The Wasp - Volume I Spring 2016

Big Apple, Big Nipple, and the little World of American Cities

The American Studies Center Student Journal Volume I | Spring 2016

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ALEKSANDRA BARCISZEWSKA Editor-in-chief PAULINA NIEWIADOMSKA Art director Illustrations: pages 9, 12, 22, 36, 37, 41 NATALIA OGÓREK Associate editor JULIAN HORODYSKI AGATA KLICHOWSKA

The next issue’s theme:

Editorial board

Ask Not What You Can Do For Your Country. Ask What's For Lunch.

MAŁGORZATA DUDO Illustrations: pages 16, 29 MAGDALENA KRZEMIŃSKA Cover image TOMMY LONGSWORD Illustration: page 32 KAMILA MARIA WYSZYŃSKA The Wasp logo Illustration: page 19

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We’re still recruiting! If you’re interested in writing for the Wasp, please contact us: thewaspjournal@gmail.com ASC Journals: https://www.facebook.com/ascribbler A SCribbler: https://ascuw.wordpress.com/ American Studies Center: http://asc.uw.edu.pl/

Editorial Notes – Vive le Nipple! aka: The Tale of Two Apples Paulina Niewiadomska | Aleksandra Barciszewska

Original Suburb Julia Mardeusz

Big Time Consumerism and No Time for Relationships: Personification of Objects, Objectification of Persons Marta Natalia Giers

Williamsburg - New York City’s Hipster Mecca Patrycja Koszewska

Final Destination: New World in 50 Miles

4 8 12 15

Adam Radomski

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The Country of Contradictions: Small v. Big People Why Is It so Easy to Be Obese While Being Fit Is so Trendy?

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Nadia Błaszczyk

Everything’s Coming up Roses Małgorzata Dudo

When Nubbin Else Matters Aleksandra Barciszewska

The Flower People (les fleurs du mal) Dominika Kowalska

New York Jazz Adam Radomski

26 30 35 41

Paulina Niewiadomska

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Aleksandra Barciszewska

Vive le Nipple! aka: The Tale of Two Apples An apple. By some perceived as an innocent fruit eaten to be healthy.

Others see it as the ultimate proof that women ought not be trusted. Some link it to a company which aim is to make you simply and utterly cool. Some see it as a perfect name for their children, God knows why. And when the Apple is Big enough, it stands for a city where dreams come true, and alligators allegedly live in the sewer system. An apple. Such an innocent-looking fruit, yet its significance can be manifold and it always points to the most favorite hobby of all time: a sin. Lust, pride, envy, greed. An apple, with its voluptuous shape, has more meanings than biology has intended for it to possess. Unless nature is much smarter than all of us and had planned it consciously. That also applies when it comes to the other component of this month’s theme: a nipple. Everyone has two (Could I be more close-minded and intolerant? Forgive me, Chandler Bing). Their natural purpose is to feed the little people, yet they are much sexier than that: they bring pleasure and confusion – at least to psychoanalysts.

Without nipples breasts would lose their significance, and censors would have much less work to do. Therefore, if you think about it, nipples and apples have much more in common than a similar word structure. And the common element is ppl – those who have given them their special place in the history and in the discourse.

Bernardo Bertolucci coined what has become the most suitable theme for this month’s Wasp. In his 1988 Academy Awards acceptance speech he stated that if New York City is the Big Apple, then Hollywood should be the Big Nipple.

Freud would cry like a baby if he hadn’t died decades before and could have heard it. Especially since, apparently, size does matter, because nothing is good enough if it ain’t big enough. Wink wink, nudge nudge, dear gentlemen. Don’t you fret, though. If Mother (or Father?) Nature hasn’t given you enough reasons to impress the ladies with the magnitude of your … influence, just visit one of those splendid marvels of urban planning, and some of its hugeness might compensate for certain inadequacies of yours. In this issue we will stay at the East Coast thoroughly exploring the Appleness, levitate over Levittown to see how extremely overrated exceptionalism and uniqueness are, delve into the issue of bigness while tackling the common stereotypes about American obesity, just to end up being full after having consumed the apple of our eye – consumerism (with the nipple as an amuse-bouche, pun intended).

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Original Suburb Julia Mardeusz

Doesn’t it sound perfect? To own a house with a lawn in a quiet, safe neighborhood, with clean air, small cozy streets, nice playgrounds, and a school just around the corner? Doesn’t it sound like a dream? Yes, it does, and it is just that – the embodiment of the American Dream, Levittown.

“William Levitt had an idea…”* In 1947 the company Levitt & Sons purchased 3,500 acres of potato fields in Nassau County, Long Island.

Within a few years they transformed it into what is often called “the original suburb,” a huge estate, housing thousands of young families. The Levitts had a visionary idea. The company was established by Abraham Levitt and his sons, William Levitt who was its president, and Alfred Levitt who was the main architect. Before the war they specialized in upper-middle class dwellings while at that time, only wealthier people could afford a nice single-family house with a backyard outside the city. After World War II there was a huge demand for new houses for veterans coming home, a place which could fit the postwar baby boom.

The Levitts saw their opportunity in that area. They planned the construction of a house in 27 steps and automated it so one could be built in less than a day. They created four Levittowns, the first on Long Island, then in Pennsylvania, then in New Jersey, and the last one was built in Puerto Rico.

“The Levitt house was the reduction of the American Dream to affordable reality” (Kelly, 1993, p.44), observed Barbara M. Kelly. At that time the median income was around

$3,000 and a house in Levittown cost about $10,000. Not only affordable, it was also really easy to buy a house there, no need to adjust, no need to build, or plan. Just look at the model houses and choose one type. At the beginning there were only “Cape Coders,” then, 6 types were designed.

Among them, the big, 2-floor Country Clubber, and the modern, most basic Levittowner.

“Regardless of the Levittown house which you choose, you will be acquiring the latest in modern design with the most up to date appliances and features,” advertised the Levitt & Sons Sales Brochure. Even though Levitt claimed that he built “the least monotonous mass housing group in the country,” these houses were almost identical, looked like little boxes in rows. It is most impressive when you look at the neighborhoods from above, those famous aerial pictures of geometrical rows of houses and lawns, straight and curvy lanes covering acres of land.

As Alfred Levitt, the younger brother and an architect of Levittown, said: “We made up our minds that we don't want to duplicate the one basic error found in other cities. Namely that individual occupant is lost in its biggnes.” In order to avoid this “big city feeling,” they divided the whole land into small sections, gave them

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Julia Mardeusz nice names, such as Magnolia Hill, put a circumferential drive around them and a school in the middle as this would help integrate the community.

Pennsylvania Levittown was advertised as “the most perfectly planned community in America,” in which everything had been planned before they even started building the first house.

lost dogs and kids, few motor violations, but no crime. In Long Island, the first 1,400 homes were purchased within the first three hours.

And in Pennsylvania more than 30 thousand people came to the opening weekend of Levittown. The proud owners of the new houses were saying: “we got a piece of the American dream” (Kelly, 1993, p. 194).

“Levitt & Sons had much to do, 17 thousand houses before they were through…”* The houses were built originally for World War II veterans who came back home and wanted to start a family in a nice neighborhood. Later, they were open to everyone. And a lot of young people wanted to fulfill their dream in Levittown. After the Depression and the war, they craved for stability and their own house rather than to live with their parents or in a small apartment in a polluted, noisy, and scary city. They wanted to raise their children in a safe neighborhood where they could play on the lawn or one of many playgrounds. They had their own police in Levittown, and the officers claimed that they are only dealing with

Part of a footage, with which the Levitts advertised their houses, was a stop motion video in which the house sprang up from the ground in 45 seconds. And that was how the “little boxes” of Levittown were built.

