Tuesday, November 14, 2017

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2017

VOLUME CLII, ISSUE 107

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Panelists discuss amplification of colonialist effects after Irma, María Students, specialists explore the effect of colonialism on hurricane aftermath in Puerto Rico

By CORAL MURPHY SENIOR STAFF WRITER

The Africana Studies Department and the Puerto Rican Association engaged the University community in a discussion of the issues different colonies in the Caribbean currently face after Hurricanes Irma and María in a panel titled “The Disaster is Colonialism.”

The discussion began by exposing Puerto Rico’s historical, socio-political and economic background, which led to the vulnerable state the island finds itself in, said panelist Katsí Yarí Rodríguez Velázquez GS, who is from Puerto Rico.

She explained that the disaster Puerto Rico currently faces can be traced back to before Hurricane María and is entrenched in Puerto Rico’s fiscal crisis and colonial status.

“Excluding the colonial conditions that constrain Puerto Rico’s possibilities to transcend the crisis undermines » See PUERTO RICO, page 3

JASMINE RUIZ / HERALD

In Monday evening’s panel “The Disaster is Colonialism,” panelists discussed Puerto Rico’s economic and political history. The panelists discussed how the disaster was entrenched in Puerto Rico’s history of colonialism and fiscal crisis.

Harvard professor unveils Romantic-era archives Artist Shirin Harvard literature professor Deidre Lynch hosts seminar, talks Romanticism, archives

By CONNOR SULLIVAN SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Friday afternoon, University professors, graduate students and librarians joined Harvard Professor of Literature Deidre Lynch in Pembroke Hall for a workshop entitled “Paper Slips: Album, Archiving, Accident.” The event, which was hosted by the Cogut Institute for the Humanities, followed Lynch’s Thursday night lecture on female literary history. The intimate, registration-only seminar concerned the archiving process documented throughout the Romantic period and their implications for contemporary digitized archives.

As a contributor to the prominent journal “Studies in Romanticism” and an editor of the Romantic Period volume of the acclaimed “Norton Anthology of English Literature,” Lynch spoke with authority on the literary movement. She detailed the imperfect nature of Romantic archives, contending that the albums

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CONNOR SULLIVAN / HERALD

Literary scholar Deidre Lynch argues that the fragmented Romantic period archives serve as “disassemblages” of the era’s culture. and scrapbooks of the era marked a peculiar “disassemblage” of the period’s culture. These hand-written and homemade archives comprised not only mistranscribed copies of the renowned works of contemporary poets like John Keats and Lord Byron, but also various anonymous ephemera including newspaper poems and crude drawings that would be marked inconsequential by modern archivists concerned with preserving an accurate and complete canon.

Through their dual inclusion of nonessential documents and faulty transcriptions of notable poets,

Romantic archives maintained a “project of preservation that was idiosyncratic … and possibly polemical.” Lynch further underscored the unfixed qualities of these miscellaneous Romantic archives and common books by alluding to the flyaway scraps that constituted them — a flimsy architecture prone to damage that defies any notion of the archives as definite, enduring entities.

“We should view these (archives) as accident-prone things rather than objects of fixity,” Lynch said. “Romanticism hinges on the fragment.”

Attendees were instructed to read

a pre-circulated collection of papers

by Lynch and other academics before arriving to the seminar. The papers expounded upon the nature of Romantic archives detailed in the seminar, while also drawing on the work of semioticians like Jacques Derrida to examine the Romantic “disassemblages” through the lens of media theory.

Lynch touched on these aspects throughout the seminar, contrasting Romantic archival practices with those present today. Modern archival tools’ capacity for neatly ordaining texts into named and set categories runs counter to Romantic archives’ distinctive instability, Lynch argued, necessarily “transvaluing” archives’ status as “temporary assemblages existing in time.”

Lynch “found a space at the intersection of literary studies and media theory that’s still yet to be named,” said attendee Carlos Pittella, a postdoctoral research associate in the Portuguese and Brazilian studies department.

“It offers so many sides for emerging fields in the digital humanities.”

“The seminar was very interesting,” commented attendee Jiawei Tang, a visiting English PhD student from China’s Peking University. “It had me think a lot about the context of the albums and clippings books.”

Neshat talks Iran, feminism

Artist discusses her career trajectory, use of film, photography, music in Wednesday lecture

By ELIZABETH TOLEDANO SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Last Wednesday, Shirin Neshat spoke to a full Martinos Auditorium in the Granoff Center for the Creative Arts for the second of Brown Arts Initiative’s Warren and Allison Kanders Lecture Series.

Iranian-born artist Neshat works with several forms of media, including film, photography and even music to discuss topics including gender, religion and violence.

Neshat never studied art. She has what she described as a “nomadic” career which began in photography and has led her to collaborate with different artists in projects that span the globe.

