April 2014

Monday-No-More No. 2: Shining A Contemporary Light on Historical Women

Hm. Maybe I should publish this on Tuesdays, since 1) I never seem to be able to publish on Monday, anyway, and 2) it makes more sense, title-wise.

I have a few posts in the pipeline, thanks to James Vincent McMorrow's fantastic concert at Union Transfer and a spate of fantastic podcasts (which are my current media drug, since Lent has taken Netflix and Hulu away from me). So bear with me.

In the meantime, behold, the links for the week! This week's theme: historical-turned-contemporary females heroes - women throughout history who made a difference in their time, and are now being recognized and lauded through a contemporary lens.

Drexel University College of Medicine Archives and Special Collections / via
1. The picture that started it all:
"Meet the Three Female Medical Students Who Destroyed Gender Norms A Century Ago," by Malika Rao

I was always fond of photography as a medium of art, but strangely enough, never gave much thought to it in terms of historical documentation. Perhaps it's because photographs can be easily manipulated, or that many photos used in historical documents are not particularly beautiful. When I see photographs in a museum, I am forever analyzing the individual elements - location, expressions, clothes - rather than taking the moment as a whole. I take photos at face value; a snapshot of time representative of what the exhibition intends us to perceive. Rarely does a photo inspire me to delve more deeply into the story. When I heard that Tumblrs of historical pictures were really popular, my first reaction was, "That's a thing?" followed quickly by "Who would follow these things?"

This picture proves me absolutely wrong.

Even at first glance, this is an unusual photograph. Just the fact that these three women of vastly different ethnicities are in the same room, in the same picture, is mind-blowing. How often would you find women from India, Syria, and Japan in the same photograph today? But then your eye takes in the time-yellowed sepia, and drops to the caption: Dr. Joshee. Dr. Okami. Dr. Islambooly. Drexel College of Medicine. 1885.

As the article points out, this was a time when women could not vote and were discouraged from pursuing education, a time where mental illnesses and even normal female behaviors were attributed solely to their more fragile nervous systems and their uteruses through the grossly insulting term, 'hysteria'. And yet these women, minorities by both ethnicity and gender, found a way to overcome distance, prejudice, and social norms to obtain educations by which they could aid their countrywomen.

This article demands to be read, and encourages further follow-up on behalf of the viewer. It struck me on several levels. For one, I live in Philadelphia; I would love to see this photograph in person, and dig further into the stories of the women in the picture. Also, having graduated from a medical school that was the last in the country to accept women, I am incredibly grateful for these women, and for the Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania, for having paved my way centuries before. The field of medicine for women is still bumpy in places, but it is nothing resembling the landscape before. Additionally, one of the small inspirational things that kept me doggedly climbing onwards during undergrad and medical school was a Japanese female doctor on a historical-based show, a character whose strength overcame discrimination and tragedy to help those in need (points if you can guess who). To think that she was not merely a ghost of imagination, but someone who possessed a name, a life, a spirit and determination - and in living, impressed herself into history itself - condenses my once imaginary handhold into something true, encouraging, and overwhelming real.

2. Stuff You Missed in History Class, "Elizabeth Blackwell"

via
Another inspirational female physician, Elizabeth Blackwell, is the focus of this fantastic podcast. She's particularly interesting because she seems to have stumbled into a career medicine by arbitrary coincidence:
  • - she "hated everything connected with the body," but reluctantly considered studying medicine because of a suggestion from a dying friend;
  • - she needed another outlet for her intellectual restlessness;
  • - she wanted to remain unmarried and independent, and medicine was a socially acceptable way to accomplish this;
  • - her acceptance to medical school was mostly because the students voting on her admission thought the whole thing was a joke. 
She was an incredibly unique and driven woman, an early feminist. She came from a poor family and was very much self-made; she fought for social reform in many areas, and thought of her pursuit of medicine despite rejection and insults as "a moral crusade"; she eloquently talked her way into the reproductive medicine course, for which her mind was thought to be too delicate; and eventually studied in Paris at La Maternité.

Basically, she's my role model.

Her family, her background, and her influence on medicine in New York - it's all very interesting, and covered at an entertaining pace by Tracy Wilson and Holly Frey.

