Roxane Gay is Spelled With One "N"

The Hannah Arendt Prize: Call for Submissions

Wed, 22 May 2013 13:32:31 -0500

Original Writing on Critical Theory and Creative Research

Award presented by the MA in Critical Theory and Creative Research Program

http://www.pnca.edu/graduate/c/ctcr

Entry submission: essay of 1,500 words or less

Application deadline: Friday, May 31, 2013

Theme: On Art and Disobedience; Or, What Is an Intervention?

Cash award: 5,000 USD

Winner announced by Saturday, August 31, 2013

Please note that essays over the limit will be disqualified.

The Hannah Arendt Prize in Critical Theory and Creative Research is an annual competition for those interested in the juncture of art and creative research and in the principles at the heart of the arts and humanities, including sense-based intelligence; the reality of singular, nonrepeatable phenomena; ethical vision; and consilience between inner and outer, nature and reason, thought and experience, subject and object, self and world.

Application for the prize is open to the general public. Download the PDF application on our site at http://www.pnca.edu/graduate/c/ctcr and email the completed application and the essay (in a .doc or .pdf format) to ctcrprize@pnca.edu.

Explication of theme:

“To disobey in order to take action is the byword of all creative spirits. The history of human progress amounts to a series of Promethean acts. But autonomy is also attained in the daily workings of individual lives by means of many small Promethean disobediences, at once clever, well thought out, and patiently pursued, so subtle at times as to avoid punishment entirely. All that remains in such a case is an equivocal, diluted form of guilt. I would say that there is good reason to study the dynamics of disobedience, the spark behind all knowledge.”

—Gaston Bachelard, Fragments of a Poetics of Fire

Intervention is an omnipresent if not ubiquitous word in contemporary discourse, but what forms does it take in the age of genetic engineering and real-time media? Is the concept a decoy or distraction in the face of futility? A cover or compensation for hopeless battles and set-ups? Is it simply working to slow down the Inevitable, a notion that in and of itself works as a major obstacle to critical thought and action? Or is it something more serious, more durable, and more dangerous? What is the relation of critique and intervention, theory and practice? And what role does art play in what Bachelard called “creative disobedience,” acts of Prometheanism “so subtle at times as to avoid punishment entirely”? Might art now comprise one of the last forms of political stealth, working in increasingly sophisticated time-based ways? What kinds of thought and action are powerful and compelling interventions today, whether one-off spectacles, sabots, monkey wrenches, sleepers, gummy bears, or Trojan Horses?

Along with Anne-Marie Oliver, Founding Co-Chair, MA in Critical Theory and Creative Research, Pacific Northwest College of Art, and Barry Sanders, Founding Co-Chair, MA in Critical Theory and Creative Research, Pacific Northwest College of Art, the judges for 2013 include

Claire Bishop, Professor of Contemporary Art, Theory and Exhibition History, Graduate Center, The City University of New York

Judith Butler, Professor of Rhetoric and Comparative Literature, The University of California, Berkeley, and Hannah Arendt Professor of Philosophy, Europäische Universität für Interdisziplinäre Studien/EGS

Barbara Duden, Professor Emerita, Leibniz Universität Hannover

Julia Kristeva, Professor Emerita and Head of the École doctorale Langues, Littératures, Images, Université Paris Diderot, Paris 7, and recipient of the Hannah Arendt Award for Political Thought

Heike Kühn, Film Critic

Martha Rosler, Artist and contributor to the Hannah Arendt Denkraum (on the occasion of Hannah Arendt’s 100th birthday)

For information on last year’s competition, please see http://www.artandeducation.net/announcement/the-hannah-arendt-prize-call-for-entries.

"It’s a tricky thing to address pressing issues of the day in fiction without making prose do the..."

Thu, 16 May 2013 09:28:44 -0500

“It’s a tricky thing to address pressing issues of the day in fiction without making prose do the work of preaching. In his new novel, Red Moon, the talented Benjamin Percy has taken on an ambitious project—a werewolf novel as political allegory—and he deftly negotiates the delicate balance between crafting commentary and a compelling literary creation.”