She began working with art to express her experience with exile and alienation. » See NESHAT, page 2

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NEWS Wintersession to offer slew of new courses, structure of program remains mostly unchanged

ARTS & CULTURE Student art collaboration explores queer identity through interactive exhibit

COMMENTARY Samilow ’19: Boycotters of Israel fail to acknowledge Palestinian leaders’ lack of compromise

COMMENTARY Renshaw ’20: An open letter to Jeff Bezos from Providence, Rhode Island

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

68th Edition of Miller’s ‘Line of Descent’ fails to peak

» NESHAT, from page 1 She talked about the juxtapositions — including nature versus culture, sexuality versus violence and men versus women — that interest her and play a formative role in her art.

Neshat began her lecture by talking about her work in photography. “I don’t even own a camera,” she said. Instead of taking photos, she organizes scenes and sometimes poses for them. She made her first major body of work, entitled “Women of Allah” after her first trip back to Iran. The photographs, which offered various images centered around poetry, guns and veiled women, proved controversial. Another major body of Neshat’s photography work, “The Book of Kings,” showed stark images of young activists, many of whom sacrificed their lives for their patriotic beliefs. “Photography is about human portraits,” she said.

“The Home of My Eyes,” a photographic series, took inspiration from the exaggerated hand positions of earlier Christian paintings. This series offered similar intense black and white portraiture, this time focused on diversity and the concept of the home. When these photos went on display at the Venice Biennale, the Christian references were paired with a permanent installation of the Madonna. Neshat did not plan for this but liked the juxtaposition of the older sacred imagery and her new take on religious themes.

As time went on, she began to move into film. The works she directed, primarily in black and white, mimicked the starkness and clarity of her earlier photographs. The first full-length movie she made, “Women Without Men,” was based on a book that the Iranian

Vignettes of remote mountaintops, communities make for enjoyable film experience

By DANIEL WAYLAND ARTS & CULTURE CRITIC

COURTESY OF WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Shirin Neshat provided her audience with a discussion that revolved around her sense of aesthetics and creative use of juxtapositions. government banned. The story follows five women navigating modern Iran and the possibility of living in a society without men. The author of the original novel, Shahrnush Parsipur, received an honorary doctorate from Brown in 2010. The film took six years to produce and served as “a way to pay tribute to this monumental woman,” Neshat said.

Though much of Neshat’s earlier work had not been accessible to people in Iran, many could find her film illegally, bringing her work into homes across her native country, she said.

Her more recent film, “Looking for Oum Kulthum,” was released in September. The film follows a female Iranian director trying to capture the story of the famous Egyptian singer Oum Kulthum.

The filmmaker’s story — and the film she struggles to create — tell the tale of women faced with the constraints of a

conservative, male-dominated society.

This past summer, Neshat, who had never worked with music, was asked to direct the opera “Aida,” which has been criticized for its portrayal of Egyptian culture from an Italian perspective. Neshat’s take did away with many of the opera’s conservative and ornate traditions. She used a simple and elegant box structure as the setting for the work.

Her commanding use of stark, powerful imagery, was paired with the confines of the Italian opera to form a dynamic juxtaposition, she said. Her production of “Aida” received harsh criticism from some followers of opera and, at the same time, immense praise from others, she added.

At the end of her talk, Neshat asked the audience how we deal with the past.

For Neshat, that answer is clear: She channels her story into art.

U. to hold second Wintersession Second Wintersession features new courses, innovative pedagogical approaches

By ALEX REICE CONTRIBUTING WRITER

With the fall semester quickly coming to a close, it’s almost time for students to begin registering for Wintersession classes.

This is the second year the University has offered courses over winter break.

Each course offered during the session is equivalent to 180 hours of work and counts toward one credit, according to the program’s website. Wintersession courses include on-campus, destination and online courses.

While there will be a few minor changes, “the bulk of the structure and programming will remain the same,” said Sarah Mullen, manager of curricular programs. Unlike last year, there is only one registration period, which lasts from Nov. 15 to Dec. 1. There is also an additional online course.

A committee of faculty and administrators was charged with reviewing faculty course proposals in the spring to select courses for the upcoming Wintersession. The committee “prioritizes courses with particularly innovative pedagogical approaches,” Mullen said. This year, the majority of courses are new, with only two returning: ENGN 0110: “Lean LaunchPad” and the online course ENGL 0930: “Introduction to Creative Nonfiction.”

The courses offered this year focus on

niche and creative topics. LITR 1151N: “Zoologic: Wild Animals in the Surveillance State,” is taught by Thalia Field, professor of literary arts. The course gives students a chance to learn about animal welfare through virtual and in-person visits to animal sanctuaries, as well as conduct their own hands-on research in the digital lab, Field said.

The destination courses are equally multifaceted. BIOL 1980: “HIV/AIDS in Diverse Settings: Focus on Israel” is taught by Rami Kantor, associate professor of medicine, and will teach students about HIV as a global pandemic. Students will then spend 10 days in Israel meeting guest lecturers and visiting HIV clinics to gain perspective on the global epidemic and an understanding of the diverse settings in which people live, Kantor said.

Caroline Frank, adjunct assistant professor of American studies, is teaching another destination course entitled AMST 1906I: “Decolonizing Museums: Collecting Indigenous Culture in Taiwan and North America,” in which students will travel to Taiwan. It focuses on “how objects in ethnographic collections are narrated given the colonial circumstances under which they were originally collected and deposited in these museums,” Frank said.

