Journal articles on the topic 'New adult romance'

My novel #nofilter follows Mia, a photo model who is pretty famous on the social media platform Instagram, as she meets Kyle, her online boyfriend for the first time. In an effort to earn other people’s acceptance, Mia has been building a perfect online persona. However, after meeting Kyle, it is revealed that she is not who she portrays herself to be. As my work revolves on how social media affects someone’s self-esteem, hopefully it can help the readers learn to love themselves and do not depend their self-esteem on others. Specifically, I focus on how Mia maintains an idealized online persona in order to cope with her low self-esteem and earn other people’s acceptance, how the contrast between Mia’s online and real life personas causes her relationship with Kyle to crumble, and how Mia learns to love herself by accepting her weaknesses and acknowledging her positive qualities. For that reason, I use Contingencies of Self-esteem theory by Jennifer Crocker and Connie T. Wole, the Social Comparison theory, and the Presentation of Self in Everyday Life by Erving Goffman. Set in the early years after college, I use New Adult genre and the sub-genre Contemporary Romance to explore Kyle and Mia’s romantic relationship. Keywords: Social media, Instagram, self-esteem, online persona, New Adult, Contemporary Romance

This study focuses on the ways in which Korean society's gender norms are reinterpreted by the winners of the Young Adult Literature Awards. First, I examined how the gendered family system in Korean society has been transformed and reconfigured, and how it affects the youth identity. Families in the Young Adult Fiction do not conform to conventional models of normal families and gender role norms. However, I critically examined the direction of family narratives by pointing out that the newly transformed familism limits the imagination of Young Adult Fiction. Next, I examined the representation of adolescent sexuality as a consistent practice. Male adolescents were often portrayed as the protagonists of events, which is problematic from a gender-sensitive perspective, and female adolescent sexuality had largely been addressed in the realm of pregnancy, abortion, and childbirth. However, I expect to see more narratives exploring female sexual self-determination in a new light. Finally, I highlighted issues of queer identity that are not captured by the gender binary. The winners of the Young Adult Literature Prize tend to deal with queer identity issues in friendships, and the recent winners have portrayed queer issues in new ways and formats through a combination of family, travel narratives, and romance narratives. Unlike in the past, when queer people were categorically excluded, minority issues have recently been addressed in terms of human rights education; however, it remains to be seen whether this will generate meaningful reflections in the future.

This article attempts to show an adolescent boy's continuing process of self-realisation through his disillusionment with the bleak reality of Dublin in the early twentieth century in the short story “Araby” by James Joyce. Brought up in the drab and deadening surroundings with his uncle and aunt in conservative Catholic cultures, the lonely sensitive boy finds no outlets to express his feelings. Torn between harsh reality and imagination, the boy searches light and a relish of romance. Amidst the darkness, a girl, Mangan's sister, is the only light in his romantic vision. The boy, however, wishes to win her over by bringing her a gift from Araby, an oriental bazaar, which is also an epitome of ideal beauty, love and romance to him. But as he grows up, he discovers that the bazaar is beset by difficulties of the adult world where he finds no way to dream. There he is exposed to a new odious situation which he never felt before. And he undergoes a shattering epiphany which results in realisation and maturation. Indeed, here Joyce keenly evinces how a young boy gains sharp insights into life and reality.

The synthetic superlative -ÍSSIMUS in Latin survived in Italian, whereas it was borrowed in the Romance languages on the Iberian Peninsula and in French during the Renaissance. This suffix has been very frequent in these languages with the exception of French. In this language it has been accepted merely when used in titles. Condemned by grammarians, the suffix has thus been quite rare in French literature. The present study shows however that in the database Frantext, which comprises mostly literary texts, nearly 1,400 occurrences of words with the suffix -issime are found, rarissime and richissime being the most frequent (apart from titles). But with the emergence of new media, it seems that the suffix has become much more frequent in French. These adjectives are found mainly in areas like politics, sports, travels, adult movies and in comments by web visitors as shown in this study.

The article deals with the motif of singing and music-making in the story “Timur and his team” (1940) by Arkady Gaidar. The author analyses 18 episodes in which the characters of the story sing or play music: a musical amateur performance (staging an opera), home and amateur music-making, Red Army chorus, trumpeter’s signals, performing a “novelty romance” and ditties accompanied by a fight, shouts of a milkmaid, improvised orchestra concert by children playing on “bottles, cans, bottles and sticks”, use of musical toys and so on. The musical texture of the novel is placed in the context of the mass musical culture of the 1930s and in the tradition of Russian classical music. The functions of this motif in the text of the story are revealed: the creation of an atmosphere of a dacha village near Moscow, allusions, and characterization of adult heroes. The article shows how the irony of the author is expressed through scenes of singing and music-making, and how the author’s accents are placed in the depiction and evaluation of characters. The analysis of this motif allows us to propose new interpretations of the world of children and adults depicted in A. Gaidar’s story; the relevant categories which distinguish children and adults in the story are original/secondary, natural/artificial, and improvisation/performance.

This article develops the concept of the ‘whimsical macabre’, introduced in my book Post-millennial Gothic: Comedy, Romance and the Rise of Happy Gothic (2017) to refer to texts which deliberately fuse the comic and cute with the sinister, monstrous or grotesque. I propose that Fabien Vehlmann and Kerascoët’s graphic novel Satania (2016) extends the whimsical macabre in new directions, by drawing on the work of Romantic poet and artist William Blake, whose illustrated books are often cited as forerunners of modern comics. By rewriting Blake’s visionary account of a journey into the infernal regions in The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1793) and alluding to Songs of Innocence and of Experience (1789/1794), Satania reveals the serious ethical dimensions that underlie the whimsical macabre. In doing so, it interrogates and complicates the maturational narrative associated with children’s and young adult literature. The article concludes by suggesting that Satania’s heroine Charlie’s relationship with her demon draws on a Blakeian model of friendship in opposition, pointing towards a ‘reparative’ form of Gothic in which otherness is neither erased nor expelled, but embraced and cherished.

33 Background: Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in cancer patients and those with life threatening illnesses has been officially recognized in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th Edition: DSM-4, since 1994. However, the updated 2013 DSM-V has redefined the idea of trauma and stress-related disorders resulting from life threatening illness as an amalgam of anxiety and adjustment disorders which must meet heightened criteria to be diagnosed as cancer-related PTSD (ca-PTSD) (1). Methods: In this pilot survey of Millennials and Generation X cancer survivors, ages 18-35 and 35-50 respectively, we queried based on DSM-V guidelines for basic demographics, illness-related stressors, as well as knowledge of ca-PTSD. We sent an electronic survey to 20 members of a social support group in May 2016. Results: Of the 13 survey respondents, 9 were female and 4 were male. Half of the respondents were from the Generation X and Millennial groups. None were military veterans. 6 were single, 4 were married, and 3 were in stable long term relations. 11 of 13 had a college degree or greater, and all but one had their cancer diagnosed after 2010. Respondents rated illness stressors as: 92% Possible illness progression; 77% Romance and/or reproductive; 77% Job-related; 77% Family dynamics and insecurities; 69% Social interaction insecurities; 69% Physician or Care-provider interactions and insecurities. All were aware of PTSD in general but only 4 reported discussion with a care provider. None recalled being screened for PTSD. Eight were unsure if more emphasis should be placed on ca-PTSD. Conclusions: This cohort further validates the new DSM-V inclusion of illness-adjustment and resultant anxiety to diagnose cancer related stress disorders, narrowing the scope of ca-PTSD diagnosis.With this survey we underline the importance of identifying illness-related stressors utilizing psychological distress monitoring, educating patients on symptoms and prevalence of cancer related stress disorders, and communication with the patient concerning cancer-related stress disorders and ca-PTSD diagnosis.

In today’s new media environment, more and more communication contents have been digitized. Also because of digitization, traditional media and new media, which were previously well-defined services, have now merged, media fusion. In the age of media fusion, communication systems are updated more rapidly and more and more novels are being adapted into TV series. Literary education in ancient China has a long history and has played an important role in the development and dissemination of the ancient Chinese literature. Literary education refers to an educational behavior in which the educator and the educated acquire knowledge, enrich emotional experience, and obtain aesthetic pleasure through the reading, explanation, and acceptance of literary texts and then cultivate language ability and cultivate spirituality. There are many factors that promote the classicization of ancient Chinese fiction works. This thesis examines the relationship between fiction education and the classicization of ancient Chinese fiction works. The experiment shows that there are still many problems with the reading of ancient Chinese novels today; the number of respondents who have an average interest in reading ancient Chinese novels accounts for 51%, and only 12% have a high interest in reading. In terms of the choice of reading content, 16% of the students focus on reading literary masterpieces, 70% are inclined to reading young adult literature and campus literature, and 14% prefer to read romance martial arts novels, popular science books, and newspaper publications, etc.

This article considers the extent that new forms of communication technologies developed in the last half century have contributed to new forms of sexual and romantic relationships flourishing among early adults in the United States. This project pays particular attention to the implications of that during the 2020 pandemic lockdowns and the increased dependency on technology that followed. This empirical work uses the theoretical framework provided by the scholarship of George Ritzer (2004), which focuses on the social narratives that drive labor into increasingly rational and functionalist operations, which he terms McDonaldization. This project uses interview data collected from college students to explore attitudes and social forms related to casual sex and the development of serious romantic relationships among participants. In an analysis of the data, three key trends have emerged that can be understood within Ritzer’s theoretical frame. Research participants utilize and value technologies within their intimate relationships as information filters that provide efficiency in creating relationships. They also demonstrate the use of technological, organizational, and connective tools as means to control relationships. Finally, technological tools and symbols signal a kind of semi-standardized symbol of commitment to the relationship, though the meaning of these signs is still contested.

"Treasure Island" by R. L. Stevenson is presented in the context of British Neo-Romanticism, that embodied masculine culture, characteristic of the late Victorian period, and produced a special type of "everyage" reader, as well as adventure literature addressed to him. "Treasure Island" is one of the first novels (romances), which were intentionally written both for children and for adults. Still, its reputation of the masterpiece of boyhood fiction may prevent readership from capturing "adults" implications, that primarily exist at the deepest levels of human consciousness and relate to the complicated nature of human character and behavior. The interrelation of "children" and "adults" layers unfolds in the playful discourse of the novel, discussed in the paper as a boyhood adventure, as a quest, or as an intertertextual game with its readers. Stevenson’s conception of a fictional world as the fusion of the imaginative and of the real, where the imaginative plays a leading role, is of the utmost importance for the topic of the paper. Pirate boyhood game is revealed on two levels: at the surface level, as an objective reality created in accordance with the codes of adventure literature, and at the deeper level, as an expression of a youthful desire for adventures and fulfillment of a boyish sea dream. The former is emphasized by explicit allusions to Ballantain’s "Coral Island", and the latter is prompted by not so visible allusions to Poe’s "The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym". The plot of the novel is designed as a quest, but "Treasure Island" is also a moral or psychological quest of some kind, so both the narrator and the reader have to look for answers in shifts in all characters of the story and not only in Long John Silver. The abundance of intertextual interconnections urges the reader to participate in unraveling intertexts and interpreting them in line with general and individual reader experience.

Background Online dating apps are popular platforms for seeking romance and sexual relationships among young adults. As mobile apps can easily gain access to a pool of strangers (“new friends”) at any time and place, it leads to heightened sexual health risks and privacy concerns. Objective This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of a peer-led web-based intervention for online dating apps to prepare Chinese college students so that they have better self-efficacy when using dating apps. Methods An open clustered randomized controlled trial was conducted among students from three colleges (The University of Hong Kong, Hang Seng University of Hong Kong, and Yijin Programme of Vocational Training College) in Hong Kong. Students aged 17 to 27 years who attended common core curriculum or general education were randomized into intervention and control groups. The intervention material, developed with high peer engagement, included four short videos, an interactive scenario game, and a risk assessment tool. An existing website promoting physical activities and healthy living was used as a control. Using the information, motivation, and behavioral skills (IMB) approach to design the evaluation, questionnaires covering participants’ sociodemographics and dating app characteristics, as well as the general self-efficacy scale (GSE) as the primary outcome and the risk propensity scale (RPS) as the secondary outcome were administered before, immediately after, and at 1 month after the intervention. Intention-to-treat analysis was adopted, and between-group differences were assessed using the Mann-Whitney U test. A post-hoc multiple linear regression model was used to examine the correlates of the GSE and RPS. Results A total of 578 eligible participants (290 in the intervention group and 288 in the control group) participated in the study with 36 lost to follow-up. There were more female participants (318/542, 58.7%) than male participants in the sample, reflecting the distribution of college students. Over half of the participants (286/542, 52.8%) reported the following reasons for using dating apps: being curious (170/498, 34.1%), trying to make new friends (158/498, 31.7%), and finding friends with similar interests (121/498, 24.3%). Overall, the participants in the intervention group reported favorable experiences when compared with the finding in the control group. There was significant improvement in the GSE score and reduction in the RPS score (P<.001) in the intervention group. University of Hong Kong students were more susceptible to risk reduction after the intervention when compared with students from the other two institutions. Conclusions The online intervention was effective in improving general self-efficacy and reducing risk tendency among young students. Future work is needed to determine if this approach is cost-effective and such behavioral change is sustainable. Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03685643; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03685643. International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID) RR2-10.1186/s13063-018-3167-5