- The Werewolf Novel as Post-9/11 Political Allegory? - The Daily Beast

To Be Seen, To Be Heard: Erica Lorraine Scheidt's 'Uses For Boys'

Tue, 14 May 2013 23:21:02 -0500

A YOUNG WOMAN PARTIES with a group of teenagers, her friends and peers. She passes out, and is raped, degraded, videotaped and photographed. There is a trial in which it seems like she is being prosecuted for the crime of being a young woman around young men. The complexities of young adult sexual violence have dominated cultural conversations in the wake of harrowing news out of Steubenville, Ohio, which could, unfortunately, be Anywhere, America. It is an all too familiar story.

Young adult fiction, at its best, exposes the complex emotional terrain of adolescence: the joys of maturation; the pain, confusion, and humiliation of growing into a different self. Young adult fiction also tells necessary stories about what happens to girls and boys as they try to make sense of their bodies and their desires, their changing relationships with family, friends, and themselves.

In Erica Lorraine Scheidt’s debut novel, Uses for Boys, she has created what might be considered both a bildungsroman and a coming of age novel, though the two are not quite the same things. Uses For Boys is about a young woman becoming a better version of herself, or, as the case may be, unbecoming one person and becoming someone else, someone older, wiser, and stronger.

therumpus: Franklin Park Bar and Beer Garden | 618 St. John’s...

Mon, 13 May 2013 11:58:56 -0500

therumpus:

Franklin Park Bar and Beer Garden | 618 St. John’s Place, Brooklyn, NY

When: May 13 / (TONIGHT!)
Time: 8-10pm

Featuring:

KAREN RUSSELL (Vampires in the Lemon Grove, Swamplandia)
ELISSA SCHAPPELL (Blueprints for Building Better Girls, Use Me)
LEIGH NEWMAN (Still Points North)
ROXANE GAY (Bad Feminist, The Rumpus)
MICHAEL HEALD (Goodbye to the Nervous Apprehension)

Postcard from the Acela Express

Mon, 13 May 2013 10:31:55 -0500

Friends, I just spent three days in our nation’s capital. On Saturday, I read at 826 DC, a museum of unnatural history. D. Gilson blew me away. I was familiar with his work, and even included it in PANK. The poems he read, made me want to jump out of my seat. So great. It was also lovely to meet the crew for Folio Magazine. The reading was in celebration of their re-launched print magazine, of which I am a contributor. Check them out when you get a chance.

The train wobbles a lot which can be disconcerting. It’s like a really muscular mother is rocking us all to… a dull state of awakeness. I am not in the “quiet car” but the car I am in is quiet.

I am on my way to NYC, a city which brings out all my insecurities because everyone there is thin and beautiful and well-dressed and sophisticated, and I am, well, me. I will do my best to get through. Mostly, I am looking forward to seeing people I very much like and admire. I will be giving three readings—tonight at Franklin Park, tomorrow at KGB, and Saturday at the Brooklyn Lit Crawl. Between all these goings on, there will be meals and meetings with editors and agents and friends. I am also on a quest for good bras that are properly fitted.

Lots of men talked to me while I was in DC. It was weird because I’m not that girl. One guy asked me if I was looking for a boyfriend so I said, “Not today.” It was kind of the truth. At the moment he asked me, boyfriends were not on my mind. I was thinking, “I hope I don’t vomit at my reading tonight.” Another guy encouraged me to “keep up the good work.” I was like, why is he trying to motivate me, completely out of any discernible context? It was weird.

Last night, I read with Tracy Dimond, Michelle Dove, and Elliott Holt at The Big Hunt, a bar with three levels! And four bars! It was interesting, that bar. Our reading was held in a creepy basement. I had to tamp down all my neuroses for the duration because otherwise, I would have started screaming, WE ARE IN A DARK SMALL SPACE, SAVE YOURSELVES! It was a lovely reading though, hosted by the indefatigable Mark Cugini and the lovely Carrie Murphy, people I really enjoy and wish I could see more often.

