A Moment in Time

A Moment in Time

            The main doors opened automatically as Julie walked into the emergency room of the Brighton General Hospital on a busy Saturday night.  Located on the bottom floor of a concrete building in the center of a sleepy town in upstate New York, the waiting room was an aromatic bouquet of antiseptic latex and an audio potpourri of coughing and sneezing; crying and screaming.  Fake leather couches lined the sterile room.  As Julie walked towards the registration, she noticed it was standing room only and she wondered where she would sit.  It had been a long day and her hand was killing her.  Unfortunately, she knew the wait would inevitably be long.  Just a few days earlier, she had a simple paper cut on her thumb that needed nothing more than a Band-aide.  Now, four days later, the simple paper cut transformed into a bright red star on the tip of her thumb and, her thumb had turned into a sausage link.  Julie decided she had no other choice but to come to the hospital, otherwise known as the black hole, in search of antibiotics in exchange for a few hours of time. 

With dreaded trepidation, Julie approached the registration window.  She chuckled at the bulletproof shield that separated the plague from the cure, the healthy from the quarantined.  She was told to have a seat and her name would be called shortly.  The fact that the nurse did not offer an estimated wait time was not lost on Julie.    Sighing loudly and then succumbing to the black hole of hospital time, Julie sat in the only seat available, beside a sneezing old man with an uncontrollable cough and a tendency for clearing the very large oyster out of his throat and a sniffling boy who found it difficult to listen to anything his mother had to say.  She could not help but overhear the conversation of two men who were sitting just beyond Oyster Man. 

The first one began with what sounded like the beginning of a joke, “So, how do you make a fish talk?”

The other one looked at him perplexed and replied, “Wait, I know this one, but first I need to do a ‘shroom.”

“What?!” exclaimed the joke teller, “You can’t do that in here man!  This is a hospital. You know what I’m saying!?” 

“Watch me,” said the drugee, he got up and walked away through the mechanical doors. 

The Joke Teller looked on, disappointed that he couldn’t finish his joke before his drug-addict friend took off.  God only knows what they’re in the emergency room for, Julie thought to herself.

Turning her attention to her other side, the boy sitting next to Julie said “Biscuits are like mini cakes without frosting.”

Julie looked down at him.

“Hmmm, I did not know that,” she said.

Politely, Julie was trying to ignore the splatter of rice cake pieces on the boy’s shirt and around his seat, like they had been rockets shooting out of his mouth. 

“Chew with your mouth shut,” ordered his mother sitting on the opposite side. 

Looking at Julie she says, “I’m sorry.”

Julie just nodded her head, held up her bum hand and said, “No worries.”

Julie returned her focus to the nothing-ness that was the center of the room and continued to marvel at the hospital’s ability to stop time.    

The mouth of the hospital opened again and three young women walked in chattering endlessly, not even taking a breath.

“So I stayed at the frat party the other night,” the first one said.

“TFTI bitch,” said second one.

“I know right, she didn’t invite me either,” added the third. 

The first one continued her story, “…and afterward we went to his room where I was there with like three guys…” 

They disappeared into the hallway of the hospital that offered little help to eavesdropping on their conversation any further. 

Just when it started to get good, Julie thought to herself.  A devilish smile formed on her face in spite of herself. 

The automatic doors opened again.  This time, Julie could see the paramedics with an occupied gurney between the two of them.  The paramedics gingerly maneuvered the gurney to not disturb the occupant who was being given oxygen through a mask.  From the distance, the patient appeared to be very old.  The patient’s short gray hair spiked over the back of the elastic band on the oxygen mask looked oily and disheveled.  The patient’s eyes were closed and his body was covered with a white sheet, only his head and his feet were sticking out from under the sheets.  The patient’s shoes were brown and definitely too big to be a woman’s foot.  Julie deduced the patient was a very old man.  The patient’s eyes were closed and his body was covered with a white sheet, only his head and his feet were sticking out from under the sheets.  Julie hadn’t realized it but she was holding her breath.   She let out a sigh of relief when she saw that the man was still breathing. 

“At least he is alive,” Julie said out loud to herself.     

As the gurney rolled passed her, the old man slowly opened his eyes and turned his head towards Julie.  His warm gaze held her eyes for a moment startling Julie.  The man lifted one frail hand and tried to reach out to her with a closed fist. 

The head paramedic said, “I need you to remain still Mr. Smith.” 

The man continued to raise his hand towards Julie but he was just too weak, he let it fall to the stretcher bed.  His hand opened at the moment it hit the bed.  A photograph fell to the floor.  Without noticing that something fell, the paramedics started moving the gurney again.  Julie quickly reached down and picked up an old photograph of a young woman in a military uniform.  The photograph appeared to be quite old.  It was a portrait of a beautiful woman in full Army uniform with black hair and perfect complexion.  Julie turned the picture over.  On the back was written, “Nina 22 – 1938”.  Julie tried to get the paramedics attention but they had disappeared into the hallway out of earshot.    

Forgetting about her thumb and the pain she was in, Julie stared at the picture. 

She ran her fingers along the woman’s hair, over the arch of her cheek toward her chin, and whispered her name “Nina.” 

Julie would wait until the paramedics came out to find out where they had taken the old man so she could return the picture to him. 

She silently repeated the name in her head, “Nina.” 

