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ACADEMY
SAM ROSENAU The silent persecution is a tragedy within the realm of art and creation. It is the notion that works of art and ingenuity are disregarded because of qualitative neglect due to their satisfying elements. Someone will put hours of mind-straining and emotionally-draining work into creating something, and creating it well, only to have it stripped of its value because it is doing its job of appeasing the consumer. By doing its job right and being well-made, the lack of imperfections allow it to go unnoticed among the consumers’ critical mind. This is tragedy at its finest. Something that has been wellmade with such effort deserves the rec-
ognition and admiration the creator has worked so hard for. Alas, it is paradoxical, because if it is doing its job correctly by satisfying the consumer, the recognition it deserves is lost. If it had flaws, however, it would bring attention to itself: the very attention a well-made work of art deserves. Yet the attention that the creation garners stems from itself being a poorly-made creation, hence the paradox. By subconsciously overlooking the quality of the creation because said quality satisfies us, we are—by definition—silently persecuting it. For example, let us say the visual editors of a certain news-
paper desired to create a pleasing aesthetic for said newspaper. This aesthetic, which was forged through time-consuming and hard work allows the consumer to casually and mindlessly flip through the newspaper, only to settle down to read a certain comedic section of short, abundant quips. I am not saying that this is inherently wrong or unethical, because it is quite common and acceptable within the realm of creation to so “violate” a work of art. This is why we are not punished when we apathetically say “huh, cool” when walking by the art displayed in RNT.
But we must ask, what does this say about our nature as humans? Are we more selfish than we think we are? Should we revaluate ourselves to stop and appreciate the nuances and effort of a work of art? Or is this entire notion of “the silent persecution” a non-issue? So what if we all took time to appreciate every aspect of art—would that really change who we are as individuals and as a community? Who knows? For all I know, this article will just be stranded and unacknowledged by those who couldn’t make it past the De-classifieds.
! e l c i l l o F e Free Th KIRSTEN MCALLISTER
There are at least three charges that I have come to realize have been counted by the world against my legs. First, they are strong. Sometimes I think that for them to be as strong as they are, I must have run myself out of childhood like it was a race—I believe this theory because it is consistent with how I recall obsessing over being the fastest. Second, they are scarred. Throughout their frequent use, I didn’t always succeed in running past, but would often run into bushes, pavement, corners and walls— by all means, I was not going to be the fastest for free. Third, they are covered in hair. Not just a little bit of hair, poking above ground bashfully just long enough so as to not be an impediment to my femininity—no. They are covered in the exact amount of hair God and my mama gave me. When I first used a razor it was for some mix of curiosity and conformity. All of the women I looked up to did it, so since I was destined to become a woman as well, I followed suit. This coming of age ritual seemed natural and honourable to me and my friends who were just doing as we had seen. It never came to mind that our little experiment would become a standard imposed back upon us, which regulated when we could and could not wear shorts, and that we were playing into a larger societal myth that asserts what is natural about our bodies is not beautiful. There is nothing radical about not shaving your legs. Men do it all the time. Although depilidation, the practice of hair removal, is an ancient practice for many eastern cultures, most European
women throughout history never considered shaving their legs, and neither did their North American descendants until the 1920’s. In this decade of dance and decadence, women’s legs made their debut in society as the latest fashion shift cut their skirts in half. Fortunately, the beauty industry came to the rescue with products that would get rid of that unwanted hair and ease women’s natural and delicate self-consciousness towards their legs. Of course, that’s one theory. Another is that this hair-consciousness was first taught before it was learned; a construction of the male-dominated beauty industry combined what they would like to see on a woman with new inventions like the razor which allowed a woman to “bathe stockingless, without self-consciousness.” Alongside manipulative ads which suggested that in order to be desirable to men, women’s “armpit[s] must be smooth as [her] neck and sweet as [her] breath.” The commanding nature of such advertisements suggests that the relationship between industry and consumer was one of a (male) superior instructing their (female) inferior. Furthermore, the apparent need to teach women what is attractive about their bodies implies that it wasn’t obvious beforehand that there was something inherently shameful about leg hair. Today, while many women shrug off shaving and say that they enjoy feeling smooth, a study in the UK in 2013 showed that for 35% of women, shaving their legs is their most hated beauty chore. Yet almost all of us keep spending our time and money to achieve mermaid-soft legs, like our womanhood depends on it.
