Declaration Of Love Research Articles

Object Relations in a Love Poem. A psychoanalytic reading of Neruda

ABSTRACTThis paper is about an interpretation of Neruda’s “Poem no 15”, one of his most important works of poetry. The author reads this poem as about the painful loss of the loved object, and the struggle to accept this. This work emphasizes the complex relation between denial and mourning, specifically between psychotic anxieties and mechanisms, and psychic growth. Object relations, as described by Klein and Bion, are used for this reading of Neruda’s poem. The author makes an effort to link this interpretation of the poem to the effect it has on the reader. The paper suggests that the common interpretation of this poem as a passionate declaration of love for a silent muse could itself express a denial that can be understood by the impact that Neruda’s poem has, in which the emotional experience conveyed in the poem can be “lived” by the reader.

“Bullets and barter”: The force of love speech in Jeanette Winterson’s Written on the Body

ABSTRACTBuilding on the foundational work of J. L. Austin, Jacques Derrida, and Judith Butler, this article investigates declarations of love as promissory speech acts that carry a daunting force. As its title suggests, Jeanette Winterson’s experimental novel Written on the Body explores the relationship between language, convention, and materiality that speech act theory also catalogs, yet the text’s elusive romance invites readers to question the sacrosanct linguistic customs that dictate love speech. Comparable to hate speech in its ability to engender uncertainty and vulnerability, the force of love speech, as imagined by Winterson, nevertheless supersedes any statement made in description of, or contract “written upon,” the physical form, and rather transcends the traditional opposition between constative and performative utterance. Through an analysis of Winterson’s literary lovers, this article locates the force of love speech in the collapse of the distinction between word and action, between the linguistic and the material.

Expressing Emotion in Romance Fiction : How Readers Like Their Heroes and Heroines to Communicate Passion

This case study examines quotes from romance novels uploaded and ’liked’ by users of Goodreads.com ; these are fragments of text that engendered high engagement in readers. I analyse the ten most popular quotes from each of the top-ten books on four popular Goodreads romance lists. The most common quote type is direct speech by the hero — often a declaration of love— suggesting the romance genre’s predominantly female readership values (perceived) insights into the male psyche and celebrates (fictional) men unafraid to verbally express emotion. By contrast, more of the quotes from heroines are internal monologue than direct speech, often showing them working through emotional issues that had been barriers to finding their happily-ever-affer. In conclusion, I use my findings as a pilot study to explore the usefulness and limitations of Goodreads quotes as a dataset for future research on readers and emotion.

Desire and Rape in the Feminine: The Tales of Echo and Salmacis: An Ovidian Answer to Propertius 1.20?