Jogo de espelhos e palavras Analogias duma beleza transitiva Foi entre “formigas e cupins”[1] que descobri e inventei por “ver” o que lia. Do jardim a casa, numa aprazível “distração”, li Marina (do latim, marinus, “marinho”). Se ia em busca de cupins, absorvi-me logo numa bela atividade intrínseca de “ler” a natureza humana. Os estados/processos emocionais deram-se ao meu sonho acordado, frente à lua cheia. Por contraste mínimo, o que acontece no sonho propriamente dito é antes uma não narrativa, uma dissociação não controlada, exibida a superfície de fundo inacessível[2], graciosa alternativa criativa à “associação de ideias”. “O sonho de uma sombra”, em Píndaro (522 – 443 a.C.)[3], foi a ofuscação da “verdade” nua e crua. O sonho e a fantasia permitem a estranha fragmentação da sequência do pensamento escorreito, quando se experiencie a realidade de All-Self (ser com tudo em redor). Um efeito é imaginarmos sermos nós aquela “estrela” e recategorizamos algo num “todos juntos”, “transitarmos”[4], sem fixação, encontrado “tudo em tudo”[5]. “Somos plurais”[6] e mutantes sem “coerência”. Colocado a par o ser e o não ser, dada a aparência de Marina, numa superfície lisa refletida, convoca à reflexão que muda, quando “… todos querem, buscam, sonham com você”[7]. Na afirmação do narrador, Celso, é partilhado o desejo de alguém ou dele com “você”. Num detalhe ora geral, ora específico, algo dela poderá ser comparável ou semelhante a outra coisa, uma analogia. No encalço dela, Marco Lucchesi acompanha-nos no “eterno retorno da leitura”[8], trocadas cartas entre Celso e Marina, na década de noventa do século passado[9]. “Rasgadas”, anos passados por ele, entendidas “inúteis e vazias”[10], tendo ela dirigido um e outro e-mail inúteis, para “confissões”, via ”correspondências”[11], em que culpas confessadas nem sejam alheias a “amores mortos”[12]. Anteriormente, Celso chegaria a procurar Marina em “mundos improváveis”. Em locais de sua casa, a falsa presença, inviável, “tão querida”… Possivelmente desejada, chega a ser atingido o paradoxo da perenidade da vida, no espaço exíguo, amor eterno. Marina encontra-se em quase tudo[13]: “Digamos: a) no terreno baldio das gavetas; b) na agenda que perdeu a validade; c) nas fotos inquietas de um álbum (andorinhas em queda: sem cola, pálidas ou saturadas); d) no velho sótão que não tenho.” Como se “pousássemos os pincéis”, em continuidade, o modelo analógico varia no tempo… O escritor acrescenta: “nosso passado é analógico”[14]. Celso escuta cantos, sons e silêncios (a música “dela”?), no aparelho de rádio analógico... “Analogia”, nas nuances de significado no dicionário, são uma entre outras. E dada a representação de um objeto assemelhar-se ao original, pode Marina ser “pintada” em eternas obras de arte. “Vejo-a”, no que vejo e no que leio: “Coroação da Virgem”, de Fra Angélico (1395 — 1455); “A Madona de San Sisto”, de Rafael (1483 — 1520) … Escolho logo a bela Gioventü, de Eliseu Visconti (1866 - 1944). Figura nº 1 – Óleo sobre tela, Gioventü, de Eliseu Visconti (1898) Fonte: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giovent%C3%B9 Mas é em Candido Portinari[15], numa obra de 1957 – “O menino com pássaro”, que a voz e ela… se me apagou. Seria recolhida e cuidada por aquele que a encontrasse. Figura nº 2 – Elemento de obra de Candido Portinari (1957) – O menino com pássaro Fonte: https://www.wikiart.org/en/candido-portinari/menino-com-p-ssaro-1957 Numa analogia, a figura oscila de forma contínua, entre passado e presente, imparável no tempo. Sem comparecer perante Celso, também ele num não-lugar se quedou[16]. Os seus braços, “irredentos do todo”[17], vivido um “como se…”, avançariam o distanciamento/estranheza[18] face ao espelhado “teatro de sentimentos”. Fora Marina ferida? Num “jogo de espelhos e palavras”[19], “escrevo por espelhos reticentes, com frases e lacunas movediças” …. “Estendo as mãos para o espelho…”[20]. “Refletida” a escrita em processo, encontro Lucchesi solto no outro. Nos seus termos, a palavra “espelho” dará lugar ao oculto no “jogo de espelho, analogias”[21]. Quando a reflexão teria ainda o Sol no “espelho”, o encontro de ambos jorrava luz. Perdida a década de oitenta, o que é dado, antecipado[22]? Novas luzes e sombras. Celso e Marina foram inicial “espelho de paixão”. Seguiu-se a brecha na paixão. Num salão espelhado da paixão de Nosso Senhor Jesus Cristo, em 1507, vejo uma figuração pintada por Hans Schäufelein. “Herodes” deu lugar à figuração doutros maus tempos, no “Espelho da Paixão” (Speculum Passionis). Cristo diante de Herodes, o malvado, que morreu com o Eclipse lunar. Num “reflexo“, o culpado, no julgamento em “Herodes”[23], convocara Cristo[24], um culpado. Eu sou o outro do outro eterno Eleia, às portas da atual Itália. Numa primeira estrofe de Poema, a expressão dum outro, Parménides (530 a.C. — 460 a.C.), para quem “deus” não foi gerado, existindo[25] ad eternum... A estaca foi colocada num limiar doutro lugar estranho, em Poema: “Aí se encontram as portas”. Talhada a via inovadora do caminhar, tendemos a cruzar linhagens para não nos perdermos. Nem tudo se desgasta e corrompe, com Parménides. No rumo incerto, outra conquista do explorador Ulisses[26], foi ter encontrado o retorno? Ulisses, Celso, Alice, Marina… Pierre e Natacha, Tristão e Isolda. No desencontro, Molly e Leopold ou Eurídice e Orfeu ... A ficarmos “aos pés da biblioteca”[27], a ler vidas nas figuras centrais, estas oferecem um recuo[28]. Abrem portas. Eternas personagens, nem todas juvenis. Celso, o narrador? Alguém que já teve um “matagal” de cabelo perdido, que “nasceu no coração [uma floresta, cabelos…] … com espinhos” - “O elogio da calvície” [29]. Outra personagem de Marina, Alice, foi um exemplo de ajuda, porto marítimo, seguro, onde atracar? Substitui, sem substituir Marina? Alice adotará, também ela, o enigmático porte de “Gioconda”, “a senhora Lisa, esposa de Giocondo”, representada por técnica do sfumato, de Da Vinci (1452 — 1519). Foi seu o “vaso”[30], que Celso amou - “vasos quebrados” [31]. Acresce que “Alice e o vira-lata branco” encontram-se ambos registados num “resumo” de carta[32], em união, bem juntos. Bem articulado no pensado é o que a carta diz e não diz. Mas quem será aquele outro vira latas? Marina ainda pede foto da outra – Alice[33]. Num e-mail registado: “Se puder [você, Celso], mande-me fotos ou vídeos de Alice. Tenho por ela um profundo afeto. Lembro-me de seu sorriso, ao piano”. Será verdade? Uma inquebrável lembrança de Celso, uma só vez, Marina tocara piano com ele, a quatro mãos[34]. Celso poderá ter reparado (n)o vaso, a dado passo. Pode ter tido outra imagem fixada à Alice, de então. Seria aquele vaso que “amava”, ou Alice[35], uma figura magnética? “Para fugir de mil perigos”, a quem não faltou Alice? Alice usou “ampolas e unguentos, magos e poções”[36]? Cuidadora, Alice, com Celso, representado nos rapazes com pássaros feridos[37]? Em suma, pareceria a Celso não existir punção operada ou poder maior, quando os relacionamentos morrem, ainda que os vasos sejam compostos de cacos que se colam: “Não posso reparar o irreparável”[38]. No entanto, Celso conhecia a técnica das peças coladas do Japão - a técnica do kintsugi[39]. Observou, até mesmo o outro vaso por si trazido com os gerânios, da sua antiga casa… “Distancia que se perde. Vaso que se encontra…”[40] Na ficção, a fiação tudo interliga “Vimos a fiação que tudo interliga. Semântica e sintaxe”[41]. Dos golpes de génio ficcional e da sangrenta História, Marco Lucchesi concebeu comparações, em que “mudam as guerras”[42] e as linguagens. Numa realidade de rapto, guerra e paixão, o poema épico transcende o amor passado que eterniza. Homero fundador da literatura ocidental, numa autêntica carnificina, a incerta “Guerra de Troia”, contou com Ájax[43] dentro do cavalo, dando guerra (infinita)[44] a Heitor, o destemido troiano, incapaz de lhe perfurar o escudo. A guerra teve que ser interrompida ao pôr do sol, intervindo Apolo. Do inicial “pomo de discórdia” entre deusas até aos feitos, nove anos passados em guerra, Ájax é “muralha”. A Ilíada evidencia que esmagou o escudo de Heitor, com uma só pedra. Quem sabe se Celso seria uma barreira inexpugnável, de tão “glacial”[45], que se tornou? Numa contenda, para o romance histórico, de 1865 e 1869, Liev Tolstói cruzou aqueles que se amaram, na passagem do Grande Cometa, em 1811: na invasão napoleónica, em 1812, a personagem recorrente, Pierre encontra-se com a bela Natacha, aparentemente apaixonada por Boris, amada por Denisov. Como foi possível a “guerra sem paz”[46]? Celso e Marina viveram dessa “Guerra de quase e talvez”[47], no que foi a “guerra que nos mata”[48]. Lendários amores infelizes e apaixonados, trágicos, na bárbara Idade Média (século V a século XV)? Tristão («tristeza») e Isolda (“das mãos de fada”)[49]. E o Rei Marcos que a perdeu[50]. Guerras nos ensaios não-ficcionais e nas ficções. Já a estranha paixão da cantora Molly e Leopold termina com o “sim” dela, apenas num solilóquio. O corpo de Molly – no livro de James Joyce - seria “sensual”[51], no que ressalta o “incêndio” interior. Divergências? Foi numa dada “tarde”, vinte anos passados, que a caixa eletrónica de Celso recebe um primeiro e-mail de Marina. Iria acabar com a guerra entre ambos. Não parece de comparar com a ficção? Marina e Celso encontrar-se-iam no fim da “guerra fria”[52], em data marcada pela queda do muro de Berlim, 9 de novembro de 1989. Numa Rádio Londres, com “mensagem de Inglaterra aos aliados”, durante a longínqua Segunda Guerra Mundial, ele passava a escutar outra transmissão no rádio bem comum, no sistema analógico. Um sinal da mensagem dela, vulgar. Metáforas básicas da descrição do real Quando se coloque uma figura de estilo, cujos sentidos figurados utilizem comparações como a “metáfora do corpo em lua cheia”[53], é a Lua “tão nua e desarmada a vaporosa Lua”. A pessoa é então toda inteira, se bem que a Lua seja fragmentada noutra fase lunar. Damo-nos a facetas diversas, também. E a não ser a transição de fase a mesma daquela grande lua, Marco Lucchesi ainda afrontou a perda irreparável de parte dela, por Celso, num desaforo: “se você esperava tapetes e fanfarras, perdeu a viagem. Abandonei a timidez, digo o que penso, e sem rodeios.”[54] Dada a acentuada guerra entre Celso e Marina, ao referencial “real”, preferi antes juntar à lua a palavra “viagem” e a palavra “mundo”, no que coloco mais do que o que (a)parece – numa alegoria. Assim, na minha perceção subjetiva, uma fenomenologia, ocorreu algo mais a aprofundar. Nessa viragem, limito mais do que o que se me abra à fixação de “guerra”, quando se sucedam figuras de estilo, no livro[55]. Num jogo de linguagem, retiro a desafogada imagem concreta: o passeio na praia, junto da Cinelândia e o que faço? No termo metafórico duma “psicologia de viagem-vida”, encontro logo ali o figurativo, portanto, com os rodeios à casa velha de Celso, com os eventos no trânsito, com as margens do mar face à praia. Meios mundos são a frente “subaquático”[56] e outros territórios e sítios. Poderia convocar imensos espaços de transição, imaginando[57] além de um “mundo submarino”[58]. Lucchesi tantas vezes observa “estrelas”, algumas “estrelas não promissoras”[59]… Voltando ao avesso, na Terra, à “viagem à roda do piano e do quarto”[60], essas são breves viagens e têm fim. Contudo, é dada à incompletude a infinita “viagem à roda dos teus olhos, punhado de beleza, informe, passageira”[61]. Numa estranha viagem de recuo (na revirada do avesso), focada uma “correspondência” sem troca, é de antemão inviabilizado o “sim” e a chegada a bom porto[62]? Da presença na ausência de Marina: tempo de sonho e pesadelo Como “resumir” os “20 anos”[63] de afastamento? Um desapego de “dez mil dias”, após o “terremoto”. “Dez mil dias” sem se falarem? Pretendo dar forma ao texto, quando pense que uma correspondência convencionada abranja reciprocidade e presença, ainda que evitada a “literatice”[64] e o “episódico”. Não “agradará” ao narrador contar das cartas, para se livrar efetivamente delas. Ameaça que irá “destruí-las”. Celso foi intempestivo, aquando do primeiro e-mail de Marina[65], após aqueles vinte anos de alheamento dela… O livro Marina reproduz a reduzida “novela”[66] de singelas cartas e e-mails. Passado o texto a pente fino, no segundo e-mail de Celso, este redige uma desculpa: “Perdi tudo, não sei como. Preciso de um novo computador. Como se não bastassem formigas e cupins. Obstinado, insisto e recupero apenas uma parte”[67]. Numa convencional “não-narrativa”, coloco a tónica na congruência e na intencional, quando seja a “dissonância”[68] desarmante de “lirismos”. Alcançada a agressividade, a crítica mordaz, a sagacidade e o ardil… Frente ao quebra-cabeças, pede-se abertura (de espírito), quando se leia o “romance de ideias”, no pensamento do ser (em Parménides e Heidegger). Na dimensão emocional, a obra de resiliência traz-me a consciência da artificialidade da ficção. Cubro de culpas a protagonista Marina. Coloco logo a poção de amor viático, um mantimento para sustento num “líquido destino”[69]. Logo passa a parecer-me que “essa viagem nunca termina”[70], numa entusiástica volta no carrocel do mundo, num “eterno retorno”[71]. Essa segunda vez que é nomeado o eterno, dá-me esperança, ainda que Celso assuma: … “não quero este destino circular”. ~ E eu quero! Se o “nosso encontro não estava escrito [no destino] … Não houve um deus a decidir nosso destino, nem brilho de uma estrela promissora. Deixámos simplesmente de escrevê-lo [ao destino]”[72]. Escrevamos o que desejemos, então, por linhas tortas. Há ocasiões, em que um sonho se repete e elucida algo[73]… As produções estéticas de artistas foram os produtos de imaginações, ainda que acreditassem ser ajudados pelo diabo, por um santo ou pelo próprio sonho avassalador e as visões enigmáticas. Giuseppe Tartini (1692 - 1770), William Blake (1757 - 1827) ou o cavaleiro Adolf von Menzel (1815 - 1905) são exemplos elucidativos do pensamento mágico dominante, nos séculos XVIII e XIX. Há quase 100 anos, o psicanalista Carl Jung[74] escreveu o seguinte, com um sentido determinista do sonho: “uma experiência anómala, que não é compreendida permanece uma mera ocorrência; compreendida torna-se uma experiência [humana excecional] vivida”. Uma característica desse tipo de experiências únicas é serem inefáveis, mal descritas. Inefáveis ilações, na sombra que vira a luz? Posso recuar atrás, ao sonho e ao tempo de Píndaro[75]. O que alcançou aquele da Verdade, quando viveu entre 522 e 443 antes da nossa era? Com Píndaro, ficou assente que “[no humano] sonho é uma sombra”. Assim colocado, “sombra” opõe-se a brilho, a luz, quando a “verdade” seja ofuscada, esboroada na obscuridade. E na medida em que seja ausente um sentido puro para as palavras, damo-nos a alegorias, a metáforas, da “transparência” da palavra, da luz ao sábio recuo paradoxal. Possa o sonho ser “iluminação”, tal Marina, duma “beleza transitiva”[76], entre as luas cheias. Marina conforma aquilo[77], o deslocado pela sombra, quando fuja a juventude, na transitória impermanência. Que espelho da “verdade”? Logo na primeira configuração, se o par não foi (ou foi?) um “espelho inverso”[78], Marina chega a ser retratada no vidro fosco, na “transformação [dela] num espelho”[79]– “uma Gioconda cheia de segredos”, representada pelo impressionista Eliseu Visconti, em Gioventü. Indecidíveis formatos. Como abordar palavras guardadas num “poço” que, a ser “raso”[80], sempre igual e espalmado, lembra o “infinito” do “abismo (líquido)”[81], entre duas pessoas que “comunicam”[82]? 2 Analise textual de marina O método de analisar textos “Coerência” traduz a ideia, cunhada pelo psicoterapeuta Carl Rogers (1902 – 1987), em que o participante apresente um relato de experiência bem estruturada - lógica, a faceta cognitiva e interpretativa, uma significação de peso na experiência “arrumada”. Na narrativa literária, a noção de “coerência” coloca-se, no antigo Dicionário de teoria da narrativa[83]: “texto como unidade no processo comunicativo, resultante de intenções e estratégias comunicativas específicas, ele é também um texto semanticamente coerente... elementos recorrentes… não integralmente redundante… progressão de informação no interior de um texto … na ‘enciclopédia’ do recetor”[84]. Na nova literatura, Marina alude o “vórtice” do redemoinho amoroso de Celso e Marina, o forte movimento do “terramoto” bem rápido, cruzado com a empolgante sonoridade das bravas ondas. Marina retém uma imensa fluidez, em torno dum eixo fixado ao vórtice entre ambos. Sorvida a voragem sentimental no turbilhão do mar, noutra asserção a “vórtice” – um turbilhão, o fenómeno “incoerente” trespassa a vitalidade dos movimentos guerreiros de “homens”, nos tempos atuais. Onde encontrar uma “secreta harmonia”[85]? Em mulheres, no desaguisado com homens? “Sem que você soubesse, caminhamos lado a lado”[86]. Seremos bem menos coerentes do que se pensou, tanto mulheres quanto homens. Todos nós, humanos, somos sujeitos de analogias. Com o “corpo inelutável”[87] de Marina, que foi o “corpo em fuga” e se encontra ao lado do seu, Celso é já do outro lado. Seja que suba ele à Tocata e Fuga em ré menor, de Bach[88]? A inconsistência é presente na ausência de outrem. Outra mexida foi dada ao mundo amoroso, com as híbridas histórias-ficções, realidades e alternativas. Na alternativa ao modo de organização de “identidade do ‘eu’ estacionário”, sem fluidez de maior, teríamos a fixação eterna. Um risco pode ser nem encararmos a vida sujeita a contingências/acasos – o sem ganhar folgo, “… e, de repente… o sobressalto”. Em Marina, o leitor transcende o sabido (ontológico) e o instituído “romance”, o que não pressupõe que todos os planos sejam antecipadamente traçados. Não sabemos se Marina nos deixou. Ela foi a “glória de um destino”[89]? Um famigerado destino? Um Deus não decide do destino do par amoroso[90]. “Desconheço a direção [do futuro, indeterminado]. Soubesse de uma senha [mágica, um código … e o controlaria Celso. No fluxo permanente de mudança, já o passado e o devir são escapes [na aparente “fuga”], uma “disfunção” no presente [na fantasia inviável]. Porque não viver o aqui-e-agora? Amplificado o tempo, a “hipertrofia…”, é inviável a luta interior, “contra a qual luta o presente”[91]. “Deu-se por fim a glória de um destino. Porque, Marina, os relógios não morrem”[92]. “O vento segue os rumos do destino [ou da predisposição de sorte]”[93], tão mais improvável do que a precisão do tempo dos relógios. Abordagem narrativa na psicologia Numa aproximação literária, na psicologia narrativa, “as personagens são os elementos permanentes que sustentam o desenrolar do enredo”[94]. Nem as personagens fogem, nem restam fragmentadas, na “transparência da voz”[95]. Quem fale no esqueleto narrativo, pensa em episódios de um “guião” (scripts) identitário ou coletivo e, para a “narrativa de perda”, em Celso, congrega-se uma “organização de significado”, no que dê conta de mudanças dessa organização afetiva e psicológica, tão frequente e intensa de privação, podendo tornar-se duradoura ou reatar uma mera ocorrência súbita. O presente texto sobre Marina apresenta “fenómenos” talhados. Dito de outro modo, dá corpo a “ideias centrais, ao happening, ao incidente em torno do qual um conjunto de ações e de interações são dirigidas, com vista a serem reconhecidas, geridas e integradas, ou com as quais um conjunto de ações se relaciona”[96]. Numa forma de encontrar e descobrir ocorrências, farei um parêntesis para o que sabemos de um autor. Na sua suspensão de ideias feitas, como nos “lugares comuns”, nos “hiatos” e nos “silêncios”, o que “lemos” nos não ditos, sem um código? Para o efeito enredado, temos a ajuda de comparações constantes, numa “codificação aberta” do texto. Utilizam-se atributos/características para as palavras todas inteiras e para a variabilidade de significados não ficar de fora. E as “palavras (sem) envelope”, plenas de pregnância e fugidias, impõem afundar numa rigorosa análise linha-a-linha. Haverá ainda que conceber dimensões gerais, para “linhas-da-história”, duma ou doutra mini narrativa ou história, em Marina, o “tempo eterno” e o imparável “relógio dos ponteiros”; a vida e a morte; a terra e o mar, a nuvem e a pedra, o fogo do amor e as suas cinzas… Ao “questionar” os dados/textos, no aprofundamento que se justifica, efetuam-se as aludidas “comparações constantes entre fenómenos”. Da projeção, da narrativa e do episódio Em Marina, identificam-se esparsas narrativas míticas, nas guerras e nos amores. No amor, o “projetado” Orfeu[97] chega a parecer ser Celso, na sua ânsia de que Marina não morra …[98]. Celso poder-se-á sentir, noutra volta, um Marcus[99], chegando tarde, perdida Isolda, amante de Tristão[100]. “Pobre rei Marcos. Tão tarde descobriu o desamor”[101]. Marina não é escrito na primeira pessoa, autorreferenciada. Discriminada a faceta “projetiva” (ex.: uma pessoa não específica ou segunda pessoa, outros, alguém de quem se fala ou escreve): Marina ou Alice descobrem-se entre uma “Gioconda cheia de segredos”, uma Molly, o “verbo infinito”, na “voz” da cantora. Um eco repetido da voz dela, Marina. O narrador e Marina “nadam no monólogo de Molly”[102]. É preciso dizer que “não sei até que ponto lembro da tua voz [Marina]”[103]. Dito de outro modo, Celso mal se recorda do que Marina “disse/diz”, repetidamente. Falhou a voz e “deixou de dizer”[104]. Por seu lado, os episódios reais reportam-se às mínimas ações/interações, as quais podem ser relatos de experiências significativas, por vezes truncadas nas premissas, donde a maior ou menor coerência lógica ou consistência lógica. Quando as palavras chegam a mudar de estado, digamos, aluadas, tornam-se “líquidas, turvas, transparentes”[105]. Passam palavras estranhas pela fluência de selves (“múltiplos eus”, mentais e subjetivos), transformações identitárias. Apreender-se-ão coerências doutros implícitos, aspetos tácitos e inaudíveis da daqui e dali. Narrativa episódica A partir dos fenómenos esparsos, no grosso volume da vida, alcançamos registos de realizações pessoais e dos impedimentos, destinos e acasos, sortes e desaires. Foi a partir dessas constatações que distingui os fenómenos de meros episódios, nas narrativas/histórias, que lembram “todo o texto mostrar de forma holística as cognições e os processos emocionais do autor”[106]. O que se designou de plot (na língua inglesa) para um “episódio”, portanto, vai de encontro à narrativa, ao deparar-se o leitor com uma sequência de eventos ao longo do tempo (“sucessão”), para um “texto”[107], mesmo no mínimo “enredo”[108]. Na forma bem estruturada, visou-se o elemento sequencial e dinâmico, na literatura (na lógica, “gramática” ou “sintaxe”), considerado o episódio o “único esqueleto indispensável” e “menos variável”[109]. A variabilidade de Marina encontra-se nas intercaladas unidades de significado/segmentos de tópico, nas breves temáticas, as quais identificam a substituição de conteúdos, nos registos escritos por Celso. Acresce haver processos narrativos de vários modos evidenciados, no sentir, no experienciar e no pensar: a “descrição externa/concreta de acontecimentos de vida (atuais ou imaginados / passados, presentes ou futuros); a “descrição interna experiencial” (subjetiva), de episódios/narrativas, com a identificação verbal de “reações afetivas e/ou estados emocionais” (ex.: “triste”, “zangado”, “frustrada”, etc.); e a “análise reflexiva/interpretativa da descrição de eventos e/ou da experiência subjetiva, sendo os eventos presentes, passados ou futuros”[110]. No primeiro domínio narrativo, a ênfase no sentir alcança menor complexidade do que o experienciar (interno) e o refletir/pensar. Episódios mínimos Após o desenlace por afastamento, surge um episódio elaborado quase no final do livro. Possui a tónica na conduta de Celso, antes da adesão ao refletido, somente após a imersão interior num quadro e num cenário: Episódio - Título Promessa de calor na aflição dela: “Antes do amanhecer, sacudo meus ossos na areia. O mundo frio no vapor das ondas [do mar], enquanto o sol desponta, bem depois, nas rochas que me vedam o horizonte [limite]. Sem que você soubesse, caminhamos lado a lado. Não sei até que ponto lembro tua voz. Tudo que diz e deixa de dizer [adiante, eco repetido]. O modo, sobretudo a transparência da voz. Como o menino e o pássaro de Portinari. Te vejo, assim, ferida, a proteger-te. Promessa de calor. Será difícil atravessar a noite (p. 91). Registei outros episódios relatados, com mais de “vinte anos”, exceto o primeiro, possivelmente mais recente: (1) Aflições de Celso no mar[111]; (2) Celso e Marina nadaram no mar e, sentir-se-iam “alegres”, possivelmente ao saírem para a praia[112]; (3) “Mística do encontro” de dois “tímidos” (“dissemos algo escasso, imponderável ... o clima, as gentes, a história”)[113]; e (4) Aludidos passeios de bicicleta[114]. Na narrativa criam-se então replays de experiência, quando se atenda ao “eu” subjetivo frente ao quotidiano, a rituais e a “inéditos”, como nos encontros a dois. Somente o episódio de Celso sozinho e aflito no mar não correu bem. Será invencível o revolto mar e a doença de coração: “… ao dorso da onda fria, apressa o coração”[115]. E se é tremendo o risco de morte no mar bravo, não é impossível lutar a dois contra o tempestuoso. O que nem quer dizer deixar de ter mão para apagar aquela ou outra terrível imagem recordada. Afinal, qualquer um sonha com “você”[116]. Ora aquele primeiro “episódio de ‘sonho’”, mas pavoroso, é ilustrativo do mundo irreal, na forma “narrativa”[117]: “um belo dia quase me fui na onda[118] de seis metros. Eu me livrei a muito custo. Um sonho breve que o sal interrompeu. Vantagem provisória...” é acordar. Já o fustigou o voraz turbilhão real da ameaça e perigo no medo da morte dela, quando volte a passar ao mar… Deixar de ser, naquela praia – que “quase levou” Marina … e que é a mesma praia, que “seduz” o narrador[119]. O perigo de afogar-se na praia é real e irreal. Anotei ilações, decorrentes interpretações do texto, nas expressões do autor: (1) Risco frente ao mar[120]; (2) Juventude, em que se possa morrer com alegria[121]; (3) Encontros, fruto de “um milagre matemático… acaso e o seu mistério”[122]; e (4) A bicicleta que “morreu”[123]? A bicicleta? Um indicador do encontro com Marina: “Passeio de bicicleta. Voa o vestido azul. Essa viagem nunca termina”[124]. Noutra apropriação do contexto, o par poderia [ver] “baleias”, ao longe, “delicadas” [125], quando iam pedalando na “bicicleta” … Num contrassenso forjado na comparação, a bicicleta dele era um “cavalo”[126]? Antes dela “morrer”[127], melhor dito, “enferrujar”[128]. Na transição de pensamentos, afetos à morte: “Não há resumo para a última carta. Porque esta é uma carta definitiva. Porque se trata da morte de Marina”[129]. E adiante: “Imploro, Marina, que não morras antes de morrer”[130]. Ficaria ela sem maior sentido de vida? A viragem de alegre “surpresa” chegou a ser concebida, numa anterior “carta destroçada”, restos do que ficou dentro do “caderno escolar” e “cujos pedaços recomponho num mosaico bizantino”[131]: “Carta de amor (desesperado) que rasguei: “...pousa nos lábios uma estrela... secreta harmonia... deserto amanhecer... teu corpo inelutável... lagoa iluminada e seios úmidos... bosque sutil... pequena morte... jogo de espelhos e palavras... teu rosto desenhado no meu peito... à mesa um copo de absinto... duas palavras e voltamos a dormir... infame precipício...” (p. 86). Os procedimentos de análise de experiências são guias de leitura, no que prendem o elucidado “desespero”, o isolamento e o limitado prazer de Celso, quando a vida pudesse afigurar-se um pesado fardo, irado contra Marina, contra o violento mar, o amor eterno… A súmula de alegria - a “surpresa” … Num resumo analítico[132], estabelecem-se relações entre um fenómeno, no sentido da conceção de um episódio. Donde, uma ilustração de seis fatores envolvidos, no episódio Promessa de calor na aflição dela[133]: - Condições causais antecedentes, para a ocorrência reportada (antes do amanhecer, já levantado Celso da areia da praia onde dormiu, ao despontar do sol); - Fenómeno per se (“sacudidos ossos” ao sol, no limite do ser, entre eternas rochas, com a ausência de Marina); - Contexto (a praia junto ao mar ensoleirado); - Estratégias somente idealizadas de ação interativa (ser tomada Marina por indefesa a proteger, no que Celso escreve da sua possibilidade de “ajuda”); - Condições intervenientes (quadro “menino com pássaro” de Portinari…), - O que constrange ou facilita o incidente/fenómeno (recordações de encontros com Marina, num local partilhado e o fenómeno de imaginar um quadro) e - Condições consequentes (a dificuldade de continuar pela noite, sem a presença de Marina e a fixada promessa de calor humano). Nessa leitura duma abstração da experiência, um episódio pode ser idealmente estruturado, se bem que escapem as estratégias de ação interativa. Noutra margem encontram-se a filosofia (de Parménides e Heidegger), o jogo com textos míticos (Ájaz, Rei Marcus…). No “romance de ideias” de Marco Lucchesi, são vastos os domínios de conhecimento. Com o autor aprendi que, ao não aceder a “coisas em si”, tenho as coisas para mim e, talvez, nos apareçam amores e guerras, por prismas do entendimento e da sensibilidade. Dos fenómenos - as aparências - “O que sei?” No quotidiano, sei que vivemos de forma a criarmos conexões entre inauditos episódios, flashbacks, substituições de interesses/temáticas nem buscadas, redundâncias e omissões (como “lacunas de memória”), numa apreensão do que nisso assuma perene “relevância”. O núcleo duro, o “essencial”[134], segundo o autor? “Perdemos as palavras essenciais”[135]. Perdemos “baleias” naquele mar alto, enferrujaram-se as “bicicletas” e desapareceu o “corpo feminino em fuga”[136]. As cartas dizem muito “mais do que parece”[137]. 3 Do mundo poético “Tornei-me um leitor de Parmênides”[138] e de Heidegger No mundo eterno, Parménides colocou o “motor imóvel” do tempo, o “livre-arbítrio”[139], o “cálculo integral”[140] … “causa e concausa”[141] … “tudo em tudo”[142]… Bastará “puxarmos o fio…”[143]? Numa passagem paradoxal da breve (?) “novela”[144], logo vemos como “tudo muda” no (des)encontro, a par de “rádios, guerras, amores”[145]. Não há confissão, não há reparação, na “narrativa não projetiva”. As “narrativas” antes partem dela[146], nos “lugares comuns”[147], registados nas mensagens. O que procura despertar Celso? “A voz de quem morreu, não as histórias”[148]. Bastaria o alcance da superfície, na “voz” dela[149]… No início de Marina, nem se espera a finalização do encontro. Não é desejado o fim do amor. Um mal irremediável. Terá morrido? Obra de “criatividade” dissonante face a espectativas de cartas de amor, Marco Lucchesi coloca-nos a margem de manobra, uma deriva, mudado Celso em permanência e, nesse sentido, as suas posições emocionais básicas são sublevadas e revoltosas, sublimadas, substituídas. Existentia, como a explicitar? Quando numa página inicial, não numerada, o autor nomeia um filósofo italiano, Emanuele Severino (1929 - 2020), que escreveu sobre Martin Heidegger, que exploração de fenómenos “metafísicos”? Martin Heidegger[150], de que trata? Li algures que Heidegger se interessou por “atualidade, realidade, em oposição a possibilidade concebida como ideia”. Ser é a totalidade do que existe. “Aí onde está cada um de nós” - da sein, seria o lugar da nossa presença, duplicada pela sombra da subjetividade. Subjetividade é o vivido que torna algo maior, quanto dá à presença novas formas afetivo-cognitivas. Mundos universais musicais Tenho aquela “vontade” de mudar o passado[151] e de criar uma ideia prospetiva de florescimento. Do mito de amor a Marina, nem estranho virem três damas dar uma flauta a um príncipe, Tamino, que buscará a sua amada. A harmonia da música condensa o “universal”, atingidos géneros e variadas “vozes” trocadas, na “Flauta Mágica”, de Mozart (1756 – 1791). O poder unificador da música é uma metáfora para o príncipe neutralizar o mal. Outra das óperas que acompanham Celso? A ópera de Verdi (1813 – 1901)? Recuo, à procura de La forza del destino, de 1862, cantado por Galina Gorchakova. Será que soubemos escutar o ciciado na voz da atualidade e o que nem se abra ao previsível, no acaso, sem destino[152]? Vozes pessoais de visionários? Na aparência, as palavras são soltas numa poéticas. Meia página abala o leitor. Meia página, umas quantas linhas de “voz”[153] , “voz marinha”, vinda do mar, submarina. Marina. Na “poética da dissonância”, fica aberta a superfície ao “espaço descontínuo”, criado por Lucchesi para ela[154]. A inatingível voz dela? Não sabemos. Na aceção do termo “fragmento”, Heidegger sublinharia essa origem deslocada de textos únicos e incompletos, que deixam espaço por concretizar. Escritores como Lucchesi, coligindo fragmentos, escapam às “correntes literárias”, “movimentos identitários” e “evidências” repetidas. Um significado de recusa de continuidade no vestígio escrito, fragmentado, foi adquirido no mar, que não é terra firme. Todavia, com “intencionalidade”[155] na voz, “nunca poderemos deixar o mundo, o que nunca deixámos”[156], o mundo terreno. Numa particular fenomenologia[157], poder-se-á conceber a “suspensão de julgá-lo”. Como não julgar o mundo do pensamento oblíquo, da metafísica passada? Ficando pela rama, na área concreta, terrena (não marítima, à beira mar, o que “sobrenada” ...). No que importa, não estamos nós fora de água? É de todo difícil alcançar maneira de arrancar o “pensamento de superfície”, também a superfície da página de Marina encante, pela superfície que cobre os reflexos incessantes, os jogos de reflexos, como ilusões e evasões, que surgem e desaparecem. Se não for atingido o que aparece antes do fundo das letras, ficamos aquém de imergir: foi muito antes que Parménides e Heidegger viveram. É preciso dizer que a superfície não se confunde com a aparência - a realidade energética, a dança terreste, da vida dançante[158]. A máscara de Marina já arrasta a ilusão do que aflora (a superfície) – a “transparência da voz”[159]. Esconde-se ela algures, no “re-dobrar” do seu ser[160]. A sua aparência causar-me-ia a diligência em “lê-la” a preceito. A voltar a Parménides e Heidegger, a profundidade[161] do livro dá antes a explorar o ser e as coisas[162], ao invés da superfície (mas com a superfície), a sua luminosidade. Quando a metáfora da luz (do dia, do Sol, da Lua promissora do brilho dos olhos verdes…) não encontra um reino perdido que persiga o ser, quantas ideias ficam subterradas e obscuras ao leitor? Foi a partir daquele ilusório mundo de reflexos (a superfície), que alcancei a incerta profundidade. Será o outro mundo (“marinho”) contrastado ao ilusório da realidade e ainda aquele outro mundo perdura, mutável e instável, matizado de cor intensa e de brilho ténue de águas passadas. Quanto ao retorno à superfície, ao aparecer, no emergir de novo, volta a agitação do mar emocional, que se ressente, no que permanece do eterno esvaziamento. Ficou um poço vazio daquele outro momento de amor ou do que dele reste nas rochas imutáveis. “Tenho por ela um profundo afeto. Lembro-me de seu sorriso, ao piano”[163]. Quando “aparecer é um compromisso metafísico”? A “metafísica” foi além de physis. Cientistas designam a metafísica de “especulação” de ideias, tantas vezes incertas, com que se debatam. O que se entende por “real” é, nesse segundo sentido, o que ultrapassa a “realidade” que conhecemos por perceção (inter)subjetiva. O real é um referencial profundo[164]e infinito; a realidade é o que conhecemos ou julgamos conhecer. Numa mediação poética para a metafísica, “aparecer” situa a presença original no mundo do ser, sendo que o mundo adote a incerteza na errância (e na morada no novo mundo). ~ Quanto “aparecer” vive acima da superfície e da aparência das coisas, é o ser que reflete um inóspito caminho de linguagem reflexiva, aproximativa e assintótica[165]. No ato de escrever, Marco Lucchesi delineou-me a possibilidade de especulação, a liberdade crítica e a ironia, abertas portas à metafísica fenomenológica. O existir em processo trouxera-me antes outros saberes e, nos espaços do mundo daqui, foi indicada a deslocação para a saída de “ex-” (em “existir”). Entretanto, aprendi que existir alcança o sentido de “pôr-se de pé”, de acordo com a etimologia. Num apelo a erguer-se (pondo-se de pé), já o próprio ser permanece em lugar recôndito, na condição de vir a aliar o desvelamento do ente – objeto, coisa, um ser, Marina... Outros “reivindicam” para si o “estar-aí” (da-sein), dito que todos “querem, buscam, sonham com você” [Marina], um corpo no que não “fuja”[166], na errância noturna. Consequência da fuga da luz? Será ela dada a “despertar” outra, a emergente Marina de Celso? Encontra-se ela ausente, no que seria de voltar a abordar a limpidez, a superfície, a “transparência”[167] da constelação “prometida” de dois seres. Uma forma de profundidade incompleta. Numa lúcida forma de escrita, patamar de sonho lúcido, Celso encontra-se em guarda. O narrador não deseja “despertar [vidas escritas]” … Talvez busque tão somente a “voz” dela, naquele eco, em que ressoa a limpidez, alcançará outra “voz”. A quem dar “voz”? A Molly, no seu solilóquio, na primeira pessoa[168]. Molly, uma inigualável cantora de ópera; Marina, de que nem sabe Celso se se lembra… da voz, dada à imagem fugidia na melodia, ao piano[169]. O que passou não se encravou. No ser em mudança, serão cristalizadas mínimas recordações, rareando “o caminho da verdade”[170], sem saída (uma aporia) tantas vezes paradoxal. Guerras dos mundos de ideias As ideias “verdadeiras” e as guerras de “opiniões” não se consolidam, nas correntes do paradoxo. Conjugam batalhas sem fim: Parménides e Zenão vs. Platão; Nicolau de Cusa vs. os que não cooperavam… Numa oposição ao seu tempo, questão cerrada e a descoberto, foi a permanência e a transformação. Parménides reteve a pura permanência, unilateral. Exigente na “ponderação”, Platão (428/427 – 348/347 a.C.) dedicou-lhe um diálogo inteiro - Parménides, em que Sócrates levou uma revisão verbal dum oponente, Zenão de Eleia (século V a.C.), para o efeito de inquirir o sentido do Uno, cujas “absurdas consequências seguem (ou não seguem?) em contradição com a referida doutrina”[171]. E se o ser é múltiplo? “Parménides”, um arauto da “revolução”? Esse é um ponto de um “resumo” do livro. Sendo que o germe da destruição estivesse plantado[172], que revisões foram geradas, a propósito das suas ideias? O que queriam mostrar os eleatas, com Zenão adiante das forças, o arauto da geometria e dos estranhos números, o infinito e o zero? Uma revolução, no conceito de tempo: fluxo constante e deixa de haver presente? O paradoxo de Zenão assinala o contrário à opinião recebida e comum, para o tempo virar uma sequência de mínimos momentos separados, donde vivermos o presente e a mudança ser ilusão. Quanto ao espaço? Sendo uno, não dá condições a haver “lugar” e “aqui”. No espaço fragmentado só há “aqui”, ausente o movimento. A revolução tem sentido no paradoxo, forjadas inesperadas dissensões. “Mudam [os tempos e] as guerras”[173]. No século XV, novo sobressalto. Gerador de ódios por contemporâneos, Nicolau de Cusa (1401 – 1464) alarmou muitos, pelo acento na compatibilidade entre extremos. Encarou a conjetura de “opostos”[174], dicotomizado o mundo por valores antagónicos, quando se creia num ponto de vista considerado válido. Nova batalha. Era Napoleónica, em França e na Europa, no ano VIII (ou, no calendário vigente, datado a 9 de novembro de 1799). Contrastaram adesões e oposições a Napoleão, herói e anti-herói, arrebatado o poder no golpe “18 do Brumário”[175]. As mudanças foram inquestionáveis, com a chefia e as saradas guerras. A guerra entre Marina e Celso não foi uma constante, também não persistiu. No foco da maior peleja, a distância a Marina[176] antecedeu outra circunstância: o entendimento de “como [Celso] se vê”[177]. Num “sinal de transição, de deslocamento”[178], veio de Celso a afirmação séria, numa trégua consigo mesmo: “já não habito na distância”[179]. Anteriormente, despedir-se-ia dela, como um Catulo[180], numa linguagem coloquial, sem intensidade e sem profundidade maior… Poderia estar a recuperar o “habitar”, junto dela. Existirem compatibilizados, nas suas oposições, requer o significado: “habitar”. Talvez se encontre algures, na linguagem. Para “morar”, fica bem longínqua a raiz etimológica, no sânscrito - vatami -, cujo termo alemão é wesen. Dir-se-ia que Celso possa já “estar-aí” (da-sein)[181]. No seu lugar - aí -, à fluência não lhe faltará diferença. Como expor uma diferença melhor do que com o ruído feito pelas diferenças da fala e do canto de Celso e Marina? Revejo a aliança, a separação, o que nem quer significar uma divisão de opostos. Há uma distinção nas “vozes”, para um sistema caótico, em várias escalas de linguagens. A organização de mundos No século XXI, em 2023, há ordem para parar e avançar no terreno do ser. “Há mais de dois milénios…”. Heidegger[182] introduziu essa conjetura perdurante[183], nas primeiras palavras de Ser e Tempo. Fora há muito “esquecido” o que surgira em Parménides, uma abstração – Poema – “onde se encontra o ser e o ente”? Ente pode ser objeto, coisa, ser … E o ser é o mais próximo do ser humano, sem que seja “um Deus ou um fundamento do mundo”[184]. Não existe um ente sem um ser. Acresce perguntar: “o que significa pensar?”[185]. Pensa-se em alguém, um ser, enquanto as guerras matam pessoas. Desde que a nossa imaginação pejou o mundo de deuses, entre ninfas, dragões ou quimeras, foi feita a equação, pelo menos: esquecido o humano. Não neutro, mas esclarecido, Heidegger rebelou-se contra ter sido minada essa incógnita do mundo – o ser, o guardião da questão[186]. Colocado o tão saliente à parte (o ser) e juntas as palavras a ideais, “ordenaram-se” melhor as coisas. Nessa incessante transformação, contra as utopias, foram cometidas “supressões” de coisas, acrescentos de quimeras, os “suplementos”, esquecidas possíveis “deformações”[187]. Aguardado o alvorecer da modernidade líquida, após a linha humanista dos anos sessenta do século passado, ainda seria antecipado o outro tempo do ser frágil, das diferenças e vulnerabilidades acrescidas. Vemos superada a razão não linear, o princípio da não-contradição[188], a alinhar o excluído. Arrastamos até mesmo para a paz a “coincidência de opostos”[189]. No reiterado pensamento ímpar de Lucchesi, um visionário de saberes ontológicos, preside o ser humano que é pensado, dito que ser e não ser não sejam iguais. Os seus conhecimentos são buscados entre um que é muitos[190]: ser e não ser e “ser de todo o ser”, na expressão de Giordano Bruno (1548 – 1600). Ruínas e salvação Um genial revolucionário, Giordano Bruno, foi o que retomara o ser, em On the infinite universe and worlds (“Sobre o infinito, o universo e os mundos”). Recordado num post scriptum[191], o opositor, Bruno, foi morto. Para mais escrevera “A ceia das cinzas”[192], em gritante contraste com o fogo da paixão. Deu-se ao desfecho inolvidável, à morte horrenda, após outra intrincada conjetura resistente à “ignorância” por dogmatismo e ceticismo do tempo. Bem além e aquém do “estar aí“, em substancial presença, o que resiste à fixação ao lugar encontra-se na imaginação, em múltiplas superfícies, no não linear, cujas diversas escalas se coloca Marina. Celso vive numa efetiva transição temporal, quando “o agora é um índice [indicador] da eternidade”[193]. Quando ainda se creia na “eternidade do mundo”[194], uma exceção. Enquanto nos insurgimos, Marina poderia “fixá-lo” ao passado em comum[195]. Na “correspondência” truncada, o narrador assumirá a perspetiva de “crer na eternidade do ser. Mundo sem fim e sem Deus. Essa é a ideia que me salva”[196]. Ademais, imaginar a “eternidade” não diz que não se “aclare a contingência” [197], o acaso, por contemplação intuitiva[198] e sensível. No perpétuo salto entre histos, reparo no ocaso do relacionamento, na paragem e esgotamento dum percurso: “[As cartas de Marina, “ibérica prudência”?] Terminam com abraço afetuoso, promessas impagáveis e mil beijos de Catulo. Cartas inúteis e vazias! Abracem do não ser a eternidade!!”[199]. Creio no indecidível. Não cumpriremos todas as “promessas”, as coisas voltarão a ser as mesmas nas guerras e nos amores à beira mar: o “vestido azul”, a “pedra”, os “passeios” e as “bicicletas”[200]. Recordações e ilusões para “todas as cartas em princípio circular”[201]. “Quem sabe se…”[202], se “tudo se passa aquém da superfície”[203]? A verdade - domínio duplicado da aparência - agarra o “desvendamento”[204]. Da substância/essência não temos algo, além da aparência. E ainda que deixássemos há muito de atingir “as coisas em si”, vivemos demasiado no escuro em volta. Quanto muito, realizemos nova viragem às partes, quando “o passado é órfão do presente [índice de eternidade]”[205], no mundo compartimentado. Vivemos num “tempo inabordável”[206]. De forma paradoxal, deixámos o “museu”[207] e as “espécies” à solta, que diminuem com seres impreparados. Do ser e tempo[208] à nova hermenêutica, reatada “presença”, o que “aparece” no “compromisso metafísico” com o ser[209]? Numa filosofia para o século XX, o existencialismo ainda contou para O ser e o nada[210], no que importou o significado, o valor e o propósito da vida. Na época, avançado distanciamento/estranheza[211] face ao “teatro de sentimentos”. Na Europa, tanto “narrativa”, quanto “ficção” deram lugar ao “novo romance”[212], uma mistura de atores sociais e coletivos, de géneros misturados, uma “polifonia”[213]. A psicologia da vontade e a narrativa Na psicologia então emergente, William James[214] discriminara a “vontade de acreditar” do que queremos fazer “desacreditar” - o que seja convencionado para a época ou para a “troca” correspondida de “cartas” a e-mails, o que escape à explicação e/ou à compreensão[215]. Narrativa, na psicologia pós-racionalista, congregou a ideia de que “contadores de histórias” seriam os que estariam incrustados ao amor e ao sofrimento. Como sublinhado, nas teorias semânticas, havia outras “vozes” e “polifonias”, quando um discurso se enuncie. Fora enunciado. Ademais as (re)autorias e sensibilidades eram provenientes doutros domínios de saber, tomadas por empréstimo (nas teorias feministas, na narratologia, nas ciências sociais e humanas…). As temáticas ganharam sentidos segundos, o significado de ridículo e a ironia alcançou outra voz crítica, ainda com o romance de ideias. Com Laurence Stern[216] é possível “justificar” uns “resumos” dum Celso[217]. Os condensados foram ordenados, entre “ideias confusas”[218] dum amor límpido. Num modelo dos mundos emocionais e do “eu em processo”, as “organizações de significado pessoal” (OSP) remeteram, em fim de século, a "metáforas básicas da descrição do real”. Traduziram apreensões dinâmicas para “estrutura da personalidade” e consumaram “significados”, para formas de dar sentido à vida. O modelo OSP, de Vittorio Guidano Vittorio Guidano foi um psicoterapeuta romano, que viu a criatividade como possibilidade de transitarmos duma para outra organização de “significado pessoal”, da falta e perda à reorganização noutra emoção, talvez pelo receio da distanciação. Correu na margem de entendimentos do corpo e da culpa. Concebeu uma epistemologia, com Leslie Greenberg, Humberto Maturana, Michael Mahoney e Óscar Gonçalves. Numa visão emocional integradora, a faceta de experienciar a vida (I, em inglês; o nível de “eu experiencial”) nem se opôs mais a “significar” a experiência (a narrativa da experiência). Pode ser dado o exemplo buscado no que conheci em Guidano e num seu amigo, Leslie Greenberg, de saúde mental. Quando com eles estudei, partiram dde G. H. Mead[219], entre muitos outros. No sul africano Leslie Greenberg[220] senti a primazia conferida a existir, tão visceral, no âmago da experiência imediata, o "eu". Frente a frente ao vivido subjetivo, Vittorio Guidano[221] colocava-se noutro plano de conhecimento: o “mim reflexivo” (me, em inglês). Contrastava na relação à energia de Greenberg, uma “presença” por inteiro, uma conexão no momento, em níveis diversos (físico, emocional, cognitivo e espiritual), ou seja, havia uma consciência da plena experiência corporal e emocional, vontade de escuta ativa, busca de compreensão. Modelos para fazer mundo Na distância cavada, lemos que “a gota do mar é pequena, quando o tempo de ausência seja longo.” A memória nem se esvai na comparação e compreendido desgaste. O “piano – sobrenada”[222] … – voga à tona de água, assim sendo a memória[223], num “abismo líquido”[224]. Poderia ser a voz “atemporal”[225], inesquecível, aquela voz entretanto quebrada de Marina? Tendo lá permanecido uma presença, não se cravou… No incomensurável passar dos anos, quais “cardumes de palavras”[226], arrastaram “o vazio”[227]. A eternidade deixou de ser. Morreu um mundo terreno junto do mar. O eco imaginário de Marina, na ausência quedou-se. Existem as “rochas” [que] continuam imutáveis[228], fustigadas por ventos e marés. Do revolto mar à mata-bioma e às pedras encalhadas, sobressai o abandono, nas “correntes indomáveis”[229]. Celso, continente/recetáculo, sem mãos. Haja o que desapareça e volte com a “correnteza”[230]. Sem alcance do “mundo submarino”[231], as águas não brilham. Somente na “superfície” são “transparentes” [232] águas, para um mundo que foi desarticulado e fragmentado em partes. Como referido, no uno, teríamos um mundo total e eterno. Numa perspetiva particular, um amigo meu acentuou a condição física, metafórica e metafísica (“especulativa”) do ser. Sem ler Marina, António Maurício enfatizou o transitório – o humano para “ondas do mar” (o seu mundo parcial). Na expressão oral, coloquei as suas palavras de permeio, com parênteses retos, para elucidar o refletido do infinito: Em resumo, e metaforicamente, parece-me que [esse processo humano, dinâmico instável] tem semelhanças com o que acontece às ondas do mar[233] (…) configurações/formas locais e transitórias desse mar/suporte e alimento de todas as outras formas/configurações potencialmente possíveis do mesmo. Que podem nascer, crescer, viver/existir, reproduzir-se e morrer/deixar de ser/existir, porque são fenómenos/seres transitórios. (…) Mas não é por isso [por haver formas locais e transitórias de mar], que o mar/vácuo quântico/TAO/[234]o sem nome/... (pressuposto background/suporte/meio/ e fim de tudo o que é possível, e por isso intemporal, Total, global, cognoscível e/ou incognoscível), sem ser… seja redutível a qualquer aspeto antropomórfico[235] .... mas contendo-os... O meu amigo tem uma conceção física e de recipiente – o “vaso vazio”, o inamovível Uno[236]. Nessa substância, Maurício faz conter os mundos parciais contrastantes. Na “leitura desviante”, colocamos “entrelinhas”[237]. A “colocar parêntesis” no que se saiba ou julgue saber, houve um retorno ao mundo, no abalo cultural da consciência. Na aproximação a coisas[238], podemos condensar “cardumes de palavras”[239], no que sobreviveu unido, o par que se afastou: As “cartas deitam iodo [como o mar] e sal… [como lágrimas] [240]… novo sal”[241] Crescem as ondas que me arrastam para dentro [daquele mundo submerso]. Põe-se Celso “a nadar“[242]. [No mar] Haveria “… a correnteza“… e entretanto “as ondas sobem cada vez mais altas… Já não encontro salva-vidas. [Celso dirigindo-se a Marina, pede-lhe uma vez:] Nademos juntos”[243]… No relacionamento, terá havido … um “naufrágio e tempestade”[244]. Até no “perigo de [Celso] afogar-se na praia”[245]. Ergue-se, subleva-se ele, humano, que “não tem guelras nem escamas”[246] … No salva-vidas da terrena praia, onde não “para de chover” … “mal sei nadar em tanto azul… [Celso] Andava a saltar “nas rochas, acima do cinturão das algas”, mas mergulhara no mar, “quando é escassa a correnteza”[247]. “Caminho sobre a chuva, ondas revoltas [no mar], branca espuma”[248] … “nadar [para] tão longe” …[249]. Na deriva, as “leituras desviantes” de uma temática[250], colocam vários caminhos de leitura. Não fosse o vazio deixado de palavras… [Sempre permanecem] “As pedras [que] rugem no bater das ondas”[251] [instáveis]. [Muda o significado de] “Praia - Cadeia alimentar, baleias, pescadores”[252] … “Sinto no meu corpo a maresia [que muda também, após a vazante, de cheiro intenso do mar] e assim transformo o sal em novo sal”[253] [Em casa] O “relógio de areia” de Celso, quando se encontrava com Marina, no passado, “ficava na estante” … [porque o tempo era subjetivo]. “Um belo dia [a ampulheta] quebrou-se” … “Vinte anos” separaram [Celso e Marina] … quantos “grãos” de areia [na ampulheta] são necessário” para tanto tempo passado?[254] “… ao dorso da onda fria, apressa o coração”[255], sendo que o sal eliminado, baixe a pressão[256] [arterial] e “transformo o sal em novo sal”[257]. Nova vida. As palavras vão e vêm, na modernidade líquida. A tornarem-se as palavras “úmidas”, é o sinal de sofrimento no “sal” e na “lágrima” salgada. Qual garrafa que se joga ao mar? Flutuaram ambos num domínio intemporal, deram-se a palavras inevitavelmente “fartas de imprecisão, saudosas da beleza”[258]. E que “cartas” se virão a “salvar” do mar do esquecimento, com agrestes “ventos do Atlântico”? Na insana movimentação vital, Celso “decide [a dado momento] atravessar a maresia”[259] e quedou-se o mar de distância entre si e Marina[260], ao primeiro e-mail dela, seguido-das imagens coloridas, palavras dela. Marina aparecer-lhe-ia na imaginação dovbelo solilóquio de Molly Bloom[261], um encantatório eco. É dele o repente, quando não queira voltar ao passado: “Não me afasto deste mundo de areia… Passam navios à distância”[262]. Em terra firme, Celso, não sai de si mesmo. No final do livro, arredio, Celso dará conta do inesquecível mau tempo, em que se sentira “naufrago”, abraçado ao não-lugar[263]: “Passada a tempestade, me afogo nos teus olhos [verdes e do mar]”[264], olhos de luz fina e penetrante. Do repetido reparo no olhar de lince, o que ficamos cientes do passado na marinha de salinas, na praia e noutras paragens? A lembrança foi ter à imagem da “jovem” Lívia, sua prima e amiga de Marina… [Lívia] “deu-se às ondas”[265]. Deixou de ser. Condenado, Marcus, perdeu alguém; Celso perdeu Marina, não fossem as “fugas” intempestivas. Anunciado casamento ou “condenação”, na escuta de Grande Missa em Dó Menor, K 427[266], de Amadeus Mozart (1756 – 1791), o significado diverge, para o cineasta Robert Bresson[267]. A perda não justifica uma causa, que seja culpa de falta de pontualidade dela ou o atraso dele. Preso ao antecipado mito: “Cheguei tarde como o Rei Marcus”[268], já que a bela Isolda amava Tristão e vogariam num barco do amor à beira mar[269]. No enlevo por Isolda, Celso assumia encontrar-se na condição do rei[270]. Outro fora a lição de Orfeu[271], que olhou para trás… “Não se ergueu” (no existir). E como a palavra concretiza o pensamento (quando o alcance), em inumeráveis mundos atingimos a parte num ou noutro fator – o mar subterrâneo, o envelope na palavra, uma sinédoque. A crer na memória “líquida”, mais uma vez, em imaginação de Marina[272], Celso “lembrou-a” de que já teriam pisado as pedras até à onda, ao imenso mar[273] Quando o a sair último apaga a luz Na ausência de fundamentos externos e de princípios internos, temos o reino perdido do ser. No mundo abandonado, aliado no estranhamento, é o esquecimento (“o fundador”) uma implicação do recuo do ser[274]. Como constatado, em Heidegger[275], surgiu o ser, um dos seus dois temas constantes. Como ser nem seja fundamento, nem seja princípio, incorreria na dobra original “ser-ente”[276]. Donde, a possibilidade de “re-dobra” do ser em Marina. Para o incauto efeito, somente desviando-se um autor, poderá recuar o ser, em que as hierarquias da existência passam a ser independentes (ser e ente), deixando de fazer sentido o que veio primeiro. Nenhum deus alguma vez pode unir o disperso, nos tempos que correm. Em Heidegger (1986 [1982]), para quê escrever “Porquê poetas”. Andaria o filósofo nos caminhos da floresta obscura, no que recuaria e o conduziu a Hölderlin (1770 — 1843): “E porquê poetas em tempos atribulados?[277]” Além da destroçada condição de “autor-idade”, o autor deslocou-se à poesia de vestígios inacessíveis. Marco Lucchesi pode ter atendido ao segundo tema de Heidegger, quando foque o eterno, em Parménides[278]. Visado fundamento do enigmático “pensamento”: leu as primeiras descobertas nos fragmentos ou vestígios escritos. De Marina, Lucchesi arrasta já o leitor às primeiras interrogações, como nos ousados fragmentos pré-socráticos incompletos, desbravados e arredios a um ponto, excêntrico a linhagens ou a “influências”. Ocorre pensar noutro ângulo de visão criativa, sem articulação entre o próximo e o longínquo, alcançado um brilho lateral, que perpassa na contemporaneidade. Qual será o derradeiro lugar em que pulse o pensar? – Pergunte-se. Em Poema, de Parménides, fragmento de conceitos acutilantes. Possuímos além da “dobra” constitutiva do ser (nos limites entre ser e ente), a prerrogativa de interrogar, de hesitar, de duvidar e de afirmar. Em que mundos desaparece e reaparece a consciência? Resposta: Nos dias que se sucedem a noites, a alternância revela-se à consciência, no sonho e na realidade percetiva. Da diferença entre mundos, Marina, o que perdura na ausência? Memórias de palavras “recorrentes: o nada, a Morte, abismos e fantasmas”[279]. Perdura o “sonho” no eterno “menino”[280]. Em Marina, o coprotagonista Celso, um retirado fazedor de “não histórias”, afigura-se retirado, o que não significa derrotado. Noutra asserção crítica, quando não se bata em retirada, poderão ser dados saltos na compreensão duma obra de múltiplas leituras. Foi no Prefácio à segunda edição de Crítica da razão pura, que Kant alertou para o pensamento, cujos “saltos temerários” nem seriam escusados. Poder-se-ia ir mais longe, no arriscando, nas nossas frágeis sociedades, a ponto de nem ser dito o que se pense, nem ousar-se o criticar. [1] Lucchesi, Marco. Marina. Santo André (SP): Rua do Sabão, 2023, p. 89. Quanto à “romaria de formigas” (p. 78), a ser desfeita, “vivo em guerra contra os cupins…” (p. 23). “Só as cartas ficaram intactas. Desprezadas até pelos cupins” (p. 24). “Pobres cartas! Ai de nós! Indigestão de todos os cupins” (p. 28). Afinal, outra maçada, será o velho computador perder cartas, “perder tudo” (p. 89). [2] A crença no acesso à profundidade teve os seus dias melhores, quando se acreditou numa via única, uma dimensão da base ao topo, entretanto barrados os códigos e a exatidão, buscada na modernidade. [3] Marina, p. 73. [4] Marina, p. 56: Marina possui uma “beleza transitiva”. Marina, p. 60: “Sou trilho morto, intransitivo [que não chega a ela]. Se não te alcanço não me basto”. Marina, p. 71: o caráter transitivo, sendo o que muda, aproximou-se de “sinal de transição, deslocamento”. [5] Marina, p. 27. [6] Marina, p. 76. [7] Marina, p. 76. [8] Marina, p. 15. [9] Marina, p. 13. [10] Marina, p. 87. [11] Marina, p. 13, p. 17. [12] Marina, p. 67. [13] Marina, p. 85. [14] Marina, p. 85. [15] Marina, p. 91. [16] Marina, p. 55. [17] Marina, p. 87. [18] Marina, p. 54: “Distância na distância da distância. Porque o demónio é filho do silêncio. António Vieira dixit”. O silêncio marca a distância tão grande entre ambos, gerador do mal. Mas Celso foi um menino com “fome da distância” (p. 63). Um dia, deixou de “habitar na distância… distância que se perde” (pp. 97-98). [19] Marina, p. 86. [20] Marina, p. 72. [21] Marina, p. 69. [22] Marina, p. 84. [23] Marina, p. 33. [24] Na alusão do autor, a xilogravura de 1507, de Hans Schäufelein the Elder? Um idoso, “o mais velho” (the elder). Ou “Cristo diante de Anás, do espelho da paixão de Nosso Senhor Jesus Cristo”, também de 1507? [25] Marina, p. 22. Parménides é também referido na p. 35 e na p. 98. [26] Marina, p. 49). Ulisses representa o que enfrentou perigos e riscos do mar, explorando o mundo. Escritores foram “navegadores”, por caminhos sem guia e sem antecipação, como James Joyce (1882 – 1941). [27] Marina, p. 49. [28] Marina, p. 71. Celso efetua ainda um recuo, quando “uma janela abre-se ao vento” e se desfaz o enlevo com Marina. Concretamente, recuo terá o sentido militar, na guerra. [29] Marina, pp. 34-34. [30] O vaso é um recetáculo, um contentor para as coisas sensíveis, no Timeu de Platão, datado de 360 a.C. Identifica a chora, no que acolhe as coisas em devir. [31] Marina, p. 89. [32] Marina, p. 77. Nas folhas ímpares, são dados a ler “resumos”, como o da página 27: “Sobre a morte das cigarras e o motor imóvel. As garras do leão. Livre-arbítrio, borboleta e tempestade. Software e cálculo integral. Termina com um verso de Mallarmé.” Geralmente, os “resumos” são ampliados em textos de duas páginas. [33] Marina, p. 81. [34] Marina, p. 43. [35] Marina, p. 89. [36] Marina, p. 78. [37] Marina, p. 67, post scriptum: “Leitor de pássaros, sou como um áugure romano a decifrar tua mensagem”. Na Roma antiga, desde o século VIII a.C., os sacerdotes tornar-se-iam augures, tirando presságios, partindo dos voos, do canto e das entranhas de pássaros, entre outras aves. [38] Marina, p. 89. [39] Marina, p. 87. [40] Marina, post scriptum, p. 98. [41] Marina, p. 50. Na perspetiva computacional, disse-me um informático, a diferença é nítida entre significado e semântica: “fornece-se uma semântica para um argumento (ou seja lá o que for), quando se fornece um método de traduzir os símbolos, que contém para qualquer coisa que tenha significado: dar uma semântica para uma linguagem pressupõe, ou envolve, uma Teoria do Significado. Contrasta com a sintaxe, que é apenas a gramática formal do sistema, que determina que os símbolos estão corretamente juntos ou não. Pode assim seguir-se uma sintaxe do sistema sem ter a mínima ideia da sua semântica”. [42] Marina, p. 43. [43] Marina, p. 18. Na Ilíada, poema homérico, salienta-se o belo e valente Ájax, com que lutou Heitor, sem vencedor ou vencido. [44] Marina, p. 53. [45] Marina, p. 35. [46] Marina, p. 36. [47] Marina, p. 83. [48] Marina, p. 39. [49] Marina, p. 79. [50] Marina, p. 86. [51] Marina, p. 49. [52] Marina, p. 18. A Guerra Fria, tensão geopolítica, no final da Segunda Guerra Mundial (1945), abrangeu Os Estados Unidos da América e a União das Repúblicas Socialistas Soviéticas (URSS), desde a Presidência de Truman, em 1947, tendo fim na dissolução da URSS. [53] Marina, p. 31. [54] Marina, p. 35. [55] Quando a alegoria apresenta dois significados, literal e figurado, as palavras, cujo significado seja literal, devem dar lugar ao significado alegórico (figurado). [56] Por extensão, ao mundo subaquático, Marina, p. 50: “… o abismo líquido”. Marina, p. 37: “um líquido destino terra adentro. Marina, p. 79: “Presumo que se lembre (ó, líquida memória!) da onda que das pedras nos levou ao mar.” [57] Imagino até mesmo O mundo à minha procura, de Ruben A, um relato autobiográfico em que o escritor dá conta da vida e da escola, que “esquece os livros”. [58] Marina, p. 49. [59] Marina, p.54. [60] Marina, p. 65. [61] Marina, p. 65. [62] Marina, p. 13. [63] Marina, p. 27, p. 29. Na mesma página 29: “de dez mil dias” …, após o “terremoto” - “uma “falha sísmica”. [64] Castro, Ruy. A vida por escrito: ciência e arte da biografia. Lisboa: Tinta da China, 2023., p. 16. A “literatice” passa pela ideia de um biógrafo atravessar a pessoa-personagem, para dela extrair o que não saiba de si mesma nos pormenores, para o efeito de conceção de episódios “inesquecíveis”. [65] Marina, p. 16. [66] Marina, p. 13. [67] Marina, p. 89. [68] Marina, p. 13. [69] Marina, p. 37. [70] O interminável percurso, é destacado na página 93. O texto continua com a presença do tempo, para “Zenão de Eleia: Aquiles corre com a tartaruga”, um paradoxo da verdade de Parménides, numa demonstração “por absurdo”. [71] Marina, p. 16. [72] Marina, p. 54. [73] Durante uma noite, após ter querido escrever insistentemente uma sonata, o compositor italiano Giuseppe Tartini compô-la a dormir e a sonhar. Intitulada O Trilo do Diabo, imaginou que o próprio maligno lhe apareceu em pessoa para tocar violino e o “ajudar”. Ele não era capaz de terminar a obra musical, mas quando acordou conseguiu acabá-la com a única parte da música de que se lembrava. [74] Jung, Carl. (1954 [1951], p. 123) [75] Marina, p. 73. [76] Marina, p. 56. [77] Marina, pp. 55-56: “A jovem [caveira sem carne] cedeu sua beleza ao brinquedo”, tratando-se de morta, que na urna funerária tinha a sua boneca de marfim, segundo Marco Lucchesi, preservada do Tempo dos antoninos, na Roma antiga, pelo autor. Portanto, aquilo, demarca a figura histórica, no achado brinquedo, que a acompanhou na urna. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crepereia_Tryphaena [78] Marina, p. 56. O “espelho inverso”, do aveso, passa o par a dois contrários ou simetricamente opostos. [79] Marina, p. 69. Quem diga a transformação dela alude à sua representação no quadro de outra. [80] Um poço é um recetáculo, a chora, em Platão. Um continente retém um conteúdo, as ideias sensíveis. [81] Marina, p. 50. [82] Marina, p. 96. Nessa página, é salientada a comunicação, quando gatos ronronam e cães latem. [83] Reis, Carlos, & Lopes, Ana Cristina M. Dicionário da teoria da narrativa. Coimbra: Almedina, 1987, pp. 152-155. [84] Idem, pp. 152-153. [85] Marina, p. 86. [86] Marina, p. 91. [87] Marina, p. 86. [88] Marina, p. 63. [89] Marina, p. 95. [90] Marina, p. 54. [91] Marina, p. 73. [92] Marina, p. 96. [93] Marina, post scriptum, p.97. [94] Reis, Carlos & Lopes, Ana Cristina M. Dicionário da teoria da narrativa. Coimbra: Almedina, 1987, p. 154. [95] Marina, p. 91. [96] Strauss, Anselm, & Corbin, Juliet. Basics for qualitative research: Grounded theory procedures and techniques. Newbury Park, CA: Sage, 1990, p. 96. [97] Marina, p. 95. Numa intercalação da história de Proteu com o mito de Orfeu, essa invenção do poeta romano Virgílio (70 a.C. — 19 a. C.), encontra-se nos versos de número 453 a 527 do Livro IV, das Geórgicas. [98] Marina, pp. 71-72. Vale ouvir a rádio Orfeu … Ouço distante a voz de Orfeu. [99] Marina, p. 80, p. 86. [100] Marina, pp. 79-80. [101] Marina, p. 80. [102] Marina, p. 49. [103] Marina, p. 91. [104] Marina, p. 91. [105] Marina, p. 49. [106] Neymeyer, Robert A. & Mahoney, Michael. Construtivismo em psicoterapia. Tradução de Mônica Giglio Armando e Fábio Appolinário. Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul: Artes Médicas, 1997, p. 173. [107] Quem diga texto, poderia referir-se a trabalhos com que um texto se cruza, num filme, romance ou peça de teatro. [108] Forster, Eduard Morgan. Aspects of the novel. New York, NY: Harcourt, Brace and World, 1927. O “enredo” (plot) distingue-se da “história” (story), na medida em que o enredo ordena os acontecimentos de forma temporal e de forma causal, mas a “história” limita-se a ordená-los no tempo. [109] Scholes, Robert, & Kellogg, Robert. The nature of narrative. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1966, p. 207, pp. 238-239. [110] Angus, Lynne; Lewin, Jennifer; Boritz, Tali; Bryntwick, Emily; Carpenter, Naomi; Watson-Gaze, James, & Greenberg, Leslie. Narrative Processes Coding System: A Dialectical Constructivist Approach to Assessing Client Change Processes in Emotion-Focused Therapy of Depression. Research in Psychotherapy: Psychopathology, Process and Outcome 2012, 15(2), 54–61. DOI: 10.7411/RP.2012.006 [111] Marina, p. 23. [112] Marina, pp. 79-80. [113] Marina, p 83. [114] Marina, p. 94. [115] Marina, p. 71. [116] Marina, post scriptum, p. 76. [117] Marina, p. 23. [118] No risco de morte no mar bravo, noutro lugar: “… ao dorso da onda fria, apressa o coração” (Lucchesi, 2023, p. 71). [119] Marina, p. 23. [120] Marina, p. 23. [121] Marina, p. 80. A expressão é atribuída pelo autor a um livre pensador, Lucilio Vanini (1585 – 1619), que se autodenominou outro, nas obras publicadas como Giulio Cesare Vanini. [122] Marina, p. 83. [123] Marina, p. 93. [124] Marina, p. 93. [125] Marina, p. 14, p. 79. As baleias primam nos seus “afetos radicais” (p. 79). [126] Marina, p. 93. [127] Marina, p. 93. [128] Marina, p. 93. [129] Marina, p. 95. [130] Marina, post scriptum, p. 99. [131] Marina, pp. 85-86. [132] Strauss, Anselm. Qualitative analysis for social scientists. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 1987, p. 32. [133] Marina, p. 91: “Antes do amanhecer, sacudo meus ossos na areia. O mundo frio no vapor das ondas [do mar], enquanto o sol desponta, bem depois, nas rochas que me vedam o horizonte [limite]. Sem que você soubesse, caminhamos lado a lado. Não sei até que ponto lembro tua voz. Tudo que diz e deixa de dizer [adiante, num eco repetido]. O modo, sobretudo a transparência da voz. Como o menino e o pássaro de Portinari. Te vejo, assim, ferida, a proteger-te. Promessa de calor. Será difícil atravessar a noite”. [134] Marina, pp. 13-14. [135] Marina, p. 54. [136] Marina, p. 14. [137] Marina, p. 13. [138] Marina, p. 22. [139] A noção de “livre arbítrio contracausal” indica a decisão livre, não determinada por uma causa, um motor. [140] No cálculo integral, pensa-se na heurística, de Arquimedes (287 – 212 a.C.) , com a finalidade inicial de calcular áreas e volumes e seguir a pista e gravar o movimento dos corpos celestes, do sol, da lua e dos planetas, no que se partiu da aritmética e da geometria. [141] Concausa introduz a causa, que coexiste com outra causa, cujo efeito seja conjugado. [142] Marina, p. 27. [143] Marina, p. 27. [144] Marina, p. 13. A brevidade contrasta como o longo tempo que passou, após o encontro prolongado. [145] Marina, p. 43. [146] Marina, p. 69: “Teus olhos sabem narrativas”. [147] Marina, p. 87. [148] Marina, p. 91. [149] Marina, p. 91. [150] Heidegger, Martin. Lettre sur l’Humanism. Paris: Aubier, (1970 [1947]), p. 65. [151] Marina, p. 75. [152] “O acaso dá-nos os pensamentos, o acaso retira-no-los”. Esse é um pensamento de Blaise Pascal (1623 – 1662). [153] Bakhtin, Mikhail M. Speech genres and other late essays. Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press, 1986. Partindo de “géneros de fala”, certas vozes farão coisas diferentes. A noção de “voz” tornou-se um conceito adequado e útil para a caracterização do narrador num texto: “quem ‘fala’”. “Quem é ‘ouvido’”, “quem expressou algo” … A ser “dada uma voz”, a “voz”, conduziu à critica de uma só voz, com Bakhtin. Na conexão de “voz”, com as ciências sociais, avançamos entre “múltiplas vozes”. [154] Marina, p. 13. [155] A “intencionalidade” em Edmund Husserl (1859 – 1938) e) colocou-se em “Meditações cartesianas”, para a forma basilar da consciência e dos processos psíquicos: “consciência de alguma coisa”. Donde, a proximidade das coisas. [156] Lévêque, Jean. ABCedário da filosofia. Lisboa: Reborn e Publico, 2001, p. 13. [157] O mundo e a consciência veem em conjunto, dum único golpe: se o mundo é exterior/interior à consciência, o que escape é o ribombar de “tempestade”, o espanto perante uma explosão, o ribombar do trovão. [158] Marina, p. 75. [159] Marina, p. 91. [160] A ser retomado o sentido do ser (do ser em si mesmo, do ser do “homem” e do ser do pensamento), com Martin Heidegger (1889 – 1976), a “metafísica” ganhou terreno, na tradição filosófica. Ficou a crítica ao que tenha sido “esquecido” - o ser, com frequência, entre Platão (428/427 – 348/347 a.C.) e Nietzsche (1844 – 1900). [161] Na etimologia de “profundidade”, “pro” indica uma direção a, e “fundus” é o esvaziamento, por extensão de fundo. [162] Na especificidade, “coisa” denota o objeto natural. Acresce o tratamento dado ao objeto ou ao termo natural-artificial, ao real-irreal, ao mental-físico. Na filosofia, “coisa” incorre numa aparição, vaga presença, quando faltem as palavras, por incerteza na “errância”, falhado o alvo … Uma tempestade abrupta, uma explosão. Coisa chega a ser conhecimento, imaginação, vontade... [163] Marina, p. 81. [164] Num referencial da personalidade do adulto, adiante aludido, a psicologia pós-racionalista enquadra um modelo da realidade humana, que conjuga a experiência e o significado da experiência (“eu-mim reflexivo”). À superfície emocional da infância, estudada em John Bowlby, o psiquiatra Vittorio Guidano, aliou a “organização do significado pessoal” (OSP). [165] Uma assíntota, na geometria, para uma curva plana, é uma linha que explora uma distância infinita em relação a um ponto (P), quando esse ponto se distancia ao infinito, sem jamais encontrar a linha. [166] Marina, post scriptum, p. 76. [167] Marina, p. 91. [168] Galindo, Caetano W. Sim, eu digo sim: Uma visita guiada ao Ulysses de James Joyce. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 2016, pp. 1104-1106. [169] Marina, p. 43. [170] Parménides. Fragments du poème de Parménides. Paris: PUF, 1996. Na primeira parte do poema, foi concebido um saber puro, a “verdade”, que afeta a via dos jogos de aparência das coisas, vindo a duplicar as aparências, no “desvendamento” (a-letheia, no grego clássico). O Uno, em Parménides, deixou-nos a mensagem fragmentada, na “revelação”, a “abertura”, a verdade escrita, no poema Sobre a natureza. Tanto as diversidades do mundo exterior, quanto as “opiniões dos mortais” (referidas num décimo da segunda parte da obra – o mundo da aparência), foram distanciadas da contemplação. Parménides inspirou a noção de Platão, para a dialética (partindo de duas ideias opostas, gerada uma síntese). [171] Platón. Parménides. Tradução de Guillermo R. de Echandía. Madrid: Alianza, 1987, pp. 55-56. [172] Na circunstância, as tensões antagónicas, entre a unidade e a diversidade, haviam sido protagonizadas por Parménides e Heráclito (cerca de 500 – 450 a.C.). Forçada a ultrapassagem da disputa inicial? [173] Marina, p. 43. [174] Nicolau de Cusa manifestou a sua forma de pensar num mundo em transição, tendo defendido a necessidade de contingência (coincidentia oppositorum), por parte da natureza e aderiu à contemplação intuitiva, em que o conhecimento fosse a unidade dos contrários (no livro Docta ignorantia, “Sobre a ignorância aprendida/sobre a ignorância científica”). [175] Marina, p. 35. [176] Marina, p. 31. [177] Marina, pp. 27-36. Na página 27, assumido ter-se tornado “perigosos”, na página 35, Celso diz ter medo de si mesmo. [178] Marina, p. 71. [179] Marina, post scriptum, p. 97. [180] Marina, p. 87: “[As cartas] Terminam com abraço afetuoso, promessas impagáveis e mil beijos de Catulo”. Catulo foi um poeta romano (87/84 a.C. – 57/54 a.C.), entre outros “modernos”, criticados por Marco Cícero, um contemporâneo, escritor e autor de cartas, mas que mudou a literatura europeia, com impacto no século XVIII. [181] Heidegger, Martin. Lettre sur l’Humanism. Paris: Aubier, 1970 [1947]. Na parte final de Carta sobre humanismo, Heidegger esclareceu: “não eis-me aqui! mas sim, se posso expressar-me num francês obviamente impossível, ‘être le là’ e o ‘aí’ é precisamente a-letheia. Como esquecer que da-sein representa o “estar aí”, o “habitar”? [182] Heidegger, Martin. Être et temps. Paris: Gallimard, 1980. [183] Uma ontologia dedicada ao ser, existência e realidade. [184] Heidegger, Martin. Lettre sur l’Humanism. Paris: Aubier, 1970, p. 77. [185] Heidegger, Martin. Que veut dire penser? In Essais et conferences. Paris: Gallimard, 1958. [186] O ser foi abandonado, quando se colocou adiante o ousia. No saber dos ousiai, enfatizadas substâncias. [187] Goodman, Nelson. Ways of world making. Indianapolis, Indiana: Hackett, 1985, pp. 7-17. [188] Marina, p. 93. Na lógica clássica, uma proposição não pode ser, em simultâneo, “verdadeira” e “falsa” (princípio da não contradição). Uma proposição é falsa ou é verdadeira (princípio do terceiro excluído). [189] Marina, p. 89. Em De docta ignorantia, de 1449, Nicolau de Cusa criou três momentos do “espírito” no itinerário, uma hermenêutica, ora voltado para o “exterior”, ora para o “interior”. Importa para a coincidência de sorte, em não serem anulados pontos de vista diferentes (opostos), do ser humano ao infinito. [190] Marina, p. 89. [191] Marina, post scriptum, p. 62. [192] Marina, p. 89. [193] Marina, p. 73. [194] Marina, p. 35. [195] Marina, p. 35. [196] Marina, p. 93. “Salva-nos” pensar que a unidade primeira não torne a escamotear o ser, frente ao ente, em Deus. A base da metafísica, ciência do ser, foi por muitos anos o debate de “substâncias”, para o que se mantenha por baixo, o “elemento” permanente da coisa. Embora o ser tenha múltiplas aceções, formulam-se todas para um princípio (arché) único, material e definido. Na “correspondência”, o ser não pretende servir a ideia de “ser para Deus”, de ser a pessoa concreta, o que se mantém (ousia, “substância”, “no bem fundo”). [197] Marina, p. 96. [198] Como Nicolau de Cusa, que viu nesse acaso o conhecimento de Deus. [199] Marina, p. 87. [200] Marina, p. 93. [201] Marina, p. 98. [202] Marina, p. 17. [203] Marina, p. 18. [204] O “desvendamento” - aletheia, no remoto Poema de Parménides, um saber do Uno, entretanto desfeito,encontra-se antes de recolocada a ordem do vivido, ou seja, “todas as formas de presença afetivas e intelectuais”, em Jean Lévèque. Lévèque, Jean. ABCedário da filosofia. Lisboa: Reborn e Público, p. 114. [205] Marina, p. 73. [206] Marina, p. 95. [207] Marina, p. 73. [208] Heidegger, Martin. Être et temps. Paris: Gallimard, 1980. [209] Marina, p. 22. [210] Marina, p. 93. “Não ser” tem no francês a palavra “néant”. E “nada” encontra-se em mè eon (“o não-ente”), em grego. Nem sendo a chora, o “nada”, o não-ente, nem chega a ser privação do ser, porque o “lugar” não tem qualquer objeto. O vazio de um contentor – o “vaso” - é diferente: possui forma, é chora. [211] Marina, p. 54: “Distância na distância da distância. Porque o demónio é filho do silêncio. António Vieira dixit”. O silêncio marca a distância tão grande entre ambos, gerador do mal. Mas Celso foi um menino com “fome da distância” (p. 63). Um dia, deixou de “habitar na distância… distância que se perde” (pp. 97-98). [212] Kundera, Milan. 1988. A arte do romance. Lisboa: Dom Quixote, 1988. Nessa obra, o “romance” é de ideias, a partir de Cervantes (1547 – 1616), por longo tempo “aguardada” a inspiração de Laurence Sterne (1713 – 1768), em D. Quixote. Ao romance de ideias foi dada outra linhagem, na marcação francesa: François Rabelais (1494 — 1553) e Denis Diderot (1713 — 1784), quando alcançaram liberdade crítica e ironia revolucionária, no renascimento e no século XVIII. O multifacetado Rabelais cruzou até as facetas na palavra, ora erudita, ora aventureira, percorrendo o lado festivo e o lado religioso e solene. [213] Marina, post scriptum, p. 76: “São minhas essas vozes: que me indagam, enlaçam, apertam, comprimem. Polifonia da gente que me habita. Mas todos querem, buscam, sonham com você”. [214] James, William. The will to believe and other essays in popular philosophy. New York, NY: Longmans, 1897. [215] Marina, p. 49. Para Carl Gustav Jung (1875 - 1961), a “humanidade” dividiu-se em duas partes: nos que “nadariam”, com James Joyce, no Ulisses, havendo quem se “afogasse” (numa autoridade, num qualquer saber dogmático). No Ulisses, é o monólogo de Molly Bloom condutor a um “sim”. [216] A obra de Lucchesi remete a Viktor Shklovsky. um crítico literário russo, em paralelo a Laurence Stern, autor de dissonantes observações, no que este último escreveu “A vida e as opiniões do cavalheiro Tristram Shandy”, um novo Quixote.” [217] Marina, p. 17: “Cada qual começa com um resumo”. [218] Marina, pp. 29-30. [219] Mead, George Herbert. Works of George Herbert Mead. Vol. 1 Mind, self and society from the standpoint of a social behaviourist. Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press, 1967. A explicação das diferenças entre si e Greenberg, foi esclarecida por Guidano, que utilizou os termos de George Herbert Mead – I (“eu”) e me (“mim”), frente a Greenberg. Mead (1863 — 1931) concebeu o self social (Mead, 1913), no sentido de sermos a única espécie que usa a linguagem, aquisição a partir da qual planeamos, pensamos e comunicamos a experiência. A vida de uma pessoa não seria um atributo individual e privado em Mead, cuja narrativa seja uma autoexpressão, envolvendo o controlo da informação do self. [220] Geller, Shari M. & Greenberg, Leslie S. (2012). Therapeutic presence: A mindful approach to effective therapy. American Psychology Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/13485-000 [221] Guidano, Vittorio. The self in process: Towards a post-racionalist therapy. New York, NY: Guilford, 1991. [222] O que seja acima do nada, sobrenada num “lugar” das coisas sensíveis, que soam e ressoam. [223] Marina, p. 43. [224] Marina, p. 50. [225] Marina, p. 49. “Persegue os temporais”, os maus tempos de vendavais no passado-presente-futuro. [226] Marina, p. 18. [227] Marina, p. 49. [228] Marina, p. 73. [229] Marina, p. 73. [230] Marina, p. 18. [231] Marina, p. 49. [232] Marina, p. 73. [233] Tanto “mar” quanto o cérebro são “suportes físicos” e “alimentos”. A imensidão das “ondas do mar” e da mente em movimento configuram um fluxo movediço e inatingível, em que o ser é originariamente “bem-fundo”, a “substância” (no latim, ousia), para o que sejam variações e transformações das coisas. [234] Lao Tzu. Tao Te Ching. Capítulo 4, n.d. http://pt.wikisource.org/wiki/Tao_Te_Ching/IV. No mundo parcial ancestral chinês, pensar é agir. Reiterada a filosofia no T’ai Chi, a conexão ocorrida no Universo propicia a combinação de mente (li) e matéria (chi), “realidade última”, numa acomodação da unidade do Tao, à semelhança do “ancestral das dez-mil-coisas”: O Tao é um vaso vazio // Cujo uso nunca transborda. // Abismo! // Parece o ancestral das dez-mil-coisas! // Abranda o cume; Desfaz o emaranhado; Modera o brilho; Une o pó. // Profundo! // Parece existir algo! // Eu não sei de quem o Tao é filho. // Parece ser o anterior ao Ancestral. [235] Antropomorfismo para uma forma de pensamento em que elementos da natureza ou figuras de deuses alcançam características humanas. [236] O princípio da identidade, em Parménides, assumiu que todo o objeto é idêntico a si próprio. [237] Marina, p. 18. [238] Sartre, Jean-Paul. Une idée fondamentale de la phénoménologie de Husserl, l’intentionalité. La Nouvelle Revue Française, 1939, 304(1), 129-132. Na medida em que a consciência traduz uma aproximação às coisas, poderá “ser algo que não ela própria”. [239] Marina, p. 18. [240] Marina, p. 18. [241] Marina, p. 37. [242] Marina, p. 18 [243] Marina, p. 18. [244] Marina, p. 21. [245] Marina, p. 23. [246] Marina, p. 23. [247] Marina, p. 23. [248] Marina, p. 26. [249] Marina, p. 28. [250] Marina, p. 28. [251] Marina, p. 28. [252] Marina, p. 29. [253] Marina, p. 37. [254] Marina, p. 42. [255] Marina, p. 71. [256] Marina, p. 37. [257] Marina, p. 37. [258] Marina, p. 49. [259] Marina, p. 16. [260] Marina, pp. 16-18. [261] Marina, p. 49. Na obra publicada em 1922, Molly Bloom, cujo nome verdadeiro era Marion, é a personagem de Ulisses, de James Joyce, uma cantora de ópera, reconhecida em Dublin, na Irlanda. No monólogo, é colocado um “fluxo de consciência”, sem parágrafos e sem pontuação de vírgulas e travessões. [262] Marina, p. 55. [263] Marina, p. 55. [264] Marina, p. 95. [265] Marina, p. 61. [266] Marina, p. 95. [267] Casar não foi contemplado por Mozart, tendo vivido poucos mais anos que Jesus. Bresson utilizou a música de Mozart, em 1956, no filme “Um condenado à morte escapou”, passado durante a Segunda Guerra Mundial (1939 a 1945), nomeadamente no Kyrie, de Mozart (caso vocativo da palavra grega kyrios, para “senhor”). No Antigo Testamento, utilizou-se Kyrie na mais antiga tradução grega (Septuaginta), para traduzir a palavra hebraica Yahweh. No Novo Testamento, Kyrie foi o título dado a Cristo, como em Filipenses 2:11. [268] Marina, p. 86. [269] Marina, p. 86. [270] Marina, p. 79. [271] Marina, p. 95. [272] Marina, p. 79. [273] Marina, p. 79. [274] Marina, p. 55: “Ao não lugar me abraço como um náufrago”. No recuo do ser, não será “dispensado” o ser, no que me recorda o protagonista e narrador de Marina, encontrado num não lugar, sob um batimento da “pressão”. [275] Heidegger, Martin. Être et temps. Paris: Gallimard, 1980, pp. 88-89. [276] A dobra é franzida. “Eu-ente”, um depósito material insolúvel, na dobra existe o “sedimento”, em Ensaios e conferências, de Heidegger. [277] No Romantismo, após o Século das Luzes (século XVIII), Hölderlin viveria já ao “cair da noite”. Teriam deixado o mundo três deuses “fraternos” – “Héracles, Dionísio e Cristo”. Acresce dizer, sem romantismo, que alcançada a “noite”, perdermos as referências-guias, as linhagens e ficamos sós. Deixa-se de referir a autoridade (“quem sabe”) e configura-se um destino nem certo, nem seguro. Na incerteza da errância, falharia o alvo que seja excessivamente arriscado. [278] Marina, p. 22, p. 35 e p. 98. [279] Marina, p. 76. [280] Marina, p. 78.