With an unnaturally strong grip on the photo, Julie drifted off to sleep…

Julie woke to the smell of dirt and smoke.  Panicking, she quickly scanned the area for potential danger expecting to see the room in an anxiety driven fright.  What she found was not a room at all, rather Julie found herself in an open field resembling a vineyard which happened to be smack in the middle of a war zone.  There were military personnel running scared all around her.  Grenades exploding, sounds of gun shots piercing the air, and bodies falling in layers across the battlefield. Julie walked a few paces forward and momentarily lost her balance almost tripping over something on the ground.  When she looked down, she saw a wounded female soldier.  Her injuries appeared grave yet, the soldier looked up at Julie with an empty gaze.  At first Julie thought she was dead, but then the soldier blinked her eyes.  Frozen, Julie looked around at the pandemonium of the formerly peaceful meadow searching for someone that could help the struggling woman. 

Everyone was running and shouting, no-one could hear Julie’s pleas for help.  She looked down at the soldier again.  This time the soldier looked directly into Julie’s eyes.  She was moving her lips and struggling to breathe.  Julie knelt down and placed her right ear close to the soldier's mouth so she could hear her whispers. 

"Tell him…that…I love…him…always have…," the soldier whispered. 

Before she could get out another word, the woman's head fell slightly to the left.  Julie knew that she was gone.  Julie smoothed the woman's hair from her face and gasped as she stared straight into the eyes of the photograph. 

"Smith?” summoned the attending nurse.    

Startled and shaken, Julie wiped the tears from her face and replied, "Uh…right here.” 

"It's your turn to be seen,” said the nurse. 

Julie got up from her seat and walked towards the nurse.  

On Her Toes

Dainty blush satin laced with ribbon

Pure elegance on the arch of her foot

Laces around her ankles

Thrills direct to her heart

Exquisite poise gracing the stage

Escaping from life

Endless fouette en tournant

Finale of a stunning arabesque

Ballerina poses on pointe

Countless hours of blood and sweat

Box steel death traps with an inner sole

Speckled red on lovely pink

Mangled toes running wild and free
Peaceful soul

Courage for Covered Eyes Eternal - Original Poem

America.  She is gorgeous with

freedom flowing from Her fingers.

Wrapped in patriotic warmth

given to Her; received from past.

Death became from bravery reign,

desert by hill; snow by beach.

They went to paint purple

mountains gloriously majestic.

From virgin to man with gun in plain

sight; fighting in blindness and sun.

For Preamble, apples, baseball and;

born on the Fourth of July

Liberty speech birthed from 

soldiers struggles shielding others 
from selfless protection.  Scent of 
haunted sand never leaves;

carrying courage for
covered eyes eternal. 

Sliding Doors

“How the hell did you find me?” was all she heard on the other end of the telephone line.  Sarah frantically scanned her memory for an appropriate response.  She could hang up.  No, that would go against what she was compelled to do and she knows now, that she could never go back to not knowing.  She had already plunged deep into the waters with both feet, and the knowledge she gained up until this point had already altered her life.  Silently, Sarah looked around the room and across her apartment.  She lived near the school she attended in a typical apartment for an 18-year old college student.  Sarah was engulfed in solitude but she was happy.  As she looked around, Sarah could not help but wonder what her life would have been like had things been different.  Would the fear of abandonment be at every turn like it was now?  Would she have struggled like she did if the sliding door of decisions slid slightly too late for the woman on the other end of the line?

The woman’s seven word sentence response to Sarah's brief introductory greeting could not deter Sarah.  It was simply a sentence that was no longer an emotional obstacle in Sarah’s quest.  With a deep anxious breath, Sarah inhaled, swallowed hard, and began the standard script that she had mirrored so many other times.  I joined an organization with other people like me that helped me, Sarah had said.  Before Sarah could finish her thought, she felt a knife slice her words in half.  “Oh, yeah, I know about that group”, the woman abruptly said, “What I want to know is WHY you found me?” 

Silent screams momentarily replaced Sarah’s voice.  The screams were deafening and she was frozen in her place, the pendulum of her heartbeat lost its momentum.  Another deep breath.  Sarah began again, “I have thought about this moment for some time now and have envisioned what our conversation would be like.  I never got over…”, again Sarah was startled by a second interruption, this time more sharp than the last with a straight-edged steel knife stabbing a hole in her throat. 

“Got over WHAT?!?!”, screamed the stranger.   

Brave and fearful combined, Sarah continued, “The curiosity – I never fully got over the curiosity.” 

Much to Sarah’s surprise, the woman’s tone seemed to soften.  Bitterness had been replaced with sugar.  Unexpectedly the woman said, “Curiosity, huh?  Well, I’ve been curious myself over the years.  Did you have a good childhood?” 

“Yes I did,” Sarah replied, “a very good childhood”. 

“Where did you grow up?”, the woman asked. 

“In a small town outside of Yosemite in the Sierra Nevada’s.  It was a beautiful place to grow up”, Sarah replied with a sense of hopefulness, “I want you to know that I don’t blame you…”  With a Katana to the heart, the woman finally quieted Sarah for the last time. 

“Blame me?  You shouldn’t blame me!” the woman seethed and shouted “It’s not like I left you on a door step with a note!  In fact, I did you a favor.  You know what I did for you?  I let you live, that’s what I did.  I could have killed you, but I didn’t!  I let you live! You are to never contact me again and if you choose to ignore my warning in any way shape or form, I will bring you down.  I will bring you down so help me God!  I let you live, now you let me live!  Do I make myself clear?!”

