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TheNewJournal Volume 27, Number

7 IO

The magazine about Yale and New Haven

About this Issue

Points of Departure

Between the Vines: Cornucopia of Capitalism by Joel Burges.

Yalies Who Stay by Brooke Conti. Four years not enough? A liberal education teaches some graduates to call the Elm City home.

Breaking Bursar's Hold by Gabriel Snyder. Cash, class, and politics converge on College St.-ask anyone who's ever owed Yale money.

13 16 21

October 14, 1994

Goodbye, Columbus by Helen Kim. Can tradition and apizza keep Wooster Square New Haven's little corner of the Old Country?

Fables of the Deconstruction by Katherine Bell. Paul de Man's theories began as mere lit crit, but now they are forever tainted by controversy and scandal. When will Yale get over it?

Tea Timeless by Elana Zeide. Famous for rare books and rarefied chatter, the Elizabethan Club preserves tradition one sandwich at a time.

$elling the $yllabus by Ted Gesing. Arbitrary? Yes. Legal? Maybe. Required reading at Yale clearly doesn't depend on logic.

Cover design by Kate Schuler and Joseph Va ret. Cover photo courtesy of New H aven Colony Historical Society.

TIN Ntw journ~tlis published fiv< tim.s during th< school ye>r by Th< N<w Journal at Yal<. Inc., P.O. Box 3432 Yale Station. N<w Hav<n, Cf 06520-3432. Offict addr<SS: 252 Park Srneet. Phon.: (203) 432Âˇ 1957. All contents copyright 1994 by Th< N<w Journal ar Yal<. Inc. All Rights R<S<rved. Reproduction <ithtr in whol< or in part without wrif!<n ptrmission of th< publish<r and editor in chi<f is prohibited. Whil< this magazin< is published by Yal< Coll<g< stud<nU, Yal< Univ<rsiry is not r.sponsibl< for its com<ms. T<n thousand copi.s of each issu< a.r< disrribured free to mtrnb<rs of th< Yal< and Nrw Hav<n community. Subscriptions ar< availibl< to thos< outsid< the ar<a. Ratd: On< y..r, $18. Two years, S30. Tht Nnojournlllis printed by Turley Publication" Palm<r, MA; bookkeeping and billing S<rvicn ar< provided by Colman Bookkeeping of N<w Haven. Th< Nrw journal<ncourag.s l<n<ts to th< editor and comm<nts on Yal< and Nrw Hav<n issu<S. Write to Suzann< Kim, Editorial" 603432 Yale Station, Nrw HaY<n, Cf 06520Âˇ3432. All letters for publication must includ< addr.ss and signatur<. W< r<strve th< right to edit alll<f!<rs for publication.

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s this issue goes to press, the campus swdr 111!> with parents who have traveled to New Haven to vis1t their progeny. What these parents find, however, is not Yale. Parents' weekend occasions the construction of a h ig hly convincing simulacrum, in which hung-over frosh and stressedout seniors are replaced by well groomed animatronic figures who smile and speak of JOyous hours spent nightly studying in Sterling, in which dining halls hide the signs of cockroach infestation with acres of linen and delicate ice sculptures, in which campus luminaries de!>cend from their heights to pre~s the flesh. The vanished Soviet Union prov1des il phrase to describe this kind of trickery: the Potemkin village, the name for the few squali d hamlets that Kremlin planners turned into marvelous advert isements for the Worker's Paradise The Woodbri dge Politburo is even less scr.upulous: their fdkery lasts only a weekend, after w hich Yale reverts to its decaying gothic crumble. If_ su ch fakery abounds at Yale, so do the means for its revelatio n. In this month's cover article, Katherine Bell resurrects the still smouldering story of the "Yale School" from the wreckage of lit crit and the doublespeak of academic politics. We adm it freely t o o ur bias toward the issue: deconstruction is cool, if only because it lends itself to dramatic cover photos and provides conven1ent metaphors for the analysis of the confusing, the crass, and th e crafty-all of which figure prominently in this issue. Gabriel Snyder reveals the machinations of both the Bursar's office and t hose who seek to change 1t. Ted Gesing examines the economics of the syllabus and finds rationality absent, replaced by the whim sica l an d the dubiously legal. Elana Zeide, conversely, invites us inside the hyper-genteel world of the Lizzie, where whimsy is ach ieved with nary a whit of the arbitrary. Helen Kim looks beyo nd the manicured green of Wooster Square to discover what it takes to construct an ethnic neighborhood. Finally, Joel Burges takes us shopping at Stew Leonard's, where the bagels dance, fru it sings, and even fraud looks hke a bargain. We tha nk all of the writers, designers, and business people who have helped make this issue so enjoyable to produce and, we hope, to read. We would be especially remiss if we failed to note the contri butions of Ted Gesing, our new production manager; Gabriel Snyder, as~ociate production mdnager; and Joe Varet, associate designer. For this issue and the next, Suzanne Kim has taken the reins from Jay Porter, on leave this semester. Finally, we proudly announce Melissa Moskof's appointment as associate editor. The Editors

I 111

w JoURIIoAI.

New Haven Fresh When you go to rhe Ninth Square Farmers' Marker, between Chapel and Elm, you can find Frank and the market's other merchants. Frank will help you pull rhe husks off rhe corn until you find good, yellow cobs. They're four for a dollar. Frank. might also remark rhat you have come to the only place in town for fresh vegetables (picked yesterday). Frank works with Jim, but not for him. Jim Clouse ("jimmy" to Frank) runs rhe Ninth Square Farmers' Market, which is ser up on Saturdays from 9 to I and Wednesdays 9 ro 3. Frank lends a hand at Jim's booth, and he knows their pr oducts. They've got jalapenos, bell pepp ers, plum tomatoes, fullsize romaroes, enormous tomatoes, bumpy cucumbers, Russet potatoes, corn in the husk, very green string beans, and, Frank loves to point our, three varieties of apples: Macintosh, Golden, and Granny. They do not, however, have onions. Mary Ann from North Haven doesn't either; neither does George, from Wallingford, or Fred who, with his son Patrick, keeps a farm our in Northford. But they will all let you test their corn. If you hope ro bargain-hunt, you will find rhe same at Mary Ann's and Fred's: both sell a pound of string beans (which appear to have absolutely the same quality) for a dollar. You will be happy to know that Mary Ann has mushrooms, big and tasty; you can spot her easily because she calls our: "Here's the biggest bargain in town." If you're a student, you'll get a special discount; tuition is too much, she says. Go to Fred and Patrick, who are set up at the opposite end from Frank and Jim, for

OCTOBER 14, 1994

HAIRSTYLES eggplant. They rend to run our of apples (they did today), so stick wirh Frank for those. Besides Mary Ann's mushrooms and Fred's eggplant, the four booths have much the same selection. Bur Frank might point out, you don't have to leave rown to ger 'em fresh. George, rhe young man at rhe third booth, wears a Connecticut Farm Fresh Tshirt, and he will, for sure, point our that everything ar rhe marker is grown in-srare. George grows all rhe produce for his booth, but buys the fruit from another ~ Connecticut ~ farmer. If you ~ complain about the lack of 3: bananas or 0> c oranges, George 0 will laugh and J: 1> point to his shirt: "Only Connecticut-grown Products Sold Here." Don't worry about hawking vendors. Only Mary Ann shouts out her bargain prices. Besides her, everyone keeps quiet; they wait for customers' questions. Frank, though, talks more than Jim, who stands in the shade behind rhe table. Frank runs around the stand, refilling baskets, weighing beans and tomatoes, and fixing the signs which say: "Connecticut Grown ... $1 I lb." Frank does get tired of saying, "They're four for a dollar," but he loves to talk about growing up on the farm. When he finds a second to rest, he'll tell you about North Carolina. "In North Carolina, my father never grew apples." And about New Haven: "I've lived in this city for thirty years now; I nud to work with produce." Frank might show you his bee sting, which happened last Saturday. Ir hasn't healed. "I guess rhe stinger is still inside.

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Still hurts like a banshee." He pinches the pink sore. Luckily, he's not allergic, "''d have died a long time ago if chat were the case. I grew up on a farm." Jim really wanes you co buy tomatoes. ''Try one of these." He might give you a plum tomato. "Our own brand." He will explain, if you ask, chat he coo grows his own vegetables but buys the fruit. If you're more curious, and ask Jim the right questions, he will teU you why he runs the market in the center of New Haven. He'll point toward his flier: Connecticut Farm Fresh, FARMERS' MARKET WIC. "The re's the story, right there: Women, Infants, Children, WIC. We do coupons." You bite into the tomato. " I depend on a cliencele, buc we do chis ·here because of chis nutrition program. Business has been slow. There was a problem with the coupons; 1 think they must have cut

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back on the allocations." Jim talks more when you get him on the subject of business. "That's why we have the market here in town." Even though you understand that Jim runs the market for city residents on welfare, you admit to him that the location is strange. There are few apartments or houses in the area, the booths are crammed together between two buildings, and the vegetables are the only green things in sight. But none of that matters to Jim. He will explain to you-and Frank might join in-that this is the only place in town co get fresh produce (picked yesterday).

