity among economists, thus expanding the knowledge base. A liberal arts education succeeds when it brings as many perspectives
as possible to a classroom, just as a workplace thrives by bringing as many voices as possible to the table. Compared with their counterparts, companies with low gender diversity are 29 percent more likely to underperform. Some studies argue that the reason behind the gender gap is that women prefer work in different fields, such as health, education and social work. Harvard professor Claudia Goldin, who has led extensive research in gender dynamics in economics, believes that the field’s focus on formalism and lack of emphasis on human dynamics could partially explain the gender gap. Other studies have shown that women display a greater degree of aversion to competition than men do. However, a purported behavioral gender difference is unlikely to be the sole cause for why female undergraduates are less likely to pursue a Ph.D. in economics than male undergraduates. There are many proposed reasons behind this occurrence, and the Undergraduate Women in Economics Challenge works to address many of them. The Challenge is a randomized control trial at 20 academic institutions that encourages greater female undergraduate participation in economics. Interventions include freshman orientation videos that provide information about collegeto-career pathways in economics, female mentors and role models, student faculty counseling, guest speakers and videos from alumni female economics majors. These interventions are valuable given that just two 15-minute visits from female role models in a class could have significant impacts on female enrollment in future economics courses and can influence women to major in economics. Implementing a few of these intervention strategies could make a large and positive impact among undergraduate students at Dartmouth. As Clara Staarsjo, a second-year student in the U.K. interviewed by BBC, said, “For the moment economists have only looked at the world around them through male eyes and this only provides us with half the story. And with only half the story how can we get results that will help the whole population?” Shah is a first-year intern with the Women in Sciences Project.
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What a week in Nashville taught me about Southern stereotypes. I’m going to be honest: I didn’t apply to restaurant, we picked up some pan dulce at any colleges in the South not due to a dearth the Mexican bakery next door. of high-caliber institutions, but because of American history is also deeply entrenched the labels I had heard about the region. The in Nashville. Most prominently, the scars of South is often portrayed as ultra-conservative, the Civil War are remembered in places like uber-religious and relatively poor. Even if I Andrew Jackson’s Hermitage and the Belle were in an urban area and the college campus Meade Plantation. During our tour of the were a diverse and inclusive place, I feared the Hermitage, we saw the mansion, grounds implied racism and sexism that might surface and gardens, duel reenactment and an exhibit if I were to step off campus or venture out of including a film. I found the mansion and the city. As a West Coast native, I don’t know grounds to be grand and beautiful, while the a lot about Southern culture. For too long, duel reenactment, film, and exhibits were I’ve relied on stereotypes I had heard from educational. However, at times I questioned others or seen in movies and other media to the morality of our visit — why had we form an overall negative and foreign image paid money to celebrate and preserve such of the region. a controversial man’s legacy? President When I announced to my friends that I Jackson was a self-made man and promoted would be visiting Nashville and its surrounding democracy, yet he promulgated the Indian areas over spring break, they were naturally Removal Act and at one point owned more surprised. They wondered what I wanted than 150 slaves. I eventually found agreement to do there given that I don’t enjoy country and some solace when one of the speakers in music, am a vegetarian and didn’t want to the featured film proclaimed that if we refuse see any particular attraction. In fact, I picked to look at and study a topic or person simply Nashville on a whim. I didn’t want to go home because they have committed atrocities, we since all of my friends were still in school, and are missing the opportunity to learn important I wanted to go somewhere a bit warmer than parts of our history. At one tranquil point, I Hanover. found myself meandering down a dirt and Prior to this trip, I had never truly been to woodchip path that was made to give visitors the