For the second time in one conversation, Sarah was speechless.  The visions of an ideal reunion were halted and the familial image would be nothing more than a painted flower in a painted garden.  In one split-second eye-awakening realization, Sarah knew that she was who she was because of this stranger’s voice and she was instantly grateful for this woman’s decision all those years ago.  Sarah sighed “Yes, ma’am, you do.  Thank you for your time.  Good-bye”.  Sarah hung up the phone. 

Despite her obvious disappointment, Sarah understood this bitter woman.  Putting science aside, genetics and the like, Sarah’s personality had been created by this woman.  This stranger, and that’s what she was to her, knew nothing about Sarah, who she was, or the fears and dreams that exist in her soul.  After the fateful conversation, Sarah pitied this woman; both her haunted demons and sour circumstances.  Sarah was saddened for the woman who gave her life. 

Sarah came into her mother’s life when she was just two months old.  Her mother had only been six months older than the woman on the phone had been eighteen years earlier.  In all of its worldly wisdom, the government had taken a child from a child and gave it to a child.  But, because of the faith, hope, and love of one of those children, Sarah went from being an orphan to a daughter, a granddaughter, a niece, and a sister.  For the first time in Sarah’s life, she was wholeheartedly aware of her identity and where she belonged.  Sarah collected herself, gathered her thoughts, picked up the phone, and called her mother. 

The Hike - My first attempt at a prose poem

            The sky was black with an orange glow in the early morning light when she began her hike.  Full light was not needed as the map of the trail was imprinted in her mind.  The birds flew in switchbacks above the trail whistling with the happy glee that only birds possess.  The weight of her pack weighed heavily on her back as she labored forward.  She was alone with silence.  She was in a crowd.  The hustle and bustle of the trees along the trail, commuters on a busy roadway, screamed at her.  Her cadence drowning out the traffic.  The previous season’s blanket lifted into a rainbow along the streams that ran parallel with the trail.  As she approached the crest of the mountain, the leaky faucet of the stream caught her attention.  Her pack grew heavier with each sorrowful emotional step as she approached the stream.  She removed her pack but the weight remained.  She knelt towards the crystal blue water laced with green moss and speckled stones.  The trail had nurtured her to the top of the mountain.  Her pack, despite its weight, could not hold her from finding her true north.  With the relief of her pack being at her side, she cupped her hands, lowered them into the clear stream, and brought the freshness to her lips.  Sunrise offered renewal and hope.  With blinded eyes and breath of air, she took in the beauty.  When she opened her eyes, the sky was the bluest blue with a hint of cotton speckling the air.  Just inside her pack lied the task of what she came here to do.  She reached in and pulled the carcass of her actions; the burdens of her life, the words and descriptions of the wrongs by her hand that were written ignominiously.  Her personal inventory.  They were ashes in a paper envelope.  Every single one of them.  Like feathers yet like boulders.  Grandiloquence lost.  The commuters quieted.  Returning her focus to the crystal stream, she saw a frog that traversed through the water, leading the ill-fated way downstream.  Leap.  Leap.  Leap.  She opened the casing and let the ashes free.  She watched the wreckage of her past flow through the mountain’s artery out of her heart, and away from her soul.  She wept as magic disappeared her fear and inner strength was realized.  She was safe.  She was strong.  Most importantly, she was free.  The weightless pack returned to her back.  She wiped her face, and she smiled.  The nature trail had nurtured her to this point.  Rising from the faded ashes, the spirit of her path was no longer in the feathers on her back.  The spirit of her path now resides in her heart and, with a beautiful sunrise on the horizon, she was on top of the world. 

Dynamic Sustainability of "General Hospital"

          

        Popular culture is constantly evolving based on the neoliberalism structure of political, socioeconomic, and cultural changes within society.  David Harvey suggests in A Brief History of Neoliberalism that there implies a direct connection between postmodernism and the socioeconomic changes occurring in society on a political and economic level (42).  Within this discourse, it is rare for a popular television program to maintain its cultural staying power beyond a shelf life of a few decades.  This rarity, however, has been realized by the soap opera genre within daytime television.  A prime example of a postmodern text that has shown the sustainability to evolve with the changing times is General Hospital, which debuted in 1963.  Once rated the “greatest soap opera of all time”, General Hospital has sustained itself despite an influx of reality television emerging on the daytime screen (Maria Ciaccia).  As television evolved over the years to more talk or variety shows as well as reality television, many experts predicted the inevitable death of the traditional soap opera.  Much to the surprise of many, the last remaining soap operas, General Hospital included, remain a dominant force in the ever changing socioeconomic dynamics of the culture of television. 

            In the beginning of the genre, capitalist's motives created the idea of selling daytime television with commercial advertisements aimed at women who did not work outside the home.  When soap operas first were broadcast, plots involved lust, romance, unrequited love, desire and jealousy (Ciaccia).  These feminine characteristics, coupled with the fact that women’s societal roles were primarily domestic homemakers or caregivers, a gender specific target audience emerged.  According to Chris Barker, the soap opera is a space in which women’s concerns and points of view are validated and from which women take pleasure” (Cultural Studies 338), which was in direct contrast to rise in postmodern feminism.     