-David Walch THE NEW jOURNAL

Do you have what it takes to be one of the few, th e proud, the

Yalies Who.Stay?

ter four hours of work, you drag yourself from your Someone shrugs. "What do you want me to say? New Haven computer screen ro the window. You stare down for a could use a few Yalies." momem at the turning leaves, at the buses barreling And so you leave them, considerably less enthusiastic than hrough puddles, and you smile. You might as well face before, wondering when they decided that New Haven was more a it: you're seriously considering staying in New Haven. trial to get through than anything else. You wonder whether the There-now you've said it. And once said, it might as well be city really does need more Yalies to stick around, or if that's just said again. So you shrug on a coat, jump down a few flights of arrogance on the part of a bunch of over-educated cynics who stairs, and run across the courtyard. think they understand New Haven's problems better than its Your friends, however, are less excited by your news. permanent residents do. "Where do you think you're going to shop?" You know that a few Yaljes have slid into the New Haven "You'll have to political scene take the train into directly after gradNew York to get any uation, and you kind of culture." suppose they have a "There's not even pretty good idea of a McDonald's within what the city needs. walking distanceBut frankly, you you need Mccan't read a Political Donald's." Union flyer without That last point, gagging and aren't you think, may have interested in running for anything. some merit, but you tell them that you'll As you return to have a car, that you'll your room , you wonder whether any be able to make a fast food run whenever other types of people '"'ft'- â€˘â€˘r- I:.:ir.~lr--IN~W.-!!!!!!!-~~W hang around. If they the spirit moves you. do, you sure haven't More importantly, heard of them. you like New Haven and can see yourself .-__ _.........,~ox_....::;~olL.Ji~a.-~~.J:::~_Jii.....li~U.__..Uaa~~..e_7L~ staying a few more years. I t's easy enough to find individual Yalies who have remained in "Grad school," someone says suddenly. "You mean you're gonna New Haven. Unfortunately, there's no comprehensive list, no database, no twenty-page roster of names and occupations to apply after all." No, you say, you mean you're going to get a job here. Buy food, prove that yes, Yalies stay, and yes, Yalies thrive. The city does have clothes, and hair products. Maybe raise kids. a Yale Club, but its membership is small and its telephone number The Last line stuns them. One of your friends says he can't think invariably answered by a machine. Jay Readey (MC '94), a LEAP of a worse place to raise a family; another says she can't think of a (Leadership, Education, and Athletics in Partnership) staff member, agrees that no one keeps particularly good track of who stays, and worse place to work; and a third says she can't think of a worse that the network of Yalies in New Haven could place to live, period. "God, I've put in my four years," she adds. improve considerably. On the other hand, Danna You frown, and ask them to get serious. Schneider (BR '93), who has worked as a local

OCTOBER 14, 1994

union organizer since leaving Yale, laughs; "I really wouldn't be seeking that kind of community. I'm not looking for Yalies." After four years at Yale, other graduates who stick around may want to distance themselves from their alma mater. Still, judging by the responses from older graduates, only a few have remained for the long haul,- or else those who have aren't aware of one another. David Wilk (CC '72) can't name any former classmates living in New Haven offhand. Like many present-day Yalies, Wilk fled town after graduation. He roamed from Vermont to North Carolina, from South Carolina to Minnesota-only to wind up back in New Haven when he and a friend decided to open a wholesale book company. Likewise, Frank Logue (BK '48, LAW '51) spent a number of years in suburban

There is something that doesn't want people to stick around-that, beyond simply encouraging people to pursue their dreams, discourages them from remaining. Trumbull, Connecticut, before returning to the city. In the 60s and early 70s, Logue devoted his time to establishing programs helping people from minority and lowincome backgrounds gain the tools and experience needed to better their communities. The Community Action Institute trains New Haveners as community leaders, and with the help of the Ford Foundation, the National Urban Fellows program uses similar techniques to "increase the supply of qualified minoriries in city management, explains Logue. The fellows receive a master's degree in urban studies after a summer semester at Yale, nine months assisting a mayor in an urban

center, and a final semester at Occidental College in California. After working with mayors, training activists, and even serving as alderman, Logue concluded that New Haven could use better government. Rather than let his experience go to waste, he ran for mayor. Even though he ran as a Democrat without the support of the Democratic machine, he won in 1975, and again in I 977.

ether they choose politics or he private sector, most Yalies who have remained or returned share an extensive involvement in the city they hÂˇave adopted. Although Wick Chambers (BK '71) was born in New Haven and has never left, he says he isn't sure whether he ever intended to remain. As an undergraduate, Âˇ he focused more on getting .through Yale, on Vietnam, and on questions of right and wrong, than on planning for the future. Initially, he stayed in New Haven to finish his alternative service as a conscientious objector, but he soon found himself driving a taxi and dreaming of becoming a police officer. Cab driving, he thought, was the best way to learn the streets of the city. Although Chambers subsequently received the highest scores on the police academy's entrance exam, he was not admitted. Attributing his rejection to his status as a conscientious objector, he sued. While the lawsuit was pending, he attended academy classes anyway. His classmates thought he was a spy from the FBI or a Yale grad student writing his thesis, so they didn't speak to him during the first two weeks. He wound up with a former Green Beret as a ride partner, who finally sat him down over coffee and told

him that the guys all thought he was an asshole because he would not back up his partner with a gun. Chambers explained that being a conscientious objector didn't make him a pacifist , and that he was certainly willing to use a gun. He had no more problems with his classmates, but he lost his suit and went to law school instead. He now practices law in New Haven. Maybe every Yalie who stays in New Haven needs a rite of passage similar to / Chambers' if he or she is to feel like part of the city. Unlike others who have wandered into such experiences, Readey has been struggling to reconcile his roles as Yalie and New Havener since his undergraduate days. But spending a summer in New Haven researching his senior essay made him fed almost entirely like a New Havener: he played basketball down at the courtS by Hillhouse High, dated an East Haven woman, and got to know his neighbors. Outing his senior year, Readey tried to implement a fellowship program for Yale ,graduates who wanted to stay in New Ha.ven to work for non-profit organizations. The difficulty he ran into convinced him that "there is something that doesn't want people to stick around, that, beyond simply encouraging people to pursue their dreams, discourages them from remaining." That "discouraging something" remains ambiguous. Danna Âˇschneider says she adapted quickly to life in New Haven. In fact, all remaining Yalies share an eagerness to catalogue the city's good points-points that many say undergraduates do not appreciate. Former alderman Stefan Pryor (SM '93) ascribes what he calls the city's tremendous character to its many distinct communities. Logue enthusiastically

describes the arts scene, saying "It's possible to be a full-rime culture nut in this city." It is not always clear whether Yalies remain because ·of New Haven's strengths or whether their enthusiasm signals a reaction against the area's lukewarm reputation and undergraduate complaints. As Schneider says, "I get very impatient with the bitching that goes on about New Haven." Certainly graduates who' remain

Most Yalies who have remained or returned · share an extensive involvement in the city they have since adopted. acknowledge the ciry's many ailments, but while some rattle off a list of "poverty, drugs, and crime" as fast as any undergrad, living in the ciry has given them a closer look at urban problems than most students perceive through the gates of their residential colleges. Both Logue and Readey say that one of the ciry's problems is the failure of residents of surrounding suburbs to realize that a healthy central ciry is in their own interest-a failure of which many undergraduates may also be guilry. Or perhaps the universiry should share some of the blupe. Despite recent initiatives, Readey claims that the University doesn't do nearly enough for New Haven. Schneider goes further and accuses Yale of actually harming the ciry by buying up more and more of New Haven-"like a little Pac-Man." She calls New Haven Yale's company town, and says that, of all the communiry service programs running out of Dwight Hall, none solves the problem of how Yale treats its workers. Community service among Yalies is important, say graduates, though not an essential qualification for long-term residence in New Haven. Perhaps they hope that the actions of individual undergraduates will compensate for

OCTOBER 14] 1994

Phuket

~ Thai historically strained town-gown relationships. In some way, each Yalie who remains also atones for a shared sense of guilt toward the ciry. Bur not everyone agrees how much community service accomplishes. While the amount of service Yale students perform today impresses Logue, Schneider says that the community service most students do is a joke. She agrees that some have good hearts and do try, but believes that too many approach the ciry with the attitude that they are performing charity work. Pryor, who says he came to Yale to experience an urban environment, believes that numerous Yalies arrive with similar goals. Most undergraduates, though, would laugh at this sentiment. Even Wilk, who spent time as an undergraduate establishing a food co-op and trying to set up a communiry center, maintains that students do not come to Yale to get involved in the city. Furthermore, they should not be expected to. Their job, he says, is to be students.

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d so you lie on your bed, hands notted beneath your head, and onder exactly what you owe the ciry. You don't buy the line that you have an obligation to get involved in New Haven life as much as possible. And you don't believe that if you stay you have to run for office or join a half-dozen organizations in order to make your rc:sidency count for something. But at the same time, you're sick of your friends and their jokes about their chances of being mugged or shot on their way back from their Wednesday night section. You're sick of their bitching about the dry's lack of culture when what they mean by "culture" is a better mall or a bigger movi~ theatre. You really don't even know why you like the city, when it comes down to it, or why you should stay here rather than go almost anywhere else. You wonder whether you need to go to school to drive a cab, or if you can just show up. ... Brook~

Conti is a sophomor~ in Ezra Stiks

Co/kg~.

Breaking the Bursar's Hold Cash, class, and politics converge on College Street-ask anyone who's ever owed Yale money.

ursar's hold is by definition a pain. Fundamentally, bursar hold aims to coerce students into paying everything that they owe Yale, and to this end, bursar hold succee~s. Currently, only five students owe what the Office of the Bursar classifies as "sizable amounts." Yet as is the case whenever punishment is meted out, those punished quickly question the means of discipline and its severity. Any student who has not paid his or her term bill by the deadline goes on hold. Students on hold are officially not students at Yale. The Bursar may levy fines of up to $330 on any late payments. More urgently, students on hold can neither register for classes nor eat in the Yale University Dining Halls. Late registration can result in another $35 fine and the forfeiture of the Credit/0/Fail option. Students have to pay not only for meals at restaurants instead of eating contract meals at the dining halls, but also for all missed meals when the university resolves their account. In effect, Yale policy forces those who have demonstrated the least ability to pay to pay even more. And, of course, there are the dreaded lines at the Bursar's Office. The hours spent waiting in line can be costly, especially during the first chaotic weeks of school. Perhaps most importantly for the Yale community, bursar hold draws a very distinct line between the haves and the have-nots at Yale. "Why don't they just get some money?" asked one student walking by a recent bursar hold rally. This view illustrates the divide between the students who find themselves on hold and those who have the resources to avoid it. Yale will collect its money, one way or another. The school will expel any student who owes a large amount. To students who hope to stay at Yale, this is deterrence enough. In the interim, bursar hold seems little more than an unnecessarry harrasment or a stigma on students from less wealthy backgrounds. Many students from middle- and working-class backgrounds are driven off campus, in part to escape worrying about getting keys and eating for the first few days of school. To the extent that living off-campus means being less connected to the university, the Yale community loses the contributions of students from diverse socio-economic backgrounds.

ery student who has been on hold has a war story to tell. Kathy Cassidy (ES '96) has been on hold three of her five semesters at ale. "At this point, each semester I just expect to be on bursar's hold," she says. Last year there was a mix-up between the undergraduate Financial Aid

Office and the Office of the Bursar, so that her financial aid was not awarded until October. "Students have a specific deadline for turning in finan~ial aid forms," she explains. "But the Financial Aid Office doesn't have any specific deadline for finishing the awards." Because of the delay, the paperwork authorizing her student loans was not processed. The Bursar's Office, however, still expected her to pay both her family contribution and the amount of her loan before she could even apply for the loan. Unable to cover this larger amount, Cassidy was put on hold. She managed to get off hold by "pleading" with the ÂˇBursar and borrowing from a family member, bur not before waiting in line for hours and missing seveÂˇral contract meals in the dining halls.