Desire and Rape in the Feminine:The Tales of Echo and Salmacis: An Ovidian Answer to Propertius 1.20? Jacqueline Fabre-Serris (bio) In this paper I offer a comprehensive study of two stories told in Ovid's Metamorphoses 3 and 4, each about the meeting between a boy (Narcissus/Hermaphroditus) and a nymph (Echo/Salmacis), consumed with desire at first glance. In both passages Ovid uses a narrative pattern recurring in many erotic tales of the Metamorphoses with male and female protagonists: the sudden sight of an erotically attractive young individual, followed by violent desire, declaration of love in vain, and attempted rape. Since the 1964 study of Hugh Parry,1 violence and rape2 in Ovid's Metamorphoses have received serious scholarly attention. In the United States there is an ongoing debate on whether and how it is even possible to teach Ovid today, since his vivid depictions of rape and sexual assaults may be offensive for some students.3 Although I will not discuss this particular issue, it seems important to keep in mind that Ovid is the ancient author most interested in examining erotic feelings and sexual situations from a female perspective. In my opinion, the two passages I compare typify Ovid's personal, authorial choice to empathize with women's point of view and behavior by giving literary space to a female voice.4 I would argue that Ovid has derived the idea of constructing two parallel stories about erotically desirous nymphs, Echo and Salmacis, from Propertius 1.20. In this text Propertius provides the exemplum of mythical Hylas's rape to support advice given to his friend, Gallus, about Gallus's beloved, also named Hylas: huic … / nympharum semper cupidas defende rapinas (Ward off from him the ever lustful abductions by nymphs, 7.11). In both narratives, Ovid refers, through a wide range of textual echoes, to various passages from Propertius 1.20. Propertius is only interested in the masculine point of view. He describes in detail the sexual advances of Boreas's sons, Hylas's fascination for his own image seen in the water, and Hercules' despair after Hylas's abduction. Only at the end, and very briefly, does Propertius mention the kidnapping of the boy by the lustful [End Page 127] Mysian nymphs.5 Unlike Propertius, Ovid focuses on the nympharum cupidas rapinas by describing how both women, although very different—one a nymph possessing extremely limited speaking capability, the other of some eloquence—fall in love at first sight, try to seduce the boy they desire by looking for an opportunity to be successful, attempt to kiss him despite his resistance, and, in the case of one of the women, to have sex with him. I. Echo and Salmacis: Two Unexpected or Exemplary Cases? Echo and Salmacis do not comply with the traditional picture of the 'nymph.' Both behave in ways that defy Roman literary gender stereotypes. Echo is said to have kept Juno away from other nymphs, when they were making love with Jupiter, by speaking for a long time with the goddess, and displaying considerable skill (longo prudens sermone, Met. 3.364). As Ovid points out (cum deprendere posset / sub Iove saepe suo nymphas in monte iacentis [while she (Juno) could have caught the nymphs often lying under her Jupiter in the mountain, 3.362–363]), Echo was trying to help not Jupiter but her fellow nymphs so that they might enjoy their sexual encounters without being disturbed or punished—apparently because they were her friends. Such friends make it usually easy for their friends to have erotic encounters with their beloved. Catullus attests that Allius did the same for him when Allius enabled him and Lesbia to be together in a safe place (68.41–44, 67–69). However, such behavior was not expected from a Roman woman, who was supposed to consider pudor (sexual reserve), both her own and that of other women, as a priority. Salmacis does not enjoy what the other nymphs like to do, namely, hunt with Diana. In the Metamorphoses, Ovid has multiplied the stories in which young girls, mortals or nymphs, eager to preserve their virginity, choose to live in the woods and...

Liebe schreiben: Paarkorrespondenzen im Kontext des 19. und 20. Jahrhunderts ed. by Ingrid Bauer and Christa Hämmerle