3. The Spy Who Loved: The Secrets and Lives of Christine Granville, by Clare Mulley

getty images / via
This book shines light on the fascinating, complex, and unforgivably time-obscured life of Christine Granville, a British spy in WWII who fearlessly dodged her way past bullets, skied into Nazi-occupied territories as a courier, and rescued many of her fellow spies. She was renown for her bravery and her willingness to help the allied cause, as well as her string of lovers; she was potentially the model for Vesper Lynd, who happens to be my favorite Bond character. I've only read the first couple of chapters of this book, but I can say that Clare Mulley does a great job elucidating the mysterious life and opaque motivations of this incredible woman who was ahead of her time. I'm really not sure why her life hasn't been made into a movie yet.

Also, her name is Christine; and I am compelled to mention how grateful I am to be able to add a name to the short, short list of memorable Christines in culture and literature, which includes only a lovely but passive, naive opera singer and a psychotic killer car. (Thanks, creatives of the world.)

More information: the Daily Beast's book review

4. A Scandal in Belgravia, Sherlock Season 2

Speaking of forward-thinking women ahead of their time, is there any female character in literature more respected and held in awe than The Woman, Irene Adler? When Sherlock Holmes gives you a seal of approval - hell, if he even registers your existence and intelligence - you know you've made it. While the story of the original Adler, the only woman to outwit and impress Holmes and the only good thing to ever come out of New Jersey (kidding!), remains fresh and worth reading even now, I actually prefer Steven Moffat's updated version of the story. This episode is a great lesson to all those intrepid screenwriters and filmmakers out there on how to properly reinterpret a story ages old through a contemporary lens (Sorry, Guy Ritchie).


Yes, to the benefit or the detriment of the story, the great Irene Adler has been translated to the present as a dominatrix. Generally, I'm underwhelmed by culture's attempt to reinterpret feminism and re-appropriate female objectification through aggressive and excessive displays of sexuality (that's another blog post). But even I think this interpretation works in this case.

For one, it's not that far of a leap; female performers in the past were not considered much more highly than prostitutes. Secondly, Moffat uses her profession, and the people she interacts with, to up the stakes from the original story. Additionally, the dichotomy between Holmes' learned coldness and precise demeanor and Adler's bold sexuality and mischievous intelligence makes for intriguing, enlightening conflict and really great TV. And Lara Pulver is amazing, as is Benedict Cumberbatch, so I'll basically forgive them for anything. In the end, it's a fabulous study of two complex characters, a showcase for fantastic acting, and a tightly-built, worthwhile story.

5. "Love Letters from Helen of Troy" by Elizabeth Hewer
"Helen of Troy Does Countertop Dancing" by Margaret Atwood

And speaking of reinterpretations, I don't think there has ever been anyone quite as reincarnated in modern light as Helen of Troy. Simply a weak, careless, and beautiful woman passively passed around like a cereal box prize in the original myths, she's been given actual depth and private motivations in modern reinterpretations. I love explorations of female characters previously defined only by their beauty and gender, which apparently was enough for male gazes of writers from antiquity to present (see MPDG). Helen of Troy is a particular favorite of mine; I haven't had a chance to read CS Lewis' incomplete take on the myth in "After Ten Years," but I do particularly love Margaret Atwood's cynical and blazing Helen, and the simple strength and life that pulses through "Love Letters from Helen of Troy" - those last lines - chills, just chills.

(I also secretly love the fact that they're in poem form, which seems like a giant middle finger in the direction of Homer and the ancient bards.)


Go forth and conquer your week!



Monday-No-More No. 1: A List of Links To Start Your Week Off Right

Guys. I doubled the volume of my blogging output last month!

That’s an impressive total of, oh, four blog posts total, but still an improvement to the months prior or the whole of  of 2012. So I’m going to take this as a positive direction for the blog.  

Maybe this exponential growth will continue, and I’ll blog 8 times this month! 
[Great expectations, I know.]

To start this month off, about a week into April, I’m going to introduce a new feature: Mundane-no-more Mondays. (It’s a mouthful, so maybe just “Monday No More” and slur the words together - ‘mon-da-yne-o-mo-re’? Punny!)