After the reading, Elliott was hungry. We were all hungry but she took matters in hand. We went to a place called Shake Shack, which I have heard of but had not until last night, ever frequented. I had a mushroom burger. That is, the burger was a mushroom, filled with cheese. That’s some magical shit right there. While we were waiting for our food, we were chatted up by a guy who was wearing sunglasses, indoors, at night. He is a director, in search of a screenwriter, who will put his vision on the page in exactly the way he wants. So that was interesting. At one point in our conversation, he asked where I was from and I said, “Nebraska,” and mentioned that I was Haitian American and he said, “No, where are you from really?” I was confused because I thought I knew! But apparently, no. He said we’re all from Africa and I was thought, well, yes, if you want to go that far back. Anyway, his people are from East Africa. I said my people were from West Africa, which is to say, the other side of the continent. He just kept talking and talking and talking. I’m terrible about extricating myself from such situations. I always feel like I don’t want to be rude, but men, sometimes, they just feel entitled to your time. They have things to say and you are obligated to hear those things! Elliott wasn’t having it, though. She said she needed to eat and that was that. I would like to learn from her.

I’ve noted that every window on the train is an emergency exit. There is always a way out, no matter where you are. Wouldn’t it be nice if life were like that?

michelledean: This is a thing I am doing this week, that you...

Tue, 07 May 2013 13:07:38 -0500

michelledean:

This is a thing I am doing this week, that you should come to! It is exciting. But admittedly, also, kind of scary. What if I am just a young upstart, not sharp enough to be a part of this distinguished panel? Oh well. It’s my party!

These critics are amazing. Check them out.

joylandmagazine: The new installment of our print journal,...

Mon, 06 May 2013 11:05:19 -0500

joylandmagazine:

The new installment of our print journal, Retro, is now available. It features stories from PEN/Faulkner finalist Amelia Gray, essayist Roxane Gay, Jon Paul Fiorentino, Jenny Halper, Lisa Teasely, Debbie Urbanski, Shannon Robinson, Leia Menlove, Lana Storey, Bryce Warnes, and Zoe Ferraris. The incredible cover art is by Happy Sleepy.

Retro 3 is 162 pages and only $11.95. Find out more and order it here.

Postcard From Florida

Sun, 05 May 2013 21:05:00 -0500

Dear Internet Friends,

I am visiting my parents. They have a strange understanding of “air conditioning,” as something that should be set at 79 degrees. They like to wake me up in the morning, early, because they are awake, so why shouldn’t everyone be awake? Why doesn’t my dad remember the shortcuts for copying and pasting on the computer yet? A couple days ago, my dad was wearing jeans and my mom said, “Mmm. Your father looks great in jeans.” My sister-in-law and I were like, WOW, THAT JUST HAPPENED. My niece never stops moving, ever. Just watching her whiz around is exhausting. She walks all over the place and has these utterances that are actual words if you are paying attention, things like, wa, ca, clean, mama, gabba. Yo Gabba Gabba is baby crack. Put her in front of that show, and she becomes completely still, transfixed. She has very big eyes. I am fairly certain she is among the cutest babies alive. She still doesn’t like me very much but she’s so cute that I will forgive her. Mostly, she stares at me very skeptically, and once in a great while, I am allowed to touch her for approximately thirteen seconds. There is this trial taking place in Arizona concerning a woman named Jody Arias. My mother is very interested in this trial and as such, I am kind of an expert. Tonight she said, “Tomorrow is a big day,” and I said, “It’s Monday,” and she said, “Yes! The jury deliberates.” The trial is serious fucking business, okay? Last Monday, in Miami, my mom saw me read for the first time. She said I was, “fantastic,” and that she had to control herself from making a spectacle with her camera. She was also thrilled that people wanted my autograph. She thinks I’m famous now and so do some high school kids who attended. I’m not, as we know, but it’s still pretty neat. Swagger. And no biggie, but Edwidge Danticat showed up for my reading. I’m still not sure how i didn’t shit my pants. She seems very nice. I was too shy to say much to her. I also met my Twitter friend Riztey who was wonderful, and Patricia Engel who is very pretty and lovely too. After that, my mom and I went to Key West for a day and night. The beaches were beautiful. We took lots and lots of pictures. Then we drove to the Miami airport to pick up my dad, niece, and sister-in-law, just in from the motherland, and then we came home. It is very hard to work in Florida. The weather is beautiful and the people are very FLORIDA and time takes on a rather different quality. This has made progress on various important, deadline sensitive projects a bit of a challenge. The humidity is a bit much. You should know that. Yesterday, the Wigleaf 50 was released. I was thrilled to have a story on the shortlist and a story on the longlist, the whole of which you can peruse here. I’m excited to get into the rest of the list over the next while. Yesterday, I bought a pair of sunglasses because I left mine in the car at the airport in IND. The sun here is out to get me. It is seriously stalking me and trying to burn my eyeballs out of my head. Mostly what I’m saying is that my suitcase is not getting any lighter.

