Winter 2010 Preview

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The Harvard Advocate Congratulates the Newly Elected

2010 Executive Board

President

Publisher

Dana Kase

Charleton Lamb

Art Editor

Business Manager

Design Editors

Features Editor

Madeleine Schwartz Wendy Chang Lauren Packard

Fiction Editor Ryan Meehan

Pegasi

Matt Aucoin Mark Chiusano Sophie Duvernoy

Community Outreach Director Andrew Klein

Alumni Relations Manager Iya Megre

Ben Berman

Jessica Sequeira

Poetry Editor Adam Palay

Technology Editor Jeremy Feng

Dionysi

Emily Chertoff Sofia Groopman

Publicity and Circulation Managers Anna Raginskaya David Tao


TABLE OF CONTENTS

1

Editors’ Note

2

NOTES FROM 21 SOUTH ST: Feature Animals in Art: From Magic to Science

6

Eel and Water

7

Faust Cannot

8

House on a Hill

10

Escher’s Infinite Worlds

15

Caiman

19

Merlin: A Bestiary Entry

25

A Snake

Poetry

26

Poem

Poetry

28

When the Bear Came

Fiction

42

The Dog of the Marriage (excerpt)

Fiction

44

The Blood of Birds: Death, Steel, and Cockers

Bruce Boucher

Poetry

Erik Fredericksen Donald Revell

Maria Xia

Jessica Sequeira

Bret Anthony Johnston Sanders Bernstein Katie Peterson Mark Strand

Benjamin Percy Amy Hempel

Kevin Seitz

Poetry Fiction Feature Fiction Feature

Feature


52

At Customs

Poetry

64

In the Animal Shelter

Fiction

66

Chimères, (Vampire), 1982-1984

Art

67

Chimères, (Spider), 1982-1984

Art

68

Le Bestiaire Amoureux

Art

70

Lion Mountain

Art

72

Benares

Art

75

Wandering around, things becoming extinct

Art

76

Attention Chicken!

Art

80

SELF PORTRAIT

Art

81

CHAMPFLEURETTE #2

Art

82

MALE AND FEMALE

Art

83

Breyerfest

Art

84

Elk hide tipi liner

Art

86

Mystical Nokota stallion

Art

Fanny Howe

Amy Hempel

Annette Messager Annette Messager Annette Messager Harri Kallio Harri Kallio

Becky James

Nicholas Lampert Louise Bourgeois Louise Bourgeois Louise Bourgeois

Castle McLaughlin Pretty Hawk

Castle McLaughlin


87

Untitled (Paper doll)

Art

88

School of Evolution

Art

89

Zoo Kit

Art

90

Anatomies

Art

92

Book Nest

Art

93

Trust Workshop

Art

94

Sweetgrass

Art

Ilisa Barbash Lucien Castaing-Taylor

95

No one steers the bird

Art

96

Cell 204

Art

97

medusae

Poetry

98

Magic Kingdom Come

Poetry

99

One Big Garden

Rebecca Lieberman Gail Wight Gail Wight Gail Wight

Rosamond Purcell Tania Bruguera

Daniel Wenger

Liz Hamilton Peter Brodfuerer Maria Vassileva D.A. Powell

Ben Cosgrove

104 Atticus

Andrew Nunnelly

108 The Catcher and His Garden

Mark Chiusano

114 Comes the Fall

Carl Phillips

Feature Fiction Feature Poetry


115 The Jetty

Poetry

Carl Phillips

116 Domestic Terrorism

Emily Chertoff

Feature

120 People of the Glades

Fiction

124 Angelic Patience

Poetry

Rachael Goldberg Donald Revell

125 Bad News Bears

Madeleine Schwartz

Feature

130 Concerning

Poetry

131 Houses So Near

Donald Revell

Poetry

132 138

The Subaltern May Not Feature Speak, But It Certainly Can Be Pickled Poetry

Rae Armantrout

Anna Polonyi

Service Record Rae Armantrout

139 Sleeping with Pigs

Fiction

154 Wilderness

Poetry

Jay McInerney

Katie Peterson

155 ENVOY: Scorching Gold: Tracking the Phoenix in Myth, Fairy Tales, and Modern Fictions

Adam Horn and Maria Tatar

161 Contributors’ Notes 165 Special Thanks 166 Acknowledgments

Feature


Art Emma Banay, Ruben Davis, Molly Dektar,

Elyssa Jakim, Dana Kase, Rebecca Levitan, Rebecca Lieberman, Anna Murphy, Julene Paul, Thalassa Raasch, Anna Raginskaya, Madeleine Schwartz.