It was the first mass-produced city with prefabricated elements, identical for every single-family house, and it took 12 hours to build each one.

Because of his assembly-line approach to housing, and his visionary idea, Time magazine called William Levitt the “Henry Ford of Housing.” Like Ford, he made another part of the American Dream affordable. People who built the estate were saying: “We are not builders, we are manufacturers.” Each house had two bedrooms, one bathroom, and no basement. The kitchen was situated at the back to make it possible for the

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Original Suburb mother to keep an eye on her kids playing in the backyard. The bigger models of the house had a staircase to the second floor, which could later be adapted for more rooms in case the family got bigger. “We bought 5,000 acres and we planned every foot of it,” said Bill Levitt about Levittown, PA. They built the whole city from scratch: 17,311 homes, a few schools, communal swimming pools, playgrounds, basketball fields, parks, a shopping mall, churches, and a town hall.

“They changed the world...”* The Levitts didn’t invent the suburbs, but they have a big share in popularizing them and simultaneously producing the new middle class.

Richard Wagner, born in Levittown, and the author of the book Levittown: Images of America, goes down memory lane and says: “Everybody was equal, because everybody’s house looked exactly the same as everybody else’s house” (Blumgart, 2016). It created communities; it was planned for people to get to know each other.

Houses were close to each other, and people could easily meet. It was the prototype of postwar suburbia, which housed the whole postwar boom. In the 1950s, 20 million of Americans left cities to live in the suburbs.

William Levitt’s picture in the background of the famous net of houses, seen from above, appeared on the cover of Time magazine in July 1950. The tag line below the picture stated: “For sale: a new way of life.”

But was that new way of life that great? Not everyone was as enthusiastic about it. John Keats, the author of the best-selling critique of suburbia The Crack in the Picture Window, described new suburbs as

“fresh air slums.” He also wrote that in the suburbs “you can be certain all other houses will be precisely like yours, inhabited by people, number of children, problems, habits, conversation, dress, possessions, and perhaps even blood type are precisely like yours” (Keats, 1957). Monotony and repetition were also mentioned by Malvina Reynolds in her song “Little Boxes” (Weeds theme song!), in which she sings about “little boxes all the same” and “people put in boxes, who come out all the same (Reynolds, 1962). Although she is singing about San Francisco Bay, not Levittown itself, she talks about a phenomenon which concerns Levittown too. Standardized houses were producing standardized persons with standardized views, and standardized children (Schuyler, 2003, p.105).

There were also other, not utopian and not idyllic, sides of Levittown. First of all, it was strengthening the traditional, gender roles. Only men commuted to work to New York or Philadelphia. Women stayed at home and kept an eye on children when cooking (as I mentioned before, houses were built in a way as to allow this). The bloom of suburbia strengthened the domestication of women in 1950s after they got some independence during World War II. Secondly, by 1953, the 70,000 people who lived there constituted the largest all-white community in the United States (Galyean, 2015). William was selling homes only to representatives of the Caucasian race. “As a Jew, I have no room in my mind or heart for racial prejudice. But the plain fact is that most whites prefer not to live in mixed communities,” he explained, but he didn’t say anything about reselling the house to people of other races.

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Julia Mardeusz And this is how Bill and Daisy Myers, an African-American couple with three children, got their house in Levittown, Pennsylvania. At the beginning, people assumed that they were servants.

When the mailman came to the door for the first time, he asked to see the owner of the house. When Daisy Myers said that she was the owner, he handed her the mail and left. While doing his job, he stated a few times at a few doorsteps: “It's happened, the niggers have moved into Levittown,” and this is how it all began. The same day crowds began to gather outside of the Myers' home. Cars rolled past the house with Confederate flags attached to their radio antenna. The AfricanAmerican family heard racial slurs and threats. A rock was thrown through the living room window of the black

family's home. Police were called in to clear the crowds. Several arrests were made. The Myers had to leave their house a few times (“When the Niggers…”, 2009). In the end, the mob calmed down, and the Myers stayed there for four more years, breaking the racial segregation of Levittown.

Almost 70 years have passed since the day the first family moved to Levittown, Long Island. Now, the houses look a lot different, many have changed colors and facades.

Levittown’s population fell from a peak of 72,000 to about 53,000 today (Blumgart, 2016). A lot of children and grandchildren of the original Levittowners went back to those “bad” cities from which their ancestors were escaping.

*Headings come from the song “Levittown,” written by folk singer Bob Koenig, who was an inhabitant and a huge fan of this suburb.

Bibliography: Blumgart, J. (2016). What will become of Levittown, Pennsylvania? Retrieved March 11, 2016, from http://www.citylab.com/housing/2016/03/what-will-become-of-levittownpennsylvania/471438/ Galyean, C. (2015, April 10). Levittown. Retrieved March 12, 2016, from http://ushistoryscene.com/article/levittown/ Keats, J. (1957). The crack in the picture window. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

Kelly, B. M. (1993). Expanding the American dream: Building and rebuilding Levittown.

Albany: State University of New York Press.

Reynolds, M. (1962). Little Boxes. On Sings the Truth [Vinyl],(1962) Schuyler, D.. (2003). REFLECTIONS ON LEVITTOWN AT FIFTY. Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-atlantic Studies, 70(1), 101–109. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/27778531 When the Niggers Moved into Levittown [Review of Levittown: Two Families, One Tycoon, and the Fight for Civil Rights in America's Legendary Suburb]. (2009). When the Niggers Moved into Levittown [Review of Levittown: Two Families, One Tycoon, and the Fight for Civil Rights in America's Legendary Suburb]. The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, (63), 80–81. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/40407608

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Big Time Consumerism and No Time for Relationships: Personification of Objects, Objectification of Persons Marta Natalia Giers

How important are relationships? Do people really need to invest their energy and time in relationships to be happy? There are so many things in life which can make you fulfilled, after all. Passions, hobbies, fame, professional career, material success, the list goes on.

These are the things the majority of people tends to crave nowadays. Why should we even care about interpersonal connections that much, especially in times when they have become so fragile and replaceable?

Also, the multitude of risks of being abandoned, hurt or even betrayed effectively discourages us from getting seriously involved. It is much safer to drift on the surface of connections, without revealing too much about your true self than to dive into it with all your vulnerability.

Moreover, connecting with somebody on a deeper level may be also disabling due to the constant need to consume. The shift from the society of producing goods into consumer culture seems to have an impact on such state of affairs as well. One can get the impression that the excessive consumerism influences various aspects of people’s lives, including inter-human relations or even their intimate matters. The issues to consider are: what the results of consumerist lifestyles in the reality would be and whether we are supposed to fear those intrusions.

Recently, the Harvard Study of Adult Development was revealed. The survey has lasted 75 years, it is still continued, and can be deemed one of the longest studies conveyed so far.

Four generations of researchers tracked the stories of 724 men throughout their lifetime. The survey was supposed to investigate what has made us the happiest and the healthiest people. And, despite the common assumptions about money or fame being the sources of greatest satisfaction, it turned out that the discoveries confirmed the truth as old as the hills. People who claimed to feel the happiest, had better health and memory, and those who lived longer benefited from the high quality

relationships. The researchers came up with the conclusion that close, securely attached relationships, where partners could simply count on each other, had the most positive outcome

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Marta Natalia Giers in real life. Therefore, men who were the most satisfied with their relationships in their 50s, were also the healthiest in their 80s (Waldinger, 2015). And even though the Harvard representatives did not elaborate on what made the interviewees so perfectly paired with their partners, it is rather clear that it was not entirely coincidental that certain individuals ended up in happy relationships while the others did not.

According to Brené Brown, a research professor at the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work, there is a certain pattern for a good relationship. In her speech in one of the TED Talks she gave, Brené said that in order for connection to happen, a person has to embrace their vulnerability. Which for some people is extremely difficult as vulnerability very often is associated with weakness.

