NOVEMBER 17 2017

EST. 1999

OBERLIN’S STUDENT CULTURE MAGAZINE READ ONLINE AT THEOBERLINGRAPE.COM

Editors-in-Chief

November 17, 2017

Bad Habits Writing Team

Jake Berstein Luke Fortney Content Editors

Production Editors

Molly Bryson Ian Feather Isabel Klein Casey Redcay

Hannah Berk Ben Guterl Gabe Schneier Leora Swerdlow

Business Manager Eddy Tumbokon Web Editor Ezra Goss

Photo Editor Emma Webster

Julia Halm Zoe Jasper Isabelle Kenet Leon Pescador Copy Editors Juan-Manuel Pinzon Jack Rockwell Julie Schreiber Jackson Zinn-Rowthorn Olive Sherman Liam Russo Benjamin Silverman Sam Schuman Keerthi Sridharan

Letter from the Editor The Gibson’s Bakery Boycott is a Reminder of the Subjectivity of Facts.

With the news of the Gibson’s Brothers filing a lawsuit against Oberlin College last Thursday, I was reminded of an Oberlin Review op-ed written by Professor Emeritus Roger Copeland. Citing a statistic from the Oberlin Police Department, Copeland argues that the student boycotts of Gibson’s Bakery last November wrongfully accused the Gibson family of racist business practices.

“Lieutenant Michael McCloskey reveal[ed] that the Oberlin Police Department looked at arrests for shoplifting at Gibson’s for the past five years to see if there was evidence of racism,” Copeland writes. “Since 2011, there were 40 adults arrested for shoplifting, and 32 were white. 33 of the 40 were college students.

The facts of this case are no longer in question.”

For Copeland, this “fact” is evidently enough to prove that the Gibson’s altercation from last year was not racially motivated.

When I read this article in September, something about this statistic didn’t sit right with me. Not only did it counter the narrative that I’d heard chanted at the Gibson’s Bakery protests last November, but it also ran contrary to stories I’ve gleaned from community members of color who have expressed feelings of discriminated while shopping in the store.

Hard data and statistics are fairly difficult to get ahold of at a private college. Amid legal constraints and lawsuits, privacy and

professional persecution, rarely can you get your hands on information that hasn’t already been publicized by an Office of Communications.

While student journalists at public universities can request and receive practically any agency record by filing a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, private institutions—Oberlin College not excluded—are exempt from this requirement.

But police reports are a different story. In an attempt to replicate Lieutenant McCloskey and Copeland’s statistic on arrests at Gibson’s Bakery, I decided to submit a FOIA request to the Oberlin Police Department.

After receiving and sorting through an 87-line spreadsheet of arrests, the first thing I realized was that Lieutenant Michael McCloskey’s statistic is correct. If you look at the last five years of arrests at Gibson’s Bakery, 32 of the 40 adults involved were white.

However, this statistic is correct insofar as it only considers arrests made against adults who are 18 years and older. Including arrests made against minors adds an additional 18 cases not initially cited in McCloskey’s statistic.

In 14 of those 18 cases, arrests were made against black minors, the youngest being nineyears-old and the average being 13-years-old.

Figuring minors into McCloskey’s count, we’re faced with a new percentage: in the 57 shoplifting arrests made at Gibson’s Bakery

CORRECTIONS FROM NOV. 03, 2017 ISSUE

since 2011, 19 of the arrestees were black. If 33.3% doesn’t sound like much, consider that the percentage of black people living in Oberlin according to the 2010 census was 14.8%. So either a whole lot of black people moved out of town in the last seven years or we’ve got a statistical discrepancy on our hands.

From this statistic, police reports, and Roger Copeland’s reasoning, I could say a lot of things.

I could say that, according to police reports, the 57 shoplifting arrests made at Gibson’s Bakery have been made in response to just about $250.00 worth of stolen goods (ranging from a single, chocolate covered blueberry valued at $.67 to three bottles of liquor).

I could say that the youngest black arrestee was nine-years-old, taken to the Oberlin Police Station after shoplifting “Orbit Gum valued at $1.00” and being identified as a repeat offender.

I could say that Allyn Gibson, the employee involved in the altercation last November, was the one who called the Oberlin Police Department in 27 of the last 32 shoplifting arrests.

I could say that despite working as a professor at Oberlin College for four decades, Roger Copeland was quick to jump the gun.

I could say that instead of taking the time to investigate the merits of a “fact,” he used it to affirm a stereotype about students acting impulsively.

I could write a book about the irony of that argumentative move.

I could say with no shortage of “facts” that this means the Gibsons family exerts racial bias in their business practices.

But instead of saying anything at all, I’ve found it much more useful to ask. Last week, a local store owner told me something that I’ve found incredibly useful. “Oberlin has all of the issues that Los Angeles has and all of the issues that New York has,” they said. “Only in Oberlin, each of those issues has a face and a name. And sometimes, that issue happens to be your neighbor.”

Here’s how I’ve interpreted this: in recognizing the subjectivity and shortcomings of traditional facts, let’s recognize the unique opportunity offered by the small town of Oberlin, in which stories of personal experiences are available down the block or just across the counter. Whether you’re coming to Oberlin as a first-year student, a visiting professor, or someone who protested out front of Gibson’s last November, take the time to talk to folks who have lived in Oberlin for longer than four years.

The student protests of Gibson’s Bakery last November and ensuing lawsuit are obviously more nuanced than a figure can account for.

Talk with the people in our community you trust—and, occasionally, the people you don’t.

Editor-In-Chief Jake Berstein’s last letter from the editor was called “Another Self-Masturbatory Letter from the Editors.” The Grape was made aware that this title was redundant and should have been “Another Masturbatory Letter from the Editors.”

FRONT COVER BY LEIGH-ALEXANDRIA REED. BACK COVER BY LYA FINSTON.

Contact Editor-In-Chief Luke Fortney at lfortney@oberlin.edu.

Behind the Scenes of Student Senate

BY MEG PARKER & HANNE WILLIAMS-BARON CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Meetings from dusk until dawn, going to a class or two here and there-this is what a day in the life of a Student Senator usually entails. Meetings before 8:00 am will hopefully provide oatmeal, and meetings after 9:30 pm, with any luck, will involve a Tangerine LaCroix.

On a recent Tuesday, my day involved a breakfast meeting for the Educational Plans and Policies general faculty committee, holding weekly office hours, meeting with my fellow Communications Director, working on Student Senate’s website (coming soon!), and calling prospective students.

Every senator must be a part of a working group, hold one officer position, serve on a General Faculty committee, hold weekly office hours, and perform outreach in order to engage with the student body. Sometimes, a day on Senate means replying to 40 emails in one afternoon. You might participate in threads like “Heads-Up: Gibson’s Is Suing Oberlin” or “The Board Voted No.” The work can be exhausting, yes, but it always keeps us on our toes. Every Sunday night, Student Senate meets to discuss current campus events, check in on our progress on our semesterly objectives, and vote on electing students to committees. We stay up late crafting plans for more student representation, and sometimes argue over how best to do so.

Clearly, a day in the life of a Senator is often jampacked and hectic. However, it’s definitely for a good reason: we are

all working toward a common goal of representing student interests to staff, faculty, the administrators, and on occasion, the Board of Trustees (BoT).

For example, current Student Senators Kirsten Mojziszek and Hanne WilliamsBaron, and former Student Senator Deborah Johnson recently created the Oberlin Bystander Initiative (OBI). The initiative came out of a working group, and after two years the program was institutionalized with a budget within the

“A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A SENATOR IS OFTEN JAMPACKED AND HECTIC. “ Student Health Department. Their work was done through the Ending Sexualized Violence Working Group, which meets once a week and is open to all students.

The Ending Sexualized Violence Working Group is now working with the Title IX Office to rework Oberlin College’s Sexual Misconduct Policy.

In a similar vein, two years ago, Student Senators Megs Bautista and Josh Koller wanted to ensure that students had access to food on campus during academic breaks, so they created the break meals program. Bautista and Koller found ways

to engage students, the community, and the college through a week-long break meal support program. They coordinated with local community groups to craft a complete break-meal schedule, and worked with Chris Fox in the Office of Government Relations. Two years later, the Student Life Division has institutionalized break meals through keeping Decafe open during academic breaks. While the kinks are still being worked out, the principles of ensuring students have access to resources is one of Student Senate’s purposes.

A third example of such Student Senate-led initiatives is our advocacy with the Board of Trustees. Last year, a handful of students met regularly via phone with Trustees to find avenues to strengthen communication channels between the BoT and students. Guided by Senate Chair Thobeka Mnisi, Student Senators spent weeks creating a proposal, designing a Senator-Trustee retreat, and then creating a Senator-Trustee proposal for the October Board meeting. Unfortunately, however, the Trustee-Student Engagement question was an 18-month project that did not have as exciting results as OBI or break meals.

Most recently, this week we held our first ever ‘Constituents Week’. Constituents Week is a new initiative to get students to engage with us so we may best represent their interests to President Carmen Ambar, Dean of Students Meredith Raimondo, and the other members of the senior staff. The only way Student Senators can represent their constituents

is through input. This semester, Student Senate has made more of an effort to engage with the student body; this has meant tabling in Mudd for hours on end, planning forums, and trying everything under the sun to get students to read our emails. These are the most direct ways we can engage with students. Additionally, on a recent Saturday, Student Senate kickedoff Constituent’s week with an open forum. Students asked questions about the Office of Disability Resources (ODR), community-building, and we also talked about the possibility of hosting Student Senate potlucks once a month for students to come and share their thoughts with us.

More generally, every single Student Senator is working behind the scenes to promote student success. Liz Cooper is striving for full staffing support and adequate resources within ODR. Sam Waranch is working to get printers in more locations on campus. Kameron Dunbar is coordinating alumni-student engagement. Thobeka Mnisi is planning a World AIDS Day event for December 1.

Even when we disagree and even when a two-hour meeting stretches into a fourhour Wilder sleepover, being on Student Senate is a rollercoaster always going up.

Contact contributors Meg Parker and Hanne Williams-Baron at mparker2@ oberlin.edu

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Oberlove

Obies Marrying Obies

BY ELIANA CARTER

ILLUSTRATIONS BY ELIANA CARTER AND ANNA POLACEK

CONTRIBUTING WRITER One of my first Oberlin memories involves a reunion. I am fourteen, travelling with my two best friends Shannon and Laura and Laura’s mother in a blue Prius across New York State to the small town of Oberlin, Ohio. Laura’s mother is having her thirty-fifth year Oberlin reunion. When we get there, we all pack into a divided double in North. Laura’s mom leaves us to wander around town in search of events, presumably ones involving drinking and dancing. Kooky old peo-

ple are abound and Oberlin pride is in the air. Some people are here to see their old friends, others are looking for more. A lot of people come here to meet people, she tells us. Love is in the air. (And yes, alums are grinding at the sco and yes, I bore witness.)

“25% of Oberlin alumni are married to another Obie,” someone once told me during orientation, freshman year. While this isn’t entirely true, it is still an interesting statistic. According to the Office of Institutional Research, 23% of Oberlin alumni who are married are married to Oberlin alums. To be clear, this statistic doesn’t apply to all Oberlin alumni, just those who are married. This data is collected by the Office of Institutional Research based on updates they receive from alumni. A lot of these couples met after college, and a good deal of them at reunions and/ or alumni events.