business Ankur Agrawal, Ben Berman, Sand-

ers Bernstein, Ruben Davis, Liya Eijvertinya*, Catherine Humphreville, Andrew Izaguirre, Olivia Jampol*, Iya Megre, Jaron Mercer, Arielle Pensler, Anna Raginskaya, David Tao, Natalie Wong, Emily Xie, Millicent Younger, Lillian Yu.

design Charlotte Alter, Isidore Bethel, Wendy

The Harvard Advocate www.theharvardadvocate.com

Editorial Board

Chang, Dana Kase, Charleton Lamb, Rebecca Lieberman, Joseph Morcos, Anna Murphy, Lauren Packard, Aimee Wang.

features Anna Barnet, Sanders Bernstein, Emily

Chertoff, Mark Chiusano, Rebecca Cooper, Ben Cosgrove, Sophie Duvernoy, Anna Polonyi, Madeleine Schwartz, Kevin Seitz, Jessica Sequeira.

President SANDERS BERNSTEIN Publisher MILLICENT YOUNGER fiction Katie Banks, Sanders Bernstein, Emily Art Editor THALASSA RAASCH Chertoff, Eva Delappe, William Eck, Erik FrederBusiness Manager Natalie Wong icksen, Justin Keenan, Seph Kramer, Michal Labik, Design Editors AnnA Murphy Charleton Lamb, Max Larkin, Henry Lichtblau*, Lauren Packard Linda Liu, Teddy Martin, Ryan Meehan, Alex Features Editor Anna Barnet Ratner, David Wallace, Scott Zuccarino. Fiction Editor LINDA LIU Poetry Editor DAVID WALLACE poetry Matthew Aucoin, Courtney Bowman, Technology Editor BEN BERMAN William Eck, Erik Fredericksen, Ted Gioia, Art Pegasi Abram Kaplan Rachael Goldberg, Chris Johnson-Roberson, Abram jessica sequeira Kaplan, Andrew Klein, Jennifer Nicole Kurdyla, Literary Pegasi ryan meehan James Leaf, Adam Palay, David Wallace. Adam palay Dionysi MARK CHIUSANO TECHNOLOGY Ben Berman, Jeff Feldman, charleton lamb Jeremy Feng, Mark VanMiddlesworth, Scott ZucCirculation DAVID TAO carino. Publicity jeffrey lee Librarian KEVIN SEITZ Alumni Relations lillian yu *The Harvard Advocate congratulates its graduating seniors.

Board of Trustees

The Harvard Advocate will anonymously consider all submissions of art, features, fiction, and poetry. Submissions may be emailed to art@theharvardadvocate.com, features@theharvardadvocate.com, fiction@theharvardadvocate.com, or poetry@theharvardadvocate. com. Submissions may also be mailed to 21 South St., Cambridge MA 02138. All submissions should be original work that has not been previously published. If you wish to have your submission returned to you, please include a self-addressed stamped envelope. Questions about submissions can be directed to the individual emails above or to contact@theharvardadvocate.com.