Nevertheless, after analyzing thousands of pieces of data, Brown understood that being vulnerable was crucial in the process of creating connections. She noticed that there were two groups of people – those who had the strong sense of worthiness, and those who claimed they were never good enough. The difference was that people who had the sense of worthiness believed they were worthy of love. The latter group had the tendency to be so ashamed of their vulnerability and they preferred to numb it (Brown, 2010).

Certainly, Brené is only one out of the many researchers who had published their theory about connections. Some people may agree with her, some may consider her assumptions an exaggeration. Still, she indicated a very delicate but accurate question of being vulnerable, which means allowing oneself for being hurt or rejected by revealing some truths about oneself. And the greatest problems with being vulnerable may

have some reflections in consumerist lifestyle.

Mainly because being vulnerable shows that human beings are imperfect, they have flaws, sometimes they may need help, or that certain expectations are simply too high for them. And consumerism develops the need for constant improvement. People are no longer expected to be true, they are encouraged to be positive. It can be seen in every commercial and all over the social media where “happiness” is promoted. Furthermore, the older products are replaced with the new ones right after their improved versions appear on the market. The used things are thrown away even though they are still working. “The consumer society is kept in the state of permanent dissatisfaction (or in the state of misery) due to the fact that desired products are instantly devaluated” (Musiał, 2014, p. 141).

When the difficulties appear in real life and when the relationship starts to fall apart, it is easier to simply change the partner, instead of trying to solve the problems and repair the relationship.

Moreover, “the commercial spirit of intimate life is made up of images that prepare the way for a paradigm of distrust” (Bauman, 2007, p. 50).

Objects are personified, and people are objectified. This assumption may find its confirmation when pornography is taken into account.

Catharine MacKinnon stated that watching pornography can be righteously seen as sex between people and things, human beings and pieces of paper, between real men and unreal women (Langton, 2015, p. 10).

No wonder that consequently the images of women are associated with the objects men “had sex” with. Such way of consuming may significantly influence their capacity to “dive into” a serious relationship with a real woman, gain her trust, and build a

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Big Time Consumerism and No Time for Relationships strong connection as well. The question is how a woman would be treated by such a man and whether he would be always satisfied with her.

Would she be enough?

Of course, consuming may also have a positive tenor. After all, these are consuming capacities of a newborn baby that allow him or her to enter into the community. The first download of oxytocin that is released during the act of breastfeeding introduces that baby to the world of relationships (Gresh, 2013). In that

respect, consuming is very useful.

Nevertheless, it should not be omitted that the extensive consumerism is the source of distortion of the meaning of relationships. And as long as people are interested in creating life-long connections, they should be more concerned about the reality they live in and in the mechanisms which shape it.

Maybe they would discover interesting conclusions that would benefit their relationships in the future. Perhaps.

Bibliography: Bauman, Z. (2007). Consuming Life. Cambridge: Polity Press.

Brown,

B. (2010, June). The Power of Vulnerability. TED. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/brene_brown_on_vulnerability?language=en#t-13572

Gresh, D. (2013, April 24). The Walk of Fame vs The Walk of Shame. TEDx. Retrieved from http://tedxtalks.ted.com/video/The-Walk-of-Fame-vs-The-Walk-of Langton, R. (2015). „Seksualny Solipsyzm.” Analiza i Egzystencja. No. 30. ISSN 1734-9923.

Musiał, M. (2014). „Intymność i jej współczesne przemiany. Studium z Filozofii Kultury.” PhD diss., University of Adam Mickiewicz in Poznań.

Waldinger, R. (2015, November). What Makes a Good Life? Lessons from the Longest Study on Happiness.

TED. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/robert_waldinger_what_makes_a_good_life_lessons_fro m_the_lolonge_study_on_happiness/transcript?language=en

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Williamsburg - New York City’s Hipster Mecca Patrycja Koszewska

When you think NY hipsters – you think gentrified Williamsburg.

And rightly so. Williamsburg is the reason why Brooklyn became cool. Art galleries, coffee shops, bars, boutiques, lofts define today’s urban landscape of Williamsburg – the epicenter of Brooklyn’s hipster culture. Over the past 15 years, Williamsburg has developed into one of New York City's most culturally vibrant enclaves.

The Brooklyn neighborhood, which extends roughly from the East River to Bushwick Avenue, bounded by McCarren Park to the north and Flushing to the south, is home to an incredible array of the borough's most creative restaurants, fashion emporiums, music venues, and arts organizations – little wonder why it's garnered global renown.

Hipster Greenpoint, Bushwick, “Quooklyn” (gentrifying Queens) are all products of the spill-over effect of Williamsburg’s gentrification. By 2015 hipsters have become nearly ubiquitous in New York City having expanded throughout most of Brooklyn and Manhattan now also entering Queens. So what happens when young artsy hipster types enter the neighborhood?

Looking back two decades, as New York City’s entertainment and financial district became too expensive, particularly the overpriced and overcrowded East Village, the 1990s brought an influx of young nonconformists, mostly artists, into the historically industrial workingclass neighborhood of Williamsburg, conveniently located just across the

East River from Manhattan. The process was initially characterized by artists, musicians, and skaters looking for “unclaimed” and affordable spaces where they could locate their art studios and move in. Loft-living and transformation of post-industrial spaces into condos as a means of gaining access to the neighborhood, is a typical sign of gentrification, according to Judith DeSena – prominent scholar of urban sociology and author of several books on the changing nature of Brooklyn. Later, the settlement of a more affluent, predominantly white group of residents, so called “Yuppies” – young, white, middle and upper-middle class professionals, upgraded the status of the area, attracting media attention to the neighborhood, which further consolidated gentrification in Williamsburg by emphasizing the “hipness” of this new “hotspot” in New York City. Entrance of this new gentry

Source: www.maps.google.pl

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Williamsburg - New York City’s Hipster Mecca was further preceded by skyrocketing rental and housing prices leading to the displacement of many workingclass residents who no longer could afford to live in the area. The gentrification processes accelerated in 2005 after the GreenpointWilliamsburg rezoning took place giving rise to rapid mid- and high-rise real estate development. As such, within ten years, a once industrial working-class neighborhood,

dominated by ethnic minority groups, has become one of the most expensive districts in the city of New York. So what constitutes the spirit of today’s hipster urban landscape of Williamsburg?

When visiting the neighborhood one cannot miss going to Bedford Avenue – first stop on the L train from Manhattan – Williamsburg’s hot spot, which found itself in the midst of these cultural changes. The street, previously consisting of old factory buildings, is now home to a number of bars, restaurants, cafes, art studios built in abandoned or converted warehouses and constitutes the hub of the neighborhood’s nightlife. Opening restaurants and coffee shops in every possible empty lot has become a typical practice.

Williamsburg prides itself in rejecting big business brands, standardization, and commercialization. The majority of opened businesses are local authentic venues catering to the consumer tastes of the young incoming population. As such, coffee shops and organic food stores are typical elements of the street scene.

You know you are in hipster Williamsburg when you see the “fixed gear bicycle” as the dominant mode of transportation. The bicycle seems to be a typical attribute of young gentrifiers, who park bikes to pole chains outside of other people’s property as a common practice. When you walk the streets of Williamsburg, another noticeable things is fashion.

Both women and men either share the latest fashions or represent unique styles. In fact, once strolling along Williamsburg’s streets, one may have the perception of walking along a runway instead of a post-industrial street. Rooftop parties, old school

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Patrycja Koszewska arcade bars with cheap beer, murals on walls, vintage stores, yoga studios, and young artsy neighborhood dwellers with tattoos and fashion sunglasses – they all make up the bohemian spirit of New York’s most popular hipster neighborhood.