Taiwan is “a fascinating crossroads on the edge of China,” Frank said, adding that the trip reinforces the course’s goal to compare Taiwan and the United States.

Wintersession also offers students online options in the form of ENGL 0930: “Introduction to Creative Nonfiction,” taught by Elizabeth Taylor, senior lecturer

in English, and ENGL 0511C: “Fantastic Places, Unhuman Humans,” taught by James Egan, professor of English. While it’s tempting to assume online course require less work and time, “students should be aware when they pre-register that the amount of time they would put into a Brown course is the amount of time they would put into an online course,” said Dean of the College Maud Mandel.

For some professors, compressing a full-length course into three to five weeks presents a challenge. With an already “reading heavy” syllabus, Frank points out that one of her biggest challenges is squeezing a semester’s amount of reading into the shorter time span.

While Kantor expressed some similar concerns, he said Wintersession makes it easier to teach a course at the University.

“I see patients, I have clinic, I’m in the hospital, I have a lab that I run. Personally, I think it’s easier for me to condense everything into a shorter amount of time rather than to make it a semester long one,” Kantor said.

Wintersession offers financial aid packages based on a student’s aid during the academic year. If you’re fully aided, that aid transfers directly to the financial aid for Wintersession, and, if you’re partially aided, it’s proportional, Mandel said.

“We had robust numbers from students on financial aid” last year, she added.

After a “good enrollment” in last year’s Wintersession, the University is hoping to continue its success. “We were really happy with it, pretty much on all measures. For a first year, … you never know how it’s going to go, but student feedback was very positive,” Mandel said.

The Avon Cinema leans arthouse in its palate. It has earned a reputation for featuring the types of films that earn rave reviews from “The AV Club” but largely slip through the cracks of mainstream pop culture. Naturally, the Avon is not especially Catholic in its patronage. On any given night, one can expect to find only a smattering of local cinephiles, and perhaps a stray student or two, populating the theater’s seats. But even a guardian of highbrow culture needs to take a few nights off, and there’s no one better to help loosen the intellectual collar than a bunch of ski bums.

The Warren Miller Entertainment engine roared into Providence again as part of its yearly film world tour, hosting raucous shows at the Avon on Wednesday and Thursday night. And what a host Warren Miller was.

In what has become a time-honored tradition, the film company’s annual ski documentary drew a full and eclectic house to the Avon, enticing audiences with free lift tickets, discounted apparel, and a raffle that included all-expenses paid vacations to premier international ski resorts — all included with the $20 price of admission.

The 68th edition of Warren Miller’s famed ski docs, “Line of Descent,” makes it clear that the brand isn’t going stale. There’s a basic — and successful — formula at work here: attract audiences with giveaways and a grandiose raffle and then keep them entertained with visuals of thigh-high powder and 10,000 foot elevations. I’ve had the privilege of covering this event for multiple years now and can happily report that the simple pleasures of Warren

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Miller Entertainment’s globe-trotting, gravity-defying ode to powder chasers and their snow-covered Edens have not abated with time.

Like its predecessors, “Line of Descent” unfolds in a series of vignettes, exposing viewers to some of the world’s most remote and idyllic peaks, as well as the weird and wonderful communities built around them. Warren Miller’s attention to the ski bums who form the backbone of those communities is the great gift of the documentary series.

There’s a spiritual aesthetic to this clan of adrenaline junkies that’s hard to pin down but deeply alluring. They enjoy an intimate relationship with their natural surroundings that borders on religious. Even their jocular vernacular, full of goofy “pows” and “gnars,” quickly turns ethereal when they are asked to wax poetic about life on the mountain. Miller’s films convince you that these shunners of the 9-to-5 have achieved some form of hedonistic enlightenment — it’s enough to make you want to buy a one-way ticket to the untamed fringes of Montana, Norway or even New Zealand.

That being said, director Chris Patterson has made better work than “Line of Descent.” Last year’s film (also directed by Patterson), “Here, There, and Everywhere,” reveled in the natural beauty of its ski haunts, using an abundance of wide aerial shots that framed skiing as a sublime and celestial act of physical poetry. “Line of Descent” is more theatrical and campy — it loses sight of more natural choreography. Many of last year’s aerial shots are replaced with handheld go-pro filmmaking, which denies viewers depth perception and sense of scope. They break the escapist spell the documentaries have so cleverly constructed over the years.

“Line of Descent” is still a fun ride.

One vignette centers around surf skiers in the western United States, who use non-binded surfboards to cruise through powder banks. It’s the kind of half-baked scheme that is both hilarious and wildly endearing, a reminder that some people don’t take the world so seriously and get along just fine.

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Kyle Gion GS awarded Slavin Fellowship Slavin Fellowship awards $2,500, network with entrepreneurs, provides startup support

By OLIVIA KATCHER STAFF WRITER

Kyle Gion GS, a master’s of science candidate in biochemical and chemical engineering, was announced as one of five new Slavin Fellowship awardees yesterday. Gion joins a group of 14 fellows chosen for their talent, drive and desire to create positive change in the world as studententrepreneurs, according to the Slavin Fellowship website.