Chairman James Atlas Chairman Emeritus Louis Begley Vice-Chairman Douglas McIntyre President Susan Morrison Vice-President Austin Wilkie and Treasurer Secretary Charles Atkinson Founded in 1866, The Harvard Advocate is the nation’s oldest continually published college literary magazine. It publishes Peter Brooks quarterly from the Advocate house at 21 South St, Cambridge MA John DeStefano 02138. Published pieces and advertisements represent the opinions LESLIE DUNTON-DOWNER of the authors and advertisers, not The Harvard Advocate. Domestic A. Whitney Ellsworth subscription rates are $35 for one year (4 issues), $60 for two years (8 issues), $90 for three years (12 issues). For institutions and foreign jonathan Galassi addresses, the rates are $45 for one year (4 issues), $75 for two years Lev Grossman (8 issues), $110 for three years (12 issues). Payable by cash or check Angela Mariani made out to The Harvard Advocate and mailed to the above address, Daniel Max Attn: Circulation Manager. Back issues are available for purchase, CELIA MCGEE but price and availability depends upon the issue. Please inquire Thomas A. Stewart by writing to contact@theharvardadvocate.com. No part of this magazine may be reprinted without the permission of The Harvard Advocate. Copyright 2010 by the Editors and Trustees of The Harvard Advocate.



Editors’ Note

Western religion has it that God created two books. One was the book of sacred scripture, the other “The Book of Nature.” A bestiary was, and is, a compendium of information about the natural world, man’s attempt to rewrite the Book of Nature, best as he could understand it. While the worldview that shaped the bestiary has long since fragmented, our interest in nature and the life around us is—as it should be— stronger than ever before. We put before you a special issue of our magazine, what was envisioned as a 21st century bestiary, an exploration of our relationship to the world around us—plant, animal, and human—in the contemporary arts. In creating this issue, we have been fortunate to find the world outside of our 21 South St. environment to be—despite what postmodern discourse has relayed to us—extraordinarily benevolent and generous with its bounty. We hope that within the pages of this magazine, which has been a labor of love for all involved, you find the work inspired by nature and created by artists and authors to be as beautiful and strange, as wonderful and terrifying, as confusing and as edifying as we have experienced them in putting this issue together.

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Thanks for your interest in The Harvard Advocate Bestiary. The complete Winter 2010 issue is available for purchase in both physical and digital form at: www.theharvardadvocate.com/content/store.

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The Harvard Advocate


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CONTRIBUTORS’ NOTES

Rae Armantrout’s most recent book, Versed (Wesleyan, 2009), was a finalist for the National Book Award in Poetry. She teaches at UC San Diego. Away from the Houses and into the Trees went Sanders Isaac Bernstein. Bruce Boucher ’70 was managing editor of The Harvard Advocate in his senior year. He is the author of numerous books and articles on Renaissance and Baroque art and architecture, among them, Andrea Palladio: The Architect in His Time (Abbeville Press, revised edition, 2007). He is the director of the University of Virginia Art Museum and an adjunct professor of art there. Emily Chertoff loves Phillip Chertoff. Mark Chiusano always wanted to be a zookeeper. Ben Cosgrove just can’t talk to animals about these things. Erik Fredericksen is a dogs person. RachAel Goldberg is unacceptable, there won’t be a Hannukah! Adam Horn and the Paper on the Phoenix, FH’s most recent publication is What Did I Do Wrong? from Flood Editions. 4

The Harvard Advocate


Bret Anthony Johnston is the Director of Creative Writing at Harvard. This is his first story in The Advocate and he’s embarassingly proud of its inclusion. Rebecca Lieberman is Sallie Dahmes, in the Domain of the Great Bear, missing her snail. Andrew Nunnelly ’10 is happy like a seige of herons. Katie Peterson is a fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study and was born in California. Benjamin Percy is the author of a novel, The Wilding, and two books of stories, The Language of Elk and Refresh, Refresh, which has also been adapted into a graphic novel. He teaches in the MFA program at Iowa State University. Carl Phillips is the author of ten books of poetry, most recently Speak Low. Anna Polonyi loves the smell of the Peabody. Donald Revell is the author of eleven collections of poetry, most recently of The Bitter Withy. The winner of numerous awards, he is a Professor of English and Creative Writing Director at UNLV. Madeleine Schwartz smuggles cheese across the border. Mark Strand lives in New York and teaches at Columbia. His most recent book is New Selected Poems. Kevin Seitz stood in the center of a group of newspaper men and waxed wroth. Jessica Sequeira dedicates her piece to the Grandísimo Cronopio. Winter 2010 5


Maria Tatar chairs the Program in Folklore and Mythology at Harvard University and is the author of The Enchanted Hunters: The Power of Stories in Childhood. Maria Vassileva says thank you for the jellyfish picture. Maria Xia tends to overfeed small to medium-size rodents.