Laura’s parents, Mr. and

Mrs. Hopkins, are one of those many couples.

Overlapping for only two years in college, they don’t remember ever even speaking to one another while at Oberlin. Mr. Hopkins studied in the Conservatory, and Mrs. Hopkins at the College. It wasn’t until years later, working at another small liberal arts college, that the two met and fell in love.

My brother, also an Oberlin grad, tells me he already knows of a few Oberlin marriages. Some who had dated while at school here, some who didn’t know each other at Oberlin, and others who knew each other but never dated while at school here. And let’s be real, we go to a small, private, expensive college, come from similar places, and move to similar places after we graduate. My brother migrated to a big city with a group of Obies after graduating and I probably will too.

Oberlin students tend to be fairly liberal, tend to have a set of beliefs that align

with one another, tend to have similar hobbies, and flock to similarly liberal bubbles. It’s not a surprise we are drawn to each other. That being said, this is also true of most other small liberal arts colleges. According to Danielle Young at the Office of Institutional Research, our percentage of alumni marriages has a history of tracking higher than many other liberal arts colleges, although “partnered” couples and civil unions were included in this statistic for longer than other colleges.

This summer at a concert in New York City, I encountered upwards of five Obies.

We’re everywhere and, as the stats show, not escaping each other any time soon.

Contact columnist Eliana Carter at ecarter@oberlin.edu.

The Legal Marijuana Industry Progressives Beware

BY IAN FEATHER FEATURES EDITOR The recent news of medical marijuana cultivation coming to Oberlin in the foreseeable future has created lots of excitement amongst students of the College. For a student body comprised of many individuals who regularly ‘partake’, this could represent potentially easier, less risky ways for students to acquire marijuana in the future. For a student body that also prides itself on being socially and politically progressive, however, both the historical and ongoing situation of racialized drug-law enforcement and the

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recent white-centric industrialization of legalized marijuana within the US may raise some red flags.

According to the ACLU, nationwide, Black Americans are currently 3.73 more likely to be arrested for marijuanarelated crimes, despite similar reported rates of use and sale. Even in states that have legalized the possession and use of recreational marijuana, such racial disparities continue to exist. In 2012, Colorado and Washington became the first US states to legalize recreational marijuana; however, according to a Colorado Health Department Survey, the

arrest-rate for marijuana-related offenses amongst Black and Latinx youth actually increased by 50% and 20% respectively between 2012 and 2014.

Despite the systemic, racialized inequalities that these statistics represent, there has been seemingly little discourse on the Oberlin College campus regarding the political dynamics of the legalized marijuana industry. This may not come as a surprise, however: at a private college where students are generally policed on rules and regulations specific to the College, rather than the laws of the ‘real world’, it can be very easy to forget the

realities of marijuana criminalization that exist beyond the confines of the Oberlin College campus. On this campus, enforcement of marijuana is generally fairly relaxed to start with, and even those who get ‘caught’ by Safety and Security officers can expect a fine and being put on probationary status as the harshest outcome. In contrast, there’s no reason to believe that an Oberlin community member picked up by an Oberlin police officer for partaking in Tappan Square won’t be put in handcuffs and end up with a criminal record.

However, the lack of discussion

PHOTO FROM HUFFINGTON POST regarding the politically problematic nature of marijuana does not mean that it is not an issue on certain student’s minds.

Yonce Hitt, a third-year student, said that one of their “fundamental beliefs” is that “if a state is going to legalize marijuana, they need to release every single person from prison that’s [incarcerated] on a [marijuana-related] conviction.” They also expressed hope that there would be more efforts aimed at “creating space for growers that are people of color.”

Martina Hildreth, a fourth-year student, has witnessed first-hand the lack of space for people of color within legal marijuana industry. A resident of Seattle, Washington, Hildreth saw a street corner located near her high school known for illegal drug transactions very rapidly transition to being the site of upscale, recreational marijuana dispensary.

Almost overnight, a place where mostly Black individuals risked arrest to make a living by selling marijuana transitioned into a source of legal windfall profits for wealthy, white venture capitalists selling

the exact same thing. Reflecting the sentiment of Hitt, Hildreth said that she believes that “at the very minimum for legalization to be considered just”, there should be “reparations” for individuals who have been criminalized and imprisoned for marijuana-related crimes.

Additionally, she believes that if it is too

marijuana cultivation coming to Oberlin in the foreseeable future.

Contreras acknowledged that to him personally, “it’s pretty exciting for this [marijuana industry] to come to town” and that he “knows students should be excited about it.” However, he also expressed a feeling that his fellow students should “be a little more aware of the historical implications of [marijuana] in this country,” specifically considering how “throughout history, Black and brown people have been incarcerated… for having little baggies of [marijuana], whereas “the way that the [legal industry] is being shaped now is mostly these huge corporations with white dudes in the lead.”

The current whiteness of the American legal marijuana industry that Hitt, Hildreth, and Contreras all alluded

“NATIONWIDE, BLACK AMERICANS ARE CURRENTLY 3.73 MORE LIKELY TO BE ARRESTED FOR MARIJUANA-RELATED CRIMES” late to integrate former street dealers into the legal marijuana industry, these individuals should be connected with “legal and legitimate ways of accumulating wealth” as compensation for being forced out of the general marijuana industry.

Juan Contreras, a third-year student, expressed both excitement and apprehension about the news of medicinal

to was not a random outcome. Many states prevent individuals with one or more felony convictions from starting their own businesses, marijuana-related or otherwise, and such restrictions can also apply to simple employment. For the Black street dealers who have been and continue to be disproportionately convicted of drug-related felonies, there is

no recourse. Furthermore, requirements for large amounts of capital in order to become an entrepreneur within the industry, in conjunction with racially discriminatory lending practices, make it difficult for many Black Americans to obtain the necessary resources. Finally, at the level of consumption, most states that have legalized marijuana do not permit citizens to consume outside of their privately-owned homes. For public housing residents, a disproportionate proportion of whom are Black, this leaves essentially no options for consuming legal marijuana in a way that will not either get them in legal trouble or make them lose their housing.

Despite the clearly problematic nature of the legal marijuana industry within the US, however, consumption of legal marijuana may still be more ethical than participating in the marijuana ‘black market’, one that has directly and indirectly caused physical violence across the US, Mexico, and Central and South America.

Such a comparison is very difficult to quantify, but it may be something that Oberlin students consider when deciding whether or not to participate in the legal marijuana industry.

As the seemingly inevitable legalization of marijuana across the US continues, it will be interesting to see how the traditionally progressive political position of supporting marijuana legalization will intersect with similarly progressive positions of ending mass incarceration and promoting inclusivity within the legal marijuana industry. The Oberlin College campus may be a microcosm of a larger, national conversation.

Contact Features Editor Ian Feather at ifeather@oberlin.edu.

ARTICLE SUBMISSION DATE FOR NEXT ISSUE: THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 23 EMAIL articles and pitches to section editors FEATURES: Ian Feather, ifeather@oberlin.edu OPINIONS: Molly Bryson, mbryson@oberlin.edu ARTS & CULTURE: Casey Redcay, credcay@oberlin.edu BAD HABITS: Isabel Klein, iklein@oberlin.edu QUESTIONS OR CORRECTIONS? EMAIL THEGRAPE@OBERLIN.EDU.

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Legal Pot Comes To Oberlin Too Bad You Can’t Smoke It

BY JACK ROCKWELL CONTRIBUTING WRITER Got “AIDS, amyotrophic lateral economic benefits?” Fadi Boumitri, owner Singleton said. No one can say for sure sclerosis, Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, of Ascension Biomedical, did not respond exactly when the retail licences will chronic traumatic encephalopathy, to requests for an interview. be awarded, though applications are Crohn’s disease, epilepsy or another seizure disorder, fibromyalgia, glaucoma, hepatitis C, inflammatory bowel disease, multiple sclerosis, pain that is either chronic and severe or intractable, Parkinson’s disease, positive status for HIV, post-traumatic stress disorder, sickle cell anemia, spinal cord disease or injury, Tourette’s syndrome, traumatic brain injury, [or] ulcerative colitis”? Then boy, have I got great news for you!

Ascension BioMedical LLC, based out of Cleveland, has been awarded a Level II license by the Oberlin City Council to open a medical marijuana growing facility in Oberlin’s Industrial park. Level II is an indicator of size: it means that Ascension Biomedical is allowed to install an initial grow area of 3,000 feet, as opposed to the 25,000 permitted with a Level I permit.

The facility will be constructed on Artino street, just north of the IGA and east of the Federal Aviation Administration facility (the mysterious air traffic control center). According to Carrie Handy, the Director of Planning and Development THE LOT THE FACILITY WILL BE CONSTRUCTED IN, PHOTO FROM GOOGLE MAPS for the City of Oberlin, the lot is vacant and does not yet have an address. “One Can I smoke it? currently being reviewed. will be assigned when the cultivator’s new Current marijuana users in Oberlin, Opinions are currently mixed building is constructed,” she wrote in an both recreational and medical, will as to whether or not Oberlin will be email to the Grape. “There is no need for probably be excited to hear about the considered for a retail facility. Singleton the demolition of any structures and no opening of a production facility in their seems to think that “because we were existing companies will be relocated or very own town. However, the impact of awarded this type II license, it might dislocated.” the facility’s construction on the amount pave the way for other opportunities to Kelley Singleton, Oberlin City Councilman, spearheaded the effort to bring Ascension Biomedical to Oberlin, arguing primarily for the economic benefits for the city. “The city desperately needs more tax revenue, and more employment, and that’s what this is.”

Singleton spoke briefly to the resistance pro-pot organizations have of pot available immediately in Oberlin come to Oberlin—a dispensary, testing faced in our society. “I’m not personally will be negligible. The licenses for the and processing facilities, all the different a marijuana user, but I know people who production of marijuana are distinct from kind of establishments that the state have used it for medicinal reasons. There’s those required to sell it retail, which the law requires.” However, John Pardee, people out there who still have this idea state of Ohio has yet to reward. member of High Rights Ohio, says it’s that marijuana is this evil gateway drug Many familiar with the process are unlikely Oberlin will be considered for a or whatever, still thinking in the days of frustrated with the State’s lack of progress retail facility. “It’s a pretty small town, and Nancy Reagan, but time has moved on. in this direction. “The State is taking their sort of out of the way… They’re looking Why not be in front of it and reap the sweet time so they can be sure they have at more widely accessible locations, like a stone-cold grip on its development,” spots right off the freeway.”

“THE CITY DESPERATELY NEEDS MORE TAX REVENUE, AND MORE EMPLOYMENT, AND THAT’S WHAT THIS IS.”

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Even if Oberlin were to be selected for a retail facility, the Ohio law legalizing marijuana for medical use has some interesting stipulations regulating individual use.

According to the www. medicalmarijuana.ohio.gov FAQ page, “law prohibits the use of medical marijuana by smoking or combustion,” though “vaporization (vaping)... oils, tinctures, plant material, edibles and patches” are allowed.

At first glance, the rules seem like reasonable protections of consumers’ health. Almost needless to say, smoking anything is inherently bad for you.

However, some marijuana users think the rule might backfire, citing differences in the strength of effect by different intake methods.

“I find that when I take an edible as opposed to smoking it’s way less responsible of a high,” said Luke Fortney, Oberlin Senior and Editor-in-Chief of The Grape.

“You can get way more fucked up by accident.”

