The Dartmouth 11/08/18

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2018

VOL. CLXXV NO. 100

SUNNY HIGH 50 LOW 37

Hanlon hosts anti- Midterm elections see Semitism panel impressive voter turnout

By ANDREW CULVER The Dartmouth

OPINION

LEUTZ: THE TRUTH PAGE 6

TRUONG: AM I A REAL VEGAN? PAGE 6

PACK: BRINGING BACK THE HUMAN PAGE 7

HOLZER: YOUR LIGHT STILL BURNS PAGE 7

ARTS

STUDENTS AND PROFESSORS REMEMBER PLAYWRIGHT NTOZAKE SHANGE PAGE 8 FOLLOW US ON

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HANOVER, NEW HAMPSHIRE

There was standing room only in Paganucci Lounge as students, faculty and Dartmouth community members attended an anti-Semitism panel featuring College President Phil Hanlon.

In response to the recent massacre at the Tree of Life Congregation in Pittsburgh, Hanlon hosted the open community discussion on antiSemitism and its history and dangers with fellow panelists Chabad Rabbi Moshe Gray and Jewish studies professor Susannah Heschel. The Nov. 5 event began with opening

statements from each of the panel members and then opened up to questions and discussion from the audience.

Hanlon began the panel by contextualizing the evening’s discussion in light of recent national events. His first response to these events, an email sent out to the campus community, was criticized by members of the community for its lack of specificity. “ We c o n d e m n a n t i Semitism with clarity and resolve,” he said, adding that community members should “stand together and support SEE ANTI-SEMITISM PAGE 5

The Dartmouth Staff

Following Friday night’s shooting on School Street, many Dartmouth students no longer feel safe in Hanover.

Carlos Polanco ’21 said that for many who come from areas where gun violence is common, “Hanover was an escape from that.” He added that before Friday, he considered Hanover a “bubble

By WALLY JOE COOK The Dartmouth Staff

Students react to Friday’s shooting

By ABBY MIHALY

DIVYA KOPALLE/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF

Students set up stations around campus with signs and posters encouraging peers to vote.

of safety” and that Friday’s shooting “shattered” this idea and caused him to re-evaluate how he felt on campus.

“For many people, [the shooting] was a wakeup call to the fact that Dartmouth is not an isolated bubble from the rest of the world,” Jennifer West ’20 said.

Mariana Peñaloza ’22 said SEE SHOOTING PAGE 2

On N o v.

6, Dartmouth students and Hanover residents voted at Hanover High School with a turnout comparable to the 2016 presidential election.

Ann McLane Kuster won the New Hampshire 2nd Congressional district representative.

While State Senator Molly Kelly won Grafton County, Governor Chris Sununu won his bid for reelection.

In H a n o v e r, Democratic candidate

Kelly won the district with 5,032 votes, compared with Sununu’s 1 , 0 6 6 . Ku s t e r w o n Hanover with 5,358 votes to 752 votes for Republican candidate Steven Negron.

Members of the Dartmouth Class of 2020 Garrett Muscatel ’20 and Baronet “Webb” Harrington ’20 were both running to represent the town of Hanover in the New Hampshire House o f Re p re s e n t at i ve s.

Muscatel, a Democrat, won 4,795 votes when the polls closed. Harrington, a Re p u bl i c a n , o n l y

received 959 votes in Hanover.

A total of 6,166 people voted yesterday, whereas 1,581 people voted in this year’s primary election. In the 2014 midterm election, 4,687 total votes were cast, which represented 51.21 percent voter turnout.

Jill Potter, a Hanover resident who helped manage the polling station, said she was i m p re s s e d by vo t e r turnout. “ Tu r n o u t is SEE ELECTIONS PAGE 5

Bible used as source of data for translation algorithm B y GRAYCE GIBBS The Dartmouth

Dartmouth computer science researchers studying text translators recently turned to an unlikely source to gather data: the Bible.

The purpose of the team’s research was to create a highly

trained algorithm that can read text written in one style and re-write the text in a different style with the same meaning. A different style could mean that the new text is simpler to understand, has more flowery language or matches a particular author’s style, according to Keith

Carlson, a Ph.D. student and lead author of the research paper.

“Style transfer as a task is very similar to machine translation,” Carlson said.

“Where [machine translation] says take this English and make it Spanish, we’re saying take this English and [for

example] make it old-timey English.”

For example, a verse from the King James Bible can be replicated in the style of the New International Version.

However, Carlson said that “it doesn’t produce the exact same verse, but that’s not surprising; even a human

could not look at [a verse] and do it exactly.”

The paper was also coauthored by Carlson’s adviser and associate dean for the sciences, mathematics and computer science professor Daniel Rockmore, and Allen Riddell, a professor SEE BIBLE PAGE 3

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THE DARTMOUTH NEWS

Study looks at stem cell transplants for disease B y BERIT SVENSON The Dartmouth Staff

Patients with hard-to-treat scleroderma will be happy to learn that an effective therapy for their painful autoimmune rheumatic disease may be soon in sight. A multi-center study by researchers at Dartmouth and other institutions found that a subset of patients who suffer from scleroder ma are more likely to benefit from hematopoietic stem cell transplant than cyclophosphamide, the more standard drug therapy.

Scleroderma, a rare autoimmune disease that affects the skin, blood vessels, muscles and inter nal organs, currently has no treatments approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, according to Michael Whitfield, interim chair and biomedical data science professor at the Geisel School of Medicine.

The study demonstrated that stem cell transplant is an effective therapy for patients with severe scleroderma.

“If you get this disease in its most severe form, there are not a lot of good treatments that physicians could put you on right now,” Whitfield said. “Stem cell transplant looks like a treatment that will really be helpful for some of the most severe patients with [scleroderma].”

Geisel quantitative biomedical sciences doctorate candidate Jennifer Franks, the lead author of the study, said that Dartmouth became involved in the study to look at the patients’ gene expression at a molecular level and analyze why the treatment worked for some patients but not others.

Using a machine lear ning classifier developed by Franks, patients were grouped into three subsets based on their gene expression. Patients who benefited from the transplant were part of the fibroproliferative group, while those classified in the normallike subset responded similarly to both the transplant and the cyclophosphamide, suggesting that they do not benefit from stem cell transplant, according to Franks.

The study found that in the fibroproliferative subset, patients who underwent a transplant

experienced significant improvement in their condition compared to fibroproliferative patients who received cyclophosphamide.