South. I have visited a glimpse of a path a geographically southern slave may have walked cities — Miami, New “Yet I’ve realized I felt down to reach the field Orleans, Orlando and more at ease than I quarters. Though I San Antonio — but could not begin to expected because the each of these places imagine what it was cannot be categorized places I visited also like to be enslaved, I was as culturally Southern. carried the familiar able to learn more about I acknowledge that one how they lived and underlying American city doesn’t represent survived. Along the way, the entire region, but values of hope and hard I read signs depicting my brief taste of the objects unearthed by work at their core.” South opened my eyes archaeologists that had to a completely different been left behind by part of America and reminded me to stay the slave community at the Hermitage. open-minded about the people and places I Additionally, there are restaurants in Nashville had met and seen. such as Woolworth on Fifth that pay homage I definitely did not belong in Nashville, but to the civil rights movement via lunch counters I never felt unwelcome or uncomfortable. It to remember the nonviolent sit-ins of 1960. was initially jarring to walk into a crowded As the saying goes, don’t knock it ‘till you’ve restaurant with my father and be the only tried it. Otherwise, you risk shutting out non-white people in the room. Yet we were not opportunities to meet new people and chances the only outsiders: a young man sitting at an to learn and to have exciting experiences. adjacent table asked the waitress what “grits” Prior to this visit, the South was not a place were! In Nashville, I discovered a delightful I thought I would ever feel comfortable being array of cultural expressions including the in. Yet I’ve realized I felt more at ease than omnipresence of cowboy boots, Southern I expected because the places I visited also accents and live country music played on carried the familiar underlying American guitars and banjos. Bars called honky-tonks values of hope and hard work at their core. emanated live music once noon hit, and groups These values came in the form of a tour of tipsy people whooped as they pedaled past guide sharing his story as our group toured pedestrians on their Pedal Taverns. I was downtown, or a budding singer-songwriter alarmed to find that bacon was added to side playing his original tunes on an acoustic guitar. dishes like potato salad and collard greens, and The opportunity to visit Nashville has given that the “Vegetable of the Day” was garlic me a new outlook on the South because it mashed potatoes. Greek revival architecture was more than I expected it to be — more seemed to be a favorite of the area, evidenced accepting, more alive and more fun. Typical by the Parthenon replica and front porches stereotypes of the South are harmful because of both government buildings and homes. they engender sweeping generalizations that Nashville does not have its own Chinatown are not all true and cannot be applied to every or Little Italy; rather, ethnic restaurants and Southern community or individual. I hope to shops are lumped together in one part of visit other Southern cities in the future — let town. After having bún chay at a Vietnamese me know your recommendations!
TUESDAY, MARCH 27, 2018
THE DARTMOUTH NEWS
Like magic, patrol House communities discussed officer finds missing dog
houses on campus. to engage with different parts of According to Biron, the house campus, and if people don’t want to initiative. communities merely add “a new participate, there’s no obligation,” In an interview with The layer of socializing on campus” she said. Dartmouth after the town hall, and are not intended to replace any B i ro n a d d e d t h at f a c u l t y Mills said a town hall was set aside of the existing social or residential responses to the house communities to specifically address the house communities. have been positive as well. communities because many people “Officially, the Greek system “We introduced a pilot program have expressed and housing system to offer seminars to the housing c u r i o s i t y i n “There’s a a r e c o e x i s t i n g community, and I thought we’d get their progress. just like with the a few faculty members to volunteer, “ T h e r e ’ s surprising amount Living Learning and we ended up getting over 50 a s u r p r i s i n g of interest in Communities,” she members,” she said. amount of said. Biron is stepping down from the staff about interest in the D i r e c t o r o f her role as Dean of the College s t a f f a b o u t what’s going on equal opportunity at the end of academic year to what’s going on in the housing and af fir mative return to research and teaching, in