Structured modernism gave way to the fragmented, deconstructed postmodernism in the world of popular culture.  Coined by French philosopher Jacques Derrida, postmodernism is a philosophical movement which rejects grand narratives or universal explanations in favor of irony.  (Barker 508).  Derrida’s ideology challenged the construction of the Western hegemony world and replaced it with discursive association of culture.  Soap operas became a genre of television programing that fell within the political and ideological interest of the post-modernized public. They are characterized by having open-ended narrative forms, core locations, tension between conventions of realism and melodrama, and pivotal themes of interpersonal relationships (Barker 335-6).  Additionally, the characters in soap operas possess characteristics that viewers can relate.  They are ambiguous and can take a likeable shape then, at the drop of a hat, find themselves remolded in the image of evil; yet they are hopeful reflections of the audience members who view them.  The character’s morals are virtuous and strong at times while weak and feeble in others, and morally questionable at other times.  This contrast of personalities allows the average viewer to either wholeheartedly relate to the characters plight or join them in a life-long, fictional, and sometimes, absurd adventure.

            Character and storyline development is one of the main reasons why General Hospital has been able to maintain the loyal viewers and sustain its’ position as a leader in this genre for over five decades.  General Hospital is set in the fictional town of Port Charles, New York.  In its early stages, a hospital was at the core of the show, and the scandalous activities of the doctors, nurses, and patients were the driving force behind the storylines.  Running out of plot material and being threatened with cancellation by the ABC television network, the producers introduced pivotal characters Luke and Laura in the late 1970’s as the dynamic couple that would forever change the face of soap operas (Ciaccia).  

           Caught in numerous adventures of intrigue and romance, Luke and Laura developed a storyline that lead to their wedding in 1981 while enjoying a fan base of 30 million viewers.  The wedding of Luke and Laura is one of the biggest moments on General Hospital, and in all of soap opera history (Ciacca).  In fact, following their nuptials, the fictional characters made the cover of People and Newsweek magazines, something that up until that time had never been done by any other soap opera actor or fictional character.  Socioeconomic changes within society have changed and the storylines of General Hospital has changed with those variances.  Today, General Hospital’s narratives include social issues such as AIDS, breast cancer, poverty, and single mothers. 

Despite the evolving narratives and character popularity, the changes within the socioeconomic structure of society have had an adverse effect on the genre of soap operas and the dynamics of daytime television altogether.  Long running soap operas All My Children and One Life to Live, also airing on ABC, were cancelled after being on the air for 41 years and 45 years, respectively (imdb.com).  Much to the dismay of hardcore soap opera fans, networks changed daytime television programming from soap operas to reality television and variety/talk shows for purely economical and capitalist motives.  According to “The Week:  The Death of Soap Operas”, the profit margin on reality television shows and talk shows are much higher than the traditional scripted programs; and the soap opera genre had outgrown its advertising purpose (1).  The advertising companies who had originally been the driving force behind the creation of daytime television were now switching their efforts to digital and social media rather than television.  Another reason for the change is because of the structure of television and advent of the digital recorder through cable conglomerates and rise in digital media, such as Hulu, Netflix and Amazon. Stay-at-home parents were now catching up on reruns or recorded shows that were missed in prime time television rather than continuing their involvement with an ongoing melodramatic storyline that exists in soap operas.  The most relevant postmodern, socioeconomic change to daytime television comes with the economic changes in society.  Households are unable to meet the demands of the economy and rise in the higher cost of living, therefore, both parents must seek employment outside of the home.  This dual-income reality plays a significant role on the popularity of daytime programming.  Collectively, all of these factors together very nearly drove the nail in the soap operas coffin, save for the four surviving soap operas. 

   

As it turns out, however, the remaining four daytime soap operas have enjoyed an increased percentage of viewers over the last two years (Teeman 1).  One reason is that soap opera fans have proven to be the most loyal in all of television remaining captivated and involved with the soap operas characters over a span of fifty years.  Another reason, according to Teeman’s article, is lifelong soap fans who fell in love with the genre remain bereft after the cancellation of another soap and have migrated en masse to one of the remaining survivors (3).  General Hospital has brilliantly exported some of the core cast members from the other ABC cancelled shows and have incorporated their old storyline on the cancelled show into an existing relevant one on the remaining soap.  Also contributing to General Hospital’s staying power is the fact that producers and writers “continually focuses on targeting new audiences while remembering their viewers from the past by bringing back “legacy” characters…General Hospital continues to adjust to the times - but never forgets its roots” (Ciaccia).

In the past, soap operas have been seen as the “junk food” of television and the fans have been stereotyped as lazy housewives trying to escape from their problems by living vicariously through their television screen (Susan Alexander 302).  If this were true, which it is not, even the over-the-top antics of reality television and sensationalized talk shows would not be enough to satisfy the distraught soap opera fan.  On the contrary, daytime television fans are culturally advanced while soap operas themselves are a multifaceted source of television programming that gives viewers a path that is accepting to an ever changing socioeconomic structure.  The sustainability of General Hospital exists in the complexities of the characters, while the narratives and plots address issues affecting regular members of society on the most personal levels that are relevant in today’s world.  In a postmodern culture where everything is free from foundation and fragmented, the never ending saga of a soap opera where people have the ability to change while possessing both positive and negative characteristics is a genre of television programming that should be celebrated within popular culture.  

Luke and Laura Wedding Day
November 1981

Works Cited

Anger, Dorothy.  Reviewed by Susan Alexander “Other Worlds: Society Seen through Soap Opera”.  American Sociological Association.  1999: 302-303.  JSTOR.  Web.  18 August 2014. 

 Barker, Chris.  Cultural Studies.4^th edition.  Sage Publications. London. 2012.  Print

Ciaccia, Maria.  “General Hospital: A Rich History Part 1.  The Beginning Through the 1980’s”.  About.com. Web. 18 August 2014.