Along with a $2,500 scholarship, the Slavin Fellowship connects the fellows to a network of entrepreneurs.

Slavin Fellows receive support and mentorship from Nick Slavin, founder of the fellowship, and the Slavin Family Foundation’s broader network of entrepreneurs, investors, academics and other leaders, according to the fellowship’s website. They also earn a place among what has become a tightknit group of Slavin Fellows, multiple fellows told The Herald.

Since the Slavin Fellowship program began in October 2015, it has awarded Fellowships to 14 studententrepreneurs, including four Brown community members: Matthew DiMarcantonio ’18, Aaron Mayer ’18, Max Song ’14 and Gion.

Entrepreneur Nick Slavin founded the fellowship as a means to help students “navigate a path in the real

world,” Slavin said. “What fellows get is a commitment from me that I sincerely care about their success and will respond to their requests.”

Slavin has advised, founded and invested in startups in multiple fields including medicine, virtual reality, energy and education. Slavin said he is dedicated to help college entrepreneurs because he knows “how much is at stake” when starting a company.

Gion learned about the Slavin Fellowship when Slavin visited the Nelson Center for Entrepreneurship for a discussion about his career. Upon meeting Gion in Boston, who said he had little interest in entrepreneurship before this year, Slavin encouraged Gion to apply to his fellowship.

Gion remembered thinking “entrepreneurship sounds interesting, but not something I see myself getting in to” before this semester, he said.

Gion will develop a startup related to health care communications currently in its initial stages and continue to expand the venture as a Slavin Fellow. But the award went beyond Slavin’s appreciation for Gion’s idea.

Slavin said that he saw in Gion “an unstoppability and determination that you see in the best founders,” citing Gion’s national records in free diving as evidence he is able to set a goal and see it through.

This dialogue with other fellows, entrepreneurs and Slavin himself was the “biggest draw” to the fellowship, Gion said. “If you go down the list of mentors associated (with the fellowship), everyone is incredibly accomplished and successful,” Gion said.

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When it comes to startups, “everyone thinks of great ideas. It comes down to the execution and part of that execution is having a great network of people with applicable experience to help guide you.”

Aaron Mayer ’18 agreed that the network is the most valuable part of the fellowship. Mayer has joined forces with fellow Slavin fellow Alex Patin, a student at Penn, for his startup.

“Alex and I (have started) on a project … called Action Auctions, where people donate as much or as little as they want to a pot, and whoever donates the most amount of money wins half the total amount raised. The other half of the pot goes to charity.” More often than not, the winner ends up donating their half of the money raised to the charity, Mayer said.

“At the end of the day, entrepreneurship is somewhat a solitary journey amongst you and your cofounders,” said DiMarcantonio. The Slavin Fellowship creates a sense of camaraderie and a network of likeminded forward-thinkers who can share and discuss ideas and projects with one another, he said.

“The long-term vision of the Slavin Fellowship is ambitious — for our work to change the trajectory of humankind dramatically for the better,” Slavin said.

Slavin is always looking to continue supporting the fellows in his program. “The fellowship is like a startup, always evolving. We’re always thinking about how the program can become more valuable to new and past fellows.”

» PUERTO RICO, from page 1 the dangers behind the limited ways in which relief has been understood and enacted,” Rodríguez said.

Shariana Ferrer Núñez, member of the Puerto Rican group Colectiva Feminista en Construcción, and Crystal Fortwrangler, an independent filmmaker and U.S. Virgin Islands specialist, also contributed on this topic via Skype.

Afterwards, Haidiya Sewer GS briefed the audience about how many of the U.S. Virgin Islands have slowly been recovering from the 2008 recession and have some of the highest rates of death per capita. Some of the islands have seen increases in crime and have also experienced regular power outages.

Sewer emphasized that this was due to the colonial state the islands find themselves in, especially because the residents have “second-class American citizenship.” Because they do not have the same rights as citizens

of the U.S. states, the islands receive much less federal aid than states do.

“Colonialism exacerbates the effects of the Hurricanes Irma and María,” Sewer said.

After the panelists concluded their presentations, a discussion with the audience commenced, which further expanded on topics such as tourism in these regions, how climate change is affecting them and how opting for environmentally sustainable practices may lead to unwanted gentrification.

The event was organized because the panelists believed that the American media had not covered the essential role of colonialism in the hurricane emergency that affected Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, Rodríguez told The Herald.

“We hope to open up a conversation that should be expanded in terms of understanding the centrality of the role of colonialism in the subjugation of people in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands,” she added.

ARTS & CULTURE PAGE 4 • TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2017

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Student art exhibit contemplates queerness, questioning

COURTESY OF SOPHIA MENG

“Queries (*)”, created by Alex Hanesworth ’20 and Sophia Meng ’20, featured graphite comics, video, audio installations and a space for viewers to contribute writings and drawings.