As long as all women continue to grow hair in crazy places like their legs, leg hair is inherently feminine. Why do we act as if it’s not? Though a question this big will always have a multitude of reasons, it is fairly clear that the male gaze has done its best to convince women that they are un-sexy unless they rid their legs of something completely natural. In order for women to be un-convinced of this, their legs need to be regarded socially
Mars’ Hill - Aline Bouwman
as more than objects of sexual pleasure. If you ever find yourself in the situation where you are confronted by a leg that is wild and scary and covered in hair, do the person who is attached to it a favour and remember that she is no less of a woman because of it. Before her legs were ever sexy (or whatever they are), they were for hiking mountains, climbing trees, and running really, really fast.
ACADEMY
CALEB NAKASAKI For as long as I can remember, I’ve been a natural adapter to situations. My personality and mannerisms may vary wildly based on the person, time, and context. My accent and posture will start to match up in one-on-one conversations; the relaxed accent I developed in Hawaii and my current Canadian accent are different from the one I had while living in Japan. Because of this, I have been a lot of different things to a lot of different people: Grade-A student, skid, class clown, debater, disaster responder, techie, editor, camera man, handy man, martial arts instructor, Cub-Scout leader, sound technician, gamer, professional, retail worker, English teacher, etcetera. I am not what anyone would call stuck in a rut. But for a long time, I wasn’t really happy with being so adaptable. It seemed like everything I did was fake, like I was lying to my subconscious mind. I used to think that I was a mass of water: having no form, water takes on the shape of the container it fills. Make no mistake, everything I did was fun and interesting, but I just didn’t like having no observable core personality. Recently I have come to peace with it (or at least more peace than I have in the past), so I feel that I should share with my fellow fakers what I’ve been learning. I don’t really think of myself as water anymore. If anything, I consider myself more like a Magic 8 Ball. Let me explain:
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Y O U D O H AV E A C O R E P E R S O N
It may not seem like it sometimes, but you do have a core person. There are things about you that won’t change under any circumstance. For instance, I will always love terrible movies, and will always try to be relaxed and flexible—these parts of me won’t change. Sometimes I may express them differently, but they still exist within me. The key mechanism of a Magic 8 Ball is a die suspended in liquid. If you shake the ball the die will jiggle and rise to the top exposing a new surface. It’s not a completely new die or completely new Magic 8 Ball, we just see a different facet of the same person.
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YOU INFLUENCE OTHERS
You are not just an influencee, you are an influencer. Your actions have a dramatic effect on those around you, even if they are a reaction to somebody else. I remember the first time I realized this: in elementary school I hit a kid with a ball and made him cry. My direct actions caused someone harm. You are an active participant, not a passive observer. Like a Magic 8 Ball, the answer you reveal has an effect. Perhaps sometimes the reaction will be bemusement or a sensible chuckle, but in key moments you could make or break someone’s day.
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Y O U A R E T H I S WAY F O R A REASON
And no, the reason is not “I’m dumb and I make bad decisions.” Like a Magic 8 Ball, you were designed for a purpose. In first Corinthians 9:19 and onward, Paul discusses this. He becomes Jewish to connect with Jews, he becomes religious to connect with the religious, and he becomes non-religious to connect with the non-religious. He says: “I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.” I’m not really sure what the purpose of the Magic 8 Ball (me) is in the future. I have things I want to do and places I want to go, but the here and now is more important. A Magic 8 Ball can’t anticipate future results—it can only react in the present. Right now my job is building community at Trinity Western University, so please come up and shake my hand—I might actually give an insightful reply. If you feel like you’re faking it, I’m with you. You are not a copycat, and you are not replaceable. You have value, personality, and a purpose. Fake it ‘til you make it.
How much coffee I drank to cause such an explosion? - Sarah Wright
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12 ARTS & CULTURE
ERIC STEIN What is so compelling about Stranger Things?