According to Bradley Boboc, College fourth-year: “I’ve been smoking medical marijuana for almost half of my life, and I feel like it’s way more better than other methods, which are harder to responsibly dose.”

What about vaping? “Vaping is stupid,” said another Oberlin College student, who chose to remain anonymous.

So, don’t delete that guy from East’s number yet—legal recreational marijuana is still some ways from Oberlin. It also remains to be seen if it’ll ever be legal to consume it in Ohio by the most widely preferred methods. However, the town is in line for a well-needed economic boost, taking what will at least be a symbolic step toward true legalization.

Contact Contributing Writer Jack Rockwell at jrockwel@oberlin.edu

Let's s ta What rt with a p 's the op qu be iz.

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Move, I’m Gay

Kevin Spacey and Sexual Misconduct

BY KEERTHI SRIDHARAN COPY EDITOR Spacey’s allegations began with Anthony Rapp, who came forward via Buzzfeed News, declaring that actor Kevin Spacey had made a sexual advance towards him when he was 14 - Spacey would’ve been 26. Since then, several others have come forward alleging unwanted encounters with Spacey, with some claims being officially denied and others being outright ignored. The original article detailing Rapp’s story was published at 12:37am on October 29th; less than a day later, Spacey published a response to his Twitter page. The full text follows: I have a lot of respect and admiration for Anthony Rapp as an actor. I’m beyond horrified to hear his story. I honestly do not remember the encounter, it would have been over 30 years ago. But if I did behave then as he describes, I owe him the sincerest apology for what would have been deeply inappropriate drunken behavior, and I am sorry for the feelings he describes having carried with him all these years.

This story has encouraged me to address other things about my life. I know that there are stories out there about me and that some have been fueled by the fact that I have been so protective of my privacy. As those closest to me know, in my life I have had relationships

then distances himself from the event by reminding us all of how long ago it was no, sorry, “would have been,” again, denying the truth of the allegations by continuing to frame them as hypothetical.

He continues, “if I did behave then as he describes…” — that’s a pretty big “if,”

SPACEY’S GAYNESS IS SUPPOSED TO, AT BEST, DISTRACT US FROM THE ACTUAL MATTER AT HAND, AND AT WORST, EXPLAIN IT. with both men and women. I have loved and had romantic encounters with men throughout my life, and I choose now to live as a gay man. I want to deal with this honestly and openly and that starts with examining my own behavior.

The response is divided into two paragraphs, probably for clarity’s sake, since the two have virtually nothing to do with one another. The first tackles the allegations themselves, and is peppered with small, evasive rebuttals of Rapp’s story. Spacey starts by saying that he has no memory of the incident in question,

Kevin. In the same sentence as the only actual apology in the post, he further distances himself from accountability by claiming that he “would have been” drunk at the time. There’s so much to unpack in just these first 76 words — but wait! There’s more!

What comprehensive response to a serious accusation would be complete without a sharp left turn into a discussion of sexual orientation? Not this one, that’s for sure. Spacey claims that he “[chooses] now to live as a gay man”, and with this one sentence, entirely contra-

dicts the values of the community that he is attempting to align himself with.

Since when is being queer a choice? Or rather, who in their right mind would ‘choose’ to be systemically and institutionally discriminated against? Also, the question on everyone’s minds: what does Spacey’s sexuality have to do with anything?

Why is Spacey’s first instinct, when accused of molesting a child, to associate it immediately with his orientation? Is it supposed to lessen the blow somehow, as if to say, “Oh, well, you see, I couldn’t help it, I was a closeted gay man, I had to take what I could get,”? It’s not like the Depraved Homosexual archetype is something new to media; the internet pop culture encyclopedia TV Tropes has an entire category for it. The image of the deprived gay man preying on an “impressionable” youth is something that the LGBTQ+ community as a whole has worked so hard to move away from.

The recurrence of this image detracts from a larger effort that encourages LGBTQ+ youths to be comfortable with their identities, without seeing them as inherently predatory or hypersexual.

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A number of queer celebrities were vocal in their criticism of Spacey’s response, including Zachary Quinto, known for his roles in Heroes and the new Star Trek movies. Quinto addressed the issue on Twitter, calling Spacey’s choice to come out a “calculated manipulation to deflect attention from the serious accusation that he attempted to molest [an LGBTQ+ youth]”. I’m inclined to agree - the implication made here is that Spacey’s

gayness is supposed to, at best, distract us from the actual matter at hand, and at worst, explain it. So many kids grow up ashamed of their identities because of incidents like these, where queerness is perverted into something intrinsically wrong and immoral. I’ve been one of them. On a campus that prioritizes discourse surrounding systems of oppression and how they influence the world around us, incidents like this need to be discussed. Navigating different narra-

tives of oppression can be difficult, especially given the prevalence of callout culture in an environment that emphasizes socio-political correctness. That being said, ‘hiding’ behind a specific marginalized group as a way of justifying bad behavior is both ineffective and plays into negative stereotypes associated with said marginalized group.

doesn’t excuse being a shitty person; there might not really ever be a right time to come out, but there’s definitely a wrong one. In short, I’m in support of Twitter user @laurgarc’s thoughts on the matter: “and suddenly, that scene in baby driver where jon hamm brutally hits kevin spacey with his car means a lot to me.”

Whether you’re an Oscar-winning actor or a college student, oppression

Contact copy editor Keerthi Sridharan at ksridhar@oberlin.edu.

“I Love You, America”

Or How to Be a Productive Liberal in 2017

BY MOLLY BRYSON OPINIONS EDITOR Sarah Silverman’s new Hulu show, somewhat sincerely (but mostly ironically) titled “I Love You, America” embraces a humor that is inherently socio-political — and inherently controversial, for that matter. Silverman, who is known for her left-leaning comedy and punchy feminist voice, opts for a more impartial tone in “I Love You America,” opening herself up to self-evaluation and criticism in an attempt to break out of the so-called “liberal bubble.”

In the first episode, Silverman invites herself to have dinner with a family of Trump-supporters. Despite their obvious difference in political opinion, they get along surprisingly splendidly (although I’m sure Silverman’s likable personality and social know-how didn’t make it too difficult). When the topic of Trump comes up, there is visible unease in the room, but not enough to inhibit conversation. “I voted for him for change,” says Brandy, the young mother of the household. As Silverman presses for more explanation, some admittedly contestable stuff comes up, such as Brandy’s doubt over Obama’s citizenship and the family’s hypocritical condemnation of social welfare.

However, the discussion also brings up some revelatory points of agreement: the family, for the most part, supports gay marriage, and Brandy’s insistent talk of “love is love” causes Silverman to blurt out “I hate to tell you this, but you’re a liberal!” — a statement which causes the others to burst out laughing.

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Dinner ends before the conversation gets too heated, but enough is revealed to support Silverman’s thesis, which is fundamentally a defense of our shared humanity — a “we’re all just people” type of thing. Her intent is not to change people’s minds, but to foster an environment in which to openly discuss, listen, and interact, without being judged. “We don’t have to be divided to disagree,” she says. “We can even love each other.”

Silverman bids the family farewell with a harmless joke, probably about farts or something, leaving it up to the audience how much sincerity to derive from the whole thing.

Even though Silverman’s show is, at the end of the day, just a silly late-night talk show parody, her bits are actually quite resonant. Through multiple encounters with people unlike herself — from everyday Trump supporters to an ex-member of the Westboro Baptist Church — it becomes clear, pretty quickly and undisputedly, that most of these people’s political views are not necessarily ill-intentioned, but rather ill-informed. Sentiments like “It was how I was raised,” or “We believed we were doing the right thing,” frequently pepper the show, suggesting that maybe these people’s conservatism is rooted in something other than unadulterated hatred; maybe, just maybe, it can be attributed, at least in some part, to a difference of circumstance. It’s not like Silverman’s trying to let these people off the hook by evoking sympathy from a liberal au-

dience, but she very well might be trying to demonstrate how incredibly easy it is just to listen to each other — even to bond over dumb poop jokes, if that’s what it takes. I know this kind of sentiment can sound silly, especially when we’re in the midst of battling much more serious and consequential matters, like health care legislation and climate change agreements, but I think Silverman has a point. Until we learn to see beyond partisan lines, we won’t be able to agree on anything.

As Silverman says, it’s easy to get trapped in the liberal bubble. Here at Oberlin, where we skip all the elementary stuff and jump straight to debating the socio-politics of niche (though no less important) issues, it’s especially easy. We forget that we live in a city surrounded by staunch conservatism. We forget that we have Trump supporters as neighbors. We forget that this community includes people who feel underrepresented and forgotten in the same way that the family featured on Silverman’s show does. And then we act surprised when stuff like the Gibsons lawsuit happens. Not that it’s a simple issue; it’s incredibly complicated — but when our academic liberalism fails to provide common ground, we must wonder where we went wrong. Perhaps, as Silverman suggests, it resides in a lack of basic understanding, in a failure to see one another as people, rather than party members.

“There’s revolution, which is necessary, and then there’s one-on-one, where you

want to be talking and seeing each other as human beings. We’ve spent 60 years trying to understand Hitler because we so want to understand that kind of evil.

But why not try to understand each other before something like the Holocaust happens?” she says in an interview with Newsweek.

I’m not trying to present an ideological cop-out. I don’t want to be the person who forgoes real and relevant politics for fluffy appeals to our shared humanity. Neither does Sarah, I don’t think.

But I also don’t think there’s anything wrong with leveling it down. Getting to know people unlike ourselves is part of the process, even if it means watching a rather obscure, silly 20-minute Hulu comedy, or saying hello to the Trump supporter down the block.

Contact opinions editor Molly Bryson at mbryson@oberlin.edu.

Blue

WE FORGET THAT WE LIVE IN A CITY SURROUNDED

BY STAUNCH CONSERVATISM.

COMIC BY TOM MORRISON

Ohio ! u o Y es

m o c l We

BY OLI BENTLEY CONTRIBUTING WRITER

You know those standard questions people ask you when you first meet? I have become obsessed with one of them: Where are you from?

I guess it started around the first week of school. I was asking the standard questions and I was getting asked them--you know the deal. I quickly got to know the most basic information about a bunch of strangers all in the same position as me. When we got to the question of “where are you from?”

I found the answers pretty surprising. I heard a lot of Bostons, New Yorks, and L.As, but very few Ohio’s. I think I was expecting to meet more people who shared my homestate of Ohio or who were, at the very least, from a neighboring state. This is actually far from the case. Only 20% of Oberlin students are even from the Midwest, let alone Ohio.

In fact, the number of students who hail from California more than double the number of students from Ohio. The same is true for New York.

What does this all mean, though?

What is the impact of populating the college predominantly with students from outside of the Midwest ? I had already noticed some small vernacular differences; people say “that’s whack” here, which I had never actually heard until arriving here. But I wanted to know if the impact went deeper.

I spoke with TIMARA professor Tom Lopez about this situation. Lopez is an Oberlin graduate originally from Cincinnati, Ohio. We actually went to the same high school. I thought it would be interesting to hear the perspective of someone in a very similar position as mine,

but who has had more time to observe the school’s geographic dynamics. I contacted him with a few questions and here is how our conversation went.

Oli Bentley: What about Oberlin College do you think attracts so many people from the more populated areas of the United States?

tually better known by people along the coasts and in big cities than it is in most of Ohio. In my hometown, only my band teachers knew of Oberlin. Do you also find this to be true? If so, why do you think this is?