"Meg Wolitzer is a bestselling novelist and an unapologetic advocate for women writers. I have been..."

Thu, 02 May 2013 09:23:20 -0500

“Meg Wolitzer is a bestselling novelist and an unapologetic advocate for women writers. I have been intrigued by her work since reading The Wife (2003), a book about a successful male novelist and the woman behind him that offers incisive, witty commentary on contemporary publishing and the roles of men and women in that world. Wolitzer is a force, and she has brought her ferocious energy, wit, and intelligence to bear on her latest novel, The Interestings, which follows a group of friends who meet at an arts camp as teenagers in the 1970s and remain connected throughout their lives. One member is exiled because of a terrible deed and another is abandoned in the wake of what goes wrong. As for the remaining Interestings, two become incredibly successful, amassing wealth and power, while the rest grapple with their own lives and how they live up to or fall short of the ambitious name they gave themselves when they were so young and knew so little.”

- bookforum talks with meg wolitzer - bookforum.com / interviews

The Electric Typewriter: 10 Excellent Essays

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 16:54:58 -0500

The Electric Typewriter: 10 Excellent Essays:

tetw:

As Chosen by Roxane Gay

Roxane Gay, author, essayist, editor (at Pank, The Rumpus and Bluestem), and professor, has picked 10 of her favourite essays for us. As she rightly says, “their excellence speaks for itself”:

The Love of My Life by Cheryl Strayed
Notes From…

Some essays you maybe want to read.

rookiemag: The Year I Learned Everything I felt like I was...

Sat, 27 Apr 2013 19:12:55 -0500

rookiemag:

The Year I Learned Everything

I felt like I was about to have the best night of my life, so I took a deep breath and I jumped.

The Year I Learned Everything

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 14:08:22 -0500

The Year I Learned Everything:

I felt like I was about to have the best night of my life so I took a deep breath and I jumped.

Book trailers are weird but I like John le Carré.

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 10:26:11 -0500

Book trailers are weird but I like John le Carré.

The Truth Must Be Told About the Chip Taco

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 14:01:54 -0500

The Cool Ranch Doritos Locos Tacos or whatever it’s called is disgusting. I put off trying this Doritos taco food item because I don’t like Taco Bell but finally curiosity got the best of me so I got two of the Cool Ranch tacos with beans instead of beef.

I rather like Cool Ranch Doritos so I assumed I would like these tacos but I did not. They are disgusting. They tasted like stale, shit-dusted, taco abominations. I don’t even understand how this food exists. I’m mad that everyone has conspired to make this snack food frankentaco happen.

Beans, Beans, The Magical Fruit

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 22:02:10 -0500

I recently bought the Smitten Kitchen cookbook and it’s really pretty. Most cookbooks don’t work for me because I am so picky and I find all the recipes gross. Such is not the case here. There are a lot of seemingly edible dishes in this cookbook! Anyway, I was flipping through it the other day, mostly looking at the pictures, wondering why my food never, ever looks like it does in pretty food pictures, when I happened upon a recipe for Roasted Tomatoes and Cippolini Onions with White Beans. As I read it, I thought, “two of those three things are not gross!”

Now, you have to remember that I don’t know a lot about cooking or special foods so I was in the grocery store and couldn’t find the fancy onions. I wondered if pearl onions were the same as cippolini onions and rather than stress myself out, I went with the pearl onions because they are tiny and cute.

You need like a pound of the onions, 1.5 pounds of small roma tomatoes or large cherry tomatoes, 1/4 cup of olive oil, 4 slices of thick bread, fresh basil, and a 15 oz can of beans. The recipe called for white beans but I think those are gross so I used black beans. Also, black beans are all I had in the cupboard. As I pulled that can out, I was triumphant. For once I had something I needed!

Set the oven to 375 degrees and let it warm up.

Why does it take so long for an oven to warm up when we can launch a rocket into space? There’s an inconsistency there.