Reviewed by: Liebe schreiben: Paarkorrespondenzen im Kontext des 19. und 20. Jahrhunderts ed. by Ingrid Bauer and Christa Hämmerle Jacqueline Vansant Ingrid Bauer and Christa Hämmerle, eds., Liebe schreiben: Paarkorrespondenzen im Kontext des 19. und 20. Jahrhunderts. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2017. 358 pp. The essay volume Liebe schreiben is an outstanding example of just how fruitful a well- organized long-term group project can be. Sponsored by the Austrian "Wissenschaftsfonds FWF" (Fonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung) from May 2010 to April 2014 and directed by the historians Ingrid Bauer and Christa Hämmerle, the FWF project "(Über) Liebe schreiben" is successfully concluded with this volume, which consists of an in-depth introduction and eight essays of consistently high quality. The editors also include eight pages of color photographs from select artifacts covering the time span of their study, which are an apt complement to essays. The letters between the couples have much to say about the history of emotions and particularly love, the historical contexts of "private" writing, and changes and discontinuities of discourses and practices in heterosexual relationships. As a whole the volume [End Page 106] shines light on the interplay of historical, political, socioeconomic and cultural contexts with the expression of emotions and heterosexual relationships. In the introduction Bauer and Hämmerle present the parameters of the project, beginning with the choice of letters. The working group selected the bulk of the corpus studied from letters housed at the University of Vienna as part of the "Sammlung Frauennachlässe" collection. The team received additional letters as a result of calls they issued and the positive publicity the project garnered. The group ultimately settled on seventy correspondences, which cover roughly a hundred years from the late nineteenth century through the twentieth century. With few exceptions the correspondents are from the western part of Cisleithania and present-day Austria. Bauer and Hämmerle acknowledge that letters from representatives of the working class are few and far between. Moreover, the group was unable to add exchanges between gay and lesbian pairs. As the editors note, they have more letters from men than women, which, they suggest, is related to gendered practices of collection and saving letters. Some of the exchanges extend over sixty years, but most focus on the early phases of love relationships—the establishment of a relationship, the first declarations of love, efforts to solidify and maintain the relationship, and future plans for the twosome. Although each essay can stand alone, read as a whole they provide evidence of the rewards of collaborative work. Roughly following a similar pattern, each author clearly states the questions she addresses and situates her work within the academic discussions on the topic. Six essays focus on a limited stretch of time, yet in their totality cover a hundred years. In her essay "Gefühle erwünscht: Normiertes Liebeswerben in Verlobungskorrespondenzen aus den 1860er/70er Jahren?" which explores the exchange of two couples, Ines Rebhan-Glück uncovers unexpected gendered aspects of the expression of love. Very much in line with examples from letter-writing breviers of the period, men are effusive in expressing their emotion, while women are much more reserved in expression emotions. In "'[…] mein Eheweib und nicht mein College'? Liebe und Beruf(ung) in Paarkorrespondenzen vor dem Hintergrund der Frauenenbewegung/en um 1900," Nina Verheyen examines the ways in which debates on women's position in society were reflected in letters of five couples written between 1900 and the outbreak of World War I. Barbara Asen's essay "'[…] nicht nur Gattin, sondern auch treue Kameradin': Zur Konstruktion von Liebesbeziehungen in der Briefkommunikation von Paaren der Zwischenkriegszeit" examines five epistolary exchanges written [End Page 107] between 1918 and 1931, four from bourgeois couples and one between a domestic servant and the son of her employer. The author situates the exchanges in a phase of intensive shifts in gender roles. The selection allows her to illustrate that despite awareness of changing gender roles, the attitudes of the bourgeois women were quite varied and each partner had quite different expectations for his or her respective mate. With the inclusion of the letters from the young woman working as a...

Wanuri Kahiu's <em>Rafiki</em>

Wanuri Kahiu's Rafiki Olivier Barlet (bio) Translated by Ambre Llorca Famous for her short science fiction film, Wanuri Kahiu has presented her first feature film at the 71st Cannes Festival in Un Certain Regard, the first Kenyan film to be selected at Cannes. The film, about a lesbian relationship, was banned in Kenya right after. Kena and Ziki, two young girls living in the same neighborhood in Nairobi, fall in love. It's the beginning of a beautiful story but also of a drama. This is a burning issue but also a brave one for the first feature film of a young filmmaker from a country where same sex relationships equal a fourteen-year sentence in prison! The Cannes Film Festival has often selected African films for their sociological or realist content rather than for their cinematic originality. This is what happens with this film that largely uses the codes that allow it to touch a large audience by convincing them of a simple idea: a homosexual relation is a love story, period. As Mrs. Atim, the woman who owns the hiding place where the two young women meet, says, she sees and knows everything and keeps telling that to everyone: "It's going to snow in the sun today!" Indeed, in addition to the outrage of a lesbian relationship, it's also because it's between the daughters of two candidates for local elections that they're under the pressure of ruining their campaign. Inspired by the book "Jambula tree" by Ugandan Monica Arac de Nyeko, the film, whose title means "Friend" in Swahili, has a rather classical construction: they start to get close pretty slowly, then there's the declaration of love, the scandal, followed by violence, the families trying to separate the two and finally, the epilogue a few years later. What is depicted is all very sentimental and prudish: we will only see a few kisses and caresses. Thus there's no reason for everyone to panic. It goes to show that the root of the problem of the film's ban in Kenya and the threats made against the filmmaker is that in this country, homosexuality is considered a crime. [End Page 243] And this is what the filmmaker is fighting against, she wants to help change people's attitudes by deconstructing the violence faced by the members of the LGBT community. The film is not a plea but a story that was lived and focused on the purity of a romantic relationship. That's how Wanuri Kahiu tries to break down the usual claims saying that homosexuality is unnatural, when man is part of the animal kingdom and observations show that at least a third of the animals has proven homosexual relationships, not for reproduction purposes but simply for pleasure. It is thus neither unnatural nor a product of Western perversion since it has always existed everywhere, often suppressed so as to avoid punishments. Why is there such violence towards difference? That's the question the film raises when all the two young women want is to live together to pursue their relationship privately, without unsettling anyone. In an effort to convince people, Wanuri Kahiu has a young style, a fast pace, she often places the camera close to the faces to capture the looks of people trying to find themselves and questioning uncertainties. Throughout the film, there is the type of pop music heard in the long credits while Ziki practices her dancing with her friends. The two actresses play their part perfectly to portray this unlikely relationship given the resistance of their families and the political context. The other lead actors are renowned in Kenya but the two women were unknown. They had to get permission from their families. Wanuri Kahiu had received funds from Government authorities and the National Film Industry. But the KFCB accused producers of changing the original script, in which there were no intimate scenes between the actresses. "We feel that the moral of this film's story is to legitimate lesbianism in Kenya", the board revealed. "Any attempt to introduce and normalize homosexuality in Kenya goes against the law and the Constitution and must be fought...