TL: Yes, I’ve had similar experiences.

Often the only people in the midwest

THE NUMBER OF STUDENTS WHO HAIL FROM CALIFORNIA MORE THAN DOUBLE THE NUMBER OF STUDENTS FROM OHIO. THE SAME IS TRUE FOR NEW YORK. Tom Lopez: I wonder if part of the allure of Oberlin is the desire to go somewhere completely different from where we grow up. For people from the coastal cities, Oberlin must be quite a change in environment.

At the same time, I think Oberlin College does a fantastic job combining aspects of a small town with the benefits of a large city. The College draws world class performances and lectures, all of which end up within a five minute walk from each other and are usually free or inexpensive. So on Friday, we can attend a lecture in Dye Hall, hear an orchestra in Finney Chapel, and watch performance art in the Birenbaum; then on Saturday we can see a film screening at the Apollo Theatre, a jazz combo at the Cat, an opera in Hall Auditorium, and finish with tots at The Feve - all while criss crossing beautiful Tappan Square.

OB: I have noticed that Oberlin is ac-

who have heard of Oberlin are those who are either in academic or musical environments. This makes sense to me because Oberlin is just one of many small rural towns. It happens to have a first-rate liberal arts college and conservatory of music, so those have become its highlights.

OB: Do you think the place a person grew up in has an impact on their personality or character? If so, how might this impact the Oberlin community?

TL: I believe each of us is an accumulation of all the internal and external energies surrounding our life. We embody the muffled sound of our mother’s voice from her womb, the facial expressions of the children we met on playgrounds, the textures beneath our feet (cement, grass, dirt, leaves, mud), the sensations on our shoulders (cotton, wool, fur, sunlight, rain), the lines of the structures we

inhabited (angular skyscrapers, rounded huts, canvas, twinkling stars)…all of them influence our being.

In that sense, the Oberlin Community is just like one of us, it is an accumulation of all the individuals within. It incorporates the richness of our diversity and the breadth of our differences. All of our splendid personalities share the same Oberlin air and gravity binds us all to the earth. The Oberlin Community is us.

Tom is right. Although we don’t all originate from the same place, the Oberlin College community reflects all of the unique and wonderful parts of its students. It is a unique combination of ideas and cultures. This place becomes our second home for as long as we’re here, and it leaves an impact on who we are and what matters to us, just as our hometowns do.

Take this opportunity to get to know where you are. Speak to permanent residents, extend yourself beyond the campus bubble, and get to know the culture of the town. Make yourself familiar with your new home. The townspeople have gotten to know a lot of us over the years, we should do the same. It is not very often that we get to interact with people from all over the country and the world all at once. I’m not going to take that for granted- and neither should you.

Contact contrbutor Oli Bentley at obentley@oberlin.edu.

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PHOTOS BY PJ MCCORMICK

3 Door Studios Ready To Be The DIY Venue That Oberlin Needs

BY PJ MCCORMICK CONTRIBUTING WRITER In the past week alone, 3 Door Studios has hosted both a concert headlined by Yowler and Told Slant (featuring Oberlin’s own Dear Scout) and a 24-hour horror film festival sponsored by the Film Co-op.

In the coming weeks, the venue has plans to host concerts by local doom metal band Vanitas (with Cleveland groups Space Funeral and Wavers, and Chicago-based drone group Bending), as well as a faculty band playing improv psych-rock. So clearly, 3 Door has a lot on its plate.

recruited recent Oberlin graduate Jackson Studzinski - who I sat down with - and are hoping to reinvent themselves as Oberlin’s go-to DIY space.

Oberlin has been home to DIY spaces before, most notably a venue in the building above Oberlin Kitchen called Storage. But Studzinski insists that 3 Door is different. “Storage wasn’t really a very inclusive place,” says Studzinski, “There was a lot of like, power grabbing that was going on.” 3 Door is a different kind

“NOBODY LIVES HERE. IT’S KIND OF SITTING EMPTY AND OPEN ALL OF THE TIME.” 3 Door Studios, the house and artist space at the edge of town (next to Mickey Mart), has actually been operational for the last ten years – not that most Oberlin students would know it. Formerly an option for off-campus housing, 3 Door Studios was rented ten years ago by Oberlin grad James Peake, who used the space mostly for artist studios, and the occasional experimental show. After sitting unused for a few years, 3 Door Studios was cleaned up and revamped last year by Laurel Kirtz, organizer of the frequent and popular Dance Nights. This year, the operators of 3 Door Studios have

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of space, bent on being as all-inclusive as possible.

“One of the tenets of my time here at 3 Door is that I really want it to to become a fixture of the community and a fixture of the Oberlin arts world and the music scene,” says Studzinski. “Part of that, to me, is letting kids do what they want to do here. I’m super open-minded, and really want kids to feel comfortable approaching me and doing what they need to do here.

Whether that be hosting a show, playing a show, using it as gallery space, readings, film screenings.”

In addition, Studzinski believes that, as

A LOOK FROM INSIDE 3 DOOR STUDIOS. residents of the town, the organizers of 3 Door are in a better position to cultivate an environment inclusive to Oberlin students and townies. “3 Door Studios, for all intents and purposes, is run by townies,” says Studzinski. “I’m a community member here.” As a result, in addition to being Oberlin graduates, Studzinski, Kirtz and Peake have more connections with local Oberliners, as well as residents of neighboring towns like Elyria.

But as a recent graduate, Studzinski also has firm connections with the student body. He reached out to the Film Co-Op himself to ask if they had any interest in a film festival, which resulted in the 24 hour horror film festival on November 3rd. This was a huge opportunity for a Co-Op that used to screen movies out of a South dorm room. In addition, Studzinski has plans to reach out to the Oberlin Gear Co-Op to offer the space up for potential shows, recognizing the limits of Co-Op spaces: “You can’t have shows or drink in that

room in Wilder; it’s a really limited space.

But you can rely on 3 Door Studios to have your Gear Fest.”

In envisioning 3 Door Studio’s ideal show, Studzinski starts a list, “It’d be a really eclectic show: Jazz combo, some kind of brass band. String quartet. Some kind of experimental sound. Rock band.

Something really eclectic to go with the spirit of Oberlin.”

As of now, 3 Door Studios is free to rent out for student concerts and events, and is actively accepting offers. Studzinski does, however, stress the importance of supporting your local DIY spaces.

“Personally I hate asking people to donate money, but it’s so important to at least support live music. If you can’t afford it, don’t worry about it.”

Contact 3 Door Studios now if you’d like a show!

Contact contributor PJ McCormick at pmccormi@oberlin.edu.

In New Documentary, Oberlin Professors Engage Toni Morrison’s Urgent Questions of Belonging

BY LUKE NIKKANEN CONTRIBUTING WRITER Oberlin Cinema Studies Professors Rian Brown-Orso and Geoff Pingree celebrate the world of Toni Morrison and her urgent political questions in their feature documentary, The Foreigner’s Home. The film shares the name of Morrison’s 2006 Louvre curation in which she questions what it means to be a “foreigner” in today’s fragmented world and the role of the artist in mediating this problem. The film takes on an experimental approach, using pre-existing footage of the curatorship, animation, archival footage, and a newly arranged interview between Morrison and Haitian-American author Edwidge Danticat to immerse its audience in the world of Morrison’s ideas.

The making of this experimental documentary is a continuation of the dialogue Morrison started, one that advocates for an ongoing conversation between artists about issues of belonging and foreignness. So says Pingree, “The best way to honor Toni Morrison’s vision was to create a work of art that responded to the art as opposed to something that was less that and more descriptive or something else.” Adding to this, Brown-Orso affirms that “the whole film was born out of her curating film makers, videographers, authors, painters at the Louvre. So it’s…art as this conversation between different forms and media, about life.” Looking at The Foreigner’s Home as conversation is crucial to understanding its intend-

ed purpose. “The Edwige and Morrison conversation frames [the film] and gives it coherence because we don’t have the usual development in time and unfolding in story landmarks to keep ourselves straight.” Pingree says. “The film begins with water and Morrison’s voice. We’re not seeing her. That, in some ways, is what the film is. It’s her voice and vision. It’s her voice to warn the world about the situation, to suggest a hopeful response. In some way the conversation

developed to link all material. It’s all about linking.” Pingree adds, “from my point of view, the boat and people on it is really, in a broader sense, the situation we’re always in, which is that some people are stable, some people are not. the bird is kind of hope, for how you address this situation.” The unique form of The Foreigner’s Home, its use of animation, archival footage, and interviews linked through time, carries forward the conversation that Morrison urges art-

“THIS FILM IS DIRECTLY TALKING ABOUT HOW THOSE POWER STRUCTURES ARE SET UP AND WHAT THEY DO TO PEOPLE.” is a pragmatic device to extend the conversation into time now. It helps guide this larger thing - that her vision is not limited by time or place. It’s all over.”

The form of animation is also significant in this film. Brown-Orso’s animations act as motifs that express and explore Morrison’s ideas. Brown-Orso explains, “The bird that you will see in the film is borne out of an allegory that Toni Morrison brings to [her] Nobel speech about responsibility. So the bird became a key element, which is unanchored, and flies over the boat, which is a floating entity, where it’s between not one land or another. These are things that come out of her conversations but that are central visual themes that were

ists to continue.

The film’s release carries a timely significance, existing in a world of global migrant crisis, shifting conceptions of nationhood and increasing domestic social divide. Brown-Orso explains, “This film is right in the heart of [our current climate.] We have to look very hard at our history, at our roots with regard to the foreigner…this film addresses that directly. I think it’s built right into the question that’s being posed by a lot of authors, artists, and journalists about the ever-changing demographics of this world. The migrant issue in Europe is changing everything right now. We’re blocking refugees from entering countries. This film is directly talking about

how those power structures are set up and what they do to people.” The film also explores issues of belonging domestically, forcing us to re-conceptualize what it means to be the “other” in one’s own country .“In this film, there’s a sequence about Hurricane Katrina in which the people who are from new Orleans are considered refugees in their own home. We just saw it again in Puerto Rico. They’re considered refugees in their own home. It just keeps repeating. The themes are going to, unfortunately, feel very contemporary,” says Brown-Orso. Pingree adds, “if you think about the people who seem to be most in support of our current president and angry about things like Black Lives Matter or people raising questions about taking down confederate monuments, their anger comes from the story that there are people around us who are not like us, who are taking things from us…she’s in some way diagnosing that exactly, in some of her words, “who is the foreigner?” Am I the foreigner in my own home?” This issue at the core of Morrison’s talk and is one that has haunted our country since its birth. Morrison’s question, and this film, seem more relevant now than ever.

Contact contributor Luke Nikkanen at lnikkake@oberlin.edu.

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Sex, Reality and Representation in Blade Runner 2049

BY JACK ROCKWELL CONTRIBUTING WRITER In a decade defined by shitty reboots of popular franchises, Bladerunner 2049 is a breath of fresh air. It takes its damn time, but it’s worth every minute—sit down, roll up, and get ready to lose three hours contemplating the nature of representation, memory, humanity and consciousness.

Set decades after the the events of the first film, early scenes are drawn out vignettes of building tension, as synthetic Blade Runner Agent K (Ryan Gosling) pursues information after an unsettling chance discovery. The viewer soon becomes caught up in his investigation as well as his personal life, and the humanity of an array of characters that have various statuses as artificial or organic is called into question again and again.