Boil some water and drop the onions in there for TEN SECONDS. This stressed me out because it felt like so little time but Smitten Kitchen never steers me wrong. I stood there like a freak and counted out, one one thousand, two one thousand, three one thousand, and so on.

After TEN SECONDS, drain and douse the onions in cold water. Cut a slit in the top of each onion and pop them out from the skin and the first umm onion layer. This was pretty fun, I admit. It felt like squeezing eyeballs, or how I imagine squeezing eyeballs to feel.

Then put the naked onions on your roasting tray!

My roasting tray is also my cookie sheet. MULTITASKING!

Add the tomatoes after you clean them or whatever. I clean vegetables in a half-assed manner. I ran some water over them and was like, “This probably won’t kill me now.”

Add the olive oil. I also added a bit of coarse salt and pepper and three cloves of garlic because flavor should be savored. Then I mixed it all up and got mad because my hands were covered in olive oil.

As an aside, my mother wears surgical gloves while cooking (“for sanitary purposes”) and as I stood there with my oily hands, I thought, “Mrs. Gay would never have this problem.” I am not about to start wearing gloves, though.

Let the magic roast, when your damn oven is FINALLY DONE heating up, for 45-55 minutes. I let them linger for the whole 55.

Just before the vegetables are ready to come out, toast your 4 slices of bread in the oven. Drain and rinse your beans.

Trivia: Nearly every time I say/think the word “beans,” I sing the beans as magical fruit song.

Put the beans on top of the toasted bread then top them with your roasted tomatoes and onions and include all the juices because that’s basically the best part. Add thinly sliced fresh basil on top of the whole situation.

It looks like this, which is not as nice as the cookbook, but whatever.

I saw Oblivion on opening day and am composing some thoughts about it. It was hilarious and begs so many questions. I shouldn’t be on Tumblr. I am ass deep in novel revisions that are like a few days overdue. I better go now.

And I wanted to answer your question about interviewing women writers twice! My other rule being do not assume that if the woman is a mother her work must conflict with childrearing. You see that so often, "how do you manage it?" No one asks male writers this; no one even asks if they are a dad unless it's relevant to the text, but women get asked it a lot.

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 21:14:21 -0500

This is great and I absolutely agree.

what are your favorite things to write?

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 21:06:52 -0500

My first love is fiction.

Things You Should Know About Isaac Fitzgerald

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 09:51:08 -0500

Yesterday, Isaac Fitzgerald announced that on May 1 he is leaving The Rumpus after four years as managing editor, and will be assuming the position of publicity director for McSweeney’s.

This is wonderful news and I couldn’t be happier for him. He deserves all the best things. He will also be deeply missed at The Rumpus where he has been the beating heart and the bloody soul.

Isaac is very handsome—beautiful on the inside and all of that, but the exterior is very pleasing. He gives excellent hugs, the kind that could crack your spine. He is intelligent, funny, honest, charming, irreverent, loyal, strange, brash, bold, I could go on. And on. And on.

But really, I want to tell you about Isaac as an editor. At The Rumpus, my writing has always been in excellent hands, with Isaac (and let me also give props to Julie Grecius who is a brilliant editor and makes my work so much better).

Isaac makes writers feel safe enough to tackle big, ugly subjects and politically fraught subjects and even the subjects that have our popular attention in any given moment.

Whenever I’ve written a deeply personal essay for The Rumpus, Isaac has been the one behind the scenes, answering my anxious e-mails about feeling exposed and nauseous and unsure. He makes me feel safe about being vulnerable in my writing which I particularly appreciate because I am not generally good with vulnerability.

Without Isaac, I would have never had the courage to publish, What We Hunger For, the essay I am probably proudest and most terrified of. It was overwhelming to put something so personal out there, to say, “This terrible thing happened and then other terrible things happened but reading and writing saved me, and continue save me,” while also talking about my love for The Hunger Games and Peeta and his frosting abilities. As an editor and friend, Isaac made me feel like I could blend the serious and the not so serious and still have something worthwhile to say.

When I have a fierce opinion about Girls or Fifty Shades of Grey or the erosion of reproductive freedom or the lack of diversity in publishing, Isaac is there, shouting, “BRING IT!”