Loft-style living is yet another attribute of hipster Williamsburg. The loft aesthetic is deeply connected to the industrial landscape of the neighborhood and became popularized for the notion of artists being able to live and labor in their workspace.

However, while loft dwellers were engaged in the arts, real estate developers realized they could market the artistic aesthetic to individuals not participating in the artist community. New waterfront rezoning investors took advantage of this loft living fashion and designed luxurious residential complexes addressed to non-artists searching to identify with the loft aesthetic.

Williamsburg’s gentrification has spilled over to neighboring Greenpoint, popularly labeled as New York’s “Little Poland,” as well as formerly industrial and predominantly African American – Bushwick. As rents and real estate rates are rising in Brooklyn’s hip neighborhoods, neighboring Queens is seen as a potential subsequent target for hipsters. A New York Times reporter coined the term “Quooklyn,” raising the question whether Queens will become the “new hot spot,” and Ridgewood in particular has become the center of attention with Gothamist.com coining a parallel term “Ridgewick” – Queen’s potential equivalent of Bushwick. Perhaps, what was previously described as the “Manhattanization” of initially Williamsburg and later other parts of

Brooklyn, with the entrance of bohemian dwellers and subsequent skyrocketing prices, can now be seen as a type of “Brooklynization” of neighboring Queens. Another trend worth noticing, quite recent and in its early stages of development – is what New York Times termed as “Hipsterbia” – moving into New York City’s suburbs, such as Irvington or Tarrytown, and embracing the bohemian lifestyle in the outskirts of the city. As the hipster neighborhoods of Brooklyn are becoming too expensive, the young creative are fleeing urban settings, which were once affordable alternatives to Manhattan, and establishing homes outside the city, bringing Brooklyn into the suburbs.

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Final Destination: New World in 50 Miles Adam Radomski Rock’n’roll giant Chuck Berry sings, “crusin’ and playin’ the radio with no particular place to go.” The feeling of freedom coming from that verse is followed by a fast-paced, frisky guitar riff bringing to mind a steam train chuckling along the American wonderland. It also isn’t hard to picture a red ’67 Mustang roaring down the open road, which cuts straight through the desert. The lyrics of Chuck Berry’s “No Particular Place to Go” put a jovial emphasis on what might seem too simplistic in the Information Age: hopping behind the steering wheel, releasing the e-brake, and slamming your foot down without pondering about the fundamental whats, wheres, and whys. In itself, this notion of driving off without a determined end of the line was highly poetic in a ‘lose yourself,’ rebellious and blithe, devil-may-care attitude. But beside that beautifully dirty James Dean flair, spontaneously hitting the road had a highly quixotic tone, especially when considering the source of its lure.

The entire route from point A to point B, or in this state of unpredictability to point X, was paved with divinity. The first contact of the human being with the supernatural was amid the American landscape. Up to now, it is still what the first settlers called it – a wilderness. You look around and the unknown possesses you. As Emerson wrote in “The American Scholar” about nature and its relationship to man, of how it “resembles his own spirit, whose beginning, whose ending, he never can find, - so entire, so boundless.” From sequoias to cactuses, wolves to snow leopards, bayous to deserts; in all

respects, Emerson’s statement is not even a millimeter off. Fortunately, Mother Nature spread her marvels all throughout the New World. With its hums, chirps, buzzes, the gushing rivers, and the whistling zephyr carrying bouquets of pines and roses, it is not hard to forget about civilization and infinitely re-discover yourself. But in the times of B.B. King, Chuck Berry, Miles Davis, and other numerous musical pioneers, the natural world served as an usher on your road to a breathtaking clash of senses yet to come.

And come it did, loud and clear, with honky-tonk trumpets, saxophone solos, guitar shreds, and percussion slams. After a long drive, the majestic green curtain teasingly revealed the dark, neon-lit, mystical world of American cities. There was bigbusiness New York; swift, speedy, where a hot-dog lunch was consumed during the bustle to another business meeting. An estimated 2,900 miles to the West was San Francisco, serving freshly caught oysters par excellence on a rocking yacht or a small joint right by the tranquil bay. To catch up with the grooviest jazz, turning into New Orleans’ Bourbon Street barfly was your best bet. But, when it came to the bluest of blues that one could sway all night to, Chi-city’s nightclubs were the place to go. And of course, the coyotes wail, along the trail, deep in the heart of Texas – probably due to the finest steak on Earth. That’s right, a steak that trumps Trump’s, a steak enjoyed with a beer and live country songs around the campfire. On the other hand, the best cheesesteak sub is Philadelphia's turf.

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Adam Radomski It is crucial to note how, despite being collectively labeled as American cities, their founders made it paramount to construct these cities with complete originality. Whether it’s the Big Apple shaped by the Italian mobsters; Miami with casinos and luxury condos erected thanks to Cuban blood-money; San Francisco’s unrivaled, authentic Chinatown; all American cities have been sculpted via history and culture that runs age-deep; long before Columbus dipped his dirty fingers into colonization.

The architecture, dishes, or musical origins of today are the products of centuries.

For example, Manhattan has a grid structure due to the German tactic of creating arrangements, which enables easier real estate transactions of building blocks. Thanks to such a genesis, New York’s unique business culture stands out not only in bold but also by being patterned with marble and glittered with gold. What’s most amazing is how this phenomenon is not solely linked with the molding of America’s major metropolises. In fact, each single town in the United States, no matter how big or small, brings to fore its genuine vibe.

What emitted this tempting fluorescence for the impulsively adventurous (besides ridiculously low oil prices and a better economy), was an entire flock of cultural elements: splendid cuisine, a mixology culture to go along, native forms of entertainment and music, plus the bop or boogie required alongside with it.

All of this – products of indigenous values. Sweeping the land time and time again, these values worked so diligently, applying one contour after another, brushing with such momentum as to impact the language, slang, and even accent of the people in a given region. Therefore, it is not so hard to understand the amorous and artistic act of hitting the road, slipping

on aviators and not looking back. The pixie dust of American cities enchanted and brought to fruition the romantic concept of a nomad. What was more romantic was how this nomad could be lone but never lonely, thanks to the dense richness of the culture he traversed through. Yes, romantic indeed! But as some famous person once said, and I’m creative enough to repeat him – romance is dead.

In order not to get too philosophical, or politicallyeconomical, let’s make a simple assumption. The whole society is striving towards total pacification. It is not hard to disagree with this statement, as it is the natural instinct of human beings to work towards a life in utopia. After all, it sounds like a fairy-tale all of humanity would enjoy being part of. No wars nor quarrels, complete acceptance and tolerance. To develop this further: same tastes, favored genres, and political preferences. Still sounds good? One language, one religion. What is being

19 Volume I Spring 2016

Final Destination: New World in 50 Miles implied is not that people shouldn’t strive towards global peace. No, of course everyone should. What is important is to do so without covering the globe with the same principles and values. One major player of this game who has been doing this successfully is the mainstream market.

Ever since the idea of pop-music or pop-culture came along, it gave rise to the concept of mainstream markets, since conveniently enough they brought in the highest of profits. The elites pushing the buttons of mainstream media cooperated flawlessly by not only offering items for purchase but also by marketing them as the only right. To top this off, the products of main-stream had to be contrasted with the “revolting” rest.

Soon after, this entire glamour market sky-rocketed due to the brainwashing techniques of the marketing agencies.

Advertisements manifested products in a way that promised major life improvements upon purchasing a specific product. Well, the desire for ad virtuosos went up, and soon these marketing strategies began working like heroine, addicting one person after the other to the emerging, quite more affordable luxury market. People began to lose their vision and minds, not being able to see beyond what was most commonly presented – or simply, presented by millionaires desiring the doubling of their net value through people’s stupidity.