Fan and its Paratexts

Fan and its Paratexts Monika Mehta (bio) Introduction This essay examines the role of paratexts and their relationship with film, specifically, and cinema, more generally. My point of entry into this discussion is Fan (Maneesh Sharma, IN, 2016), a big-budget, Yash Raj Films (YRF) production whose promotion and publicity matched and, at times, rivaled its unconventional narrative. My investigation of these paratexts seeks to expand our understanding of stardom, fandom, authorship, as well as Bombay cinema’s industrial practices. I begin this task by offering my sample chronology of Fan’s paratexts that shows film is no longer the primary or privileged text via which a fan can interact with and track her favorite star. As with many blockbusters productions, film simply appears to be a source text, a hook to spin out other (para)texts. This account enables me to point to an industrial shift, namely, the proliferation of paratexts and the centrality of the Internet as a venue for circulating these paratexts. The portability of these paratexts enables their “spreadability.”1 I show that as YRF adopts “spreadability” as an industrial strategy, there is a palpable shift in authorship. In this scenario, fans and viewers are not only addressed as consumers. Rather, they are invited to become collaborators, distributors, and in some cases, producers of (para)texts. Many (para)texts generated by YRF, such as trailers, dialogue promos, teasers, the making of videos, and interviews with cast and crew, would be familiar to global audiences. My analysis focuses on two innovative (para)texts which are specific to Fan, namely, five short videos focusing on fandom, Tu Nahi Samjehga/You Won’t Understand, and eleven multilingual iterations of the song-sequence “Jabra.” I show how the videos [End Page 128] articulate a culturally specific mode of fandom by developing an argument on two looking practices, darsan (devotional looking) and nazar (excessive, harmful looking). In a related vein, I discuss how both para(texts) become captivating sites for reading the star image, and star-fan relationship. An Account of Fan’s Promotion and Publicity What I recount below is my experience of Fan’s promotion and publicity as opposed to a master narrative about how these events unfolded; I accessed all the paratexts mentioned, and others that I have not listed, via the Internet.2 As a Shah Rukh Khan fan, I devotedly followed a number of paratexts which began circulating three years prior to Fan’s (2016) release—the announcement of the film by YRF in 2013, the ensuing gossip about who would be the heroine opposite Khan in this project, potential delays on the project, information about the famous Hollywood make-up artist hired to re-do Khan’s face, one or two secret photos released of Khan’s look in the film, to name some. The full-on publicity for Fan began on July 8, 2015, nine months prior to its release; painted messages—“love you SRK,” “c u on 15th”—signed by “Gaurav” appeared outside Khan’s house. Initially, the messages were read as graffiti written by an overly besotted fan; later, it was revealed to be the work of YRF. This publicity stunt on July 8, 2015, was followed by a 63-second teaser, which highlighted Khan’s global stardom and his fans’ excessive, emotional responses. These early paratexts not only illustrate that this publicity was directed at fans but signal an expansion of fans’ roles, going beyond being mere consumers of star images. On July 29, 2015, YRF in collaboration with Yep, a fashion company, launched #iamfan contest. The contest announcement declared that Khan was looking for his “100 biggest fans” and invited contestants to submit their declarations of love. The potential rewards of fan participation included becoming immortalized in the film’s logo, meeting Khan, and later, being featured in the Shah Rukh Khan trivia videos. The economics of this deliberate blurring of fan and industry authorship is worth noting. Fans might earn recognition and could meet with their favorite star; however, unlike Khan, they would not be compensated financially for their declarations nor the use of their photographs in the film’s logo and in the trivia videos. Is this affective...

Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival 2016, Huddersfield

The Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival leaves an indelible impression on any brave soul who ventures into the chill, dark November nights across its ten days, a rite of passage challenging conceptions of the stuff music is made of. Now in its thirty-ninth year, this is one of the more established contemporary music festivals, yet it never fails to provoke and stimulate, a snapshot of current musical preoccupations. The first weekend traditionally showcases a selection of significant works, setting the tone for the subsequent week, and 2016 was no exception. Jennifer Walshe and the Arditti String Quartet opened the festival in a ‘declaration of love to life on earth’. EVERYTHING IS IMPORTANT (2016) is an eco-treatise on the bombardment the world is suffering – a torrent of visual and vocal disturbance with the arch-complexist Arditti gamely along for the ride, a playful synergy of theatre, voice and string quartet, preparing us for what was to come over the next few days.

"Everyone Says I-Love-You": An Analysis of the Declaration of Love

"Everyone Says I-Love-You": An Analysis of the Declaration of Love

Psychoanalysis and Deconstruction, A Love Story

In The Right to Narcissism: A Case for Im-Possible Self-Love, Pleshette DeArmitt opens the space for an alternative to origin story so popular with political philosophers, namely, the social contract, which assumes a rational and self-identical subject. She does this obliquely by deconstructing narcissism as love of the self-same, or, love of what Kristeva might call “the clean and proper self.” Like Echo interrupting Narcissus’s soliloquy of deadly self-absorbed pleasure and his solitary auto-affection upon seeing his own reflection, Pleshette interrupts the seeming proximity of self-same, the closeness of near, and the propinquity of proper by deflecting the image of Narcissus onto the voice of Echo, who comes into her own by repeating his words. How, asks Pleshette, can Echo’s reiteration of the words of another be anything more than mere repetition or reduplication? Echoing Derrida, she answers that it is through a declaration of love. Echo’s repetition of the words of Narcissus take on new meaning, and allow her to express herself, and her love, through the words of the other. After all words are words of the other. Language comes to us from the other. Echo becomes a self, a “little narcissist,” through an address from and to the other, through the appropriation and ex-appropriation of the other’s words.

Fragmentos da literatura de Edward P. Thompson: a prosa de The Sykaos Papers e os versos de My Study

Edward Palmer Thompson (1924-1993) foi um dos mais importantes historiadores do século XX. Em 1988, foram publicados os The Sykaos Papers, um livro de ficção científica acerca das angústias de uma era nuclear, mas, também, uma declaração de amor (e de direitos) a certo planeta azul. Este artigo objetiva apontar alguns elementos e aspectos desse romance. Um objetivo mais geral poderia ser a análise a partir dos escritos de Thompson da prática literária mesma, e das fronteiras e interseções entre essa prática e a “lógica histórica”. A principal fonte desta análise é o poema My Study, escrito em setembro de 1973.

Tattoo as art, the drivers behind the fascination and the decision to become tattooed.

For many people, getting a tattoo is like purchasing art, and many professional and famous tattooists are artists who are acknowledged by colleagues and authorities. The history of tattooing goes back for thousands of years, and the reasons for getting tattooed are many. These permanent markings are always personal, they can be plain or elaborate, and they serve as amulets, healing and status symbols, declarations of love, signs of religion, adornments and even forms of punishment. Drivers behind the fascination of acquiring a tattoo may fall into four main groups, namely healing, affiliation, art and fashion.