Yale will collect its money, one way or another. Bursar hold seems little more than an unnecessary harassment or a stigma on students from less wealthy backgrounds.

riticism of the Office of the Bursar comes as nothing new. The office is still reeling from the turmoil that eventually resulted in the elimination of the actual position of the Bursar. Bursar Francis R. Nicoll retired three years ago in the wake of suggestions that he had made inappropriate remarks to students about their sexual orientation. Yale never filled the position again, and Associate Bursar Alberta Stephens assumed Nicoll's former duties. Although past grievances against the Bursar have usually been rooted in complaints against bursar hold, there have also been allegations of mismanagement within the office. Some of these allegations originate from the physical appearance of the offices. Papers and folders sit in stacks of piles on top of desks and tables crammed among a jumble of ancient and new computer equipment. After seeing the offices, one is not hard-pressed to believe that a form or a check might be misplaced and never seen again. Associate Bursar Stephens, worn down from what may seem like a constant battle with students, seems to welcome the opportunity to show that she is "not as bad as they

THE NEw JouRNAL

say I am." She thinks the criticism she and her office have received is unfair. "Students have ro do their part, roo." The latest wave of student attention to the problems at the Office of· the Bursar began·last spring when the Black Student Alliance at Yale pur grievances against the Bursar on its agenda. BSAY circulated a petition that called for policy changes at the Bursar's Office and met with administrators, including Stephens, to discuss how some of the problems students faced at the beginning of each semester could be avoided. The Radical Student Front, Real Diversity, Poor at Yale, and the International Socialist Organization joi~ed BSAY to put pressure on the Bursar. These groups saw the Bursar as just another example of hostility towards Yale students receiving financial aid. Many also voiced rhe concern that students in bursar hold lines were disproportionately minority students. Beyond petitioning, the groups began a letter-writing campaign and staged several rallies. Last spring the groups presented a list of proposed reforms to Stephens pressing for three main changes: early notice before students were placed on hold; extended hours at the Bursar's Office, especially at the beginning of semesters; and a way for students on hold to continue ro eat in the dining halls. Discussion also touched on creating a system where resolving bursar hold problems, registering, and other paperwork could be taken care of in one place, or "one-stop shopping." Students also suggested a computer link berween the undergraduate Financial Ajd Office and the Bursar so that both offices could share information on financial aid awards.

olitical posturing has eroded the Bursar reform coalition that emerged last spring. Wildly divergent stories now obscure the facts of what actually happened. According to most accounts, rhe beginning of the 1994 fall semester was noticeably less rurnultuous ar the Office of the Bursar. At press time, no more than rwenty studenrs still remained on bursar hold. While it is clear that the Bursar instituted some changes over the summer, each group, anxious to claim credit for rhis fear, provides an account of events that highlights irs own role. Bursar's Office officials deny that student pressure played any

OCTOBER 14, 1994

groups are just as quick to portray the shorter lines as a victory for student acnv•sm. Nadjwa Norton (MC '95) of BSAY feels that in light of the changes made this summer, Bursar reform is a "dead issue." Austin Lynch (BK '97) of rhe Radical Student Front notes that Yale has shown "a tendency ·to concede just enough to prevent a groundswell of protest. This is clearly what happened ... indicating that with continued pressure we can get this university to treat financial aid students fairly." Norton feels chat students' pressure for an early warning system had a large effect. Instead of finding out that they were on hold when they arrived in New Haven, students knew during the summer that it was a possibility, and frequently were able to clear up the matter from home. Norton also believes rhat the computer link fixed some of the problems of communication berween the Financial Ajd Office and the Office of the Bursar. Bob Barnes (DC '96) of Real Diversity is nor yet ready to declare a victory. He feels that Stephens has not addressed the problem thoroughly. Barnes attributes the shorter lines this year to a simple administrative sleight of hand. He claims that the room where students on hold were handled was moved to the basement "so that rhe line was nor outside." (Stephens denies this and maintains that the room has been in the same place every year.) Barnes complains rhar students on hold this semester still could nor eat and that the computer link does not work. Barnes and Stephens do agree on this lasr point. While the physical hook-up has existed for several years, no integration of the systems exists. This means that for the Bursar Office to access financial aid information, the staff at' the Bursar must exit their system, access the financial aid system, copy the information by hand, and re-enter the Bursar system. Stephens correctly characterizes the link berween the rwo offices as an unfeasible tool for the Bursar staff. Barnes also points out that posturing has made everyone involved "fuzzy on what has been accomplished." Each group has a different version of events and a different lise of reforms conceded. Certainly, if Yale will change superficially to evade public criticism as Lynch claims, BSAY and the RSF may have accepted university propaganda in order

to claim a victory. "The problem is they (the RSF and BSAY] buy into Yale rhetoric too easily," says Barnes.

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honeymoon with the Bursar. Both now regard Bursar problems as a dead issue. Backing off from the protest rhetoric of last spring, these groups now commend the Bursar's office for its cooperation. BSAY member Norton credits Alberta Stephens' work. "She has done as much as she can do," said Norton. Now, Norton also agrees with Stephen's characterization of the criticism of the office as "unfair." Likewise, the RSF's Lynch is now apologetic to)"ards the Bursar's Office, saying that earlier problems there were "not really their fault," but more a problem of policy set higher up.

tudent victory or not, the institutional reality still remains at the Office of the Bursar. Alberta Stephens claims that their office only made two policy changes. She points to several purely internal reforms. First, they introduced a system of flagging accounts this semester so that people could be notified several weeks before school if they were going to be on hold. Second, the Bursar now allows students to use the amount of financial aid they received from the year before as credit on their bill if a financial aid espite the differing appraisals of the package has not yet been set for the current Bursar by BSAY, the RSF, and Real Diversity, all agree that the problems year. She would not confirm rumors that at rhe Bursar are parts of larger, unresolved there will be some sort of ten-day contract next semester thai would allow students to issues of how financial aid students fare at contin~e eating at the dining halls while they Yale. Rarely will bursar hold affect students are on hold. Representatives of RSF also from wealthy families. Cassidy quipped, "If claim that the Bursar agreed to extended you can just hand over a check, you are hours. ·probably not going to be on hold," and the Stephens thinks that the true root of the · fact that students must virtually "earn their problem lay in the vast amount of paperwork financial aid by sitting in line for hours" is that used to hit her office at the beginning of "unjust." If the goal of the administration is each semester. She feels that the onslaught of truly a diverse student body, the economic forms was alleviated this semester by the use barriers of attending Yale must also be of electronic funds transfer (EFT) for Stafford addressed. These barriers can be as obvious as loan payments. At the beginning of the I994 the actual costs of attending Yale or as subtle spring semester, the Bursar received 1, 199 as the high application fee. checks. Each student had to sign his or her The true test of student pressure was not check before it could be deposited. This year the lines at the Bursar's Office this August. 508 students chose to use EIT, which means Whether anyone heard the voices of students will be determined next January when that 508 students did not have to wait in lines. Stephens also credits the early warning students are again put on hold. The groups system with keeping students off hold, that coalesced last spring must be prepared to although she simultaneously discounts its put politics aside, admit that not everything was accomplished, and begin work again. If effect because those who were going to be on bursar hold has indeed been improved, these hold "already knew they would be." Not wishing to acknowledge any acquiescence to groups should consider how their tactics can pressure, Stephens denies any kind of student be used to reform administration policy even accomplishment. To Stephens, reform "wasn't further. If no real change has been made, and a negotiation thing." She took offense at the the groups continue to claim victory, the efforts of last spring will fade into history as very suggestion that negotiations had taken place, and the polite manner she had adopted just another example of failed student activism. Ill] cracked a bit as she harshly interjected, "We don't negotiate." Nonetheless, in the wake of their selfproclaimed victory, BSAY and the Radical Gabritl Snyder, a frtshman in &rkt/ey Colkgt, Student Front have embarked on a is associatt production managtr ojTNJ.

THE NEw JouR!-IAL

Do heritage and apizza a true Italian neighborhoo d make, or 1s it t i me fo r W ooster Square to say

.!?.

hl: hou~r~ rhar ~Ill rou11J \X'of)ster Syu.tre attract more .ntention than the green itself: which is real!~ nothing more th,m another prcrry, trt:c lined p;ak. fxccprionally fine examples of nineteenth cenwrr 1\mcrican architecture. the houses h.l\e "e\Oivc:d in harmon ious fashion," ,ls tht' cnmmemorati\e plaq ue tells vou. l'alh ln.HJse hn~ a distinct personality that might assert itself in an lfltlic,t balco•l)' grillwork, on a silt:nt ru;•,si,•e lac:1de, or in the .huge blue rnor ning glories h nging Mer the edge of a Aower hox. The Square\ most compelling char:Ktcristic i~ its qatue. Standing on a pt.'\le~>t·ll in the south end, C~ risto fo (~olotnbo ~tsstt n1e' rhc n1nnu nlental n,.,.,••.-hcroism of the dap bcl!m· political correttncss took his rume down the road ot revrsionist histon•. After .til, he took his plalc therl· in IR92. :Jt tl~e .....~............_., height of Italian pride ,lllJ presence in New f la\e'l. Paul Russo. ( 189:1) the first lt,tlian ,tudcm at Yale, unvl·ilcd rhe statue among rhe chcrr) blos~oms at the first Ne\\ H.nen C(llumhus Day Festi,·al. I· or I 02 years, Columbm has stood anwng the trees looktng to\\"ard the community th,H put him there. watching the evolution of the neighborhood. While rbe park\ official name is \X'ooster Square, after rhe Revolution.t(\ War hero General (),wid Wooster ( 17JH). people around here cali it Columbus Green. 1 hat gesture of naming reveals the sense of owner,IJip that hali;tn-J\mcnctn re.sidems assert over this neighborhood. Like Columhus' image, though, Nc\\ Ha\·ens Little ltah has changed in rhe p.lst c(JHUr). It cLly it is comprised of a few restaurants and ~tore~ on a le\ blo 1-s. Bll[ \'<loostcr Square ~till feels like an Italian neighborhood. Walk down \Xooster Street on a nice Sarur&t} morning, and \Oll wtll 'ee folks like Joe' Duck" St.trpcllino sitting with friends :vtel 111d lulph 011 phsti<. folding chairs. C lad in comfortable T-shirrs, short~. and dark glasses, the\ a~( talking. watching the stn:et, and .uing pin.t Most of them do not lne in \'V'oostcr Square an) mort. I hc} moved out ) c.us .tgu. to fair Ha'en or l'.ast Shore. Blll the} wmc back eVe:!) \\eckend, to regroup. to matntam Lorn t.' ith tho " ho did stay, like Joe. Even fLv mmutes. Joe a\CS in

O~TOB ER I h 1994

•.::J•oK~M recognition to a passing car. After all, it's his

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neighborhood . Four generations of the ~ Scarpellino family live in the same building: Joe, -;:"'~ Joe "Duck" Jr., Joe III, and Joe III's son. 0

::.::

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week-night at Tony and Lucille's means Italian opera music, flowered tables, and Tony himself, a balding man in a black and purple striped shirt that does nothing for his potbelly. Tony Sacco's calzones are fried, stuffed

with cheese, and smothered in rich red sauce..

a..