Abstract Cyberscams, such as romance scams, are prevalent and costly online hazards in the general community. People with Acquired Brain Injury (ABI) may be particularly vulnerable and have greater difficulty recovering from the resultant emotional and financial hardships. In order to build capacity in the neurorehabilitation sector, it is necessary to determine whether clinicians currently encounter this issue and what prevention and intervention approaches have been found effective. This scoping study aimed to explore clinicians’ exposure to and experiences with cyberscams in their adult clients with ABI. Method: Participants were clinicians recruited from multidisciplinary networks across Australia and New Zealand. Eligible participants (n = 101) completed an online customised survey. Results: More than half (53.46%) the participants had one or more clients affected by cyberscams, predominantly romance scams. Cognitive impairments and loneliness were reportedly associated with increased vulnerability. Cyberscams impacted treatment provision and were emotionally challenging for participants. No highly effective interventions were identified. Conclusions: These findings indicate that cyberscams are a clinical issue relevant to neurorehabilitation providers, with prevalence studies now required. The lack of effective interventions identified underscores the need for the development of evidence-based prevention and treatment approaches to ultimately help people with ABI safely participate in online life.

Several studies have been conducted to try and understand and explain the morphological and syntactic aspects of adult second language acquisition (SLA). Two prominent hypotheses that have been put forward concerning late L2 speakers' knowledge of inflectional morphology and of related functional categories and their feature values are the Impaired Representation Hypothesis (IRH) and the Missing Surface Inflection Hypothesis (MSIH). The cross-linguistic comparison of the acquisition of questions in German and French provided in this study offers a new perspective to differences and similarities between first language acquisition (FLA) and adult SLA. Comparing a Germanic and a Romance L2, differing not only in their overall linguistic properties (such as i. e. OV/VO, V2, clitics), but explicitly in the formation and regularities of questions, we present striking similarities in adult SLA, and irrespective of the first and the second languages and of instructed versus non-instructed learning. The investigation of the adult SLA of morphological and structural aspects of questions in French and German strengthens the assumption that the acquisition of morphology and syntax is connected in French and German FLA but is disentangled in adult SLA. Our data reveal variability of question syntax, and with the syntactic position of the verb in particular. Instead of discovering the correct position of the verb at a certain stage of acquisition which can be accounted for by parameter setting in FLA, the adult learners gradually approach the target word order but still exhibit a great deal of variation after several years of exposure to the L2. The findings provided here contradict the predictions of the MSIH (Prévost/White 2000; Ionin/Wexler 2002; among others), for not only morphological features, but syntactic finiteness of finiteness are problematic in adult SLA, and that the Impairment Representation Hypothesis (IRH) (Beck 1998; Eubank 1993/1994; among others) accounts for these differences in first and second language acquisition. IRH and FDH mirror our findings, by predicting the use of (domain-general) strategies instead of agreement or feature checking mechanisms.

Infidelity occurs in adult romantic relationships quite often; however, little is known about this relational phenomenon in the adolescent stage, despite its being a surprisingly common behavior. Through a correlational study, we set out to examine how the various documented motivations to engage in an act of infidelity are associated with negative emotional responses, self-esteem, and psychological well-being. In a sample of Spanish adolescents ( N = 346 [ Mage = 15.71, SD = 1.27; range from 13 to 19]), results showed that committing an act of infidelity due to sexual or emotional dissatisfaction (vs. neglect and anger) is related to higher levels of psychological well-being by undermining negative affect, thereby increasing the levels of self-esteem. The discussion of the findings emphasizes that infidelity could favor adolescents’ personal growth, because of the need to explore new sensations and feelings that arise during this period.

For once I want to be the car crash, Not always just the traffic jam. Hit me hard enough to wake me, And lead me wild to your dark roads. (Snow Patrol: “Headlights on Dark Roads”, Eyes Open, 2006) I didn’t know about the online dating site rsvp.com.au until a woman who I was dating at the time showed me her online profile. Apparently ‘everyone does rsvp’. Well, ‘everyone’ except me. (Before things ended I never did ask her why she listed herself as ‘single’ on her profile…) Forming relationships in our era of post-institutional modes of sociality is problematic. Some probably find such ‘romantically’ orientated ‘meet up’ sites to be a more efficient option for sampling what is available. Perhaps others want some loving on the side. In some ways these sites transform romance into the online equivalent of the logistics dock at your local shopping centre. ‘Just-in-time’ relationships rely less on social support structures of traditional institutions such as the family, workplace, and so on, including ‘love’ itself, and more on a hit and miss style of dating, organised like a series of car crashes and perhaps even commodified through an eBay-style online catalogue (see Crawford 83-88). Instead of image-commodities there are image-people and the spectacle of post-romance romance as a debauched demolition derby. Is romance still possible if it is no longer the naïve and fatalistic realisation of complementary souls? I watched Paul Thomas Anderson’s third film Punch-Drunk Love with the above rsvp.com.au woman. She interpreted it in a completely different manner to me. I shall argue (as I did with her) that the film captures some sense of romance in a post-romance world. The film was billed as a comedy/romance or comedy/drama, but I did not laugh either with or at the film. The story covers the trials of two people ‘falling in love’. Lena Leonard (Emma Watson) orchestrates an encounter with Barry Egan (Adam Sandler) after seeing a picture of him with his seven sisters. The trajectory of the romance is defined less by the meeting of two people, than the violence of contingency and of the world arrayed by the event of love. Contingency is central to complexity theory. Contingency is not pure chance, rather it exists as part of the processual material time of the event that defines events or a series of events as problematic (Deleuze, The Logic of Sense 52-53). To problematise events and recognise the contingencies they inculcate is to refuse the tendency to colonise the future through actuarial practices, such as ‘risk management’ and insurance or the probabilistic ‘Perfect Match’ success of internet dating sites (mirroring ‘Dexter’ from the 1980s dating television game show). Therefore, through Punch-Drunk Love I shall problematise the event of love so as to resuscitate the contingencies of post-romance romance. It is not surprising Punch-Drunk Love opens with a car crash for the film takes romance on a veritable post-Crash detour. Crash – novel and film – serves as an exploration of surfaces and desire in a world at the intersection of the accident. Jean Baudrillard, in his infamous essay on Crash (novel), dwells on the repositioning of the accident: [It] is no longer at the margin, it is at the heart. It is no longer the exception to a triumphal rationality, it has become the Rule, it has devoured the Rule. … Everything is reversed. It is the Accident that gives form to life, it is the Accident, the insane, that is the sex of life. (113) After the SUV rolls over in Punch-Drunk Love’s opening scene, a taxi van pauses long enough for an occupant to drop off a harmonium. A harmonium is a cross between an organ and a piano, but much smaller than both. It is a harmony machine. It breathes and wheezes to gather potentiality consonant sound waves of heterogeneous frequencies to produce a unique musicality of multiplicative resonance. No reason is given for the harmonium in the workings of the film’s plot. Another accident without any explanation, like the SUV crash, but this time it is an accidental harmony-machine. The SUV accident is a disorganising eruption of excess force, while the accidental harmony-machine is a synthesising organisation of force. One produces abolition, while the other produces a multiplicative affirmation. These are two tendencies that follow two different relations to the heterogeneous materialism of contingency. Punch-Drunk Love captures the contingency at the heart of post-romance romance. Instead of the layers of expectation habituated into institutional engagements of two subjects meeting, there is the accident of the event of love within which various parties are arrayed with various affects and desires. I shall follow Alain Badiou’s definition of the event of love, but only to the point where I shall shift the perspective from love to romance. Badiou defines love by initially offering a series of negative definitions. Firstly, love is not a fusional concept, the ‘two’ that is ‘one’. That is because, as Badiou writes, “an ecstatic One can only be supposed beyond the Two as a suppression of the multiple” (“What Is Love?” 38). Secondly, nor is love the “prostration of the Same on the alter of the Other.” Badiou argues that it is not an experience of the Other, but an “experience of the world [i.e. multiple], or of the situation, under the post-evental condition that there were Two” (“What Is Love?” 39). Lastly, the rejection of the ‘superstructural’ or illusory conception of love, that is, to the base of desire and sexual jealously (Badiou, “What Is Love?” 39). For Badiou love is the production of truth. The truth is that the Two, and not only the One, are at work in the situation. However, from the perspective of romance, there is no post-evental truth procedure for love as such. In Deleuze’s terminology, from the perspective of post-romance the Two serves an important role as the ‘quasi-cause’ of love (The Logic of Sense 33), or for Badiou it is the “noemenal possibility [virtualite]” (“What Is Love?” 51). The event of the Two, and, therefore, of love, is immanent to itself. However, this does not capture the romantic functioning of love swept up in the quasi-cause of the Two. Romance is the differential repetition of the event of love to-come and thus the repetition of the intrinsic irreducible wonder at the heart of the event. The wonder at love’s heart is the excess of potentiality, the excitement, the multiplicity, the stultifying surprise. To resuscitate the functioning of love is to disagree with Badiou’s axiom that there is an absolute disjunction between the (nominalist) Two. The Two do actually share a common dimension and that is the radical contingency at the heart of love. Love is not as a teleological destiny of the eternal quasi-cause, but the fantastic impossibility of its contingent evental site. From Badiou’s line of argument, romance is precisely the passage of this “aleatory enquiry” (“What is Love?” 45), of “the world from the point of view of the Two, and not an enquiry of each term of the Two about the other” (49). Romance is the insinuation of desire into this dynamic of enquiry. Therefore, the functioning of romance is to produce a virtual architecture of wonder hewn from seeming impossibility of contingency. It is not the contingency in itself that is impossible (the ‘chaosmos’ is a manifold of wonderless-contingency), but that contingency might be repeated as part of a material practice that produces love as an effect of differentiating wonder. Or, again, not that the encounter of love has happened, but that precisely it might happen again and again. Romance is the material and embodied practice of producing wonder. The materiality of romance needs to be properly outlined and to do this I turn to another of Badiou’s texts and the film itself. To explicate the materialism of romance is to begin outlining the problematic of romance where the material force of Lena and Barry’s harmony resonates in the virtuosic co-production of new potentialities. The practice of romance is evidenced in the scene where Lena and Barry are in Hawaii and Lena is speaking to Barry’s sister while Barry is watching her. A sense of wonder is produced not in the other person but of the world as multiplicity produced free from the burden of Barry’s sister, hence altering the material conditions of the differential repetition of contingency. The materialism in effect here is, to borrow from Michel Foucault, an ‘incorporeal materialism’ (169), and pertains to the virtual evental dimension of love. In his Handbook of Inaesthetics, Badiou sets up dance and theatre as metaphors for thought. “The essence of dance,” writes Badiou, “is virtual, rather than actual movement” (Handbook of Inaesthetics 61), while theatre is an “assemblage” (72) which in part is “the circulation of desire between the sexes” (71). If romance is the deliberate care for the event of love and its (im)possible contingency, then the dance of love requires the theatre of romance. To include music with dance is to malign Badiou’s conception of dance by polluting it with some elements of what he calls ‘theatre’. To return to the Hawaii scene, Barry is arrayed as an example of what Badiou calls the ‘public’ of theatre because he is watching Lena lie to his sister about his whereabouts, and therefore completes the ‘idea’ of theatre-romance as a constituent element (Badiou, Handbook of Inaesthetics 74). There is an incorporeal (virtual) movement here of pure love in the theatre of romance that repotentialises the conditions of the event of love by producing a repeated and yet different contingency of the world. Wonder triggered by a lie manifest of a truth to-come. According to Badiou, the history of dance is “governed by the perpetual renewal of the relation between vertigo and exactitude. What will remain virtual, what will be actualized, and precisely how is the restraint going to free the infinite?” (Handbook of Inaesthetics 70). Importantly, Badiou suggests that theatrical production “is often the reasoned trial of chances” (Handbook of Inaesthetics 74). Another way to think the materiality of romance is as the event of love, but without Badiou’s necessary declaration of love (“What Is Love?” 45). Even though the ‘truth’ of the Two acts as quasi-cause, love as such remains a pure (‘incorporeal’) Virtuality. As a process, there is no “absolute disappearance or eclipse” that belongs to the love-encounter (“What Is Love?” 45), thus instead producing a rhythmic or, better, melodic heterogeneous tension between the love-dance and romance-theatre. The rhythm-melody of the virtual-actual cascade is distributed around aleatory contingencies as the event of love is differentially repeated and is therefore continually repotentialised and exhausted at the same time. A careful or graceful balance needs to be found between potentiality and exhaustion. The film contains many examples of this (re)potentialising tension, including when Lena achieves the wonder of the ‘encounter’ by orchestrating a meeting. Similarly, Barry feigns a ‘business trip’ to Hawaii to meet up with Lena. This is proceeded by the increased urgency of Barry’s manipulation of the frequent flyer miles reward to meet with up with Lena. The tension is affective – both anxious and exciting – and belongs to the lived duration of contingency. In the same way as an actual material dance floor (or ‘theatre’ here) is repeated across multiple incorporeal dimensions of music’s virtuality through the repotentialisation of the dancer’s body, the multiple dimensions of love are repeated across the virtuality of the lovers’ actions through the repotentialisation of the conditions of the event of love. Punch-Drunk Love frames this problematic of romance by way of a second movement that follows the trajectory of the main character Barry. Barry is a depressive with an affect regulation problem. He flies into a rage whenever a childhood incident is mentioned and becomes anxious or ‘scared’ (as one sister described him) when in proximity to Lena. He tries to escape from the oppressive intimacy of his family. He plays with ‘identity’ in a childlike manner by dressing up as a businessman and wearing the blue suit. His small business is organised around selling plungers used to unblock toilets to produce flow. Indeed, Barry is defined by the blockages and flows of desire. His seven-sister over-Oedipalised familial unit continually operates as an apparatus of capture, a phone-sex pervert scam seeks to overcode desire in libidinal economy that becomes exploited in circuits of axiomatised shame (like an online dating site?), and a consumer rewards program that offers the dream of a frequent-flyer million-miles (line of) flight out of it all. ‘Oedipal’ in the expanded sense Deleuze and Guattari give the term as a “displaced or internalised limit where desire lets itself be caught. The Oedipal triangle is the personal and private territoriality that corresponds to all of capitalism’s efforts at social reterritorialisation” (266). Barry says he wants to ‘diversify’ his business, which is not the same thing as ‘expanding’ or developing an already established commercial interest. He does not have a clear idea of what domain or type of business he wants to enter into when diversifying. When he speaks to business contacts or service personnel on the phone he attempts to connect with them on a level of intimacy that is uncomfortably inappropriate for impersonal phone conversations. The inappropriate intimacy comes back to haunt him, of course, when a low-level crook attempts to extort money from him after Barry calls a phone sex line. The romance between Lena and Barry develops through a series of accident-contingencies that to a certain extent ‘unblocks’ Barry and allows him to connect with Lena (who also changes). Apparent contingencies that are not actually contingencies need to be explained as such (‘dropping car off’, ‘beat up bathrooms’, ‘no actual business in Hawaii’, ‘phone sex line’, etc.). Upon their first proper conversation a forklift in Barry’s business crashes into boxes. Barry calls the phone sex line randomly and this leads to the severe car crash towards the end of the film. The interference of Barry’s sisters occurs in an apparently random unexpected manner – either directly or indirectly through the retelling of the ‘gayboy’ story. Lastly, the climatic meeting in Hawaii where the two soon-to-be-lovers are framed by silhouette, their bodies meet not in an embrace but a collision. They emerge as if emitted from the throngs of the passing crowd. Barry has his hand extended as if they were going to shake and there is an audible grunt when their bodies collide in an embrace. To love is to endure the violence of a creative temporality, such as the production of harmony from heterogeneity. As Badiou argues, love cannot be a fusional relation between the two to make the one, nor can it be the relation of the Same to the Other, this is because the differential repetition of the conditions of love through the material practice of romance already effaces such distinctions. This is the crux of the matter: The maximum violence in the plot of Punch-Drunk Love is not born by Lena, even though she ends up in hospital, but by Barry. (Is this merely a masculinist reading of traditional male on male violence? Maybe, and perhaps why rsvp.com.au woman read it different to me.) What I am trying to get at is the positive or creative violence of the two movements within the plot – of the romance and of Barry’s depressive social incompetence – intersect in such a way to force Barry to renew himself as himself. Barry’s explosive fury belongs to the paradox of trying to ‘mind his own business’ while at the same time ‘diversifying’. The moments of violence directed against the world and the ‘glass enclosures’ of his subjectivity are transversal actualisations of the violence of love (on function of ‘glass’ in the film see King). (This raises the question, perhaps irrelevant, regarding the scale of Badiou’s conception of truth-events. After Foucault and Deleuze, why isn’t ‘life’ itself a ‘truth’ event (for Badiou’s position see Briefings on Existence 66-68)? For example, are not the singularities of Barry’s life also the singularities of the event of love? Is the post-evental ‘decision’ supposed to always axiomatically subtract the singular truth-supplement from the stream of singularities of life? Why…?) The violence of love is given literal expression in the film in the ‘pillow talk’ dialogue between Barry and Lena: Barry: I’m sorry, I forgot to shave. Lena: Your face is so adorable. Your skin and your cheek… I want to bite it. I want to bite on your cheek and chew on it, you’re so fucking cute. Barry: I’m looking at your face and I just wanna smash it. I just wanna fucking smash it with a sledgehammer and squeeze you, you’re so pretty… Lena: I wanna chew your face off and scoop out your eyes. I wanna eat them and chew them and suck on them… Barry: [nodding] Ok…yes, that’s funny… Lena: Yeah… Barry: [still nodding] This’s nice. What dismayed or perhaps intrigued Baudrillard about Crash was its mixing of bodies and technologies in a kind of violent eroticism where “everything becomes a hole to offer itself to the discharge reflex” (112). On the surface this exchange between Barry and Lena is apparently an example of such violent eroticism. For Baudrillard the accident is a product of the violence of technology in the logistics of bodies and signs which intervene in relations in such a way to render perversity impossible (as a threshold structuration of the Symbolic) because ‘everything’ becomes perverse. However, writer and director of Punch-Drunk Love, Paul Anderson, produces a sense of the wondrous (‘Punch-Drunk’) violence that is at the heart of love. This is not because of the actual violence of individual characters; in the film this only serves as a canvas of action to illustrate the intrinsic violence of contingency. Lena and Barry’s ‘pillow talk’ not so much as a dance but a case of the necessary theatre capturing the violence and restraint of love’s virtual dance. ‘Violence’ (in the sense it is used above) also describes the harmonic marshalling of the heterogeneous materiality of sound affected by the harmonium. The ‘violence’ of the harmonium is decisively expressed through the coalescence of the diegetic and nondiegetic soundtracks at the end of the film when Barry plays the harmonium concurrently with Jon Brion’s score for the film. King notes, the “diegetic and nondiegetic music playing together is a moment of cinematic harmony; Barry, Lena, and the harmonium are now in sync” (par. 19). The notes of music connect different diegetic and nondiegetic series which pivot around new possibilities. As Deleuze writes about the notes played at a concert, they are “pure Virtualities that are actualized in the origins [of playing], but also pure Possibilities that are attained in vibrations or flux [of sound]” (The Fold 91). Following Deleuze further (The Fold 146-157), the horizontal melodic movement of romance forms a diagonal or transversal line with the differentially repeated ‘harmonic’ higher unity of love. The unity is literally ‘higher’ to the extent it escapes the diegetic confines of the film itself. For Deleuze “harmonic unity is not that of infinity, but that which allows the existent to be thought of as deriving from infinity” (The Fold 147, ital. added). While Barry is playing the harmonium in this scene Lena announces, “So here we go.” These are the final words of the film. In Badiou’s philosophy this is a declaration of the truth of love. Like the ‘higher’ non/diegetic harmony of the harmonium, the truth of love “composes, compounds itself to infinity. It is thus never presented integrally. All knowledge [of romance] relative to this truth [of the Two, as quasi-cause] thus disposes itself as an anticipation” (“What is Love?” 49). Romance is therefore lived as a vertiginous state of anticipation of love’s harmony. The materiality of romance does not simply consist of two people coming together and falling in love. The ‘fall’ functions as a fatalistic myth used to inscribe bodies within the eschatological libidinal economies of ‘romantic comedies’. To anneal Baudrillard’s lament, perversity obviously still has a positive Symbolic function on the internet, especially online dating sites where anticipation can be modulated through the probabilistic manipulation of signs. In post-romance, the ‘encounter’ of love necessarily remains, but it is the contingency of this encounter that matters. The main characters in Punch-Drunk Love are continually arrayed through the contingencies of love. I have linked this to Badiou’s notion of the event of love, but have focused on what I have called the materiality of romance. The materiality of romance requires more than a ‘fall’ induced by a probabilistic encounter, and yet it is not the declaration of a truth. The post-evental truth procedure of love is impossible in post-romance romance because there is no ‘after’ or ‘supplement’ to an event of love; there is only the continual rhythm of romance and anticipation of the impossible. It is not a coincidence that the Snow Patrol lyrics that serve above as an epigraph resonate with Deleuze’s comment that a change in the situation of Leibnizian monads has occurred “between the former model, the closed chapel with imperceptible openings… [to] the new model invoked by Tony Smith [of] the sealed car speeding down the dark highway” (The Fold 157). Post-Crash post-romance romance unfolds like the driving-monad in an aleatory pursuit of accidents. That is, to care for the event of love is not to announce the truth of the Two, but to pursue the differential repetition of the conditions of love’s (im)possible contingency. This exquisite and beautiful care is required for the contingency of love to be maintained. Hence, the post-romance problematic of romance thus posited as the material practice of repeating the wonder at the heart of love. References Badiou, Alain. Briefings on Existence: A Short Treatise on Transitory Ontology. Trans. Norman Madrasz. Albany, New York: State U of New York P, 2006. ———. Handbook of Inaesthetics. Trans. Alberto Toscano. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford UP, 2005. ———. “What Is Love?” Umbr(a) 1 (1996): 37-53. Baudrillard, Jean. Simulacra and Simulation. Ann Arbor: U of Michigan P, 1994. Crawford, Kate. Adult Themes: Rewriting the Rules of Adulthood. Sydney: Macmillan, 2006. Deleuze, Gilles. The Fold: Leibniz and the Baroque. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 1993. ———. The Logic of Sense. Trans. Mark Laster and Charles Stivale. European Perspectives. Ed. Constantin V. Boundas. New York: Columbia UP, 1990. Deleuze, Gilles, and Félix Guattari. Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 1983. Foucault, Michel. “Theatricum Philosophicum.” Language, Counter-Memory, Practice: Selected Essays and Interviews. Ed. D. F. Bouchard. New York: Cornell UP, 1977. 165-96. King, Cubie. “Punch Drunk Love: The Budding of an Auteur.” Senses of Cinema 35 (2005). Citation reference for this article MLA Style Fuller, Glen. "Punch-Drunk Love: A Post-Romance Romance." M/C Journal 10.3 (2007). echo date('d M. Y'); ?> <http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0706/03-fuller.php>. APA Style Fuller, G. (Jun. 2007) "Punch-Drunk Love: A Post-Romance Romance," M/C Journal, 10(3). Retrieved echo date('d M. Y'); ?> from <http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0706/03-fuller.php>.

Rowell, Rainbow. Eleanor & Park. New York, NY: St. Martin’s Press, 2013. Print.“Disintegrated. Like something had gone wrong beaming her onto the Starship Enterprise. If you’ve ever wondered what that feels like, it’s a lot like melting, but more violent. Even in a million different pieces, Eleanor could still feel Park holding her hand. Could still feel his thumb exploring her palm. She sat completely still because she didn’t have any other option. She tried to remember what kind of animals paralyzed their prey before they ate them...Maybe Park had paralyzed her with his ninja magic, his Vulcan handhold, and now he was going to eat her. That would be awesome” (p. 72).Eleanor & Park is a smart, funny young adult romance that takes place over one school year in 1986. Told in alternating voices, this is the story of two teenagers who don’t quite fit in. Eleanor comes from the wrong side of the tracks and has big red hair and wears all the wrong clothes. Park is half Asian, loves comic books and alternative music. Eleanor has had a rough life, living with her mother, her mother’s new husband, and her four siblings in a rundown house without even a door on the bathroom. Park’s family is much more stable, yet his military veteran father and immigrant mother do not quite know what to make of Park, with his black clothes, eye makeup and love of music. Pushed together on Eleanor’s first day of school when she takes the only seat left on the bus, the one beside Park, they bond over comic books and mixed tapes and help each other survive the tumult that is high school, and life. The characters, young and old, in Eleanor & Park are far from perfect, and their imperfections and weirdness make them likeable. Young adult readers will identify with these outsiders and will be cheering for them from the beginning. Some of the pop culture references may not be recognized by today’s young adults; however, the specific music and comic book references are less important than what they represent in the story. Rowell has written a nuanced and balanced story that will appeal to young adult fans of realistic and romantic fiction. The ending is satisfying without being easy and Rowell has created characters that are believable and heartwarming. Eleanor & Park won the 2013 Boston Globe Horn Book Award for Best Fiction Book. Rainbow Rowell is the author of Attachments (2011) and the recently released Fangirl (2013). The book contains some scenes with some mild sexuality, violence, and language. It will make an excellent addition to any school or public library collection for young adult readers ages 14 and up.Highly Recommended: 4 out of 4 starsReviewed by: Joanne de GrootJoanne de Groot is a teacher, librarian and mom who loves to read children's literature (especially with her two kids!). She is an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Elementary Education at the University of Alberta and teaches primarily in the Teacher-Librarianship by Distance Learning program. Joanne teaches courses on resources for children and young adults, children's literature, educational technology and Web 2.0, and contemporary literacies.

Armstrong, Kelley. The Rising. Toronto: HarperTeen, 2013. Print. Ontario-based award-winning writer Kelley Armstrong, author of the New York Times and Globe and Mail bestselling Darkest Powers young adult urban fantasy trilogy, brings us the third and final title of her Darkness Rising trilogy. The first in the trilogy, 2011’s The Gathering, was previously reviewed in the inaugural issue of Deakin, Vol. 1 No 1 and the second, The Calling, was reviewed in Vol. 2 No. 4. As with the previous book in the trilogy, this book is not meant to be read on its own, as again the author’s recap on events and characters is minimal. I felt the need to revisit the second book and familiarize myself with the plot before I started in on The Rising as it had been a year between books, the price of being a fan of series fiction. Sixteen-year-old supernatural, Maya Delaney, and her fellow supe friends are assumed dead after an apparent helicopter rescue-turned-crash leaves them running for their lives. With no one they can trust to turn to, the teens are truly in harm’s way as their supernatural abilities start careening out of control. Corey’s headaches are increasing, Nicole’s mental state is fragile at best and even Maya is concerned that she herself may be regressing. Like it or not, the friends need assistance from the rival networks that seek to exploit their abilities. Maya’s biological father, Calvin Antone, plays a larger role in this book and again, his intentions are often unclear. The intensifying romance of the previous book does indeed lead to the expected supernatural YA love triangle, but it feels forced and formulaic, as if the author’s fans would expect it and so it was hastily written in. There is a continued lack of storyline that seems to centre around the characters’ need to run and hide, which is echoed in Armstrong’s other works. I am giving this book three stars out of four because true Armstrong fans will enjoy the series as a whole as well as the tie-in to well-loved characters in her Darkest Powers trilogy and devour it regardless of its limitations. The epilogue will be particularly satisfying. I would not be surprised to learn of yet another spin-off series with Maya or some of the new characters introduced in the series. Recommended: 3 out of 4 stars Reviewer: Debbie Feisst Debbie is a Public Services Librarian at the H.T. Coutts Education Library at the University of Alberta. When not renovating, she enjoys travel, fitness and young adult fiction.

