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Culturally Speaking #6

By Sarah Stodola

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If you have never attended the New York Marathon, you should make a point of doing so in the future. I was oh so pleasantly surprised to find that the path of the race takes the runners directly past my apartment building. And also, while both marathons and parades involve crowds lining a street while participants pass, marathons are infinitely more fun.

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It is true, I concede, that the whole world seems to be in love with Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Because of his universal critical acclaim, I am tempted to give in and pretend to be as moved by his work as everyone else. I readily admit the possibility of my just not "getting it," but that's just it; I don't get it. Maybe I'm just too practical to really embrace his writing. In the article linked above, the author states that the appeal in Marquez's writing lies in the fact that "(p)eople needed something more from a novel than just a description of the reality they already knew too well." But reality in and of itself is quite a mysterious thing. Nobody really knows reality "all too well." If you know reality even a little bit you are doing pretty well, I think. Escapism has long been the purpose of entertainment for the masses, not for high-minded literature.  So I'm still left wondering just what it is about his work that makes him so revered.

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So now President Bush is proposing to create tax free accounts that will allow individuals to put up to $15,000 a year in accounts that can make them money, and they'll be able to take money out of those accounts at any time, without any penalty and without paying taxes on the income. And surprise surprise, these accounts would clearly benefit the already rich while taking tax dollars away from the federal government. This stuff is reaching the point of absurdity.

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The NY Times suggests traveling to Valencia. I'd suggest it too, except I've been there and it was such a wonderful, untouristy city that I almost wish it would remain undiscovered. But when someone says something like that, it of course becomes all the more appealing to tourists. So, I guess I take it back. But it really is a cool city.

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The contrast between reason and emotion will never stop fascinating me, just as it has never stopped fascinating most of the world's great thinkers. I particularly like the test at the end of this article that shows how we do not use strict logic in answering logical questions, but also social and instinctual skills. This discovery could go a long way in supporting the contention that skills assessment tests favor certain social groups. No matter what, though, there is always something more than reason at work in all of us, even when we are doing math.

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Apparently, call centers are the new sweatshops. What I mean is that, for example, these places in India have replaced sewing machines with telephones, and now instead of making Nike headbands or something for 12 hours a day, workers are answering our frustrated calls to our cellular providers. I think I might possibly rather sew.

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Good article from the NY Review of Books on my personal frontrunner Wesley Clark.

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If you ride the J,M,Z line of the New York City subway late at night, I imagine that you experience what all subway lines must have been like in the 1970s. Word of advice - use the buddy system.

Click here for last week's Culturally Speaking.

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Sarah Stodola is the Managing Editor of Me Three.  She can be contacted at [email protected].

© 2003 Me Three