Behind the scenes, he has fostered an environment where writers feel safe because comments are not censored but moderated. Disagreement and diverse points of view are encouraged. Bullshit is not. In an age when so many websites allow comment sections to devolve into banal anarchy, it is always a relief to know that crazy stops here.

When do you write for free? When you can put your work in the hands of an Isaac Fitzgerald.

Isaac is also incredibly supportive beyond The Rumpus. As other opportunities have come my way over the past two years, Isaac has been one of the first people to congratulate me and encourage me to reach for bigger and better things. Then he and Lisa Dusenberry and Rumpus interns go above and beyond, linking to that work on the Rumpus blog and spreading the good word. To say I am grateful is… an understatement.

Don’t get me wrong. There are a whole bunch of great, dedicated people at The Rumpus, working to create a great place to read and write. I am honored to work among these folks.

But there’s always a story behind the writing, and when you’re lucky, there’s an amazing editor behind the writer. For the past two, almost three years, the story behind a lot of my writing has been shaped by Isaac. He is the editor behind the writer. Really, Isaac is the editor alongside the writer. I just wanted you to know that.

Here's the Thing, Dove

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 22:48:00 -0500

That Dove project/commercial which is designed to show women that they are more beautiful than they think is well and good but it’s also really irritating.

1. Most people know, intellectually, that they are not as hideous as they feel. Beauty is actually not that rare. A forensic artist revealing reality versus perception isn’t going to change human psychology. There’s so much that goes into how we feel about ourselves—life experiences, what we’ve been told, what we see and feel. This forensic approach is awfully reductive and simplistic. I wish some dude could just draw me and I’d be all, “I LOVE MYSELF!”

2. Why don’t they do this with men? I hate the idea that only women are concerned with their looks and that only women don’t perceive themselves accurately.

3. I also hate the idea that how we see ourselves somehow diminishes us in some way. Don’t get me wrong. I obsess about my appearance, mostly with regard to size, an unhealthy amount BUT it’s more like a background process than something that overwhelms my days. I can hate myself and function normally, is what I’m saying and I think this is something most humans do. Life is hard. We receive so many shitty messages about everything. We’re just trying to get through. Don’t give me some arty documentary to make me feel better.

3a. I know, I’m probably the only one who thinks the project is kind of off. I’ll survive.

3b. Also, “You are more beautiful thank you think.” Really? Thanks for that concern-validating. Thanks.

4. Dove is trying to sell you something.

4a. From a cynical marketing perspective, great work, Dove!

Interesting Writing Opportunity

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 12:23:05 -0500

Announcing the inaugural Horatio Nelson Fiction Prize, an award for a previously-completed, unpublished manuscript which comes with $5,000 and a Black Balloon Publishing book deal.

Contest website here.
Submissions: now through April 30, 2013
Only completed English-language manuscripts are eligible
Must be a work of fiction: a novel or short story collection, minimum word count of 50,000 words.
Contest is open to all authors over the age of 18.
This is a two-tiered process: initial entries are no longer than 4,000 words; authors who move on to second round of judging will have one week to submit their manuscript after being notified
If 7 days pass after notification of entry into the second round, and the manuscript has not been received, author is disqualified, no exceptions.
Simultaneous submissions are accepted but contestant must notify BBP if manuscript is to be published elsewhere.
Only unpublished works are eligible. Short story collections with previously published stories are acceptable.
There is no entrance or reading fee.
Winner will receive a $5,000 lump-sum prize as part of their book deal with Black Balloon Publishing.
To enter, please submit a short summary and attach an excerpt of no more than 4,000 words in a .doc or .docx file now through April 30 through the Black Balloon portal at Submittable.

Black Balloon Publishing dedicates this prize to Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson, a man who defied convention at every turn. A one-eyed, one-armed lunatic genius who never gave up, he began his military career fully intact, but eventually lost his right eye (Corsica, 1793) and his right arm (the Canary Islands, 1797) in battle. He refused to wear an eye patch over the wound and used it to deliberately ignore a direct order from a superior officer during the Battle of Copenhagen in 1801, coining the phrase “turning a blind eye.” When egomaniac and noted short stack Napoleon attempted to use our beloved balloons for evil during the 1798 Battle of Aboukir with a “military balloon corps,” Nelson immediately destroyed the approaching objects, putting a permanent stop to the short-lived European militarization of these symbols of wonder. Our hero.