But how does all of this affect the nomad and American cities?

Mainstream transformed the way in which differences were perceived by the public eye. It directed consumers to what was the “hottest” trend (meaning, of course, the trend having the most expensive ad), causing people to reject all the other alternatives.

The cash-hungry mammoths began showing the new direction and ultimately reshaping

people’s values.

These small businesses, mostly in the private sector, were on the edge of a cliff with “the big guys” pointing a gun at them while displaying their ultimatum: adapt or go bankrupt. Most businesses jumped, went bankrupt, and became taken over by the new kids on the block who understood the direction of success the major corporations were pointing to. Other businesses went ahead and made these “refinements” in the name of appeal, since they were necessary to keep the ship afloat. As a result, a gradual process of replacement commenced and this system still multiplies like a plague.

As they say, in with the old, out with the new; and new usually means cleaner, advanced, easier to maintain; but does it have to mean burning the history and culture to ashes that get blown away by the wind? It might be difficult to turn back now and rebuild a city by using its cultural and traditional blueprints as reference while, at the same time, making it appealing to a modern audience, but it surely is not impossible. As for now, it should be of highest importance to preserve the roots of cities which have not yet been torn out by the tsunami wave of main-stream.

Why? I’m sure some may ask that. Well, ask yourselves if universal homogeneity is in fact as life-changing as it sounds, or is it just the tendency that this mainstream marketing introduced – buying what sounds great and looks great without asking questions. What if it was possible in Texas to hustle to the beat of hip-hop while munching a hot-dog, and it was possible in New York City to eat the same steak as in Texas? What if there was no Bostonian accent? What if the same killer jazz that only New Orleans offers would make its way into San Francisco? What if tall, gray, glassy sky-scrapers were present in each city?

20 The WASP

Adam Radomski Going the extra level – what if everyone, everywhere spoke English, and believed in Christ? Is a monochromic world the futuristic goal?

Due to a data-driven world, traveling in itself has lost on its value, which makes it even more crucial to make towns as vibrant, energetic, and true to their heritage as they once were. It all boils down to making the right investments, promoting cultural and historical differences, practicing forms of expression tied with the region of origin. From cooking or playing music to simply a specific way of giving a handshake. And when it comes to universalization, why not add a local touch to products meant for a global market?

Cities are our record keepers, our encyclopedias, and references that offer a first-hand experience like no other. The ability to connect with any culture on such a sensual level is the most prized possession our world has to offer.

Right now, in the 21st century, it is not hard to see what reaching an unprecedented state of globalization and homogeneity has done in the social sphere. Human beings are more concealed and isolated, and all of it is

most probably a result of this fear of differences that main-stream culture brought in. As these differences fade away in the name of common identity, the fear and shame of our differences escalates.

Suddenly, differences become something we feel obliged to, or pushed into throwing away, but feel empty upon doing so.

Now imagine a world without such a fear, a world in which each single person works communally in order to make architecture a reflection of where they came from, where dishes in local restaurants resemble historical struggles and triumphs, and where music speaks of cultural roots and values. The pride from imbedding this bona fide, pure background into a town could make its residents rhapsodic enough to produce an euphoric atmosphere that lures enough outside attention to not only ricochet but to counter the mainstream-imposed bankruptcy threat. But that’s not the best part.

Imagine the roads untraveled, the lust for discoveries, or just being in a car with the top down and chasing a sunset that promises a paradise somewhere over yonder.

21 Volume I Spring 2016

The Country of Contradictions: Small v. Big People Why Is It so Easy to Be Obese While Being Fit Is so Trendy?

Nadia Błaszczyk We follow what fashion tells us to pursue, not only in terms of fashion itself, but also in technology, food, travelling, and lifestyle.

The United States, one of the biggest countries in the world, is a perfect market for all services, trends, and products.

There is always a group of people which becomes the target of marketing.

Since our childhood we are taught to fit in specific social requirements.

The unification of society, connected with globalization of the world, has become a real problem.

We blindly follow what is said to be the best for us now, and if we need to make a change, we don’t find any connection with our lifestyle, and we move on.

The United States is a country where we can observe the development of sport market juxtaposed with growing rates of obesity, both among children and adults. Think about stereotypes – Americans eat fast food so a great part of the society has a tendency to be obese. Well, recent years prove that stereotypes might actually be quite accurate. For the last

couple of years, America has been fighting with Australia for the first place with the highest rate of obesity in the society. On every corner of an American city we have contrasting images.

We can also distinguish more detailed categories of diversity and, without any doubt, they are dependent on socioeconomic status of an individual. Today’s world offers plenty of possibilities and chances to develop, but unfortunately, as we already know, nothing comes for free. As a result, yes, we see the opportunities, yes, we want to make use of them, yet many of us do not have resources to reach these chances, and the dynamics of change slow down (or completely disappear).

Sport is on top. It is trendy to be fit, it is trendy to go to the gym, it is trendy to eat healthy. All these trends determine the growth of sport market as we create a new group of customers hungry for amazing equipment, most organic products, and new sport disciplines. Our need to meet the expectations of the contemporary fashionable lifestyle has a great impact on the industry, because we are more willing to spend

22 The WASP – Volume I Spring 2016

Nadia Błaszczyk more and more money on things which are not indispensable, and their purchase is based on a whim rather than on a real demand. A bigger percentage of buyers causes the rise in prices. Consequently, being fit and healthy turns out to be a more and more luxurious life choice. The high prices of healthy food prevent people with low income from taking care of their health.

How is it even possible that in a modern world, where healthy lifestyle is constantly advertised and promoted, the actual number of overweight people is so high?

Numerous famous and influential people like Michele Obama, Beyoncé, or Jamie Oliver get involved in projects aiming to lower the level of obesity in the country. They play a crucial role in bringing awareness to people about consequences of unbalanced diet. Parents should have a wide knowledge of how to protect their child from obesity, because it is their duty to properly provide for their offspring. Children are the victims of obesity as a result of the easy access to cheap fast food, which is full of fat and calories, and not necessary nutrients. They are raised surrounded by so many temptations that if the parent does not control the habits of the child, it is possible that it will be a victim of obesity. The lack of variety of sport activities in the free time and spending too much time in front of the computer conduces to gaining weight and snacking between regular meals. The same happens to adults when they spend long hours in front of their computers and do not have time to go to the gym. Since sport has become so trendy, it is hard for people to sign up for a gym if they have other monthly expenses.

The market

emphasizes that doing sports requires regular gym visits, special clothes, and a balanced diet. And all of them together are not the cheapest alternative. But the society keeps forgetting that sport is a universal thing and one does not need any special resources, just time and a little of self-motivation to exercise every day. This is a good start, both for children and adults. Work, school, and other duties leave us time to exercise, which not only positively influences our organisms, but also provides us with endorphins – the hormones of happiness.

Another reason why obesity in the United States is still on such a high level is the issue of shopping.

Americans love to shop and it is nothing bad. But they often do not know their limits. Nevertheless, the biggest problem are prices. And here again, families with lower income can’t afford healthy products because fruits and vegetables needed for a salad are way more expensive than fast food in Taco Bell just around the corner.

There is no point for them to buy fresh products and cook at home while for the same price they can buy a double amount of half-ready meals, which they put in microwaves. How to resist the temptation of saving money?

It even sounds inappropriate. Don’t we all want to be able to save money regardless of our salary? Imagine that you go to a shop and you can either buy whole bunch of healthy, free GMO ingredients, and pay more than you expected, or just stop on your way home at Chipotle and order for yourself an Americanized version of Mexican food, which will make you full for the whole afternoon, and all this only for $8. What do you choose?