“Stem cell transplants are dangerous and invasive procedures that cost a lot of money,” Franks said. “So if patients aren’t likely to see a lot of benefit from them, it doesn’t make sense to treat them with a transplant versus a more standard therapy.”

According to Geisel research scientist Viktor Martyanov, a second author of the study, the research team has worked on creating a personalized medicine approach for scleroderma. Different patients may respond differently to the same treatment due to the heterogeneous nature of the disease, Martyanov said.

“We want to be able to predict which patients are likely to benefit from which drugs,” he said.

This study is the first time that researchers could prove that certain subsets of gene expression predict patients’ responses to therapy, according to Whitfield.

“We’ve put together this method by which we can take the patients, look at their molecular signatures, and define who is going to improve the most and who is going to probably not improve on this therapy,” Whitfield said.

Martyanov added that health care costs could eventually be reduced as a result of these findings by narrowing down effective treatment options for individual patients.

Since the study has spanned several years, researchers were able to see the long-term effects of the treatments, according to Martyanov.

Franks added that the rareness of scleroderma creates a “tightknit community of clinicians and researchers” working to create an effective treatment for the disease.

“It’s been quite a collective effort from multiple research groups toward trying to find as many discoveries [as possible] from this very large trial,” Martyanov said. “Hopefully these discoveries can ultimately benefit the field of scleroderma in general, and most importantly, patients with scleroderma in particular.”

CORRECTIONS Correction appended (Nov. 7, 2018): The online version of the article “Dartmouth study identifies severe scleroderma patients most likely to benefit from stem cell transplant” has had its headline updated to reflect that this was not the first successful clinical trial in an autoimmune disease.

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2018

Students discuss response to shooting

of shootings in predominantly caused undue stress by instating a white areas. She said that though shelter advisory, she believed that that she, too thought she left violence the Parkland shooting received it was fulfilling its responsibility behind when she came to Dartmouth. widespread press, gun violence has to keep students safe, adding that At home in Miami, Peñaloza said that been prevalent, especially among local restaurants and other local she doesn’t walk outside alone, but Latino and Black communities, long businesses where activity appeared coming to Dartmouth just nine weeks before Parkland. to go on as normal don’t have this ago was the first time she felt she “They brought the issue to light same responsibility. could walk around at night as a five- because of their race,” Peñaloza said.

Some expressed frustration, feet two-inches tall Warmflash however, at the College’s lack of young woman and said that the specific and timely information. not have to worry. “About a week before, onslaught of Warmflash said that many were Now, Peñaloza said I feared for my best posts among confused regarding what was real she rushes between h e r p e e r s and what was misinformation. Many friend’s life in the buildings at night. “almost takes tuned in using the police scanner, and “I walk to my Pittsburgh shooting,” away from the word of other shots and intruders in dorm as fast as I West said. “Last experiences of different locations around campus can; I literally open people who circulated in group chats. weekend, I feared for the door and I take don’t have the West was abroad with a group a deep breath and my friends’ lives on ability to speak of Dartmouth friends, and said that a sigh,” she said. out in a social they were anxiously scrolling through campus. It seems as “I didn’t do that platform like social media to try and determine before, and that’s if nowhere is really w e d o a s what had happened. upsetting.”

Dartmouth “We didn’t really know what was safe.”

Students found students.” going on, so we believed everything,” Fr i d ay n i g h t ’s On the Brautigam said. events especially -JENNIFER WEST ’20 night of the Interim and associate director difficult in the wake incident, the of the Department of Safety and of the shooting D a r t m o u t h Security Keysi Montás said that in a Pittsburgh D e m o c r a t s Safety and Security wanted to ensure synagogue last t w e e t e d , the information was both timely and week. Nicole “Please be safe accurate.

Aboodi ’21, who comes from a Jewish everyone and stay inside. <3 Gun “It’s always a balancing act community, said that experiencing a violence is not acceptable — not at between finding out information shooting at Dartmouth just a few days Dartmouth, not anywhere — and and providing information,” he after Pittsburgh “triggered” her. we all must work towards a society said. Montás added that Safety and “It always feels so distant,” Aboodi where these events are not only illegal, Security worked closely on the night said. “It’s always like, it’s never going b u t u n h e a r d of the incident to happen to me, it’s never going to of.” The tweet “If this happening to to ensure they happen to anyone I care about — but was promptly were making I’m sure everyone feels that way until r e m o v e d , you … makes you go infor med it happens to them.” f o l l o w i n g out and vote, that’s a decisions “About a week before, I feared for n e g a t i v e regarding when great thing, But I really my best friend’s life in the Pittsburgh reactions. to instate and shooting,” West said. “Last weekend, P r e s i d e n t wish it wasn’t the case lift the shelter in I feared for my friends’ lives on of Dartmouth that someone felt like place. campus. It seems as if nowhere is Democrats Max Polanco said really safe.”

Brautigam ’20 it had to happen to that the College’s As soon as the all-clear had been said that those them first in order to procedures called, students began posting on w h o b e l i e v e will need to make them go vote.” social media. Some reposted news shootings should adapt after the articles; others expressed the hope not be politicized incident. He that their friends and followers would are “afraid of -HANA WARMFLASH ’20 said that as an go to the polls on Nov. 6. politics,” stressing undergraduate Peñaloza said that she posted on that people don’t advisor, he was Facebook because she was angry always realize worried for his that gun violence continues to be “politics can be residents, but an issue, even after shootings like the a good thing.” had no shelter one in Parkland, Florida, earlier this “I don’t think in place training year, which is about 30 minutes away people should be afraid of making or set procedures. from her home. She said she hoped these conversations political, or “No one knew what to do or her post would inspire others to get framing them as political,” Brautigam where to go,” he said, adding that angry, too, and to take that anger to said. “I think with regards to people the College should adopt new policies the polls. being concerned about politicizing on the dissemination of information Hana Warmflash ’20, however, Friday’s event, I say, sorry, we’re going and training of personnel. expressed frustration that her peers’ to politicize it. Because politics are Montás said that he was pleased posts and conversations focused on best when they reflect people’s lived with communication between the voting. realities. And my lived reality was Hanover Police and Safety and “If this happening to you … that I was locked in the basement of Security, and that he felt they makes you go out and vote, that’s a the Hopkins Center hoping someone were able to keep the community great thing,” Warmflash said. “But didn’t come and shoot me,” he said. informed.