Motives for romantic relationships and the risk of heavy alcohol use, regular smoking and cannabis use during adolescence and early adulthood: A longitudinal study

Background: Engaging in sexual activities at a younger age is associated with higher risk of substance misuse among adolescents. It could be hypothesized that substance misuse and certain romantic relationship related behaviors may be influenced by similar hormone and other inner physiological factors that are affected by related motives. This study investigated the association between motives for romantic relationships and the risk of heavy alcohol use, regular smoking and cannabis use from adolescence through to early adulthood. Method: A population-based longitudinal study using data collected from Wave I and Wave III of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. Characteristics of romantic relationship ideals (as the proxy of motives) measured in Wave I (mean age: 16 yrs) were applied to predict substance use indicated at Wave III (mean age: 22 yrs) using multivariate analyses. Results: Adolescents who included sexual activities as part of their romantic relationship ideals were at significantly higher risk of cannabis use among males and heavy alcohol use among females. Romantic ideals that included, gift giving (female) or receiving (male), declaration of love (male), marriage (male) and becoming pregnant (female) were associated with reduced risk of one or more types of substance use. Conclusion: In adolescence, sexual motives for romantic relationships were associated with higher risk of substance use and misuse, while motives related to intimacy and commitment in romantic relationships were associated with lower risk.

Bee my symbol of affection

From time to time, our local NPR affiliate, WILL AM 580, invites me to be a guest on a phone-in show called Focus 580. Usually, I’m asked in early spring, when pest insects are starting to wreak havoc in gardens and listener interest is high. This year, though, I was invited to appear on February 14, to field calls for Valentine’s Day. I speak to a lot of different groups and I always try to pitch the talk to fit their interests—medicinal insects for the Biomedical Careers Program at Rutgers University-Piscataway, Bugs in the Bible for the Sinai Temple Adult Education group, insects as herb fanciers for the Urbana Herb Club, insects on pets for the Eastern Illinois Veterinary Medical Association, aquatic insects for the Izaak Walton League State Convention, edible insects for the Champaign Noon Kiwanis, and so on. Putting together insects and romantic love, though, was kind of a challenge. What with sexual cannibalism, nuptial gifts of dead flies, traumatic insemination, copulatory plugs and the like, insect courtship and mating aren’t really good models for their human counterparts. As far as I knew, the only link between insects and Valentine’s Day is the fact that greeting-card companies like to use insects on Valentine’s Day, usually as visual accompaniment to bad puns (e.g., “Bee my honey”). So, in preparation for the program, I delved into the history of Valentine’s Day cards, in the hope of tracking down when insects first made an appearance. As far as I could determine, insects on cards date back only to the 19th century, when mass production of commercial cards began. At that point, flowers were already a popular medium for conveying romantic sentiments. By the 18th century, Europeans were sending each other romantic messages via symbolic flowers, a practice that reached new heights in the 19th century with such publications as Le Langage des Fleurs, written by Louise Cortambert under the pseudonym Madame Charlotte de LaTour. According to the 1834 English version (London: Saunders and Otley), the acacia symbolized “platonic love,” the carnation “pure and ardent love,” the myrtle “love,” heliotrope “I love you,” foulsa-patte “humble and unfortunate love,” honeysuckle “ties of love,” the lilac “the first emotions of love,” the linden “conjugal love,” moss “maternal love,” the moss-rose “voluptuous love,” the pipe-tree “fraternal love,” the tulip a “declaration of love,” the white and red rose “violent love,” and the rose bud “a heart ignorant of love.” So flowers transitioned naturally to mass-produced greeting cards. Insects appeared intermittently on these cards, mostly to amplify the naturalistic setting, but there was a singular arthropod innovation in the Victorian Valentine business around this time. By the 1840s, mechanical cards with moving parts became popular and among the most popular were the spiral-cut cards known as “cobweb Valentines” (http://tinyurl. com/6shct6q). These came equipped with a thread that could be lifted up to expand the spiral into a three-dimensional web-like maze that revealed a picture or message hitherto concealed. The concealed picture was often a miniature image of a young boy or girl, but the Virginia Historical Society has in its collection a Victorian-era cobweb Valentine that is biologically more appropriate: the cobweb contains a butterfly trapped within ( ). By the turn of the century, insects had broadened their Valentine’s Day appeal, even featuring in what were called “VinBee my Valentine? BuzzwordS