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The Harvard Advocate


Special Thanks The Harvard Advocate wishes to thank the following generous individuals for their support of our activities during the 2009-2010 academic year. They have made it possible for the Advocate to remain committed to publishing the best literature and art that the Harvard campus has to offer, four times each year. The contributions of the following individuals, though, have not only supported the printing of our magazine, but have also made it possible for the Advocate to further our mission of promoting the arts on campus. Last year, our building at 21 South Street was home to a host of literary and artistic events, including visits from Richard Russo, Denis Johnson, and Robert Pinsky, to name only a few. We witnessed the revival of the Spring Dinner, which will be from here on out an annual event, produced the first Advocate DVD featuring student films, and reestablished the Advocate’s presence in the Boston-Cambridge music scene by hosting several concerts featuring local artists. Gifts have made possible the creation our new website (www. theharvardadvocate.com) and we are dedicated to improving and expanding further our new web presence. We have implemented new features such as video hosting and online subscribing and we plan to expand the depth and breadth of the back catalog of issues available for viewing online. However, digital development can be costly and, as we pursue this project of digital expansion, your contributions to The Harvard Advocate are now more valuable than ever. Please consider supporting The Harvard Advocate at any level! All gifts to The Harvard Advocate endowment fund, a partitioned division of the Harvard University endowment, are fully tax deductible according to 501(c)(3) non-profit donation guidelines. Gifts will be acknowledged in the four issues following receipt according to the giving categories of Patron ($1000 and over), Benefactor ($500 and over), Donor ($200 and over), and Friend ($25-$199). Checks should be made out to “Harvard University” with “Harvard Advocate fund #480105” written in the memo line. Envelopes can be sealed with a kiss and mailed to 21 South Street, Cambridge, MA 02138. Please email contact@theharvardadvocate.com with questions or to discuss specific giving opportunities. Thank you for helping to support Mother Advocate.

PATRONS Anonymous BENEFACTORS Anonymous, Glenn Schwetz DONORS Anonymous, Peter and Tina Barnet, Bruce A. Boucher, Frances Suen FRIENDS Daphne Abel, Nancy Hannaford Greer, Jessica R. Henderson, Walt Hunter, Taro Kuriyama, Anthony Pino, Gregory Scruggs, Emery M. Younger Winter 2010 7


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This special issue of The Harvard Advocate could not have been accomplished without the support of the following individuals and organizations. The list recognizes not merely financial contributions but also, perhaps even more importantly, the contributions of time, energy, and spirit that went into this magazine: Harvard University Office for the Arts. The many established (and accomplished!) artists and writers who were kind enough to let us publish their work: Rae Armantrout, Ilisa Barbash, Bruce Boucher, Louise Bourgeois, Peter Brodfuerer, Liz Hamilton, Amy Hempel, Adam Horn, Fanny Howe, Bret Anthony Johnston, Harri Kallio, Nicholas Lampert, Jay McInerney, Castle McLoughlin, Annette Messager, Katie Peterson, Benjamin Percy, Carl Phillips, D.A. Powell, Rosamund Purcell, Donald Revell, Mark Strand, Maria Tatar, Lucien Castaing-Taylor, Gail Wight. The Harvard Advocate’s Board of Trustees. The illustrators: Charlotte Alter, Isidore Bethel, Wendy Chang, Dana Kase, Charleton, Lamb, Joseph Morcos, Anna Murphy, Lauren Packard, Aimee Wang. Our student contributors: Without you, we would have neither content nor a purpose. Our readers: why create a magazine, if not for you? And, of course, last but not least, those who faithfully devote themselves to the best interests of The Harvard Advocate: our members.

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The Harvard Advocate






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