Hanesworth ’20, Meng ’20 collaboration created to evoke conversations on queer identities

By JACOB ALABAB-MOSER STAFF WRITER

A reception last Thursday closed “Queries (*),” a student art exhibit by Alex Hanesworth ’20 and Sophia Meng ’20 that explored and questioned queer identities.

The exhibit occupied the student gallery on the second floor of List Art Center for a week.

Viewers of the exhibit first encountered a wall covered with dozens of graphite comics, which were drawn by

Hanesworth and Meng, who later went on to present thoughts about sexual identity, gender and attraction during the reception. An adjacent wall challenged viewers to draw their own comic or write a note about their reactions to the exhibit or personal experiences with identities and exploration of queerness. Finally, viewers entered a dark room to watch an immersive video and sound installation projected onto the walls. The sound component of the installation interlaced snippets of interviews with cuts of people

speaking about how they identify and anecdotes about being queer. Viewers watched the bodies of anonymous interviewees as they responded to Meng and Hanesworth’s questions that delved into self-identification and experiences with questioning.

Brown/RISD Dual Degree student Emilia Mann ’20 said the exhibit was “extremely thoughtful and relatable.”

Meng and Hanesworth knew they wanted to create a show together when they entered a lottery early this semester to show in the space, but they were unclear about the theme of the work, Meng said.

“We sat on the grass of the main green for so many afternoons, hashing through ideas,” she added. “It happened almost organically when we were talking about things we had been thinking about.” Hanesworth came up with their specific focuses of questioning and desirability politics, which she defines as the impact of cultural ideals on attraction.

To create the exhibit, Meng and Hanesworth agreed to each make one comic contemplating personal experiences with queerness and identity every day for thirty days before revealing the comics to each other at the end of the month, Meng said. Meng then arranged

the comics into a loose narrative that progresses along the gallery wall, Hanesworth added.

The idea for the video and sound installation emerged when the artists wanted to conduct interviews in order to move away from their own experiences and represent more queer voices on campus, Hanesworth said. The pair interviewed and filmed 15 people after posting a call on Facebook class pages in an attempt to prompt discussion and “talk about the concept of queerness but specifically those early stages (of questioning) or the ongoing process of figuring out who you are,” Hanesworth said.

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menu

s y r u p y i n s ta b i l i t y

SATELLITE DINING ANDREWS COMMONS

Pizza: Bacon Chicken Ranch, Spinach and Feta, Pepperoni Poke Bowl JOSIAH’S

BLUE ROOM

Grilled Portobello Mushroom, Custom Salad

Organic Black Bean Soup, Turkey Sausage and Kale Soup

DINING HALLS SHARPE REFECTORY LUNCH

DINNER

Greek Salad Bar, Split Pea Soup with Ham, Nachos Bar, Butterscotch Chip Bars

Vegetarian Salad Bar, Parsnip and Spinach Soup, Shepard’s Pie, Seafood Cavatelli, Apple Squares

VERNEY-WOOLLEY LUNCH

DINNER

Beef Noodle Soup, Black Bean and Corn Stew, Buffalo Wings, Butterscotch Chip Bars

Tomato and Rice Soup, Rotisserie Style Chicken, Stuffed Acorn Squash, Apple Squares

sudoku

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ACROSS 1 Taj Mahal city 5 Merry 11 One doing serious crunching in 29-Down 14 Perturb 15 Hang on a clothesline 16 One of a swiveled pair 17 1981 Richard Pryor film 19 Sit-__: protests 20 Ancient Greek theater 21 Merry old king 22 In a funk 23 Managed 24 Band whose frontman passes through the audience in a plastic bubble, with “The” 27 Typical “Twilight” fan 28 Billy of “Titanic” 29 Daisylike blooms 32 Pipe dream 36 Bartlett, e.g.

37 Distress signal 38 Pop 39 Chew out 42 Chic 44 “How steak is done” sauce 45 Like a battery needing a charge 46 “Everything but” item 50 “Don’t __”: 2005 R&B hit 53 Dull discomfort 54 Chess ending 55 Cultural values 57 King of Spain 58 Jolly Roger fliers 60 The word, as suggested by the saying formed by the ends of this puzzle’s four longest answers 61 Cab rider-to-be 62 Sheltered, at sea 63 Mimic 64 Lover of Tristan 65 Student’s stressor

DOWN 1 Shady alcove 2 Dutch cheese 3 Gotten up 4 Choir member 5 “The Brady Bunch” girl 6 Tin Woodman’s saving grace 7 Auto race noise 8 Puts on a pedestal 9 Arms supply 10 Caustic substance 11 It’s measured in alarms 12 Man cave hanging 13 Church areas 18 Suss out 22 Leading a charmed life 25 Guitar great Paul 26 Novel-sounding beast 27 Outdoor dining spot 29 Busy month for 11-Acrosses 30 Notice 31 Percussive dance 32 Homer call?