Exactly. The growing number of chain

23 Volume I Spring 2016

The Country of Contradictions: Small v. Big People fast food restaurants in the US tempts people on every step to fall for cheap options. I guess, the society is not used to looking for other affordable, alternatives than fast food, when choosing what is served on a tray is simply easier and more convenient.

First of all, because of economic reasons, and secondly, because of no necessity to put a lot of effort in it.

However, we have to remember that Americans are not only BIG and the national project of Michele Obama titled “Move Your Body” actually works. A big group of Americans, especially adults, who have better jobs and earn more money, are considered to be very active in terms of doing sport. They invest a lot of time, before or after work, to work out, and they care a lot about their organisms.

Organic cafés placed around business centers enable people to continue their new healthy habits even during their work. Variety of fitness classes and very modern gyms with the best equipment attract two kinds of people, those who really want to make use of their time and go to the gym for themselves, and those who want to show off in some way and be present in a trendy place. Maybe, after all, it is not that bad if the result is a healthy lifestyle? In many big cities, instead of investing money in gym pass, many men and women jog in the parks dissociate themselves from their work and release positive hormones, which are believed to work as a better wakeup call than an actual cup of coffee.

Young people like to attend group activities where they can make new friendships and meet new people. On the other hand, it has become very popular to buy good sport clothing, some basic equipment as dumb-bells and a mat. Favorite music and a set of

good exercises do not cost anything and, without any doubt, contribute to the success of a training. Moreover, people follow their friends and want to be as fit as them, so they sign up for similar classes because of a kind of social pressure. I guess, until it attracts people to a healthy lifestyle, we should not complain.

Unless the United States offers better opportunities for the society to eat healthy and CHEAP, it will be very difficult to maintain sport trends among people. Things change very fast and it is not impossible that even groups with better economic situation will get bored with spending all the money on sport. What if the society, tired of adjusting itself to majority’s expectations, will drop and drop in a very deep obesity ocean? On the other hand, maybe worldwide health advertisements will bring positive results, and people will understand that it is in their hands to force the changes in the national diet. It is easy for us, Europeans, to judge and say that its Americans’ own fault how the rates of obesity are going higher and higher. But I think, unless we experience living in their “world” and facing all the “food struggles” on a daily basis, we will not be able to fully understand their diet decisions and the way of life they choose. We can hope that we will remember about their problem and to not let our countries fall for the same bad habits.

Move your body, America. Time to make a change, at least try.

24 The WASP

25 The WASP – Volume I Spring 2016

Everything’s Coming up Roses Małgorzata Dudo The person who has everything, has the most to lose.

Beep – beep – beep – Arthur’s Porsche beeps, as he closes the door and presses the key. “How wonderful my life is,” he thinks, walking through his garage with a red rose in his hand. He’s got everything he’s always wanted: a sports car, a suburban house in New Jersey, a well-paid job in the best city in the world (New York City, of course), a very expensive suit, and a beautiful wife, who has given him two children.

“I can’t believe she’s my wife,” he thinks, standing in the corridor, watching Alicia cooking in the kitchen. Her hair falls into her eyes as she bends over to take the cake out of the oven.

“Hello, my darling,” he says, when he finally decides to enter the kitchen. “I’ve got something for you.” He hands her the rose. She smiles.

“And I’ve had a very productive day,” she says. “I’ve finished the painting.

You can see it now if you want to.”

They go to her painting studio, located in a room near the front door. Alicia turns the key – she has to lock the room so that the children can’t go there on their own. When they enter, they see a big painting on an easel. It shows a woman talking on the phone and a speech bubble that says “Oh, Jeff, I love you, too… But…” “It’s quite nice,” he says. “Is it a self-portrait?”

“No,” she laughs. “It’s a reproduction of Roy Lichtenstein. Remember? We saw his paintings at the MoMA a few years ago.”

“Yes… Well, actually, not really. You know I don’t know anything about art.”

“Yeah, I know…” She smiles and changes the subject. “Let’s go, the dinner’s ready.”

They go to the living room, where the kids are playing. Riley, their 5-year-old daughter, is watching television, while their son Ricky, who’s almost one, is playing with some shiny toys.

“--You look great today!”

“Because I feel great! I listened to your advice and I’ve taken--” “Riley, how many times I’ve told you to turn the voice off during the commercials,” Arthur says.

While waiting for Alicia to bring the dinner, Arthur notices that she has put a vase with the rose on the piano. Why is this instrument still here? He hasn’t played it since childhood. His mother used to sing in a choir and thought that he might also have some musical talent. Maybe if he’d had a father they would have realized earlier that Arthur’s talents were more sports-related. And then he wouldn’t have had to spend all those long hours with the teacher, learning to play “Für Elise,” but dreaming about being like Freddie Mercury and playing “Bohemian Rhapsody” instead.

Finally Alicia comes with the plates and they sit down around the table to eat.

26 The WASP – Volume I Spring 2016

Małgorzata Dudo Beep – beep – beep – the telephone rings. Arthur stands up to answer it in the kitchen. It’s his mother, of course. She calls every day and if she wasn’t ill she would probably also come to visit them. Arthur loves her very much.

“How are you today?” he asks after she’s described him her day.

“I’m all right,” she says. “Don’t you worry about me. I’ve tried these new pills that you gave me and they work like magic. I almost don’t feel pain anymore.”

“That’s good,” he says. “I’ll buy you more, then.”

“Oh, but you don’t have to. I know they’re expensive--“ “Stop it, mom. That’s the least I can do. And I’ve got money, don’t worry.”

Beep – beep – beep – he hears a sound, it’s the garage door opening. He also hears the noise of the Porsche’s engine starting. He goes back to the living room.

The kids are eating at the table, but Alicia is nowhere to be seen.

“Where’s mommy?” Arthur asks.

“She’s gone,” says Riley, sitting by an empty plate.

He feels panic building up inside him. She’s never done something like that, never disappeared out of the blue… He feels that he has to protect her. There’s no time to think. He has to go after her.

“We’re going for a trip,” he says and moves Ricky from his chair to his baby carrier. “Riley, let’s go.”

They get into their second car, the minivan. Arthur puts Ricky in the back, while Riley sits in the front passenger seat. He hasn’t got time to fight with her, so he lets her stay there. He’s driving. Thankfully, there’s only one way to get from their neighborhood to the road leading to NYC – the only direction Alicia can be going. And sure enough, when they enter the highway, they see the Porsche in the distance.

After a while, there’s no more than 20 yards between them and Arthur decides not to stop Alicia but to follow her. As they drive for a while, he starts to reminisce about the times they first met.

They were a surprising match, because they were from completely different worlds: she painted and fought for women’s rights, and he spent most of his time in a business school or on a football field. But one evening, at a party, he saw her across the room and knew that she was the woman he was going to marry. The following year they moved in together into a tiny apartment. And thank God they did, because his mother was already trying to find him a wife. She organized parties at her house and introduced him to shy girls in red sweaters. Somehow they reminded him of beetroots.

Alicia was much more elegant and mysterious than those girls. She spent a lot of time in front of the canvas and even when she was with him, he often noticed that she was thinking about something else. But he got used to it. She was an artist, after all. And he loved her just the way she was.

For a long time, the only real problem was the kids. He always wanted to have two, and to have a real family, unlike the one he’d grown up in. But Alicia wasn’t keen on it. She used to say that children shouldn’t live in a house full of paint and turpentine.

Beep – beep – beep – the radio is turned on and brings Arthur back from his thoughts.

27 Volume I Spring 2016

Everything’s Coming Up Roses “--I used to have the same problem. But then I started taking Mr. Sandman’s Pills and I don’t have nightmares anymore! You should try it too!--” “Riley, don’t touch the buttons!” Arthur yells and turns the radio off. Riley starts chewing on the endings of her red hair.

