Steve Almond

Anyone can write a story about people addressing and going after their desires, few people can do it in such a real setting as Steve Almond. In fact, as I realized just how real he portrays his characters I didn’t expect to learn much from this lecture. I have to admit and apologize for the fact that I started this lecture with a prejudice set in my mind, this started when he first said the line “there will be fucking”. I saw a crudeness that blocked me from really feeling his words and looking beyond the imagery that was produced. He forced my mind to see two different scenarios in his readings. One story was about two people of very average appearance sloppily pushing together in the throes of passion and another was about skull fucking a girl without an eye. However, at the end of the first story you learn that part of the reason why the woman was so sloppy was the fact that she had a disease which impaired her coordination. This made me stop and think about what Almond was actually saying by putting these average people in a highly romantic situation with very really personas, desires, and looks. At the end of the second story with the question and answer session I was further relieved of my prejudice when he talked about how he wanted to give real emotions and feelings to a subject as private and taboo as skull fucking. Now I understand what Steve Almond was trying to teach me about how realness is nothing to be afraid of. We should not lie to ourselves by have unrealistic expectations towards any sort of life experience, especially sex. The beauty of his writing is in the reality.

The first thing I learned from Steve Almond, once I stopped feeling a prejudice was an awareness of myself. I learned that I had this prejudice which kept me from really listening to the story. I had a prejudice against normalcy because when he started telling us about an imperfect summer romance I stopped wanting to see the normalcy of the people, the extremely flawed people that made up this story. This prejudice showed me that I need to be more open to the fact that people don’t fit perfectly into my criteria of what is normal is not normal. When I believe someone to be below me I need to stop, figure out why I think that, and then stop thinking that way. These imperfect people are more normal than most of the images I strive to replicate when I usually watch a movie or read a book.

I also learned that I need to be honest about how I see the world. This is one criterion of the things that Steve Almond said makes a good writer, the ability to tell the world the truth even when most people don’t want to hear it. People don’t want to hear about the truth of life and how messy and revealing true desire and passion really is.  We want the fantasy where good writing doesn't matter as long as the girl gets to be with the boy and they find some sort of sanctuary in each other. Realistically at the end of a relationship you don’t look back at a perfect relationship that ended for out there, crazy reasons, such as they became a vampire or the got murdered. Usually you split up for normal reasons such as they expected too much from you or they weren't the prince charming you expected. It is normal look at past relationships as a lesson, a stepping stone towards your desired ultimate happiness (this usually occurs after all the depression, eating of brownies, and thinking that you’re going to die alone).  Although we love the unrealistic stories it is just not true that the supermodel is going to fall anyone who is below average looking and socially awkward. These fantasies ultimately only produce unhappiness from our normalcy. Steve Almond celebrates normalcy in all aspects; job, friends, desires, and love. There is something wrong with the fact that we are content behind our fantasies of perfection where sex is clean and love is pure.

Sexuality and the Police State in Ferid Boughedir's Halfouine

I literally had no expectations of what a Tunisian film could be since I have had no prior experience in either the film industry or with Tunisia. Although I must say that a love affair was not struck up between me and Tunisian films I found that a different perspective of movies did form. I was able to find a connection between myself and the movie through its integrated use of metaphors and its pivot around human sexuality. I’m very glad that the first Tunisian film I was able to experience was the film Halfouine because it was a very general coming of age film allowing me to compare it to the common American coming of age film. This movie did a good job at capturing your mind and I felt integrated into the Tunisian culture. It shockingly showed a very personal side of this country that I probably would never had been allowed to witness unless I had been a citizen.

            The Tunisian culture is very split between the sexes and this causes a rift in the sexual nature if its inhabitants. They seem confused and almost scared of their sexuality and have this need to harness it and at times even beat it out of the children. This was seen several times such as with the interaction with Noura and his father. As Noura goes on this journey where he discovers the sensuality that awakens around his age, you see him get almost perverse and inappropriate. When he tries to undress the house maid while she is sleeping is an act that is clearly wrong. However this peeping is his only way to focus his sexual nature and to try to figure out what is going inside of his body. This disconnect that the culture has with their bodies is a dangerous thing that leads to prejudices not only between men and women but also between heterosexual and homosexual individuals.

            The normal American coming of age film would have been about a kid going to school, having to deal with a bully, and succeeding at winning over his secret crush. The Tunisian film Halfouin was able to take several of those components and to exaggerate on them in a way that exposes you to the Tunisian culture and daily life. This film is a lot more personal than an American film where the emotions are dressed up and glamorized. I felt, especially in scenes such as in the bath house, that I was a part of Noura’s sexual mind and nature.

American films seem to pivot upon their soundtracks, the background sounds are what really make the scene. However, in the Tunisian film I heard very little music. The emotions that are usually expelled due to the music where instead created from the artistic use of the camera focusing on some sort of metaphor for a moment before returning back to the movie. Two prominent instances that this occurs were with the blood on the floor and with the bird trapped in the cage; two images that provoked powerful emotions in a very different way than I am used to.

Love and Desire in the Penny Press: 1830-1870

Although I've never actually seen someone buy a tabloid they are a continuous fixture in the checkout isles of groceries parading the latest gossip and fiction. Honestly, it would probably be embarrassing to purchase a newspaper that claimed that they had seen Elvis alive and shopping with the Big Foot in Manhattan. Maybe these papers are purchased because of the incredulity of the published statements, but some people really enjoy the reading whether they believe it to be reality or not. Somehow the paper is making enough money and is therefore allowed to stay for all of the waiting eyes to glance at during the check-out process. After Dr. Burt described the penny press papers of the past I kept thinking of them as these tabloids. Two of the things that makes the newspapers of today thankfully better from the 1800's penny press papers is that they mostly only go after famous people and that they have rules about what they can and cannot write and what proof they can use. Yet these old papers show that love and desire were two themes that still managed to hook people.

There used to be a lot less people in the towns and cities that allowed small communities to form between neighbors and friends. It was very easy to lose the respect of others and be banned from the community if you did not show yourself to be proper. With the dawning of the gossip filled penny press everyone was fair game to be ridiculed and mocked on the front page, especially the upper echelon of society. This would have made life a lot more difficult with the gossip being published in the very papers that everyone reads. If your name managed to make its way their either from gossip or fiction not only would you be frowned upon from your community but also from the entire city, as far as the paper was able to reach. As a woman this would be especially hurtful because it would not only affect your social life but possibly also affect the decision of who would be willing to marry you. 

I feel so grateful to be a woman living in this day and age. To be a woman in the 1800's is a condemned life where only those who marry well have some semblance of freedom, although it is still a freedom chained to a man. I personally know that my dream career of being a dentist would have been barred from me due to my gender. Even if you were lucky enough to get a job you would be stuck in a particular position that was deemed proper for women. In the journal world this was referred to as "the velvet ghetto". A place filled with advice columns on cleaning supplies and bake it yourself advice. 

Maybe it is different from back in the 1800's but now people believe nearly everything that is written in the popular newspapers. Therefore when a paper writes a scandalous article people will read it even more carefully and put more empathy into what is being read. In the 1800's several of the articles seemed to be fiction. How dangerous it could become if the New York Times started publishing fake articles that catered to their own beliefs and agendas. It is a dangerous path and I am so thankful that now sources and citations have to be used so that the validity of our news can be confirmed. Titles such as "Love, Despair, and Suicide" were rampantly popular for the penny press. Thankfully these heartbreak articles are usually only found as the title of the next melodramatic novel. The poor families and friends of the person who had committed suicide; having to deal with the horror of having to read and hear their personal lives from the tongues of the city.