Announcements

The English Majors' Counseling Office is now accepting student submissions for our annual zine, which is a collection of student writing and artwork. Please submit any short stories, poetry, photography, or illustrations that you would like to have considered for publication. This is open to all students! Please submit a hardcopy of your work and a disc to 3416 Boylan Hall, or an emailed copy to bczinesubmissions@gmail.com along with your hardcopy. Your documents must be sent as an attachment in Microsoft Word, or they will not be considered!
Final Deadline: March 1st

The Spring Semester Open Mic date will be announced soon. The Open Mic is an exciting opportunity to hear the talented voices of Brooklyn College students and alumni.

Each spring, the English department awards 37 undergraduate and graduate awards for significant achievement in English studies. The English Majors' Award submissions are due February 28th. Please pick up the application in the English Department (2308 Boylan Hall).

Currently Reading

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This week Nicole Lebenson shares a novel by Anya Ulinich.

The title of Russian-born Brooklynite Anya Ulinich’s 2007 debut book, Petropolis, was taken from a poem by the relatively obscure Russian poet Osip Mandelstam, a Jew and a fierce opponent of Stalin. The poem is recited at the beginning and at the very end of the novel:

“At a terrifying height a wandering fire,
But is this how a star sparkles, flying?
Transparent star, a wandering fire,
Your brother, Petropolis, is dying.”

Although this work takes its name from a beautiful and haunting poem, the book itself deals with much more down to earth subject matter than celestial bodies and political prisoners. Petropolis tells the story of Sasha Goldberg, the ultimate outsider. Born during the last years of the Soviet Union, in the depressing Siberian town of Asbestos 2, Sasha is a half-black, overweight Jew - which is possibly the last combination of things that an adolescent girl might want to be when living in Soviet Siberia. Too heavy to do ballet, and too tone deaf to sing or play the piano, she can draw and Sasha finds herself in a basement art school where she makes friends with other outcast children.

Through her friends, Sasha manages to meet, fall in love with and become pregnant by an art school drop out who lives in a concrete construction tube in a local garbage dump (that has been wallpapered inside so that it feels more like home). Because she is only fifteen, her mother takes the baby and sends Sasha off to art school in Moscow. After a few years as a failed art student, Sasha signs herself up to be a mail order bride. She quickly finds herself in the vast strip mall expanse of suburban Arizona with a middle-aged fiance who hides her passport, refers to sex as her “sacred duty,” and demands that she make Quesadillas for him every night upon his arrival home from work.

It takes only a short while for her to ditch her South Western suburban nightmare and catch a bus across country in search of her father, who left Asbestos 2 when she was just ten years old. Her journey takes her through Chicago into the home of an Orthodox Jewish family that collects both fine art from the Soviet period, and real, live Soviet Jews. With the help of the families rebellious, wheelchair-bound son, Sasha manages to escape servitude and make it to the streets of Brighton Beach and New York City, where she figures out who she is and where she stands in life.

Although this novel is a laugh out loud comedy, it does deal with some very serious issues: the horrors of Soviet Russia, poverty, pregnancy, the immigrant experience, exploitation, isolation, sexuality and racism. Although Anya Ulinich and the imaginary Sasha Goldberg look nothing alike, one gets the distinct feeling that this novel is somehow autobiographical. Even though not overweight or black, Ms. Ulinich and Sasha were both 17 when they came from the Soviet Union to the strange world of the United States, and so must have felt the same feelings of alienation. Because of her experience, Ulinich is able to artfully capture the Russian immigrant experience through Sasha’s particularly strange and unusual journey.

This book is funny, sweet, slightly disturbing, and exciting all at once. Though not the best new book of 2007, it makes an entertaining read, especially for anyone who can identify with being a stranger in a strange land – and almost everyone can.

Boylan Brief #86

The Treadmill of Youth

A study done at King's College London has discovered the secret to
genetic youth: physical activity. Through questionnaires on lifestyle
and DNA taken from blood samples collected from 2,401 sets of twins,
the scientists discovered that the more physically active twin had
longer telomeres. Telomeres, which are found on the end of
chromosomes, are long repeating sequences that protect the DNA. As
people age, the telomeres get shorter and shorter. Fortunately,
through exercise, they stop deteriorating and become the key to
looking younger.In order to encourage doctors to use this study as
proof to get their clients to exercise more, scientists added that an active lifestyle is the best way to stay in good health and look one's best.

Amina H. Tajbhai
Source: BBC

The Future of Umbrellas?

Japanese researchers in Keio University’s Media Design department are currently designing an umbrella that will connect to the internet and project the image on the inside of the canopy using a wireless connection. This hi-tech umbrella known as “Pileus” will allow you to watch videos, get weather updates, and take pictures using a built-in camera. The umbrella is also equipped with Google Earth GPS, a component that will possibly make asking for directions on a rainy day a situation of the past. Although I am pleased to be living in a technologically advanced society, this particular invention seems unnecessary to me. Does anybody, other than Mary Poppins, really need this umbrella? Rainy days are annoying enough without having to worry about running into someone who is not paying attention to where they are walking, because they are too busy watching videos on their umbrella.

Emily Carman
Source: BBC


Burmese Women Held Captive

For years, Thailand has used Burmese refugee women living in Kayan
villages as tourist attractions. These women, as part of a tradition,
place rings around their necks. These rings create the effect of long
necks by pushing down the women's shoulders. The refugees arrived from
Burma years ago, but the ones who chose to follow the neck elongating
tradition have been forced to live away from the official camp. The
refugees were finally given an opportunity to leave the country and
start new lives, but the Kayan women are being denied the chance.
Thailand's government officials are denying that these women were ever
refugees because they did not live in the refugee camp. UNHCR is
arguing against these allegations. Many people feel that this is a
huge injustice towards the Kayan women. The government is being
accused of keeping the women in the country because of the money they
bring in through tourism. All of this has recently come to the
attention of the United Nations, which plans to stage a tourism
boycott in order to reduce revenue for the Thai government thus
forcing them to allow the women their freedom.