Does the Letter of the Law Always Arrive at Its Destination? “A Study in Feminine Psychology”

This paper uses Balzac’s short story “A Study in Feminine Psychology” as a springboard from which to explore what position the letter of the law occupies in a subject’s psychic space. Through this tale of a misaddressed declaration of love, the paper examines how the law and the signifier arrest the subject, and what freedom, if any, the subject has to maneuvre around this position. Are subjects condemned, as Balzac seems to suggest in this tragicomic tale, never to fully find, let alone assume, their own satisfying place “before the law”? Or that they can never do so without some embarrassment and/or pain? If the letter of the law always arrives at its destination, if the subject is always arrested by the signifier, what hope is there for protest or critique? In conclusion, the paper considers whether subjects on the feminine side of the formula of sexuation have greater capacity to transcend and transgress the letter of the law than subjects on the masculine side.

A Declaration of Love all the Same: Chicago and Modern Boy

A Declaration of Love all the Same: Chicago and Modern Boy

‘Declaration of Love on Celluloid’: The depiction of the Berlin Wall in a GDR film, 1961–62

The construction of the Berlin Wall posed a double challenge to the East German state monopoly film industry, the DEFA. Not only was it difficult for many of its employees to get to the DEFA's Babelsberg studios to the south-west of sealed-off West Berlin – they lived either in East Berlin and henceforth had to circumnavigate it, or actually in West Berlin itself. They also found it a challenge politically to explain the Wall to the GDR's population. The first feature film produced on the subject, …und deine Liebe auch, was only a partial success. Deliberately international both in its artistic inspiration and aspects of its content, it struck a highly poetic note, without fully achieving its aim of making its central figure, who failed to flee the GDR because of the Wall, appear either foolish or criminal. The lack of popular success of this film is symptomatic of the moral and philosophical dilemmas in which the GDR's intelligentsia found itself on account of the construction of the ‘anti-fascist rampart’.

Tattoo: a navigational tool, a lighthouse for biomolecular level precision in surgical endoscopy. Newton’s apple or Eve’s?