To ask such a question invites numerous answers. I would be disappointed if it didn’t. When presented with a rich cultural object, one can’t help but ruminate, theorize, dream, allowing the story to coat your synapses, to create structures in your mind and embed itself in the deep places so that it becomes a part of you, your tradition, your horizon. Such an object is not really an object at all but an event, and Stranger Things was the event of the summer. If you haven’t yet, stop reading now and go watch it. I’ll see you back here in eight hours. You’ll thank me. Now, to our question: what is it that so compels us? The cinematography and design, the characters and performances, the story, the world, the sound, the realism and otherness and familiarity of it all—so much. There is too much to quantify. So I’ll dabble in impressions, in sensations, the latter of which, in particular, Stranger Things does so well. Stranger Things is a show about knowledge—what we know and how we know it—but it explores this concept by making us feel, by invoking that negativity of knowing that cannot be rationalized or reasoned with, what has been called the id or the imaginary or, in neurobiological lingo, a production of the amygdala. This feeling is one of a churning stomach, a thudding heart,and electric skin; the feeling that crosses the space between self and screen, screen and self, drawing you into that relation in a way few shows do. You have to watch, you can’t look away, you can’t turn off the
screen. You’re scared, and elated, and impassioned—you’re brought out of your comfort zone (“I don’t usually like scary shows”) and made a part of the story by watching and by participating in the world of Tumblr fan art and coffee shop debates and forum musings. Stranger Things is not just something to be watched; it has created a world for us to participate in—both on screen and off—a world of creativity, dialogue, and reflection. This is television that doesn’t just entertain but involves. All of this is to say that, in being a show about knowledge, Stranger Things is in fact a show about all that we don’t know, about those things that we can’t clearly perceive, those things that are unframeable, even illogical, that exist beyond the possibility of rational articulation. It does this in the details, in the matter of its world, in the fleshy bits and the sonorous sounds and the aesthetic, in the structure of it all, which is just another way of saying in play. Tropes and forms and legacies are all matter to be played with, to be reiterated, recycled, repurposed, represented. This is all to draw us into its play— to make us part of the drama. Play is key to Stranger Things. There’s a reason why the first we see of the boys is them playing Dungeons & Dragons. Play is a form, a structure in which we move, a distillation of the flux of life that allows us to understand ourselves, our others, and our world. So when one of the boys is taken, when the others run into a strange girl with otherworldly powers, and when they at last encounter the monster in the flesh (that unknowable horror), their play gives them to frame and take hold of their experience.
The monster is inexplicable in the terms of our reality. But for the boys, reality need not be understandable to be played. Reality is not some total, ultimately knowable system but a loose structure through which meaning and knowledge are played out and disclosed. The boys intuitively grasp the fact that knowing occurs in the play of experience, so their lack of rational categories is not a hindrance to them. Rather, the knowledge disclosed in the open and undefined space of play enables them to act. Knowing is a material and experiential process. As temporal beings we are so aware of our finitude, and this process only heightens the sensation; so much is contingent, dependent, transient.
Knowing through reasons and categories allows us to control the future, to do away with contingency, and thus persist in the illusion that we are not subject to limitation. But knowing in the flesh reveals something deeper, that our finitude, all that we do not know, is in fact the ground of our freedom, of our ability to act and to choose. So when the neon glow of the title credits is traced onto your retinas and you hear the sounds of that other world strangely echoed in your own, when you feel the show, you know you’ve been caught up, drawn into, played out, and made into more by something so simple as a television show. Stranger Things is not just an object for our entertainment. It is an event into which we are drawn. Such a show is rare in this age of spectacle. Enjoy.
What is a socially acceptable amount of time to sit on the toilet looking at memes. - Ian Schleh
SPORTS
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The dynamics of a roadtrip JARRETT FONTAINE
Camaraderie
Have you ever pictured the scene of a 24-hour bus ride stuffed with handsome grown men and a bus driver named Gerry? If you haven’t, then picture the Spartan Men’s hockey team on our recent trip to Red Deer. The team played two pre-season games, which helped us prepare for the regular season games that were right around the corner. During the trip, the bonds on our team were strengthened through camaraderie, inspiration, and memories made.
Being a rookie on the Spartans hockey team, I was lucky enough to find a spot on the bus behind one of the most seasoned veterans in the British Columbia Intercollegiate Hockey League (BCIHL): Lucas Hildebrand. With Lucas being a veteran player and a big voice on our team, it was a good opportunity for me to gain some wisdom. I had 12 hours to strike up a conversation and I definitely wasn’t going to let it pass. The conversation started out along the lines of, “What
Memories
is it like to play at this level of hockey?” and 10 minutes later had developed to “so as I was saying, my grandmother’s middle name is Rose.” Eventually we knew a lot more about each other and our bond grew stronger. After reflecting on our conversation, I am confident in saying that I am happy to have a guy like Lucas as a friend, teammate, and—more importantly—a mentor.