The whole stretch of Wooster Street proves gastronomically delightful. People line up a full hour before Sally's and Pepe's open and often endure bad service, all for the glory of true Italian apizza. "You don't have to use binoculars to see the toppings," boasts Sal Monragno, who has worked there for 55 years. You don't need binoculars co watch the process either. Behind Sal's counter, Gary, a grandson of the original owner Frank Pepe, ladles red sauce onto the Aour, tosses cheese on top. Workers busily slide the pizzas in and out of the brick oven with paddle-like wooden utensils that have handles at least five feet long. Down the street at Cavaliere's grocery store, Silvio and Emidio ca,•aliere greer customers by name-some by neighborhood nicknames ranging from Drink a Beer Novella to Matches Arnica to Pat My Nerves Esposiro. "It's like a newsstand, everyone goes there to gossip," says Alderwoman Louise DeLauro (D-8). "Is someone hurt? Did someone die? Did someone have a baby? You go to Cavaliere's." Angelo, grandson and namesake of founder Angelo Cavaliere, tells a tall, dark woman with a little girl, "You're looking good. That vacation did you good," while ringing up her purchase. In the back, a poster promotes Amalfi, the city from which many of the Italian families in the area hail. Behind the counter, old photos plaster the w~t ll: Silvio and Emidio in service uniform, a huge length of cheese in the early days of the store. Silvio and Emidio are short, round men, with remarkably round eyc.s. round balding heads, and identical round bellies. Their father, Angelo, staned the store in 1934, when it was one of many grocery stores and specialty markets that littered the neighborhood. Only Cavaliere's remains

}; 0

from that golden era. "In those days, there were no sec hours. They worked for 12 or 15 hours a day. They worked hard," reminisces Emidio. Most of the Italians who came with the mass immigration wave of rhe late nineteenth century hailed from southern Italy. Driven by poverty and visions of "a land of gold," they found work building the railroads and manning the factories. Wooster Square quickly became the Icalian center of New Haven because of its proximity to factories like Sargents, the hardware manufacturer. The Italians who emigrated during this time were "mostly illiterate in their own language and in English," says Ralph, a former resident and crony of Joe "Duck." They walked to their jobs at the factories or set up their own businesses. Bur the new immigrants faced discrimination. Much of the strife involved the Irish community. Emidio Cavaliere remembers how Italians used co have to sir in the back of services at Sr. Patrick's church. Ralph places chis discrimination in the natural progression of the immigration process. "The blacks today are what rhe Italians used co be 25 years ago," he says. "First it was the English stepping on the Irish, then the Irish on the Italians, now it's the blacks' turn." This matter-of-fact tone belies a

certain resentment coward minority communities today. Italians on rhe whole had to give up their language and heritage as they became Americanized-on the surface, at least. "[Our parents) were not like the Hispanics," Ralph says, "who just stay in their own community and pur up signs in their own language." Old stereotypes about Itali ans, particularly those growing out of popular cinema, persist on the streets of New Haven.

You couldn't run a business here if you didn't speak Italian. "When people think of Italians, they think of two things: pizza and the mafia," Ralph says. "People would look at us like we were some kind of freaks, like we were all gangsters or parr of the mob. Like our sisters were driving the getaway cars from the bank." Srories abound about members of the mafia who used to come into restaurants in Little Italy and "throw money around." "They had these names like Blackie or Whitey," recalls one former resident. "One of them, Fat Fanny, would come in and we'd be scrambling around moving chairs and tables out of the way, because he weighed

600 pounds. Now you don't see them anymore, probably because they've all been bumped off." The stereotype lingers today. A librarian at the New Haven Public Library warns that some people might get the wrong idea if you ask too many questions about the community. It is pretty well known, he says, char some members of that communiry are part of the Family, that this is Gambino country. Scarpellino unknowingly contributes to this image by asserting that Little Italy ranks as one of the better neighborhoods in New Haven. "The crime rate is low here," he says, "because everyone knows one another. If there's a problem, it gets taken care of. We kind of have our own police force." Defying discrimination does not preclude holding on to heritage. Almost every fact char New Haven's ItalianAmerican residents eire marches Roland Osrerweis' Thru Cmturits of Ntw Havm, even down ro the year in which Sr. Michael's, rhe dominant church in the area, was established. Their ties ro Italy remain strong. Sacco, of Tony and Lucille's, remembers his parents going to Italy 25 different rimes. Bur weekend visits alone can not revive the atmosphere of the once-thriving neighborhood. In the early years, "it was

THE NEW jOURNAL

very ethnic. You couldn't run a business here if you didn't speak Italian," Emidio recalls. "There was a rime when you couldn't sell American bread. It was strictly Italian. Now that's all gone." "What you're seeing is only a little parr of what it used ro be," says Sacco, who was born on Wooster Street. "The highway cut it in half. Every parking lot, every open space you see used robe a building." The elimination of low-rent housing, as well as the demolition of houses to make way for the new interstate highway, led to a massive Italian exodus. "The highway raped my neighborhood," DeLauro declares. "It was devastating ro my people. Before, everything that you needed was in the neighborhood. It was like Italy-all you had to do was walk a little ways and you could go to rhe grocery store, ro rhe fish marker, ro the drugstore. "Some people say it was deliberate," DeLauro says. The then heavily Republican district was a sore point for rhe Democratic mayor of a largely Democratic city. Dispersing rhe Italians would scatter Republican votes. Ironically, the Italian community today has switched irs loyalty to the Democratic parry. Large-scale relocation sparked intense reaction. Those beyond Franklin Srreet were reimbursed for their homes and many moved to East Shore. ''There were people who cried because they didn't want ro leave

OCTOBER 14, 1994

Wooster Square," says Delauro. "They were so heart-broken, so sad." The money rhe government gave ro rhe families "was not enough for someone brought up in a neighborhood ro pick .up and go to another." Nor could the neighborhood be replicated in the suburbs of East Shore. Displacement led ro Little Italy's decline. The number of fish markers, meat markets, grocery stores, and drugsrores dwindled; only the hardiest and oldest of businesses endured. The second generation won't run the stores, bur the first didn't have sufficient education ro do anything else, says Emidio Cavaliere. "The third generation is the doctors and congressmen." DeLauro's Congresswoman daughter Rosa (D-CT) is a case in point. But a few members of Little Italy's third generation have pursued a different path. "It's the commercial aspect that keeps the Italian element here," says Joe "Duck" Scarpellino. And ir is perhaps in these businesses-these family-run businessesthat the future of Wooster Street lies. Laura and Trisha Consiglio are the third generation ro run Consiglio's restaurant, founded by their grandfather in 1938. Formerly known as the Big Apple, Consiglio's is the fourth oldest business on Wooster Street. A year ago, Laura Consiglio, a tawny-haired woman with a perpetual easy smile, left her position ar the Yak Alumni Magazin~ for a role in the family

establishment. Since then, she has tried ro ; 0 organize a neighborhood business 0 association, rhe first of irs kind in the !i community. ~ "I wanted the businesses here to work ... a_ together to beautify and promote the area ~ as a tourist arrraction," explains Consiglio. ~ "There are certain things we can do as a ~ group to make this a viable area. People ~ don't know about us. There are no signs on ~ the highways or anything, and we're a real 1 attraction of the city. I think that culturally, g there's a tradition here that people can [ enjoy." Although all neighborhood businesses came to a meeting of Consiglio's last spring, they accomplished nothing concrete, partly because in the old days, associations "were not the way you did things," Consiglio explains. These days, however, family spirit and pride may not suffice to keep Wooster Street alive. As the sons and daughters of immigrants age, the next generation returns equipped with books and business courses. Still, the same spirit that motivated their ancestors keeps these younger generations coming back. "Working with your family has its drawbacks," Consiglio says. "They might make you madder than if you were working with strangers, but there's always a strong pull. It's in my blood, I guess."

riscofo Colombo stands tall and imposing on the south side of Wooster Square, holding a globe in his left hand and looking out from the trees. A hundred years ago, in 1892, he looked out upon a healthy neighborhood rich in history and just beginning to assert itself in America. His gaze encompassed rhe farreaching ambitions of a proud community. In 1994, he gazes beyond the present, into the uncertain future of Little Italy, perhaps into the future of all ethnic neighborhoods. Unable to read his iron countenance, those who wander along Wooster Square can only wonder what he thinks of the changing community. I8J

H~kn

/(jm is a sophomo" in Silliman Co/kg~. 15

Fables of the

.... ..