the housing action Theodosia but said she does not foresee her community — community — it’s Cook followed up departure causing any changes it’s one of the one of the topics with a question to the development of the house topics I get the a b o u t h ow t h e communities. I get the most most emails house communities “The House Council has been r e q u e s t i n g a emails requesting a h av e i m p a c t e d preparing for my departure, and meeting for,” meeting for.” substance abuse all of the houses have their own Mills said. and other social leadership teams that set priorities B i ro n a l s o p r o b l e m s o n for their house,” she said. “I think said t h a t -EXECUTIVE VICE campus. all those groups have developed in the house Biron said that wonderful ways and will continue communities’ PRESIDENT RICK MILLS she did not want doing the work moving forward.” future goals for to credit only the After the question and answer prog ramming house communities session, Mills ended the town hall are to be “almost entirely student- with reducing rates of alcoholism by summarizing other news for defined and student-driven.” on campus. the Dartmouth “The student-run executive However, she c o m m u n i t y, boards have already started to a d d e d t h a t “It’s become pretty including the take off and take on much more t h e M ov i n g clear to everyone decision by ownership of the programming for D a r t m o u t h t h e B o a rd o f their houses,” she said. F o r w a r d that the house Trustees not to Biron also discussed the current i n i t i a t i v e , communities are a increase the size residential portfolio on campus. w h i c h of the College’s great opportunity to According to her, the College is encompasses student body currently at residential capacity, t h e h o u s e engage with different and the decision with no overflow space to which communities parts of campus, and if not to build a students could be relocated should a s w e l l a s new 750-bed the College wish to renovate a p r o g r a m s people don’t want to residence hall in residence hall. like the hard participate, there’s no College Park. She emphasized the need for alcohol ban, New residential obligation.” the College to build new residence played a role p l a n s r e vo l ve halls. in the reduced a r o u n d After her presentation, Biron rates of binge -DEAN OF THE COLLEGE potentially fielded questions from both general drinking the constructing a audience members and Mills, C o l l e g e h a s REBECCA BIRON smaller 350-bed who asked how the College is seen in recent residence hall. evaluating the success of the house years. The structure’s communities. In an smaller size Biron said that every term, the interview with The Dartmouth would open up more possible College evaluates after the town construction locations, though “a select, h a l l , B i r o n College Park is still a candidate, “The student-run representative s a i d t h a t Mills said. number o f executive boards have while there Mills also spoke about the programs in were initially ongoing discussion surrounding already started to take every house.” She f e e l i n g s o f the future of the Hanover Country added that there off and take on much a n x i e t y o r Club golf course and the Trustees’ are also termly more ownership of the wariness about a n d C o l l e g e P re s i d e n t P h i l reviews of budget t h e c h a n g e Hanlon’s considerations regarding a l l o c a t i o n , a programming for their t h e h o u s e the College’s financial investments biannual House houses.” communities in the golf course. Council retreat w o u l d The Golf Course Advisory and campusbring to the Committee will lead a public w i d e s u r v e y s -DEAN OF THE COLLEGE D a r t m o u t h forum at 6:30 p.m. on April 9 in about the house REBECCA BIRON c o m m u n i t y, the Class of 1978 Life Sciences communities. these concerns Center, according to Mills. D i re c t o r o f have gradually The next town hall will be held engineering and subsided. on May 16 and will focus on the utilities Abbe Bjorklund asked “It’s become pretty clear Inclusive Excellence Initiative on Biron how the house communities to ever yone that the house diversity, as well as the upcoming relate to the fraternity and sorority communities are a great opportunity and current College budget. FROM TOWN HALL PAGE 1