33 Charged particle 34 Like 2011, e.g.

35 Anti’s cry 37 Plot outline 40 “Delightful!”

41 Causes of pallors 42 Phil Rizzuto’s number 43 Fall implements 45 Tried to lose, in a way 46 Fate 47 Freeze, as a road

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48 Herb in a bouquet garni 49 Slot in a stable 50 Country that’s nearly 25 times as long as its average width 51 Crosses one’s fingers 52 Liability’s opposite 56 The other one 58 Key letter 59 Before, to a bard

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A saccharine-ridden installation accompanied by a listing of mental disorders and national concerns makes a poignant critical statement evocative of the issues currently plaguing people’s lives.

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“I don’t even own a camera.”

— Artist Shirin Neshat on her work in photography

See Neshat on front page. calendar TODAY NOVEMBER MARCH

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Leavetaking Info Session 12:00 P.M. Stephen Robert ’62 Campus Center, 229

Library FYI Workshop 2:00 P.M. Rockefeller Library, Hecker Room

Anna Kornbluh Lecture 5:30 P.M. Hillel, Meeting Room

Chamber Music Concert at ADPhi 8:00 P.M. Goddard House

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comics Comic | Olivia Reavey

Comic | Ceyhun Firat

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COMMENTARY TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2017 • PAGE 7

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Dennis Ross and the folly of anti-Israel pressure JARED SAMILOW staff columnist No one’s been closer than Ambassador Dennis Ross to pulling off what President Trump described as the “ultimate deal” — a peace agreement between Israelis and Palestinians. During the fateful days of the Camp David Summit in July 2000, it was Ross — then U.S. envoy to the Middle East — who nearly brought Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat all the way to ending one of the world’s longest-running conflicts. Ross wheedled the opposing leaders and hammered out contentious particulars, learning more about the contours of the conflict and its players than perhaps anyone else on earth. His work to bring about Israeli–Palestinian peace spanned the tenures of former Presidents George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, and his fingerprints are on every diplomatic development that has transpired in Israel in the past 25 years.

So it was with considerable excitement that 150 students and community members filed into Salomon 001 last Thursday for the event with Ross, titled “The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Then and Now,” hosted by Brown Students for Israel in partnership with the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs. Ross began by casting the Israeli–Palestinian situation as a fundamentally territorial struggle between two national movements, both of which were legitimate and worthy of fulfillment.

“There are two rights, not a right and

wrong,” he emphasized as the guiding principal of his peacemaking efforts.

In recognizing this, Ross exposed the illogic of trying to boycott or “punish” Israel out of frustration that the conflict hasn’t yet ended. Lasting peace in the region won’t come from punitive measures against Israel, but from diplomatic compromises that the Palestinian Authority has thus far not been amenable to.

As an audience member at the event, I asked Ross if peace talks in 2000 met the Palestinians’ needs, and he replied unequivocally that they did. He explained that the Clinton Parameters — guidelines he authored that specified the concessions the two

what would become the Israeli offer, answered that these allegations were “nonsense” — myths created after the fact to justify the Palestinian position.

As the Clinton Parameters outlined, the West Bank would have been connected to Gaza via an elevated highway and railroad, and a $30 billion fund would have been created to support Palestinian refugees.

I continued: If Israel’s spurned offer was generous, is there any reason — other than wishful thinking — to believe that an agreement can be reached in the future? Indeed, Ross conceded, Israel would likely be less able and willing to offer the Palestinians as much as it did in the Clinton

simply outlast Israel and get all the land.

Ross emphatically refuted the second option, explaining that Israel made wide-ranging concessions on a number of critical issues. Seeing as he was there in 2000, I’m inclined to defer to his assessment. Ross also dismissed the third option, citing polls that show popular support on both sides for the two-state solution. Indeed, he believes that both Israelis and Palestinians truly desire a twostate solution, but are skeptical that it can actually happen, decreasing the likelihood that politicians make risky compromises.

So that leaves the first option as

Lasting peace in the region won’t come from punitive measures against Israel, but from diplomatic compromises that the Palestinian Authority has thus far not been amenable to.

parties would make — provided for the Palestinians to receive 95 percent of the West Bank, the entire Gaza Strip and control over the Arab parts of Jerusalem over the course of six years, as well as financial help establishing state institutions.

But the Palestinian leadership summarily rejected the proposal. I pressed him further about the nature of the rejection, noting that many Palestinians claim that Israel’s offer was not really generous at all and would have left them with a disjointed state that lacked physical autonomy and economic independence. Ross, who was intimately involved in drafting

Parameters due to the threats to Israeli security posed by the growing instability of Israel’s neighbors.

In my view, there are only three logical explanations as to why the Palestinians rejected the Clinton Parameters in 2000. First, maybe the deal met the needs of the Palestinian people, but the leadership was shortsighted or mistaken and turned it down anyway. Second, the deal may have been flat-out unfair or inadequate, making the Palestinians right to reject it. Or third, perhaps the Palestinians had not yet come to terms with Israel’s permanence, and therefore they believed that they could

the correct explanation. Of course, if it is Palestinian diplomacy that is responsible for the peace logjam, then coercion aimed at Israel makes no sense. This is so, no matter how much one detests Israel’s policies in the West Bank and Gaza or sympathizes with the Palestinians. Israel acquired the West Bank and Gaza in 1967 during a war, and can cede them only through a diplomatic settlement. Whenever a country exercises military control over a civilian population, it is sometimes compelled to engage in practices that are repressive and damaging to civilians. Israel is no exception, though its respect for civilian

life compares quite favorably when stacked against other countries. The obvious solution is Palestinian selfgovernment, but that cannot happen without a diplomatic agreement. And in 2000, the Palestinian Authority was unwilling to even negotiate over Israel’s offer more than 95 percent of the West Bank within six years (everything minus the most built-up settlements and non-negotiable security zones), Gaza and compensatory landswaps from its sovereign territory. It is difficult to imagine what more Israel could have conceded.