o professor wanrs to talk about it. A few will, off the record. Others will publicly, though slightly hesitantly, if only to lay the issue to rest at last. Some offer no more than definitions and historical facts. Everyone seems guarded; this reticence itself is sometimes concealed. What is this illicit scandal in the English department? Embezzlement? Incest? No. It's a literary theory, perhaps the most controversial of the twentieth century-a theory that one professor called "destruction" by mistake. This theory, deconstrucdon, has drawn intense media scrutiny in the past ten . years and, according to professor of English Sara Suleri-Goodyear, has been "maligned out of proportion." Some professors claim that this hostility toward deconstruction determines the study of literature at Yale roday. Deconstruction, also known as the "Yale School" of literary criticism, presents a strategy for. reading which examines in detail the intricacies and contradictions of meaning and language. The theory arises from the philosophy of Jacques Derrida, a French

philosopher who first proposed the idea that, due to rhe limited and contradicwry nature of language, no philosophy ultimately could offer its own foundation or justification. Derrida uses rhe word difftranc~ to refer to the indeterminate or arbitrary connection between a word and the idea it represents, language. Derrida points to the impossibiliry of finding a self-evident truth, because any truth must be described in an inherently limited language. He defends the methods of deconstruction as necessary because philosophy is not self-consciously aware of irs status as language, and he uses deconstruction to expose and break down these rhetorical devices. Literature, in contrast, has come to play an essential role in deconstructive theory as the only discourse that consistently recognizes and reveals irs dependence on language. As a critical movement, deconstruction peaked at Yale during the late 70s and early 80s. Paul de Man, then a professor in Yale's comparative literature department, was among the first to apply Derrida's theories to the study of literature. De Man's theories rely on the close analysis of a literary text to reveal inconsistencies hidden beneath layers of language. Deconstructionists prefer to call themselves "rhetorical readers," a term which emphasizes deconstruction's status as a method of reading. David Bromwich, professor of English, explains deconstruction as an "intense therapy of reading" that places a "peculiar emphasis on epistemological concerns," rhe ways in which knowledge and language inreracr. According to Michael Holquist, professor of comparative literature, deconstruction involved "examining the way in which the means that were used to construct a text constantly worked to do that, but at the same rime to foil the full articulation of what the text seemed to be intending." A deconstructive reading of any text always seeks to reveal contradictory meanings. According to Suleri-Goodyear, deconstruction simply continues the western tradition of skeptic philosophy: "Skepticism is based on a question. So when I'm talking about the ironies inherent in deconsrructive rhetoric, my reference is to precisely the act of formulating a question as a critical practice rather than providing an answer." This approach, she says, is "hardly new." To formulate such questions, the theory of deconstrucdon requires the dismantling of structure within a text and the examination of rhe limitations of language. Deconstruction exposes language as

THE NEW jOURNAL

:fa ry

~- ltimatdy metaphorical , as words must always be

·dcfined by other words, and metaphors must give way to other -y letaphors. IS

which de Man stated that Jews "pollute" modern fiction and that a solution to the "Jewish problem" could be the "creation of a Jewish colony isolated from Europe." The revelation of de Man's wartime journalism p rovoked an avalanche of media coverage a nd intensified the existing debate over the political implications of de Man's deconstrucrive theories. Criticized for being overly apolitical, deconstruction attempted to eliminate the assumption that "there is one form of truth that is more secure than any other," explains Bromwich. Critics took this to mean that deconstruction gave in to a basic nihilism, which could lead to totalitarian politics. "It was implied long before the revelations about [de Man's) wartime journalism that deconstruction was a kind of abyss or open door through which totalitarian politics could pass," explains Fry. Suleri-Goodyear repudiates the criticism that deconstruction is apoliticaJ. "There's nothing in his writing that is depoliticized," she

n [ ncreased public use of the term has forced the expansion of the y technical meaning of "deconstruction." Paul Fry, p rofessor of tt English, criticizes the media for debasing and overusing the erm. Much of the adulteration of the term stems from statements g aken out of context, such as Derrida's pronouncement Il n'y a pas 's' ~ors du uxu ["There is no outside-text"]. Such quotes have been y ··~d to oversimplify deconstruction. "That is the cliche and the Y ntsreading," Suleri states. "To say that deconstruction means there l nothing outside of the text can't be possible." The idea that 5 J kconstruction requires the utter isolation of pure text led, in pan, :o_allegations by critics that deconstruction was dangerously 5 lbistoricaJ and apoliticaJ, leaving out essential humanizing elements ', :~fliterature. Critics have continually questioned deconstruction's relation to • >oth history and politics. Paul de Man, who led the movement of · deconstruction in the United States, joined the YaJe faculty in 1970 and evenruaJJy -=-- - - , btcame both Sterling Professor of the :;; Y • I I." ' * - _ _ _ .,. . _ ,. _ n..ankloo,-loyo .._..,..,.... ~-~umanities and head of the comparative o. -IICr-v•~ 8 ... ~on-• o,_,... -.-.Ww 1t' ' •:: -ftft.,..,.. ~- ...__ 40'8 _...,.._... ._ ....,._.. . .•UVIUUIJII: _ _, ,. . .lllo . ...., _ .• ._ literature department. He died in 1983 _.. _,.,._ ., _ _ ....... _ Yolo. . __.·. . . ,_ ~--deL.--.1 ..,.."'!",._llll_ao_lorLo-.oo ,.. _ _ _ .., _ _ _ _ .,.!.> _ _ _ ....,._ are.._..... . . .,.\CU. :::;::::c ••• ::-..,.,_ at the age of 64. Four years later, on ~ December 1, 1987, the N~w YtJrk Tt1ms o: !:!:~~·:J:!:~.:.~v:: ""'&.-. .......... - ·~"'- ~-....,.---.. ____.,.._ =-."':":".=r-"-:.:'!~: .,ublished an article which reveaJed that ~ Man had written at least 100 articles ~ ·-~---- :::~!I,Yolo.==~ --..-..--~ ~----=.:.·==-P'WY• 1941 and 1942 for a collaborationist ~ _ _,. _ _ _ IoriA-.o-~··newspaper called L~ Soir in Nazi- ~ ~----,;t;;t-"' ,....:.::.~:..:.....y..; :.:.....?=t.:.: m;~.: OCcupied Belgium. Most of the articles ~ ., ___, _____ --.oYolo,_of were book and music reviews; the most o -;:.:::-__ .. ~-~_.. !!!'- _,_ - - • .,._.. _ _ _ ., *' ~,., v- . -· - .. notorious, however, was titled "Jews in ..__ ~- -;; _..,- ............ Contemporary Literature," a piece in

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Yale Scholar Wrote for Pro-Nazi Newspaper

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QCTOBER 14, 1994

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declares. "You [can] see exactly the political implications of his theory." Suleri-Goodyear believes that the political implications of deconstruction lie in its willingness to admit to other political possibilities. The intersection of politics and deconstruction is fraught with irony. Critics on both the left and the right denounce the theory, but many use its tools for their own purposes. While deconstruction was originally thought to admit to the rightwing politics of fascism, its methods now appear in Marxist interpretations of literature. "The truth is that deconstruction is having its subtle revenge after all, because in many ways it is shaping the discourse of modern left political philosophy," explains Fry. He cites the allegations on both sides as proof that deconstruction embraces no one set of polirical claims: "If you can tag any kind of politics onto it, how can it be said to be responsible for any politics?" Both critics and followers of de Man have attempted to explain the relation between his critical theory and his wartime journalism. Some viewed de Man's method of rhetorical reading as an attempt to render authorship indeterminate in order to exonerate his own past actions. Others attempted to place de Man's youthful writings in a historical context, citing the pressures of living in an occupied state, the influence of de Man's collaborationist uncle, and the lack of evidence that de Man exhibited any anti-Semitism in his personal life after the war. Derrida even deconstructed the articles themselves in an attempt to prove that de Man's language engendered contradictions.

other people would call it intellectual progress." Sources in the English department link the departure of associate professor Cathy Caruth, perhaps the last remaining rhetorical reader at Yale, to her association with the methods of Paul de Man. Her beliefs, they suggest, simply did not fit in the current academic atmosphere at Yale. Professor David Marshall, last year's English department chair, tells a different story. He asserts that Caruth left because she had to respond to the offer of a senior position at Emory University before Yale's extensive tenure process could be completed. Professor Carurh, who will begin teaching at Emory in January, could not be reached for comment.

"I think that there is unquestionably an element of backlash in the current intellectual climate at Yale," says Fry, "but I realize that other people would call it progress."

he shockwaves of deconstruction still resound at Yale. Holquist points to a period during the 1980s when "memories were still green, and nerves were still raw," when "decisions about graduate students who were kept on, decisions about new hirings, real gut-level political stuff sometimes had the appearance of backlash." Fry extends this observation to the present: " I think that there is unquestionably an element of backlash in the current intellectual climate at Yale, but I realize that

Paul de Man in 1975 THE NEw JouRNAL

Holquist maintains that the atmosphere at Yale no longer attacks deconstruction. "I think we soon outgrew that," he says. "Yale is where deconstruction happened first, and there is a sense in which we have accommodated it in one way or another. I think we negotiated the transition before other places did, and if I may say so, with more maturity." While Fry points to Yale's "q uite concerted and conscious hostil ity towards deconstruction over the last ten years," he insists that Yale has not extended this prejudice to leftist politics. The intellectual left cannot be directly equated with rhe politi{;al left; any hostility that may remain at Yale towards deconstruction is purely theoretically based. "There was really no question in anyone's mind of a political purge," explains Fry. "That never happened at Yale, and it's certainly not happening now." Humanities Professor Harold Bloom also separates theoretical and political concerns. He warns against the unification of literat ure and politics, despite the fact that literature itself necessarily contains a political element. "''m saying that the study of literature should primarily be an aesthetic and cognitive affair. It should not be a political affair. Literature can be anything it wants to be, and it always does have a political aspect. But the study of ir is a different matter." urrently, no single theoretical school appears to dominate the study of literature at Yale. "There is no

IDEAS

paradigm of study that is generally conceded to be natural now," explains Holquisr. "A lor of people deplore it. They. call it a crisis. They think it's something new. It isn't new. It may be a crisis, but it's nor necessarily a bad thing. It's a very excmng nme." Bloom, though, abhors current trends in the srudy of literature. He uses the term "the school of resentment" to lump rogether recent developments in literary study, including new h istoricism, academic feminism, and cultural criticism, which he describes as "neither cultural nor criticism so far as I can tell, but just silly politics." Bloom maintains that cultural criticism "totally dominates universities and colleges. I don't think literature is taught any more for the most part. I mean, there are a few places like Yale where literature is still taught, bur whether that will survive even ar Yale I don't know. I'm very gloomy." Bloom claims ro eschew all schools of literary thought. "I am your true Marxist, following Groucho rather than Karl. I rake as my motto Groucho's grand motto, which was 'Whatever it is, I'm agai nst it.' One should learn ro read for oneself and ro think for oneself. That's what Emerson was all about and I thought being an American was all about." Although Holquisr does not believe char the study of literatu re at Yale can be characterized by a single critical movement, he does assert, "Some of the more exciting stuff char's being done right now is coming our of cerrain kinds of fem inist criticism, certain kinds of pose-colonial criticism, cultural studies in general." Cultu ral criticism is often described as either an expansion of the theory of deconstruction or a reaction against ir. "Cultural criticism can be seen as a kind of gross reaction ro rhe misreading of deconstruction as rhe overemphas is on sheer rexrualiry. It's as if they are overcompensating," explains Holquist. J ust as deconstruction

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uring his 13 years at Yale, Paul de Man per fected the role of the influential literary critic. Until his death in 1983, he was the high priest of the arcane