Inspiration
I had expected this trip to be like the others: drive 12 hours, make memories, battle to win hockey games, reach exhaustion, and drive 12 hours back home. This trip was a little different. I realized that the Spartans have an amazing program and I am fortunate to be a part of it. This realization came during what appeared to be a casual meeting between the team and the coach while discussing our goals to beat the Red Deer team that night. Baret, our coach, talked about the unbreakable bond we must have for our teammates: the seamless love given in sacrificial effort in the bonds we forge for other people. His speech gave me confidence and comfort in knowing that he loves each member of our team. He made me feel like an asset and big contributor by reminding us that “every piece matters”.
Any time you get together with a group of guys that share the same love and passion for Hockey as you do, the memories that are shared unfold themselves. The trip was highlighted with “Rookie Idol,” which saw some voices that could quite possibly rival the music majors on campus. As for me, because my voice was not quite pitch perfect, I secured myself a last-place finish. Above all, I had an amazing experience and grew closer to my friends/teammates. Over one weekend and 24 hours of driving, we became a better hockey team.
spartan tip of the Day ADRIENNE FRIESEN Eating healthy in the cafeteria is not an easy task. You are regularly bombarded with unhealthy choices and the number of healthy foods seems limited. Even though it is challenging, strive to make the best possible food choices on a daily basis. Today’s tip gives you a few suggestions for eating healthy while living on campus. When you look at the meals that are offered, do not be afraid to ask to alter the meal choice. Be creative: you do not need to order exactly what is on the menu. Choose the healthy foods that you want and ask to substitute unhealthy sides for salads or sautéed vegetables, and build your meals around protein and include lots of vegetables and fruit. 1. If you are ordering a wrap, ask for a whole-wheat wrap (if they have them) with extra meat (chicken, beef, or salmon). Replace the sauces or cream cheese with things like salsa, extra veggies, or avocado. Really try to load up on vegetables and lean protein so that you can get the most nutritious wrap possible. Ask for a side of green salad or sautéed vegetables instead of French fries, coleslaw, or potato salad. 2. If you would like steak or salmon, order the steak burger or salmon burger without the bun and without the fries and ask for salad or stir-fried vegetables and rice (if you need carbohydrates) instead. Or toast your own whole grain or sprouted grain bread. 3. Try the Protein Bowl with extra vegetables. Ask for brown rice (if it is available), and
extra vegetables. If you do not need carbohydrates at that meal, get extra meat and extra vegetables without rice or noodles. 4. For the daily special, try to create your meal around the protein and avoid the extra sauces and gravy. Load up on as many vegetables as you can! For any burgers or sandwiches ask for no buns or bread and either bring in your own bread, or toast some whole wheat or multigrain bread to have with it instead. Or if you do not need carbohydrates, ask for just the meat and a side of salad. 5. Chili with whole grain bread (if starches are needed) is great for lunches combined with a raw vegetable cup! 6. Try a salad meal with a vinaigrette dressing. Ask for extra vegetables (pick the ones that you like that are offered in other salads) and avoid the croutons and tortilla chips. Choose ingredients from other salads and ask to add them to yours. 7. Eggs are great for breakfast. Ask for toasted wholegrain bread instead of the hash browns. Or try a toasted wholegrain bagel with egg, lettuce, and tomato! 8. If you have gluten intolerance they do have gluten-free bread and pasta available. If you would like gluten-free pasta, please let the kitchen know in advance and they will prepare some for you. They can also substitute rice for you at any time. Gluten, dairy, and egg free options are now more readily available and well labeled. They always have rice wraps, and more staff are trained in keeping foods gluten free. They also always have gluten free pasta by the wrap station.
Hoel Jansen - Graeme Geddes
[spaces] L I T E R A R Y
Volume 11
J O U R N A L
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS IN PROSE / POETRY PHOTOGRAPHY FINE ART
THEME: BALANCE & EXCESS DEADLINE: NOVEMBER 5th SUBMIT TO SPACES.LITERARYJOURNAL@GMAIL.COM
[spaces] is seeking fiction, creative non-fiction, poetry, prose, academic essays, plays, photos, artwork, etc. by current students and alumni of Trinity Western University to feature in Volume 11. All submissions are subject to a blind reading by a vetting panel, with the exception of works submitted by featured guests. MORE AT TWUSPACES.COM
Photo: Ryan Wan