Harvey, David.  A Brief History of Neoliberalism.  Oxford University Press. New York. 2005. Print. 

 Internet Movie Database. Imdb.com. Web.  18 August 2014. 

Teeman, Tim.  “How the Daytime Soap Came Back From the Dead”.   Thedailybeast.com. 1-18. Web.  13 August 2014.

Staff Writer.  “The Week:  The death of soap operas:  What does it say about television?”.  Theweek.com. 1-4.  Web.  13 August 2014.  

The Comedian's Mask

Robin Williams was a pop icon who was also a comedic genius and the world, myself included, was shocked by the news of his suicide earlier this week.  On the surface, he was a cheerful man with an undeniable gift of making America laugh.  He had impeccable timing and an uncanny ability to deliver the punchline or climax of any humorous joke or story.  A multifaceted actor, Robin Williams could engage the audience in any style or genre of film or television program simply by using his God-given talent.  Alas, his comedic mask could no longer carry the burden of the tragic one. 

I am not versed in Robin Williams’ complete biography; both on a personal or professional level.  I am not a psychiatrist nor do I claim to be an addiction specialist.  I am simply a fan speaking from my heart trying to make sense of his desperate motives.

Perhaps the level of his despair will never be fully realized.  Addiction has a way of masking one’s true emotions.  Whether through the mythical comforts of alcohol, the deceptive power of drugs, or the illusory assumption that sobriety is untroublesome, addiction acts as a veil or another layer of protection from ourselves.  The good news about sobriety is that you get to feel your feelings.  The bad news about sobriety is that you get to feel your feelings. 

When you stop drinking, it feels as if you are naked in a room packed with fully-clothed people with everyone's eyes on you.  The scrutiny is soul-shattering and the magnitude of societal pressure that you feel compares to nothing else.  Not to sound too corny, but this outer body experience is foreign, unfamiliar, and guaranteed to be painful.  I cannot imagine what it would be like for a celebrity who is incessantly in the thrones of public opinion.  In order to maintain sobriety and sanity, you must reinvent yourself, change your inner voice, not to mention your social circle, and constantly look at things in a different way…one day at a time.  

"Why do I stand up here? Anybody? I stand upon my desk to remind myself that we must constantly look at things in a different way."

~Robin Williams as John Keating in Dead Poet's Society

O Captain, my Captain...you will be missed...

Happy Birthday Andy Warhol

    When I think of popular culture, the first person I think of is Andy Warhol followed by the image of the Cambell's Soup Can made famous by the talented artist.  Today would have been his 86th birthday.
    I am particularly fascinated at the profound meaning behind the Cambell's Soup can; mass production for mass consumption, an assembly-line concept created by Henry Ford.  Was Warhol's iconic painting in support of capitalism or in opposition to it?  I'd like to think the latter.  Regardless, Happy Birthday Mr. Warhol.

   

A Flawed James Bond

The politics of culture is a multifaceted ideal of attitudes, beliefs and consensus of the greater population that contribute to societal roles.  Collectively, public events and private experiences broadly define culture politics as power; both the power to create and name to the power to represent the social world (Chris Barker Cultural Studies 462).  Power within a culture that shows dominance by a particular social group can be defined as hegemony.  Hegemonic societies are not created by a dictatorship, rather they are chosen by the upper echelon of a society that set the cultural practices and politics of that particular society and maintains authority over subordinate groups based on race, religion and gender.  As a result, discursive thought develops that is not within societal norms, causing inequalities and prejudices within the inner workings of society.  Right or wrong, mainstream media play an overly inflated role in disseminating hegemonic ideals to the mass population.  A perfect example of such display is the James Bond series of novels created by author, Ian Fleming and made famous by the movie adaptations of the same name.  The main character is also laced with class and racial prejudices not to mention chauvinistic and sexist attitudes. 

                Set on the backdrop of a conflicted England, the character of James Bond is a top spy agent within a highly secretive agency in Britain.  The Bond series was defined as a literary spy thriller that was originally designed to be read as literature (Tony Bennett and Janet Woolacott “The moments of Bond” 13).  Even the author himself, according to Bennett, believed that the series appealed to the class A reader and the sophistication of the characters and novels would be incomprehensible to members of the  B and C class (13).  Marketing strategies for the novels were “largely restricted to metropolitan literary intellectuals” (Bennett 14), which resulted in moderate success.  In spite of the modest achievement that was enjoyed by Fleming for the novels, the movie adaptations gained a wider audience that transcended across class differences.  According to Bennett, “by comparison with the Bond novels, the Bond films were instantly and have remained quite spectacularly successful in terms of box office receipts, their rate of profitability, and the size and composition of the audience they have reached” (20). 

On paper and in film, James Bond, the character, represents the perfect man.  He is both well-dressed and handsome as well as cultured and educated.  He enjoys the finer things in life and is a member of culture from above that dictate societal norms.  He drives expensive cars, dresses impeccably, consumes sophisticated libations, and enjoys the company of many beautiful, modelesque women.  He is a white dominant Caucasian, successful, inventive, self-sufficient, and an overall mirrored image of the hegemonic leaders of England’s society.  He is not a free spirit or independent thinker.  Yet, his existence most likely contributes to increasing problems and rising decadence throughout the world.  (Jeremy Black “The Politics of James Bond” 2). The idea of living in excess was forming in Britain’s mainstream society resulting in “Swinging England” which had fast become a trendsetter for the world; and Bond was at the center of the self-indulgence and narcissism.