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"Cultural criticism is " insistent on placing the text in the world, so that language is not everything," says Suleri-Goodyear. "We look for the homes in which language lives." conceals. "We're looking for secrets," says Suleri-Goodyear. "We're looking for the things that pe.ople hide." Again, she emphasizes rhe need ro remember the context: "There is no such thing as a text without a context. So cultural criticism uses what it can, but it seeks to expand beyond the text into a context," she adds. "I suppose cultural criticism is insistent on placing the rexr in the world, so that language is nor everything. We look for the homes in which language lives." Perhaps deconstruction still survives in the methods of cultural criticism and other current modes of literary study or perhaps it is, in Bloom's words, "dead as a doornail." The controversies and mysteries surrounding the "Yale school," though frequently overanalyzed or oversimplified, still subtly affect rhe reaching of literature at Yale. If Paul de Man were alive roday, he might deconstruct the reluctance of many professors to discuss deconstruction. He would discover that, even at Yale, what is hidden can be both contradictory and revealing. iiiJ

Katherine Bell is a junior in Calhoun College. THE NEw jouRNAL

Thought Old Blue was dead? Think again. At the Elizabethan Club it's always

Tea Timeless

little section of the Yale University Library System lies more obscure and sequestered than the darkest corner of the stacks. Its books line a six foot square, bomb-proof vault. Each Friday, one of six special librarians will turn the combination, twist the handle, swing open the door, unfasten the bars, and unshelve favorite classics. He might rake down a collection of plays in folio edition. He'd reach inro its glass case and open the tome inside to a withered page, mottled with age spots, a play like the Tempest or other famous first editions-Paradise Lost, The Faerie Queen, or Bacon's Essays. Visitors sign a register when they-leave, inscribing their names only pages after the signatures of such luminaries as Stephen Vincent Benet, james Thurber, Iris Murdoch, Allen Ginsberg, William Carlos Williams, and Robert Frost. When the lock slams shut, the books return to relative obscurity, tucked away in a quaint white house ~t 459 College Street. Dull against the forest green door, a bronze plare reads "The Elizabethan Club.'' As irs name suggests, the Club delights in anachronism. A 1920 sketch of the house, by Theodore Diedrickson, could be a current rendering. Inside, the walls are wood-paneled, and the chairs worn mahogany leather. Renaissance portraits occupy the few spaces between shelves brimming with yellowed books. A period copy of Queen Elizabeth l's portrait surveys th e scene while well-dressed students engage professors in polite conversation, nibbling on finger sandwiches and cookies. In pleasant weather, a few might play croquet. The accents lilt, inflections so refined that they verge on Oxbridge. Tea takes place daily from 4 to 6 o'clock. Matthew Lopes, the steward, unfailingly serves rhe Club's secret, smoky blend from silver rea pots into china cups. as he has for rhe past thirty-seven years. The accompan) ing sandwich is tomato on Mondays, cucumber on Tuesdays, then chicken salad, cinnamon toast, tuna fish, peanut buner and jelly, and dare bread on Sundays. Every week it is rhe same-always has been, always will be. The delicacies provide ample enricemenr for members to come, read, and congregate in quier corners. Tbar is how it's done at the "Lizzie"-sir, sip, study, and scintillate.

OCTOBER 14, 1994

ln 191 I, Alexander Cochran ( 1896) rebelled against the antiintellectualism of his era by founding a club to encourage "free and unaffeC£ed discussion" about the arts, literature, and religion. Cochran wanted to foster serious dialogue berween professors and srudents who rarely met outside of formal class lectures. He had developed a passion for Elizabethan literature in Professor William Lyon Phelps' famous course on Elizabethan drama, and he built the club around the books he acquired in England after graduation. An astonished Phelps could hardly believe that this previously unremarkable graduate was offering rhe university an "ascounding collection, every item a rarity." Yale enthusiastically accepted the gift, allowing Cochran to score the books in the clubhouse he donated. Club president and librarian, Steven Parks (SY '61) values the collection at twenty million dollars. Also establishing a $100.000 endowment, Cochran specified that the Club should limit dues to prevent "society men" from excluding less affiuent intellectuals. Today, a mere ten dollar membership fee buys access to a lifetime of food, conversation, and literature. Like the amenities, the conversation contrasts typical Yale fare. Vikram Mansharamani {SM '96) says thar in the thr<'e short mon hs he has been a member, he has natt "the must ~t i mula ting conversations I've ever had, not only intellectual, but also spiritual an d emotiona l." From . throughout the building snippets of talk seem to g support his view. From the couch in the corner: .2, When Lionel Trilling lectured here, his favorite ~ trick would be to walk into the classroom with a ~ pile of famous books and denounce each, throwing ~ rhem across the room and onto the floor. From the 0 high b:tcked chair agai 'IS' r~e w:11l: That was a ~ wondertul arriclc 1> • '(Ill ' I j uq read in the Times .~ LztertliJ Supplement. From behind the lace-covered ~ table: No, l actually think Tina Brown has 1> marvelously revived The New Yorker. From in ~ front of the chintz curtains: Well, I think Ayn ~ Rand appeals to young, intelligent people. "People feel more free ro have intellectual discussions," said Donna McDermott (CC '95) the adrni~sions comm d.l I 1 ' <;he explains, "At the Club, rime p ·~ks rn( n ~lov; \y than it does

in the dining hall." Members welcome the opportunity to spurn rhe frivolous for the philosophical. Amy Ng (CC '96) asked, "How often do you sit at the Daily Caffe and talk about Roman Sculpture? People don't think you're pretentious when you do that at . the club." Erudition is both expected and accepted. Lured by edible and intellectual indulgences, professors and students shed their hierarchical roles. Undergraduates say rhe access to faculty surpasses regular campus resources. A professor, helping herself to a sandwich, )Otns an undergraduate discussion to assert that, yes, there are professions so stimulating rhar people want to work while on vacation, and rhat she, herself, enjoys writing articles during summer break. Reclining on a couch, a professor emeritus calls into the next room ro ask a student how his singing is going. They make a date for rea next week.

alumni activist Henry James, Jr. (JE '40) "there is no obvious type." More apparent are those who are obviously not the rype. While the club is nor secret, it is selective. Mansharamani has "no qualms about saying that some people are right for it, some people aren't. Some people in the university community would be alienated by its elements of long-standing tradition." While not mandated, the members' manners favor imported gentility over allAmerican audacity. Rebels and radicals will likely no more enjoy the club than suit it.

are therefore a simple process. The committee selects approximately fifty new members a year based upon rwo recommendations submitted by existing members. Each class has a quota: ten sophomores, fifteen juniors and forty-five seniors. At the end of the year, the committee selects four freshmen as "seeds" to starr off membership for their class. Faculty and graduate students undergo more rigorous scrutiny )o evaluate exactly how involved they'll be in the club," says Ng, a member of last year's committee.

Indeed, nobody speaks belligerently, nor does anyone dangle his or her participles. Undergraduate apparel consists of Ralph Lauren and the Gap, with a touch of Brooks Brothers or Laura Ashley. The members range from clean-cut to gleaming. Yet the admissions committee bases irs decisions solely on paper credentials. Members quickly point out that there are no steadfast requirements for selection. Beyond Yale affiliation, the constitution does nor specify any criteria. Admissions

Nominees undergo no arduous applications, no swear-inducing inrerviews, no painful rejection letters-only an "indefinite hold" if a candidate's letters lack what Ng calls a "sense of the person," or appear ro be "written under coercion." A surprisingly high proportion of members receive acceptance lerrers, not even aware that they had been recommended. Bartlett says, "It isn't a nasry process." Admission was both more stringent and consequential in James' day. Akin to secret

larively unknown to outsiders, rhe Club and irs genteel inclinations nvite misinterpretation. As one student said, "I guess it's a very exclusive club for English majors and professors." Campus myth has it that the Lizzie houses everything from a cafe, ro a secret society, to a band of retrograde Anglophiles. Like most myths, these mix the largely false with rhe partly true. Co:urary to rumor, McDermott says, "it's not made up of a majority of English majors doing Shakespeare for their senior thesis." Members talk about the Club's "diversity" with a meaning peculiar to the Lizzie. Inrellecrual diversity would be more precise. The Club embraces those proficient at what Ng calls "stimulating conversation," including a few electrical engineers, a smattering of social scientists, and a number of economists. According to Professor Beatrice Barden (GRD '80), admissions committee chairman and Club vice-presidenr, being generally interested is more important than having a particular interest. Members display a certain degree of homogeneity, although, according ro

THE NEW jOURNAL

Aladdin societies, rhe Lizzie chose those who "made their mark on campus." A Yale Daily News colum nist and the Yale Literary Magazine edi ror, J ames claims he was the "least qualified" among the published poets and acclaimed genlu ses admirred in 1937. Admission often determined rhe success of a college career at a rime when exclusive societies had a social power bordering on hegemo n ic. Memb ership awarded such disti nction rhar James would seal letters with the C lub's official insignia ro impress romant ic in t erests. · Cole Porrer immortalized the C lub's prestige in 1913 after he did not get in. I'm a member of rhe Yale Elizabethan Club W ith a very hypercritical way. By belonging to the Yale Elizabethan Club I've a terrible political sway. I convert New Haven To th~ Bard of Avon And a h ighbrow I must be...

ames has no illusions about the C lub's current p ro minence on camp us. The Lizzie stood fast to its traditions while e university grew around it. With the Yale studen t body engaged in a greater array of act ivities, t he Club no longer serves as a focal point of campus prestige. Members themselves describe it as a nice "peripheral" and "complement" to the rest of their Yale experience. Without a social or extracurricular center, the d iverse subsets of today's campus have outgrown a singular standard of success. A stellar thespian may not realize that she shares a bathroom with a PU party president; no longer does any one particular sect command respect. As a result, dubs like the Lizzie no longer reign supreme. Nevertheless, the C lub remains a mark of merit in its own circles, inducing what James calls "fierce loyalty." Active members go to tea three or four times a week. They reserve a line fo r t h e Lizzie on their resumes. T hey sp eak o f the Club with fervent tones of admiration and wax idyllic on its singularity. Rather than regard its ou t-o f- the m a instream stand i n g as a detriment, the Lizzie relishes archaism. It

OCTOBER 14, 1994

takes pride in idiosyncrasy, in deviation from the modern. Rules and routines have been decreed by precedence. Lopes turns away guests at 6: IS sharp. Members complain if a New Haven guest visits more frequently than the once a week limit. Reverence for tradition borders on rhe comic. Charles DiArcino (LAW '95) a third year law student, tells a story about a day last year when he placed a book on the fireplace mantle. There it remains, resting at the same angle, where other members assumed it had historical significance. Therein lies the Club's peculiar attraction. Although other activities provide free food, good talk, and literary stimulation, members describe the Lizzie's hold, a sense of devotion and affection not inspired by their other campus extracurriculars. What members ger, aside from physical and intellectual amenities, is a dim memory of "club." Irs rituals and rhetoric harken to a bygone era when membership provided what James calls "a tangible reward for what you do and who you are." On a campus increasingly fragmented and minimally hierarchical, such formal and explicit recognition becomes a unique privilege. Admission is an endorsement, a rare gift at a university dominated by overachievers. Tradition bestows prestige and exclusivity bestows distinction. And so the Club clings with the utmost tenacity to what Parks calls its "whimsical gentility." Inside, time halts; even the grandfather clock has stopped. The topics of conversation-Hamlet's fatal indecision, lago's green eyed monster-will be as fresh in fifty years. While members indulge in culinary dainties, bibliophilic treasures, and "civilized" company, they enjoy the privilege of membership. The Lizzie has rescued these luxuries from a postmodern mentality. When the vault opens next week, the Elizabethan Club will surely be the same. As it will the next, and the next. li1J

£/ana z~ide, a junior in Calhoun College, is on the staffojTNJ.