resident saw a skittish puppy circling her garage, she contacted law when a truck startled him during a enforcement, according to DePietro. DePietro said that the resident walk, Blandin said. “I had stopped and let [the truck] seemed like a “dog person,” but that go by, and it stopped and just stayed she felt uncomfortable approaching running,” Blandin said. “I had a Hocus because she thought the dog retractable leash and it was hooked might have growled at her. Hocus was skittish with DePietro as to [Hocus’s] back, so he had all the power, and he yanked me off my well, so he and the concerned citizen feet and went between two cars. By talked to each other near the police the time I got up, he had already car in the hopes that their feigned disappeared between Richardson and disinterest would lure Hocus to them, DePietro said. Wilder Lab.” “We called out to him that he is a Blandin said she immediately went to get help from Tressy Manning, an good puppy and a nice dog,” DePietro administrative assistant in the physics said. Eventually, when DePietro was and astronomy departments. “I went all the way down not looking at him, Hocus came frat[ernity] row asking people, and near enough so that DePietro, with no one had seen him,” Blandin said. the help of the resident, was able to maneuver the dog “[My husband into the police car. and I] came back “We called out to The puppy could up Friday night not be immediately and looked again him that he is a dentified, as after work.” good puppy and a ineither the citizen She said she nor DePietro returned to the nice dog.” knew that Blandin area nearly every was searching for day to search for -ROBERT DEPIETRO, her missing dog. Hocus, asking However, DePietro people about HANOVER POLICE used the identifying any potential PATROL OFFICER tags on Hocus’s collar sightings. to contact the dog’s Blandin veterinarian, who made a poster remembered that describing the dog and asking people to contact he was missing. The veterinarian her with information. She sent it to got Blandin’s poster from the clinic’s her department head, who sent it to waiting room and put him in contact other departments, after which the with Blandin, DePietro said. He added that Hocus was in “good poster quickly spread around campus, shape” when he was taken back to the Blandin said. Blandin also left food in several station. “As far as dogs go, he was very places around the area where Hocus might have gone and left posters with happy — was a little skittish at first, restaurants on Main Street, hoping but he was becoming playful with us,” that the dog would wander into town DePietro said. “He was really happy when he got hungry. Several people to see his owner. It was really easy to emailed Blandin, telling her that they identify who he belonged to.” Blandin said that she was thrilled were distributing posters around to to find out that Hocus was found. houses in the area, she said. “My first question was, ‘Is he all English and creative writing department administrator Bruch right?’” she said. “I said, ‘I will be Lehmann was one of the many there.’” Blandin said that after she brought staff members who searched for the dog. She also shared the poster on Hocus home from the police station, Facebook and hung posters around she found pine needles in his fecal matter. Sanborn Library, she said. “I really don’t think he was eating,” “I sent [the poster] out to various lists of people,” she said. “I went she said. Though he lost 11 pounds over the looking for the dog, both at my lunch three weeks he was missing, Hocus has hour and on weekends.” There were three sightings of gained back four pounds since then, Hocus after he went missing, Blandin according to Blandin. “Hocus being found was thrilling said. According to Blandin, a graduate news, and it still makes me smile to student was the first person to see think about [it],” Lehmann said. Hocus, spotting him on a path near “It gives me hope in the universe. frat row. However, Blandin said that One faculty member said that she the student did not approach the dog was haunted by the fact that he was because she was afraid he would run missing and was thinking about him all the time. Everybody was very from her. Three weeks later, when a Hanover concerned.” FROM HOCUS PAGE 1
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DARTMOUTHEVENTS TODAY
THE DARTMOUTH EVENTS
NEW LIFE, NEW BEGINNINGS
TUESDAY, MARCH 27, 2018
NEELUFAR RAJA ’21
8:00 a.m. - 2:00 a.m.
Exhibition: “Will Carter and the Dartmouth Typeface,” Baker Main Hall, Baker-Berry Library
8:30 a.m. - 10:00 a.m.
Discussion: “Breakfast with the Arts,” with the Leslie Center for the Humanities and the Studio Art Department, Nearburg Gallery, Black Family Visual Arts Center
3:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Student Employment Job Fair, sponsored by the Student Employment Office, Paganucci Lounge, Class of 1953 Commons
TOMORROW
5:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.
Presentation: “Atypical Hyperplasias of the Breast: A Generation after Page,” by Dr. Daniel W. Visscher, Auditorium H, DartmouthHitchcock Medical Center
5:00 p.m. - 6:15 p.m.