I really wish it wasn’t the case that Warmflash and Peñaloza both “There is always learning and someone felt like it had to happen to expressed that they felt the College improvement, but I am very satisfied them first in order to make them go had done a good job keeping the by the way the combination of things vote.” student body safe. Warmflash played out,” Montás said.

Peñaloza also spoke of the said that though some Dartmouth Aboodi and Warmflash are members of increased visibility of certain kinds students have said the College The Dartmouth Staff.

FROM SHOOTING PAGE 1

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2018

THE DARTMOUTH NEWS

Community reacts to Hanlon’s email FROM ANTI-SEMITISM PAGE 1

one another.”

Hanlon then acknowledged Dartmouth’s history with antiSemitism.

“Along with the other Ivies, Dartmouth imposed quotas on the number of Jewish students it would admit well into the 20th century,” he said. “It’s a harsh reality and part of our history that we should not deny or try to bury.”

Hanlon ended his speech by commenting on the divisiveness of the country’s current political climate and emphasizing the importance of voting in the midterm elections.

“Never in my life do I remember a time that the leaders of this country have been so divisive,” he said.

He noted that regardless of audience members’ political affiliations, “participation in the electoral process is a privilege and a privilege that matters.”

Gray spoke next on community responses to recent anti-Semitic events.

“A n t i - S e m i t i s m e x i s t s everywhere,” he said. “It exists on the left, it exists on the right, in Europe, in the Middle East and of course here.”

Gray said he was impressed with the “incredible” turnout at the Oct. 30 vigil on the Green for the shooting victims at the Tree of Life synagogue. He then shared a “powerful statement” from a student who attended the vigil that evening to emphasize the importance of embracing Jewish

identity in the face of hatred. “[The student’s] response to the shooting in Pittsburgh was to put an extra clip in his kippah and to place a mezuzah on the door of his dorm room,” Gray said.

Like Gray, Heschel acknowledged the prevalence of anti-Semitism both in the present and throughout history.

“Anti-Semitism never stands alone in history,” she said. “It always involves some other kind of purpose. Anti-Semitism is tenacious and it doesn’t go away. It has been around too long and it has been around in the whole world. It comes up and then it goes down, but it always seems to come up again ...

It is slippery and can be used to justify right wing political causes and left wing political causes.”

During the question and answer portion of the event, one student brought up the shooting in Hanover last Friday night, asking the panelists how they recommended students remain strong in the face of violence both on campus and in the world, though soon the focus of audience members’ questions shifted to Hanlon’s campus-wide email after the Pittsburgh shooting.

“It was generic, weak and watered down,” anthropology and Native American studies professor Sergei Kan said to Hanlon. “There was a number of us students and faculty who were disappointed.”

Hanlon acknowledged that though the email was not perfect, it was sent “with good intentions.”

“There have been little incidents all over Dartmouth’s campus that have been very anti-Semitic … that

is why that email hit me so hard and frustrated me so much,” Brontë Jenkins ’20 said. “Jews weren’t mentioned. Anti-Semitism wasn’t mentioned. I had so many friends [who] were completely oblivious to what had happened. On this campus in particular, anti-Semitism is perpetuated by ignorance.”

After the event, Jenkins said in an interview with The Dartmouth that she thought the discussion was “much needed.”

“Had the email addressed what had happened, I don’t know if this event would have occurred,” she said. “In part, I think it was [Hanlon] trying to make up for the email.”

The event gave Jewish community members a space to voice their opinions and address Hanlon directly, Jenkins added.

“The fact that [Hanlon] was here and willing to engage with the community sends a very strong message,” Gray said in an interview with The Dartmouth.

The event gave everyone in the room “a sense of fellowship in being together with one another and the community,” Heschel said.

Dan Korf f-Kor n ’19 said although the panel discussion was productive for starting a conversation, he hopes community members will “actually continue doing the work that they say needs to be done.”

“This moment needs to be an impetus for students to lead,” Gray said. “When students lead, great things happen.”

Hanlon declined requests for comment.

ARYA KADAKIA/THE DARTMOUTH

Rabbi Moshe Gray speaks beside Jewish studies professor Susannah Heschel and College President Phil Hanlon.

PAGE 3

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THE DARTMOUTH EVENTS

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2018

DARTMOUTHEVENTS

TODAY

5:00 p.m. - 6:30 p.m.

Panel: “2018 Mid-term Elections: What Might Change as a Result?,” with history professor Leslie Butler, sociology professor John Campbell and government professor Dean Lacy, sponsored by the Rockefeller Center, Rockefeller 003

5:00 p.m. - 6:30 p.m.

Lecture: “Margins of Uncertainty: Caring and Waiting in Transnational Queer Cinema,” with University of Michigan professor David Caron, sponsored by the French and Italian Department, Rockefeller 001

7:30 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.

Film: “Thrasher Road,” directed by film and media studies professor Samantha Davidson Green, sponsored by the Hopkins Center for the Arts, Loew Auditorium, Black Family Visual Arts Center

TOMORROW

12:45 p.m. - 1:45 p.m.

Lecture: “How to Influence Elections in a Totally Legal Way (Non-Russian Style),” with Civis Analytics principle survey scientist Masahiko Aida sponsored by the program in quantitative social science, Silsby 119

6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.

Film: “Platoon,” sponsored by Student Veterans Association of Dartmouth, One Wheelock

10:00 p.m. - 2:00 a.m.

Collis After Dark: “Super Smash Bros,” Collis Center TV Lounge

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THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2018

THE DARTMOUTH NEWS

PAGE 5

Polling station sees 1,077 Researchers use Bible to translate text people register on-site FROM BIBLE PAGE 1

of people being prepared for registration,” she said. “We hope incredible,” Potter said. “There that the crowds continue to show were 120 people waiting out the up until 7 p.m.” door at 7 a.m.”

However, McClain added that At 1 p.m., there was still a there were issues with same day 50-person line registration at to register to “If we compare this the polls, citing vote. To register, “confusion new voters had to the last midterm, a b o u t wh at to fill out an the turnout has been parts of the infor mational much greater this form need to form and either be filled out.” provide proof time,” she said. “One Nevertheless, of citizenship or of my colleagues said Anoop Nanda sign a document that the vibe was ’21 said that he saying that thought that different from two they were registering citizens. T he years ago — it’s much to vote was Undergraduate more upbeat.” simple.