You know that sudden dread you get while walking down the sidewalk on an otherwise sunny, serene Sunday afternoon? That unexpected realization that tomorrow is Monday, and the endless cycle of banality and earthly toil is about to begin again?

Well, Mondays are Monday-No-More, because I bring you a list of 5 mind-provoking links and media, one for each day of the workweek, a diverse mix of highbrow and lowbrow, fun and yet somehow nutritious in that mother-sneaking-vegetables-in-your-mac-and-cheese kind of way, spicing up another week that threatens to drain all personality and vitality from your tired souls.

So dread no more - let the Mondays begin the week again!



Daniel Radcliffe. Jon Hamm. 


Those four words alone should pique your interest, if not promise a certain level of quality. But continuing the exploration of Russia in culture, which, along with its intersection with with Britain, is apparently the unconscious and insidious theme of this week’s list, this show follows a new Russian medical school graduate (Daniel Radcliffe) who aced all his tests in school, and this being Russia, is rewarded by being carted off to the middle of nowhere to run a rural hospital with little help. Jon Hamm plays his future self, both recounting his story and interacting with his younger self. It’s surprisingly hilarious while being surprisingly dark, which makes sense, since it was produced by the BBC.

Why should you watch?

Non-medical friends: 
If not for gross medical stories that all human beings love, then you must watch if only to:
  • - see the slight Daniel Radcliffe trying to cling onto the back on the towering Jon Hamm during a fight with his future self, being thrown back and forth as though on a mechanical bull
  • - watch Jon Hamm tear pages out of a textbook and start stuffing them in his mouth, in the midst of the same fight
  • - wondering in the world a post-pubescent Daniel Radcliffe could possibly undergo another growth spurt to emerge 9 inches taller and 6 inches broader as a strapping Jon Hamm in the future
  • - muse on why all Russians speak with an English accent, or in Jon Hamm’s case, almost an English accent

Doctor/health professional friends: 
The show has a surprising sensitivity to that unique overwhelming emotions that immediately swarms doctors the minute we emerge from the hallowed halls of medical school - appropriately starry-eyed, fully textbook-formed, and totally unprepared.

We all remember the fear; the helplessness; the head stuffed full of knowledge that doesn't always translate to the patient lying in the bed in front of you; the frustration with self-destructive patients, lethargic staff, and your own inadequate self; the surprisingly rapid manner in which jadedness floods in and drowns any remaining youthful idealism; the desire to take up a tobacco habit or gastrointestinal condition, if only to have an excuse to desperately sprint to the bookshelf or a computer look up something you forgot.  

The show's ability to pack such a truthful emotional punch comes from the source material, which was based on autobiographical works of Mikhail Bulgokov, a physician and playwright in 1910s Russia. If only to remind us of who we were when we started our journey in the field medicine - and the fears and highs and lows that have never truly left us alone since - The Young Doctor's Notebook is a great watch.

Also: It’s only a very British four episodes in a season, so you basically have no excuse not to watch.


A brief but fantastically well-written post by Kathryn Schulz, who is consistently thought-provoking as the book critic for New York Magazine. Do we ever think about the means by which we frame and pace our sentences? Schulz makes a convincing argument as to why we should. Covered in the article: Nabokov’s fabulous parentheses (picnic, lightening), Dicken’s colon in A Christmas Carol, and many more.
[I, for one, am a huge proponent of the em-dash - and the ellipses, in case you couldn’t tell…]


It’s going around Facebook, but it is truly a great way to spend 12 minutes realizing how truly expansive is our world, how little of it we’ve experienced, and how much of our high school World Geography class we have subsequently forgotten. 

Hints: Russia: one of the easiest to recognize; also, try recalling countries by those conquered by British Imperialism - basically half the countries of the world.

4.  Anna Kendrick's SNL monologue: 

This week’s random wildcard. Is it possibly for any human being with a heart to hate Anna Kendrick? Aca-impossible. And if she keeps doing things like charmingly reworking childhood favorites into a charming monologue for SNL, she will continue to keep her place in that very exclusive troika of charming down-to-earth females who can do no wrong and are beloved by both males and females alike (an trinity which includes Emma Stone and Jennifer Lawrence).