K lives in a small apartment with a sort of home assistant, who at first appears only by her voice and robotic arms, cleaning and tidying. She’s soon revealed to have a holographic representation, from which she dotes upon K faithfully, and a name, Joi (Ana de Armas). Her image is shown throughout the film, advertised on billboards as a sexualized housemaid programmed to fit disturbing, archaic male fantasies of a “perfect housewife.”

If the very concept of Joi is a representation of the commercial dehumanization of women, the portrayal of her relationship with K is an attempt to re-humanize her. The two express touching compassion for one another,

impressed heavily upon the viewer through highly emotive performances by Gosling and de Armas. The humanity of their relationship is deeply jarring against its brutal reality: an utterly unilateral power dynamic between them, programmed not only by a patriarchal society’s grasp on gender roles but quite literally within the very foundation of this machine’s being.

K does not abuse his power over Joi in many of the ways men commonly abuse their power over women. He commits no violence against her, physical or emotional. Nor does he attempt any real work to dismantle the systems by which she’s bound to him, but offers her a gift, a memory stick that enables her to leave the house with him. It’s an allusion to freedom she appears to enjoy immensely. But it is not freedom at all, for she still is completely under his control, and her response is consistent with her explicit programming of submissive reverence to K. It can be hard to remember this, however, while hearing her voice crack with emotion after “feeling” rain for the first time, and seeing K’s face while Joi’s holographic fingers “touch” his lips (I write these words in scare-quotes because, while Joi demonstrates behavior consistent with a sense of touch, there’s no explanation given in the film as to the mechanics by which her hologram might register physical sensations).

Is virtual reality real? At what point do we distinguish between artificial beings and ourselves? Ethical and metaphysical

RYAN GOSLING (LEFT) AND HARRISON FORD (RIGHT) OF BLADE RUNNER 2049 questions are raised, but left unanswered, by these characters. Joi is, in many ways, a reduced version of Philip K. Dick’s “Replicants” that so famously rebelled from humanity’s attempt to create them as subordinate members of society. The viewer certainly may wish to see Joi freed from the constraints of her existence, but we are given no indication from Joi herself that she might desire such a change. One can imagine she was programmed without a desire for freedom. What does freedom, something we value so highly, mean to her?

It’s worth noting again that K is a Replicant. The first Blade Runner movie asked whether or not his kind is human.

Our second installment doesn’t resolve this original question, but complicates it, by considering Joi’s humanity. It’s even more of a mindfuck that the medium by which we are asked these questions is Joi’s relationship with not even a human, but a more human-like robot.

The climax of intimacy between K and Joi is a sex scene that is both visually stunning and deeply disturbing.

Appearing to take agency, against K’s professed will, Joi hires a (purportedly) human prostitute to join them in their apartment. She projects her image onto the body of this woman, and together they descend onto K, the images of the human and the robot blurring and shifting against one another much in the way the

two are blurred throughout the entire film. The distortion of their images is an aesthetic that is also heavily relied upon in other scenes, suggesting the distortion of reality that regularly occurs in artistic representations of the past, present and future.

While the questions raised by these relationships are interesting, critics have lambasted the film’s failures to address them in any meaningful capacity. In particular, Joi’s complete lack of agency is disconcerting in conjunction with other representations of women in the film.

Rosie Fletcher sums it up nicely at The Digital Spy, writing that “the narrative belongs to the men alone, with the concept going unexamined that human women are being completely written out of history and replicant women are reduced to killing machines, baby machines and sex machines.”

The last thing you probably want to hear is another male critic, myself, arguing “if you can stomach the film’s treatment of women, I can’t recommend it enough.”

Pretty blasé, but I still would tell you to see it. It’s rich and complicated, setting a new standard for what science fiction can and should be. I hope J.J. Abrams took notes.

Contact contributor Jack Rockwell at jrockwel@oberlin.edu.

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Individual vs. Universal Perception An Inquiry into Contextual Aspects of Translation via Michel Houellebecq’s Unreconciled

BY MARTIN RABOT COLUMNIST For this article, I want to examine the translation process as demonstrated by Gavin Bowd in translating Unreconciled, a collection of poems by French author Michel Houellebecq. If non-Francophone readers know of Houellebecq, it is likely a result of the infamy which his 2015 novel, Submission, (re) ignited. He is a fiery character, but American interrogations of the enigmatic author lack nuance in analyzing his, and his work’s, context. His postmodern style is informed by his artistic and public identity, but the reverse is true as well. Artistic mediums necessitate socialized stereotypes of those who work within them. For example, rappers are expected to be larger than life public personas, whereas novelists stay out of the limelight. For this reason, Houellebecq’s notoriety and visibility is liable to catch the American public off-guard by virtue of its novelty, but not necessarily its controversy. That being said, French literary culture differs vastly from that found in the United States.

French literary culture is embedded in a skeptical, yet intellectually curious popular

society, wherein notoriety does not connote unpopularity. Houellebecq, despite his reputation, is regarded as a provocateur tasked with deconstructing the human condition in modern society. He is a classic French skeptic, albeit 50 years too late to be universally touted. His misanthropic tendencies expand upon Camus and Sartre’s seminal works, yet he seems isolated in the popular literature of today. Is Houellebecq anachronistic in discussing a hypothetical Islamist takeover of the French government, as happens in Submission, or does he just reflect the concerns of his native, paranoid France? Is his work to be regarded solely as his own, or as a product of a given moment’s collective sentiment? The truth lies somewhere between the two. Unsavory as he may be, translating the collective sentiments of a society into individualized, concrete art is an essential task and he performs it dutifully. This process of translation, not only literary, but metaphysical, governs the social and philosophical strata of human life; reading Houellebecq is vital to a rounded understanding of contemporary

VARIATION 49: LE DERNIER VOYAGE

VARIATION 49: THE FINAL JOURNEY

Un triangle d’acier sectionne le paysage; L’avion s’immobilise au-dessus des nuages.

Altitude 8000.

Les voyageurs descendent; Ils dominent du regard la Cordillère des Andes

A steel triangle severs the landscape; The plane halts above the clouds.

Altitude 8000. The travelers get off: They look down upon the Andes Cordillera

Et dans l’air raréfié l’ombilic d’un orage Se développe et se tord; Il monte des vallées comme un obscure présage, Comme un souffle de mort.

Santiago du Chili, le 11 décembre

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Our eyes entangle, interrogate in vain The thickness of space Whose fatal whiteness surrounds our hands Like a halo of ice.

Santiago de Chile, 11 December

and formal. This change certainly may reflect the differences between Houellebecq and Bowd as individuals, but these isolated perceptions are not the only ones at stake. In between linguistic codes lies a sort of gray matter, where meanings mutate and adapt. I can look at what is lost in this process, or I can acknowledge what is gained. The poem hasn’t just been translated, it has been rewritten. And it will continue to be rewritten both on paper and by each individual understanding of it thereafter.

This is the hopefully only the first installment in a new series of articles I, again hopefully, will write. These will be linked by the topic of translation and will explore what this discipline tries to put into perspective. I don’t mean translating a poem, or watching a foreign film, but rather the transmission of ideas into different codes. I am translating my thoughts into the English language to write this article, and you will translate these symbols back into conceptual thought to understand what these symbols represent. Heidegger would have us believe that the author is only a translator, a mouthpiece for contemporaneous society.

But I would not reduce the author so greatly.

Houellebecq must be considered in his proper context. Works of art are refractions of moments through individual perceptions.

Valuable on their own, yes, but all the more so when a society collectively interprets them.

The moment will stand alone, but the works borne out of it will come to reflect not only the moment of origin, but of each subsequent, individualized understanding.

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS!!

Do you practice or study translation from/ into a non-English language? I would love to interview you and feature your translation in the subsequent iterations of this column.

Please email me at mrabot@oberlin.edu.

ART BY NELL BECK.

Nos regards s’entrecroisent, interrogeant en vain L’épaisseur de l’espace Dont la blancheur fatale enveloppe nos mains Comme un halo de glace.

And in the thin air a storm’s umbilical cord Develops and twists; It rises from the valley like a dark prophecy, Like a breath of death.

French society.

Bluntly speaking, these poems are beautiful.

I enjoy seeing novelists exercise so much restraint when adhering to a more exacting form. Houellebecq, an author who excels in manipulating the structural aspects of the novel, is an intriguing case for precisely the aforementioned reason. Despite the apparent hurdles, he seems to find freedom in the more restrictive structure of poetry. He adheres to the typical patterns, employing rudimentary rhyme schemes and pacing. But where his prose is distinctly bizarre, his poetry is subtly so. His created worlds are those that we readers recognize, but like Stepford Wives, or Get Out, there is a surreal quality to the air therein.

This poem, Variation 49: The Final Journey, exemplifies Houellebecq’s odd world-building choices. A plane lets off its passengers mid-air above the Andes Mountains. Imbued with their essentialized mortality, the passengers step down into oblivion and revel in the awesome power of nature. This stanza intertwines the human and the natural, in both essence and form. While I think Bowd generally does a good job in prioritizing the essence over the form in this compilation, there are inherent issues in any linguistic translation. The line, “Les voyageurs descendent”/ “The travellers get off” encapsulates the intrinsic reshaping that results from such an endeavor. The French “descendent” does indeed mean to get off, but it also implies a lowering, as in descend. High above the Andes, this descent signifies an admiration of nature – further intensified by the onrushing tornado – and reverence toward the eventuality of death itself. This transcendental element is lost in the space between these two codes. But thereby gained is an awareness of finiteness, a humble resignation perhaps. If Houellebecq’s original poem is typically French in its skeptic romanticism, Bowd’s translation is the archetypal British counterpoint, succinct

Halloween Never Ends 3 Underrated Horror Films

BY JOEY SHAPIRO CONTRIBUTING WRITER

PIECES (1982, Juan Piquer Simón) Slashers get a bad reputation from critics, and there’s certainly some good reasoning behind that – more often than not, they’re mindless, half-baked, and deeply rooted in violent misogyny. Pieces is all of these things and more, but at least it doesn’t pretend that it isn’t; the tagline on the poster, after all, is, “It’s exactly what you think it is.”

The appeal of slashers lies in their morbid creativity with which characters are killed off, and few are as absurd and creative as this blood-soaked cult classic about a disturbed man who loves jigsaw puzzles enough to make a Frankenstein-esque creation out of his victims’ body parts.

Whether the film is self-aware or not is debatable – most of the dialogue is laughably bad (“The most beautiful thing in the world is smoking pot and fucking on a waterbed at the same time”) and there are too many plot holes to count – but it passes with flying colors in terms of sheer gruesomeness. Much of the blood and gore is authentic, taken from animal carcasses in a

PHOTOS PROVIDED BY JOEY SHAPIRO

It’s hard to be a horror fan in today’s wintry scary movie climate; I can count the number of great horror movies from the past seven years on one hand, maybe two if I’m being generous. James Wan movies, sequels, and James Wan-directed sequels are some of the only horror movies being released right now, which is a bummer, as the genre of horror has the potential to dig deep and speak to the most profound fears and anxieties of an era. So, while we’re waiting for Jordan Peele to make his next movie, check out these three underviewed and underrated horror movies from decades past.

DAUGHTERS OF DARKNESS (1971) Spanish slaughterhouse, and one particularly intense disembowelment scene features a close-up of a dead pig actually being cut open in place of a human.