Housing Office “It was was on-site to definitely help the town -BESTY MCLAIN, HANOVER easier than I clerk register TOWN CLERK expected,” he students to vote. said. “I just Dartmouth hopped on the students who live on-campus shuttle [from campus] and there only needed their student was a short line [to register at identification card to register. the polls].”

T his year, 1,077 people A shuttle van ran from outside registered on-site, a large increase of Robinson Hall to Hanover compared to the 140 people who High School all day. registered on-site in this year’s Peter Christie, chair man primary election. In the 2016 of the Hanover Select Board, general election, 1,236 people helped manage the event and registered on-site. encouraged people to vote.

K u s t e r “At the made a n “I think we will beat end of the day, appearance it’s really our at t h e p o l l s the 8,000 [voter count] only way to around 2 from 2016,” she said. effect change,” p. m . , wh e re “At 1:38 p.m., there he said. she thanked Potter p e o p l e f o r were already about said that many 4,000 votes cast.” voting. voters were “It’s great also eager to to see so many effect change. s t u d e n t s , ” -JILL POTTER, HANOVER “ I RESIDENT Kuster said. think we will Hanover beat the 8,000 town clerk [voter count] Betsy McClain from 2 016, ” was likewise she said. “At impressed by 1:38 p.m., the turnout. there were “If we compare this to the already about 4,000 votes cast.” last midterm, the turnout has Bobbie Hitchcock, who been much greater this time,” m a n a g e d a b s e n t e e b a l l o t she said. “One of my colleagues collection, said that she had said that the vibe was different already received over 800 from two years ago — it’s much absentee ballots by noon and more upbeat.” expected more by the end of the McClain added that some day. voters even wore “patriotic “There were 465 absentees in onesies” to the polls to express last midterm and about 1200 in their excitement, partially the general election,” she added. crediting Dartmouth students McClain said that she was for the enthusiasm. hopeful that total voter turnout “There has been much more would be higher than the 2016 organized engagement in terms election.

FROM ELECTIONS PAGE 1

of information science at the University of Indiana.

Though some work has been done relating to style transfer, there has been far less research than that on machine translation.

A large reason for this discrepancy stems from the lack of a text that is replicated in multiple styles with the same meaning. The idea to use the Bible came out of a need for a source with enough aligned data to train the style transfer algorithm, Carlson said.

“We used the Bible because there are so many versions of it already, that we have nice aligned text with the same verse written 33 different ways by people that have done these translations,” he said.

The researchers made minor changes to adapt pre-existing machine-translation algorithms for this style transfer. Two different models were used to transfer the text.

The first, Moses, is a statistics-based machine translation software. The other model, Seq2Seq, is a recurrent neural network.

The results of their research “prove that style translation is possible by machines,” Rockmore said.

“We look forward to pushing this idea ahead and trying to expand on it,” he said.

Currently, the algorithm can only produce text in the styles that it has been trained on. However, the research team recently tried starting with an input from a different style than anything the algorithm had seen before. In one example, they took an Ernest Hemingway quote and produced King James and International Standard versions of the quote.

The Hemingway quote was a line from A Farewell to Arms: “‘Hell,’ I said, ‘I love you enough now. What do you want to do? Ruin me?’”

Targeting the International Standard Version’s style, the computer rewrote the quote: “But I said, ‘Hell! I love you now. What do you want to do, destroy me?’”

After configuring the model for the King James Version of the Bible, it changed the style of the quote: “And I said, Hell, I love thee now: what wilt thou do? destroy me.”

The results of their work — the identified and available Bible data set — allows others to try newer style transfer models and algorithms on the data. Eventually, style transfer could be used to simplify texts, such as making complex writing accessible to children or non-native speakers of a language. It could also be used to help people understand legal or government documents, according to Carlson.

“You could also use it for

curiosity’s sake,” Carlson said. GR ’76 works with Dartmouth’s “For example, looking at how Rassias Center to help improve Jane Austen’s works would look if global communication. An integral Hemingway had written it.” concept of the Rassias method is An additional application the way in which it helps students for text style become comfortable transfer could with communicating be to c reate “We used the Bible in a foreign language, u n i f o r m i t y because there are even if needing to across an a simplified so many versions of use organization’s version of the target writing samples. it already, that we language, according “ I m a g i n e have nice aligned to Goldfield. there’s a Goldfieldworked company where text with the same for a long time with 2 0 d i f f e r e n t verse written 33 languages, including people are computer-assisted different ways writing product language learning descriptions, but by people that programs such as the company have done these the Rosetta Stone wants to have and Transparent translations.” a singular voice Language in the i n t h e w o rk 1980s and 1990s. that goes out,” T h e s e p ro g r a m s -KEITH CARLSON, Carlson said. did not run on a “ T h ey c o u l d LEAD AUTHOR ON THE trained algorithm h a v e e a c h STUDY like Carlson’ s style person write transfer to text. the description, H o w e ve r, then run it through this algorithm Goldfield said that to simplify the to homogenize the voices.” spoken word as Carlson’s algorithm Dartmouth has a long-standing simplifies texts would be very tradition of working with language difficult to implement because it and communication. Moder n requires a great deal of artificial languages and literature professor intelligence and computational at Fairfield University, Joel Goldfield linguistics programming.

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THE DARTMOUTH OPINION

CONTRIBUTING COLUMNIST PETER LEUTZ ’22

STAFF COLUMNIST VALERIE TRUONG ‘21

The Truth

Am I A Real Vegan?

Because “your truth” doesn’t exist.

This past January, in an inspiring acceptance speech at the Golden Globes, Oprah Winfrey preached the importance of “speaking your truth.” Leading the charge in the #MeToo movement, a wake-up call for the persisting problem of sexual assault in our nation, Oprah sought to inspire voices that had been silent for too long. I applaud Oprah and her counterparts for their bravery in breaking this silence. I agree that the first step to putting an end to these atrocities, committed behind the scenes by some of our biggest stars, is to start the conversation. I thank those courageous enough to share and challenge anyone who would have wished that they kept quiet.

However, Oprah also inadvertently weakens the mountain-moving words of her fellow silence breakers because of the problematic nature of the phrase “speak your truth.” Oprah is absolutely right about the importance of speaking up, especially as it relates to survivors of sexual assault. But to call the truth “your truth” is to acknowledge a discrepancy between reality and the experiences of the women who came forward. Those brave women who exposed the disgusting actions of powerful men across industries were not speaking their truth — they were speaking the truth, and their demonstrated fearlessness deserves that distinction.