Artist Talk: “#NotAPrettyBallet,” ballet dancer Dada Masilo speaks with Ayo Coly, professor of African studies and comparative literature, Top of the Hop, Hopkins Center for the Arts
5:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.
Community Connections Fair, sponsored by the Dartmouth Center for Social Impact, Collis Common Ground
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TUESDAY, MARCH 27, 2018
PAGE 7
THE DARTMOUTH ARTS
Review: Gritty “Tomb Raider” reboot clears a low bar By SEBASTIAN WURZRAINER The Dartmouth Staff
According to Rotten Tomatoes, 2018’s “Tomb Raider” is the best reviewed video game film adaptation … ever. Given that it has a modest 50 percent critical approval rating, I’d argue that says more about the infamously abysmal quality of such adaptations than it does about anything else. Video game films are notorious for their ability to trip and fall over the exceedingly low bar set by so many generic Hollywood blockbusters. Yet “Tomb Raider” had potential from the outset. The games upon which it is based are immensely popular, and while the previous adaptation, 200l’s Angelina Joliestarring “Lara Croft: Tomb Raider,” was not a hit with the critics, it has since developed something of a cult following. Having played video games less than half a dozen times in my life, I can’t speak to how faithful this newest film is to its source material. Curiously enough, it actually draws quite a lot from the Jolie film, and where it does differ it tends to make improvements. For example, Lara Croft does not begin this new story as a wealthy heiress but rather as a poor, mischievous young woman who refuses to inherit her father’s fortune in the hopes that he is still alive. She eventually tracks him down to Yamatai, a treacherous island off the
coast of Japan where he was last seen taints the Himiko subplot in this searching for the tomb of Himiko, a otherwise ludicrous and innocent mythical queen of death. Together screenplay). with her stalwart, though not always The end result is enjoyable, sober companion Lu Ren, she finds if uneven, mostly living up to its Mathias Vogel, a representative of potential and thereby soaring high “Trinity,” a mysterious organization in comparison to fellow video game with plans to use Himiko’s powers for adaptations. The primary problem is nefarious means. that the film can’t quite decide what it’s Although the plot does often feel trying to emulate. On the one hand, like an updated reworking of the it wants to do for Lara Croft what better elements from the Jolie film, “Casino Royale” did for James Bond. the real cinematic antecedent here Like that film, the final scene here is “Raiders implies that Lara of the Lost has only just become “The end result is Ark.” Indeed, the character fans Lara Croft enjoyable, if uneven, already know and h a s o f t e n mostly living up to love, and much of been dubbed the first act seems the “female its potential and tailored toward I n d i a n a thereby soaring high a grittier, more Jones.” Such “realistic” reboot in comparison to comparative approach. At the labels have fellow video game same time, director a l w a y s adaptations.” Roar Uthaug clearly s e e m e d wants to make a r a t h e r proper descendant inequitable to me; they imply that to the aforementioned “Raiders,” one cannot have a character like Lara complete with macabre skeletons, without a male predecessor to pave the booby traps and haunted tombs. way. Yet when discussing this film, one Suffice it to say the film works infinitely also cannot deny the cultural impact better when it embraces its pulpy, of “Raiders.” Like that film, the plot quixotic roots. The ridiculousness of “Tomb Raider” seems to exist of this premise is only fun when the primarily to string together a group screenplay runs with it, as it does more of fundamentally disjointed action set frequently once we get to Yamatai. pieces. After all, these films are sold As silly as the story may be, the not on tightly woven narratives but on film wisely has the courtesy to take excitement and exoticism (it should be its characters seriously. Daniel Wu noted that the odor of Orientalism brings proper humanity to Lu Ren,