Meloy, Maile. The Apothecary. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 2011. Print.A recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, Los Angeles-based Maile Meloy is an acclaimed author of novels and short stories for adults. In 2007, she was named one of Granta’s 21 Best Young American Novelists. With The Apothecary, Ms. Meloy makes her entrance into book writing for a young adult audience.The Apothecary won the 2011 E.B. White Read-Aloud Award, Middle Reader category (coincidentally, the other winner that year was Wildwood, a book written by the author’s brother). Publishers Weekly, the Chicago Public Library, and Booktrust in the UK all declared The Apothecary as one of the best children’s books of 2011. Set in the mid-1900s, The Apothecary is a work of historical fiction that that takes place during the Cold War era. Fourteen-year-old Janie Scott is followed home from school one day by US Marshals, then her parents suddenly decide to move the family to London. Uprooted from her home in Hollywood, Janie receives an unusual cure for homesickness from the local apothecary. She meets Benjamin, the apothecary’s son, who takes a dim view of his father’s drug store and is much more interested in becoming an agent of the Secret Intelligence Service than aspiring to the profession of apothecary.In a cloak and dagger turn of events, Benjamin’s father is kidnapped and Janie and Benjamin are entrusted with protecting the Pharmacopeia, a book containing alchemical recipes. Along the way, they connect with a young pickpocket named Pip - the intrepid trio search for Benjamin’s father, outmaneuvering Russian spies, and playing a critical role in averting nuclear disaster. The themes of espionage, magic and mystery, with hints of romance will engage a range of readers. Ian Schoenherr’s black and white illustrations herald the start of each chapter and complement Meloy’s sombre and suspenseful tale.Highly recommended: 4 out of 4 stars Reviewer: Maria TanMaria is a Public Services Librarian at the University of Alberta’s H. T. Coutts Education Library. She enjoys travelling and visiting unique and far-flung libraries. An avid foodie, Maria’s motto is, “There’s really no good reason to stop the flow of snacks”.

Armstrong, Kelley. The Calling. Toronto: Doubleday Canada, 2012. Print. Ontario writer, Kelley Armstrong, author of the New York Times and Globe and Mail bestselling Darkest Powers young adult urban fantasy trilogy, brings us the second offering of her Darkness Rising trilogy. The first in the trilogy, 2011’s The Gathering, was previously reviewed in the inaugural issue of Deakin, Vol. 1 No 1. This book is not recommended as a standalone, as The Calling starts immediately where we left off with The Gathering and the author’s recap on events and characters is minimal, which for fans of series is refreshing. Sixteen-year-old Maya Delaney and her friends have been forced to flee from their community of Salmon Creek, a small town on Vancouver Island, during a forest fire that was surely deliberately set. After their rescue helicopter makes an emergency landing in the remote wilderness, the group is on the run and forced to survive using nothing but their wits and their supernatural abilities that begin to unfold as they find themselves in danger. Through this we learn more about Maya’s friends as well as the circumstances surrounding the death of her best friend, Serena, in a bizarre swimming accident the previous year. Maya also learns a lot about her own powers but perhaps the most mysterious event is the introduction of Calvin Antone, a man who is pursuing Maya, and who admits to being her biological father. Teen readers will certainly delight in the run-and-hide action as well as the intensifying romance, but I couldn’t help feeling a little let down by The Calling. After the adrenaline-fuelled and plot-driven action of The Gathering, the lack of storyline and character development in this book was disappointing. With that said, however, we don’t have long to wait to see how things turn out for Maya - the final title in the trilogy, The Rising, is set for release in April 2013. As such, I am giving it three stars out of four on the promise of the final book. Recommended: 3 out of 4 stars Reviewer: Debbie Feisst Debbie is a Public Services Librarian at the H.T. Coutts Education Library at the University of Alberta. When not renovating, she enjoys travel, fitness and young adult fiction.

Gallant, Gail. Apparition. Toronto: Doubleday Canada, 2013. Print.This Young Adult mystery-ghost story tells the story of seventeen year-old clairvoyant, Amelia MacKenzie. Amelia has seen ghosts since she was a little girl, and after her mother passed away from cancer, Amelia saw her mother’s ghost too. Until recently, Amelia thought she was imagining these visions, but that all changes when her best friend and crush Matthew dies.Amelia lives near the small city of Owen Sound, Ontario, with her grandmother Joyce, and her two brothers Ethan and Jack. Amelia struggled with depression after her mother’s death, but her friendship with Matthew helped her through the hardest time of her life, and leads to burgeoning romantic feelings. After Amelia gathers the strength to express her feelings to him, Matthew is flustered. The next time she meets him, however, Matthew is acting strangely, and while giving Amelia a ride home, begins to talk about a mysterious girl. Amelia finds out the next day that Matthew apparently killed himself in a nearby barn. Although devastated, Amelia feels something is off about Matthew’s death.At Matthew’s funeral, Amelia meets a local journalist named Morris Dyson. Morris investigates paranormal occurrences, as he believes ghosts travel along specific geographic routes, and sometimes become stuck or cause trouble. Morris also believes Amelia can see ghosts, just like he knew her mother could. Morris suspects Matthew’s death is linked to similar deaths that happened in the same barn - all young men who committed suicide after heart-break surrounding a mysterious woman named Dot. Morris theorizes a ghost is in the barn and causing all these problems.With the help of Morris’ handsome and charming son, Kip, Amelia and Morris begin to unravel the mystery of the barn, the ghosts who still haunt it (including Matthew), and the impact for those who come into contact with the barn. At the same time, Amelia learns to come to terms with her gift, her grief, and to explore her own identity.Gail Gallant conveys the stark beauty of the Canadian landscape throughout her novel, and captures the unique and realistic culture of small town Ontario. The setting will strike home with many Canadian youth. Even with its supernatural elements, Gallant’s characters are interesting and realistic, especially for a young adult novel. Amelia makes a notable heroine not because of her clairvoyance, but from how she learns to understand her own feelings as an ordinary teenager. Amelia cares deeply for her brothers, and her stern, no-nonsense grandmother, but can at times find them aggravating. She also navigates realistic issues, such as family, friendship, and integrity in relationships. Gallant presents these themes with sophistication and empathy.Apparition tackles mature issues including depression, grief, death, romance, the afterlife, and murder. Young readers may find some content scary, although the novel is more suspenseful than frightening. The book stands complete on its own, but has a sequel, Absolution.Recommended: 4 out of 4 starsReviewer: Colette LeungColette Leung is a graduate student at the University of Alberta, working in the fields of Library and Information science and Humanities Computing who loves reading, cats, and tea. Her research interests focus around how digital tools can be used to explore fields such as literature, language, and history in new and innovative ways.

Armstrong, Kelley. Empire of Night. Doubleday Canada, 2015.This young ddult fantasy novel is the sequel to the book Sea of Shadows, and is the second of a trilogy. Empire of Night strongly benefits from reading the first book. It continues the story of identical twin sisters Moria and Ashyn, the Keeper and Seeker of Edgewood. In this mythical world, Keeper and Seeker are magical roles occupied by certain twin girls. They have the responsibility of quieting the souls of the damned. They are helped by a giant wildcat and a giant hound in their duties. Although close sisters, Moria and Ashyn have two very different personalities: Moria is a fiery warrior with strong talent for telling scary stories, while Ashyn is a shy romantic, more prone to thoughtful reservation.Empire of Night picks up close to where the first book ends. Moria and Ashyn are guests at the Emperor’s court, and their village of Edgewood is destroyed. Most of their family and friends are gone, and the twins are eager to take action against Alvar Kitsune, the man who holds the remaining children of Edgewood hostage. The Emperor, however, is slow to make a decision much to the frustration of the girls who find themselves having to navigate the politics of court. Moria, in particular, finds herself befriending Prince Tyrus, the kind, illegitimate son of the Emperor, who has unmistakable feelings for her.When the Emperor finally sends the girls on a rescue mission for the children, along with a small party of men and Prince Tyrus, the twins quickly find themselves on a perilous journey. It becomes unclear who can be trusted, even within their own group, and their mission becomes even more dangerous when Alvar accuses Moria and Tyrus of treason, putting a large bounty on their heads.Empire of Night is not as strong as the first book in the trilogy and does feature stereotypes of the young adult genre, but it is still a worthwhile book for collections. In particular, the book is notable because outside of the two heroines, all major characters in the book are people of colour, described with East Asian features. Moria and Ashyn are in fact the racial minority in a world largely rooted in Japanese feudalism, which includes Asian-inspired food, strong themes of filial piety, and the importance of honour. In fact, the two girls frequently encounter being stereotyped due to their Northern heritage, an interesting reversal and means of social commentary.The book suffers from a love triangle, but the other sister’s journey in navigating romance is worthwhile, as she learns how to turn down a potential suitor, and in spite of his negative reaction, remains mature and calm while also setting boundaries. These important themes for young adults are thoughtfully presented. The two main characters are also notable for being examples of two different kinds of strong females.Some readers may be deterred from the switch between point of view in storytelling, between the two sisters. The book also ends on a large cliffhanger, unlike its predecessor.Recommended: 3 out of 4 starsReviewer: Colette LeungColette Leung is a graduate student at the University of Alberta, working in the fields of Library and Information science and Humanities Computing who loves reading, cats, and tea. Her research interests focus around how digital tools can be used to explore fields such as literature, language, and history in new and innovative ways.

Morgan, Page. The Beautiful and the Cursed. Toronto: Doubleday Canada, 2013. Print.This young adult fantasy novel tells the story of a young woman named Ingrid Waverly. Ingrid is a seventeen-year-old living in London, England at the end of the 19th century. She is the daughter of a wealthy man. However, after becoming the heart of a scandal involving a mysterious fire, Ingrid moves with her mother and little sister to Paris, France. Ingrid’s twin brother Grayson has already purchased an old abbey there for the family to settle into. Ingrid’s mother intends to restore the abbey, and turn it into a gallery to showcase her art. Once in Paris, however, Ingrid quickly becomes steeped in a supernatural world.Upon arrival, Ingrid learns that young women have been going missing in Paris, as has her twin brother Grayson. Some of the missing women have been found dead and mutilated. Although her mother and the police seem unconcerned and believe Grayson is just gallivanting about the city, Ingrid has a deep connection with her brother and knows something is wrong. With the help of her impetuous younger sister Gabby, Ingrid begins investigating her brother’s disappearance. Gabby is also trying to discover her own identity as a young woman, and forge a deeper relationship with Ingrid, who has always been closer to Grayson. Through their investigation, the sisters quickly uncover a secret world of fallen angels, demons, and hellhounds, not least because the Waverly family is protected by a gargoyle.One of the statues of the old abbey is actually a gargoyle named Luc, who is duty bound by angels to protect the family living in the abbey. He disguises himself as a servant, but his true form is that of a stone monster. Although tasked to protect the entire family, Luc finds himself increasingly drawn to Ingrid, and develops feelings for her. Grayson’s disappearance is tied to Luc’s secret world. Grayson was kidnapped by a fallen Angel, and is being tortured with hellhound blood injections. Reluctantly, Luc becomes involved with the sisters’ quest. They are helped by the Alliance, a secret demon fighting organization. It becomes apparent that Grayson was kidnapped because he has special abilities, as does Ingrid, explaining her role in the scandal that forced her to leave London. The sisters must unravel this new world, their roles in it, and save their brother in time.The Beautiful and the Cursed is told in multiple viewpoints, which may deter some readers, especially when viewpoints change within the same chapter, or describe a repeated scene. It is the first book of a trilogy. The book’s mythology is well explained in approachable language. Morgan draws influence from both the Mortal Instruments series and the 1990s Gargoyles television show, but the book holds its own as original, and will appeal to female demographics. Themes explored include death, torture, forbidden romance, and a fantastical twist on angels and demons.Recommended: 3 out of 4 starsReviewer: Colette LeungColette Leung is a graduate student at the University of Alberta, working in the fields of Library and Information science and Humanities Computing who loves reading, cats, and tea. Her research interests focus around how digital tools can be used to explore fields such as literature, language, and history in new and innovative ways.

Green, Sally. Half Bad. New York: Viking, 2014. Print.This young adult fantasy novel tells the story of sixteen-year-old Nathan. Nathan lives in modern England, which is caught in the middle of two warring factions of witches. These witches live undetected amongst humans. The White Witches paint themselves as good and orderly, while Black Witches are known as murderous and violent. At the time of Nathan’s story, the White Witches control much of England, and hunt renegade Black Witches.Nathan is unique, as he is the son of both a White Witch, and a Black Witch. In fact, Nathan is the son of the most terrifying Black Witch alive, Marcus, who eats the hearts of other witches to absorb their powers. Nathan is raised by his grandmother, with his half-siblings Jessica, Arran, and Deborah. He has never met his father. In spite of this, Nathan exhibits tendencies associated with dark witches. He cannot sleep indoors at night, and his strength changes with the moon. The White Witches’ Council constantly watches Nathan, and tries to control him through “assessments” and restrictions on whom he can speak to, and where he can go. Although his grandmother frequently reminds him that he is half-White too, Nathan also experiences abuse from his older sister, and bullying at school. Nathan becomes lonely and angry, although he finds comfort in the young White Witch Annalise, and the kindness of his brother Arran.As Nathan nears his seventeenth birthday, when all witches come into their power through a specialized ritual, the Council takes more drastic actions to control Nathan. He is removed from his family, imprisoned, and subjected to harsh and painful training. The Council hopes to use Nathan as a weapon against his father. Nathan must escape, and find a way to come into his magic by his birthday, or he will die. But, even if Nathan makes it out, he cannot tell who to trust, or how to keep those he loves from danger.Half-Bad presents a complex story with compelling characters, including a well-rounded LGBTQ character who plays an important role. The book starts out slow, using both in media res and a second person viewpoint, which may deter some readers. But, the story quickly builds and switches to a first person viewpoint. The events are strongly enhanced by engrossing descriptions of the British countryside, London, and Switzerland. Easy answers are not provided to readers. No character, including the protagonist, is completely good or bad. Instead, people are shaped by how they are labelled or represented to others, and the actions they take. Some themes may be intense for younger audiences, including descriptions of violence, abuse, death, murder, suicide, torture, and the classification and branding of people. The main character also occasionally uses swear words. Other important themes include: good vs. evil, nature vs. nurture, government control, freedom, forbidden romance, father-son relationships, and anger. It is the first of a trilogy.Recommended: 3 out of 4 starsReviewer: Colette LeungColette Leung is a graduate student at the University of Alberta, working in the fields of Library and Information science and Humanities Computing who loves reading, cats, and tea. Her research interests focus around how digital tools can be used to explore fields such as literature, language, and history in new and innovative ways.

Dear Readers,When I spotted Alexandra Alter’s article “James Patterson Has a Big Plan for Small Books” in The New York Times on March 21, 2016, I immediately thought the story was about a new innovation that Patterson had introduced for small format children’s books. Instead, the article describes Patterson’s new line of short novels aptly named BookShots that will include thrillers, mysteries, romances, science fiction, and (eventually) nonfiction. While most people recognize Patterson’s name for his prodigious output of thrillers, he is also known for publishing nearly 50 children’s books, which have sold more than 36 million copies worldwide. He has also written popular mysteries, romances, and young adult novels, but he now has plans to write for adult readers who don’t normally make time for reading. Indeed, the BookShots home page advises prospective customers that “Life moves fast—books should too”.While I have no objection to Patterson’s new line of short, cheaply produced books that may eventually be stocked next to magazines and candies in grocery stores, I do hope that publishers of children's books will embrace an opposite trend by publishing longer books for young readers who do have time to read. Let’s not assume that all children are abandoning reading for movies, television, video games, and social networking.The strengths of Patterson’s new books are their lively, incisive writing, and of course, engaging plots that pack a great deal into few words. Brevity will certainly lend Patterson’s new books a narrative crispness that will appeal to readers who may already enjoy reading digital content on their mobile devices. There is nothing wrong with having an appetite for short fiction, but young readers will surely benefit from having access to books that encourage deeper, slow reading.Our summer issue is filled with recommended books that can be read deeply and re-read, so let’s encourage young readers to take time to more fully comprehend and appreciate words, ideas, and stories.Happy reading!Robert Desmarais Managing Editor

Dating apps promise a ‘digital fix’ to the ‘messy’ matter of love by means of datafication and algorithmic matching, realising a platformisation of romance commonly understood through notions of a market’s rationality and efficiency. Reflecting on the findings of a small-scale qualitative research on the use of dating apps among young adults in London, we problematise this view and argue that the specific form of marketisation articulated by dating apps is entrepreneurial in kind, whereby individuals act as brands facing the structural uncertainty of interacting with ‘quasi-strangers’. In so doing, we argue, dating app users enact a Luhmanian notion of interpersonal trust, built on the assessment of the risk of interacting with unfamiliar others that is typical of digitally mediated contexts dominated by reputational logics. From a sociocultural perspective, dating apps emerge as sociotechnical apparatuses that remediate the demand to rationally choose a partner while at the same time reproducing the (im)possibility of doing so. In this respect, far from offering a new form of efficiency, they (re)produce the ontological uncertainty (Illouz, 2019) that characterises lovers as entrepreneurs.

Este romance não quer convencer nem justificar-se: parte, isso sim, num contrafluxo estético de que resulta a quebra de determinadas represas matriciais do gênero a que pertence, como o excesso de personagens, de ações e reações mimetizando o universo dos games eletrônicos e do RPG. É o que faz sobretudo ao brincar (arriscadamente) com o dualismo entre bem e mal. As criaturas sobrenaturais criadas por Nazarian não são dotadas de bons sentimentos, não são exemplos de boa conduta. Nem mesmo o protagonista, aparentemente imune às zonas sombrias projetadas pelo corpo social asséptico, que se deseja positivo, do qual faz parte. Garotos malditos vale a leitura não como ficção à espera de interpretações profundas: sua proposta é contra o tédio, se possível, perturbando as convicções que procuram assentar normalizações; seu objetivo é divertir gente de corpo e/ou mente jovens; é pôr em coexistência todos os paralelos possíveis a fim de contribuir para alguma mudança no modo como se compreende a literatura (adulta ou juvenil) -- o que decerto agrada tanto aos apreciadores de histórias irrealistas quanto aos mais apegados à verossimilhança.

Purpose Like many social media trends, the romantic craze charms Egyptian youth. Romantic Facebook crush pages popped up locally in the past few years among university students particularly. They expressed a new aspect of online social interaction that has raised red flags with some adults, while thought to be a new healthy way to pour youth’s hearts out anonymously in a so-called a conservative society for others. Some crush pages, in particular, drew concerns of several parents for they are more vulgar and aggressive submissions. Laying between the two arguments, this study aims to examine the extent to which Facebook users make use of it to pursue romance, if Facebook’s characteristics and social context reflected in users’ perceptions of romantic relationships, the implications of being in a romantic relationship on Facebook and if such FB practices could pose a state of moral panic or a public concern. Design/methodology/approach A survey of 200 Facebook users between 18 and 25 years was gathered. Furthermore, a content analysis of three Egyptian universities’ “crush pages” posts was applied. Findings The study highlighted the conflicting ideals of today’s Egyptian youth moral lives. Ultimately, there is an evidence that practices of using Facebook online crush pages have been creating new contested but delightful moral normative rules around love. Originality/value Crushes pages have been sweeping across Egyptian colleges and faculties; however, almost no Arabic study was done to figure out its impact. Furthermore, the study takes into account the socio-cultural background of the Egyptian society.

Fig. 1: Photo by Miguel Orós, from unsplash.comFeminism has stalled at the bedroom door. In the post-#metoo era, more than ever, we need intimate civil rights in our relationships to counter the worrisome prevailing trends: Intimate partner violence. Interpersonal abuse. Date rape. Sexual harassment. Online harassment. Bullying. Rage. Sexual Assault. Abusive relationships. Revenge porn. There’s a lot of damage done when we get up close and personal. In the 21st century, we have come far in terms of equality and respect between the genders, so there’s a lot to celebrate. We also note that the Australian government has stepped in recently with the theme ‘Keeping Australians safe and secure’, by pledging $78 million to combat domestic violence, much of which takes place behind closed doors (Morrison 2019). Herein lies the issue: while governments legislate to protect victims of domestic violence — out of the public eye, private behaviours cannot be closely monitored, and the lack of social enforcement of these laws threatens the safety of intimate relationships. Rather, individuals are left to their own devices. We outline here a guideline for intimate civility, an individually-embraced code of conduct that could guide interpersonal dynamics within the intimate space of relationships. Civility does not traditionally ‘belong’ in our most intimate relationships. Rather, it’s been presumed, even idealised, that intimacy in our personal lives transcends the need for public values to govern relationships between/among men and women (i.e., that romantic love is all you need). Civility developed as a public, gendered concept. Historically, a man’s home – and indeed, his partner – became his dominion, promoting hegemonic constructions of masculinity, and values that reflect competition, conquest, entitlement and ownership. Moreover, intimate relationships located in the private domain can also be considered for/by both men and women a retreat, a bastion against, or excluded from the controls and demands of the public or ‘polis’ - thus from the public requirement for civility, further enabling its breakdown. The feminist political theorist Carole Pateman situated this historical separation as an inheritance of Hegel’s double dilemma: first, a class division between civil society and the state (between the economic man/woman, or private enterprise and public power) and second, a patriarchal division between the private family (and intimate relationships) and civil society/the state. The private location, she argues, is “an association constituted by ties of love, blood … subjection and particularity” rather than the public sphere, “an association of free and equal individuals” (225). In Hegel’s dilemma, personal liberty is a dualism, only constructed in relation to a governed, public (patriarchal) state. Alternately, Carter depicts civility as a shared moral good, where civility arises not only because of concern over consequences, but also demonstrates our intrinsic moral obligation to respect people in general. This approach subsequently challenges our freedom to carry out private, uncivil acts within a truly civil society.Challenges to Gender EthicsHow can we respond to this challenge in gender ethics? Intimate civility is a term coined by Elizabeth Reid Boyd and Abigail Bray. It came out of their discussions proposing “a new poetics of romance” which called for rewritten codes of interpersonal conduct, an “entente cordiale; a cordial truce to end the sex wars”. Reid Boyd and Bray go further:Politeness is personal and political. We reclaim courtesy as applied sexual and social ethics, an interpersonal, intimate ethics, respectful and tolerant of difference. Gender ethics must be addressed, for they have global social and cultural ramifications that we should not underestimate. (xx)As researchers, we started to explore the idea of intimate civility in interpersonal violence, developing an analysis using social construction and attachment theory simultaneously. In defining the term, we soon realised the concept had wider applications that could change how we think about our most intimate relationships – and how we behave in them. Conceptualising intimate civility involves imagining rights and responsibilities within the private sphere, whether or not loving, familial and natural. Intimate civility can operate through an individually embraced code of conduct to guide interpersonal dynamics within the intimate space of relationships.Gringart, Grobbelaar, and Bender explored the concept of intimate civility by investigating women’s perspectives on what may harmonise their intimate relationships. Women’s most basic desires included safety, equality and respect in the bedroom. In other words, intimate civility is an enactment of human-rights, the embodiment of regard for another human being, insofar as it is a form of ensuring physical and mental integrity, life, safety and protection of all beings. Thus, if intimate civility existed as a core facet of each individual’s self-concept, the manifestation of intimate partner violence ideally would not occur. Rage, from an intimate civility perspective, rips through any civil response and generates misconduct towards another. When we hold respect for others as equal moral beings, civility is key to contain conflicts, which prevents the escalation of disagreements into rage. Intimate civility proposes that civility becomes the baseline behaviour that would be reciprocated between two individuals within the private domain of intimate relationships. Following this notion, intimate civility is the foremost casualty in many relationships characterised by intimate partner violence. The current criminalisation of intimate partner violence leaves unexplored the previously privatised property of the relational – including the inheritance of centuries of control of women’s bodies and sexuality – and how far, in this domain, notions of civility might liberate and/or oppress. The feminist philosopher Luce Irigaray argues that these kinds of ‘sexuate rights’ must apply to both men and women and the reality of their needs and desires. Equality, she argued, could not be achieved without a rewriting of the rights and obligations of each sex, qua different, in social rights and obligations (Yan).Synonyms for intimacy include, amongst others, closeness, attachment, togetherness, warmth, mutual affection, familiarity and privacy. Indirectly, sexual relations are also often synonymous with intimate relationships. However, sex is not intimacy, as both sex and intimacy both exist without the other. Bowlby proposed that throughout our lives we are attentive to the responsiveness and the availability of those that we are attached to, and suggested that “intimate attachments to other human beings are the hub around which a person’s life revolves, not only when he is an infant or a toddler, but throughout his adolescence and his years of maturity as well, and on into old age” (442). Although love is not by nature reciprocal, in intimacy we seek reciprocity – to love one another at the same time in a shared form of commitment. Kierkegaard hypothesised that genuine love is witnessed by one continuing to love another after their death as it obviates any doubt that the beloved was loved and was not merely instrumental (Soble).Intimate Civility as a Starting PointCivility includes qualities such as trust, duty, morality, sacrifice, self-restraint, respect, and fairness; a common standard allowing individuals to work, live and associate together. Intimacy encourages caring, loyalty, empathy, honesty, and self-knowledge. Thus, intimate civility should begin with those closest to us; being civil in our most intimate relationships. It advocates the genuine use of terms of endearment, not terms of abuse. We can only develop qualities such as morality and empathy, crucial for intimate relationships, if we have experienced secure, intimate relationships. Individuals reared in homes devoid of intimate civility will be challenged to identify and promote the interest or wellbeing of their intimate counterparts, and have to seek outside help to learn these skills: it is a learnt behaviour, both at an interpersonal and societal level. Individuals whose parents were insensitive to their childhood needs, and were unable to perceive, interpret and respond appropriately to their subtle communications, signals, wishes and mood will be flailing in this interpersonal skill (Holmes and Slade). Similarly, the individual’s inclusion in a civil society will only be achieved if their surrounding environment promotes and values virtues such as compassion, fairness and cooperation. This may be a challenging task. We envisage intimate civility as a starting point. It provides a focus to discuss and explore civil rights, obligations and responsibilities, between and among women and men in their personal relationships. As stated above, intimate civility begins with one's relationship with oneself and the closest relationships in the home, and hopefully reaches outwards to all kinds of relationships, including same sex, transgender, and other roles within non-specific gender assignment. Therefore, exploring the concept of intimate civility has applications in personal therapy, family counselling centres and relationship counselling environments, or schools in sexual education, or in universities promoting student safety. For example, the 2019 “Change the Course” report was recently released to augment Universities Australia’s 2016 campaign that raised awareness on sexual assault on campus. While it is still under development, we envision that intimate civility decalogue outlined here could become a checklist to assist in promoting awareness regarding abuse of power and gender roles. A recent example of cultural reframing of gender and power in intimate relationships is the Australian Government’s 2018 Respect campaign against gender violence. These recent campaigns promote awareness that intimate civility is integrated with a more functional society.These campaigns, as the images demonstrate, aim at quantifying connections between interactions on an intimate scale in individual lives, and their impacts in shaping civil society in the arena of gender violence. They highlight the elasticity of the bonds between intimate life and civil society and our collective responsibility as citizens for reworking both the gendered and personal civility. Fig. 2: Photo by Tyler Nix: Hands Spelling Out LOVE, from unsplash.comThe Decalogue of Intimate Civility Overall, police reports of domestic violence are heavily skewed towards male on female, but this is not always the case. The Australian government recently reported that “1 in 6 Australian women and 1 in 16 men have been subjected, since the age of 15, to physical and/or sexual violence by a current or previous cohabiting partner” (Australian Institutes of Health and Welfare). Rather than reiterating the numbers, we envisage the decalogue (below) as a checklist of concepts designed to discuss and explore rights, obligations and responsibilities, between and among both partners in their intimate relationships. As such, this decalogue forms a basis for conversation. Intimate civility involves a relationship with these ten qualities, with ourselves, and each other.1) Intimate civility is personal and political. Conceptualising intimate civility involves imagining rights and responsibilities within the private sphere. It is not an impingement on individual liberty or privacy but a guarantor of it. Civil society requires us not to defend private infringements of inter-personal respect. Private behaviours are both intimate in their performance and the springboard for social norms. In Geoffrey Rush’s recent defamation case his defence relied not on denying claims he repeatedly touched his fellow actor’s genitalia during their stage performance in a specific scene, despite her requests to him that he stop, but rather on how newspaper reporting of her statements made him out to be a “sexual pervert”, reflecting the complex link between this ‘private’ interaction between two people and its very public exposé (Wells). 2) Intimate civility is an enactment of a civil right, insofar as it is a form of ensuring physical and mental integrity, life, safety and protection. Intimate civility should begin with those closest to us. An example of this ethic at work is the widening scope of criminalisation of intimate partner abuse to include all forms of abusive interactions between people. Stalking and the pre-cursors to physical violence such as controlling behaviours, online bullying or any actions used to instil fear or insecurity in a partner, are accorded legal sanctions. 3) Intimate civility is polite. Politeness is more than manners. It relates to our public codes of conduct, to behaviours and laws befitting every civilian of the ‘polis’. It includes the many acts of politeness that are required behind closed doors and the recognition that this is the place from which public civility emerges. For example, the modern parent may hope that what they sanction as “polite” behaviour between siblings at home might then become generalised by the child into their public habits and later moral expectations as adults. In an ideal society, the micro-politics of family life become the blueprint for moral development for adult expectations about personal conduct in intimate and public life.4) Intimate civility is equitable. It follows Luce Irigaray’s call for ‘sexuate rights’ designed to apply to men and women and the reality of their needs and desires, in a rewriting of the social rights and obligations of each sex (Yan and Irigaray). Intimate civility extends this notion of rights to include all those involved in personal relations. This principle is alive within systemic family therapy which assumes that while not all members of the family system are always able to exert equal impacts or influence, they each in principle are interdependent participants influencing the system as a whole (Dallos and Draper). 5) Intimate civility is dialectical. The separation of intimacy and civility in Western society and thought is itself a dualism that rests upon other dualisms: public/private, constructed/natural, male/female, rational/emotional, civil/criminal, individual/social, victim/oppressor. Romantic love is not a natural state or concept, and does not help us to develop safe governance in the world of intimate relationships. Instead, we envisage intimate civility – and our relationships – as dynamic, dialectical, discursive and interactive, above and beyond dualism. Just as individuals do not assume that consent for sexual activity negotiated in one partnership under a set of particular conditions, is consent to sexual activity in all partnerships in any conditions. So, dialectics of intimate civility raises the expectation that what occurs in interpersonal relationships is worked out incrementally, between people over time and particular to their situation and experiences. 6) Intimate civility is humane. It can be situated in what Julia Kristeva refers to as the new humanism, emerging (and much needed) today. “This new humanism, interaction with others – all the others – socially marginalised, racially discriminated, politically, sexually, biologically or psychically persecuted others” (Kristeva, 2016: 64) is only possible if we immerse ourselves in the imaginary, in the experience of ‘the other’. Intimate civility takes on a global meaning when human rights action groups such as Amnesty International address the concerns of individuals to make a social difference. Such organisations develop globally-based digital platforms for interested individuals to become active about shared social concerns, understanding that the new humanism ethic works within and between individuals and can be harnessed for change.7) Intimate civility is empathic. It invites us to create not-yet-said, not-yet-imagined relationships. The creative space for intimate civility is not bound by gender, race or sexuality – only by our imaginations. “The great instrument of moral good is the imagination,” wrote the poet Shelley in 1840. Moral imagination (Reid Boyd) helps us to create better ways of being. It is a form of empathy that encourages us to be kinder and more loving to ourselves and each other, when we imagine how others might feel. The use of empathic imagination for real world relational benefits is common in traditional therapeutic practices, such as mindfulness, that encourages those struggling with self compassion to imagine the presence of a kind friend or ally to support them at times of hardship. 8) Intimate civility is respectful. Intimate civility is the foremost casualty in many relationships characterised by forms of abuse and intimate partner violence. “Respect”, wrote Simone Weil, “is due to the human being as such, and is not a matter of degree” (171). In the intimate civility ethic this quality of respect accorded as a right of beings is mutual, including ourselves with the other. When respect is eroded, much is lost. Respect arises from empathy through attuned listening. The RESPECT! Campaign originating from the Futures without Violence organisation assumes healthy relationships begin with listening between people. They promote the understanding that the core foundation of human wellbeing is relational, requiring inter-personal understanding and respect.9) Intimate civility is a form of highest regard. When we regard another we truly see them. To hold someone in high regard is to esteem them, to hold them above others, not putting them on a pedestal, or insisting they are superior, but to value them for who they are. To be esteemed for our interior, for our character, rather than what we display or what we own. It connects with the humanistic psychological concept of unconditional positive regard. The highest regard holds each other in arms and in mind. It is to see/look at, to have consideration for, and to pay attention to, recently epitomised by the campaign against human trafficking, “Can You See Me?” (Human Trafficking), whose purpose is to foster public awareness of the non-verbal signs and signals between individuals that indicate human trafficking may be taking place. In essence, teaching communal awareness towards the victimisation of individuals. 10) Intimate civility is intergenerational. We can only develop qualities such as morality and empathy, crucial for intimate relationships, if we have experienced (or imagined) intimate relationships where these qualities exist. Individuals reared in homes devoid of intimate civility could be challenged to identify and promote the interest or wellbeing of their intimate counterparts; it is a learnt behaviour, both at an interpersonal and societal level. Childhood developmental trauma research (Spinazzola and Ford) reminds us that the interaction of experiences, relational interactions, contexts and even our genetic amkeup makes individuals both vulnerable to repeating the behaviour of past generations. However, treatment of the condition and surrounding individuals with people in their intimate world who have different life experiences and personal histories, i.e., those who have acquired respectful relationship habits, can have a positive impact on the individuals’ capacity to change their learned negative behaviours. In conclusion, the work on intimate civility as a potential concept to alleviate rage in human relationships has hardly begun. The decalogue provides a checklist that indicates the necessity of ‘intersectionality’ — where the concepts of intimate civility connect to many points within the public/private and personal/political domains. Any analysis of intimacy must reach further than prepositions tied to social construction and attachment theory (Fonagy), to include current understandings of trauma and inter-generational violence and the way these influence people’s ability to act in healthy and balanced interpersonal relationships. While not condoning violent acts, locating the challenges to intimate civility on both personal and societal levels may leverage a compassionate view of those caught up in interpersonal violence. The human condition demands that we continue the struggle to meet the challenges of intimate civility in our personal actions with others as well as the need to replicate civil behaviour throughout all societies. ReferencesBowlby, John. Attachment and Loss. Vol. 3. New York: Basic Books, 1980.Carter, Stephen. Civility: Manners, Morals and the Etiquette of Democracy. New York: Basic Books, 1998.Dallos, Rudi, and Ros Draper. An Introduction to Family Therapy: Systemic Theory and Practice. 2nd ed. Open University Press: Berkshire, 2005.Australian Institutes of Health and Welfare, Australian Government. Family, Domestic and Sexual Violence in Australia. 2018. 6 Feb. 2019 <https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/domestic-violence/family-domestic-sexual-violence-in-australia-2018/contents/summary>. Fonagy, Peter. Attachment Theory and Psychoanalysis. New York: Other Press, 2001.Gringart, Eyal, Madalena Grobbelaar, and Alise Bender. Intimate Civility: The Perceptions and Experiences of Women on Harmonising Intimate Relationships. Honours thesis, 2018.Holmes, Jeremy, and Arietta Slade. Attachment in Therapeutic Practice. Los Angeles: Sage, 2018. Human Trafficking, Jan. 2019. 14 Feb. 2019 <https://www.a21.org/content/can-you-see-me/gnsqqg?permcode=gnsqqg&site=true>.Kristeva, Julia. Teresa My Love: An Imagined Life of the Saint of Avila. New York: Columbia UP, 2016.Morrison, Scott. “National Press Club Address.” 11 Feb. 2019. 26 Feb. 2019 <https://www.pm.gov.au/media/national-press-club-address-our-plan-keeping-australians-safe-and-secure>.Pateman, Carole. “The Patriarchal Welfare State.” Defining Women: Social Institutions and Gender Divisions. Eds. Linda McDowell and Rosemary Pringle. London: Polity Press, 1994. 223-45.Reid Boyd, Elizabeth. “How Creativity Can Help Us Cultivate Moral Imagination.” The Conversation, 30 Jan. 2019. 11 Feb. 2019 <http://theconversation.com/how-creativity-can-help-us-cultivate-moral-imagination-101968>.Reid Boyd, Elizabeth, and Abigail Bray. Ladies and Gentlemen: Sex, Love and 21st Century Courtesy. Unpublished book proposal, 2005.Commonwealth of Australia. Respect Campaign. 2018, 9 Jan. 2019 <http://www.respect.gov.au/the-campaign/campaign-materials/>.Shelley, Percy Bysshe. A Defence of Poetry. London: Ginn and Company, 1840.Soble, Alan. Philosophy of Sex and Love. St Paul, MN: Paragon House, 1998.Weil, Simone. Waiting on God. London: Fontana Collins, 1968.Wells, Jamelle. “Geoffrey Rush, Erin Norvill and the Daily Telegraph: The Stakes Are High in This Defamation Trial.” ABC News 12 Nov. 2018. 23 Feb. 2019 <http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-11-10/geoffrey-rush-defamation-trial-a-drama-with-final-act-to-come/10483944>.Yan, Liu, and Luce Irigaray. “Feminism, Sexuate Rights and the Ethics of Sexual Difference: An Interview with Luce Irigaray.” Foreign Literature Studies (2010): 1-9.