The Porsche turns right. Arthur follows.

After a while they are in Greenwich Village. The Porsche parks by one of the many brick buildings. Alicia gets out of the car and walks to the door.

“Wait in the car,” Arthur tells the kids, leaves the minivan, and runs after Alicia.

“Alicia!” he yells. “What are you doing?!”

“Arthur?! You followed me?”

“Well, I was worried about you, you left so suddenly…”

“I couldn’t bear it any longer.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, I really liked your mother and it wasn’t easy to listen to “Für Elise” played at her funeral. I know how much she liked that song.”

“What are you talking about?!”

“Oh, you must’ve realized that this is a dream, haven’t you?”

“Well yes, we’re living the dream!”

“No, you’re dreaming the dream.”

He looks at her incredulously. Something’s beeping in the distance, but he ignores it.

“We’ve already had this conversation after the funeral,” she explains. “You followed me here. You still couldn’t understand why I’d left you. We shouted at each other and then you’ve gone home and you’ve taken your mother’s pills. But I wouldn’t know about that, would I? I’m not living with you anymore.”

“What?! You are! We’ve got two kids and a house together!”

“No, we don’t. I told you many times that I didn’t want kids.”

“Yes, but I told you it wasn’t a problem. We bought a house with an extra room and we arranged a painting studio, so that the kids wouldn’t be around paint, don’t you remember?”

“It wasn’t really about the paint,” she sighed. “It was about the violence.

Remember when we were walking back from the MoMA that evening and some drunk idiot made an inappropriate comment about my skirt? You beat him up so much that he almost died. I was so scared. Your mother later told me that outbursts like that sometimes happen after you’ve been suppressing your emotions for a while. She said that it started when you broke fingers of your piano teacher by smashing them with the part of the piano that covers the keys. I realized that I couldn’t let any children be around you, because one day they would get hurt.”

Arthur gasps. He realizes that she’s telling the truth.

“But I would never hurt them! I would never hurt a person I love!” He says and the words sound like an old song learned by heart many years ago.

Beep – beep – beep – Arthur turns around. A car honks at the minivan, which is still in the middle of the street, the way he has left it.

“Move!” The driver shouts.

28 The WASP

Małgorzata Dudo Arthur turns back. Alicia is gone, the door is closed. He has no choice but to go back to the car. He gets into the minivan and drives off, not really knowing where he’s going.

“Who was that girl, daddy?” Riley asks.

Arthur suddenly remembers about the children.

“Are you real?” he asks.

“Of course we’re real,” she says. “Don’t frighten us, daddy.”

He can’t believe that he’s had children with a woman that isn’t Alicia.

“Are we going to see mommy today?” Riley asks.

“But I don’t know who... where she is.”

“I think she might be at home. Don’t you think so, Ricky?”

“MA!” laughs Ricky.

So they drive back. As they’re traveling through the highway, Arthur turns the radio on.

“--Mr. Sandman’s Pills! Thanks to Mr. Sandman’s Pills I only have happy dreams, without any dead people!”

“Mr. Sandman’s Pills is a revolutionary way of dealing with sleeping problems.

Just one pill guarantees you peaceful sleep for 12 hours with only positive dreams!

Mr. Sandman’s Pills – take control of your dreams.”

Arthur changes the station. But it’s the same ad playing.

“Hi Mary, you look very tired today, what’s wrong?”

“Oh Nancy, I’ve had nightmares again. This time it was my late husband, telling me that he knows he’s dead. I woke up in sweat--” Arthur turns the radio off. They’re home.

There’s a large truck on the driveway and there are some men carrying out the furniture. Arthur doesn’t care anymore.

He takes Riley by the hand and they enter the house. He feels more and more scared about who he’s going to meet inside. He still can’t remember the woman who is, supposedly, the real mother of his children.

They enter the living room. There’s nothing there but a piano and a rose.

“Here’s mommy!” Says Riley, pointing at the rose.

He suddenly remembers.

Rose. The beetroot woman that his mother introduced him to after Alicia left.

Rose, his wife. Rose, the red-haired mother of his children. Rose, the woman he’s never loved. Rose.

What has he done?

Beep – beep – beep – beeps the alarm clock.

Arthur opens his eyes.

29 Volume I Spring 2016

30 The WASP – Volume I Spring 2016

Aleksandra Barciszewska

31 Volume I Spring 2016

When Nubbin Else Matters

32 The WASP

Aleksandra Barciszewska

33 Volume I Spring 2016

When Nubbin Else Matters

34 The WASP

The Flower People (les fleurs du mal) Dominika Kowalska I stepped outside the house and immediately came back in. The last time I remember it snowing so violently was in my home village, when I was a teenager. The air was harsh, cutting skin like a razor. It was simply too cold for an old man to go outside. I decided to spend this evening in the company of my sister Marguerite, cooking dinner together, waiting for our boys and children to come home.

As I finished preparing dinner and sat on a big, comfy armchair next to the fireplace, Marguerite brought me a bowl of pudding and half of an apple to share for the evening treat. I smiled. It was her favorite combination: pudding and apple; I haven't eaten it for ages. The taste of this dense, creamy thing brought up the memories of the childhood I shared with my sister.

We shared everything, starting from the womb. Marguerite and I are twins, but no one really knows which one of us came to this world first. My mother Iris gave birth to us in the basement, alone in the dark, during the storm.

Remembering the sequence of the objects coming out of her fifteen year old vagina was her least problem. She died afterwards. We never told anyone that grandma is not our real mother. In a small town where the church, the shop and the bus stop are the only cultural centers and where few people have jobs, gossip travels with the speed of light. In a small town like ours, everybody relies on everybody. You cannot survive winter if your neighbor hates you, and you can be damn sure he does, when he knows you discovered his dirty business. In a small town like ours, the nights are long and belong to the strongest animals.

In our village, everyone had a dark private matter they would rather not share; we weren’t that special after all. Having a father and a grandpa combined in one person wasn’t the worst thing that could happen to a child.

What wasn’t a secret was that our grandpa was a brute and a sex addict. We didn't really know how many siblings, aunts and uncles we have in the village. Those days people were like flowers: they were withering fast and were fertilized by the wind. Provincial hippies.

35 The WASP – Volume I Spring 2016

The Flower People (les fleurs du mal) In the summer when we were thirteen, my sister and I were sitting in the garden, eating pudding from the same bowl. As Marguerite was feeding me a spoonful of this white, greasy substance, she had me knelt down and said: “Corpus Christi.”

“Amen.”

-

Swallowing

the

pudding

followed the response.

“It’s the priest’s sperm.” - She said.

“Which one’s?”

“Which one’s would you like?”

My sister was joking, it was a childish game, one of many we played having nothing else to kill time with, but at that moment she looked at me and noticed something I’d rather not share.

“You fancy him, don’t you?”

I didn't respond.

“You do! You fancy Christian, the young priest!”

I lowered my eyes. I was homosexual. I was having Corpus Christi every Sunday before the mass and loved every piece of it.

How did it start? Apples. Christian had an apple orchard; he was an amateur cider maker and I was a thief. One day, instead of going home after the afternoon spent on picking apples, he stayed there to read. I was stealing apples from his orchard for years now, I knew exactly when he would be leaving. That day I was distracted, I was looking at the crowns of the beautiful apple trees he’s grown- no doubt he had a green hand. I haven’t noticed him; he caught me stealing fruits. The punishment was sweeter than the apple juice.