who might otherwise feel like a token minority character whose sole function is to assist Lara. Dominic West, likewise, exhibits real emotional heft as Lara’s father in some of the film’s slower and most effective scenes. Walton Goggins does his best with Vogel, a character who embodies the film’s tonal dilemma. The writers try to have their cake and eat it too, portraying Vogel as both monstrously inhuman and vaguely sympathetic. As with the overall film, the former, more bombastic approach proves to be superior. Goggins is at his best when he’s feverishly channeling the mad Colonel Kurtz from Francis Ford Coppola’s “Apocalypse Now.” The depiction of Lara Croft herself has always been contentious, particularly amongst feminist critics, and the same holds true for this film. Since her inception, some have argued that the character is merely a sex object, yet others contend that she is the rare example of an active female agent. Thankfully, Lara is largely unobjectified in “Tomb Raider.” And while many agree she is an engaging, headstrong protagonist, some still take issue with the fact that she is, in their opinion, often a “punching bag” during the action scenes. While one could spend hours productively debating the complex and occasionally contradictory gender politics in the film, I only have 1,000 words, so I must be brief. For the most part, I think Lara can only be interpreted as a “punching
bag” if one is truly uninvested in her character arc and Alicia Vikander’s magnetic performance. The film takes advantage of the fact that this is her first adventure, demonstrating that Lara has no desire to harm anyone. In fact, the scene where she takes a life for the first time is legitimately upsetting and, at least for a moment, the violence is not trivialized. Furthermore, she learns to become an action star not through her innate capacity to cause injury, but through her need to save herself and those she loves. Yes, this means that Lara is initially the underdog in fights with her male adversaries, but it also makes her heroism feel genuinely earned in a way that can almost never be said for the leads of other action-packed franchises. Moreover, for all of the film’s flaws, Vikander’s performance is the one element that always works. Her ability to combine enigma and vulnerability is put to great use. “Tomb Raider” may sometimes falter, but it never truly fails because Vikander clearly believes so thoroughly in Lara and her values. Despite the cringeworthiness of the final scene’s sequel bait, I cannot deny that I would readily watch a follow-up. With the right script and the right director, a sequel could be a legitimately thrilling action spectacle, because there’s really quite a lot of excellent raw material in “Tomb Raider” that one could build on. It all just needs a little polish.
Review: Jack White misfires with “Boarding House Reach” By HABIB SABET The Dartmouth
Jack White has doubtless had an illustrious musical career, catapulting into fame as the front man of The White Stripes and subsequently founding The Raconteurs and The Dead Weather. White has spent the last few years brandishing his talents as a solo artist, producing the widely acclaimed records “Blunderbuss” in 2012 and “Lazaretto” in 2014, both of which debuted at the top of the Billboard 200. But White’s newest album “Boarding House Reach,” released last Friday, is a convoluted imbroglio that mashes unwanted sounds and time signatures together and provides few redeemable moments. From the outset, White even misses the mark with the artwork, which attempts to establish the album’s strange, experimental mode. The album cover features what appears to be a semi-distorted black and white portrait of the artist with a blue ether enveloping his hair in a cloudy mass. The image evokes an androgynous Krusty the Clown rather than whatever artfully phantasmagoric
self-portrait he was going for. The first song, “Connected by Love,” places White’s classic twangy voice over an aggressively overproduced electronic mish-mash of synth and bass. The song choppily switches back and forth between its meandering verse and the chorus — which sounds suspiciously like the last minute of David Bowie’s “Rock ‘n’ Roll Suicide” — before giving way to a rapid sequence of solos performed on an overblown synth, a guitar that sounds disgustingly like a synth and finally what I think is an electric organ. Most of the remaining songs on the album share this quality, as if White put less thought into the actual rhythm and melody of his songs and more into the number of buttons he could press and outlandish bells and whistles he could incorporate into it all, constantly forcing together puzzle pieces that clearly don’t fit. This is disappointingly transparent. Even his voice throughout the album betrays a sense of disinterest and disorientation, like he knows this kind of stuff isn’t for him. The zenith of his experimental absurdity comes during “Ice Station Zebra,” in