There’s nothing intrinsically wrong with boycotting a country whose behavior you find objectionable. But if a boycott or punishment is to be productive, the boycotters have to state clearly how they’d like the country to reform itself, and such expectations have to be reasonable and practicable. Otherwise, the punishment has no just goal and serves only to impoverish a civilian population. “End the occupation” is a stirring and emotionally-appealing talking point, and may sound eminently reasonable. But without a negotiated plan for what is to succeed Israeli rule in the West Bank — something that can happen only with the participation of a recalcitrant Palestinian leadership — it’s just that: a talking point. It is inconceivable for a country to yield territory without assurances that it won’t regret doing so. Punishing Israel for the torpor of the Palestinian Authority would be like rewarding intentional handballs with penalty kicks.

Jared Samilow ’19 can be reached at jared_samilow@brown.edu.

A Letter to my Dearest Jeff Bezos LENA RENSHAW staff columnist Dearest Jeff Bezos, You’re probably feeling a little bit like the bachelor on the ABC hit TV show “The Bachelor” right now. You’ve made it known that you’re looking for a commitment, and that’s not something that we cities can just let go. I don’t know how it feels having everyone pine for your attention, but that’s because I’m an undiscovered gem. I can only empathize with the exhaustion you must be feeling having every single major city in America open up about the future they see with you, how excited they are that you’re ready to settle down with someone new, how many buildings they envision you two having together and the places you’ll be able to travel to. I’m sure they’re all starting to blur together.

Jeff, I’m here to tell you that I’m different.

My name is Providence, Rhode Island. I’m usually seen as a quirky and hipster city. Kind of like New Orleans, except New Orleans decided it was too good for you and didn’t even offer you a bid. Jeff, you deserve to be with someone who wants you. I even have my very own major airport. It’s called T.F. Green and it’s spectacular. That’s right. I’m worldly, international even, with $99 flights to Iceland via Norwegian Air. All of your friends can come visit!

Did you know that Rhode Island is the Ocean State? And yes, okay, I understand that Seattle is coastal and that the Pacific Ocean is pretty damn nice, but wouldn’t you also want to be with me, where the temperature changes? I mean really changes — in the winter it’s about 28 degrees Fahrenheit and in the summer, it can get all the way up to 86 degrees!

I know you’re all about innovation and de-

me, I actually have a lot of siblings who also happen to be looking for a nice guy like you to settle down with! They include Pawtucket and Warwick. We offer a lot of the same benefits, actually, including pre-permitted sites and access to major interstates and ports. We really just want you to be a member of our Rhode Island family.

That’s why I won’t be completely bummed if you go for one of them over me. I know you value

Jeff, I’m here to tell you that I’m different. My name is Providence, Rhode Island. I’m usually seen as a quirky and hipster city. Kind of like New Orleans, except New Orleans decided it was too good for you and didn’t even offer you a bid. velopment. You run a dynamic company, and you don’t want to stand still. I get that. That’s why every week, I unleash a different form of weather on everyone here. Two weeks ago, everyone was in shorts; last week, I made everyone break out their winter jackets. Oh yeah — and I surprised everyone with bursts of rain. I like to try new things and implement different strategies, just like you.

I know that I might not be exactly what you’re looking for, and though that’s disappointing for

culture and teamwork very much, and my family does as well. We all live very close together — none of us are more than an hour away from each other — and that empowers us to work collaboratively together.

I’m not trying to give you special favors to earn your trust, like Tucson who sent you a 21foot Saguaro cactus which you had to send back home. I won’t demand that you pay for dinner on our dates — I have a very reasonable cost of living. Nor am I making promotional videos for

myself, like Detroit, Boston, Pittsburgh and all the rest. Instead, I made myself an entire website!

I also have a lot of friends who are looking forward to getting to know you as well. As you might know, over one-sixth of Brown undergraduates are computer science majors. It’s no coincidence that recruiting season is upon us, Jeff, and if you and I got together, there’s no doubt in my mind that as soon as those students pass through the Van Wickle gates, they’ll walk right down College Hill and through the doors of your second headquarters.

Alright, I might be getting ahead of myself. When I like someone — and believe me Jeffrey, I like you — I have the tendency to dream about our future together and what our lives will be like. I don’t mean to scare you — of course there’s no pressure to choose me — but my family is so small that we don’t get a lot of attention. When you put your call out, we didn’t hesitate to respond, unlike San Antonio, who didn’t appreciate your initiative. There’s no doubt I’m ready for the long haul, and I’m ready for it with you.