Unchanged for more than half a century, the World Health Organization (WHO) defines health as a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. Laparoscopic surgery has successfully managed the physical aspect of disease, enhanced mental well-being by its aesthetic virtues and by being less painful, and enhanced the social value by enabling early resumption of normal activity profile. The ongoing evolution of this revolutionary technique keeps bettering outcomes on all parameters. Surgical outcomes are the primary determinant of patient satisfaction [1]. Surgery leaves a scar not only on the body but on the mind as well [2]. Avoiding disruption of a tattoo is a welcome development that is sure to enhance the mental and psychosocial well-being of our patients [3]. The laparoscopic surgeon has continued to challenge his best outputs in a precise pursuit for perfection to better the best. Laparoscopic surgeons, who were ostracized in the early 1990s and called names such as ‘‘boys with toys’’ nearly killing their patients and disparagers married to ‘‘Nintendo surgery,’’ have come a long way to become the envy of once hostile brotherhood [4]. Consorting technology, laparoscopic surgeons have never failed to question and reshape themselves holistically with ever-evolving paradigms. Rising like a Phoenix from a breed of dying species, the laparoscopic surgeon has evolved with a larger canvas, the description of which goes by various names, i.e., cyber surgeon, endosurgeon, space surgeon, molecular surgeon, or biosurgeon [5]. This progress has been nurtured and sustained by societies, such as The Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons and The European Association for Endoscopic Surgery, and above all by the Journal of Surgical Endoscopy. Surgery is a craft no different than art, because both of them are the result of some imitation and some variation [6]. Most renaissance intellectuals, including Leonardo da Vinci, had a common source of inspiration, as is the case with the biomedical scientists and the endosurgeon, the ambassador of the marriage of a craft with the art [6]. Surgical endoscopy is the common thread for all the good work that has contributed to the present status leading to improved patientperceived outcomes on physical, social, and mental parameters. Avoidance of tattoo disruption is one such benefit of laparoscopic surgery [3]. It not only preserves the tattoo but also the basic tenets of informed consent. It preempts the fiducial, coercive moments in the communication for an informed consent. Tattoos have adorned humankind for more than 5,000 years. Despite ridicule from orthodoxy (‘‘Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you’’ Leviticus 19:28), tattoos have gained social acceptance as status symbols, declaration of love/ sensuality/sexuality, or signs of religious beliefs. Tattoos, seen as a trivial appendage by some have become a fashion statement of visual expression of individuality to be seen as an extension of the wearer’s personality. Tattoos occupy the grey zone between virtue and vice on the perceptive social horizon. They evoke a potpourri of imagery in different souls, from sensual to intellectual to medicinal. It is something like the image of an apple that reminds us of either Eve or Newton or an iPod or simply the goodness of the fruit. It is in this light that the article by Gilliam et al. B. B. Agarwal (&) Dr. Agarwal’s Surgery & Yoga, F81 & 82, Street No. 4, Virender Nagar, New Delhi 10058, India e-mail: endosurgeon@gmail.com

An FU to the Men in Blue

An FU to the Men in Blue James Shultis (bio) When walking down hallways we stutter + sputter in the light. The bodies, our bodies some human oddity some sort of cultural tourism we don’t get tipped for, only tried. And the policeman beckons me with his badge + pistol in pocket. And do I ask you about your cock while working trying to get to know you. When really I should just let you be. But yer a cop with a pistol + it’s easy to bother you right? Pad me down + tell me that it’s all alright. And how lucky I am to have a girlfriend, that she’s just fine with the way my body does not stand the way your body stands. That I am a boy + yes I am okay with it. What I shoulda said. What I shoulda said would’ve been along the lines of “FU mister New York blue, I am not what you would expect”; but instead all the lights are burning on hot, scalding skin like electroshock you shook shook me quick with all the things you shouldn’ta said. Midnight Beehive Bike Battle We are the children of that night, that eclipses into a strange circumference of moon + sun. It’s when we pull our hoods on riding over time + bridges like they are our own deliverances, when I fall apart. When my feet hit the ground, suddenly synthesizing air + light + all those little poems that run through my head, some mantra, some sick trick to make me hypnotized, hit the road, fly, as quick as my feet can take me. We are a traveling kind, marking miles with scars from battles we’ve barely won. Raw knuckles scuff pavement. The music, that music of heavy breaths heaving over a heavier chest. My body is your body, is a battlefield of injections + rejections + declarations of love that come to me by one million hands that want to touch. Forget the sins that come through blinds in morning, in mourning + take forbidden pictures, that become installations, distillations of what a body, mine, is slowly forgetting its been. This boy, that girl in the dark. [End Page 144] Soon the scars don’t show, soon they’re barely there at all + we fill our names quick on yr form, with a pen that has marked the decisions that came before. The ink running the same direction as my bike, the same way my face flies into the distance till all we’ve got left is this city in memory. This beehive city of too much sound. [End Page 145] James Shultis James Shultis is a Brooklyn-based poet with a collection of bikes and too many gardening supplies. He keeps various notebooks full of his top-fives, grocery lists, scribble-scrabble, love notes, poems + snippets of stories. He is a recent graduate of Hunter College, where he studied creative writing and gender studies. In the fall, he will be beginning an MFA in poetics at Queens College. His other work can be seen at http://www.jamesshultis.com . Copyright © 2008 Victoria Pitts-Taylor & Talia Schaffer

Punch-Drunk Love

Punch-Drunk Love