That being said, most of the film takes on a comic tone rather than a nauseating one. Is it a clever parody of over-the-top slashers? Is it a so-bad-it’s-good disaster à la Nightmare on Elm Street 2 or Nic Cage’s The Wicker Man remake?

Literally who cares — it’s about a human jigsaw puzzle! It doesn’t have to mean anything and it very likely wasn’t intended to; just lose yourself in the incompetent acting and stunning lack of restraint.

PIECES (1982)

DAUGHTERS OF DARKNESS (1971, Harry Kümel) Vampires: are they super gay or super straight? This is a question that has been explored numerous times throughout film history via characters like Christopher Lee’s seductive hetero Count Dracula in

The Horror of Dracula and Tim Kramer’s very-not-hetero Count Gaylord in the seminal horror film Gayracula.

Notorious directors like Jean Rollin and Jess Franco have also built careers off this notion of homoerotic vampirism – specifically lesbian vampires. They sometimes handled this tastefully, but more often than not it was played as exploitative and very male-gazey, placing far more emphasis on nudity and the reenactment of male fantasies than on the actual horror elements. Their films, while surely well-respected among cult audiences, lean more towards softcore porn than thoughtful, artistic cinema.

Harry K mel’s landmark vampire film Daughters of Darkness is the rare gay vampire drama that avoids that pitfall of exploitation entirely. Gothic, elegant, and above all drenched in visual poetry, this is a film that exists in dialogue with exploitation cinema but ultimately has much more in common with Jim Jarmusch’s Only Lovers Left Alive than it does with Jess Franco’s The BareBreasted Countess.

The film is worth the price of admission (or effort of online pirating, more likely) for its stunning lead performance: Last Year at Marienbad features Delphine Seyrig as Elizabeth Bathory, a name that should raise a massive red flag to anyone well-versed in medieval serial killers, yet one that means nothing to the newlyweds staying in the same Belgian hotel as her. Bathory

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Suburbs to Oberlin Culture Shock

BY LUCY KAMINSKY CONTRIBUTING WRITER

INFERNO (1980) inserts herself into their already-tumultuous relationship – the husband is implied to be in the closet and is also just an abusive tool – and begins the process of seducing his wife. Seyrig hardly plays Bathory as a bloodthirsty monster – instead, she is worldly, elegant, well-spoken, even luxurious: an upper-class woman who wears feather boas and extravagant dresses and, ironically, reveals this self-absorbed bourgeois couple to be capable of the same cruelty as her.

The film as a whole practically redefines beauty in horror, filmed with fluid cinematography in painterly shades of red, white, and black – not an accident in that it’s meant to associate Seyrig’s character with the cold efficiency of Nazis – and blurs the visual line between horror and eroticism so well that it can’t easily be classified as either. It’s hardly spooky – even the blood is pretty light for a vampire film – but it’s certainly among the best and most criminally underseen films in homoerotic vampire cinema history.

INFERNO (1980, Dario Argento) There’s a case to be made that Dario Argento’s Suspiria is the greatest horror movie ever made. It’s got it all: vivid neon lights! Ballet witches! Gallons of blood! A prog rock soundtrack that can only be described as “fucking bananas”! It’s Dario Argento’s masterpiece, and if you haven’t seen it, then you should stop reading this article and watch it literally right now.

Argento had a very dramatic and kind of hilarious fall from grace in the late-80s that led to him making a now-infamous 3D adaptation of Dracula featuring a giant praying mantis and

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a really truly very uncomfortable number of nude scenes for his daughter Asia. However, before he devolved in grasshopper-based horror, he made a number of other brilliant post-Suspiria horror movies that mimicked that film’s approach of extreme style over substance. 1980’s Inferno was perhaps his most cohesive and stylistically bold film; a sort-of-sequel to Suspiria that builds upon the mythology of its predecessor, it takes the style of that film one step further into dreamlike territory and relies almost entirely on mood and atmosphere instead of narrative.

It loosely follows different characters hunting down the second of the “Three Mothers,” a trio of witches who rule the world from different locations. The first witch was in Germany and was featured in Suspiria, and this film features the second, who rules from New York City.

The narrative is very much downplayed in favor of surreal visual mystique and unsettling atmosphere; the film is genuinely hypnotic, even more so than Suspiria, and could easily take the cake for the most gorgeous horror movie of the 1980s. The score by prog rock legend Keith Emerson (of Emerson, Lake, & Palmer fame) is fittingly grandiose, running the gamut from wild keyboard solos to apocalyptic choral outbursts. It borders on being too over-the-top, but so do the scores of pretty much every Argento movie, so that’s hardly a surprise. There’s no question that Argento first-timers should start with Suspiria, the most revolutionary film he made and arguably his best, but Inferno certainly gives it a run for its very dreamy money as the lesser-seen of his two art-horror masterpieces.

Contact contributor jshapir2@oberlin.edu.

Joey

Shapiro

at

Like many Oberlin students, I came here from a upper-middle-class suburb of a city. My graduating high school class consisted almost entirely of people I met in kindergarten. I expected to be surprised by my first semester here, not only because of the Oberlin’s reputation, but also because I would be unfamiliar with everyone I was interacting with.

First-years like myself can be taken aback by some of things we see at Oberlin, but people’s reactions vary depending on their previous experiences. A friend from Brookline, Massachusetts was startled by the “short” three to four page paper requirements. Other friends of mine weren’t expecting to see so much smoking and drinking on campus.

Meanwhile, many people said their high schools were “just like Oberlin” and they were surprised that the environment was so similar.

It’s easy to understand how upperclassmen become so accustomed to Oberlin’s strange culture once they’ve been here for some time. There are plenty of things I’m startled by that probably seem pretty normal to upperclassmen. For instance, someone interrupted my study group in Mudd to sell drugs, something I had never witnessed before coming here. Other friends have told me that they’re confused by people who don’t wear shoes on campus. As another first year put it, she kept seeing “grown-ass men who are not wearing shoes...like, we get it you’re a vegan!” Friends also shared how they aren’t used to the degree to which people discuss their emotions, brazen conversations about sex, and how often people smoke weed.

When you haven’t shared a bathroom with a dozen or so people before, college can be a little weird

at first. Oberlin in particular is an adjustment, as many of the shower curtains don’t actually close. You have to eventually accept that the dude who lives two doors down from you might see you in the shower. It’s all good.

I’m sure most first-years at Oberlin are heavily prepared for the portion of the student body who bike around campus, but not the subculture of those who skate and penny board, let alone the occasional rollerblader.

Many of us weren’t even aware that people still skateboarded, and may or may not have had to google “penny board” when it came up in conversation.

I know other new students also didn’t expect Facebook to play such an integral part in our experiences; it seems that everything, even parties, needs to have a Facebook event. Even friends of mine who had gone all of high school without a Facebook are now considering making one in order to keep up with social activities.

But Oberlin culture shock doesn’t have to be a bad thing. Plenty of people definitely aren’t used to introducing themselves with their pronouns, practicing radical truthfulness about mental health, or engaging in constant conversations around consent, but these are all things that many students benefit from.

Invariably during your Oberlin experience, there will be moments where you ask yourself “What the actual fuck is going on here?” That’s cool. You don’t need to answer. Part of being at Oberlin is not explaining everything and just accepting that it’s happening.

Contact contributor Lucy Kaminsky at lkaminsky@oberlin.edu.

Drink Drank Drunk Overnight Fireball

BY SYD GARVIS COLUMNIST - INGREDIENTS • • • • • •

Mason jar with lid Bottle of inexpensive whiskey 1 shot (1.5 oz) honey 3 dashes cinnamon 3 dashes red pepper flakes or cayenne (optional) Cheesecloth or paper towels for filtering

- PREPARATION In your mason jar or less blatantly-hipster container with a lid, mix whiskey, honey, dashes of cinnamon and red pepper flakes.

2. Shake well and leave to sit overnight.

3. After 24 hours or longer, wet a couple layers of cheesecloth or paper towels and strain your homemade Fireball.

ART BY SYD GARVIS

The bartender I talked to said they leave this overnight, but many recipes online say to let this sit for up to a week. In my experience, this overnight recipe works well.

However, while we college students know we’re going to be drinking the next weekend, there is little to no data that shows that we would plan that far ahead.

of why it’s not socially acceptable to pound an Irish car bomb alone. (Of course, there is a third role that can’t be overlooked: who is going to pay for these shots? Safe to say Patricia’s got us covered this round.) So, being the person that no one else knew in this group, and therefore having nothing to risk or lose, of course I stepped up to fill the role of the 7pm shot pusher. People seemed to be into it, but only to the extent that you can be into taking shots when other people’s’ parents are around.

Patricia and I got up, went to the bar, and asked for 9 shots of Fireball. The bartender even asked if we wanted a tray for them. While he was pouring, we asked him how they make it, and it’s surprisingly simple - follow the recipe above for a slightly modified version! We went back to the table, and Patricia made a very mom-ish toast.

I think I felt her daughter’s eye roll, but we all took shots and they went down really smooth!

1.

I don’t know about you, but all the times I’ve visited and gone out with a friend at another college, there’s this occasional, insecure echo in my head that Oberlin is the wrong school for me. I’ve had to remind myself once or twice that I’m only getting a stress-free weekend snapshot of life in this new place.

I visited a friend this fall break and had this experience when we went out to the college’s bar. We went out to this bar with her friends and one of her friend’s parents, and got talking about how everyone was, where they were from, and how the school year was going. My friend’s friend’s wonderful mom (let’s name her Patricia, because I really have no recollection of what her name was and Patricia seems like a very mom name to me) got to asking what everyone was drinking and someone mentioned that this bar’s hidden gem was $4 shots of homemade infused cinnamon whiskey. Patricia suggested jokingly, “We should take shots and try their Fireball!” then asked her daughter, “what kind of liquor is Fireball again?”

You see, in this type of social situation- drinking in a group that doesn’t really know each other at 7pm on a Saturday- there are two roles that need to be filled if shots are going to be taken. One person has to float the idea of shots, and a second person needs to push for it to become a reality. Social norms tell us that one person cannot be both the suggester and the pusher of the idea of shots at 7pm. It’s more of an unspoken one-two punch.

This phenomenon is governed by the same reasoning

Letter of Recommendation Settlers of Catan

BY ANNA POLACEK COLUMNIST “College is the best four years of your life.” You’ve all heard this cliché. After graduation, we’re supposed to leave with top knowledge, an evolved sense of style, and the best friendships of our lives. But with all that college requires of us, it’s hard to balance academics, social life, and fashion (or becoming a functional adult, whatever), and there’s so much pressure to be perfect in all of them!

When is that paper due? Where is everyone buying these perfectly fitted Carhartt pants? Is Charlie’s birthday this Friday or was it last Friday?

Between classes and online shopping for that fresh Oberlin fit, I often find it hard to carve out time with my friends. But whenever I’m feeling estranged from my buds, I know I can just shoot the text “Catan?” and they’ll be at my dorm room within minutes.

Let me explain. “Catan” — short for “Settlers of Catan” — is the best board game on earth. The game is played with two to four players, who each attempt to build

and develop settlements while trading and acquiring resources. You are awarded points as your settlements grow; the first to reach ten points is the winner. Yes, it’s nerdy. But it’s fun, so shut up.