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his fall, amidst the bustle of the semester's opening days, Schwab can joke with professors in the check-out line; Paul one student walks irtto Book H aven to purchase the Miserindino, who heads the Co-op's textbook department, has a volumes for his romantic poetry class. Another shuffles Âˇ much longer list of names to try to remember. This is not for lack of through the Yale Co-op's aisles in search of her particle trying, however. Miserindino takes ambiguous comments about physics text. Neither of our academic stick figures faces much of an "personal service" as character assaults. "I talk to professors," he pleads. "I have a phone." In fact, Miserindino maintains that his economic decision. They might not purchase the books if they are deparrment is the only one in the Co-op not looking to increase its financially strapped. There's always CCL for the frugal, or the naive, who have not yet heard of per-minute fines. Most likely they suck it gross profit margin. "We consistently put service ahead of profits," he up and charge it. says. The students' money will play a huge role in the economic Âˇ Regardless of whether service actually increases under this success of the bookstore, but the traditional consumer decision of strategy, profits definitely "decrease. To counteract the damage to the where to purchase one's goods has already been made. Professors bottom line, which the Co-op must endure in order to maintain its make that decision for all of their students when they choose a primary goal of serving the Yale community, the Co-op tries to save money by occasionally under-ordering to avoid returning books. It bookstore through which to order books or a copy shop through which to order course packets. turns down no book order, no matter how unprofitable, and it carries nearly all course textbooks, which sell for a measly 25 percent ost Yale professors choose either the Co-op or Book Haven margin. Paperbacks ordered by humanities professors yield a more to distribute their books. The Co-op has been an option comfortable 35-40 percent, the profits most often lost to Book for over a century; Book Haven emerged on the scene in Haven. 1978, when Henry Schwab (MC '63)-known simply as Henry to According to Henry, this 10-15 percent windfall is merely a many humanities professors--opened shop. Henry's personality and coincidence. "We have had science textbooks in the past, and we've friendships are key to Book Haven's success. Common sense dictates, tried to get more of them,"he says. Specifically, Henry points out that and the Book Haven story has proven, that professors bring their hls business has carried computer science books over the years, and students' money to their friends' stores. Book Haven now carries that he recently mailed letters to Group IV professors in an effort to many coursebooks for the history and English departments. attract more of their business. It seems odd, however, that this Professors in these departments often shop for themselves in Book business would be desirable to Henry: the gross profit margin on Haven, and the transition to ordering coursebooks by the hundred these textbooks is so low that only a very large volume can make follows easily in their minds. them profitable. Henry himself points out, "We're just not a big Many professors view the huge Co-op as an inefficient enough store to stock the science books." bureaucracy when it comes to ordering books. Those who have had a Although Book Haven is certainly the "little guy" in the battle of bad experience in the past respond by bringing their students' the books, it has become a fairly mainstream alternative. Smith has business to Book Haven. Robert Watson, Director of Undergraduate proven that other book retailers can provide satisfactory service by Studies of the decidedly bookish Directed Studies program, has ordering his books through the Foundry Bookstore on Whitney brought an enriÂˇre table of coursebook business to Book Haven Avenue. Smith's preference shows just how arbitrarily such significant because of hls past experience with "such bad service from the Cofinancial decisions are made. When asked why he made the decision op." History professor Gaddis Smith (PC '54, GRAD '61) explains ten years ago to carry books through the Foundry rather than that in the past, the Co-op notoriously under-ordered when he made through another Co-op substitute, he responds simply, "They were his decision. "I would tell them I'd have a class of 300, and they closer at hand. I walk by them aU the time." would decide only to order 200 books." Whereas many professors seem to choose a Only 200. Professors accuse the Co-op of bookstore merely for reasons of proximity, impersonal service--a symptom of irs size, no doubt. professors in at least two departments regularly send

THE NEW jOURNAL

students to bookstores despite of their distance from Yale. Golden Thread Booksellers, a feminist bookstore on State Street, orders course books for three classes in the women's studies department. Owner Alison Cunningham has sold women's literature for over a dozen years, and some professors in the department have patronized her business for the last decade. Cunningham sees her business as a real-life complement to the academia of women's studies. " I think it's only obvious that women's studies would want to do business with a fem inist bookstore. This is a real-world example of many of the ideas rhey're ~ing exposed to in the classroom." Students in Professor Melvin Ely's history classes have hiked a shorter distance for the past three years to the Blackprint Heritage Gallery, a self-titled "Educational Resource Center" on Edgewood. Owner Bea Dozier-Taylor feels passionately about the opportunities for Yale students in her bookstore and art gallery. "It would be wonderful if other professors would recognize that to talk about African-American history in the classroom, students can benefit from walking into what they're studying." Student effort first brought Professor Ely to the bookstore. Dozier-Taylor says that professors expressed concern about the neighborhood when students first mentioned the black-owned bookstore. This attitude offended Students who, like Dozier-Taylor, feel her store is nestled in a safe and strong community. Indeed, it's hard to imagine Yale students so uncomfortable with New Haven that they would fear the walk up Edgewood to Blackprint, just four blocks from Davenport College.

n the spirit of the age of mechanical reproduction, more and more professors opt to supplement the books on their syllabi with course packets. This addition aspires to goals both lofty and obvious. The professor tries to save students' money by using copied information from a book rather than the whole book, exposing Students to a dense anthology of theses alternative to those espoused in the course books, and impressing students by suggesting that the informacion needed to understand their lectures is too cutting-edge to have yet been published. The use of course packets, however, raises issues far more complex

0crOBER

14, 1994

Excerpts from BrirfHighlights ofN~w Copyright: The following shall be prohibited: (A) Copying shall not be used to create or to replace or substitute for anthologies, compilations or collected works. Such replacement or substitution may occur whether copies of various works or excerpts therefrom are accumulated or reproduced and used separately...

(C) Copying shall not: (a) substitute for the purchase of books, publishers' reprints or periodicals; (b) be directed by higher authority; (c) be repeated with respect to the same item by the same teacher from term to term.

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chan rhe merhod of choosing which booksrore should reap rhe profirs of a course's syllabus. The arcane and ambiguous body of copyrighr law places Tyco, Minirprinr, Yale Quick Copy Cenrer, and rhe Law School Duplicaring Deparrmenr all on shaky legal ground. Bur ambiguiry of chis law makes ir worrh their while ro sray rhere. Indeed, professors in doubr abour rheir sources mighr choose chose copy shops where rhey feel rhey are lease likely co be hassled abour copyrighrs. Mike lanuzzi, the owner of Tyco, seems parricularly defensive abour his business' response ro issues of copyright infringemem, as does Minitprim, his competitor across the street. lanuzzi subscribes to the services of rhe Copyrighr Clearance Cenrer, a Massachusem concern which handles the

"We know ·there are a lot of questions about how to reproduce," says Yale Co-op President Harry Berkowitz. payment of copyrighr royalties. Does this mean that the price of every Tyco course pack includes royalries paid ro authors and publishers? Nor necessarily. In the imerest of fast turn-around, lanuzzi judges each packet on rhe basis of rhe "fair use" doctrine, information about which he also makes available ro inreresced professors. For Ianuzzi, copyright law seems ro sripulate primarily char he turn away the professors who are copying whole books. "Copy law allows [course packets]. I can't rattle the law off the top of my head, but you're allowed to copy a portion of work for use in a course. A:; long as a book sale isn't lost, it's not an

.ISSUe. ,

Part of Ianuzzi's defensiveness appears co stem from his knowledge of the decision of the Kinko's chain to discontinue course packet service about a year and a half ago. IGnko's used to offer campus course packets at locarions all across rhe counrry, bur chis

service never really gor off the ground ar Yale. "By the rime this score was ready, the company was discontinuing services," says David Hirsch, general manager of the Chapel Srreet Kinko's. Hirsch fails to explain that Kinko's discontinued rhe course-pack service after a half-million d o llar legal chastisemem. "Ir seemed at the time that IGnko's didn't want to fight it," asserts Ianuzzi . Eight publishers took Kinko's course-packet service ro court in 1991, suing for violations at two stores which served Columbia, NYU, and the New School for Social Research. U .S. District Judge Constance Motley fined IGnko's $5 10,000. Tyco attempts to separate its business from Kinko's troubles. "They were big time. We're small. Not that that makes that any better or worse_. " lanuzzi describes his business as serving the function of a library, simply providing an educational service for professors and students. Judge Motley responded to similar arguments from IGnko's with the assertion, "The extent of its insistence chat theirs are educational concerns and not profitmaking ones boggles the mind." Russ Hentz, supervisor of the Law School Duplicating Department, says he receives no official informatio n about developments in copyright law from the university. His unofficial policy on copyright protection is clear enough. "When we see a violation, we turn them away," he insists over the din of copy machines, adding that this happens as often as ten to twenty times a semester. H entz says he received som e guidelines about copyright infringement years ago, but doesn't know from which office this information came and can no longer locate the documents. According to William Stempel (CC '75, LAW '78), Deputy General Counsel who handles issues of copyright, the University policy in respect to the use of copyrighted materials is, "of course, to comply with the law." It would seem that someone in the university should be advising professors, but Stempel will neither confirm nor comment upon the regularity of such advice. The Yale Quick Copy Center (YQCC), owned by Yale as a small division of the self-