Dominique Gauvad
Source: BBC

Sex and Soccer, a Good Combination?

In the wake of the 2010 World Cup, South African Parliamentarian
George Lekgetho has proposed a temporary legalization of prostitution.
Lekgetho has asked for a legalization which would be restricted
entirely to the duration of the World Cup, arguing that it would not
only bring tax money, but also reduce incidences of rape. A group
representing sex workers welcomed the proposed legislation while the
Democratic Alliance criticized it. The idea of legalizing sex work was
first suggested by police commissioner Jackie Selebi last year.
However, Selebi's proposal was for a permanent legalization. He has
since been suspended to face corruption charges.

What should be done? Is a temporary legalization of prostitution
rational? Is it a moral issue? Are the suggested pros worth it? What
do you think? Leave a comment.

Michael Brommer
Source: BBC

Poem of the Week

This week Carolina Alvarado shares a poem by Joe Bolton.


On March 29th, 1990, Joe Bolton turned in his master’s thesis, a collection of poems entitled “The Last Nostalgia.” He postponed the moment for as long as possible, drifting from one college writing program to another, but ultimately returning to his childhood home in Western Kentucky. He was the type of poet, Donald Justice wrote in his introduction to “The Last Nostalgia,” who believed that “a poet’s best work was to be accomplished early, that the rest was anticlimax and decline.” It can be assumed that the twenty-eight–year-old poet felt his life’s work complete, for the next day he committed suicide.

Joe Bolton is an extraordinary, yet little recognized poet. Studying, “…universal connections--the tension between the transitory beauty of the physical world and a yearning of the eternal,” Bolton plays with changes of light, wind, distant sounds, and the thoughts we think while watching sunsets and sunrises or two women saying goodbye one last time. Bolton overwhelms the reader with an atmosphere so palpable and personal it almost feels like it was yours to begin with, like it was always yours, as it was his. “There is nothing,” Bolton wrote, “that is not beautiful or that will survive,” and the realization of this is what he transmits to his readers, in every poem, a vision I interpret not as despairing or despondent, but instead as “the most keenly appreciative imaginable.”

Elegy for Roland Barthes

"I don't think he needs an elegy."
-My ex-wife

They do not need us,
Any more than last year's leaves
Are signs of anything
Unless we make them so for our sake,
As I am doing now.
Here on the back porch,
In the twilight,
It is merely spring,
And the leaves that fell or the wind shook loose
Make one darkness
With the season's first green shoots.
But the white gown you have hung from the line
Shines. Phosphorescent,
It catches what light the sky can manage yet
And moves, and is alive.
And if it is only wind,
Say that the wind, for our sake,
Needs a form,
And that your white gown
Lifting there in the dark
Makes a possibility of wind and darkness,
While the language of children
Fades along the street.
I cannot remember
When spring seemed less than a miracle,
When my body made any pretense it would last,
When summer began like anything
But a memory of summer.
There is something beautiful
About what returns inevitably,
Though what is gone
Is perhaps also beautiful
By its own code,
But which we translate:
Later- the street silent, no wind;
A white gown shining in starlight
For no one.

At This Moment

This week Mohan Bell and Michael Brommer asked BC students and faculty, What role do you think art plays in society?

"It makes us realize that not everything is fact based, things are open for interpretation."
-Karishma Chawla

"Art is an expression of emotion put to life."
-Rosemary T.

"Art is a medium people can use to express deeper things not usually expressed lethargically, a symbol of its time."
-Salim H.

"Art allows people with money (patrons) to feel useful."
-Astra Noel

"It's pretty."
-Anonymous

"Means of conveying emotion."
-Bryan Flores

"It provides dirty pictures for people to enjoy."
-Marissa Gamliel

"Art reflects the different tastes in different aspects of society. It reflects the society of the time."
-Melissa Macaraeg

"This question depends on each individual's opinion on what art is. Art can be considered very mainstream and prevalent in society from acts like Sean Kingston, John Mayer, and even Rihanna's skill of dancing with an umbrella. This mainstream is not only music, but movies. Popular films have had amazing visuals involved, 300 and Across the Universe being among them. Indie films, normally thought to be "art films" with a low-budget that depict society in raw visual treat, have become increasingly popular. Juno, for example, was one of the most widely anticipated movies of 2007. However, some people may say Juno is real art and others would say it became too popular to be considered an "indie-art film." Also, with the success of Juno a lot of music was heard that may have gone unnoticed by a large portion of society. Art has always been important in society because it is a way for people to express themselves. The same still holds true today, maybe even more. With the invention of the MP3 player and portable DVD player one can simply take art with them when they go to the store, school, or work. When it comes to the fine arts there are plenty of popular museums to choose from, and they are usually crowded. Any type of art is a huge part of culture today."
-Dominique Gauvard

"In our current milieu, I think the expression of art is most appreciated in the area of "performance". This includes music and video and to a lesser extent, magazines. Mass media provides our daily dosage of art. This obvioulsy has its drawbacks. Specifically, I am thinking of the reification of art. The Mona Lisa for instance is widely advertised, combined with the sanctification of the work, one who eventually sees the real thing might be a bit dissappppointed and hence the beauty is lost. I think the arts we choose to appreciate nowadays are those that are capable of keeping up with our fast paced lives. One needs to stop and immerse himself in a Picasso - only a few would. But listening to soulja boy is like supermanning that art."
-Nicholas Bohj