The concept of speaking your truth means that everyone is entitled to their own version of reality. By this line of thinking, everyone exists trapped within a telephone booth of their own experiences. Certainly, people can call their fellow citizens who live in other telephone booths and talk to them about life within their glass cases of reality, but there is no shared experience. No shared truth. I find collective truths to be integral for public discourse. Without them, people’s experiences are fragmented in a way that is destructive to discourse. Without them, we have no common ground for discussion. While personal truths are perhaps beautifully diversified, they are all merely individual pieces of art that don’t give a clear enough picture of the entire canvas of reality.

As a writer, I don’t want to be limited to speaking my truth. I have the self-confidence and self-awareness to say that the stories I tell

are the truth. I have no intention of lying to the reader, and therefore, I see no benefit in taking ownership of truth by adding a “my” in front of it. I don’t see value in a truth that is personal. To me, truth is a widely held fact, a collective understanding that can’t be disagreed with or invalidated.

However, the idea of speaking one’s personal truth suffocates opportunity for discourse.

Those who tell lies should not be let off the hook by simply being able to claim those lies as their truth. In this way, people should not grant oppressors the loophole of sharing their truth — they should challenge them to tell the truth. For instance, America’s most recent public struggle against sexual assault and how it relates to our understanding of truth was on the national stage with the Kavanaugh hearing.

While I personally believe Christine Blasey Ford was telling the truth, and commend her willingness to come forward, that is just my opinion. Due to a lack of concrete evidence in the case, we may never know “the truth” about this situation, and it is important to make this distinction. However, what we do know, is that a “devil’s triangle” is not a drinking game, Judge Kavanaugh. It doesn’t matter if you believe that to be “your truth.” It is simply a lie.

Oprah intended to empower marginalized voices. However, in enabling personal truth in public discourse, guilty voices can no longer be held accountable. Before testifying in court, witnesses swear to say the whole truth and nothing but the truth. No part of that truth is personal. Rather, it is factual. Personal truth is segmented, fabricated, self-centered, even.

What we should seek, and what the silence breakers gave us, was the whole truth and nothing but the truth. We should not discount their courage by allowing the truth about sexual assaults to be different for the victim and the perpetrator.

This piece is not an exposition of my truth.

This is my opinion, which is based on the truth.

If personal truth exists, then this opinion piece isn’t an opinion at all. Rather, it is my truth, and you must accept it, regardless of how outrageous you may think it is. Frustrating, isn’t it? I seek the truth and form my personal opinion from it — but “my truth” does not exist.

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ISSUE

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2018

LAYOUT: Vivek Hazari, Kyle Mullins

SUBMISSIONS: We welcome letters and guest columns. All submissions must include the author’s name and affiliation with Dartmouth

College, and should not exceed 250 words for letters or 700 words for columns. The Dartmouth reserves the right to edit all material before publication. All material submitted becomes property of The Dartmouth. Please email submissions to editor@thedartmouth.com.

Don’t feel guilty about breaking rules you’ve imposed on yourself.

I stared at question number 6 on the form. eating meat on certain days of the month is a “Are you a vegetarian or do you require a tenet of Buddhist and Confucian thought, so special diet due to food allergies?” it is a part of the culture.

Technically, no and no. I’m vegan, but I’m Argentina, on the other hand, seems to be not allergic to any foods. Do I require a special a beef-based culture. It has the second highest diet? Not particularly. I won’t need to visit the per capita beef consumption in the world at hospital if I eat a peanut or touch an egg. I’m 120 pounds per year. In comparison, the United not lactose intolerant by any means. I read on. states is fourth, at 79 pounds per person per “(Please note that we will do our best to meet year. all your food concerns; however, as a guest in Luckily for me, abstaining from eating meat a host country, students will be expected to is on the rise in Buenos Aires, where there are be flexible. Where available, special dietary more than 60 vegetarian and vegan restaurants. accommodations may require a supplemental There’s even a vegan steakhouse called La fee.)”

Reverde Parrillita Vegana. But as excited I am Does adhering to veganism mean that I to try many of them, I feel I would be remiss if have a food concern? I consider myself open- I didn’t try Argentine asado or a few alfajores. minded, and I certainly don’t want to come One of the difficulties with veganism is across as inflexible and rude to my future host that it is socially acceptable, but not socially family. And I definitely don’t want to pay a appreciated. It always has to be accommodated, supplemental fee; the airfare was expensive which means people have to go out of their way enough! to specially prepare food for me because of a This question on one of many forms I had decision I made. I find myself often explaining to fill out for my upcoming Spanish Language my diet to others when it comes up: I’m vegan, Study Abroad term to Buenos Aires should have but I eat honey and gelatin, which isn’t even been a simple “no” for most, but it sparked an vegetarian. I also ate cheese pizza three weeks intense moral and philosophical conflict within ago because I had no other option at a theme myself. park. Finally, I always cede that meat is delicious I was with a friend when her mom called in an attempt to convey that I’m not so different her. My friend told her mother, who knew I was from the average omnivore. vegan, that I would be going to Argentina in the At some point mid-high school, I watched spring. Her mom exclaimed a documentary called that I had to try Argentinian “Am I vegan “Cowspiracy” on Netflix that steak; otherwise, there would stressed the environmental enough?

I think I be no point in going all that impact of eating meat. After way. She advised that I should am. I’m doing what that, I decided that starting stay close to a toilet, however, I believe is best for the following day, I would go since my stomach might not vegetarian for two weeks. The be able to handle beef that me, and there’s logic, argument, and imagery well after several years of not no shame in trying from the film must have been consuming meat. compelling, or perhaps I to find a balance.

I understood her point. was just an impressionable If I’m going to Argentina Feeling guilty is teenager, but two weeks to improve my Spanish and antithetical to passed and I had yet to immerse myself in the culture, consume meat. From that a large part of that is trying eating plant-based, point on, it’s been a personal food I’d be hard pressed to so I choose to draw challenge of mine. Last find in the United States. If spring, I decided to take it one my (dotted) lines I relent and say that I’ll eat step further and omit dairy meat, eggs and dairy while where I see fit.” and eggs since DDS already I’m abroad in order to more labels its options. fully experience Argentinian Some of my friends culture, what are the implications for my affectionately call me “Vegan Val,” but do I veganism? Do I try each meat once, each deserve this title considering everything I just dish once, or go all out and eat everything I revealed above? When it comes down to it, this see because even the same dish made by two is an issue of labels and identity, albeit a chose different people is different? How much of Am I vegan enough?