While Young Adult dystopian texts commonly manipulate expectations of time and space, it is largely in a linear sense—projecting futuristic scenarios, shifting the contemporary reader into a speculative space sometimes only slightly removed from contemporary social, political, or environmental concerns (Booker 3; McDonough and Wagner 157). These concerns are projected into the future, having followed their natural trajectory and come to a dystopian present. Authors write words and worlds of warning in a postapocalyptic landscape, drawing from and confirming established dystopian tropes, and affirming the activist power of teenage protagonists in cultivating change. This article examines the intersections between dystopian Young Adult literature and Indigenous Futurisms, and the possibilities for sharing or encoding Indigenous Knowledge through the disruption or revision of genre, where the act itself become a movement of activism and survival echoed in text. Lynette James acknowledges the “ruptures” (157) Indigenous authors have made in the genre through incorporating Indigenous Knowledge into story as an embedded element – not only of narrative, but of structure. Ambelin Kwaymullina, of the Palyku people of the Pilbara region of Western Australia, exemplifies this approach in her disruption or rupture of the dystopian genre in her embodiment of Indigenous Knowledge in the Young Adult (YA) text The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf. Kwaymullina centres Indigenous Knowledge throughout the trilogy, offering a powerful revision of key tropes of the dystopian YA genre, creating a perspective that privileges Indigenous Knowledge. This is most significantly identified through her depiction of time as a non-linear concept, at once realised narratively, conceptually, and structurally in the text. The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf, the first of a trilogy of novels in “The Tribe” series, presents a futuristic post-apocalyptic world, set 300 years after the Reckoning, a cataclysmic environmental disaster. The protagonist, Ashala Wolf, is one of a number of people with supernatural abilities that are outlawed by their government and labelled Illegals. As the novel begins, Ashala is being interrogated by the villainous Neville Rose, held in a detention centre as she plots to escape, free her fellow detainees, and return to the Tribe in the Firstwood. The plot draws from historical and contemporary parallels in Australia, yet part of the text’s subversive power is that these parallels and connections are never made explicit on the page. The reader is invited to become an active participant in coding meaning by applying their own understandings of the context and connections, creating an inter-subjective dialogue between reader and text, and Indigenous and non-Indigenous knowing. This article looks to the first novel in the trilogy as the key exemplifier of the disruption of genre and knowledge through the representation of time. It is in this novel that these concepts are established and realised most clearly, being predominantly from Ashala’s perspective as a direct descendant of Indigenous Australians, with the following two novels divided between Ashala, Georgie, and Ember as polyphonic narrative focalisers. Acting as an introduction to the series, The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf presents a foundation for readers to challenge their perceptions on both genre and knowledge. Kwaymullina entangles the two, imbuing knowledge throughout narrative and structure which in turn disrupts genre. In her revisioning of narrative through genre and structural focus of time as a non-linear concept, Kwaymullina puts into practice Conrad Scott’s argument that “the potential healing of moments or processes of crisis in Indigenous dystopias is never possible without a strategic engagement with narrative itself, and even the formal aspects of the text” (73).While the series fits the conventions of the dystopian genre, it has been more commonly identified as speculative fiction, or Indigenous futurism, as Kwaymullina herself defines her work. James notes the significance of acknowledging a text as Indigenous futurism, writing, “identifying a work as Indigenous futurism rather than simply as YA dystopia asks readers, critics, and scholars to adjust their orientation in ways that may radically alter both their perception and reception of it” (153). For the purposes of this article, I acknowledge the clear value and importance of identifying the text as Indigenous futurism, but also find value in the movements that define the shift from dystopian literature to Indigenous futurism, in its engagement with and recasting of dystopian conventions in the text. In embedding Indigenous Knowledge in her worldbuilding and narrative, Kwaymullina actively rewrites dystopian expectations and tropes. These notions would be expected or normalised when grounded in Indigenous futurism, but are regarded as a subversion and revision when read in dystopian fiction. The text engages directly with the specific tropes and expectations of dystopian genre—its significance in rewriting the spaces, narratives, and structures of the genre cannot be overstated. The employment of the dystopian genre as both framework and space of revision speaks to larger debates of the value of dystopian fiction in examining socio-cultural issues over other genres such as realism. Critics argue the speculative nature of dystopian fiction that remains linked to concerns of the present and past allows audiences to envision and experience their own transformative experience, effecting political change (Kennon; Mallan; Basu, Broad, and Hintz; Sypnowich). Balaka Basu, Katherine Broad, and Carrie Hintz argue that serious issues presented in fantastic futuristic scenarios “may provide young people with an entry point into real-world problems, encouraging them to think about social and political issues in new ways, or even for the first time” (4-5). Kerry Mallan notes the “ability of dystopian fiction to open up to readers a dystopian social elsewhere serves a double function: On the one hand, it offers readers an opportunity to reflect on their current existence to compare the similarities and differences between the real and the fictional; on the other, these stories implicitly exhort young people to take responsibility for their own lives and the future of society” (16). Drawing on these metanarrative structures with the interweaving of Indigenous knowledge increases the active responsibility for the reader. It invokes Nnedi Okorafor’s labelling of Indigenous Futurisms as “the most truthful way of telling the truth” (279), creating opportunities for the Indigenous and non-Indigenous reader to engage with narratives of a real apocalypse on invaded land. The dystopian setting and expectations form a buffer between reader and text (Basu, Broad, and Hintz 4), making the narrative more accessible to the reader without shying away from the embedded trauma, while drawing on dystopian fiction’s balance of despair and optimism (Basu, Broad, and Hintz 2).The stakes and value of dystopian fiction are heightened when engaging with Indigenous narratives and knowledge; as Claire Coleman (a Noongar woman from the south coast of Western Australia) notes, Indigenous Australians live in a post-apocalyptic state as “all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people alive today are the descendants of people who survived an apocalypse” (n.p.). James, quoting Uppinder Mehan, concurs, writing “these narrators are ‘survivors—or the descendants of survivors’ [162], not just of broken dystopian worlds or post-cataclysmic events but of the real historical legacies of slavery, conquest, and oppression” (157). Writing on Indigenous futurisms in dystopian and utopian fiction, Mary Morrison argues “people outside Western hegemonic power structures would likely be well-placed to transform the utopian imagination, to decolonize it” (11), acknowledging the significance in the intersection of genre and lived experience by author and character.Kwaymullina expands on this, noting that for Indigenous authors the tropes of speculative fiction are familiar lived experiences. She writes thatmany of the ideas that populate speculative-fiction books – notions of time travel, astral projection, speaking the languages of animals or trees – are part of Indigenous cultures. One of the aspects of my own novels that is regularly interpreted as being pure fantasy, that of an ancient creation spirit who sung the world into being, is for me simply part of my reality. (“Edges” 27)Kwaymullina affirms Coleman and James in her approach, writing “Indigenous people lived through the end of the world, but we did not end. We survived by holding on to our cultures, our kin, and our sense of what was right in a world gone terribly wrong” (“Edges” 29). The Tribe series demonstrates survivance, with Kwaymullina’s approach forming possibilities for intersubjective dialogues across genre. The concept is reinforced through Ashala’s repeated, joyful cries of hope throughout the text: “I live! We live! We survive!” (197, 200, 279, 391).Sara K. Day, Miranda A. Green-Barteet, and Amy L. Montz note dystopian literature considers possible futures from the outlook and failures of the present (8), arguing “the label ‘dystopia’ typically applies to works that simultaneously imagine futures and consider the present, essentially occupying a liminal space between these times” (Day, Green-Barteet, and Montz 9). This sense of liminality is heightened with the engagement of time from an Indigenous perspective; as Scott writes, “Indigenous dystopian fiction presents not only the crisis of the future but the ongoing crisis of the present time, and that which is still resonant from the past” (73). In “Respect, Relationships, Renewal: Aboriginal Perspectives on the Worlds of Tomorrow”, Kwaymullina notes that linear time can “become a tool of ideology, with colonial characterisations of Indigenous peoples as being of an earlier (less ‘advanced’) time through the use of terms such as ‘primitive’, ‘prehistoric’ and ‘prehistory’” (“Respect” 126).In shifting to a dystopian world where Australia as a colonised or invaded country is no longer recognised, but Country is still alive and read by those who live on it, Kwaymullina recasts the use of linear time as a tool of ideology to reaffirm Coleman’s argument that Indigenous Australians already exist in a post-apocalyptic state. She draws from the past and present and casts it into the future, while simultaneously recognising that all three are linked and circular—events are repeating and being relived. Kwaymullina depicts numerous parallels between the dystopian world and a post-invasion Australia, populating her world with references to detention centres; othering and distinct labelling of a vilified minority deemed a threat or aberrant to the majority colonising community; the name and title of the series’ central villain Chief Administrator Neville Rose in a clear reference to A.O. Neville, WA Chief Protector of Aborigines.At the outset, the government uses labels to separate and denigrate the Other—individuals with Abilities are called Illegals, distinct from Citizens, although they can apply for Exemptions if their Ability is deemed useful and passive. The terminology of Exemption draws deliberate connections to the Exemption Certificate Indigenous Australians could apply for from the Aborigines Protection (Amendment) Act 1943. The text consistently operates in modes of survivance, as Ashala and the Tribe redefine their world through a distinctly Indigenous perspective (Murphy 179). Ashala gains power through the tool used to suppress her by claiming and embracing this status, identifying her friends and herself as the Tribe and choosing a forest name emblematic of the totems that each Tribe member has a particular connection to (e.g. Georgie Spider, Ember Crow, Ashala Wolf). Continual parallels are drawn to Indigenous Knowledge: Ashala’s Ability is Sleepwalking, where she enters a state in dreaming where she can alter reality, a liminal space that suggests connections to the Dreamtime. While the land is no longer called or recognised as Australia, and the tectonic plates have shifted land mass, it remains Country, as recognised in Ashala’s relationship with the Firstwood. The Balance, the inherent harmony between all life, animate and inanimate, is a clear reflection of an Indigenous understanding, positioning it as the mainstream ideology.Kwaymullina weaves Indigenous knowledge through the text as demonstrated through narrative, key thematic concepts, and structure, disrupting the tropes of dystopian fiction in a manner that subverts genre and presents new possibilities for both reader and writer while presenting a shift to Indigenous Futurisms. As an organic by-product of this ideological framework, regressive or gendered tropes are re-envisioned as feminist and ecologically centred, ultimately conveying a sense of hope and survivance. Key tropes of YA dystopian fiction include a female teenager protagonist oppressed by her government, often initially unknowingly so embedded is she in the system, potentially profiting from it in some way. She is often introduced to the reader in a setting that the character initially reads as utopian, but is revealed to be dystopian and authoritarian in its construction. As identified by Ann M.M. Childs, a common dynamic in the genre that reinforces gender roles in heterosexual relationships see the protagonist introduced to the concept of rebellion or dissent through a male love interest already embedded in a resistance movement, at the cost of losing or betraying a female friend (188). Childs notes the protagonist may be resistant to the idea of rebellion, but after falling for the love interest, grows to genuinely care for the cause. Technology is depicted as advanced, alien or dehumanising, and both belongs to and represents the repressive society the protagonist seeks to escape and change. The natural environment is depicted in binary opposition, with characters finding resilience, freedom, and personal agency in a return to nature (McDonough and Wagner 157). Society will have attempted to restrict, destroy, or otherwise mine the natural world, but this attempt for control will inevitably fail or backfire. Initially the environment is displayed as a potentially antagonistic element, wild and dangerous; however, after the character escapes their confining world, it becomes an ally. In her employment of a perspective framed by Indigenous Knowledge, Kwaymullina subverts each of these established tropes, offering an alternative reading of conventions often embedded in the genre. Ashala is introduced as already entrenched in a rebellion that she is both leader and pivotal figure of. Inverting the dynamic outlined by Childs, she is love interest Connor’s motivation for rejecting the government and joining the Tribe: “You are the reason I came here, Ashala Wolf” (Kwaymullina 263). Kwaymullina dismisses Childs’ concern over the removal of female friendship in favour of heterosexual romance by centering Ashala’s relationships with Georgie and Ember as fundamental to Ashala’s well-being, where sistahood is a key paradigm of hope: “I carry my friends with me” (Kwaymullina 39). For Ashala and the Tribe, nature as exemplified through the Firstwood is Country, not only sanctuary but an animate being that Ashala speaks with, asks permission to live within, and offers protection and apology for the harm down to it by humans in the past. The privileging of environment, and reading all animate or inanimate beings as living, extends to challenging the nature/technology dichotomy. Even the static or sterile environments of the detention centres are recognised for their connection to nature in their construction from recycled materials: “Nothing ever truly ends, only transforms” (Kwaymullina 141). In “Learning to Read the Signs: Law in an Indigenous Reality”, Ambelin Kwaymullina and Blaze Kwaymullina write thatsince everything must interconnect and interrelate to survive, if a pattern is fixed in time, it loses its ability to dynamically connect with other patterns. To be temporally fixed is therefore to be isolated; frozen. In an Indigenous worldview, it is, in fact, an impossibility – for that which cannot move, cannot interact, and that which cannot interact is inanimate. And there is nothing inanimate in country. (200)This can be read as representative of Kwaymullina’s rupture or revision of dystopian tropes and genre. When tropes are read as static or absolute, they run the risk of freezing or limiting the knowledge encoded in these stories. By integrating Indigenous Knowledge, new patterns can emerge and interact, extending to the reader’s own understanding of genre, time, and epistemology. Kwaymullina’s revisioning of dystopian tropes through an embedded and celebrated Indigenous perspective culminates in the successful thematic, narrative, and structural expression of time as a non-linear concept. Kwaymullina and Kwaymullina acknowledge the division between the reductionist and linear perspective of time through a Western worldview in comparison to the non-linear perception from that of an Indigenous Australian worldview. They acknowledge that their expression of time is not to be read as representative of all Indigenous Australians’ perspective of time, but one informed by their own Country and upbringing. Kwaymullina and Kwaymullina write,in an Aboriginal worldview, time—to the extent that it exists at all—is neither linear nor absolute. There are patterns and systems of energy that create and transform, from the ageing process of the human body to the growth and decay of the broader universe. But these processes are not ‘measured’ or even framed in a strictly temporal sense, and certainly not in a linear sense. (199)This is enacted through the narrative structure of The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf. The text is set across four days, yet spans years, shifting through narrative in a non-linear manner and reflecting the Indigenous understanding of time as a circular, evolving concept. These four days act as the containers for the text, as Kwaymullina distinguishes the departure from linear time for the uninitiated reader by including headings and subheadings in chapter titles, marked as “Day One”, “Day Two”, “Day Three”, and “Day Four”, before the final section, “The Escape”. Within these containers, themselves marked linearly, narrative ebbs and flows across time and space, taking Ashala away from the Detention Centre to different moments from her past, spanning years. These ‘flashbacks’ are not presented in a linear fashion; the text revisits and repeats key moments of Ashala’s life out of sequence, providing an immediate focus on these seemingly past moments. This is key in shaping the reader’s understanding of “the patterns and systems of energy that create and transform” (Kwaymullina and Kwaymullina 199)—as Ashala revisits or rediscovers memory through time, perceptions of character, motive, relationships, and key plot points are changed and transformed. Meaning is formed through this relationship of narrative and time in a manner not possible through a linear structure. Over the course of the novel, Ashala and the reader find she’s chosen to give herself false memories to protect the Tribe and complete a master plan to defeat Neville Rose. As such, as the novel begins the reader, aligned with Ashala as narrative focaliser, is positioned to read key points through a flawed perspective. Connor is presented as an enemy and betrayer of the Tribe, while Ashala denies her feelings towards him. The reader is aligned with Ashala’s perspective—she has already fallen in love with Connor, but neither she nor the reader knows it due to the displacement of knowledge through narrative structure and memory. This also speaks to identity formation in the text—Ashala is herself, and not herself until the novel reaches full circle, and she and the reader have experienced multiple points of time. As Ember explains, “it’s not about losing small pieces of information. This stuff shapes your entire understanding of reality” (Kwaymullina 167). If the reader revisits the text with this knowledge, they find further value in exploring the non-linear, circular narrative, finding subtext in characters’ interactions and decisions. The disruption in the non-linear narrative structure is twofold: to reflect the representation of time in an Indigenous epistemology, further rewriting the genre; and to create an intersubjective dialogue. As such, the narrative structure creates a space of invitation to the reader. Rather than positioning Ashala as embedded and aware of her status as a custodian of Indigenous knowledge, the text places her as ingrained in Indigenous epistemology, but unaware of it. In this way, the text effectively invites the reader in, mirroring Ashala’s journey of (re)discovery. The non-Indigenous reader enters the text alongside Ashala, with Indigenous knowledge embedded subtly throughout the text echoed in Kwaymullina’s engagement with dystopian tropes, and integrated Indigenous epistemology. By the time Ashala meets the Serpent, her Grandfather, and has her ancestry explained to her, the reader has already been immersed in Ashala’s own way of thinking, an inherently Indigenous one; for instance, throughout the text, she acknowledges the value and interconnectedness of all beings, human and non-human, animate and inanimate. The text leaves space for the reader to be active in their own construction of meaning and knowledge by never using the terms “Indigenous” or “Aboriginal”, themselves colonial inventions employed to control and label. Instead, the reader is encouraged to engage in the metatextual intersubjective dialogue introduced by Kwaymullina to acknowledge Indigenous epistemology—but by way of her approach, Kwaymullina further encourages the reader to “forget Aborigines” (Healy 219) by centring knowledge in its own right, rather than in direct opposition to Western epistemologies. That is, Kwaymullina disrupts Western perspectives framing of Indigenous knowledge as “other”, altering expectations of the norm as non-Indigenous. As Kwaymullina writes, to conceive of time in a non-linear way is at once a great gift and a great responsibility. The responsibility is that our individual actions matter powerfully, radiating out across relationships and affecting all that might be thought of in a linear sense as past, present and future. But the gift is that the passage of linear time has never moved us so far that we cannot take meaningful action to heal the wounds of colonialism. (“Respect” 126-127)In The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf, Kwaymullina realises this gift and responsibility. By framing structural, conceptual, and narrative time through an Indigenous epistemology, Kwaymullina privileges Indigenous Knowledge and effectively subverts and revises the genre through the rupture of dystopian conventions. Possibilities of hope and healing emerge in the text’s construction of time and genre as spaces of growth and change are emphasised; like Ashala, the reader finds themselves at the end and beginning of the world at once.ReferencesBasu, Balaka, Katherine R. Broad, and Carrie Hintz, eds. Contemporary Dystopian Fiction for Young Adults: Brave New Teenagers. New York: Routledge, 2013. Booker, M. Keith. Dystopian Literature: A Theory and Research Guide. Westport, CT: Greenwood P, 1994. Bradford, Clare, et al. New World Orders in Children’s Literature: Utopian Transformations. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011. Childs, Ann M.M. “The Incompatibility of Female Friendships and Rebellion.” Female Rebellion in Young Adult Dystopian Fiction. Eds. Sara K. Day et al. 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Bass, Karen. Drummer Girl. Regina: Coteau Books, 2011. Print. Writing for teens is an exercise in walking a tight-rope. Stories must reflect the current realities of their world, which is sometimes difficult for an adult writer to access directly, while offering commentary on that world that avoids didacticism. Karen Bass achieves both feats with ease in her novel Drummer Girl. This multifaceted and nuanced novel tells the story of an intelligent, self-possessed, and spunky girl, Sidney, or Sid for short, who tries to stay true to herself, her friends, and her musical passion in a world where it's hard for a girl to just be herself. "I hate being a girl! It's crap. All of it! The game is made for us to lose and I'm sick of playing it". Sid is a talented drummer who connects with music on a deep level, regardless of genre. Her two favourite styles are heavy metal and jazz. She would be happy to simply play drums all day, but when she tries out for The Fourth Down (TFD), a band composed of guys from the cool crowd at her school, she realizes that image matters too, at least to their group. She turns to her fashion conscious cousin for help. As she struggles to reconcile her new 'sexy' look with her own more casual style, she discovers that guys are only too ready to interpret her dress as an invitation to invade her personal space and pepper her with suggestive innuendo. Sid proceeds with her plan to win over the band, defending herself when necessary with an arsenal of retorts that some readers might recognize as a textbook. But the unfair harassment of the guys, who include another drummer trying out for the spot, drives the narrative in another direction and leads to a episode where Sid is subjected to a sexual assault outside her school. The band gangs up and their leader, Rocklin, forces a violent kiss on her. Her reputation is further undermined when they put a video of the event online. Even her best friend Taylor, a boy wrestling with his own issue of sexual identity, and math-nerd crush Brad, whom Sid has fallen hard for, develop a distorted view of Sid and begin to doubt her. Sid wants to handle the incident herself, but the trajectory of consequences takes it out of her control and out of the hands of the school counselor who is trying to help her. When a special school assembly and police investigation don't deliver public justice, Sid must choose between pursuing a nasty civil suit and finding peace with an indirect justice that the perpetrators meet in the community. After she realizes that she really doesn't want to join TFD after all, Sid decides to start her own all-girl band so she can play on her terms. The romance with awkward but adorable Brad also wends its way to a highly satisfying conclusion. There is no question that Bass is a skillful writer. Intelligent narration and inventive language lets us see the characters clearly as distinct personalities and Bass can quickly deliver an image or idea with a memorable turn of phrase. For instance, when Sid visits a hospital, she sees rooms "filled with people waiting for life to resume and fearing it might not". At the same time, Bass has a strong grasp of a snappy idiom for dialogue that feels authentically youthful. In fact the zing in the language does double duty, as it also fuels the momentum of the well-paced plot, making for a high re-read value. Likewise, musical terminology and description is accurate to a fault–terms like paradiddle and flam will be novel even to many musicians–and band references like Rush are legit. The novel doesn't pull any punches in presenting the ruthless world of high school: gender roles and harassment are topical and difficult issues. However, the resolution of the assault presents a dilemma. If Sid doesn't take up a civil suit, does that make what happened OK? Sid's decision to pick her battles and move on parallels the story arc of her moderation of style in both drumming and fashion. While some may disagree with the author's choice of this outcome, Bass treads carefully. The message she delivers is that the real world is not perfect. Finally, library folks will appreciate the way Bass, herself a former library manager, has subtly characterized the school library as a safe refuge and source of helpful information. A little self-advertising never hurt anyone. Highly Recommended: 4 out of 4 starsReviewer: John Huck Editor’s note: Drummer Girl was the recipient of the YA bronze medal in the 2011 Foreword Book of the Year Awards.John Huck is a metadata and cataloguing librarian at the University of Alberta. He holds an undergraduate degree in English literature and maintains a special interest in the spoken word. He is also a classical musician and has sung semi-professionally for many years.

This paper addresses that natural consort of love: sex. It particularly considers the absence of actual sex from mainstream popular culture and the marginalisation of 'fun' sex as porn, requiring its illicit circulation as ‘illegitimate’ videos. The absence of sex from films classified and screened in public venues (even to over-18s) prevents a discourse about actual sex informing the discourse of love and romance perpetuated through Hollywood movies. The value of a variety of representations of sexual practice in the context of a discussion of love, sex and romance in Western cinema was briefly illuminated for the few days that Baise-moi was legitimately screened in Australia. For all that love is one of the great universal themes, Western cinema tends to communicate this ‘finer feeling’ through recourse to romance narratives. Which is not to say that romantic representations of love are devoid of sex, just that that the cinematic convention is to indicate sex, without showing it. Indeed, without the actors 'doing it'. The peculiarity of this situation is not usually clear, however, because there is so little mainstream sex-cinema with which to compare the anodyne gyrations of romantic Hollywood. Which was where Baise-moi came in, briefly. Baise-moi is variously translated for English-speaking cinema audiences as 'Fuck me' (in Australia) and 'Rape me' (in the US, where, astonishingly, Rape me is seen as a less objectionable title than Fuck me.) Of the two titles, Fuck me is by far the cleverer and more authentically related to the meaning and content, whereas Rape me is a travesty, particularly given the shocking power of an extremely graphic and violent rape scene which initiates much of the succeeding violence. An early appeal by the Australian Attorney-General (to the Review Board) against the Office of Film and Literature Classification’s granting of an R rating meant that Baise-moi was hastily removed from Australian cinemas. The movie is, however, heavily reviewed on the web and readers are referred to commentaries such as those by Gary Morris and Frank Vigorito. The grounds on which Classification was refused were given as ‘strong depictions of violence’, ‘sexual violence’, ‘frequent, actual detailed sex scenes’ and ‘scenes which demean both women and men’. Violence, sexual violence and ‘scenes which demean’ are hardly uncommon in films (although it may be unusual that these demean even-handedly). If the amount of violence is nothing new, the sex was certainly different from the usual cinematic fare. Although this was not the first time that ‘unsimulated’ sex had been shown on the art-house big screen, the other major examples were not entirely similar. Romance was wordy, arguably feminist, and a long way from mindless sex-because-they-like-it. Intimacy 's ‘sex scenes are explicit but totally non pornographic, they’re painful, needy, unsatisfying except on an orgasmic level’, according to Margaret Pomeranz, who reviewed the film for SBS. Baise-moi is different because, as Vigorito says, ‘please make no mistake that the two main characters in this film, the so-called French Thelma and Louise, certainly do want to fuck’. (They also like to kill.) Baise-moi is often characterised as a quasi-feminist revenge movie where the two protagonists Manu (a porn star) and Nadine (a sex worker) seek revenge with (according to Morris) ‘ultimately more nihilism than party-hearty here, with the non-stop killings laid squarely at the doorstep of a society that’s dehumanized its citizens’. While the brutality depicted is mind-blowing (sometimes literally/visually) it is the sex that got the film banned, but not until after some 50,000 Australians had seen it. The elements that separate Baise-moi from Intimacy and Romance (apart from the extreme violence) is that the characters have (heterosexual) sex with a variety of partners, and sometimes do so just for fun. Further, although the Office of Film and Literature Classification ‘considers that the film has significant artistic and cultural merit’ (OFLC), one of the directors wrote the novel on which the film is based while the other director and the two stars are former porn industry workers. If Baise-moi had been accepted as cinema-worthy, where would the sex-on-the-screen factor have stopped for future classification of films? The popular culture approach to romance, love and sex moves comparatively smoothly from the first kiss to the rumpled sheets. Although the plot of a romantic film may consist in keeping the love and sex activities apart, the love is (almost invariably) requited. And, as films such as Notting Hill demonstrate, true love these days is communicated less frequently through the willingness of a couple to have sex (which generally goes without saying), and more often through commitment to the having and rearing of a shared child (whereas off-screen this may more usually be the commitment of a shared mortgage). Sex, in short, is popularly positioned as a precursor to love; as not entirely necessary (and certainly not sufficient) but very usually associated with the state of 'being in love'. It is comparatively rare to see any hesitation to engage in sex on the part of a film-portrayed loving couple, other than hurdles introduced through the intervention of outside forces. A rare example of thinking and talking before fucking is The Other Sister , but this means it rates as an R in the States because of ‘thematic elements involving sex-related material’. In contrast, the film Notting Hill, where the characters played by Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant hardly pause for breath once attraction is established, rates a PG-13 (‘for sexual content and brief strong language’). Thus it is all right for producers to have sex in a storyline, but any hesitation, or discussion, makes the film unsuited to younger audiences. Given that characters’ thinking about sex, and talking about sex, as part of (or preliminary to) having sex apparently increases the age at which the audience is allowed to see the film, perhaps it should not be surprising that actually showing sex about which the audience can then think and talk is almost entirely banned. Yet for a culture that associates sex so strongly with love, and celebrates love so thoroughly in film, television and literature (not to mention popular magazines such as Woman's Day, New Idea, New Weekly and Who), to be occasionally challenged by a film that includes actual sex acts seems not unreasonable, particularly when restricted to audiences of consenting adults. Ian McEwan's debut collection of short stories, First love, last rites explores this conundrum of 'the sex that shall only be acted, never performed' in a short story, 'Cocker at the theatre' (McEwan 57). The tale is about a theatrical production where the actors are new, and nude, and the theme of the play is copulation. It is a story of its time, mid-seventies, the resonating-hippie Age of Aquarius, when Hair still rocked. McEwan's naked couples are assembled by the play's director and then pressed together to begin the rhythmic moves required to complement the thumping musical score of GTC: ‘Grand Time Copulation’. The male and female actors are not near enough to each other, so they are spliced closer together: ‘When they began to move again their pubic hair rasped’ (57-8). The director is unimpressed by the result: ‘I know it's hard, but you have to look as if you're enjoying this thing.' (His voice rose.) 'Some people do, you know. It's a fuck, you understand, not a funeral.' (His voice sank.) 'Let's have it again, with some enthusiasm this time.' However, all is not entirely well, after a good second beginning. ‘Them on the end, they're going too fast, what do you think?' [says the director to the stage manager] They watched together. It was true, the two who had been moving well, they were a little out of time ... 'My God,' said [the director] 'They're fucking … It's disgusting and obscene … pull them apart.' (58-9). The issue raised here, as in the case of the removal of any classification from Baise-moi that effectively prevented further public screenings, is the double standard of a society that expends so much of its critical and cultural energies in exploring the nature of love, romance and sexual attraction but balks (horrified) at the representation of actual sex. Yet one of the values of a cinematic replay of 'unsimulated sex' is that it acts as a ‘reality check’ for all the mushy renditions of romance that form the mainstream representation of 'love' on-screen. So, if we want to see sex, should we not simply consume pornography? In modern-day Australia it is impossible to discuss depictions of live sex without conjuring up connotations of ‘porn’. Porn, however, is not usually consumed in a manner or place that allows it to interrogate media messages from mainstream production houses and distributors. Watching porn, for example at home on video, removes it from a context in which it could realistically prompt a re-evaluation of the visual diet of love and sex Hollywood-style, an opportunity that was provided by Baise-moi during its temporary season. The comparative absence of on-screen sexual activity means that there is an absence of texts through which we can interrogate mainstream representations of lovemaking. Whereas the Eros Foundation aims to promote debate leading to ‘logical perspectives on sex and rational law reform of the sex industry’, and avoids using the term 'pornography' on its home page, it is hard to find any representations of unsimulated sex that are not classified as porn and consequently easily pigeon-holed as 'not relevant' to cultural debate except in general terms regarding (say) 'censorship' or 'the portrayal of women'. It is hard to know what Baise-moi might have said to Australian audiences about the relationship between sex, authenticity (Morris uses the term ‘trashy integrity’) and popular culture since the film was screened for only the briefest of intervals, and throughout that time the ‘hype’ surrounding it distracted audiences from any discussion other than would it/wouldn't it, and should it/shouldn't it, be banned. Hopefully, a future Attorney-General will allow the adults in this country to enjoy the same range of popular cultural inputs available to citizens in more liberal nations, and back the initial (liberal) decision of the OFLC. And what has love got to do with all this? Not much it seems, although doesn't popular culture ‘teach’ that one of the main uses for a love theme is to provide an excuse for some gratuitous sex? Perhaps, after all, it is time to cut to the chase and allow sex to be screened as a popular culture genre in its own right, without needing the excuse of a gratuitous love story. Works Cited McEwan, Ian. First love, last rites. London: Picador, 1975. 56-60. Morris, Gary. “Baise-moi. Feminist screed or fetish-fuckathon? Best to flip a coin.” Lip Magazine 2001. http://www.lipmagazine.org/articles/revi... OFLC. Classification Review Board News release, 10 May 2002. http://www.oflc.gov.au/PDFs/RBBaiseMoi.pdf Pomeranz, Margaret. “Intimacy.” The Movie Show: Reviews. http://www.sbs.com.au/movieshow/reviews.... Vigorito, Frank. “Natural porn killers.” Offoffofffilm 2001. http://www.offoffoff.com/film/2001/baise... Filmography Baise-moi. Dirs. Virginie Despentes and CoRalie Trinh Thi. Dist. Film Fixx, 2000. Intimacy. Dir. Patrice Chereau. Dist. Palace Films, 2001. Notting Hill. Dir. Roger Michell. Dist. Universal Pictures, 1999. Romance. Dir. Catherine Breillat. Dist. Potential Films, 1999. The other sister. Dir. Gary Marshall. Dist. Touchstone Pictures, 1999. Links http://www.offoffoff.com/film/2001/baisemoi.php3 http://www.eros.com.au http://film.guardian.co.uk/censorship/news/0,11729,713540,00.html http://www.sbs.com.au/movieshow/reviews.php3?id=838 http://www.michaelbutler.com/hair http://www.oflc.gov.au/PDFs/RBBaiseMoi.pdf http://www.movie-source.com/no/othersister.shtml http://www.lipmagazine.org/articles/revimorris_128.shtml Citation reference for this article Substitute your date of access for Dn Month Year etc... MLA Style Green, Lelia. "Sex" M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 5.6 (2002). Dn Month Year < http://www.media-culture.org.au/0211/sex.php>. APA Style Green, L., (2002, Nov 20). Sex. M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture, 5,(6). Retrieved Month Dn, Year, from http://www.media-culture.org.au/0211/sex.html

Peter and Wendy, written by J. M. Barrie and published as a novel in 1911, is one of the most iconic works of English literature. This article aims to elucidate references that appear in Barrie’s Peter and Wendy which make it so fantastic and unpaired: the literary and the sociocultural references, which contribute to tag this book as an English “modern classic”. The references that are well-known by the British reader provoke an immediate sense of belonging and recognition. For instance, sociocultural mentions can easily be noticed throughout the narrative, especially the ones that bring to the reader aspects from Edwardian and Victorian everyday life of British families. Regarding the literary references, the reader might find aspects from Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, Stevenson’s The Peter and Wendy, written by J. M. Barrie and published as a novel in 1911, is one of the most iconic works of English literature. This article aims to elucidate references that appear in Barrie’s Peter and Wendy which make it so fantastic and unpaired: the literary and the sociocultural references, which contribute to tag this book as an English “modern classic”. The references that are well-known by the British reader provoke an immediate sense of belonging and recognition. For instance, sociocultural mentions can easily be noticed throughout the narrative, especially the ones that bring to the reader aspects from Edwardian and Victorian everyday life of British families. Regarding the literary references, the reader might find aspects from Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, Stevenson’s The Treasure Island, Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream and Alice in Wonderland (Lewis Carroll). Or even from The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett) and The Wind in the Willows (Kenneth Grahame), both works that arecontemporary with Peter and Wendy, and are also conversing with it, particularly in terms of the notion of escapism and social criticism. Above all, Barrie’s novel opens a new field for the modern literature of the twentieth century. A literature that is more concerned with the psychological features of the characters, contributing to the emerging of a new narrative aimed at children, young readers and – why not – adults. This article uses the concept of “family romance” proposed by critic Marthe Robert in order to establish the connection between Barrie’s texts and those of other writers.

The autobiographical documentary film “18q – a valuable life”, is one attempt to redefine the place of disability in contemporary western society. My work presents some key moments in my life and that of my family since the birth of my youngest child, Allycia in 1995. Allycia was born with a rare genetic condition affecting the 18th chromosome resulting in her experiencing the world somewhat differently to the rest of the family. The condition, which manifests in a myriad of ways with varying levels of severity, affects individuals’ physical and intellectual development (Chromosome 18, n. pag.). While the film outlines the condition and Allycia’s medical history, the work is primarily concerned with the experiences of the family and offering an alternate story of disability as “other”. Drawing on Rosemarie Garland Thomson’s notion of shape structuring story ("Shape") and Margrit Shildrick’s discussion of becoming vulnerable as theoretical foundations, I reflect on how the making of the film has challenged my previously held views about disability and ultimately about myself. The Film & Disability “18q – a valuable life” introduces a new, previously “invisible” shape in the form of bodies coded as Chromosome 18 to the screen. The initial impulse to make the film was driven by a need to provide a media presence for a rare genetic condition known collectively as Chromosome 18 (Chromosome 18, n. pag.) where previously there was none. This impulse was fuelled by a desire to tell a different story, our story; a story about what life can be like when a child with intellectual and physical impairment is born into one’s family. This different story is, in Garland Thompson’s terms, one that “insists that shape structures story” (114) and endeavours to contribute to recasting disability “as an occasion for exuberant flourishing” (Garland Thompson 114). The categorisation and depiction of people with disability in western society’s media have been scrutinised by many writers including Mitchell and Snyder ("Representations"; "Visual"), Oliver and Norden who point out that negatively charged stereotypical representations of the disabled continue to proliferate in the mediasphere. Englandkennedy for example examines the portrayal of the new disability classification Attention Deficit Disorder and is highly critical of its representation in programs such as The Simpsons (1989-2008) and films such as Pecker (1998). She asserts, “few media representations of ADD exist and most are inaccurate; they reflect and reinforce social concerns and negative stereotypes” (117) to the detriment of the condition being better understood by their audiences. However, Englandkennedy also identifies the positive possibilities for informed media representations that offer new models and stories about disability, citing works such as Children of a Lesser God (1986) and The Bone Collector (1999) as examples of shifts in fictional story telling modes. There are also shifts in recent documentary films such as My Flesh and Blood (2004), Tarnation (2003) and Murderball (2005) which provide insightful, powerful and engaging stories about disability. I suggest however that they still rely upon the stereotypical modes identified by numerous disability studies scholars. For example, Darke’s (n. pag.) heroic mother figure and disabled outsider and victim are depicted in the extreme in My Flesh and Blood and Tarnation respectively, whilst Murderball, as powerful as it is, still constructs disability as “something” to be overcome and is celebrated via the character construction of the “super-crip” (Englandkennedy 99). These stories are vital and insightful developments in challenging and re-shaping the many stigmas associated with disability, but they remain, for the most part, inaccessible to me in terms of my place in the world as a person parenting a little girl with physical and intellectual impairment. Able to Live The opening of the film features footage of my two older children Adam and Kristina, as “normal”, active children. These idyllic images are interrupted by an image of me by Allycia’s bedside where, as an infant, she is attached to life saving machines. She is at once “othered” to her active, healthy siblings. Her survival was reliant, and remains so, albeit to a much lesser extent, upon the intrusion of machines, administering of medication and the intervention of strangers. The prospect of her dying rendered me powerless, vulnerable; I lacked the means to sustain her life. To hand over my child to strangers, knowing they would carve her tiny chest open, suspend the beating of her already frail heart and attempt to repair it, was to surrender to the unknown without guarantees; the only surety being she would cease to be if I did not. Allycia survived surgery. This triumph however, was recast in the shadow of abnormality as outlined in the film when genetic screening of her DNA revealed she had been born with a rare genetic abnormality coded as 18q23 deletion. This information meant she was missing a part of her eighteenth chromosome and the literature available at that time (in 1997) gave little cause for hope – she was physically and intellectually retarded. This news, delivered to me by a genetic counsellor, was coupled with advice to ensure my daughter enjoyed “quality of life”. The words, “rare genetic abnormality” and “retarded” succeeded in effectively “othering” Allycia to me, to my other two children and the general population. My knowledge and experience with people with genetic abnormalities was minimal and synonymous with loss, sadness, suffering and sacrifice and had little to do with quality of life. She was frail and I was confronted with the loss of a “normal” child that would surely result in the “loss” of my own life when framed within this bleak, imagined life that lay before me; her disability, her otherness, her vulnerability signalled my own. As unpalatable as it is for me to use the word monstrous with reference to my daughter, Shildrick’s work, aligning the disabled experience with the monstrous and the possibility of becoming via a refiguring of vulnerability, resonates somewhat with my encounter with my vulnerable self. Schildrick proposes that “any being who traverses the liminal spaces that evade classification takes on the potential to confound normative identity” (6). As Allycia’s mother, I find Shildrick’s assertion that the monstrous “remains excessive of any category, it always claims us, always touches us and implicates us in its own becoming” (6) is particularly pertinent. This is not to say that Schildrick’s notion of the monstrous is an unproblematic one. Indeed Kaul reminds us that: to identify disabled bodies too closely with the monstrous seems to risk leaving us out of universal, as well as particular, experience, entirely in the figurative. (11) Schildrick’s notion of the universality of vulnerability however is implicit in her reference to that which confounds and disturbs us, and it is an important one. Clearly Allycia’s arrival has claimed me, touched me; I am intimately implicated in her becoming. I could not have anticipated however the degree to which she has been intertwined with my own becoming. Her arrival, in retrospect crystallised for me Shildrick’s proposition that “we are already without boundaries, already vulnerable” (6). The film does not shy away from the difficulties confronting Allycia and my family and other members of the chromosome 18 community. I have attempted however to portray our environment and culture as contributing factors and challenge the myth of medicine as a perfect science or answer to the myriad of challenges of navigating life with a disability in contemporary society. This was a difficult undertaking as I did not want the work to degenerate into one that was reliant on blame or continued in the construction of people with disability as victims. I have been mindful of balancing the sometimes painful reality of our lives with those moments that have brought us a sense of accomplishment or delight. Part of the delight of our lives is exemplified when my sister Julie articulates the difference in Allycia’s experiences as compared to her own nine year old daughter, Lydia. Julie succeeds in valorising Allycia’s freedom to be herself by juxtaposing her own daughter’s preoccupation with “what others think” and her level of self consciousness in social contexts. Julie also highlights Lydia’s awareness of Allycia’s difference, via narration over footage of Lydia assisting Allycia, and asserts that this role of becoming a helper is a positive attribute for Lydia’s development. Able to Laugh Including humour in the film was a vital ingredient in the reframing of disability in our lives and is employed as a device to enhance the accessibility of the text to an audience. The film is quite dialogue driven in furnishing background knowledge and runs the risk at times, when characters reveal some of their more painful experiences, of degenerating into a tale of despair. Humour acts as device to lift the overall mood of the film. The humour is in part structured by my failures and incompetence – particularly in reference to my command (or rather lack) of public transport both in Australia and overseas. While the events depicted did occur – my missing a ferry and losing our way in the United States – their inclusion in the film is used as a device to show me, as the able bodied person; the adult ‘able’ mother, with flaws and all. This deliberate act endeavours to re-shape the “heroic mother” stereotype. A wistful form of humour also emerges when my vulnerability becomes apparent in a sequence where I break down and cry, feeling the burden in that moment of the first eleven years of Allycia’s life. Here Allycia as carer emerges as she uses our favourite toy to interrupt my crying, succeeding in turning my tears into a gentle smile. Her maturity and ability to connect with my sadness and the need to make me feel better are apparent and serve to challenge the status of intellectual impairment as burden. This sequence also served to help me laugh at myself in quite a different way after spending many hours confronted with the many faces that are mine during the editing process. I experienced a great deal of discomfort in front of the camera due to feelings of self-consciousness and being on display. That discomfort paled into insignificance when I then had to watch myself on the monitor and triggered a parallel journey alongside the making of the film as I continued to view myself over time. Those images showing my distress, my face contorted with tears as I struggled to maintain control made me cry for quite a while afterwards. I felt a strange empathy for myself – as if viewing someone else’s pain although it was mine, simultaneously the same and other. Chris Sarra’s “notion of a common core otherness as constituting the essence of human being” is one that resonates closely with these aspects. Sarra reinterprets Bhaskar (5) arguing that “we should regard the same as a tiny ripple on the sea of otherness”, enabling us “to enshrine the right to be other” capturing “something of the wonder and strangeness of being” (5). Over time I have become used to seeing these images and have laughed at myself. I believe becoming accustomed to seeing myself, aging as I have during these years, has been a useful process. I have become "more" comfortable with seeing that face, my face in another time. In essence I have been required to sit with my own vulnerabilities and have gained a deeper acceptance of my own fragility and in a sense, my own mortality. This idea of becoming “used to”, and more accepting of the images I was previously uncomfortable with has given me a renewed hope for our community in particular, the disability community in general. My experience I believe indicates the potential for us, as we become more visible, to be accepted in our difference. Critical to this is the need for us to be seen in the fullness of human experience, including our capacity to experience laughter and love and the delight these experiences bring to our lives and those around us. These experiences are captured exquisitely when Allycia sees her newfound chromosome 18 friends, Martin and Kathryn kissing one another. She reacts in much the same way I expect other little girls might in a similar situation. She is simultaneously “grossed out” and intrigued, much to our delight. It is a lovely spontaneous moment that says much in the space of a minute about Martin and Kathryn, and about Allycia’s and my relationship. For me there is a beauty, there is honesty and there is transparency. Able to Love My desire for this film is similar to Garland Thomson’s desire for her writing to “provide access to some elements of my community to both disabled and non disabled audiences alike” (122). I felt part of the key to making the film “work” was ensuring it remained accessible to as wide an audience as possible and began with a naive optimism that the film could defy stereotypical story lines. I discovered this accessibility I desired was reliant upon the traditions of storytelling; language, the construction of character and the telling of a journey demanded an engagement in ways we collectively identify and understand (Campbell). I found our lives at times, became stereotypical. I had moments of feeling like a victim; Allycia as a dancer could well be perceived as a “supercrip” and the very act of making a film about my daughter could be viewed as a heroic one. The process resulted in my surrendering to working within a framework that relies upon, all too often, character construction that is stereotypical. I felt despondent many times upon realising the emergence of these in the work, but held onto the belief that something new could be shown by exposing “two narrative currents which are seldom included in the usual stories we tell about disability: sexuality and community” (Garland Thompson 114). The take on sexuality is a gentle one, concerned with emerging ideologies surrounding sexuality in our community. This is a new phenomenon in terms of the “place” of sexuality and intimacy within our community. One of our parents featured in the film makes this clear when he explains that the community is watching a new romance blossom “with interest” (18q) and that this is a new experience for us as a whole. In focussing on sexuality, my intention is to provoke discussion about perceptions surrounding people categorised as intellectually impaired and their capacity to love and build intimate relationships and the possibilities this presents for the chromosome 18 community. The theme of community features significantly in the film as audiences become privy to conferences attended by, in one instance, 300 people. My intention here is to “make our mark”. There has been no significant filmic presence of Chromosome 18. The condition is rare, but when those affected by it are gathered together, a significantly “bigger picture” of is presented where previously there was none. The community is a significant support network for families and is concerned with becoming empowered by knowledge, care and advocacy. The transcendence of global and cultural boundaries becomes apparent in the film as these differences become diminished in light of our greater need to connect with each others’ experiences in life as, or with, people born with genetic difference. The film highlights the supportive, educated and joyful “shape” of our community. In presenting our community I hope too that western society’s preoccupation with normativity and ableism (Goggin) is effectively challenged. In presenting a version of life that “destabilises the system and points up its inadequacy as a model of existential relations”, I am also demonstrating what Shildrick calls “unreflected excess, that which is other than the same” (105). The most significant shift for me has been to refigure my ideas about Allycia as an adult. When I was given her medical prognosis I believed she would be my responsibility for the rest of my life. I did not hold a lot of hope for the future and could not have possibly entertained the idea that she may live independently or heaven forbid, she may enter into an intimate adult relationship; such was my experience with the physically and intellectually impaired. Thankfully I have progressed. This progression has been, in part, due to attending a Chromosome 18 conference in Boston in 2007 where we met Kathryn and Martin, a young couple in the early stages of building a relationship. This is a new phenomenon in our community. Kathryn and Martin were born with chromosome 18 deletions. Meeting them and their families has signalled new possibilities for our children and their opportunities and their right to explore intimate adult relationships. Their relationship has given me confidence to proceed with an open mind regarding Allycia’s adulthood and sexuality. Conclusion The very act of making the film was one that would inevitably render me vulnerable. Placing myself before the camera has given me a new perspective on vulnerability as a state that simultaneously disempowers and empowers me. I could argue this process has given me a better understanding of Allycia’s place in the world, but to do this is to deny our differences. Instead I believe the experience has given me a renewed perspective in embracing our differences and has also enabled me to see how much we are alike. My understanding of myself as both “able” and “othered”, and the ensuing recognition of, and encounter with, my vulnerable self have in some measure, come as a result of being continually confronted with images of myself in the editing process. But more than this, reflecting upon the years since Allycia’s birth I have come to a more intimate understanding and acceptance of myself as a consequence of knowing Allycia. Whereas my experience has been a matter of will, Allycia’s contribution is in the fact that she simply is. These experiences have given me renewed hope of acceptance of people of difference - that over time we as a society may become used to seeing the different face and the different behaviours that often accompany the experience of people living with genetic difference. References Bhaskar, R. Dialectic: The Pulse of Freedom. London: Verso, 1993. Campbell, J. The Hero's Journey: Joseph Campbell on His Life and Work. California: New World Library, 2003 Caouette, J. Tarnation. Dir. J. Caouette. DVD. 2004. Chromosome 18. "Chromosome 18 Research & Registry Society." 2008. 3 March 2008 ‹http://www.chromosome18.org/›. Darke, P. "The Cinematic Construction of Physical Disability as Identified through the Application of the Social Model of Disability to Six Indicative Films Made since 1970: A Day In The Death of Joe Egg (1970), The Raging Moon (1970), The Elephant Man (1980), Whose Life Is It Anyway? (1981), Duet for One (1987) and My Left Foot (1989)." 1999. 10 Feb. 2006 ‹http://www.darke.info/›. Englandkennedy, E. “Media Representations of Attention Deficit Disorder: Portrayals of Cultural Skepticism in Popular Media.” Journal of Popular Culture 41.1 (2008): 91-118. Garland Thomson, R. “Shape Structures Story: Fresh and Feisty Stories about Disability.” Narrative 15.1 (2007): 113-123. –––. Extraordinary Bodies: Figuring Physical Disability in American Culture and Literature. New York: Columbia Univ. Press, 1997. Goggin, G. Division One: Bodies of Knowledge. 2002. 10 Feb. 2006 ‹http://adt.library.qut.edu.au/adt-qut/uploads/approved/adt-QUT20041123.160628/public/02whole.pdf›. Groening, M. The Simpsons. 20th Century Fox Television. 1989-2008. Iacone, J. The Bone Collector. Dir. P. Noyce. DVD. Columbia Pictures Corporation, 1999. Karsh, J. My Flesh and Blood. DVD. San Francisco: Chaiken Films, 2004. Kaul, K. Figuring Disability in Disability Studies: Theory, Policy and Practice. Toronto: York University, 2003. Medoff, M. Children of a Lesser God. Dir. R. Haines. Paramount Pictures, 1986. Mitchell, D. T., and S. L. Snyder. "Representation and Its Discontents: The Uneasy Home of Disability in Literature and Film." In Handbook of Disability Studies, eds. G. L. Albrecht, K. D. Seelman, and M. Bury. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2001. 195-218. –––. “The Visual Foucauldian: Institutional Coercion and Surveillance in Frederick Wiseman's Multi-Handicapped Documentary Series.” Journal of Medical Humanities 24.3 (2003): 291. Norden, M.F. The Cinema of Isolation. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1994 Oliver, M. The Politics of Disablement. The Disability Archive UK. University of Leeds, 1990. 3 April 2005 ‹http://www.leeds.ac.uk/disability-studies/archiveuk/Oliver/p%20of%20d%20oliver4.pdf›. Rubin, H. A., and D. A. Shapiro. Murderball. DVD. Paramount Pictures, 2005. Sarra, C. Chris Sarra & The Other. Unpublished manuscript, 2005. Shildrick, M. Embodying the Monster: Encounters with the Vulnerable Self. London: Sage, 2002.Wain, Veronica. 18q – A Valuable Life. Prod. V. Wain. 2008. Waters, J. Pecker. Videocassette. Polar Entertainment, 1998.