THE NEW jOURNAL

• sustained Yale University Priming Service, bel ieves it is in full compliance with copyright law. According ro Terry Towers, the planr manager of YQCC, professors might have some co-responsibiliry in making sure copyrights are nor infringed in their course packers, bU£ rhe legal responsibility falls on his business. The copy center will turn away any professor who violates the copyright law. Towers comments chat this used to happen more often than it does now, perhaps owing to professors' increasing awareness of the copyright law. Two years ago the venerable Co-op found another means of "serving the Yale community" without realizing substantial profits, namely selling course packers. The Co-op has distinguished itself, however, by devoting a full-rime posicion with a $30,000 salary co the research of copyright permission. Every Co-op course pack proudly .Jists all copyright permissions on irs inside cover. According to Towers, "The Coop is just offering a service that ochers in the area don't offer." "We know there are a lot of questions about how to reproduce," says Yale Co-op President Harry Berkowitz. "The only thing we're interested in is being in the reproduction business, and those who need our service shouldn't have any questions." The Co-op may not make substantial profits on its new course-pack service, but since irs inception rwo years ago it has increased the number to a total of 25 course packets this semester. The consuainrs of its copyright research program, though, will severely limit the Co-op's business. The textbook department requires that professors place orders six weeks before the start of the semester. Most Yale professors do not d isplay that much foresight with regard co their course-pack needs. The next few semesters will reveal whether students and professors will pay for the degree of safery which the copyright service provides, as bureaucracy and competition determine who has a monopoly on what Yale srudenrs read. li1J

ud Gesing, a sophomore in Morse College, is Production Manager o[fNJ. Kathy Stroker a junior in jonathan Edwards College, assisted in the research for this story.

OCTOBER 14, '994

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ACornucopia of Capitalism Stew Leonard may be a crook, but his gargantuan grocery store provides only the best in fami ly-s ize values.

by joel Burges As my old fritnd Andtca notes, "It's the largest dairy f:um in the world- whar mort· is tht•rc to say?" Half an hour away. in Norwalk , Conne,ricur, lies Stew Leonard'~. Everyrhing about Stew's looms large, as ir ,t,pire~ w create an American dreamland for irs customers. As I turn inw the parking lor, a giganric decrric sign urges me t l forgo rhc apple picking adventure I had been planning this wn hnd: Afrn all, I can buy crisp locally grown apples for onl} 69 cents ,\ pound at Stew's. And if I'm a suburban parent, I c.ltl ptck up rwo pacb of Pampers at a cost of $13.89, and I'll save S.tOO! Maybe I'm worried about whar I'm going to \\hip roguher for dinner when my husband arrive' back in \X'estport on the 6:07 from Grand Centr,ll. Wdl, worry no mon:-roday See\\ has a

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spt·ci.tl on 1\:rduc whole or split chickens. A\ I park my tiny car among the Caravans, Range Rover~. and Volvos, I look up at rhc building I'm about ro enter. Lettering on the 'ide of the barn like srore declares that this is the "Wo rld 's Largest D.llr} )tore A' Fc..uured In Ripley's &ii~v~ It Or Not." The word\ lure me inro rhi~ cornucopia of capitalism where, believe it or not , .til} thing c.m happen. Or so I'm led to believe. A~ I stroll / into Stew's, a fake stone sign whi~ks b---away any doubt:

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Although wday is a sedate day at Stew's, the store usually overflows { c:- _/.,. ) .;. with customers, especially on Saturdays and Sundays. The / weekend hordes file through the !\ sto re in one direction, thus / preventing traffic jams. Herded along / like the cows Stew milks for profit, the customers progress roward the final destiny: the cash registers. Am I just another doUar here? r wander inro the bread section and tcast on thc vi~ ion of Vienna rolls. Why, it's just as if I am enjoying the comfons of an Austrian Bread & Breakfast! I imaginc bl"ing warmed by a piece of California sourdough bre.1d I have jmt taken our of the microwave. Memories of past fhanksgi,ing' tlitker about in my head as I ponder the freshly baked pumpkin pies. Stew isn't trying to manipulate me into ·l"ving I'm ar home for the holidays, is he? I ta~te a free \ample of the apple crisp offered just to the righr of Stew's Dancin' Bagel. )rc\\ Leonard's is surely a relief for the c..usrorner tired of the chains thar rreat everybody the sa me. gh I do feel like I'm one of the thousands rhat make the journey through Stew's on a weekly basis. As I move down rhe one-way aisle, I wander past rhe machine\ char pa~rcurize and homogenize Stew's-or rather, his CO\\S'-rnilk. I read a sign which says rhat Srew Leonard's

1(;0\ ~

,._

THE NEW jOURNAL

sells over eleven million quarrs of milk each year. I even meet Clover, who has a button next to her head which I press to hear her mechanized moo. Stew creates these gimmicks, it seems, for the enterrainmcnt of children sitting in the carts being pushed around the store. There's one now, eating rhe ice cream cone her mother bought for her in front of rhe store. (Stew has frozen yogurr, roo, if you're worried about those extra pounds!) Yet rhe gimmicks appeal ro me roo. When I happen upon them, Stew's Farm Fresh Five band manage to endear themselves to me. I don't remember who rhe lead singer is, but the members include Lowfat, Skim, and Chocolate. Punch boxes back them up, si nging "pack up your groceries in a Stew Leonard bag and smile, smile, smile!" Stew Leonard's resembles a musical. So here I am, charmed by the Farm Fresh Five, humming their tune as I wander through the dairy section, pausing to taste Stew's apple cider (of which I brought home a quart). On rhe threshold of the meat and poultry section, I find three plastic chickens, named after Stew's grandchildren . I press the button on the right, and Emma, Sarah, and Blake chatter and babble about milk and eggs. I look above them to the sign wh ich reassures me with rhe words "We love to save you money." I am part of this brood of chickens, parr of the Leonard family-even if I am on a one-way conveyor belt ro a burdensome bill. However, as I turn the corner, Stew's disembodied face greets me with some grandfatherly affirmation and advice:

for you. We're Dole fresh vegetables. We're good friends too." I sing the songs that a full-fledged Stew Leonard's customer sings. This realization doesn't sit well with me. Stew encourages his customers to befriend vegetables and fruit by offering savings of 38 cents on leeks, 56 cents on arrichokes, and 58 cents on p ineapples. T he record-breaking amount of bananas rhe store sells is also noted for posterity in Ri ley's. Srew cares about rhe customer in me, and includes a sign with some health rips about eating fruit as I meander among

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"WE WANT YOU HAPPY. PLEASE! PLEAS E! LET US

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Kl\:OW WHEN YOU'RE NOT SATISFIED ... AS QUICK AS A HASH WI: WILL RETURN MONEY OR REPLACE

!!EMS."

The cheese section is probably my favorite section. Among the yellow dairy products, I watch "The Candy Celery and Larry Lettuce Show." I once waited 20 minutes for the show to begin, skulking about looking at cheeses. I tried nor ro let people think I was actually lingering in order ro watch a head of lettuce and a stalk of celery sing, "We're Dole fresh vegetables. We're good

OcTOBER 14, 1994

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Rule Number Three: Even if the grocer defrauds the customer, the customer is still always right-as long as he or she wants to be. pomegranates, grapes, and kiwi. If I sray healrhy, rhen 1 can come back to buy more to ear in order ro stay healthy so I can buy more to eat ... Shuftling along into the frozen foods section (which is not large at Stew's and mostly filled with gourmet ice creams), I see a suburban mot~er charring wirh an employee, Freddie. I am amazed that rhe woman and Freddie seem ro know each other. She is telling him how it's a good thing he wasn't around one day when she was in a riff about the state of some of the pasta she bought. I'd be very concerned if Stew's employees starred saying to me, " It's nice to see you again Mr. Burges." But, unlike Freddie's friend, I don't live out my daily dramas in a grocery store. Stew, however, does create dramas out of his very own grocery store. In 1993, Connecticut discovered that he had been perpetrating the biggest tax-evasion scandal the state had ever seen. H e misweighed hundreds of items-thousands of . consumers like Freddie's friend were paying more money for less merchandise. R ULE NUMBER THREE: EVEN IF THE GROCER DEFRAUDS THE

CUSTOMER, THE

THE NEw jouRNAL

CUSTOMER IS STILL ALWAYS RIGHT-AS LONG AS HE OR SHE WANTS TO BE.

I turn the corner and I'm in the hot foods section, known as "Mrs. Leonard's Kitchen." The image of a woman in the kitchen has, predictably, been co-opted by capi talism's number-one grocer. While Stew runs the family business from his jail ce ll , Mrs. Leonard's glowing portrait honors the domestic dream of American womanhood. The dream is over. I trudge toward the check-out counter, having bought next to nothing-only a bottle of apple cider. As I walk away from the cash registers, autographed glossies of Billy Ray Cyrus and Dolly Parton sport their down-home smiles to draw me back. I can even see 90210 heart-throb/dork Ian Zie.ring out of the corner of my eye. Not only do star photos pepper the wall, but a little further towards the exit Stew displays pictures of custom'ers with Stew Leonard's paraphernalia. The photos have been taken all over the world, from Singapore to Sing Sing. I meant to bring a Stew Leonard's bag with me to England last summer, but forgot, and so I will instead have to wait to achieve celebrity status on the walls of Stew Leonard's. 1111

Outlaw Culture Resisting Representations bell hooks While speaking about society's "outlaws" and their representations, hooks casts a critical eye on Madonna, Spike Lee, Malcolm X, Camille Paglia, Ice Cube, and Naomi Wolf, among others. 251pp Pb: 0 415 90811 6: S15.95 [21.95 Can]

Cultural Studies Edited by Lawrence Grossberg, Cary Nelson, and Paula Treichler " ...the publication of Cultural Studies is an event no serious (or curious) reader can afford to ignore. If you plan to continue living in America, read this book."-JILS 800 pp illus Pb: 0 415 90345 9: S24.95 [33.95 Can]

joel Burges is a sophomore in Saybrook College.

TN} and Berkeley College are proud to present an informal discussion with

Elisha Cooper (TC '93) Art Assistant for

The New Yorker Thursday November 3

4 p.m. Berkeley College Master's House join TN} in welcoming back a recent alum and hear his advice and insights about the Nev-~ York magazine business, The New Yorker, and everyone's favorite editor, Tina Brown. OCTOBER 14, 1994

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