Way back in my first semester of freshman year, lonely little me had a hard time making friends. But I soon fell into the crowd I love so dearly now, and Catan has been with us through it all. It’s during these games that I can catch up on Charlie’s daily woes, Harris’ thoughts on current events, and PJ’s latest tinder swipe. When life gets hectic, and there’s not much time to spend with friends, times like these are cherishable. I recommend getting a board game reserved for just you and your friends, and you and your friends only. You could try Monopoly or Chutes and Ladders, but nothing really adds up to Catan.

Contact columnist Anna Polacek at apolacek@oberlin.edu.

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Izzy Rosenstein Stick & Poke Star PHOTOS PROVIDED BY SYD GARVIS

BY SYD GARVIS COLUMNIST The first stick and poke Izzy Rosenstein ever did was the name Joe Biden dotted across the butt of her British friend. Another notable “client” of Izzy’s wanted the word “psycho” tattooed on her body, and while Rosenstein says she never tries to talk anyone out of a tattoo that may be meaningful to them, this client of hers did eventually decide on a sprig of lavender instead. She makes sure that they think it through, because although it’s a homemade form of art, it is still very permanent.

As far as permanent body art goes, stick and pokes are a really accessible form. The basic supplies needed are ink, a needle, string, and a lot of patience. Rosenstein uses India ink and secures her needle on the eraser end of a wooden pencil. One small tattoo can take a lot of time – Rosenstein says each usually takes 45 minutes to an hour, and sometimes it takes one or two sessions to really make the outline much darker.

Rosenstein has received tattoos from other stick-andpokers as well as giving one to herself. “Because I was focusing so much on doing it, I don’t think it was as painful as when other people have done them to me”, Rosenstein commented on being her own subject. Her own work can be found on her ankle.

In addition to doing stick and pokes, Rosenstein keeps a sketchbook regularly. Before giving a tattoo, she and her client sketch out the design they want over and

over. She also takes classes in the art department, and is currently in the printmaking class. She says it’s “the most challenging medium [she’s] ever worked with”, which is hard to believe seeing as her other mediums are ink on a needle on a human. “Art is a really important part of my life,” Rosenstein stated, adding that tattooing and the other forms of art she does are very different.

Izzy says her sketches differ from the images she tattoos because they need to be very simple. It’s also unique from sketching or painting because “other people usually have something in mind that they usually want to get, and I work with them… it’s more cooperative, led by them.” To Rosenstein, stick-and-poking is a very particular form of art, because her medium is permanent ink, and her canvas is someone’s skin. Additionally, stick and pokes and the artists who execute them all have their own style, and they could be classified as a modern, popular pointilism because of the technique of inserting the ink.

One of the most special tattoos she’s done was giving her mom a heart stick and poke on the side of

her torso. “She was really insistent on me filling it in… definitely one of the times where I had a more clear idea of what I was expecting to do, and then she decided something different.” She’s also tattooed a sailboat, a pine tree, a branch, three mountain peaks with a sun, and her most complicated tattoo to date, a treble clef on her friends finger.

As for her Joe Biden client, who was very certain he wanted the then-Vice President’s name on his butt, he stated a couple days after Rosenstein tattooed him, “I’m starting to realize how permanent this is.” Think before you tat, kids!

Contact columnist Syd Garvis at sgarvis@oberlin.edu.

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Oberlin Student Has Some Faccachta Winter Term Plan Ex-Girlfriend Thinks She Spots Ex-Boyfriend, Turns Out It’s Just An Emotionally Unavailable Lamp Hiding in the Corner of the Rathskeller

Oberlin Crush Turtle Is Actually a 2 Foot Goblin Living Under Wilder Desk

Amazing: This Squirrel Has Learned To Crack Nuts With Verbal Abuse

Recent Google Searches

BY SYDNEY GARVIS CONTRIBUTING WRITER

BY THE FOOL BAD HABITS WRITER GROUND FLOOR CEILING, WILDER HALL – Oberlin students new and old were surprised by the bombshell announcement made earlier today that the true administrator of the Oberlin Crushes facebook page is a two-foot tall goblin named Tommy who currently resides underneath Wilder Desk.

“I’ve been pretty reluctant to make any public appearances yet,” says Tommy. “This, in itself, is a big first step for me.”

Tommy hopes this announcement will bring more attention to the low wages he receives as the Steward of Wilder. The pointy-eared, sharp-toothed creature claims he had sent many requests for higher pay to the Office of the President, which he believes were mistaken for a student prank.

Originally from Boston, Tommy came to northeast Ohio for “snark-work”, which he described as a form of pest control in which “you may eat what you kill.” “Food is not a huge issue, at least,” claims the 93-year-old floorboard denizen, “There’s plenty of spiders and black mold to feed on above the ceilings and between the insulation, although I do help myself to a sandwich or two from the desk on occasion.”

Tommy started Oberlin Crushes years ago to learn more about the student body, after swiping a checked-out Macbook off the desk. “I learned way, way too much,” He says, laughing. “It was a bit weird to know something so intimate about the student

Continued on next page.

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body before anyone else, but after a while, I recognized these anxious kids just needed an outlet.”

However, Tommy has reportedly assumed more responsibilities in his job and would like to receive greater compensation to reflect his efforts. “Who do you think has been shutting off the WOBC transmitter when the Tuesday 4 a.m. DJ doesn’t show up two weeks in a row? If it weren’t for me, we’d be up to our neck in FCC fines.”

Tommy says things changed for him after going to the Feve for a drink for the first time.

“Every third moon, I like to do a little something special for myself. But I saw those prices on the menu and said out loud, ‘Mamma Mia, that’s fucking expensive’,” The redskinned blue-collar worker denies the subsequent stares had anything to do with being a goblin. “I guess they assumed I was a townie.”

Tommy denies his low pay has anything to being partially demonic in nature. “Completely, 100% not about race,” He says, adding “ [The college] would pay any staff the same, whether you’re a ghost, a goblin, a man or a rat-man. Definitely a socioeconomic issue.”

The mischievous spirit warns that his social contribution could begin to dry up, if demands go unmet. “I don’t ask for a lot – I got a foot and a half of crawl space between the first floor and the basement, and the asbestos keeps me warm all winter, but ignore my requests and I will ignore those crushes.”

Item: Exposed Industrial Radiator Medium: Loose Screws Location: South (Mary Kellogg House)

Is That An Art Installation, or Are We Just Broke?

BY LIAM RUSSO BAD HABITS WRITER Item: Rustic Door with Padlock that Opens to a Wall Medium: More Cement Location: Peters

Item: Avanti Mirror Microwave for the Bourgeois Medium: Platinum Location: Azzys Item: Handmade Exit Sign + Abstract Sharpie Scribble Medium: Crayola Bargain Marker Set Location: Talcott Basement

Item: Irish Capped Man Smoking Cigar and Circling Tappan Medium: Possible Performance Art Current Location: Tappan

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Item: Hand Painted Trophy Wife Inscription Medium: White Out Location: South (Mary Kellogg House obv)

level. A) Patience B) Keep a good face on C) Be prepared for confusion D) Love all that relates to the past. It ends on Dec. 22nd. But life doesn’t get totally un-wonky until the 31st.

Cancer: The New Moon on the 18th is dynamic, and it’s gonna to be pulling you back in a bit. Hopefully you’ve been getting out and expanding your world, but right now, tighten up. The energy for envisioning and manifesting is at play. Try not to let worries screw up the conjuring.

Leo: You need to rise far, far above. Big up high. Lotsa perspective. I recommend meditation. And hey, it could be just light a candle, sort of stare at it, chill, and get as far-out as possible. Music is fine, as long as it’s instrumental. But you need to get out of the mundane, for that’s key to your personal, and worldly, upcoming success.

Virgo: Psychic powers activated.

Clarity of mind intact. This can be pretty awesome, but a little troublesome, cause truly, who wants to know The Truth. Right? Nov. 24th-30th, a bunch of this stuff goes down and so, bear with it. If it gets to be too much, play with your plants, or plant bulbs you can trick into blooming in springtime.

Horoscopes

For the Weeks of Nov. 18 — Dec. 1, 2017

BY LAUREL KIRTZ LOCAL ASTROLOGIST Aries: Get ready for the 18th/19th — it’s going to be no joke, and it’ll set the tone for a couple weeks. I wouldn’t call it “drama” necessarily, but more like”’issues” will be abounding. Go with your gut. And avoid anyone with whom you behave as versions of yourself that you are no longer interested in being.

Taurus: You may be thinking of how to realistically find ways to save time, money, and energy. Both in the short-term and long-term. Strangely, the answer is to come from your intuition, not logic. Or a circumstance that forces insight to arise.

Open Your Mind. Love is tuff on the 20th, but in a deep, tender fashion.

Gemini: OK, so Mercury is going into retrograde and I know you hate hearing that. But let me simplify the main gist, in hopes that you’ll take it seriously on some

Libra: I’m sad that I still don’t have much joy to predict. But all in good time.

You might want to plan adventuring for December, because change is inevitable.

‘Til then, life will be a bit challenging and somewhat confusing, esp. around Nov. 30th-Dec. 1st. Staying flexible is helpful, but don’t get too loose.

Scorpio: The Nov. 18th new moon will have a big impact, and thus it’s moonly cycle will as well. It’s going to bring to light tension that gets overlooked, the ways in which you aren’t feeling secure, along with how you find comfort. Now if you don’t fall into old habits, you can have some amazing progress come Dec. 2nd. So keep in mind it’s your LUCKY YEAR, and forge forward.

Sagittarius: Hap B season is upon thee.

Yay! Cause everyone loves when the sun’s in your sign. Dec. 2nd is going to be rad for mind, body and soul. Things have been getting better and it’s about time breakthroughs came round. And even though Mercury is going to be in retrograde in your sign pretty soon, enough good stuff is happening that I bet it won’t matter.

Capricorn: Tho life is kinda tense around Nov. 19th-21st, the 28th-30th will be the sweet spot of the next couple weeks.

Your networking is working. You’re sitting pretty. You could even get to a state which you’ve been really wishing to reach.

Challenges are going to be useful at this time, as opposed to oppressive, so take ‘em on.

Aquarius: Your originality is being reborn and awoken with the new moon cycle starting on the 18th. And throughout the coming weeks, varied aspects of your core personality will be lit up and engaged. You may even surprise YOURSELF. Metaphor being like when you say something funny, and you completely crack yourself up.

Pisces: Last issue I was wrong ‘bout your ruler Neptune being in retrograde ‘til January. It changes direction right nowish. What I meant to say is, life starts really moving smoothly when 2018 kicks in. But currently it’s tide turning times, and chances to work on some productive healing. Communication sucks on Nov. 24th, but Dec. 2nd is Mysterious Super Lucky day!

Astrologer, creative life-coach, and user of popular oracle tools such as tarot cards and the i-ching. You may have seen the Loracle around town dressed as Lucy from Charlie Brown providing advice for a mere 5 cents. She is now at The Grape, translating the whispers of angels into typed copy for your benefit.

Email questions for which you seek advice to The Grape at thegrape@oberlin.edu with subject line “LORACLE.”

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We are Different Isabel(le)s

BY ISABEL KLEIN AND ISABELLE KENET BAD HABITS EDITOR AND BAD HABITS WRITER Lately it seems that there’s been some confusion about which annoying Jewish girl named Isabel(le) people are talking shit about, and we want to set the record straight: ISABELLE KENET AND ISABEL KLEIN ARE NOT THE SAME PERSON. Yes, they both write for The Grape. Yes, they’re both from New York. But they’re not exactly the same! Here are some fun facts to help you tell them apart.