Introduction This paper offers a survey of familiar popular music performers and songwriters who reference coffee in their work. It examines three areas of discourse: the psychoactive effects of caffeine, coffee and courtship rituals, and the politics of coffee consumption. I claim that coffee carries a cultural and musicological significance comparable to that of the chemical stimulants and consumer goods more readily associated with popular music. Songs about coffee may not be as potent as those featuring drugs and alcohol (Primack; Schapiro), or as common as those referencing commodities like clothes and cars (Englis; McCracken), but they do feature across a wide range of genres, some of which enjoy archetypal associations with this beverage. m.o.m.m.y. Needs c.o.f.f.e.e.: The Psychoactive Effect of Coffee The act of performing and listening to popular music involves psychological elements comparable to the overwhelming sensory experience of drug taking: altered perceptions, repetitive grooves, improvisation, self-expression, and psychological empathy—such as that between musician and audience (Curry). Most popular music genres are, as a result, culturally and sociologically identified with the consumption of at least one mind-altering substance (Lyttle; Primack; Schapiro). While the analysis of lyrics referring to this theme has hitherto focused on illegal drugs and alcoholic beverages (Cooper), coffee and its psychoactive ingredient caffeine have been almost entirely overlooked (Summer). The most recent study of drugs in popular music, for example, defined substance use as “tobacco, alcohol, marijuana, cocaine and other stimulants, heroin and other opiates, hallucinogens, inhalants, prescription drugs, over-the-counter drugs, and nonspecific substances” (Primack 172), thereby ignoring a chemical stimulant consumed by 90 per cent of adult Americans every day (Lovett). The wide availability of coffee and the comparatively mild effect of caffeine means that its consumption rarely causes harm. One researcher has described it as a ubiquitous and unobtrusive “generalised public activity […] ‘invisible’ to analysts seeking distinctive social events” (Cooper 92). Coffee may provide only a relatively mild “buzz”—but it is now accepted that caffeine is an addictive substance (Juliano) and, due to its universal legality, coffee is also the world’s most extensively traded and enthusiastically consumed psychoactive consumer product (Juliano 1). The musical genre of jazz has a longstanding relationship with marijuana and narcotics (Curry; Singer; Tolson; Winick). Unsurprisingly, given its Round Midnight connotations, jazz standards also celebrate the restorative impact of coffee. Exemplary compositions include Burke/Webster’s insomniac torch song Black Coffee, which provided hits for Sarah Vaughan (1949), Ella Fitzgerald (1953), and Peggy Lee (1960); and Frank Sinatra’s recordings of Hilliard/Dick’s The Coffee Song (1946, 1960), which satirised the coffee surplus in Brazil at a time when this nation enjoyed a near monopoly on production. Sinatra joked that this ubiquitous drink was that country’s only means of liquid refreshment, in a refrain that has since become a headline writer’s phrasal template: “There’s an Awful Lot of Coffee in Vietnam,” “An Awful Lot of Coffee in the Bin,” and “There’s an Awful Lot of Taxes in Brazil.” Ethnographer Aaron Fox has shown how country music gives expression to the lived social experience of blue-collar and agrarian workers (Real 29). Coffee’s role in energising working class America (Cooper) is featured in such recordings as Dolly Parton’s Nine To Five (1980), which describes her morning routine using a memorable “kitchen/cup of ambition” rhyme, and Don't Forget the Coffee Billy Joe (1973) by Tom T. Hall which laments the hardship of unemployment, hunger, cold, and lack of healthcare. Country music’s “tired truck driver” is the most enduring blue-collar trope celebrating coffee’s analeptic powers. Versions include Truck Drivin' Man by Buck Owens (1964), host of the country TV show Hee Haw and pioneer of the Bakersfield sound, and Driving My Life Away from pop-country crossover star Eddie Rabbitt (1980). Both feature characteristically gendered stereotypes of male truck drivers pushing on through the night with the help of a truck stop waitress who has fuelled them with caffeine. Johnny Cash’s A Cup of Coffee (1966), recorded at the nadir of his addiction to pills and alcohol, has an incoherent improvised lyric on this subject; while Jerry Reed even prescribed amphetamines to keep drivers awake in Caffein [sic], Nicotine, Benzedrine (And Wish Me Luck) (1980). Doye O’Dell’s Diesel Smoke, Dangerous Curves (1952) is the archetypal “truck drivin’ country” song and the most exciting track of its type. It subsequently became a hit for the doyen of the subgenre, Red Simpson (1966). An exhausted driver, having spent the night with a woman whose name he cannot now recall, is fighting fatigue and wrestling his hot-rod low-loader around hairpin mountain curves in an attempt to rendezvous with a pretty truck stop waitress. The song’s palpable energy comes from its frenetic guitar picking and the danger implicit in trailing a heavy load downhill while falling asleep at the wheel. Tommy Faile’s Phantom 309, a hit for Red Sovine (1967) that was later covered by Tom Waits (Big Joe and the Phantom 309, 1975), elevates the “tired truck driver” narrative to gothic literary form. Reflecting country music’s moral code of citizenship and its culture of performative storytelling (Fox, Real 23), it tells of a drenched and exhausted young hitchhiker picked up by Big Joe—the driver of a handsome eighteen-wheeler. On arriving at a truck stop, Joe drops the traveller off, giving him money for a restorative coffee. The diner falls silent as the hitchhiker orders up his “cup of mud”. Big Joe, it transpires, is a phantom trucker. After running off the road to avoid a school bus, his distinctive ghost rig now only reappears to rescue stranded travellers. Punk rock, a genre closely associated with recreational amphetamines (McNeil 76, 87), also features a number of caffeine-as-stimulant songs. Californian punk band, Descendents, identified caffeine as their drug of choice in two 1996 releases, Coffee Mug and Kids on Coffee. These songs describe chugging the drink with much the same relish and energy that others might pull at the neck of a beer bottle, and vividly compare the effects of the drug to the intense rush of speed. The host of “New Music News” (a segment of MTV’s 120 Minutes) references this correlation in 1986 while introducing the band’s video—in which they literally bounce off the walls: “You know, while everybody is cracking down on crack, what about that most respectable of toxic substances or stimulants, the good old cup of coffee? That is the preferred high, actually, of California’s own Descendents—it is also the subject of their brand new video” (“New Music News”). Descendents’s Sessions EP (1997) featured an overflowing cup of coffee on the sleeve, while punk’s caffeine-as-amphetamine trope is also promulgated by Hellbender (Caffeinated 1996), Lagwagon (Mr. Coffee 1997), and Regatta 69 (Addicted to Coffee 2005). Coffee in the Morning and Kisses in the Night: Coffee and Courtship Coffee as romantic metaphor in song corroborates the findings of early researchers who examined courtship rituals in popular music. Donald Horton’s 1957 study found that hit songs codified the socially constructed self-image and limited life expectations of young people during the 1950s by depicting conservative, idealised, and traditional relationship scenarios. He summarised these as initial courtship, honeymoon period, uncertainty, and parting (570-4). Eleven years after this landmark analysis, James Carey replicated Horton’s method. His results revealed that pop lyrics had become more realistic and less bound by convention during the 1960s. They incorporated a wider variety of discourse including the temporariness of romantic commitment, the importance of individual autonomy in relationships, more liberal attitudes, and increasingly unconventional courtship behaviours (725). Socially conservative coffee songs include Coffee in the Morning and Kisses in the Night by The Boswell Sisters (1933) in which the protagonist swears fidelity to her partner on condition that this desire is expressed strictly in the appropriate social context of marriage. It encapsulates the restrictions Horton identified on courtship discourse in popular song prior to the arrival of rock and roll. The Henderson/DeSylva/Brown composition You're the Cream in My Coffee, recorded by Annette Hanshaw (1928) and by Nat King Cole (1946), also celebrates the social ideal of monogamous devotion. The persistence of such idealised traditional themes continued into the 1960s. American pop singer Don Cherry had a hit with Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye (1962) that used coffee as a metaphor for undying and everlasting love. Otis Redding’s version of Butler/Thomas/Walker’s Cigarettes and Coffee (1966)—arguably soul music’s exemplary romantic coffee song—carries a similar message as a couple proclaim their devotion in a late night conversation over coffee. Like much of the Stax catalogue, Cigarettes and Coffee, has a distinctly “down home” feel and timbre. The lovers are simply content with each other; they don’t need “cream” or “sugar.” Horton found 1950s blues and R&B lyrics much more sexually explicit than pop songs (567). Dawson (1994) subsequently characterised black popular music as a distinct public sphere, and Squires (2002) argued that it displayed elements of what she defined as “enclave” and “counterpublic” traits. Lawson (2010) has argued that marginalised and/or subversive blues artists offered a form of countercultural resistance against prevailing social norms. Indeed, several blues and R&B coffee songs disregard established courtship ideals and associate the product with non-normative and even transgressive relationship circumstances—including infidelity, divorce, and domestic violence. Lightnin’ Hopkins’s Coffee Blues (1950) references child neglect and spousal abuse, while the narrative of Muddy Waters’s scorching Iodine in my Coffee (1952) tells of an attempted poisoning by his Waters’s partner. In 40 Cups of Coffee (1953) Ella Mae Morse is waiting for her husband to return home, fuelling her anger and anxiety with caffeine. This song does eventually comply with traditional courtship ideals: when her lover eventually returns home at five in the morning, he is greeted with a relieved kiss. In Keep That Coffee Hot (1955), Scatman Crothers supplies a counterpoint to Morse’s late-night-abandonment narrative, asking his partner to keep his favourite drink warm during his adulterous absence. Brook Benton’s Another Cup of Coffee (1964) expresses acute feelings of regret and loneliness after a failed relationship. More obliquely, in Coffee Blues (1966) Mississippi John Hurt sings affectionately about his favourite brand, a “lovin’ spoonful” of Maxwell House. In this, he bequeathed the moniker of folk-rock band The Lovin’ Spoonful, whose hits included Do You Believe in Magic (1965) and Summer in the City (1966). However, an alternative reading of Hurt’s lyric suggests that this particular phrase is a metaphorical device proclaiming the author’s sexual potency. Hurt’s “lovin’ spoonful” may actually be a portion of his seminal emission. In the 1950s, Horton identified country as particularly “doleful” (570), and coffee provides a common metaphor for failed romance in a genre dominated by “metanarratives of loss and desire” (Fox, Jukebox 54). Claude Gray’s I'll Have Another Cup of Coffee (Then I’ll Go) (1961) tells of a protagonist delivering child support payments according to his divorce lawyer’s instructions. The couple share late night coffee as their children sleep through the conversation. This song was subsequently recorded by seventeen-year-old Bob Marley (One Cup of Coffee, 1962) under the pseudonym Bobby Martell, a decade prior to his breakthrough as an international reggae star. Marley’s youngest son Damian has also performed the track while, interestingly in the context of this discussion, his older sibling Rohan co-founded Marley Coffee, an organic farm in the Jamaican Blue Mountains. Following Carey’s demonstration of mainstream pop’s increasingly realistic depiction of courtship behaviours during the 1960s, songwriters continued to draw on coffee as a metaphor for failed romance. In Carly Simon’s You’re So Vain (1972), she dreams of clouds in her coffee while contemplating an ostentatious ex-lover. Squeeze’s Black Coffee In Bed (1982) uses a coffee stain metaphor to describe the end of what appears to be yet another dead-end relationship for the protagonist. Sarah Harmer’s Coffee Stain (1998) expands on this device by reworking the familiar “lipstick on your collar” trope, while Sexsmith & Kerr’s duet Raindrops in my Coffee (2005) superimposes teardrops in coffee and raindrops on the pavement with compelling effect. Kate Bush’s Coffee Homeground (1978) provides the most extreme narrative of relationship breakdown: the true story of Cora Henrietta Crippin’s poisoning. Researchers who replicated Horton’s and Carey’s methodology in the late 1970s (Bridges; Denisoff) were surprised to find their results dominated by traditional courtship ideals. The new liberal values unearthed by Carey in the late 1960s simply failed to materialise in subsequent decades. In this context, it is interesting to observe how romantic coffee songs in contemporary soul and jazz continue to disavow the post-1960s trend towards realistic social narratives, adopting instead a conspicuously consumerist outlook accompanied by smooth musical timbres. This phenomenon possibly betrays the influence of contemporary coffee advertising. From the 1980s, television commercials have sought to establish coffee as a desirable high end product, enjoyed by bohemian lovers in a conspicuously up-market environment (Werder). All Saints’s Black Coffee (2000) and Lebrado’s Coffee (2006) identify strongly with the culture industry’s image of coffee as a luxurious beverage whose consumption signifies prominent social status. All Saints’s promotional video is set in a opulent location (although its visuals emphasise the lyric’s romantic disharmony), while Natalie Cole’s Coffee Time (2008) might have been itself written as a commercial. Busting Up a Starbucks: The Politics of Coffee Politics and coffee meet most palpably at the coffee shop. This conjunction has a well-documented history beginning with the establishment of coffee houses in Europe and the birth of the public sphere (Habermas; Love; Pincus). The first popular songs to reference coffee shops include Jaybird Coleman’s Coffee Grinder Blues (1930), which boasts of skills that precede the contemporary notion of a barista by four decades; and Let's Have Another Cup of Coffee (1932) from Irving Berlin’s depression-era musical Face The Music, where the protagonists decide to stay in a restaurant drinking coffee and eating pie until the economy improves. Coffee in a Cardboard Cup (1971) from the Broadway musical 70 Girls 70 is an unambiguous condemnation of consumerism, however, it was written, recorded and produced a generation before Starbucks’ aggressive expansion and rapid dominance of the coffee house market during the 1990s. The growth of this company caused significant criticism and protest against what seemed to be a ruthless homogenising force that sought to overwhelm local competition (Holt; Thomson). In response, Starbucks has sought to be defined as a more responsive and interactive brand that encourages “glocalisation” (de Larios; Thompson). Koller, however, has characterised glocalisation as the manipulative fabrication of an “imagined community”—whose heterogeneity is in fact maintained by the aesthetics and purchasing choices of consumers who make distinctive and conscious anti-brand statements (114). Neat Capitalism is a more useful concept here, one that intercedes between corporate ideology and postmodern cultural logic, where such notions as community relations and customer satisfaction are deliberately and perhaps somewhat cynically conflated with the goal of profit maximisation (Rojek). As the world’s largest chain of coffee houses with over 19,400 stores in March 2012 (Loxcel), Starbucks is an exemplar of this phenomenon. Their apparent commitment to environmental stewardship, community relations, and ethical sourcing is outlined in the company’s annual “Global Responsibility Report” (Vimac). It is also demonstrated in their engagement with charitable and environmental non-governmental organisations such as Fairtrade and Co-operative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere (CARE). By emphasising this, Starbucks are able to interpellate (that is, “call forth”, “summon”, or “hail” in Althusserian terms) those consumers who value environmental protection, social justice and ethical business practices (Rojek 117). Bob Dylan and Sheryl Crow provide interesting case studies of the persuasive cultural influence evoked by Neat Capitalism. Dylan’s 1962 song Talkin’ New York satirised his formative experiences as an impoverished performer in Greenwich Village’s coffee houses. In 1995, however, his decision to distribute the Bob Dylan: Live At The Gaslight 1962 CD exclusively via Starbucks generated significant media controversy. Prominent commentators expressed their disapproval (Wilson Harris) and HMV Canada withdrew Dylan’s product from their shelves (Lynskey). Despite this, the success of this and other projects resulted in the launch of Starbucks’s in-house record company, Hear Music, which released entirely new recordings from major artists such as Ray Charles, Paul McCartney, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon and Elvis Costello—although the company has recently announced a restructuring of their involvement in this venture (O’Neil). Sheryl Crow disparaged her former life as a waitress in Coffee Shop (1995), a song recorded for her second album. “Yes, I was a waitress. I was a waitress not so long ago; then I won a Grammy” she affirmed in a YouTube clip of a live performance from the same year. More recently, however, Crow has become an avowed self-proclaimed “Starbucks groupie” (Tickle), releasing an Artist’s Choice (2003) compilation album exclusively via Hear Music and performing at the company’s 2010 Annual Shareholders’s Meeting. Songs voicing more unequivocal dissatisfaction with Starbucks’s particular variant of Neat Capitalism include Busting Up a Starbucks (Mike Doughty, 2005), and Starbucks Takes All My Money (KJ-52, 2008). The most successful of these is undoubtedly Ron Sexsmith’s Jazz at the Bookstore (2006). Sexsmith bemoans the irony of intense original blues artists such as Leadbelly being drowned out by the cacophony of coffee grinding machines while customers queue up to purchase expensive coffees whose names they can’t pronounce. In this, he juxtaposes the progressive patina of corporate culture against the circumstances of African-American labour conditions in the deep South, the shocking incongruity of which eventually cause the old bluesman to turn in his grave. Fredric Jameson may have good reason to lament the depthless a-historical pastiche of postmodern popular culture, but this is no “nostalgia film”: Sexsmith articulates an artfully framed set of subtle, sensitive, and carefully contextualised observations. Songs about coffee also intersect with politics via lyrics that play on the mid-brown colour of the beverage, by employing it as a metaphor for the sociological meta-narratives of acculturation and assimilation. First popularised in Israel Zangwill’s 1905 stage play, The Melting Pot, this term is more commonly associated with Americanisation rather than miscegenation in the United States—a nuanced distinction that British band Blue Mink failed to grasp with their memorable invocation of “coffee-coloured people” in Melting Pot (1969). Re-titled in the US as People Are Together (Mickey Murray, 1970) the song was considered too extreme for mainstream radio airplay (Thompson). Ike and Tina Turner’s Black Coffee (1972) provided a more accomplished articulation of coffee as a signifier of racial identity; first by associating it with the history of slavery and the post-Civil Rights discourse of African-American autonomy, then by celebrating its role as an energising force for African-American workers seeking economic self-determination. Anyone familiar with the re-casting of black popular music in an industry dominated by Caucasian interests and aesthetics (Cashmore; Garofalo) will be unsurprised to find British super-group Humble Pie’s (1973) version of this song more recognisable. Conclusion Coffee-flavoured popular songs celebrate the stimulant effects of caffeine, provide metaphors for courtship rituals, and offer critiques of Neat Capitalism. Harold Love and Guthrie Ramsey have each argued (from different perspectives) that the cultural micro-narratives of small social groups allow us to identify important “ethnographic truths” (Ramsey 22). Aesthetically satisfying and intellectually stimulating coffee songs are found where these micro-narratives intersect with the ethnographic truths of coffee culture. 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Introduction Gore Vidal, the famous writer and literary critic, was recently buried next to his long-term partner, Howard Austen. The couple, who met in the 1950s, had lived together happily for decades. They were in many ways the kind of same-sex couple frequently valorised in contemporary gay marriage campaigns. Vidal and Austen, however, could not serve as emblematic figures for this campaign, and not only because the two men had no interest in marriage. Vidal, who reportedly had over a hundred lovers, both male and female, once attributed the longevity of their relationship to its platonic nature; both men continued to sleep with other people, and they reportedly stopped having sex with each other after they moved in together (Vidal, Palimpsest, 131–32). A relationship that decoupled monogamy, romance, companionship, and sexuality, and reconnected them in a way that challenged the accepted truths of institutionalised marriage, stands as an implicit questioning of the way in which gay marriage campaigns construct the possibilities for life, love, and sex. It is this questioning that we draw out in this article. In his writing, Vidal also offers a perspective that challenges the assumptions and certainties of contemporary politics around gay marriage. In 1981, he wrote “Some Jews and the Gays” in response to an article entitled “The Boys on the Beach” by conservative Jewish writer Midge Decter. Vidal’s riposte to Decter’s depiction of the snide superiority of the “boys” who disturbed her beachside family holidays highlighted the lack of solidarity conservative members of the Jewish community displayed towards another persecuted minority. From Vidal’s perspective, this was because Decter could not conceive of gay identity as anything other than pathological: Since homosexualists choose to be the way they are out of idle hatefulness, it has been a mistake to allow them to come out of the closet to the extent that they have, but now that they are out (which most are not), they will have no choice but to face up to their essential hatefulness and abnormality and so be driven to kill themselves with promiscuity, drugs, S-M, and suicide. (Vidal, Some Gays) In response, Vidal made a strong case for solidarity between Jews, African-Americans, and what he termed “homosexualists” (or “same-sexers”). More importantly for our argument, he also contested Decter’s depiction of the typical homosexual: To begin to get at the truth about homosexualists, one must realise that the majority of those millions of Americans who prefer same-sex to other-sex are obliged, sometimes willingly and happily but often not, to marry and have children and to conform to the guidelines set down by the heterosexual dictatorship. (Vidal, Some Gays) According to Vidal, Decter’s article applied only to a relatively privileged section of homosexualists who were able to be “self-ghettoized”, and who, despite Decter’s paranoid fantasies, lived lives perfectly “indifferent to the world of the other-sexers.” In the thirty years since the publication of “Some Jews and the Gays” much has clearly changed. It is unlikely that even a conservative publication would publish an article that depicts all homosexualists as marked by idle hatefulness. However, Decter’s self-hating homosexualist continues to haunt contemporary debates about same-sex marriage, albeit in sublimated form. Critiques of gay marriage campaigns, which are becoming increasingly difficult to ignore, often focus on the politics of inclusion and exclusion, whether on the terrain of gender (non)conformity (Spade), or the campaigns’ implicit and racialised assumption of a white, middle-class homosexual couple as the subject of their efforts (Riggs; Farrow). While our article is indebted to these critiques, our argument is focused more specifically on the unintended effect of the Australian debate about same-sex marriage, namely the (re)creation of the married couple’s other in the form of the adolescent, promiscuous, and unhappy homosexual. It is here that we find the source of our title, also chosen in tribute to Vidal, who in his life and writing disrupts this dichotomy. We argue that the construction of the respectable white middle-class same-sexer who sits at the centre of gay marriage discourse relies on a contemporary manifestation of the self-hating homosexualist – the sexually irresponsible queer constructed in contrast to the responsible gay. The first half of this article traces this construction. In the second section, we argue that this process cannot be divorced from the ways that advocates of same-sex marriage depict the institution of marriage. While critics such as Judith Butler have attempted to separate arguments against homophobic discrimination from the need to advocate for marriage, we argue that the two are intrinsically linked in marriage equality campaigns. These campaigns seek to erase both the explicit critique of marriage found in Vidal’s article and the implicit possibility of living otherwise found in his life. Instead of a heterosexual dictatorship that can be successfully avoided, marriage is proclaimed to be not only benign but the only institution capable of saving self-hating queers from misery by turning them into respectable gay married couples. This is, therefore, not an article about today’s Midge Decters, but about how contemporary same-sex marriage supporters rely on a characterisation of those of us who would or could not choose to marry as, to return to Vidal (Some Jews), “somehow evil or inadequate or dangerous.” As queer people who continue to question both the desirability and inevitability of marriage, we are ultimately concerned with thinking through the political consequences of the same-sex marriage campaign’s obsessive focus on normative sexuality and on the supposedly restorative function of the institution of marriage itself. Hateful Queers and Patient Gays Contemporary supporters of gay marriage, like Vidal so many years earlier, do often oppose conservative attempts to label homosexualists as inherently pathological. Tim Wright, the former convenor of “Equal Love,” one of Australia’s primary same-sex marriage campaign groups, directly addressing this in an opinion piece for Melbourne’s The Age newspaper, writes, “Every so often, we hear them in the media calling homosexuals promiscuous or sick.” Disputing this characterisation, Wright supplants it with an image of patient lesbians and gay men “standing at the altar.” Unlike Vidal, however, Wright implicitly accepts the link between promiscuity and pathology. For Wright, homosexuals are not sick precisely because, and only to the extent that they accept, a forlorn chastity, waiting for their respectable monogamous sexuality to be sanctified through matrimony. A shared moral framework based upon conservative norms is a notable feature of same-sex marriage debates. Former Rainbow Labor convenor Ryan Heath articulates this most clearly in his 2010 Griffith Review article, excerpts of which also appeared in the metropolitan Fairfax newspapers. In this article, Heath argues that marriage equality would provide a much-needed dose of responsibility to “balance” the rights that Australia has accorded to homosexuals. For Heath, Australia’s gay and lesbian communities have been given sexual freedoms by an indulgent adult (heterosexual) society, but are not sufficiently mature to develop the social responsibilities that go with them: “Like teenagers getting their hands on booze and cars and freedom from parental surveillance for the first time, Australia’s gay and lesbian communities have enthusiastically taken up their new rights.” For Heath, the immaturity of the (adult) gay community, with its lack of married role models, results in profound effects for same-sex attracted youth: Consider what the absence of role models, development paths, and stability might do to those who cannot marry. Is there no connection between this and the disproportionate numbers of suicides and risky and addictive behaviours found in gay communities? It is this immaturity, rather than the more typically blamed homophobic prejudice, bullying or persecution, that is for Heath the cause of the social problems that disproportionately affect same-sex attracted adolescents. Heath continues, asking why, after journalist Jonathan Rauch, any parent would want to “condemn their child to…‘a partnerless life in a sexual underworld’.” His appeal to well-meaning parental desires for the security and happiness of children echoes countless insidious commentaries about the tragedy of homosexual existence, such as Decter’s above. These same commentaries continue to be used to justify exclusionary and even violent reactions by families and communities when children reveal their (non-heterosexual) sexualities. As for so many social conservatives, for Heath it is inconceivable to view a partnerless life as anything other than tragedy. Like Wright, he is also convinced that if one must be partnerless it is far better to be forlornly chaste than to participate in an “underworld” focused primarily on promiscuous sex. The opinions of those condemned to this purgatorial realm, either through compulsion or their own immaturity, are of little interest to Heath. When he states that “No families and couples I have interviewed in my research on the topic want this insecure existence,” we are to understand that it is only the desires of these responsible adults that matter. In this way, Heath explicitly invokes the image of what Mariana Valverde has called the “respectable same-sex couple”, homosexualists who are socially acceptable because being “same-sex” is the only thing that differentiates them from the white, middle-class norm that continues to sit at the heart of Australian politics. Heath goes on to describe marriage as the best “social safety net”, adopting the fiscal rhetoric of conservatives such as former federal leader of the Liberal party, Malcolm Turnbull. Turnbull argued in 2012’s annual Michael Kirby lecture (a lecture organised by Southern Cross University’s School of Law and Justice in tribute to the retired gay High Court justice) that same-sex marriage would save the state money, as other relationship recognition such as the 2008 Rudd reforms have. In one of the few passages widely reported from his speech he states: “There will plainly be less demand for social services, medical expenses, hospital care if people, especially older people, like Michael [Kirby] and [partner] Johan, live together as opposed to being in lonely isolation consoled only by their respective cats.” Same-sex marriage is not simply a fight for equality but a fight to rescue homosexualists from the immiserated and emotionally impoverished lives that they, through their lack of maturity, have constructed for themselves, and which, after a brief sojourn in the sexual underworld, can only end in a lonely feline-focused existence funded by the responsible citizens that constitute the bulk of society. We are told by gay marriage advocates that the acceptance of proper adult relationships and responsibilities will not only cure the self-hatred of same-sexers, but simultaneously end the hatred expressed through homophobia and bullying. In the most recent Victorian state election, for example, the Greens ran an online Q&A session about their policies and positions in which they wrote the following in response to a question on relationship recognition: “It would create a more harmonious, less discriminatory society, more tolerant of diversity. It would also probably reduce bullying against same-sex attracted teenagers and lower the suicide rate.” This common position has been carefully unpicked by Rob Cover, who argues that while there may be benefits for the health of some adults in recognition of same-sex marriage, there is absolutely no evidence of a connection between this and youth suicide. He writes: “We are yet to have evidence that there are any direct benefits for younger persons who are struggling to cope with being bullied, humiliated, shamed and cannot (yet) envisage a liveable life and a happy future—let alone a marriage ceremony.” While same-sex marriage advocates consider themselves to be speaking for these same-sex attracted youth, offering them a happy future in the form of a wedding, Cover reminds us that these are not the same thing. As we have shown here, this is not a process of simple exclusion, but an erasure of the possibility of a life outside of heteronormative or “respectable”, coupledom. The “respectable same-sex couple”, like its respectable heterosexual counterpart, not only denies the possibility of full participation in adult society to those without partners but also refuses the lived experience of the many people like Vidal and Austen who do not accept the absolute equation of domesticity, responsibility, and sexual monogamy that the institution of marriage represents. A Good Institution? The connection between marriage and the mythical end of homophobia is not about evidence, as Cover rightly points out. Instead it is based on an ideological construction of marriage as an inherently valuable institution. Alongside this characterisation of marriage as a magical solution to homophobia and other social ills, comes the branding of other models of living, loving and having sex as inherently inferior and potentially harmful. In this, the rhetoric of conservatives and same-sex marriage advocates becomes disturbingly similar. Margaret Andrews, the wife of former Howard minister Kevin and a prominent (straight) marriage advocate, featured in the news a couple of years ago after making a public homophobic outburst directed at (queer) writer Benjamin Law. In response, Andrews outlined what for her were the clearly evident benefits of marriage: “For centuries, marriage has provided order, stability, and nurture for both adults and children. Indeed, the status of our marriages influences our well-being at least as much as the state of our finances.” Despite being on the apparent opposite of the debate, Amanda Villis and Danielle Hewitt from Doctors for Marriage Equality agree with Andrews about health benefits, including, significantly, those linked to sexual behaviour: It is also well known that people in long term monogamous relationships engage in far less risky sexual behaviour and therefore have significantly lower rates of sexually transmitted infections. Therefore legalisation of same sex marriage can lead to a reduction in the rates of sexually transmitted disease by decreasing stigma and discrimination and also promoting long term, monogamous relationships as an option for LGBTI persons. Here same-sex marriage is of benefit precisely because it eradicates the social risks of contagion and disease attributed to risky and promiscuous queers. To the extent that queers continue to suffer it can be attributed to the moral deficiency of their current lifestyle. This results in the need to “promote” marriage and marriage-like relationships. However, this need for promotion denies that marriage itself could be subject to discussion or debate and constructs it as both permanent and inevitable. Any discussion which might question the valuation of marriage is forestalled through the rhetoric of choice, as in the following example from a contributor to the “Equal Love” website: We understand that not everyone will want to get married, but there is no denying that marriage is a fundamental institution in Australian society. The right to be married should therefore be available to all those who choose to pursue it. It is a right that we chose to exercise. (Cole) This seemingly innocuous language of choice performs a number of functions. The first is that it seeks to disallow political debates about marriage by simply reducing critiques of the institution to a decision not to partake in it. In a process mirroring the construction of queers as inherently immature and adolescent, as discussed in the previous section, this move brands political critiques of marriage as historical remnants of an immature radicalism that has been trumped by liberal maturity. The contribution of Alyena Mohummadally and Catherine Roberts to Speak Now highlights this clearly. In this piece, Roberts is described as having used “radical feminism” as a teenage attempt to fill a “void” left by the lack of religion in her life. The teenage Roberts considered marriage “a patriarchal institution to be dismantled” (134). However, ten years later, now happily living with her partner, Roberts finds that “the very institutions she once riled against were those she now sought to be a part of” (137). Roberts’ marriage conversion, explained through a desire for recognition from Mohummadally’s Muslim family, is presented as simply a logical part of growing up, leaving behind the teenage commitment to radical politics along with the teenage attraction to “bars and nightclubs.” Not coincidentally, “life and love” taught Roberts to leave both of these things behind (134). The second consequence of arguments based on choice is that the possibility of any other terrain of choice is erased. This rhetoric thus gives marriage a false permanence and stability, failing to recognise that social institutions are vulnerable to change, and potentially to crisis. Beyond the same-sex marriage debates, the last fifty years have demonstrated the vulnerability of marriage to social change. Rising divorce rates, increasing acceptance of de facto relationships and the social recognition of domestic violence and rape within marriage have altered marriage inescapably, and forced questions about its inevitability (see: Stacey). This fact is recognised by conservatives, such as gay marriage opponent Patrick Parkinson who stated in a recent opinion piece in the Sydney Morning Herald that a “heartening aspect” of the “otherwise divisive” debate around gay marriage is that it has marked a “turnaround” in support for marriage, particularly among feminists, gays and other progressives. Malcolm Turnbull also explains his transition to support for same-sex marriage rights on the basis of this very premise: “I am very firmly of the view that families are the foundation of our society and that we would be a stronger society if more people were married, and by that I mean formally, legally married, and fewer were divorced.” He continued, “Are not the gays who seek the right to marry, to formalise their commitment to each other, holding up a mirror to the heterosexuals who are marrying less frequently and divorcing more often?” As Parkinson and Turnbull note, the decision to prioritise marriage is a decision to not only accept the fundamental nature of marriage as a social institution but to further universalise it as a social norm against the historical trends away from such normalisation. This is also acknowledged by campaign group Australian Marriage Equality who suggests that people like Parkinson and Turnbull who are “concerned about the preservation of marriage may do best to focus on ways to increase its appeal amongst the current population, rather than direct their energies towards the exclusion of a select group of individuals from its privileges.” Rather than challenging conservatism then, the gay marriage campaign aligns itself with Turnbull and Parkinson against the possibility of living otherwise embodied in the shadowy figure of the sexually irresponsible queer. The connection between ideological support for marriage and the construction of the “respectable homosexual couple” is made explicit by Heath in the essay quoted earlier. It is, he says, part of “the pattern of Western liberal history” to include “in an institution good people who make a good case to join.” The struggle for gay marriage, he argues, is linked to that of “workers to own property, Indigenous Australians to be citizens, women to vote.” By including these examples, Heath implicitly highlights the assimilationist dimension of this campaign, a dimension which has been importantly emphasised by Damien Riggs. Heath’s formulation denies the possibility of Indigenous sovereignty beyond assimilationist incorporation into the Australian state, just as it denies the possibility of a life of satisfying love and sex beyond marriage. More generally, Heath fails to acknowledge that none of these histories have disrupted the fundamental power dynamics at play: the benefits of property ownership accrue disproportionately to the rich, those of citizenship to white Australians, and political power remains primarily in the hands of men. Despite the protestations of gay marriage advocates there is no reason to believe that access to marriage would end homophobia while racism, class-based exploitation, and institutional sexism continue. This too, is part of the pattern of Western liberal history. Conclusion Our intention here is not to produce an anti-marriage manifesto—there are many excellent ones out there (see: Conrad)—but rather to note that gay marriage campaigns are not as historically innocuous as they present themselves to be. We are concerned that the rush to enter fully into institutions that, while changed, remain synonymous with normative (hetero)sexuality, has two unintended but nonetheless concerning consequences. Gay marriage advocates risk not only the discarding of a vision in which people may choose to not worship at the altar of the nuclear family, they also reanimate a new version of Decter’s self-hating gay. Political blogger Tim Dunlop encapsulates the political logic of gay marriage campaigns when he says, rather optimistically, that barring homosexualists from marriage “is the last socially acceptable way of saying you are not like us, you do not count, you matter less.” An alternative view proffered here is that saying yes to gay marriage risks abandoning a project that says we do not wish to be like you, not because we matter less, but because we see the possibility of different lives, and we refuse to accept a normative political logic that brands those lives as inferior. In casting this critique as adolescent, as something that a mature community should have grown out of, the same-sex marriage campaign rejects what we see as the most important social contributions that “same-sexers” have made. Where we think Vidal was mistaken back in 1981 was in his assertion that we “same-sexers” have been simply indifferent to the world of the “other-sexers.” We have also turned a critical eye upon “heterosexualist” existence, offering important critiques of a so-called adult or responsible life. It is this history that queer writer Sara Ahmed reminds us of, when she celebrates the angry queer at the family dinner table who refuses to simply succumb to a coercive demand to be happy and pleasant. A similar refusal can be found in queer critiques of the “dead citizenship” of heterosexuality, described by José Esteban Muñoz as: a modality of citizenship that is predicated on negation of liveness or presentness on behalf of a routinized investment in futurity. This narrative of futurity is most familiar to those who live outside of it. It is the story of the [sic] nation's all-consuming investment in the nuclear family, and its particular obsession with the children, an investment that instantly translates into the (monological) future. (399) In the clamour to fully assert their membership in the world of adult citizenship, same-sex marriage advocates negate the potential liveness and presentness of queer experience, opting instead for the routinised futurity that Muñoz warns against. Imagining ourselves as forlorn figures, standing with tear-stained cheeks and quivering lips at the altar, waiting for normative relationships and responsible citizenship is not the only option. Like Vidal and Austen, with whom we began, queers are already living, loving, and fucking, in and above our sexual underworlds, imagining that just possibly there may be other ways to live, both in the present and in constructing different futures. References Ahmed, Sara. The Promise of Happiness. Durham: Duke UP, 2010. Andrews, Margaret. “A Health Check on Marriage.” The Punch, 13 Aug. 2010. 24 Sept. 2012 ‹http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/a-health-check-on-marriage/›. Butler, Judith. “Is Kinship Always Already Heterosexual?” differences: A Feminist Journal of Cultural Studies 13.1 (2002): 14–44. Cole, Jules. “Marriage Equality Upholds the rights of all Australians.” Equal Love website, 24 Sept. 2012 ‹http://www.equallove.info/node/83›. Conrad, Ryan, ed. Against Equality: queer critiques of gay marriage. Lewiston: Against Equality Publishing Collective, 2010. Cover, Rob. “Is same-sex marriage an adequate responst to queer youth suicide?”Online Opinion: Australia’s e-journal of social and political debate, 22 Aug. 2012. 24 Sept. 2012 ‹http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=14017›. Dunlop, Tim. “There is no excuse.” ABC The Drum Unleashed, 8 Apr. 2010. 24 Sept. 2012 ‹http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/34402.html›. Farrow, Kenyon, “Why is gay marriage anti-black?” Against Equality: queer critiques of gay marriage. Ed. Ryan Conrad. Lewiston: Against Equality Publishing Collective, 2010. 21–33. Frequently Asked Questions, Australian Marriage Equality, 24 Sept. 2012 ‹http://www.australianmarriageequality.com/faqs.htm›. Grattan, Michelle. “Turnbull’s Gay Marriage Swipe.” The Age. 7 July 2012. 24 Sept. 2012 ‹http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/turnbulls-gay-marriage-swipe-20120706-21mou.html›. Heath, Ryan. “Love in a Cold Climate.” Griffith Review. 29 (2010). 24 Sept. 2012 ‹http://www.griffithreview.com/edition-29-prosper-or-perish/251-essay/949.html›. Mohummadally, Alyena and Catherine Roberts. “When Worlds, Happily, Collide.” Speak Now: Australian Perspectives on Same-Sex Marriage. Ed. Victor Marsh. Thornbury: Clouds of Magellan, 2012, 134–139. Muñoz, José Esteban. “Citizens and Superheroes.” American Quarterly. 52.2 (2000): 397–404. Parkinson, Patrick. “About Time We All Cared More About Marriage.” Sydney Morning Herald, 24 Aug. 2012. 24 Sept. 2012 ‹http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/about-time-we-all-cared-more-about-marriage-20120823-24p2g.html›. Rauch, Jonathan. Gay Marriage: Why It Is Good for Gays, Good for Straights, and Good for America. New York: Holt Paperbacks, 2004. Riggs, Damien. “The Racial Politics of Marriage Claims.” Speak Now: Australian Perspectives on Gay Marriage. Ed. Victor Marsh. Thornbury: Clouds of Magellan, 2012. 191–201. Stacey, Judith. Brave New Families: Stories of Domestic Upheaval in Late Twentieth-Century America. Berkeley and Los Angeles: U of California P, 1998. Spade, Dean. Normal Life: Administrative Violence, Critical Trans Politics and the Limits of Law. Cambridge, MA: South End Press, 2011. Turnbull, Malcolm. “Reflections on Gay Marriage: Michael Kirby Lecture 2012.” 24 Sept. 2012 ‹http://www.malcolmturnbull.com.au/media/speeches/reflections-on-the-gay-marriage-issue-michael-kirby-lecture-2012/›. Valverde, Mariana. “A New Entity in the History of Sexuality: The Respectable Same-Sex Couple.” Feminist Studies. 32.1 (2006): 155–162. Vidal, Gore. “Some Jews and the Gays.” The Nation. 14 Nov. 1981. 24 Sept. 2012 ‹http://www.thenation.com/article/169197/some-jews-gays›. —. Palimpsest: A Memoir. New York and London: Random House, 1995. Villis, Amanda, and Danielle Hewitt. “Why Legalising Same Sex Marriage Will Benefit Health.”17 Aug. 2012. 24 Sept. 2012 ‹http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=14004›. Wright, Tim. “Same-Sex Couples Still Waiting at the Altar For a Basic Right.” The Age. 31 July 2009. 12 Sept. 2012 ‹http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/samesex-couples-still-waiting-at-the-altar-for-a-basic-right-20090730-e2xk.html›.