It would be simplistic to say that I was sharing his bed because he was a man. It wasn’t just fucking and we weren’t just lovers. He was different than any other person in the village. He was the sun. Christian was gentle; there was nothing primitive in him. He was every girl’s wet dream; when he was preaching, the church has never been fuller with females in pink Sunday 36 The WASP

Dominika Kowalska dresses. Looking from above it looked like a garden of roses. All their eyes were laid on Christian’s soft hands holding the Holy Book. Once I made him a prank and put a drawing of a dick between the pages of the Bible that he marked for that mass. I knew exactly when he saw it- an almost imperceptible but warm smile appeared on his face. He was the most wonderful man on earth. It was Christian who inculcated in me the love for books. In fact, he was the only person in the village who didn’t think books were good only for setting fire during winter.

When we were together, we didn't have to heat in the furnace. He was twelve years older than me. It was minus twenty Celsius-degrees outside and my dick was hard like an egg boiled for twelve minutes. I was on fire.

After making love he read me poetry, les fleurs du mal, caressing my young body. I fell asleep with my head in his arms. It was the first time in my life I felt truly safe. I was really excited to tell Marguerite about my night, but when I entered the bedroom we shared, she wasn’t there.

I found her lying on the dirty bathroom floor. She was bleeding from the place form where she should not bleed, she was barely conscious. I didn't have to ask what happened and who did this to her. I took her into my arms and caressed her to make her feel loved, a thing I learned only last evening, then I carried Marguerite to the only safe place I knew. Christian’s house wasn’t far, but the snow was knee-high and I lost a shoe. When Christian saw us, he didn’t ask any questions. Female lot in our village was predictable.

We knew she couldn’t stay in the village any longer. Maybe it was the first time, but first of many to follow. Christian decided he’d steal the old priest’s carriage and we would look for a better place to live. We planned to leave when Marguerite would feel slightly better; Christian was making sure it was to be soon.

I looked at him when he was washing Marguerite with a sponge soaked with hot water. My heart was melting. I was asking myself how was I so lucky to have the most wonderful man on Earth fall in love with me? From all the flowers he picked me. I wished that for Marguerite; I hoped that one day she 37 Volume I Spring 2016

The Flower People (les fleurs du mal) would find what I found. That was one more reason for leaving this place.

Local flowers were rotten weed. The soil was poisoned.

I left my loved ones and went to the church once again and borrowed the monstrance hidden in the tabernacle. It was in the shape of sunrays, gold and heavy.

As I came back home I found grandpa in his warm bed, sleeping like a child hugging his favorite toy- almost empty bottle of purple, denatured alcohol.

“Good morning sunshine. Wakey wakey sleepy head.” - I sang sweetly as my hand hit his stew mug with the monstrance. A little bit of sunshine for daddy.

“How about we reverse the roles? Let me play the daddy now. What ya sayin’? Are these tears on your face? You don’t like it? You like it, I know you do. Your mouth says no, but daddy knows your heart says yes.”

He was resisting me for a minute and after that he fell unconscious.

Good for him, but I wasn’t planning on letting him go so easily. The fury that was boiling in my heart gave me unexpected strength. I dragged the bastard out of his bed and threw him into the basement.

The place of my genesis became the place of his exodus. Via Rectus.

The next morning when grandma went to the basement to collect old, winkled potatoes for the meal, she found her husband stiff. She removed the monstrance from his ass, washed it, peeled the potatoes, and after having lunch, she brought the sacred object back to church where it belonged.

As to our trio, we traveled for weeks until the end of the land and when we stopped, we saw the most beautiful view: sun setting onto the sea. It was the sign we were looking for; it was the place where we could blossom. We decided to build a house there. With time, the house was getting bigger and bigger and we started hosting travelers, our lovely tumbleweeds.

One day a boat from far away reached the shore. God sailed the gift we were praying for. The man didn't speak our language and didn’t know our customs, but should this really be a criterion? When I look back at our village and at all the men who shared our language and history, I don’t really think so. The newcomer was kind and gentle and our whole trio agreed that he had otherworldly eyes. He adored Marguerite and it was all that mattered.

38 The WASP

Dominika Kowalska They had four children: Narcissus, Amarantus, Daisy and Lily, all of different shapes and colors; what a lovely bouquet. They will all come back home any minute with their spouses and children. The dinner is ready.

39 Volume I Spring 2016

40 The WASP – Volume I Spring 2016

New York Jazz Adam Radomski

You strut downstairs to the sound of snares, to a space quite bijou sombre – red and blue.

You’re underground feeling quite drowned.

The city is tough, the going is rough.

You sit and drink, ingredients in sync.

There’s energy within.

The first note comes in.

The streak of gold, full house – you fold.

Consumed by the sax, you don’t think about stacks.

The piano keys the trumpet tease, and the drum hits the passing subway knits.

The shows end, But you know the trend.

Outside you go, stepping nice and slow.

You strut downstairs to the sound of snares, to a space quite bijou sombre – grey, green and blue.

Living in millionaire city, where the rent is not so pretty, but where the homeless sing, “Stand by Me” like B.B. King.

41 Volume I Spring 2016

CONTRIBUTORS:

Aleksandra Barciszewska – editor-in-chief. BA-program-survivor. Vampiricpsychoanalyst-by-nature. Extracting the sexual from the mundane, rejecting reality for the sake of the very-tale of momentary satiation of the urges for creation.

Nadia Błaszczyk – her biggest passion is travelling, so she tries to travel as much as possible. She hates to sit in one place for too long so in her spare time she plans new trips and explores new places (even if they are just around the corner).

Addicted to drinking tea, even in summer. Her favorite piece of clothing is a smile.

Małgorzata Dudo – 3rd year BA student at the ASC. Her life motto comes from a classic text of American culture (Ugly Betty): “Be who you are. Wear what you want.

Just learn how to run really fast.”

Marta Natalia Giers – MA student of American Studies Center, very much interested in human sexuality. She got her BA in English Philology at University of Białystok. In her free time she enjoys travelling, meeting friends, and dancing (especially hip-hop and dancehall). She is also a chess coach for children.

Julian Horodyski – used to like reading books, love photography, enjoy music and have fun having fun out in the country. Recently he's realized that everything comes and goes, and so now he does a lot more things as well.

Agata Klichowska – student of ASC with a passion for contemporary music and independent movies.

Patrycja Koszewska – 2nd year M.A. student at ASC. She is interested in Urban Sociology with particular focus on gentrification and its socio-cultural consequences on local communities.

Dominika Kowalska – in her spare time she plans a revolution, fights for women and minority rights, writes stories, and drinks coffee at midnight.

Magdalena Krzemińska – always wanted to be a gypsy snake charmer, but never made it to the academy. So now, with the bluest blues in her ears and the blackest coal in her hand, she draws pictures, out of sadness and self-disappointment.

Tommy Longsword – something of a sexual deviant, Tommy Longsword channels his inner pervert into his artwork. With no fixed abode, Tommy drifts from country to country spreading his art (and a lot more besides).

Julia Mardeusz – is now in her last semester at ASC. When not studying/writing MA thesis, she’s probably at work, either posting stuff on Facebook or writing about women/culture. When doing none of those, she’s travelling or watching American movies.

Paulina Niewiadomska – illustrator and art director of The Wasp; psychologist manqué and 2nd year M.A. student at ASC who for the last few years has been working in the arts and culture sector and would do anything to be the second Eastern European woman to lead UNESCO (in the very very very distant future).

Natalia Ogórek – singing is her biggest passion, but she does not connect her future with it. Lover of TV series and Marvel. 70% funny, 50% weird, 100% organized.

Adam Radomski – student of ASC with a major interest in how technologically and futuristically oriented progress influences society. His pessimistic perception of the upcoming years have made him hell-bent on working towards preventing negative impacts of a world that is developing at an unprecedented rate.

Kamila Maria Wyszyńska – studies Graphic Arts at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. American Studies is her second faculty. Loves to travel. Wants to live and create across the world.

43 Volume I Spring 2016