5.  The Bugle:

Last but most definitely not least, The Bugle, essentially a British version of The Daily Show in weekly, audio podcast form - or as your hosts like to put it, “an audio newspaper for a visual world.” 

The comparison to the wry news commentary stand-up of The Daily Show is not unrelated, as one of the hosts, the great John Oliver, was previously a staple (and even temporary host) on The Daily Show. 

[He’s also a fantastic secondary character on Community, one of the most creative sitcoms around, and probably one of two celebrities I saw (read: actually looked at in the face and secondly, actually recognized) while living in New York. I did the New York celebrity-avoidance shuffle past him (a rapid New York stride combined with an aura of being too cool to recognize such a petty bourgeois thing as fame), but really, I should have stopped and squealed like the fangirl I am. Some other guy stopped him to shake his hand - I could have shook the hand of John Oliver, too! Regrets all around.]

In any case, Oliver and his London-based compatriot, Andy Saltzman, report the news in a sudden, snort-coffee-up-your nasal-passage, wry British manner. Thanks to The Bugle, I kind of understand why the majority of young educated Americans get a major percentage of their news from these sources: the world is a dark place - why not take it down with a spoonful of humor? 

Some bon mots:
  • On Putin’s criticism of American exceptionalism: 
One thing that America is objectively exceptional at is overreacting whenever anyone accuses them of not being exceptional.
  • On gun control
It’s so often with any form of new technology, humanity’s first reaction is to say "Oh wow, that’s awesome, this could really revolutionize the way we live, this could bring untold benefits to millions…I wonder if you could kill someone with it."
  • On Mali: 
So, what next for Mali? Obviously the next advice that anyone could give them is to quickly find vast oil reserves somewhere underneath their country because that will guarantee them immediate global assistance and complete security for the future. There is literally nothing that tweaks the heartstrings of the international community more than gigantic oil reserves. Oil reserves are like compassion steroids; they really improve the performance of your conscience.
  • On Russia reclaiming the Crimea because it is historically Russian: 
“Also, even more importantly, it leaves the door wide open for the Queen to come back to the US and claiming it as historically British, which it is, Andy.”
“Well I mean, we talk about dodgy declarations of independence such as the Crimean one. America was founded on that, John, founded. How can it possibly lecture Russia without first withdrawing the Declaration of Independence and becoming part of the United Kingdom again? I think that is the least that Barack Obama should be doing.”
“This is a illegitimate nation, Andy.”
“I’ll be seeing you moving back home in a couple of weeks, John.”
“No, please no. Please no. It’s clear I’m not wanted there.”
  • On American and Russian sanctions against each other. 
The Russians on the American sanctions list seem strangely, completely unconcerned about the crippling measures that they are under. A number of Russians on the list have pointed out that having US assets frozen was unlikely to affect them, as they have no American assets… a top Putin supporter, Vladislav Surkov, actually sounded thrilled, saying that, “It’s a big honor for me. I don’t have accounts abroad. The only things that interest me in the U.S. are Tupac Shakur, Allen Ginsberg, and Jackson Pollock. I don’t need a visa to access their work. I lose nothing.”
I will say, that’s a pretty broad range of cultural references right there: the poetry of Ginsburg, the painting of Pollock, and the rap-tacular rhymes of Tupac. If you like all three of those, you essentially like the entire spectrum of American culture…Russia announced that they would retaliate in kind…and fire back they did, by, yes you guessed it, by putting sanctions on 11 American figures, including John McCain and Majority whip Dick Durbin, who presumably is going to release a statement saying, “It’s a bit of an honor for me. I don’t have accounts abroad.  The only things that interest me in Russia are Stravinsky, Maria Sharapova, and Yakoff Smirnoff. I don’t need a visa to access their work. I LOSE NOTHING! Durbin out.”
This is good. We have come a long way from the Cuban Missile Crisis. Mutually assured destruction has been replaced by mutually assured bitchiness.

(By the way, the last three were from the same episode - and only three minutes of the hilarity that constitutes the entirety of Episode 263.)

Go forth and conquer your week!

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