Argentinian culture is embedded in its food?

I think I am. I’m doing what I believe is What is the line and how strict should it be? best for me, and there’s no shame in trying This reasoning has failed to convince me to find a balance. Feeling guilty is antithetical to eat foods from my own culture, however. It to eating plant-based, so I choose to draw my would erode the precedent I’ve set for myself (dotted) lines where I see fit. If I use veganism with this diet, and make me a hypocrite. I as a guideline rather than a hard rule while haven’t eaten Hainan chicken or bún bò Huế studying abroad, I think I will get more out of in a long time in the name of the moral high the experience. ground I choose to perch upon. Even while I finally typed into the text box for question travelling for extensive periods of time, I have number 6, “Most of the time I follow a vegan managed to adhere to veganism, foregoing the diet, BUT I’m willing to try different foods and “traditional” menu items that most would order am not allergic to anything and don’t want for the modified veggie version. However, in to be charged a supplemental fee.” Novack’s Vietnam for example, most menus have “chay” vegan veggie hummus wrap will be waiting for options, which means vegetarian or vegan. Not me when I return from Buenos Aires.

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2018

PAGE 7

THE DARTMOUTH OPINION

CONTRIBUTING COLUMNIST EOWYN PAK ’21

CONTRIBUTING COLUMNIST EMORY HOLZER ’22

Bringing Back the Human

Your Light Still Burns

“We have just received information that a lack of emotion in the entire email. His stark single gunshot was fired in the area of School dissonance in tone implied that the struggle to Street and West Wheelock Street in Hanover.” connect the human element to the shooting is There’s a sentence I never thought I would not a unique frustration that affected me and read. the friends I hung out with that night, despite On Friday, Nov. 2, Dartmouth experienced how personally affecting the shooting should be what was essentially an on-campus shooting. All to the Dartmouth community. It’s something we students were notified via DartAlert about the all struggle to do, simply because we’ve grown incident on an ostensibly normal Friday evening. too used to it. And that’s a bit alarming.

Students who were getting ready to party on On top of all of this, the narrative the Webster Avenue, studying in the library, or College and news outlets deliberately followed spending a casual night in with friends all came was that the shooter was a 22-year-old with to a halt after receiving a DartAlert notification no connections to Dartmouth (which is true), about a shooting near campus, subsequently and that the victim was a 19-year-old nonclosing windows and blinds Dartmouth student visiting and turning off lights, anxiously “College President Hanover (which is also true). waiting for updates on what was The gunman shot randomly, Phil Hanlon’s before a typical Friday night. meaning it was non-targeted And yet, despite the initial email to the but such a narrative misleads shock, activities the next day Dartmouth students to believe community about resumed for many — perhaps as that it could not happen to them, soon as the shelter advisory was the details of the which is the perception that lifted around 1 a.m., for some incident were everyone already had. Given students. College President how emotionally removed lost in a sea of Phil Hanlon’s email to the many on campus are from community about the details of campus-wide shooting events to begin with, the incident were lost in a sea desensitizing the story one step blitzes about of campus-wide blitzes about further by emphasizing the nondance workshops, student dance workshops, Dartmouth identity of those productions and academic student involved does a disservice to the dinners. habituated younger generation.

School shootings are nothing productions Interestingly, with the new. In 2018 alone, the United and academic College shirking from the States has witnessed 297 mass role of an emotional support, dinners.” shootings. Countless news the responsibility fell on the articles and media segments shoulders of smaller social barrage the public, desensitizing us to the spaces — academic clubs, sports teams, religious terrifying power of the gun and its wielder. groups, Greek organizations and individuals.

In each of the many cases, I objectively Each hour, I received concerning calls from acknowledge the loss of a life, but always feel friends and a myriad of supportive GroupMe emotionally removed from such incidents. I texts from extracurriculars, group projects, free always told myself that if something similar food chats and even chats that I had joined at were to happen within close proximity to me, I’d some point in the forgotten past and was no be much more shaken. Unfortunately, that was longer involved in. The genuine camaraderie the case for me on Friday night. amongst the students felt very In a friend’s room, we received much human, and that was a the news, locked our door, “I’m being frank, comfort. talked about it for a bit and then we were laughing While student solidarity continued to play FIFA. Yes, is much appreciated, more and joking around there were occasional periods should be done to attach of more grave conversations within 10 minutes emotional impact to these where we checked in with our of receiving the shooting incidents. For parents to assure them that we example, law enforcement has were okay or listened in on the news.” refused to disclose the identity police scanner, but if I’m being of the individual who was hurt frank, we were laughing and because “it would be beneficial joking around within 10 minutes of receiving not only to the victim but to the integrity of the news. If anything, some of my friends were the investigation not to release the victim’s more concerned about how long the lockdown name.” On the other hand, the media was would be because they just wanted to go home. eager to announce the name of Gage Young, The College administration appears to be the shooter, and Hector Correa, the driver. emotionally distanced from the incident as Instead of immortalizing the perpetrators and well. While it is understandable for the live leaving the victim unnamed and forgotten, notifications from the College to lack any naming the victim and leaving the perpetrators empathy to prevent panic, the email sent unknown would shift the focus of the narrative out the next day consisted of an equally dry from sensationalizing the event to empathizing report of the shooting details. Toward the with those who suffered. end, President Hanlon concluded with an Bring back the human element to these unexpected, cheesy one-liner, “Let us continue emotionally charged events and perhaps then to be there for one another.” It sounded like we’ll be able to see these shootings for the true an obligatory afterthought necessitated by the tragedies they are.