In this narcissistic image, James Bond was created to resist the threat to the Empire, more specifically, the British Empire. Many, if not most, of Bond’s enemies or sinister foes include any race or ethnic group that threatens the security and integrity of Mother England.  Cynthia Baron writes in her essay “Doctor No: Bonding Britishness to racial sovereignty” that “Britishness is defined in terms of an absolute difference between white and non-white” (136) and it is Bond or 007’s mission to recreate the grounds for racial sovereignty through his “license to kill” policies.  

During the 1950’s, Britain relied heavily on the military force of the United States and the “license to kill” reactivates the power of the British Empire (Baron 136).  James Bond’s chauvinistic attitudes towards Mother England are unparalleled to any other form of nationalism displayed in any other movie or television series which represents a bandage at an attempt to heal mistakes made by England’s military.  Either way, Bond’s love of his country signifies and contributes to his success, yet a Bond movie or story would not be complete with a beautiful woman, a Bond Girl.  By nature, Bond Girls are free and independent, beautiful and smart, not to mention sexually tailored to suit Bond’s needs in every way (Baron 24).  Bond girls represent a conquest for Bond; a playful sexual game of domination and submissiveness.  Together, Bond and his girl, possess a strong sense of both masculine and feminine qualities, and they take to defining their gender relations with passion that is driven by sexual tension until the act of sex actually occurs.  Bond is the ultimate womanizer and is representative of the sexual nature of how male dominants see females. 

James Bond is not the perfect man.  He is, in fact, flawed to the extent the societal norms no longer follow him.  The storylines of the movies and books have become fantasy and unrealistic; rather than the model of a leader in a hegemonic society. 

Sources:

Barker, Chris.  Cultural Studies.4^th edition.  Sage Publications. London. 2012.  Print

Baron, Cynthia.  “Doctor No: Bonding Britishness to racial sovereignty”.  pp 135-149

Bennett, Tony and Janet Woollacott.  “The moments of Bond”.  pp 13-33.

Black, Jeremy.  “The Politics of James Bond: from Flemings novels to the Big Screen”.  Westport Prager.  2001.  Web. 3 August 2014.  

RomCom: Fairy Tale for Adults

Once upon a time, there were fairy tale stories.  Each story began with those famous four words.  For adults, childhood fairy tale stories have been replaced with the romantic comedy genre.  In studying the romantic comedy genre in film, there is a noticeably lack of depth and complexity in the characters, yet there is a certain charismatic intrigue about them as well.  Romantic comedy movies typically have a “boy meets girl, boy gets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back” concept.  Although simplistic, this particular genre has become a significant contributor to the gross profits currently being enjoyed by the success at the box office since the genre first appeared in the 1950’s.  Tamar McDonald defines romantic comedies “RomCom” as a sex comedy in her book “Romantic Comedy – Boy Meets Girl Meets Genre” as a sub-genre of the screwball comedy (38). 

According to McDonald, “the sex comedy pits women against men in an elemental battle of wits, in which the goal of both is sex” (38). This seem to be the overall general plot theory of most RomCom’s in today’s film industry.  Movies such as “The Proposal” and “While You Were Sleeping” starring Sandra Bullock, and “My Best Friend’s Wedding” or “Notting Hill” with Julia Roberts, display this type of plot.  Although the goal of “sex” is not directly implied in the screenplays, it is an underlying and unmentioned end-result that exists in the form of the word “love”.  In fact, in all of these films and many more, love is the ultimate goal for both parties; whether it is “true love” or just “true love right now”.  Using McDonald’s theory of the goal being sex, sex and love would be synonymous in RomCom’s. 

RomCom’s display an unrealistic view of love that is geared towards twenty-or-thirty-something-year-old's.  They are “fluff”; a true escape from the viewer’s own reality, a guaranteed two hour form of entertainment that, most likely, will end with a happy ending.  This escape provides the average person with hope, regardless of the lack of depth and complexity of the characters.  These films make the viewer feel good, plain and simple.  Most of today’s romantic comedy films exceed expectations allowing the audience to feel, if even for a moment, that they lived happily ever after.   