which he overlays upbeat blues piano of the aforementioned bells and licks on droning electronic melodies whistles. The former’s fuzzy guitar before rapping. Correct, Jack White riff and driving drum rhythm sound attempts to rap: “If Joe Blow says, straight off of The Raconteurs’ ‘Yo, you paint like Caravaggio’ / Grammy-nominated “Consolers You’ll respond, of the Lonely” ‘No, that’s an “[It is] as if Jack White album. Though insult, Joe / I live this is the kind in a vacuum, I put less thought into of catchy lead ain’t coppin’ no the actual rhythm and riff that White one.’” I don’t has made his melody of his songs know what that name from, I means, and I and more into the can’t help but won’t try to figure feel as though number of buttons it out. Rather “Over and Over than sounding he could press and and Over” is a p l a y f u l a n d outlandish bells and simple rehashing invested, White of his previous just sounds lost whistles he could stuff, a formulaic here — as he incorporate into it “ Ja c k W h i t e should. I’m all for hit” thrown in all, constantly forcing experimentation to contrast with a n d g e n r e together puzzle pieces the rest of the blending, but that clearly don’t fit.” slog. The song’s this song is name turns out almost comically to be aptly ironic. cringeworthy. “Corporation” features several guitar The few high points of the parts harmonizing in funky accord album, mainly “Over and Over over bongo drums that actually sound and Over” and “Corporation,” good here despite their unwanted and pleasantly recall White’s earlier work unsuccessful appearance on what while nicely incorporating some seems like every other song on the
album. I call this one of the higher points but purely on a relative scale. While the song presents some sort of message concerning capitalism, its ham-handed lyrics (“Yeah, I’m thinking about starting a corporation / Who’s with me?” comprises much of the song) do little more than provide a puerile and vague attempt at satire. Jack White is an extraordinary talent who has become somewhat mar ried to a successful yet predictable type of music. For an icon like White, it’s important to explore and discover new styles, and I commend the man for his bravery. On this album, however, he seems to have attempted to do so much exploration that he abandoned any and all creative genius with which he powered his previous works. “Boarding House Reach” is clunky, unorganized and far too indulgent in what sounds like genuinely random instruments and effects. I hope for White’s sake that the old platitude about mistakes being lessons is true. If White could only channel his previous talent and interest into his next solo project and move past this one, we’d all be better off.
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TUESDAY, MARCH 27, 2018
THE DARTMOUTH ARTS
A year after its release, ‘S-Town’ remains haunting, captivating
COURTESY OF ANDREA MORALES
“S-Town” tells the story of brilliant, troubled horologist John E. McLemore, who lives in smalltown Alabama.
By ISABELLE BLANK The Dartmouth
S-Town, a podcast released in March 2017and hosted by “This American Life” producer Brian Reed begins as a true crime story. The direction of the podcast, which is produced by the company behind “Serial” and “This American Life”, soon shifts to become a complex character study and modern Southern gothic tale of an eccentric, brilliant and troubled man named John B. McLemore, who is a resident of Woodstock, Alabama. Brian Reed began reporting the story in 2014, when he was asked by McLemore to come down to Alabama to investigate an alleged murder. The town gossip was that a son of a wealthy lumber family had bragged that he had killed a man. Reed arrives in the town McLemore describes as filled with “proleptic decay and decrepitude” a year after receiving McLemore’s invitation via email. With little probing by Reed, the murder story turns out to be merely overblown town gossip. The narrative that follows is not a crime investigation, but a stunning story revolving around McLemore: brilliant maze builder, isolated queer figure and world-renowned clockmaker. He is Woodstock’s and Reed’s Southern gothic hero. Or is he a