It’s Saturday morning. The cool fog wraps On Mondays, my public school served matzo ball itself around me as I throw open the North soup and bagels for lunch. To me, being Jewish Fayerweather door. Carried across campus by did not mean much. Because it was such a large the thought of breakfast food, I find myself in the part of our culture and lives, we never attached middle of the Green. Gazing at the black mark much significance to our religious identity. But I surrounding me, I smile, filled had the fortune of growing up with humility and pride for isolated from anti-Semitism. this community of which I “My father is from Never did I think someone am so lucky to be a part. could dislike me because Pittsburgh, my In a round Foco booth, I of my religion. Never did I family lives there, laugh with friends, recapping think someone could use my theeventsfromthepriornight. we are Jewish. But religion against me. I have But like the Homecoming there have to be had the privilege of growing fire, my phone screen blares up in a culture where my red hot: there has been a many synagogues Jewishness did not ostracize shooting in a Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh, I tell me but helped me blend in. synagogue. First is shock, The thought that such then comes worry. My father myself. Most likely, terror could occur in a is from Pittsburgh, my family they are far from community like mine is lives there, we are Jewish. danger. I look further. harrowing: harrowing that But there have to be many such atrocities happen in synagogues in Pittsburgh, I The shooting is in the places we least expect, tell myself. Most likely, they Allegany County; I harrowing that such terrors are far from danger. I look happen in our homes. They further. The shooting is in start to sweat.” menace community spaces Allegheny County; I start where we are supposed to to sweat. The shooting is in feel safe and accepted. The Squirrel Hill. Leaving the dining hall, I call my first shot on the morning of Oct. 27 at the Tree father in a panic. of Life Congregation forever altered synagogues The bonfire’s aftermath suddenly takes a in the United States. Never again can we pray different tone. Memories of the bonfire contort without fear. into destruction. The scorched earth becomes a In trying times, it is easy to place blame. To menacing blemish in my anguish. The cold air attach a reasoning to these senseless acts of violence suffocates me. My chest burns with the fire of helps to make sense of the atrocity. Yet by doing terror. this, we play into the hate that motivated the killer After three missed calls, my father finally dials to storm the Tree of Life Congregation. We feed me back. Desperately, I ask him if our family is safe. the animosity that spurs heinous crimes like these.

He has no consolation; he does not know. My aunt But now is a time we must to come together. Both and uncle are not responding. within the Jewish community Minutes pass like years. Every and without, we must learn second, my dread builds. “For the first time, from those different than us.

All the while, information I will walk around We must expose ourselves to pours from the media. The diverse experiences in order sparse details made public are my hometown to develop a shared humanity. cycled over and over and over. without feeling safe Through understanding This is this an act of terror, comes compassion. And it from anti-Semitism. they say. But this feels too is compassion, not hate, that personal. Terrorism impacts For the first time, I creates change, that makes our country as a whole, will feel conscious sure crimes like these do not terrorism is not supposed to happen again. of my religious be personally devastating.

In a couple of weeks, I will Finally, my father calls identity at home. be back home for the first time me back. My aunt and uncle since the shooting in Squirrel But I look forward are okay. My relative, Rose Hill. For the first time, I will to an embrace by Malinger, is not. walk around my hometown A half-mile from their the resiliency of my without feeling safe from antihome, the Tree of Life Semitism. For the first time, Congregation is a part of people despite our I will feel conscious of my my family’s community. painful history. I religious identity at home. But The image plastered across I look forward to an embrace know that no atrocity TV screens is not from a by the resiliency of my people faraway land. That is my can silence us.” despite our painful history. father’s hometown. That is I know that no atrocity can the neighborhood of my aunt silence us. and uncle, my cousins and great-aunt, my late To my relative Rose: I wish I knew you better. grandfather.

You had such a long life. You showed so much Growing up in Highland Park, Illinois with, like strength. You were taken too soon. Rest in peace Squirrel Hill, a predominantly Jewish population, knowing your light was not extinguished on Oct. I was surrounded by Jewish neighbors, Jewish 27. Your legacy will live on in the hearts of people teachers and Jewish friends. In seventh grade, across the country who now know your name and every weekend had at least two Bar Mitzvahs. mourn for your loss.

Isn’t it sad that now gun violence often doesn’t elicit strong emotions?

Together we stand stronger than hate.

PAGE 8

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2018

THE DARTMOUTH ARTS

Students and professors remember playwright Ntozake Shange

B y JORDAN MCDONALD The Dartmouth Staff

In May of 2016, Carene Mekertichyan ’16 made her dream into a reality when her senior project, a production of the late Ntozake Shange’s Obie Award-winning play and choreopoem “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow is Enuf ” was performed for the greater Dartmouth community.

Shange, who passed away on Oct. 27 at the age of 70 after suffering health problems, made a significant impact on Mekertichyan since her first encounter with the playwright’s work in middle school. Mekertichyan remembered the women in Shange’s work as she got older and grew into her capacity to understand the depth of Shange’s creation.

A departmental success in the spring of 2016, Carene’s senior production of “For Colored Girls” sold out each night of its run and received immense audience feedback for its maturity, emotional weight and honesty about issues of race, gender, domestic violence and mental health. An enriching and fulfilling academic and artistic endeavor, Mekertichyan still expresses enthusiasm when she speaks about the production now, two years later.

“I can’t think about it without smiling” Mekertichyan said.

Emphasizing the significance of

the project, Mekertichyan pointed out that “people had to sit and listen to black women in their own words.” For her, the production “created empathy and understanding with people who maybe don’t share our life experience,” and therein lies the power of Ntozake’s work — her words have the potential to transform our relationships to ourselves and to others.

Jovanay Carter ’19, who was the only first-year student in the cast during the time of the production, shared a similar sentiment to Mekertichyan. Lacking experience with theater performance, Carter embraced the process and her castmates, and ultimately learned a lot about herself as a person and a performer.

“I had never done a play before,” Carter said.

Faced with heavy material that engaged with narratives of sexual violence and suicide, Carter and her castmates were forced to band together in order to meet the challenge of Shange’s work.

“The play was difficult material,” Carter said. “All we could do was support each other.”

Perhaps this camaraderie explains why the cast’s intense nostalgia for the production is rivaled only by their fond reflections on Shange’s work. In their words, the impact that the recently deceased poet had on their lives as artists and as young black women is

palpable. In the wake of her death, students, alumni and professors are taking the time to reflect on Shange’s legacy, her importance in theater history and her influence on the Dartmouth community.

Replacing her given name of “Paulette Williams” in 1971, Shange renamed herself with the Xhosa name “Ntozake,” which means “she who has her own things,” and the Zulu name “Shange,” which means “he/she who walks/lives with lions.”

Carrying this instinct for reclamation into her work, many of Shange’s plays and novels suggest that there is great power in naming oneself and one’s experiences. Over the course of her career, she penned several novels about young women and girls searching for their power and names including “Sassafrass, Cypress, and Indigo,” “Liliane: Resurrection of the Daughter” and “Betsey Brown.” Though her legacy within American theater, history and art is still taking shape in the weeks since her passing, Shange’s influence on Dartmouth can already be seen in her remembrance by members of the community.