The Harry Potter (HP) Fan Fiction (FF) phenomenon offers an opportunity to explore the nature of fame and the work of fans (including the second author, a participant observer) in creating and circulating cultural products within fan communities. Matt Hills comments (xi) that “fandom is not simply a ‘thing’ that can be picked over analytically. It is also always performative; by which I mean that it is an identity which is (dis-)claimed, and which performs cultural work”. This paper explores the cultural work of fandom in relation to FF and fame. The global HP phenomenon – in which FF lists are a small part – has made creator J K Rowling richer than the Queen of England, according to the 2003 ‘Sunday Times Rich List’. The books (five so far) and the films (three) continue to accelerate the growth in Rowling’s fortune, which quadrupled from 2001-3: an incredible success for an author unknown before the publication of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone in 1997. Even the on-screen HP lead actor, Daniel Radcliffe, is now Britain’s second wealthiest teenager (after England’s Prince Harry). There are other globally successful books, such as the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and the Narnia collection, but neither of these series has experienced the momentum of the HP rise to fame. (See Endnote for an indication of the scale of fan involvement with HP FF, compared with Lord of the Rings.) Contemporary ‘Fame’ has been critically defined in relation to the western mass media’s requirement for ‘entertaining’ content, and the production and circulation of celebrity as opposed to ‘hard news’(Turner, Bonner and Marshall). The current perception is that an army of publicists and spin doctors are usually necessary, but not sufficient, to create and nurture global fame. Yet the HP phenomenon started out with no greater publicity investment than that garnered by any other promising first novelist: and given the status of HP as children’s publishing, it was probably less hyped than equivalent adult-audience publications. So are there particular characteristics of HP and his creator that predisposed the series and its author to become famous? And how does the fame status relate to fans’ incorporation of these cultural materials into their lives? Accepting that it is no more possible to predict the future fame of an author or (fictional) character than it is to predict the future financial success of a book, film or album, there is a range of features of the HP phenomenon that, in hindsight, helped accelerate the fame momentum, creating what has become in hindsight an unparalleled global media property. J K Rowling’s personal story – in the hands of her publicity machine – itself constituted a magical myth: the struggling single mother writing away (in longhand) in a Scottish café, snatching odd moments to construct the first book while her infant daughter slept. (Comparatively little attention was paid by the marketers to the author’s professional training and status as a teacher, or to Rowling’s own admission that the first book, and the outline for the series, took five years to write.) Rowling’s name itself, with no self-evident gender attribution, was also indicative of ambiguity and mystery. The back-story to HP, therefore, became one of a quintessentially romantic endeavour – the struggle to write against the odds. Publicity relating to the ‘starving in a garret’ background is not sufficient to explain the HP/Rowling grip on the popular imagination, however. Instead it is arguable that the growth of HP fame and fandom is directly related to the growth of the Internet and to the middle class readers’ Internet access. If the production of celebrity is a major project of the conventional mass media, the HP phenomenon is a harbinger of the hyper-fame that can be generated through the combined efforts of the mass media and online fan communities. The implication of this – evident in new online viral marketing techniques (Kirby), is that publicists need to pique cyber-interest as well as work with the mass media in the construction of celebrity. As the cheer-leaders for online viral marketing make the argument, the technique “provides the missing link between the [bottom-up] word-of-mouth approach and the top-down, advertainment approach”. Which is not to say that the initial HP success was a function of online viral marketing: rather, the marketers learned their trade by analysing the magnifier impact that the online fan communities had upon the exponential growth of the HP phenomenon. This cyber-impact is based both on enhanced connectivity – the bottom-up, word-of-mouth dynamic, and on the individual’s need to assume an identity (albeit fluid) to participate effectively in online community. Critiquing the notion that the computer is an identity machine, Streeter focuses upon (649) “identities that people have brought to computers from the culture at large”. He does not deal in any depth with FF, but suggests (651) that “what the Internet is and will come to be, then, is partly a matter of who we expect to be when we sit down to use it”. What happens when fans sit down to use the Internet, and is there a particular reason why the Internet should be of importance to the rise and rise of HP fame? From the point of view of one of us, HP was born at more or less the same time as she was. Eleven years old in the first book, published in 1997, Potter’s putative birth year might be set in 1986 – in line with many of the original HP readership, and the publisher’s target market. At the point that this cohort was first spellbound by Potter, 1998-9, they were also on the brink of discovering the Internet. In Australia and many western nations, over half of (two-parent) families with school-aged children were online by the end of 2000 (ABS). Potter would notionally have been 14: his fans a little younger but well primed for the ‘teeny-bopper’ years. Arguably, the only thing more famous than HP for that age-group, at that time, was the Internet itself. As knowledge of the Internet grew stories about it constituted both news and entertainment and circulated widely in the mass media: the uncertainty concerning new media, and their impact upon existing social structures, has – over time – precipitated a succession of moral panics … Established commercial media are not noted for their generosity to competitors, and it is unsurprising that many of the moral panics circulating about pornography on the Net, Internet stalking, Web addiction, hate sites etc are promulgated in the older media. (Green xxvii) Although the mass media may have successfully scared the impressionable, the Internet was not solely constructed as a site of moral panic. Prior to the general pervasiveness of the Internet in domestic space, P. David Marshall discusses multiple constructions of the computer – seen by parents as an educational tool which could help future-proof their children; but which their children were more like to conceptualise as a games machine, or (this was the greater fear) use for hacking. As the computer was to become a site for the battle ground between education, entertainment and power, so too the Internet was poised to be colonised by teenagers for a variety of purposes their parents would have preferred to prevent: chat, pornography, game-playing (among others). Fan communities thrive on the power of the individual fan to project themselves and their fan identity as part of an ongoing conversation. Further, in constructing the reasons behind what has happened in the HP narrative, and in speculating what is to come, fans are presenting themselves as identities with whom others might agree (positive affirmation) or disagree (offering the chance for engagement through exchange). The genuinely insightful fans, who apparently predict the plots before they’re published, may even be credited in their communities with inspiring J K Rowling’s muse. (The FF mythology is that J K Rowling dare not look at the FF sites in case she finds herself influenced.) Nancy Baym, commenting on a soap opera fan Usenet group (Usenet was an early 1990s precursor to discussion groups) notes that: The viewers’ relationship with characters, the viewers’ understanding of socioemotional experience, and soap opera’s narrative structure, in which moments of maximal suspense are always followed by temporal gaps, work together to ensure that fans will use the gaps during and between shows to discuss with one another possible outcomes and possible interpretations of what has been seen. (143) In HP terms the The Philosopher’s Stone constructed a fan knowledge that J K Rowling’s project entailed at least seven books (one for each year at Hogwarts School) and this offered plentiful opportunities to speculate upon the future direction and evolution of the HP characters. With each speculation, each posting, the individual fan can refine and extend their identity as a member of the FF community. The temporal gaps between the books and the films – coupled with the expanding possibilities of Internet communication – mean that fans can feel both creative and connected while circulating the cultural materials derived from their engagement with the HP ‘canon’. Canon is used to describe the HP oeuvre as approved by Rowling, her publishers, and her copyright assignees (for example, Warner Bros). In contrast, ‘fanon’ is the name used by fans to refer the body of work that results from their creative/subversive interactions with the core texts, such as “slash” (homo-erotic/romance) fiction. Differentiation between the two terms acknowledges the likelihood that J K Rowling or her assignees might not approve of fanon. The constructed identities of fans who deal solely with canon differ significantly from those who are engaged in fanon. The implicit (romantic) or explicit (full-action descriptions) sexualisation of HP FF is part of a complex identity play on behalf of both the writers and readers of FF. Further, given that the online communities are often nurtured and enriched by offline face to face exchanges with other participants, what an individual is prepared to read or not to read, or write or not write, says as much about that person’s public persona as does another’s overt consumption of pornography; or diet of art house films, in contrast to someone else’s enthusiasm for Friends. Hearn, Mandeville and Anthony argue that a “central assertion of postmodern views of consumption is that social identity can be interpreted as a function of consumption” (106), and few would disagree with them: herein lies the power of the brand. Noting that consumer culture centrally focuses upon harnessing ‘the desire to desire’, Streeter’s work (654, on the opening up of Internet connectivity) suggests a continuum from ‘desire provoked’; through anticipation, ‘excitement based on what people imagined would happen’; to a sense of ‘possibility’. All this was made more tantalising in terms of the ‘unpredictability’ of how cyberspace would eventually resolve itself (657). Thus a progression is posited from desire through to the thrill of comparing future possibilities with eventual outcomes. These forces clearly influence the HP FF phenomenon, where a section of HP fans have become impatient with the pace of the ‘official’/canon HP text. J K Rowling’s writing has slowed down to the point that Harry’s initial readership has overtaken him by several years. He’s about to enter his sixth year (of seven) at secondary school – his erstwhile-contemporaries have already left school or are about to graduate to University. HP is yet to have ‘a relationship’: his fans are engaged in some well-informed speculation as to a range of sexual possibilities which would likely take J K Rowling some light years from her marketers’ core readership. So the story is progressing more slowly than many fans would choose and with less spice than many would like (from the evidence of the web, at least). As indicated in the Endnote, the productivity of the fans, as they ‘fill in the gaps’ while waiting for the official narrative to resume, is prodigious. It may be that as the fans outstrip HP in their own social and emotional development they find his reactions in later books increasingly unbelievable, and/or out of character with the HP they felt they knew. Thus they develop an alternative ‘Harry’ in fanon. Some FF authors identify in advance which books they accept as canon, and which they have decided to ignore. For example, popular FF author Midnight Blue gives the setting of her evolving FF The Mirror of Maybe as “after Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and as an alternative to the events detailed in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, [this] is a Slash story involving Harry Potter and Severus Snape”. Some fans, tired of waiting for Rowling to get Harry grown up, ‘are doin’ it for themselves’. Alternatively, it may be that as they get older the first groups of HP fans are unwilling to relinquish their investment in the HP phenomenon, but are equally unwilling to align themselves uncritically with the anodyne story of the canon. Harry Potter, as Warner Bros licensed him, may be OK for pre-teens, but less cool for the older adolescent. The range of identities that can be constructed using the many online HP FF genres, however, permits wide scope for FF members to identify with dissident constructions of the HP narrative and helps to add to the momentum with which his fame increases. Latterly there is evidence that custodians of canon may be making subtle overtures to creators of fanon. Here, the viral marketers have a particular challenge – to embrace the huge market represented by fanon, while not disturbing those whose HP fandom is based upon the purity of canon. Some elements of fanon feel their discourses have been recognised within the evolving approved narrative . This sense within the fan community – that the holders of the canon have complimented them through an intertextual reference – is much prized and builds the momentum of the fame engagement (as has been demonstrated by Watson, with respect to the band ‘phish’). Specifically, Harry/Draco slash fans have delighted in the hint of a blown kiss from Draco Malfoy to Harry (as Draco sends Harry an origami bird/graffiti message in a Defence against the Dark Arts Class in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban) as an acknowledgement of their cultural contribution to the development of the HP phenomenon. Streeter credits Raymond’s essay ‘The Cathedral and the Bazaar’ as offering a model for the incorporation of voluntary labour into the marketplace. Although Streeter’s example concerns the Open Source movement, derived from hacker culture, it has parallels with the prodigious creativity (and productivity) of the HP FF communities. Discussing the decision by Netscape to throw open the source code of its software in 1998, allowing those who use it to modify and improve it, Streeter comments that (659) “the core trope is to portray Linux-style software development like a bazaar, a real-life competitive marketplace”. The bazaar features a world of competing, yet complementary, small traders each displaying their skills and their wares for evaluation in terms of the product on offer. In contrast, “Microsoft-style software production is portrayed as hierarchical and centralised – and thus inefficient – like a cathedral”. Raymond identifies “ego satisfaction and reputation among other [peers]” as a specific socio-emotional benefit for volunteer participants (in Open Source development), going on to note: “Voluntary cultures that work this way are not actually uncommon [… for example] science fiction fandom, which unlike hackerdom has long explicitly recognized ‘egoboo’ (ego-boosting, or the enhancement of one’s reputation among other fans) as the basic drive behind volunteer activity”. This may also be a prime mover for FF engagement. Where fans have outgrown the anodyne canon they get added value through using the raw materials of the HP stories to construct fanon: establishing and building individual identities and communities through HP consumption practices in parallel with, but different from, those deemed acceptable for younger, more innocent, fans. The fame implicit in HP fandom is not only that of HP, the HP lead actor Daniel Radcliffe and HP’s creator J K Rowling; for some fans the famed ‘state or quality of being widely honoured and acclaimed’ can be realised through their participation in online fan culture – fans become famous and recognised within their own community for the quality of their work and the generosity of their sharing with others. The cultural capital circulated on the FF sites is both canon and fanon, a matter of some anxiety for the corporations that typically buy into and foster these mega-media products. As Jim Ward, Vice-President of Marketing for Lucasfilm comments about Star Wars fans (cited in Murray 11): “We love our fans. We want them to have fun. But if in fact someone is using our characters to create a story unto itself, that’s not in the spirit of what we think fandom is about. Fandom is about celebrating the story the way it is.” Slash fans would beg to differ, and for many FF readers and writers, the joy of engagement, and a significant engine for the growth of HP fame, is partly located in the creativity offered for readers and writers to fill in the gaps. Endnote HP FF ranges from posts on general FF sites (such as fanfiction.net >> books, where HP has 147,067 stories [on 4,490 pages of hotlinks] posted, compared with its nearest ‘rival’ Lord of the rings: with 33,189 FF stories). General FF sites exclude adult content, much of which is corralled into 18+ FF sites, such as Restrictedsection.org, set up when core material was expelled from general sites. As an example of one adult site, the Potter Slash Archive is selective (unlike fanfiction.net, for example) which means that only stories liked by the site team are displayed. Authors submitting work are asked to abide by a list of ‘compulsory parameters’, but ‘warnings’ fall under the category of ‘optional parameters’: “Please put a warning if your story contains content that may be offensive to some authors [sic], such as m/m sex, graphic sex or violence, violent sex, character death, major angst, BDSM, non-con (rape) etc”. Adult-content FF readers/writers embrace a range of unexpected genres – such as Twincest (incest within either of the two sets of twin characters in HP) and Weasleycest (incest within the Weasley clan) – in addition to mainstream romance/homo-erotica pairings, such as that between Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy. (NB: within the time frame 16 August – 4 October, Harry Potter FF writers had posted an additional 9,196 stories on the fanfiction.net site alone.) References ABS. 8147.0 Use of the Internet by Householders, Australia. http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/ e8ae5488b598839cca25682000131612/ ae8e67619446db22ca2568a9001393f8!OpenDocument, 2001, 2001>. Baym, Nancy. “The Emergence of Community in Computer-Mediated Communication.” CyberSociety: Computer-Mediated Communication and Community. Ed. S. Jones. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 1995. 138-63. Blue, Midnight. “The Mirror of Maybe.” http://www.greyblue.net/MidnightBlue/Mirror/default.htm>. Coates, Laura. “Muggle Kids Battle for Domain Name Rights. Irish Computer. http://www.irishcomputer.com/domaingame2.html>. Fanfiction.net. “Category: Books” http://www.fanfiction.net/cat/202/>. Green, Lelia. Technoculture: From Alphabet to Cybersex. Sydney: Allen & Unwin. Hearn, Greg, Tom Mandeville and David Anthony. The Communication Superhighway: Social and Economic Change in the Digital Age. Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1997. Hills, Matt. Fan Cultures. London: Routledge, 2002. Houghton Mifflin. “Potlatch.” Encyclopedia of North American Indians. http://college.hmco.com/history/readerscomp/naind/html/ na_030900_potlatch.htm>. Kirby, Justin. “Brand Papers: Getting the Bug.” Brand Strategy July-August 2004. http://www.dmc.co.uk/pdf/BrandStrategy07-0804.pdf>. Marshall, P. David. “Technophobia: Video Games, Computer Hacks and Cybernetics.” Media International Australia 85 (Nov. 1997): 70-8. Murray, Simone. “Celebrating the Story the Way It Is: Cultural Studies, Corporate Media and the Contested Utility of Fandom.” Continuum 18.1 (2004): 7-25. Raymond, Eric S. The Cathedral and the Bazaar. 2000. http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/cathedral-bazaar/cathedral-bazaar/ar01s11.html>. Streeter, Thomas. The Romantic Self and the Politics of Internet Commercialization. Cultural Studies 17.5 (2003): 648-68. Turner, Graeme, Frances Bonner, and P. David Marshall. Fame Games: The Production of Celebrity in Australia. Melbourne: Cambridge UP. Watson, Nessim. “Why We Argue about Virtual Community: A Case Study of the Phish.net Fan Community.” Virtual Culture: Identity and Communication in Cybersociety. Ed. Steven G. Jones. London: Sage, 1997. 102-32. Citation reference for this article MLA Style Green, Lelia, and Carmen Guinery. "Harry Potter and the Fan Fiction Phenomenon." M/C Journal 7.5 (2004). echo date('d M. Y'); ?> <http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0411/14-green.php>. APA Style Green, L., and C. Guinery. (Nov. 2004) "Harry Potter and the Fan Fiction Phenomenon," M/C Journal, 7(5). Retrieved echo date('d M. Y'); ?> from <http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0411/14-green.php>.

Condie, Ally. 2016. Summerlost. New York: Dutton Children’s Books. Print.Cedar’s Mother has brought Cedar and her brother to Iron Creek, her hometown, for the summer. They have bought a house that her mother intends to rent over the rest of the year and keep it for them as a summer home. For Cedar, this is not just any ordinary summer vacation. Only a year ago, her father and brother Ben were killed in a car accident with a drunk driver. Haunted by memories of a father and brother no longer with them, the family is struggling to move forward, each of them dealing with the changes and the grief. Shortly after they arrive, Cedar finds a friend in Leo, a boy her age who is working at the local Shakespeare festival. Through Leo, she manages to get a job at the festival as well. She also learns about the legendary Lisette Chamberlain, a local girl who got her start in the festival, and later moved on to a career in Hollywood. As with many cases of stardom, Lisette had several romances and met a tragic end, when she was found dead in a local hotel. Cedar is fascinated by Chamberlain’s story, and she and Leo concoct a plan to offer private “Lisette” tours for festivalgoers, for extra money. Hiding their tours from festival officials and their parents prove difficult and then Cedar stumbles across a detail that might shed light on the mystery of Chamberlain’s death.Summerlost is a surprisingly layered story about a young girl’s formative summer. Intermixed between the sleuth work of Cedar and Leo, is the struggle of a family coming to terms with an immeasurable loss. Cedar must not only manage her own feelings of loss and confusion, but she is growing old enough to see her mother’s and brother’s struggles as well. The friendship between Leo and Cedar is quite wonderful, platonic and sincere. I will admit the Lisette Chamberlain mystery, while compelling in the beginning, became a bit tedious and felt anticlimactic in the end. Nevertheless, the story is touching mix of daydreams and hard truths. This story will appeal to both young and old. The young will see themselves in Cedar as they are now and adults will be taken back to their own childhoods, to relive their own bittersweet summers.Recommended: 3 out of 4 starsReviewer: Hanne PearceHanne Pearce has worked at the University of Alberta Libraries since 2004. Aside from being an avid reader, she has continuing interests in writing, photography, graphic design and knitting.

Eros -or alias Cupid or Amor- which is very popular in Roman art, portrayed usually as little chubby boys who’s playing adult roles in the form of putti images with wings or without wings, seen especially in circus-themed scenes and fighting or chase scenes, also while busy with all kinds of hunting varieties; in funerary art in the context of sarcopha-ge; they are depicted as mischievous children who turn dull ordinary and seasonal agri-cultural activities into joyful and exciting activities. It is seen that these aforementioned depiction practices continue in Byzantine art as well. In Byzantine artistic field, they were used sometimes in the context of euchariste in grape-harvesting season scenes; or taking part in the virtuous path to heaven within the scope of christological symbolism by being associated with the afterworld. The iconography of the Cupid figure in various Byzantine works from the Early Christian period catacombs to the end of the Middle Byzantine era, contains two concepts: The love of God and the earthly (or carnal) love. In accordance with its etymology in Byzantine Greek language, this word appears as a Christian adaptation; the word eros, which means love, did not divide this little Cupid figure into two, while trying to gain a religious or profane conceptual place in art; becau-se it is a quite familiar figure to people already as it was before Byzantium, even today, it represents all kinds of facets of love. However, in the Byzantine cultural environment shaped by the new religion Christianity, the concept of Eros penetrated the Christian texts and the concept of Θείος Έρως (Divine Eros) was used as a way of expressing the love between God and humankind. While this concept draws attention primarily in the philosophy of Pseudo-Dionysios Areapagite, and the hymnos of New Theologian Si-meon, also in addition the writings on morality by St. Gregory of Nazianzus, with the homilie of one of the Early Church Father Gregory of Nyssa and work of the scholar Origen of Alexandria were examined. The monastic practices have showed a symbolic approach to the cupid figure, revealing a rich religious text and extraordinary applicati-ons in religious art with its figurative content: the text of the work of Ioannes Clima-kos’s Divine Ladder and among the many manuscript copies provide valuable content. In secular literature, four Byzantine romances, whose main subject is love and the only Byzantine epic Digenes Akrites also a Byzantine Euripides Tragedy with Idyllles of Theocritus are showed a definition of eros with distinctive features and it is seen that this definition is in harmony with artistic productions in their periods. The depictions reflected on the examples of different product groups, such as metal, ivory, mosaic, ma-nuscript painting or fresco, dated to different periods of Byzantine art, reflect the con-ceptual dimensions of the figure. Although the blind Eros was never represented in Hel-lenistic and Roman art, the figure cupid shows an extraordinary example of blindness in Byzantine Art. This research paper is a study on the iconography of the artistic represen-tations of a figure bearing the memory of the polytheistic past, in accordance with the concepts undertaken in the process of maintaining the meaning of religion despite all its weight in the conservative Byzantine cultural environment.

She leant lazily across the picnic hamper and reached for my hearing aid in my open-palmed hand. I jerked away from her, batting her hand away from mine. The glare of the summer sun blinded me. I struck empty air. Her tendril-fingers seized the beige seashell curve of my hearing aid and she lifted the cargo of sound towards her eyes. She peered at the empty battery-cage before flicking it open and shut as if it was a cigarette lighter, as if she could spark hearing-life into this trick of plastic and metal that held no meaning outside of my ear. I stared at her. A band of horror tightened around my throat, strangling my shout: ‘Don’t do that!’ I clenched my fist around the new battery that I had been about to insert into my hearing aid and imagined it speeding like a bullet towards her heart. This dream arrived as I researched my anthology of memoir-style essays on deafness, The Art of Being. I had already been reflecting and writing for several years about my relationship with my deaf-self and the impact of my deafness on my life, but I remained uneasy about writing about my deaf-life. I’ve lived all my adult life entirely in the hearing world, and so recasting myself as a deaf woman with something pressing to say about deaf people’s lives felt disturbing. The urgency to tell my story and my anxiety to contest certain assumptions about deafness were real, but I was hampered by diffidence. The dream felt potent, as if my deaf-self was asserting itself, challenging my hearing persona. I was the sole deaf child in a family of five muddling along in a weatherboard war commission house at The Grange in Brisbane during the nineteen fifties and nineteen sixties. My father’s resume included being in the army during World War Two, an official for the boxing events at the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games and a bookie with a gift for telling stories. My mother had spent her childhood on a cherry orchard in Young, worked as a nurse in war-time Sydney and married my father in Townsville after a whirlwind romance on Magnetic Island before setting up home in Brisbane. My older sister wore her dark hair in thick Annie-Oakley style plaits and my brother took me on a hike along the Kedron Brook one summer morning before lunchtime. My parents did not know of any deaf relatives in their families, and my sister and brother did not have any friends with deaf siblings. There was just me, the little deaf girl. Most children are curious about where they come from. Such curiosity marks their first foray into sexual development and sense of identity. I don’t remember expressing such curiosity. Instead, I was diverted by my mother’s story of her discovery that I was deaf. The way my mother tells the story, it is as if I had two births with the date of the diagnosis of my deafness marking my real arrival, over-riding the false start of my physical birth three years earlier. Once my mother realized that I was deaf, she was able to get on with it, the ‘it’ being to defy the inevitability of a constrained life for her deaf child. My mother came out swinging; by hook or by crook, her deaf daughter was going to learn to speak and to be educated and to take her place in the hearing world and to live a normal life and that was that. She found out about the Commonwealth Acoustics Laboratory (now known as Australian Hearing Services) where, after I completed a battery of auditory tests, I was fitted with a hearing aid. This was a small metal box, to be worn in a harness around my body, with a long looping plastic cord connected to a beige ear-mould. An instrument for piercing silence, it absorbed and conveyed sounds, with those sounds eventually separating themselves out into patterns of words and finally into strings of sentences. Without my hearing aid, if I am concentrating, and if the sounds are made loudly, I am aware of the sounds at the deeper end of the scale. Sometimes, it’s not so much that I can hear them; it’s more that I know that those sounds are happening. My aural memory of the deep-register sounds helps me to “hear” them, much like the recollection of any tune replays itself in your imagination. With and without my hearing aids, if I am not watching the source of those sounds – for example, if the sounds are taking place in another room or even just behind me – I am not immediately able to distinguish whether the sounds are conversational or musical or happy or angry. I can only discriminate once I’ve established the rhythm of the sounds; if the rhythm is at a tearing, jagged pace with an exaggerated rise and fall in the volume, I might reasonably assume that angry words are being had. I cannot hear high-pitched sounds at all, with and without my hearing aids: I cannot hear sibilants, the “cees” and “esses” and “zeds”. I cannot hear those sounds which bounce or puff off from your lips, such as the letters “b” and “p”; I cannot hear that sound which trampolines from the press of your tongue against the back of your front teeth, the letter “t”. With a hearing-aid I can hear and discriminate among the braying, hee-hawing, lilting, oohing and twanging sounds of the vowels ... but only if I am concentrating, and if I am watching the source of the sounds. Without my hearing aid, I might also hear sharp and sudden sounds like the clap of hands or crash of plates, depending on the volume of the noise. But I cannot hear the ring of the telephone, or the chime of the door bell, or the urgent siren of an ambulance speeding down the street. My hearing aid helps me to hear some of these sounds. I was a pupil in an oral-deaf education program for five years until the end of 1962. During those years, I was variously coaxed, dragooned and persuaded into the world of hearing. I was introduced to a world of bubbles, balloons and fingers placed on lips to learn the shape, taste and feel of sounds, their push and pull of air through tongue and lips. By these mechanics, I gained entry to the portal of spoken, rather than signed, speech. When I was eight years old, my parents moved me from the Gladstone Road School for the Deaf in Dutton Park to All Hallows, an inner-city girls’ school, for the start of Grade Three. I did not know, of course, that I was also leaving my world of deaf friends to begin a new life immersed in the hearing world. I had no way of understanding that this act of transferring me from one school to another was a profound statement of my parents’ hopes for me. They wanted me to have a life in which I would enjoy all the advantages and opportunities routinely available to hearing people. Like so many parents before them, ‘they had to find answers that might not, for all they knew, exist . . . How far would I be able to lead a ‘normal’ life? . . . How would I earn a living? You can imagine what forebodings weighed on them. They could not know that things might work out better than they feared’ (Wright, 22). Now, forty-four years later, I have been reflecting on the impact of that long-ago decision made on my behalf by my parents. They made the right decision for me. The quality of my life reflects the rightness of their decision. I have enjoyed a satisfying career in social work and public policy embedded in a life of love and friendships. This does not mean that I believe that my parents’ decision to remove me from one world to another would necessarily be the right decision for another deaf child. I am not a zealot for the cause of oralism despite its obvious benefits. I am, however, stirred by the Gemini-like duality within me, the deaf girl who is twin to the hearing persona I show to the world, to tell my story of deafness as precisely as I can. Before I can do this, I have to find that story because it is not as apparent to me as might be expected. In an early published memoir-essay about my deaf girlhood, I Hear with My Eyes (in Schulz), I wrote about my mother’s persistence in making sure that I learnt to speak rather than sign, the assumed communication strategy for most deaf people back in the 1950s. I crafted a selection of anecdotes, ranging in tone, I hoped, from sad to tender to laugh-out-loud funny. I speculated on the meaning of certain incidents in defining who I am and the successes I have enjoyed as a deaf woman in a hearing world. When I wrote this essay, I searched for what I wanted to say. I thought, by the end of it, that I’d said everything that I wanted to say. I was ready to move on, to write about other things. However, I was delayed by readers’ responses to that essay and to subsequent public speaking engagements. Some people who read my essay told me that they liked its fresh, direct approach. Others said that they were moved by it. Friends were curious and fascinated to get the inside story of my life as a deaf person as it has not been a topic of conversation or inquiry among us. They felt that they’d learnt something about what it means to be deaf. Many responses to my essay and public presentations had relief and surprise as their emotional core. Parents have cried on hearing me talk about the fullness of my life and seem to regard me as having given them permission to hope for their own deaf children. Educators have invited me to speak at parent education evenings because ‘to have an adult who has a hearing impairment and who has developed great spoken language and is able to communicate in the community at large – that would be a great encouragement and inspiration for our families’ (Email, April 2007). I became uncomfortable about these responses because I was not sure that I had been as honest or direct as I could have been. What lessons on being deaf have people absorbed by reading my essay and listening to my presentations? I did not set out to be duplicitous, but I may have embraced the writer’s aim for the neatly curved narrative arc at the cost of the flinty self-regarding eye and the uncertain conclusion. * * * Let me start again. I was born deaf at a time, in the mid 1950s, when people still spoke of the ‘deaf-mute’ or the ‘deaf and dumb.’ I belonged to a category of children who attracted the gaze of the curious, the kind, and the cruel with mixed results. We were bombarded with questions we could either not hear and so could not answer, or that made us feel we were objects for exploration. We were the patronized beneficiaries of charitable picnics organized for ‘the disadvantaged and the handicapped.’ Occasionally, we were the subject of taunts, with words such as ‘spastic’ being speared towards us as if to be called such a name was a bad thing. I glossed over this muddled social response to deafness in my published essay. I cannot claim innocence as my defence. I knew I was glossing over it but I thought this was right and proper: after all, why stir up jagged memories? Aren’t some things better left unexpressed? Besides, keep the conversation nice, I thought. The nature of readers’ responses to my essay provoked me into a deeper exploration of deafness. I was shocked by the intensity of so many parents’ grief and anxiety about their children’s deafness, and frustrated by the notion that I am an inspiration because I am deaf but oral. I wondered what this implied about my childhood deaf friends who may not speak orally as well as I do, but who nevertheless enjoy fulfilling lives. I was stunned by the admission of a mother of a five year old deaf son who, despite not being able to speak, has not been taught how to Sign. She said, ‘Now that I’ve met you, I’m not so frightened of deaf people anymore.’ My shock may strike the average hearing person as naïve, but I was unnerved that so many parents of children newly diagnosed with deafness were grasping my words with the relief of people who have long ago lost hope in the possibilities for their deaf sons and daughters. My shock is not directed at these parents but at some unnameable ‘thing out there.’ What is going on out there in the big world that, 52 years after my mother experienced her own grief, bewilderment, anxiety and quest to forge a good life for her little deaf daughter, contemporary parents are still experiencing those very same fears and asking the same questions? Why do parents still receive the news of their child’s deafness as a death sentence of sorts, the death of hope and prospects for their child, when the facts show – based on my own life experiences and observations of my deaf school friends’ lives – that far from being a death sentence, the diagnosis of deafness simply propels a child into a different life, not a lesser life? Evidently, a different sort of silence has been created over the years; not the silence of hearing loss but the silence of lost stories, invisible stories, unspoken stories. I have contributed to that silence. For as long as I can remember, and certainly for all of my adult life, I have been careful to avoid being identified as ‘a deaf person.’ Although much of my career was taken up with considering the equity dilemmas of people with a disability, I had never assumed the mantle of advocacy for deaf people or deaf rights. Some of my early silence about deaf identity politics was consistent with my desire not to shine the torch on myself in this way. I did not want to draw attention to myself by what I did not have, that is, less hearing than other people. I thought that if I lived my life as fully as possible in the hearing world and with as little fuss as possible, then my success in blending in would be eloquence enough. If I was going to attract attention, I wanted it to be on the basis of merit, on what I achieved. Others would draw the conclusions that needed to be drawn, that is, that deaf people can take their place fully in the hearing world. I also accepted that if I was to be fully ‘successful’ – and I didn’t investigate the meaning of that word for many years – in the hearing world, then I ought to isolate myself from my deaf friends and from the deaf culture. I continued to miss them, particularly one childhood friend, but I was resolute. I never seriously explored the possibility of straddling both worlds, despite the occasional invitation to do so. For example, one of my childhood deaf friends, Damien, visited me at my parents’ home once, when we were both still in our teens. He was keen for me to join him in the Deaf Theatre, but I couldn’t muster the emotional dexterity that I felt this required. Instead, I let myself to be content to hear news of my childhood deaf friends through the grape-vine. This was, inevitably, a patchy process that lent itself to caricature. Single snippets of information about this person or that person ballooned into portrait-size depictions of their lives as I sketched the remaining blanks of their history with my imagination as my only tool. My capacity to be content with my imagination faltered. * * * Despite the construction of public images of deafness around the highly visible performance of hand-signed communication, the ‘how-small-can-we-go?’ advertorials of hearing aids and the cochlear implant with its head-worn speech processor, deafness is often described as ‘the invisible disability.’ My own experience bore this out. I became increasingly self-conscious about the singularity of my particular success, moderate in the big scheme of things though that may be. I looked around me and wondered ‘Why don’t I bump into more deaf people during the course of my daily life?’ After all, I am not a recluse. I have broad interests. I have travelled a lot, and have enjoyed a policy career for some thirty years, spanning the three tiers of government and scaling the competitive ladder with a reasonable degree of nimbleness. Such a career has got me out and about quite a bit: up and down the Queensland coast and out west, down to Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Adelaide and Hobart, and to the United Kingdom. And yet, not once in those thirty years did I get to share an office or a chance meeting or a lunch break with another deaf person. The one exception took place in the United Kingdom when I attended a national conference in which the keynote speaker was the Chairman of the Audit Commission, a man whose charisma outshines his profound deafness. After my return to Australia from the United Kingdom, a newspaper article about an education centre for deaf children in a leafy suburb of Brisbane, prompted me into action. I decided to investigate what was going on in the world of education for deaf children and so, one warm morning in 2006, I found myself waiting in the foyer for the centre’s clinical director. I flicked through a bundle of brochures and newsletters. They were loaded with images of smiling children wearing cochlear implants. Their message was clear: a cochlear implant brought joy, communication and participation in all that the world has to offer. This seemed an easy miracle. I had arrived with an open mind but now found myself feeling unexpectedly tense, as if I was about to walk a high-wire without the benefit of a safety net. Not knowing the reason for my fear, I swallowed it and smiled at the director in greeting upon her arrival. She is physically a small person but her energy is large. Her passion is bracing. That morning, she was quick to assert the power of cochlear implants by simply asking me, ‘Have you ever considered having an implant?’ When I shook my head, she looked at me appraisingly, ‘I’m sure you’d benefit from it’ before ushering me into a room shining with sun-dappled colour and crowded with a mess of little boys and girls. The children were arrayed in a democracy of shorts, shirts, and sandals. Only the occasional hair-ribbon or newly pressed skirt separated this girl from that boy. Some young mothers and fathers, their faces stretched with tension, stood or sat around the room’s perimeter watching their infant children. The noise in the room was orchestral, rising and falling to a mash of shouts, cries and squeals. A table had been set with several plastic plates in which diced pieces of browning apple, orange slices and melon chunks swam in a pond of juice. Some small children clustered around it, waiting to be served. When they finished their morning fruit, they were rounded up to sit at the front of the room, before a teacher poised with finger-puppets of ducks. I tripped over a red plastic chair – its tiny size designed to accommodate an infant’s bottom and small-sausage legs – and lowered myself onto it to take in the events going on around me. The little boys and girls laughed merrily as they watched their teacher narrate the story of a mother duck and her five baby ducks. Her hands moved in a flurry of duck-billed mimicry. ‘“Quack! Quack! Quack!” said the mother duck!’ The parents trilled along in time with the teacher. As I watched the children at the education centre that sunny morning, I saw that my silence had acted as a brake of sorts. I had, for too long, buried the chance to understand better the complex lives of deaf people as we negotiate the claims and demands of the hearing world. While it is true that actions speak louder than words, the occasional spoken and written word must surely help things along a little. I also began to reflect on the apparent absence of the inter-generational transfer of wisdom and insights born of experience rather than academic studies. Why does each new generation of parents approach the diagnosis of their newborn child’s disability or deafness with such intensity of fear, helplessness and dread for their child’s fate? I am not querying the inevitability of parents experiencing disappointment and shock at receiving unexpected news. I accept that to be born deaf means to be born with less than perfect hearing. All the same, it ought not to be inevitable that parents endure sustained grief about their child’s prospects. They ought to be illuminated as quickly as possible about all that is possible for their child. In particular, they ought to be encouraged to enjoy great hopes for their child. I mused about the power of story-telling to influence attitudes. G. Thomas Couser claims that ‘life writing can play a significant role in changing public attitudes about deafness’ (221) but then proceeds to cast doubt on his own assertion by later asking, ‘to what degree and how do the extant narratives of deafness rewrite the discourse of disability? Indeed, to what degree and how do they manage to represent the experience of deafness at all?’ (225). Certainly, stories from the Deaf community do not speak for me as my life has not been shaped by the framing of deafness as a separate linguistic and cultural entity. Nor am I drawn to the militancy of identity politics that uses terms such as ‘oppression’ and ‘oppressors’ to deride the efforts of parents and educators to teach deaf children to speak (Lane; Padden and Humphries). This seems to be unhelpfully hostile and assumes that deafness is the sole arbitrating reason that deaf people struggle with understanding who they are. It is the nature of being human to struggle with who we are. Whether we are deaf, migrants, black, gay, mentally ill – or none of these things – we are all answerable to the questions: ‘who am I and what is my place in the world?’ As I cast around for stories of deafness and deaf people with which I could relate, I pondered on the relative infrequency of deaf characters in literature, and the scarcity of autobiographies by deaf writers or biographies of deaf people by either deaf or hearing people. I also wondered whether written stories of deafness, memoirs and fiction, shape public perceptions or do they simply respond to existing public perceptions of deafness? As Susan DeGaia, a deaf academic at California State University writes, ‘Analysing the way stories are told can show us a lot about who is most powerful, most heard, whose perspective matters most to society. I think if we polled deaf/Deaf people, we would find many things missing from the stories that are told about them’ (DeGaia). Fighting my diffidence in staking out my persona as a ‘deaf woman’ and mustering the ‘conviction as to the importance of what [I have] to say, [my] right to say it’ (Olsen 27), I decided to write The Art of Being Deaf, an anthology of personal essays in the manner of reflective memoirs on deafness drawing on my own life experiences and supported by additional research. This presented me with a narrative dilemma because my deafness is just one of several life-events by which I understand myself. I wanted to find fresh ways of telling stories of deaf experiences while fashioning my memoir essays to show the texture of my life in all its variousness. A.N.Wilson’s observation about the precarious insensitivity of biographical writing was my guiding pole-star: the sense of our own identity is fluid and tolerant, whereas our sense of the identity of others is always more fixed and quite often edges towards caricature. We know within ourselves that we can be twenty different persons in a single day and that the attempt to explain our personality is doomed to become a falsehood after only a few words ... . And yet ... works of literature, novels and biographies depend for their aesthetic success precisely on this insensitive ability to simplify, to describe, to draw lines around another person and say, ‘This is she’ or ‘This is he.’ I have chosen to explore my relationship with my deafness through the multiple-threads of writing several personal essays as my story-telling vehicle rather than as a single-thread autobiography. The multiple-thread approach to telling my stories also sought to avoid the pitfalls of identity narrative in which I might unwittingly set myself up as an exemplar of one sort or another, be it as a ‘successful deaf person’ or as an ‘angry militant deaf activist’ or as ‘a deaf individual in denial attempting to pass as hearing.’ But in seeking to avoid these sorts of stories, what autobiographical story am I trying to tell? Because, other than being deaf, my life is not otherwise especially unusual. It is pitted here with sadness and lifted there with joy, but it is mostly a plateau held stable by the grist of daily life. Christopher Jon Heuer recognises this dilemma when he writes, ‘neither autobiography nor biography nor fiction can survive without discord. Without it, we are left with boredom. Without it, what we have is the lack of a point, a theme and a plot’ (Heuer 196). By writing The Art of Being Deaf, I am learning more than I have to teach. In the absence of deaf friends or mentors, and in the climate of my own reluctance to discuss my concerns with hearing people who, when I do flag any anxieties about issues arising from my deafness tend to be hearty and upbeat in their responses, I have had to work things out for myself. In hindsight, I suspect that I have simply ignored most of my deafness-related difficulties, leaving the heavy lifting work to my parents, teachers, and friends – ‘for it is the non-deaf who absorb a large part of the disability’ (Wright, 5) – and just got on with things by complying with what was expected of me, usually to good practical effect but at the cost of enriching my understanding of myself and possibly at the cost of intimacy. Reading deaf fiction and memoirs during the course of this writing project is proving to be helpful for me. I enjoy the companionability of it, but not until I got over my fright at seeing so many documented versions of deaf experiences, and it was a fright. For a while there, it was like walking through the Hall of Mirrors in Luna Park. Did I really look like that? Or no, perhaps I was like that? But no, here’s another turn, another mirror, another face. Spinning, twisting, turning. It was only when I stopped searching for the right mirror, the single defining portrait, that I began to enjoy seeing my deaf-self/hearing-persona experiences reflected in, or challenged by, what I read. Other deaf writers’ recollections are stirring into fresh life my own buried memories, prompting me to re-imagine them so that I can examine my responses to those experiences more contemplatively and less reactively than I might have done originally. We can learn about the diversity of deaf experiences and the nuances of deaf identity that rise above the stock symbolic scripts by reading authentic, well-crafted stories by memoirists and novelists. Whether they are hearing or deaf writers, by providing different perspectives on deafness, they have something useful to say, demonstrate and illustrate about deafness and deaf people. I imagine the possibility of my book, The Art of Being Deaf, providing a similar mentoring role to other deaf people and families.References Couser, G. Thomas. Recovering Bodies: Illness, Disablity, and Life Writing. Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press, 1997. Heuer, Christopher Jon. ‘Deafness as Conflict and Conflict Component.’ Sign Language Studies 7.2 (Winter 2007): 195-199. Lane, Harlan. When the Mind Hears: A History of the Deaf. New York: Random House, 1984 Olsen, Tillie. Silences. New York: Delta/Seymour Lawrence. 1978. Padden, Carol, and Tom Humphries. Deaf in America: Voices from a Culture. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1998. Schulz, J. (ed). A Revealed Life. Sydney: ABC Books and Griffith Review. 2007 Wilson, A.N. Incline Our Hearts. London: Penguin Books. 1988. Wright, David. Deafness: An Autobiography. New York: Stein and Day, 1969.