martyr? An antihero? A victim? In many gothic tales, these roles become blurred, and this story is no different. Upon Reed’s arrival, McLemore shows the reporter the hedge maze he created. He takes Reed through one of the 64 possible solutions. Reed notes that McLemore takes him through a null set, a path with no way out, perhaps unintentionally, or perhaps to achieve a “literary” effect. In Greek mythology, Daedalus could barely escape his own maze after creating it to entrap the Minotaur. Daedalus, artful builder lost in his Cretan labyrinth; John B. McLemore, world renowned horologist, lost in his Alabamian maze. Reed interviews a past colleague of McLemore’s, who says McLemore can fix any antique clock and is one of the only people in the world who can gild clocks using an ancient technique involving mercury. McLemore made his own intricate timepieces, giving one to his old college chemistry professor. John B. McLemore: both creator and prisoner, Daedalus and Minotaur in one, a brilliant creator and craftsman imprisoned by his own hometown. The podcast is peppered with classic literary motifs. John B. McLemore speaks in breathless, Faulkner-length sentences and falls into DeLillo-esque doomsday lists. Reed’s story involves clocks, a watchmaker, an alchemist, a sprawling
garden, a hedge maze, a homoerotic relationship, an Oedipal relationship, hidden treasure, estranged cousins, a dilapidated house, a cauldron in the woods and a mad hatter. There are liars and truth-tellers and unreliable narrators. Reed is careful never to simplify, to mythologize nor to “literify” his story’s subjects or its setting. He conducts interviews with many sources, attempts to reveal the many sides of each of the people he studies. S-Town explores McLemore’s
contradictions which render him human. Reed effectively establishes McLemore as too nuanced to be mythologized, even in death. Reed explores McLemore’s grandiosity and his pettiness, his crippling pessimism and world-saver mentality and his high intellect and carnal desires, with empathy and complexity. Reed sometimes ventures into the dangerous territory of assumption rather than hard fact. There is one moment, regarding the buried treasure — recently deceased McLemore’s gold — during which Reed turns off the microphone at the request of the person he is interviewing. That person is Tyler Goodson, a last name all too fitting for John B. McLemore’s likable ne’er-do-well mentee and quasison. Though Reed does not reveal what Goodson tells him about the treasure, Reed constructs the episode and the listener’s perception of Goodson so that one can infer without too much mental exertion as to who is in possession of the gold. There is another moment where the podcast is undeniably voyeuristic, when Goodson plays for Reed (and the listener) the audio footage of some very private moments between Goodson and McLemore in McLemore’s last days. And this is how Reed’s narrative advances, straddling a thin line between voyeurism, investigative journalism and empathetic storytelling. It’s true that fact is often stranger than fiction. In this case, the facts in this story read like the plot of a novel.
However, should the intricacies of McLemore’s life have been broadcast on public radio, available in a sevenpart series on the web? Many have called S-Town exploitative, and I’m not sure I disagree. How ethical was it for Reed to delve into the private sphere and life of John B. McLemore? To investigate his personal life and in turn expose and broadcast his sexuality and his family history? To speculate about the location of his hidden treasure? McLemore, as many have argued, was not capable of giving informed consent to Reed. Reed wove a story worthy of and in keeping with age-old literary traditions, but to what end? John B. McLemore was a man who wrote rambling and intelligent theses about climate change, crime and cultural apathy. These documents were all saved on McLemore’s computer, and Reed was sent many of them during McLemore’s life, though they were otherwise unread by the wider public. Now that McLemore’s story has been told, listeners of S-Town can hear his proselytizing voice as they make their way through their own lives. McLemore was, after all, a real person with his own right to privacy and not a conjured novel character. In the end, don’t we all wish our own lives interested someone enough for that person to listen? If Reed’s podcast is indeed exploitative, then it is to an honorific effect rather than a sensationalized one. Captivating, nuanced and ripe for analysis, S-Town is well worth a listen.
COURTESY OF SANDY HONIG
The team behind S-Town includes “This American Life” host Ira Glass (center left) and producer Brian Reed (center right).