Giving voice to the interiority of black women’s lives, Shange’s work is best known for its capacity to construct worlds with care. Inspired by Shange’s oral power and poetic convictions, Mekertichyan set out in 2015 to bring the women of “For Colored Girls” to

life for the Dartmouth community.

But she could not have predicted the number of acclaimed productions led by black female students that would grace the Hopkins Center for the Arts in the years following her show. Arguably, “For Colored Girls” set the ground work for the successes and receptions of department productions like “Intimate Apparel” and “Eclipsed,” as well as senior projects like “Citrus” by Celeste Jennings ’18.

Speaking to this proliferation of black women’s creative involvements, Carter said that “you can’t ignore the art and you can’t act like [art] isn’t important for voicing your existence” TheaterprofessorMonicaNdounou, who teaches Shange’s work in Theater 22, “Black Theater, U.S.A.” and led a production of “For Colored Girls” during her time at Tufts University in 2010, reflected on the importance of Shange’s contributions to American theater.

“While I was driving home on [Oct. 23], I saw two parallel rainbows,” she said in an email. “That day in my ‘Black Theatre U.S.A.’ class, [a] student ... gave a presentation on [Shange] and [“For Colored Girls”]. During her presentation, she referenced a story she found where Shange talks about seeing two rainbows when she was writing the piece. I took a picture of the rainbows and filmed my own tribute to Shange in that moment. Little did I know in

the next few days she would join the ancestors.”

Ndounou said that Shange, alongside fellow playwright August Wilson, had headlined the 1998 “On Golden Pond” Black Theatre Summit at Dartmouth.

Although Shange was unable to join this year’s summit, her sister and longtime collaborator Ifa Bayeza was able to attend, and was honored the CRAFT Institute Continuum Award along with other members of the original executive committee that had organized the 1998 event.

Ndounou said that she had also had an opportunity to take a class with Shange and serve as an assistant director for one of the shows as a graduate student, in addition to directing “For Colored Girls” in 2010.

“I am one of the many artists who have been inspired by her contributions to our field and the world,” she said.

Ndounou will be attending Shange’s memorial service in Washington D.C. on Nov. 12.

“On behalf of the multitude of artists who recognize [Shange] as an artistic foremother I say: we love you Ntozake and thank you for revealing our metaphysical dilemmas to the world while reminding us of our unique power to heal ourselves and one another with a laying on of hand,” she said. “In your choreopoem, you urge us to ‘sing a black girl song,’ and we continue to sing.”

Review: Robert Redford shines in ‘The Old Man and the Gun’ B y James cronin The Dartmouth

When I saw “The Old Man and the Gun” last weekend at The Nugget, I was easily one of the youngest people in the audience.

The advanced age of the packed crowd was a surprise at first, but upon consideration, it makes sense why this movie appealed so much more to an older demographic; it’s supposedly Robert Redford’s last performance before his acting retirement. The older members of the crowd had most likely grown up with Redford as one of the most celebrated actors of their time — of all time, maybe — and now, in this small theater in Hanover, they were witnessing the last movie he’d ever act in.

“The Old Man and the Gun” is a film directed by David Lowery and features Robert Redford, Casey Affleck and Sissy Spacek. The plot revolves around a man named Forrest Tucker (Redford) and his

passion for robbing banks. Along the way, he is pursued by Detective John Hunt (Affleck), and engages romantically with a free-spirited widow named Jewel (Spacek). You might be thinking, “That sounds like a generic heist movie,” and you’d be right in any other circumstance, but given that Redford is 82 years old and Spacek is 69, this film felt like a fresh take on heavily trodden ground.

This film is easily one of the most unique “heist” movies I’ve ever seen.

I’m hesitant to even call it a heist movie because it relies much more on its characters and the relationships between them than it does on big action-packed robbery scenes. The bank robbing acts as a backdrop in front of which the well-written main characters interact with one another. I give this movie major credit for managing to stay compelling without focusing on the robbery, and I would accredit that completely to Redford’s sensational performance.

How an 82-year-old man can be

more charming and suave than most James Bonds is insane to me, and yet, there I was in the theater, just smiling like a dummy in complete awe of how cool Redford is. He becomes Forrest Tucker just as much as Forrest Tucker becomes him. He also looks impressively good for his age. His character is supposedly in his 70s, and, in the movie, one witness of a robbery describes him as looking in his 50s or 60s, and that is 100 percent believable. Without a doubt, I would rewatch this movie just for Redford’s performance alone.

The pacing was on the slower side but picked up steadily around halfway through the film. The short runtime of 93 minutes was well spent and the film did not overstay its welcome. As I neared the end of the movie, I found myself slightly hoping it wouldn’t end so I could just continue watching Redford, knowing that this would be the last time he’d be gracing the screen. At one point in the movie, we’re led to believe that a big heist

will be pivotal to the plot, but, to my surprise, the heist isn’t shown to the audience; we only see the aftermath of the successful robbery. I’m not sure whether this was an intentional subversion of expectations, as it’s not the heists that matter as much as the characters, or just Lowery playing to the fact that Redford is old, and it would be difficult for him to pull off an actual action scene, but I did enjoy the subdued role robbery plays in this movie.

I’ve already talked about Redford’s acting, but there are many great performances in this movie. Spacek is fantastic and her chemistry with Redford feels so real and genuine that it’s like watching your grandparents being cute with one another, which is absolutely heartwarming. The relationship between the two characters makes this one of the most wholesome and charming films of recent memory.

I definitely left the theater feeling better than I felt going into it on that

rainy Saturday. Affleck also delivers a solid performance as a detective going through a midlife crisis who finds purpose by pursuing Redford’s character. Lowery’s superb writing is just as important to the great performances in this film as the actual acting, and I commend the script’s ability to juggle funny and dramatic moments with ease.

Redford has had probably the most impressive career of any Hollywood actor, living or dead. He’s starred in a wide collection of hit movies, he started the Sundance Film Festival and he has inspired multiple generations of actors. Redford is one of the last great Hollywood actors of his era, and this movie had a lot to live up to in order to be a fitting sendoff for his historic career. Yet I think it served faithfully as the final celebration of a Hollywood legend.

I cannot recommend this movie enough and I predict that Redford will be a serious contender for the Academy Award for best actor.