Western images of Japan tell a seemingly incongruous story of love, sex and marriage – one full of contradictions and conflicting moral codes. We sometimes hear intriguing stories about the unique sexual culture of Japan – from vending machines that dispense soiled schoolgirl panties (Gerster 143), erotic manga (Ito 70; Newitz 2) to automated love hotels (Kersten 387) available for the discreet quickie. These Western portrayals seem to focus primarily on the unusual and quirky side of Japan’s culture constructing this modern Asian culture as simultaneously traditional and seemingly liberated. But what happens, when Japanese love goes global – when exotic others (Westerners) enter the picture? This article is shaped by an understanding of a new world space where cultural products and national images are becoming increasingly globalised, while at the same time more localised and “fragmented into contestatory enclaves of difference, coalition and resistance” (Wilson, 1). It examines ‘the local’, briefly exploring the racial and gender ideologies that pattern relationships between Western and Japanese adults living in Japan focussing on the unique perspective of Western women living and working in provincial Japan. Our research is based on four month’s ethnographic field work carried out within a small provincial Japanese city (which was home to 130 native English speakers, most of whom are employed as English language teachers) and interviews with 12 key participants. Japanese colloquialisms like sebun-irebun (seven eleven), burasagarizoku (arm hangers) and yellow cabs (women as easy to hail as taxis – by foreigners) are used to denote the sexual availability of some Japanese women (Kelskey, Flirting with the Foreign 178). Western women in this study have also invented a colloquialism to allude to sexual availability, with the term ‘zero to hero’ used to describe many Western men who, upon arrival in Japan, find themselves highly sought after by some Japanese women as prospective partners. Western women’s social appeal in the local heterosexual community, on the other hand, is in direct contrast to their male equivalents. A greater social distance exists between Japanese males and Western females, who report finding little genuine opportunity to date local males. Letting the c(h)at out of the bag While living and socialising with English language teachers we became privy to women’s conversation about interracial gender issues within Japan. Western women’s reflections about gender issues within Japan have, so far, been given little or no public voice. This is due, in part, to these women’s cultural and gender isolation while living in Japan, and a general reluctance to publicly voice their opinions, combined with issues about how much it is ‘politically correct’ to say. This reticence can be attributed to a genuine fear of being misconstrued as envious, either of their male colleagues’ newfound social status or Japanese women’s attractiveness. It may also be that, by voicing these observations about interracial gender relationships in Japan, these women will publicly position themselves as powerless and thus lose any voice they do have. Western women who arrive in Japan with expectations of living active (heterosexual) sex lives often find themselves left out in the cold (My Nippon), and while many of their male colleagues are busy pursuing and being pursued by Japanese women their own social interaction with Japanese males is often restricted to awkward conversations with seemingly wary, shy or aloof Japanese men or crude suggestive conversations at the hands of drunken Japanese males. Some women experience their sense of self-esteem, which relies partly on sexual identity and a sense of attractiveness, plummets in these circumstances. Clarissa, a 24-year-old Australian who spent a few months waiting for her partner to join her in Japan, noticed this happening to her. She was interviewed a week after her partner arrived in Japan. I noticed that a while ago I was feeling unattractive because nobody does anything to indicate desire or attractiveness but as soon as they get drunk they can’t get enough of you…. Sober they wouldn’t do anything but when they are drunk … they crack onto you like any Western guy. Participants in the study have proffered thoughtful explanations for this lack of Japanese male/Western female connection, other than in the comparatively uninhibited space of being ‘alcohol affected’. The reasons given include the independent personalities of those Western women who choose to move to Japan, patriarchal attitudes towards women in Japan and a general lack of communication due to cultural or language difficulties. A lot of the women who come over here are very strong and independent and they are feared [by Japanese men] the moment they get off the plane….We didn’t come over here because we are timid and shy and looking for men. Toni (above) also makes clear that her own Western expectations for romantic relationships may exclude her from having relationships with many Japanese males of less than fluent English speaking skills. I’m a talker and I like to talk about ideas and books and I would find it very difficult to have…. a more intense relationship with a person that I couldn’t communicate with on that level. Western notions of romance and marriage, particularly Western women’s expectations concerning sex and romance, involve demonstration of warmth and affection, as well as a meeting of minds or in-depth conversation. Lack of a shared language and different expectations of romantic liaisons and love are some of the factors that can combine to create cross-cultural distance and misunderstanding between Western women and Japanese men. Zero to heroes Japanese women often seek Western men living in this transnational borderland as an alternative to Japanese boyfriends and husbands (Kelskey, Japanese Women's Diaspora). Western women in this study used the term ‘zero to hero’ to depict sought-after Western men, specifically those Western males who misuse this rise in status and behave badly in Japan. These men, as reported, are greatly over-represented in Japan when compared to their respective home communities. Above average-looking European guy, with above average intelligence seeks above average-looking Japanese lady who can cook a little. (Tokyo classifieds) Open discussion about the appeal of Western men to Japanese women seems to elicit critical reactions on either side of the racial and gender divide. For instance online chat discussions about interracial gender issues in Japan evidences the fiercely defensive position many Western men take when confronted with this notion. (see Aldwinckle a, Aldwinkle b, Aldwinkle c). It is clear, therefore, that this phenomenon is not limited to our research location. Women participants in this particular study detailed many examples of ‘zero to heroes’ behaving badly including: overrated opinion of themselves; insulting and degrading behaviour towards women in public – particularly Japanese women; inability to work cooperatively with women superiors in the workplace; sexual liaisons outside of monogamous relationships and in some cases complicated webs of infidelity. You know one guy’s left his wife, his Japanese wife. I didn’t even realize he was married because he had a Japanese girlfriend. I thought he was playing up on his Japanese girlfriend when I saw him with someone else, but he was actually playing up on both his wife and his girlfriend…. I mean the guys are behaving in ways that they wouldn’t get away with in their own countries. So the women from those countries are, of course, appalled (Marie). Japanese women’s desire for the company of Western males seems based on essentialised notions of the Western male as being more gentle, romantic and egalitarian than Japanese males. Analysis by Creighton, along with our own observations, indicates that there is ‘prevalent use of foreigners, particularly white foreigners, or gaijin, in Japanese advertising (135)’, constructing a discourse of the ‘desirable other’. Western images and ideals are also communicated through media texts (particularly Japanese women’s magazines) and promote ideals like individuality, leisure, international sophistication and sexual expression. It is clear from this research and other studies (Kelskey, Japanese Women's Diaspora) that Japanese women (living in Japan) perceive Western men as being more affectionate, kind and egalitarian than Japanese males. However, the notion of a caring and romantic Western male does not seem to be based in the reality of the situation as described by in situ Western females. Here the zero to hero construction of Western masculinity holds sway. Western females in this transnational borderland portray many of their male counterparts as general losers. One participant explained the phenomenon thus: I think that consciously or subconsciously the reason a lot of these men come over here is because they can’t really find a relationship at home. [She explains further] somebody [Western male] told me that I remind them of everything that they are not back in their own country. Gerster describes the attraction Japanese women have for the West (America in particular) as a ‘fatal attraction’ because most of these women will not realize their desire to marry their Western boyfriends or lovers (146-148). These women’s desire for the West (which is accomplishable and articulated through a Western partner) seems doomed from the start and it is questionable as to whether these relationships fulfil the aspirations of many of these women. Nevertheless, some Japanese women and Western men are more aware of this and are relatively explicit about their own desires. Japanese cute girl seeking native speakers [native English speakers] who don’t lie, never betray, are funny and handsome. If you are a man like that, try me. (Tokyo classifieds) American, 33, from California looking for Japanese girl, 20s, for having fun together. No marriage-minded girls please. Japanese ok. (Tokyo classifieds) Conclusion The Japanese national desire to be viewed as progressive and modern is, as with most societies, closely aligned with material commodities, particularly Western commodities. This means that within Japan “Western images probably have more advantage over indigenous ones” (Gerster 165) particularly for Japanese women. The local assumptions and generalisations about the Western men and women living and teaching in this transnational borderland are seemingly constructed by essentialised understandings of Western masculinity and femininity and differentiating these with Japanese notions of masculinity and femininity. However, as Kelsky (Japanese Women's Diaspora) and the participants in this study suggest, those Japanese women (who desire the West) may find their expectations do not match the realities of dating Western males in Japan since many Western men do not seem to live up to this essentialized view of the Western male as a romantic and egalitarian male partner who is ready to commit to marriage. Works Cited Aldwinckle, Dave. ‘Gender Issues in Japan, Part one: The loneliness of the long-distance runner (Publication of Exerts from Postings on Issho Mailing List)’ Arudou Debito/Dave Aldwinckle's Activists’ Page (meaning information for people concerned with social issues who want to help make life better for everyone in Japan). 1998. http://www.debito.org/genderissues.html 21.02 2001. ----. ‘Gender Issues in Japan, Part two: greatest hits and apologia (Publication of Exerts from Postings on Issho Mailing List)’ Arudou Debito/Dave Aldwinckle's Activists’ Page (meaning information for people concerned with social issues who want to help make life better for everyone in Japan). 1998. http://www.debito.org/genderissuestwo.html 21.02 2001. ----. ‘Gender Issues in Japan Part three: my comeuppance (Publication of Exerts from Postings on Issho Mailing List)’ Arudou Debito/Dave Aldwinckle's Activists’ Page (meaning information for people concerned with social issues who want to help make life better for everyone in Japan). 1998. http://www.debito.org/genderissuesthree.... 21.02 2001. Creighton, Millie R. ‘Imaging the Other in Japanese Advertising Campaigns’. Occidentalism: Images of the West. Ed. James G. Carrier. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995. Gerster, Robin. Legless in Ginza: Orientating Japan. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1999. Ito., Kinko. ‘The World of Japanese Ladies' Comics: From Romantic Fantasy to Lustful Perversion’. Journal of Popular Culture 36.1 (2002): 68--86. ‘Japan Lovers Sex Life in Japan? Really!’. My Nippon E-zine . 2001. http://www.mynippon.com/index.htm. 28.04 2001. Kelsky, Karen. ‘Intimate Ideologies: Transnational Theory and Japan's "Yellow Cabs"’. Public Culture 6 (1994): 465-78. ----. ‘Flirting with the Foreign: Interracial Sex in Japan's "International" Age’. Global/Local: Cultural Production and the Transnational Imagery. Eds. Rob Wilson and Winmal Dissanayake. Durham: Duke University Press, 1996. 173 - 92. ----. ‘Japanese Women's Diaspora: An Interview’. Intersections 4 (2000): http://wwwsshe.murdoch.edu.au/intersecti... . 26.02 2002 Kersten., Joachim. ‘Culture, Masculinities and Violence against Women. (Masculinities, Social Relations and Crime)’. British Journal of Criminology, Summer 36.3 (1996): 381-96. ‘Men looking for women’. Tokyo Metropolis (2002) http://www.metropolis.co.jp/tokyo/curren... 11.10.2002 Newitz, Annalee. "Magicial Girls and Atomic Bomb Sperm: Japanese Animation in America." Film quarterly 49.1 (1995): 2-15. Wilson, Rob, and Wimal Dissanayake. ‘Introduction: Tracking the Global/Local’. Global/Local: Cultural Production and the Transnational Imagery. Eds. Rob Wilson and Wimal Dissanayake. Durham: Duke University Press, 1996. 1-18. ‘Women looking for men’. Metropolis. (2002) http://www.metropolis.co.jp/tokyo/curren... 11.10.2002 Links http://www.debito.org/genderissues.html http://www.metropolis.co.jp/tokyo/current/classifieds/13.03_personals.asp http://www.metropolis.co.jp/tokyo/current/classifieds/13.02_personals.asp http://www.elle.co.jp/home/index2.php3 http://wwwsshe.murdoch.edu.au/intersections/ http://www3.tky.3web.ne.jp/~edjacob/hotels.html http://www.dnp.co.jp/museum/nmp/nmp_i/articles/manga/manga2-1.html http://www.debito.org/genderissuesthree.html http://www.sshe.murdoch.edu.au/intersections/ http://www.mynippon.com/index.htm http://www.debito.org/genderissuestwo.html Citation reference for this article Substitute your date of access for Dn Month Year etc... MLA Style Holloway, Donell and Holloway, David. "Zero to hero" M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 5.6 (2002). Dn Month Year < http://www.media-culture.org.au/0211/zerotohero.php>. APA Style Holloway, D. & Holloway, D., (2002, Nov 20). Zero to hero. M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture, 5,(6). Retrieved Month Dn, Year, from http://www.media-culture.org.au/0211/zerotohero.html

Historical fiction, a widely-read genre, continues to engender contradiction and controversy within the fields of literature and historiography. This paper begins with a discussion of the differences and similarities between historical writing and the historical novel, focusing on the way these forms interpret and represent the past. It then examines the dilemma facing historians as they try to come to terms with the modern era and the growing competition from other modes of presenting history. Finally, it considers claims by Australian historians that so-called “fictive history” has been bestowed with historical authority to the detriment of traditional historiography. The Fact/Fiction Dichotomy Hayden White, a leading critic in the field of historiography, claims that the surge in popularity of historical fiction and the novel form in the nineteenth century caused historians to seek recognition of their field as a serious “science” (149). Historians believed that, to be scientific, historical studies had to cut ties with any form of artistic writing or imaginative literature, especially the romantic novel. German historian Leopold von Ranke “anathematized” the historical novel virtually from its first appearance in Scott’s Waverley in 1814. Hayden White argues that Ranke and others after him wrote history as narrative while eschewing the use of imagination and invention that were “exiled into the domain of ‘fiction’ ” (149-150). Early critics in the nineteenth century questioned the value of historical fiction. Famous Cuban poet Jose Maria Heredia believed that history was opposite and superior to fiction; he accused the historical novel of degrading history to the level of fiction which, he argued, is lies (cited in de Piérola 152). Alessandro Manzoni, though partially agreeing with Heredia, argued that fiction had value in its “poetic truth” as opposed to the “positive truth” of history (153). He eventually decided that the historical novel fails through the mixing of the incompatible elements of history and fiction, which can lead to deception (ibid). More than a hundred years after Heredia, Georg Lukács, in his much-cited The Historical Novel, first published in 1937, was more concerned with the social aspect of the historical novel and its capacity to portray the lives of its protagonists. This form of writing, through its attention to the detail of minor events, was better at highlighting the social aspects than the greater moments of history. Lukács argues that the historical novel should focus on the “poetic awakening” of those who participated in great historical events rather than the events themselves (42). The reader should be able to experience first-hand “the social and human motives which led men to think, feel and act just as they did in historical reality” (ibid). Through historical fiction, the reader is thus able to gain a greater understanding of a specific period and why people acted as they did. In contrast to these early critics, historian and author of three books on history and three novels, Richard Slotkin, argues that the historical novel can recount the past as accurately as history, because it should involve similar research methods and critical interpretation of the data (225). Kent den Heyer and Alexandra Fidyk go even further, suggesting that “historical fiction may offer a more plausible representation of the past than those sources typically accepted as more factual” (144). In its search for “poetic truth,” the novel tries to create a sense of what the past was, without necessarily adhering to all the factual details and by eliminating facts not essential to the story (Slotkin 225). For Hayden White, the difference between factual and fictional discourse, is that one is occupied by what is “true” and the other by what is “real” (147). Historical documents may provide a basis for a “true account of the world” in a certain time and place, but they are limited in their capacity to act as a foundation for the exploration of all aspects of “reality.” In White’s words: The rest of the real, after we have said what we can assert to be true about it, would not be everything and anything we could imagine about it. The real would consist of everything that can be truthfully said about its actuality plus everything that can be truthfully said about what it could possibly be. (ibid) White’s main point is that both history and fiction are interpretative by nature. Historians, for their part, interpret given evidence from a subjective viewpoint; this means that it cannot be unbiased. In the words of Beverley Southgate, “factual history is revealed as subjectively chosen, subjectively interpreted, subjectively constructed and incorporated within a narrative” (45). Both fiction and history are narratives, and “anyone who writes a narrative is fictionalising,” according to Keith Jenkins (cited in Southgate 32). The novelist and historian find meaning through their own interpretation of the known record (Brown) to produce stories that are entertaining and structured. Moreover, historians often reach conflicting conclusions in their translations of the same archival documents, which, in the extreme, can spark a wider dispute such as the so-called history wars, the debate about the representation of the Indigenous peoples in Australian history that has polarised both historians and politicians. The historian’s purpose differs from that of the novelist. Historians examine the historical record in fine detail in an attempt to understand its complexities, and then use digressions and footnotes to explain and lend authority to their findings. The novelist on the other hand, uses their imagination to create personalities and plot and can leave out important details; the novelist achieves authenticity through detailed description of setting, customs, culture, buildings and so on (Brown). Nevertheless, the main task of both history and historical fiction is to represent the past to a reader in the present; this “shared concern with the construction of meaning through narrative” is a major component in the long-lasting, close relationship between fiction and history (Southgate 19). However, unlike history, the historical novel mixes fiction and fact, and is therefore “a hybrid of two genres” (de Piérola 152); this mixture of supposed opposites of fact and fiction creates a dilemma for the theorist, because historical fiction cannot necessarily be read as belonging to either category. Attitudes towards the line drawn between fiction and history are changing as more and more critics and theorists explore the area where the two genres intersect. Historian John Demos argues that with the passing of time, this distinction “seems less a boundary than a borderland of surprising width and variegated topography” (329). While some historians are now willing to investigate the wide area where the two genres overlap, this approach remains a concern for traditionalists. History’s Dilemma Historians face a crisis as they try to come to terms with the postmodern era which has seen unprecedented questioning of the validity of history’s claim to accuracy in recounting the past. In the words of Jenkins et al., “ ‘history’ per se wobbles” as it experiences a period of uncertainty and challenge; the field is “much changed and deeply contested,” as historians seek to understand the meaning of history itself (6). But is postmodernism the cause of the problem? Writing in 1986 Linda Hutcheon, well known for her work on postmodernism, attempted to clarify the term as it is applied in modern times in reference to fiction, where, she states, it is usually taken to mean “metafiction, or texts which are in some dominant and constitutive way self-referential and auto-representational” (301). To eliminate any confusion with regard to concept or terminology, Hutcheon coined the phrase “historiographic metafiction," which includes “the presence of the past” in “historical, social, and ideological” form (302). As examples, she cites contemporary novels The French Lieutenant’s Woman, The White Hotel, Midnight’s Children and Famous Last Words. Hutcheon explains that all these works “self-consciously focus on the processes of producing and receiving paradoxically fictive historical writing” (ibid). In the Australian context, Peter Carey’s True History of the Kelly Gang and Richard Flanagan’s Gould’s Book of Fish could be added to the list. Like the others, they question how historical sources maintain their status as authentic historical documents in the context of a fictional work (302). However, White argues that the crisis in historical studies is not due to postmodernism but has materialised because historians have failed to live up to their nineteenth century expectations of history being recognised as a science (149). Postmodernists are not against history, White avows; what they do not accept “is a professional historiography” that serves self-seeking governing bodies with its outdated and severely limited approach to objectivity (152). This kind of historiography has denied itself access to aesthetic writing and the imaginary, while it has also cut any links it had “to what was most creative in the real sciences it sought half-heartedly to emulate” (ibid). Furthering White’s argument, historian Robert Rosenstone states that past certitude in the claims of historians to be the sole guardians of historical truth now seem outdated in the light of our accumulated knowledge. The once impregnable position of the historian is no longer tenable because: We know too much about framing images and stories, too much about narrative, too much about the problematics of causality, too much about the subjectivity of perception, too much about our own cultural imperatives and biases, too much about the disjuncture between language and the world it purports to describe to believe we can actually capture the world of the past on the page. (Rosenstone 12) While the archive confers credibility on history, it does not confer the right to historians to claim it as the truth (Southgate 6); there are many possible versions of the past, which can be presented to us in any number of ways as history (Jenkins et al. 1). And this is a major challenge for historians as other modes of representing the past cater to public demand in place of traditional approaches. Public interest in history has grown over the last 20 years (Harlan 109). Historical novels fill the shelves of bookstores and libraries, while films, television series and documentaries about the past attract large audiences. In the words of Rosenstone, “people are hungry for the past, as various studies tell us and the responses to certain films, TV series and museums indicate” (17). Rosenstone laments the fact that historians, despite this attraction to the past, have failed to stir public interest in their own writings. While works of history have their strengths, they target a specific, extremely limited audience in an outdated format (17). They have forgotten the fact that, in the words of White, “the conjuring up of the past requires art as well as information” (149). This may be true of some historians, but there are many writers of non-fiction, including historians, who use the narrative voice and other fictional techniques in their writings (Ricketson). Matthew Ricketson accuses White of confusing “fiction with literariness,” while other scholars take fiction and narrative to be the same thing. He argues that “the use of a wide range of modes of writing usually associated with fiction are not the sole province of fiction” and that narrative theorists have concentrated their attention on fictional narrative, thereby excluding factual forms of writing (ibid). One of the defining elements of creative non-fiction is its use of literary techniques in writing about factual events and people. At the same time, this does not make it fiction, which by definition, relies on invention (ibid). However, those historians who do write outside the limits of traditional history can attract criticism. Historian Richard Current argues that if writers of history and biography try to be more effective through literary considerations, they sometimes lose their objectivity and authenticity. While it is acceptable to seek to write with clarity and force, it is out of the question to present “occasional scenes in lifelike detail” in the manner of a novelist. Current contends that if only one source is used, this violates “the historiographical requirement of two or more independent and competent witnesses.” This requirement is important because it explains why much of the writing by academic historians is perceived as “dry-as-dust” (Current 87). Modern-day historians are contesting this viewpoint as they analyse the nature and role of their writings, with some turning to historical fiction as an alternative mode of expression. Perhaps one of the more well-known cases in recent times was that of historian Simon Schama, who, in writing Dead Certainties (Unwarranted Speculations), was criticised for creating dramatic scenes based on dubious historical sources without informing the reader of his fabrications (Nelson). In this work, Schama questions notions of factual history and the limitations of historians. The title is suggestive in itself, while the afterword to the book is explicit, as “historians are left forever chasing shadows, painfully aware of their inability ever to reconstruct a dead world in its completeness however thorough or revealing their documentation . . . We are doomed to be forever hailing someone who has just gone around the corner and out of earshot” (320). Another example is Rosenstone’s Mirror in the Shrine, which was considered to be “postmodern” and not acceptable to publishers and agents as the correct way to present history, despite the author’s reassurance that nothing was invented, “it just tells the story a different way” ("Space for the Birds to Fly" 16). Schama is not the only author to draw fire from critics for neglecting to inform the reader of the veracity or not of their writing. Richard Current accused Gore Vidal of getting his facts wrong and of inaccurately portraying Lincoln in his work, Lincoln: A Novel (81). Despite the title, which is a form of disclaimer itself, Current argued that Vidal could have avoided criticism if he had not asserted that his work was authentic history, or had used a disclaimer in a preface to deny any connection between the novel’s characters and known persons (82). Current is concerned about this form of writing, known as “fictional history," which, unlike historical fiction, “pretends to deal with real persons and events but actually reshapes them—and thus rewrites the past” (77). This concern is shared by historians in Australia. Fictive History Historian Mark McKenna, in his essay, Writing the Past, argues that “fictive history” has become a new trend in Australia; he is unhappy with the historical authority bestowed on this form of writing and would like to see history restored to its rightful place. He argues that with the decline of academic history, novelists have taken over the historian’s role and fiction has become history (3). In sympathy with McKenna, author, historian and anthropologist Inga Clendinnen claims that “novelists have been doing their best to bump historians off the track” (16). McKenna accuses writers W.G. Sebald and David Malouf of supporting “the core myth of historical fiction: the belief that being there is what makes historical understanding possible.” Malouf argues, in a conversation with Helen Daniel in 1996, that: Our only way of grasping our history—and by history I really mean what has happened to us, and what determines what we are now and where we are now—the only way of really coming to terms with that is by people's entering into it in their imagination, not by the world of facts, but by being there. And the only thing really which puts you there in that kind of way is fiction. Poetry may do so, drama may do so, but it's mostly going to be fiction. It's when you have actually been there and become a character again in that world. (3) From this point of view, the historical novel plays an important role in our culture because it allows people to interact with the past in a meaningful way, something factual writing struggles to do. McKenna recognises that history is present in fiction and that history can contain fiction, but they should not be confused. Writers and critics have a responsibility towards their readers and must be clear that fiction is not history and should not be presented as such (10). He takes writer Kate Grenville to task for not respecting this difference. McKenna argues that Grenville has asserted in public that her historical novel The Secret River is history: “If ever there was a case of a novelist wanting her work to be taken seriously as history, it is Grenville” (5). The Secret River tells the story of early settlement along the Hawkesbury River in New South Wales. Grenville’s inspiration for the story emanated from her ancestor Solomon Wiseman’s life. The main protagonist, William Thornhill (loosely based on Wiseman), is convicted of theft in 1806 and transported to Australia. The novel depicts the poverty and despair in England at the time, and describes life in the new colony where Grenville explores the collision between the colonists and the Aborigines. McKenna knows that Grenville insists elsewhere that her book is not history, but he argues that this conflicts with what she said in interviews and he worries that “with such comments, it is little wonder that many people might begin to read fiction as history” (5). In an article on her website, Grenville refutes McKenna’s arguments, and those of Clendinnen: “Here it is in plain words: I don’t think The Secret River is history…Nor did I ever say that I thought my novel was history.” Furthermore, the acknowledgements in the back of the book state clearly that it is a work of fiction. She accuses the two above-mentioned historians of using quotes that “have been narrowly selected, taken out of context, and truncated” ("History and Fiction"). McKenna then goes on to say how shocked he was on hearing Grenville, in an interview with Ramona Koval on Radio National, make her now infamous comments about standing on a stepladder looking down at the history wars, and that he “felt like ringing the ABC and leaping to the defence of historians.” He accuses Grenville of elevating fiction above history as an “interpretive power” (6). Koval asked Grenville where her book stood in regard to the history wars; she answered: Mine would be up on a ladder, looking down at the history wars. . . I think the historians, and rightly so, have battled away about the details of exactly when and where and how many and how much, and they’ve got themselves into these polarised positions, and that’s fine, I think that’s what historians ought to be doing; constantly questioning the evidence and perhaps even each other. But a novelist can stand up on a stepladder and look down at this, outside the fray, [emphasis in original audio] and say there is another way to understand it. ("Interview") Grenville claims that she did not use the stepladder image to imply that her work was superior to history, but rather to convey a sense of being outside the battle raging between historians as an uninvolved observer, “an interested onlooker who made the mistake of climbing a stepladder rather than a couple of fruit-boxes to get a good view.” She goes on to argue that McKenna’s only sources in his essay, Writing the Past, are interviews and newspaper articles, which in themselves are fine, but she disagrees with how they have been used “uncritically, at face value, as authoritative evidence” ("History and Fiction"), much in contrast to the historian’s desire for authenticity in all sources. It appears that the troubles between history and fiction will continue for some time yet as traditional historians are bent on keeping faith with the tenets of their nineteenth century predecessors by defending history from the insurgence of fiction at all costs. While history and historical fiction share a common purpose in presenting the past, the novel deals with what is “real” and can tell the past as accurately or even in a more plausible way than history, which deals with what is “true”. However, the “dry-as-dust” historical approach to writing, and postmodernism’s questioning of historiography’s role in presenting the past, has contributed to a reassessment of the nature of history. Many historians recognise the need for change in the way they present their work, but as they have often doubted the worth of historical fiction, they are wary of the genre and the narrative techniques it employs. Those historians who do make an attempt to write differently have often been criticised by traditionalists. In Australia, historians such as McKenna and Clendinnen are worried by the incursion of historical fiction into their territory and are highly critical of novelists who claim their works are history. The overall picture that emerges is of two fields that are still struggling to clarify a number of core issues concerning the nature of both the historical novel and historiographical writing, and the role they play in portraying the past. References Brown, Joanne. "Historical Fiction or Fictionalized History? Problems for Writers of Historical Novels for Young Adults." ALAN Review 26.1 (1998). 1 March 2010 ‹http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/ALAN/fall98/brown.html›. Carey, Peter. True History of the Kelly Gang. St Lucia, Qld: U of Queensland P, 2000. Clendinnen, Inga. "The History Question: Who Owns the Past?" Quarterly Essay 23 (2006): 1-72. Current, Richard. "Fiction as History: A Review Essay." Journal of Southern History 52.1 (1986): 77-90. De Piérola, José. "At the Edge of History: Notes for a Theory for the Historical Novel in Latin America." Romance Studies 26.2 (2008): 151-62. Demos, John. "Afterword: Notes from, and About, the History/Fiction Borderland." Rethinking History 9.2/3 (2005): 329-35. Den Heyer, Kent, and Alexandra Fidyk. "Configuring Historical Facts through Historical Fiction: Agency, Art-in-Fact, and Imagination as Stepping Stones between Then and Now." Educational Theory 57.2 (2007): 141-57. Flanagan, Richard. Gould’s Book of Fish: A Novel in Twelve Fish. Sydney: Picador, 2002. Grenville, Kate. “History and Fiction.” 2007. 19 July 2010 ‹http://kategrenville.com/The_Secret_River_History%20and%20Fiction›. ———. “Interview with Ramona Koval.” 17 July 2005. 26 July 2010 ‹http://www.abc.net.au/rn/arts/bwriting/stories/s1414510.htm›. ———. The Secret River. Melbourne: Text Publishing, 2006. Harlan, David. “Historical Fiction and the Future of Academic History.” Manifestos for History. Ed. Keith Jenkins, Sue Morgan and Alun Munslow. Abingdon, Oxon; N.Y.: Routledge, 2007. Hutcheon, Linda. A Poetics of Postmodernism: History, Theory Fiction. New York: Routledge, 1988. Jenkins, Keith, Sue Morgan, and Alun Munslow. Manifestos for History. Abingdon, Oxon; N.Y.: Routledge, 2007. Lukács, György. The Historical Novel. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1983. Malouf, David. "Interview with Helen Daniel." Australian Humanities Review (Sep. 1996). McKenna, Mark. “Writing the Past: History, Literature & the Public Sphere in Australia.” Australian Financial Review (2005). 13 May 2010 ‹http://www.afraccess.com.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/search›. Nelson, Camilla. “Faking It: History and Creative Writing.” TEXT: Journal of Writing and Writing Courses 11.2 (2007). 5 June 2010 ‹http://www.textjournal.com.au›. Ricketson, Matthew. “Not Muddying, Clarifying: Towards Understanding the Boundaries between Fiction and Nonfiction.” TEXT: Journal of Writing and Writing Courses 14.2 (2010). 6 June 2011 ‹http://www.textjournal.com.au/oct10/ricketson.htm›. Rosenstone, Robert A. “Space for the Bird to Fly.” Manifestos for History. Eds. Keith Jenkins, Sue Morgan and Alun Munslow. Abingdon, Oxon; N.Y.: Routledge, 2007. 11-18. ———. Mirror in the Shrine: American Encounters with Meiji Japan. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1988. Schama, Simon. Dead Certainties: (Unwarranted Speculations). 1st Vintage Books ed. New York: Vintage Books, 1992. Slotkin, Richard. “Fiction for the Purposes of History.” Rethinking History 9.2/3 (2005): 221-36. Southgate, Beverley C. History Meets Fiction. New York: Longman, Harlow, England, 2009. White, Hayden. “Introduction: Historical Fiction, Fictional History, and Historical Reality.” Rethinking History 9.2/3 (2005): 147-57.

Introduction The decline of marriage in the West has been extensively researched over the last three decades (Carmichael and Whittaker; de Vaus; Coontz; Beck-Gernshein). Indeed, it was fears that the institution would be further eroded by the legalisation of same sex unions internationally that provided the impetus for the Australian government to amend the Marriage Act (1961). These amendments in 2004 sought to strengthen marriage by explicitly defining, for the first time, marriage as a legal partnership between one man and one woman. The subsequent heated debates over the discriminatory nature of this definition have been illuminating, particularly in the way they have highlighted the ongoing social significance of marriage, even at a time it is seen to be in decline. Demographic research about partnering practices (Carmichael and Whittaker; Simons; Parker; Penman) indicates that contemporary marriages are more temporary, fragile and uncertain than in previous generations. Modern marriages are now less about a permanent and “inescapable” union between a dominant man and a submissive female for the purposes of authorised sex, legal progeny and financial security, and more about a commitment between two social equals for the mutual exchange of affection and companionship (Croome). Less research is available, however, about how couples themselves reconcile the inherited constructions of romantic love as selfless and unending, with trends that clearly indicate that romantic love is not forever, ideal or exclusive. Civil marriage ceremonies provide one source of data about representations of love. Civil unions constituted almost 70 per cent of all marriages in Australia in 2010, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The civil marriage ceremony has both a legal and symbolic role. It is a legal contract insofar as it prescribes a legal arrangement with certain rights and responsibilities between two consenting adults and outlines an expectation that marriage is voluntarily entered into for life. The ceremony is also a public ritual that requires couples to take what are usually private feelings for each other and turn them into a public performance as a way of legitimating their relationship. Consistent with the conventions of performance, couples generally customise the rest of the ceremony by telling the story of their courtship, and in so doing they often draw upon the language and imagery of the Western Romantic tradition to convey the personal meaning and social significance of their decision. This paper explores how couples construct the idea of love in their relationship, first by examining the western history of romantic love and then by looking at how this discourse is invoked by Australians in the course of developing civil marriage ceremonies in collaboration with the author. A History of Romantic Love There are many definitions of romantic love, but all share similar elements including an intense emotional and physical attraction, an idealisation of each other, and a desire for an enduring and unending commitment that can overcome all obstacles (Gottschall and Nordlund; Janowiak and Fischer). Romantic love has historically been associated with heightened passions and intense almost irrational or adolescent feelings. Charles Lindholm’s list of clichés that accompany the idea of romantic love include: “love is blind, love overwhelms, a life without love is not worth living, marriage should be for love alone and anything less is worthless and a sham” (5). These elements, which invoke love as sacred, unending and unique, perpetuate past cultural associations of the term. Romantic love was first documented in Ancient Rome where intense feelings were seen as highly suspect and a threat to the stability of the family, which was the primary economic, social and political unit. Roman historian Plutarch viewed romantic love based upon strong personal attraction as disruptive to the family, and he expressed a fear that romantic love would become the norm for Romans (Lantz 352). During the Middle Ages romantic love emerged as courtly love and, once again, the conventions that shaped its expression grew out of an effort to control excessive emotions and sublimate sexual desire, which were seen as threats to social stability. Courtly love, according to Marilyn Yalom, was seen as an “irresistible and inexhaustible passion; a fatal love that overcomes suffering and even death” (66). Feudal social structures had grounded marriage in property, while the Catholic Church had declared marriage a sacrament and a ceremony through which God’s grace could be obtained. In this context courtly love emerged as a way of dealing with the conflict between the individual and family choices over the martial partner. Courtly love is about a pure ideal of love in which the knight serves his unattainable lady, and, by carrying out feats in her honour, reaches spiritual perfection. The focus on the aesthetic ideal was a way to fulfil male and female emotional needs outside of marriage, while avoiding adultery. Romantic love re-appeared again in the mid-eighteenth century, but this time it was associated with marriage. Intellectuals and writers led the trend normalising romantic love in marriage as a reaction to the Enlightenment’s valorisation of reason, science and materialism over emotion. Romantics objected to the pragmatism and functionality induced by industrialisation, which they felt destroyed the idea of the mysterious and transcendental nature of love, which could operate as a form of secular salvation. Love could not be bought or sold, argued the Romantics, “it is mysterious, true and deep, spontaneous and compelling” (Lindholm 5). Romantic love also emerged as an expression of the personal autonomy and individualisation that accompanied the rise of industrial society. As Lanz suggests, romantic love was part of the critical reflexivity of the Enlightenment and a growing belief that individuals could find self actualisation through the expression and expansion of their “emotional and intellectual capacities in union with another” (354). Thus it was romantic love, which privileges the feelings and wishes of an individual in mate selection, that came to be seen as a bid for freedom by the offspring of the growing middle classes coerced into marriage for financial or property reasons. Throughout the 19th century romantic love was seen as a solution to the dehumanising forces of industrialisation and urbanisation. The growth of the competitive workplace—which required men to operate in a restrained and rational manner—saw an increase in the search for emotional support and intimacy within the domestic domain. It has been argued that “love was the central preoccupation of middle class men from the 1830s until the end of the 19th century” (Stearns and Knapp 771). However, the idealisation of the aesthetic and purity of love impacted marriage relations by casting the wife as pure and marital sex as a duty. As a result, husbands pursued sexual and romantic relationships outside marriage. It should be noted that even though love became cemented as the basis for marriage in the 19th century, romantic love was still viewed suspiciously by religious groups who saw strong affection between couples as an erosion of the fundamental role of the husband in disciplining his wife. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries romantic love was further impacted by urbanisation and migration, which undermined the emotional support provided by extended families. According to Stephanie Coontz, it was the growing independence and mobility of couples that saw romantic love in marriage consolidated as the place in which an individual’s emotional and social needs could be fully satisfied. Coontz says that the idea that women could only be fulfilled through marriage, and that men needed women to organise their social life, reached its heights in the 1950s (25-30). Changes occurred to the structure of marriage in the 1960s when control over fertility meant that sex was available outside of marriage. Education, equality and feminism also saw women reject marriage as their only option for fulfilment. Changes to Family Law Acts in western jurisdictions in the 1970s provided for no-fault divorce, and as divorce lost its stigma it became acceptable for women to leave failing marriages. These social shifts removed institutional controls on marriage and uncoupled the original sexual, emotional and financial benefits packaged into marriage. The resulting individualisation of personal lifestyle choices for men and women disrupted romantic conventions, and according to James Dowd romantic love came to be seen as an “investment” in the “future” that must be “approached carefully and rationally” (552). It therefore became increasingly difficult to sustain the idea of love as a powerful, mysterious and divine force beyond reason. Methodology In seeking to understand how contemporary partnering practices are reconstituting romantic love, I draw upon anecdotal data gathered over a nine-year period from my experiences as a marriage celebrant. In the course of personalising marriage ceremonies, I pose a series of questions designed to assist couples to explain the significance of their relationship. I generally ask brides and grooms why they love their fiancé, why they want to legalise their relationship, what they most treasure about their partner, and how their lives have been changed by their relationship. These questions help couples to reflexively interrogate their own relationship, and by talking about their commitment in concrete terms, they produce the images and descriptions that can be used to describe for guests the internal motivations and sentiments that have led to their decision to marry. I have had couples, when prompted to explain how they know the other person loves them say, in effect: “I know that he loves me because he brings me a cup of coffee every morning” or “I know that she loves me because she takes care of me so well.” These responses are grounded in a realism that helps to convey a sense of sincerity and authenticity about the relationship to the couple’s guests. This realism also helps to address the cynicism about the plausibility of enduring love. The brides and grooms in this sample of 300 couples were a socially, culturally and economically diverse group, and they provided a wide variety of responses ranging from deeply nuanced insights into the nature of their relationship, to admissions that their feelings were so private and deeply felt that words were insufficient to convey their significance. Reoccurring themes, however, emerged across the cases, and it is evident that even as marriage partnerships may be entered into for a variety of reasons, romantic love remains the mechanism by which couples talk of their feelings for each other. Australian Love and Marriage Australians' attitudes to romantic love and marriage have, understandably, been shaped by western understandings of romantic love. It is evident, however, that the demands of late modern capitalist society, with its increased literacy, economic independence and sexual equality between men and women, have produced marriage as a negotiable contract between social equals. For some, like Carol Pateman, this sense of equality within marriage may be illusory. Nonetheless, the drive for individual self-fulfilment by both the bride and groom produces a raft of challenges to traditional ideas of marriage as couples struggle to find a balance between independence and intimacy; between family and career; and between pursuing personal goals and the goals of their partners. This shift in the nature of marriage has implications for the “quest for undying romantic love,” which according to Anthony Giddens has been replaced by other forms of relationship, "each entered into for its own sake, for what can be derived by each person from a sustained association with another; and which is continued only in so far as it is thought by both parties to deliver enough satisfactions for each individual to stay within it” (qtd. in Lindholm 6). The impact of these social changes on the nature of romantic love in marriage is evident in how couples talk about their relationship in the course of preparing a ceremony. Many couples describe the person they are marrying as their best friend, and friendship is central to their commitment. This description supports research by V.K. Oppenheimer which indicates that many contemporary couples have a more “egalitarian collaborative approach to marriage” (qtd. in Carmichael and Whittaker 25). It is also standard for couples to note in ceremonies that they make each other happy and contented, with many commenting upon how their partners have helped to bring focus and perspective to their work-oriented lives. These comments tend to invoke marriage as a refuge from the isolation, competition, and dehumanising elements of workplaces. Since emotional support is central to the marriage contract, it is not surprising that care for each other is another reoccurring theme in ceremonies. Many brides and grooms not only explicitly say they are well taken care of by their partner, but also express admiration for their partner’s treatment of their families and friends. This behaviour appears to be seen as an indicator of the individual’s capacity for support and commitment to family values. Many couples admire partner’s kindness, generosity and level of personal self-sacrifice in maintaining the relationship. It is also not uncommon for brides and grooms to say they have been changed by their love: become kinder, more considerate and more tolerant. Honesty, communication skills and persistence are also attributes that are valued. Brides and grooms who have strong communication skills are also praised. This may refer to interpersonal competency and the willingness to acquire the skills necessary to negotiate the endless compromises in contemporary marriage now that individualisation has undermined established rules, rituals and roles. Persistence and the ability not to be discouraged by setbacks is also a reoccurring theme, and this connects with the idea that marriage is work. Many couples promise to grow together in their marriage and to both take responsibility for the health of their relationship. This promise implies awareness that marriage is not the fantasy of happily ever after produced in romantic popular culture, but rather an arrangement that requires hard work and conscious commitment, particularly in building a union amidst many competing options and distractions. Many couples talk about their relationship in terms of companionship and shared interests, values and goals. It is also not uncommon for couples to say that they admire their partner for supporting them to achieve their life goals or for exposing them to a wider array of lifestyle choices and options like travel or study. These examples of interdependence appear to make explicit that couples still see marriage as a vehicle for personal freedom and self-realisation. The death of love is also alluded to in marriage ceremonies. Couples talk of failed past relationships, but these are produced positively as a mechanism that enables the couple to know that they have now found an enduring relationship. It is also evident that for many couples the decision to marry is seen as the formalisation of a preexisting commitment rather than the gateway to a new life. This is consistent with figures that show that 72 per cent of Australian couples chose to cohabit before marriage (Simons 48), and that cohabitation has become the “normative pathway to marriage” (Penman 26). References to children also feature in marriage ceremonies, and for the couples I have worked with marriage is generally seen as the pre-requisite for children. Couples also often talk about “being ready” for marriage. This seems to refer to being financially prepared. Robyn Parker citing the research of K. Edin concludes that for many modern couples “rushing into marriage before being ‘set’ is irresponsible—marrying well (in the sense of being well prepared) is the way to avoid divorce” (qtd. in Parker 81). From this overview of reoccurring themes in the production of Australian ceremonies it is clear that romantic love continues to be associated with marriage. However, couples describe a more grounded and companionable attachment. These more practical and personalised sentiments serve to meet both the public expectation that romantic love is a precondition for marriage, while also avoiding the production of romantic love in the ceremony as an empty cliché. Grounded descriptions of love reveal that attraction does not have to be overwhelming and unconquerable. Indeed, couples who have lived together and are intimately acquainted with each other’s habits and disposition, appear to be most comfortable expressing their commitment to each other in more temperate, but no less deeply felt, terms. Conclusion This paper has considered how brides and grooms constitute romantic love within the shifting partnering practices of contemporary Australia. It is evident “in the midst of significant social and economic change and at a time when individual rights and freedom of choice are important cultural values” marriage remains socially significant (Simons 50). This significance is partially conveyed through the language of romantic love, which, while freighted with an array of cultural and historical associations, remains the lingua franca of marriage, perhaps because as Roberto Unger observes, romantic love is “the most influential mode of moral vision in our culture” (qtd. in Lindholm 5). It is thus possible to conclude, that while marriage may be declining and becoming more fragile and impermanent, the institution remains important to couples in contemporary Australia. Moreover, the language and imagery of romantic love, which publicly conveys this importance, remains the primary mode of expressing care, affection and hope for a partnership, even though the changed partnering practices of late modern capitalist society have exposed the utopian quality of romantic love and produced a cynicism about the viability of its longevity. It is evident in the marriage ceremonies prepared by the author that while the language of romantic love has come to signify a broader range of more practical associations consistent with the individualised nature of modern marriage and demystification of romantic love, it also remains the best way to express what Dowd and Pallotta describe as a fundamental human “yearning for communion with and acceptance by another human being” (571). 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