BOTH -still eat in CDS like dumb pro-capitalist morons (stevie is our favorite, dascomb is where we go when we need to quickly inhale flavorless protein) -have relatively big feet for women -are plagued by acid reflux that is both triggered by negative emotions and triggers negative emotions -have lil brothers :)

ISABEL KLEIN

ISABELLE KENET

-From WESTCHESTER, FUCK YOU

-From NEW YORK CITY, FUCK YOU

-Has a devastating 47-day menstrual cycle

-Has a stress-free 4-day menstrual cycle

-never cries, instead gives herself stomach ulcers

-can be brought to tears by Shrek The Musical

-perfectly capable of wearing rings

-is sent into a spiral of panic and discomfort if she wears a ring

-indifferent to reptiles

-loves reptiles

-has photos of her smiling on Facebook

-only scowls on the toilet in facebook photos

-not too spooked at night, lives alone

-very spooked at night, refuses to ever live alone

-writes about sex

-talks about sex

-Kombucha flavor: Strawberry serenity

-Kombucha flavor: lemonade

-finsta: ibs queen [removed from the internet for extreme vulgarity]

-finsta: 100 percent switch [extant]

-existentially puking always

-pukes only rarely, most recently on the street on the fourth of july

-sticky

-slimy

-straight

-narrow

-salami

-bologne

-The Sopranos

-RuPaul’s Drag Race

-Target

-Costco

-Vodka

-Marinara

-hates when people spell her name Isabelle

-hates when people spell her name Isabel

-truly extremely serious

-very silly

-turkey

-ham

We hope this diagram helps you make sense of this crazy situation! You can even cut it out and carry it in your pocket just in case.

Isabelle is a Bad Habits writer. Isabel is a Bad Habits editor. You can contact Isabel Klein at ikenet@oberlin.edu and Isabelle Kenet at iklein@oberlin.edu.

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Potty Mouths:

Off Planet Special

BY PLUSHYTOY666 BAD HABITS WRITER Last week on Potty Mouths, we took a stroll downtown, exploring some of poop’s most popular off-campus destinations.

This week, Plushtoy666 is out sick, so we hired their roommate and interplanetary journalist magnoliaCock7 to tell us a little bit about shit’s most popular interstellar destination: the Shit Planet. **All characters, events and places in this piece are entirely fictional, and any perceived resemblances to real individuals or corporations are coincidental.** The Shit Planet—His callouses squeezed wet against the lacquered wood of his shovel. Perspiration gathered like a stormcloud on his brow, and his knuckles, red and swollen, lifted to give his face a cursory wipe. The stink of his hand made him throw up in his mouth. He wished the Covenant would let the smell go away, but he recalled being told how important it was that he, the Shit Digger, should remember just how bad shit smells.

“Everyone poops,” goes the famous mantra, immortalized in children’s literature by Taro Gome. A little later, David Simon noted that “shit rolls downhill,” and brilliantly used this observation to explore power dynamics in the chain of command in a crumbling Baltimore police department. The Shit Digger is reminded of both of those things every day, by the immensity of the cloudlike behemoths of shit that roll thundering from the sky into his great shit-field.

When the last Great War ended and the Outer Systems were united, efficiency was finally implemented top-down to the glee

of managers and assholes everywhere.

Paramount to the goal of efficiency was wasting as absolutely little as possible, and the Covenant sought to achieve this in part through a relentless recycling program.

Nothing was wasted if it could be helped, and so great became their powers of reuse that they outstripped Nature herself.

Even the human body, fine-tuned by millions of years of evolution, creates waste. This waste, particularly stinky and brown, is funnelled from every toilet in civilization and rocketed through space and time into the singularity that is the Shit Dump. In the Shit Dump (Where is it?

When is it? The Shit Digger does not know, although he does know why he hasn’t been told, for if he could have plotted an escape course out of there he would have done it

items are discarded or recycled accordingly. The Covenant gets over 1,000 pounds of coins a day from this filter.

Further filters screen for other items, objects and materials of interest. Never-before-seen microorganisms are identified, categorized and catalogued by the billions. Bugs and other small living things are re-routed to the Biology department. Raw carbon is extracted and sent to the factories on the opposite side of the universe. Metals are withdrawn and sent to forges, raw fiber is sent to Kellog’s, and undigested dairy products are cleaned and sent back to the Intergalactic Federation of MilkMen. No stone is left unturned.

At the end of the process there’s usually almost nothing left, but what little remains is burned, and the ashes are sent to the mysterious Ash Dump that the Shit Digger knows very little about.

While life and death have become pawns of the state and flesh is no longer as mortal as it was, the human mind remains too complex for even the Covenant to master. The Shit Digger, terrible in his immortality and forever shaking in fatigue, asks himself again and again why a Covenant so technologically advanced, so rich in resources, and with a mechanical system already in place to analyze all the shit, cannot simply get a robot arm to shovel it. Time and time again he drops his shovel, falls to his knees and cries this question to the shitty heavens. Time and

“EVEN THE HUMAN BODY, FINE-TUNED BY MILLIONS OF YEARS OF EVOLUTION, CREATES WASTE.” eons ago), the Shit Digger digs through the shit, searching for things that can be used again. There’s several layers to the filtration process. The first is the Shit Digger himself - although everything that enters his world has allegedly come out of a human rectum, you’d be surprised at the size of some of the objects he’s picked up with his shovel.

Each scoop of shit in his shovel is put into a big metal box, where it’s pushed through a sheet of metal with very small holes.

Thus are removed objects small enough to fit in his shovel, but big enough to be seen by the naked eye. These objects are then sorted through wonderful machines, scanning for weight, material, consistency and other attributes, and eventually these

time again, the Covenant gently reminds him that Man, removed from many of the weaknesses of flesh, must remember what their Shit smells like so as not to forget why they flush it away. And with the eons he forgets again, and asks again, and is answered, again, in a whirlwind as pointless and forever as Time herself. magnoliaCock7 is an interplanetary journalist and failed sci-fi novelist. She writes for The Lonely Galaxy and likes to bake in her spare time. She can’t be contacted by Earth phones, so if you want to reach her, contact her roommate Plushtoy666 at plushtoy666@gmail.com

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NEUTRON BY LEORA SWERDLOW

Ask Bolbi

An Advice Column

BY SAM SCHUMAN BAD HABITS WRITER Recently, The Grape was lucky enough to track down the notoriously reclusive Bolbi Stroganovsky, the Backhairistan-born former Jimmy Neutron star and noted advice columnist, at his summer home in Amherst, Ohio. The celebrated self-help guru declined to be interviewed at length; however, he did agree to answer some reader-submitted questions.

Note: as Bolbi is notorious for being a bit cryptic despite his brilliance, The Grape has clarified a few of his answers, noted in brackets.

Dear Bolbi: There’s this guy on campus who just won’t leave me alone. What can I do to get him to go away, and what’s the best reaction I can expect from my friends afterwards?

Slap slap slap, clap clap clap Dear Bolbi: My girlfriend and I are getting a little bit bored in the bedroom, if you know what I mean. What can we do to spice things up?

Slap slap slap, clap clap clap

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Dear Bolbi: I’m playing a gig on the electric bass soon, and I need to figure out how to play the bass but also what to do during spots where I’m not playing. Any suggestions?

Slap slap slap, clap clap clap

Wow, that was pretty good. Can you do a haiku next?

Slap slap slap slap slap Clap clap clap clap clap clap clap Slap Slap Slap Slap Slap How about a sonnet? slap slap slap, clap clap [Fuck off.]

Dear Bolbi: My mother recently came to parents weekend and she told me she disapproved of my roommate because she smokes weed and masturbates to pictures of Ira Glass while I’m in the room. What’s the best way for me to tell my mom that I was hurt by her comments and I love my roommate? slap slap slap [your mom], clap clap clap [for your roommate].

Dear Bolbi: It’s Debra. I hope you’re still doing all right. I can’t stop thinking about the last fight we had before I took the kids to stay at my sister’s place. I don’t want things to end like this, you’re the only man I can imagine myself with. Is there anything I can do to get you to take me back?

Slap slap slap [it’s over, Debra] clap clap clap [give my love to the kids]

Dear Bolbi: I need to write a poem with an AAABBB rhyme scheme. Any suggestions?

Slap Slap Slap Clap Clap Clap

Send Sam your best slash fiction at sschuman@ oberlin.edu

SEX AND THE OC

BY ISABEL KLEIN BAD HABITS EDITOR A column that dissects questions about hook up culture for each issue.

Email the writer with your questions or stories or what the fuck, dude? moments and we’ll talk about it together, very publicly.

“Relationship Guy” (noun): a dude who has an alleged preference for monogamy, and speaks about it often, often condescendingly.

Nothing’s a lady boner killer quite like being told you shouldn’t pursue a dude casually because he’s a “Relationship Guy.” I mean, truly, what kind of asshole has that reputation?

There’s a specific look you’re given when you even casually inquire to a friend about one of these guys. Your friend’s eyes are almost like the smeared biblical lamb blood on the doorway of this potential hook up, warning you to Pass Over this guy, because, he won’t even look at you unless he actually likes you first. It’s like, “Oh no! Stay away! He’s gonna want to ‘respect you’ and take you on dates before you can talk to him!” I, or any pursuer who can relate, end up feeling like such a schmuck. We don’t get the guy, and we are stuck with all this unleavened fucking bread, a hike through the desert, and lamb blood.

What I think is additionally interesting about the “Relationship Guy” concept is that I have never heard of a woman being deemed similarly. I have never heard a group of guys talk about a girl, and then have one of them pipe up and be like “Oh! Not her! She respects herself too much to associate with you casually. She’s a Relationship Gal.” No – it would seem more likely that they’d say something about how she “doesn’t do that” or blatantly is just a prude. (I asked many different friends about this assumption – they whole heartedly agreed. There is my statistical back up—take that The Oberlin Review.)

It makes sense that the “Relationship Guy” moniker came from sensitive men wanting to separate themselves from the sex-craved, disrespectful, perverted “typical men” that surround them.

However, like most ways men try to superficially claim they are different, the sentiment seems not necessarily false, but just so condescending.

Per my other statistically accurate research, I’ve found that a person is deeming himself a “Relationship Guy” for three main reasons: 1. He has a girl in his home and he’s trying to get laid so he wants to seem sensitive or give her false hope that this may turn into a relationship, which he assumes she wants because, well, she’s a girl!

2. He simply cannot get laid, ever, and, trust us, he would totally fuck some random girl if he could, but he can’t, because he’s a dick, or is experiencing early male pattern baldness… so he needs an excuse.

3. He does like falling in love. 3 Aw, how nice. But okay, tbh who doesn’t? Not all of us want relationships all the time of course, but when he says he just “loves love” is like adamantly admitting he’s against child molestation or cancer – duh, Oh Sensitive One. I don’t think it’s bad to like being in relationships or be at a point in your life when you need more intimacy and support. God bless. Call me your dime-store Betty Friedan or whatever, but I just find the disparity between “Relationship Guys” and women who don’t like casual hook ups as “They Just Don’t Do That Gals” striking. It’s also simply amusing to watch a so-called “Relationship Guy” grind with one girl while making out with another. But what else do we expect from a guy who just wants to find deep, passionate, all-consuming love?

Isabel is still singing Hamilton in the shower. Email her at iklein@oberlin.edu.

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