Power of a Penny

          Today’s popular culture is overloaded with superhero characters through mainstream media.  However, there is one mighty crusader who has gone unnoticed and undetected for many years. Immeasurable capabilities are found in a young girl named Penny Alkaline.  Penny is not your average superhero, and her unsuspecting abilities are far more powerful than any superhero portrayed in mainstream media today.  According to Charles Moss’ “What the World Needs Now: Society’s Desperate Need for Superheroes”, today’s superheroes do not just fight the “clear-cut enemies who plan on world domination.  Today’s superheroes fight many battles within themselves” (3).  One’s internal voice and inner demons affect not just Superman, Batman, Spiderman, Ironman, or the like, but ordinary people.  At times the inner demons prove to be so strong that they debilitate even the strongest person and silently plague members of society. Penny combats them with effortless conviction through a series of electrical currents generated at her core.  This, in and of itself, proves to be more valuable to members of society and their culture than any leap from a tall building in a single bound.
          Born on the far away planet of Plusminus, which is in a previously undiscovered celestial body just outside of the Milky Way, Penny came to Earth through a series of electrical lightning storms in the year 1959.  Human-like and laced with copper-colored short pixie hair with a small framed body, Penny speaks in a hybrid language that is not heard by the average human.  This fact is of particular importance because once the average human hears Penny, her powers would be limited.  Penny’s powers, and what makes her heads and tails above any other superhero, are such that she possesses an inner magnetic power.  This electrical magnetic power is so strong that it permeates from her core as she simply walks down the street on any given day compelling ordinary individuals to listen to their positive inner voice and ignore the negative inner battle that is driven by their own fears and hesitations.
          In order to give definition to the importance of Penny and her super powers, one must first travel inward to discover the importance of listening to inner voices.  Susan Evangelista writes in “Women in Peacemaking: Inner Voices and Outer Positions” that each individual has their own inner voice and it speaks with insistent clarity, we simply must learn to listen to it (1).  Remembering to listen to your inner voice is a learned behavior.  According to Denise Riley in her essay “A Voice Without a Mouth”, inner speech is an index of one’s solitude and, dependent on the isolation of its speaker, this chatter can conjure an aura of loneliness (58).  Riley goes onto say that inner speech is closely related to hallucination and is the carrier of conscience that is a source of distinct style (60).  To argue Riley’s point, the inner voice is not a carrier of conscience, rather a reflection of personal morals and values. Regrettably, it is the uniqueness in people that bring about the biggest challenges in society as some people do not understand and accept differences of other people who are not like them.  Cultural and environmental issues lead people to assume and insinuate events on the outside; and unknowingly, these outside forces have a direct reflection on our inner voice often turning it into an inner critic or ignoring it altogether.  Coupled together with the fact that humans have an innate need to self-criticize, the critical self represents an internal enemy, a defensive foe, set on a path to destroy our self-assessment, and be destructive to our self-fulfillment.  This defense leads to anger and frustration which ultimately leads to unhappiness, loneliness, despair, and depression.  Riley suggests that our “own inner voice does not lie and to possess an inauthentic inner voice is impossible” (68).  Ignoring the inner voice, therefore, is deceiving one self, ultimately leading to self-destruction and sabotage of our authentic self.
          Superheroes, as depicted through the mainstream media, are not immune to the self-destruction inner demons cause.   Because of this destruction, they have become layered with complex emotions and are more sensitive to society around them (Moss 2). Ironman, himself, struggles with everyday social issues such as greed, lust, rage, and addiction.  Despite these social woes and inner flaws, the Ironman film trilogy grossed an estimated $1.3 billion (boxofficemojo.com). This landslide of gross profit is proof that mainstream pop culture believe that superheroes are just “brightly-colored, two-dimensional extensions of ourselves” (Moss 1) and the average consumer will support the fictional characters in the box office, merchandising, and other paraphernalia.  Movies are not the only pop culture element that has capitalized on inner demons and the challenges conquering them.  Most recently rapper Eminem, who has been publicly scrutinized for his song lyrics, relationship problems, and addiction battles, released a song titled “Monster” where the lyrics ,“I’m friends with the monster that’s under my bed, get along with voices inside of my head” (Mathers), describe his own internal battle of getting in his own way.
          Getting along with one’s inner voice and exercising that voice are precisely the reasons why Penny Alkaline is important to the world, its’ societies and cultures.  Most of the inner voices in people go unheard and the people in power carry the day without listening to their inner thoughts (Evangelista 1).  Penny’s core silently acts as a generator for everyone around and her magnetism does not recognize racial, gender, or class differences, rather her powers focus on all of humanity.  The energy Penny radiates compels people to act according to their authentic self, exercise their own agency, and empowers them to accomplish great things.  Without even knowing what is happening, everyone within her general vicinity suddenly sees with extreme clarity the blending of their visions and their voices.  For 55 years, Penny, who never ages, has roamed this earth traveling from town to town exposing all humanity to her visions, and searching for others like her.  Over the years there have been a number of people resistant to Penny’s electrical charges.  These have been mostly individuals whose judgments and assumptions of their outward self have been too egotistical for Penny’s voltage to penetrate.  For these people, she has simply deposited a louder vocal box within their body and, as the years pass, she slowly increases the volume of the artificial inner voice box and decreases their outwardly voice in the hopes that eventually they will listen.
          Together with Penny’s energy and new-found inner strength, individuals no longer have to look to mainstream media, celebrities, fictional characters, and other pop culture icons for heroes to worship.  Cultures and societies would flourish with new and unique ideas instead of focusing on mass production for mass consumption.  Humans, regardless of race, religion, or gender, are able to find their own distinct greatness, their own absolute calling, and most importantly, their own superhero within themselves. Ultimately, humanity becomes the superhero.

Works Cited

Box Office Mojo.  Boxofficemojo.com.  Web.  17 July 2014. 

Evangelista, Susan.  “Women in Peacemaking: Inner Voices and Outer Positions” Peace Research. Vol 29. No. 1 (February 1997): 1-12. JSTOR. Web. 17 July 2014.

Mathers, Marshall.  “Monster”.  The Marshall Mathers LP 2. Perf. Eminem featuring Rihanna. Aftermath, Interscope, Shady. AAC.  2013.

Moss, Charles.  “What the World Needs Now: Society’s Desperate Need for Superheroes”. Popmatters.com. (5 September 2008): 1-3. Web. 15 July 2014.

Riley, Denise.  “A Voice Without a Mouth: Inner Speech”.  Qui Parl. 14.2. (Spring/Summer 2004): 57-104. JSTOR. Web. 17 July 2014.