With great warmth and humility, Providence, Rhode Island

Lena Renshaw ’20 is not actually the city of Providence and can be reached at lena_renshaw@brown.edu.

ARTS & CULTURE THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2017

‘Wonderstruck’ struggles to fully inspire wonder with uneven narrative Todd Haynes’ stagnant story contrasts with stunning production design, visual storytelling

By ZACHARY BARNES STAFF WRITER

Todd Haynes’ “Wonderstruck” is a film of sounds and images above all else, where feelings and ideas reverberate outward from color and light, smiles and glances, music and art. Haynes has put his enchanting aestheticism to use before in exquisite films like “Far From Heaven” and “Carol.” In those works, his sensitive camera work and penchant for beauty were matched with a fine storytelling sense. But in contrast, “Wonderstruck” suffers from a largely inert and lopsided narrative, leaving the viewer not so much wonderstruck as lightly wonder-touched, misty-eyed but not quite sure why.

Adapted from Brian Selznick’s novel, “Wonderstruck” tells two cleverly paralleled stories of children running away from home and searching for a parent.

One tale follows a young deaf girl named Rose (Millicent Simmonds) in 1927, who runs away from her strict guardian in Hoboken, New Jersey to the bright lights and busy streets of New York City.

The other strand follows a boy named Ben (Oakes Fegley) in 1977, who lost his mother to a car crash and his hearing from a lightning strike. He leaves his home in Minnesota to go to New York,

with his only hope of finding his father pinned on a bookmark he found in his mother’s bedroom. It bears a message to his mother from someone named Danny, as well the address of a bookstore in Manhattan. The cuts back and forth between the two stories turn on simple concepts, from stars to storms to museum plaques, suggesting an inherent connection between these two children living 50 years apart.

Early on, Rose finds her mother, a star of stage and screen named Lillian Mayhew (Julianne Moore). But Mayhew has more invested in the demands of her art than her motherhood and quickly shuffles off Rose to sit quietly in her dressing room. Not one to be subject to such indifference, Rose ventures around New York City. Simmonds is a wonderfully expressive young actor, and Haynes shoots her storyline in silent black and white, mirroring both the era and Rose’s condition. Carter Burwell occupies the silence with his marvelous orchestral score, full of shimmering percussion, piano and richly resonant strings.

Both Rose and Ben eventually find themselves at the Museum of Natural History, a child’s playground of curiosities, delights and the occasional nightmare. Ben ends up there after following Jamie (Jaden Michael), a young boy he meets on the street, and the two entertain themselves by chasing each other around the museum.

Haynes and cinematographer Edward Lachman shoot the two boys in

JASMINE RUIZ / HERALD

“Wonderstruck,” adapted from its namesake novel, contains two parallel stories in different decades. The film cuts back and forth between each story, both of which follow children running away from home. silhouette in front of the museum’s many dioramas, placing these children in the larger context of a world in which they’re still trying to find their place. Jamie, whose father works at the museum, shows Ben his “secret room” in an offlimits section. It evokes the excitement of a child making a pillow fort or an igloo in the backyard — the feeling of being able to stake out a space in this world and call it your own. Rose, too, is a young person searching. On top of a meteorite where people throw pennies and make wishes, Rose sets down a small paper boat, inside of which she writes: “Where do I belong?”

It’s thematically coherent and

powerful stuff, to be sure. But there’s little drama to support it. When Ben and Rose arrive in New York, two questions hover over the narrative. Will they find what they’re looking for? And, more intriguingly, how are these stories connected? Other than Rose’s meeting with her mother, there’s not much development regarding either of these questions until the last 30 minutes of the film.

It’s a curious approach to a puzzle box premise. The story isn’t meticulously unlocked, piece by piece, but instead ignored or ploddingly gestured at until the film’s information dump of a denouement.

Saddled with explanation duties,

Moore shows up again near the end of the film in the 1977 timeline, wearing lots of age makeup. The explanation itself doesn’t quite inspire the wonder that Selznick and Haynes seem to be after.

But the way in which Haynes shows what Moore explains is a stunning feat of production design and visual storytelling and drives home with wit and emotion the film’s thematic concerns.

The moment exemplifies the effect of the film writ large. Bogged down by a story it doesn’t know what to do with, “Wonderstruck” nonetheless has a quiet magic that lives in the folds of its loving sense of craft and its characters’ yearning to belong.

The Brown Budget: Get Informed!

Get Involved!

The University Resources Committee (URC) needs your input.

Plan to attend the open forum to learn about the process and share your ideas and insights.

Thursday, November 17 at 4pm Thursday, November 16 at 3pm Stephen Robert ’62 Campus Center University Hall, Room 318 nd Petteruti Lounge, 2

Floor

Provost Richard M. Locke will discuss the process for developing the University’s budget, sharing primary sources of revenue and spending, and outlining key decisions that need to be made to advance the University mission.

Community input is essential to the process.

For more information about the URC see the following link: http://www.brown.edu/about/administration/provost/universityresources-committee-urc