Economics of "Dirty Dancing"

          A society’s culture can be defined by many different factors.  Race, religion, and gender are major influences on a particular society’s way of life or way of thinking.  Socioeconomic groups play a significant role in defining societal values as well.  In the essay “The Politics of Culture”, Julie Rivkin and Michael Ryan describe culture as a hierarchical capitalist society (1026).  Members of a society who are genetically linked to upper-class echelons will develop character traits and personalities where they learn to appreciate certain forms of culture which will, in turn, help them secure a prominent place in the class hierarchy.  Alternatively, working or lower class people will develop familial practices and norms that situate them towards the bottom of the class ladder.  Following this description, societal and cultural activity can be divided into two incomparable perspectives; culture from above and culture from below (Rivkin and Ryan 1026).
          Culture from above is driven by mass media such as television and film.  Typically owned by large corporations and managed by men, the media delivers the imagery and content to mass audiences that has been dictated from those at the top of the social hierarchy.  Conversely, culture from below focuses on the fundamentals of the way the content is presented and expresses personalities that are in conflict with the capitalist social order.  Television shows and film often reflect characteristics of culture from above or below.
          Emile Ardolino’s “Dirty Dancing”, released in 1987, reflect both economic perspectives.  Yet, the ideals of the lower social order show dominance in the film.  Set in the Catskill Mountains of New York in the 1960’s, “Dirty Dancing” is a story of a privileged young girl, Francis "Baby" Houseman, who vacations with her family at a high end resort only to become infatuated with the main dancer, Johnny Castle, who was hired to work at the resort for the summer.  Through a series of circumstances, Baby develops an infatuation with Johnny and they ultimately end up consummating their relationship.  Clearly on opposite ends of the socioeconomic chain, the lovers must keep their affection for one another secret because both of their respective groups have prejudices and assumptions of the other group which affect the two characters.
          There are numerous incidences throughout the movie that express both the working class and upper class discrimination toward the other group.  Both groups, over the course of the movie, tell members of their class not to associate with “them” which separates the two class distinctions with both groups coming across as superior.  In one scene, the manager of the resort is telling the workers to “be nice to them, even the dogs” (Dirty Dancing).  When the manager referred to unattractive guests as “dogs”, he projected negativity and actually dehumanized them.
          Moreover, the workers living quarters and socializing areas are not only isolated from the resort guests, but also are located geographically down hill from the resort.  This is symbolically significant as it indicates the workers are below the guests or at the bottom of the economic ladder. However, the scene that shows the most dominance and support of the "culture from below" perspective uses the iconic line "Nobody puts Baby in a corner" (Dirty Dancing).  Johnny was asked to leave the premises as a result of his relations with Baby.  Assuming that Baby's family does not have management ties with the resort as they are simply guests, it is provocative that they would have the influence to get a long term employee fired simply because of the relationship.  Her family had the power because they are upper class and Johnny was not.  Johnny returns to the resort, walks up to where Baby and her family were seated, and with conviction recites the iconic line taking her away from them to perform on stage.   Symbolically, this scene represents the working class exercising agency to stand up against the hegemonic ideals of the upper class.  On stage, Johnny says "I always do the last dance of the season, but this year someone told me not to.  So this year, I'm going to do my kind of dancing..." (Dirty Dancing).  The "someone" that Johnny is referring to are presumably the dominant leaders of the upper class, and the "my kind of dancing" represents the fundamental ideals of the working class.
          The movie focuses on the romantic aspect of the story line, yet it is clear to the audience that there is an “us and them” type of mentality with regards to the economics of the film.  Class differences and prejudices are a huge part of today’s society, and collision of two different socioeconomic classes has proven to be challenging; both in fictional movies and real life.

References:

Dirty Dancing. Dir Emile Ardolino. Vestron Pictures.  Film. 1987.

Internet Movie Database. Imdb.com.  Web.  12 July 2014.                  

Rivkin, Julie and Michael Ryan eds. Literary Theory: An Anthology.  Malden: Blackwell. 1998.  

How do you get to Carnegie Hall?

     When Virginia Woolf first put pen to paper in her extended essay "A Room of One's Own", I would imagine that her vision of a woman's room is both in a literal and figurative sense.  A space, either physical or in one's mind, that would inspire and empower a woman to create fiction as she wishes.  Almost a century after the classic essay was first published, both men and women writers have an infinite room available to them in the world wide web.

     "A Blog of One's Own" will act as my own personal path to becoming a writer; presumably as a hobby, wishfully as a career.  It is my hope to publish various samples of my writing in original form of essays, research papers, and literary analysis.  As I broaden my skills towards creative writing, I will also be posting some original short stories, either fiction or non-fiction.  Additionally, through discovering my passion for writing and literature, I have come across several poems, quotes, short stories, and lyrics in songs that have inspired me.  Therefore, some of my posts may be sharing what inspires me in the hopes that they may inspire someone else.
     Speaking of inspiration, I will be forever grateful to my teacher who exposed me to literary classics that have revitalized my love for reading and passionate writing, and reminded me of the greatness that is Iron Maiden.  

     It is my objective to offer weekly posts on a variety of open topics from eighteenth century Romanticism to twenty-first century Pop Culture; anything from Samuel Coleridge's "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" to Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" to Fonzie to "American Psycho".

     Writing has become a passion for me, and discovering classic literature has proven to be a love I never knew existed.  As you read my posts and essays, keep in mind that I am a novice writer at best.  However the more I post, the more I write.  And, how do you get to Carnegie Hall?  Practice, practice, practice.