The Ethicist: Should I Tell Guests How Much Dinner Costs?

Dear Ethicist: I am having friends for dinner tonight. I went to the butcher and ordered a rib roast. It was only when I got to the cashier that I realized how ridiculously expensive it was. However, I was embarrassed to return it. The couple we have invited are very nice, but they’re not the kind of people who could do anything for us and I feel loathe to go overboard. Still, it's getting late and I don't have much of a choice. At the very least I feel I have to tell them how much it costs and reap some benefit for being such a generous host. Otherwise I would be throwing good money after bad. My first thought is simply to place a little note at each place informing our guests of the price of the meal. My idea is to make it like a big joke. No one advertises how much they have spent when they invite guests over, but secretly I want to make my point which is that the roast I will be serving comes to the ridiculous price of $53. My wife feels I am displaying one of the worst sides of my character. Every time I try toput the little name cards down (with $ signs), she removes them. She is in the other room now and I don’t know what to do.

 

Conspicuous Consumer

 

Dear Conspicuous Consumer: My advice to you is to serve the roast and forget about the price. It’s water under the bridge. During the cocktails part of the evening you might make a casual remark about how expensive meat has become, if that makes you feel better, but I wouldn’t risk further alienating your wife by knocking your guests over the head with how much the rib roast cost.

Read "Lamb Stewed" by Francis Levy, Dispatches From the Poetry Wars

The Bully Pulpit

“The Bully Pulpit" could well be a new show hosted by Donald Trump on Fox. Imagine Trump standing at a podium wearing his signature red hat in front of a screen in which his past performances in front of huge crowds will be synchrionized to play each time he scores one of his points, either about the non-existent coronavirus pandemic, the fact that the election had been rigged or the fact that the insurrectionists were "hugging and kissing" the capital police. With an audience of 74 Million who voted for him, “The Bully Pulpit" would be the highest-rated program on TV, even beating reruns of hot shows like “Shark Tank,” “The Apprentice” and “Law and Order: Special Victims Unit.” Originally, the idea for the show might have been to broadcast daily rallies for the 2024 election. However, despite having an energetic performer in Mr. Trump, the logistics would prove too daunting, especially due to the fact that most states are still placing some limits on the amount of people who  congregate in public, particularly if they weren’t wearing masks. In the meanwhile, Trump is planning to make a triumphant return to  social media appparently the next few months,  "Trump is returning to social media with his own platform, spokeman says," CNN, 3/22/21 

Read "Trumpty Dumpty's Great Fall" by Francis Levy, The East Hampton Star

Wojnarowicz: F**k You F*ggot F**ker

Chris McKim’s documentary Wojnarowicz: F**k You F*ggot F**ker about the legendary artist might be subtitled “Illness Not as Metaphor.” A victim of the AIDS epidemic who died in l992, at the age of 37, Wojnarowicz used his creative talents to become one of the most outspoken leaders of the AIDS movement. For Wojnarowicz AIDS was not a figure of speech. The Trump administration’s denial of Covid was nothing compared to the AIDS plague which was essentially shoved under the carpet due to the fact that it took its toll on an unfavored nation, the gay community. "Fuck you faggot fucker” were the words Wojnarowicz found on a torn piece of paper, an objet trouve which became his mantra. “I’m not gay as in I love you,” he angrily intones in the movie. “I’m queer as in fuck off.” The movie is a battlefield which earns its rage, but to say that the artist who had had an earlier career as a street hustler (one of his heroes was Jean Genet) had a traumatized childhood is a laughable understatement. His alcoholic father beat his children and apparently served him and his two siblings their pet rabbit for dinner. Later he would go on to do battle against other monsters and father surrogates like Jesse Helms who tried to get the NEA to defund an exhibit at the Artists Space, due in part to Wojnarowicz's catalogue copy. Remember back in l999 when Guiliani tried to pull the plug on “Sensation: Young British Artists From the Saachi” which featured Chris Ofili’s dung covered Virgin Mary? It wasn’t difficult for Wojnarowicz to find stand-ins towards whom he could direct his rage. Gracie Mansion, Penny Arcade, Fran Lebowitz and Nan Goldin are some of the 80s and 90s figures who opine in the film. In some ways Wojarowicz bears comparison to Pasolini who also practiced rough trade and was a poet and political activist. The iconic "death mask" of the photographer Peter Hujar who's described in the movie as the Verlaine to Wojnarowicz’s Rimbaud is, in fact, reminiscent of the iconic scene in Mamma Roma where Mantegna’s “Lamentation of Christ” is invoked. "3Teens Kill 4" was btw the name of the band Wojnarowicz's belonged to.

Read "Died Young" by Francis Levy, The Brooklyn Rail

Pornosophy: All Nude XXX

"The Expulsion of Adam and Eve From the Garden of Eden" by Masaccio

What comprises the mystique of nudity? From the Adamic point of view, the urge to cover and conceal derive from a transgression, Eve’s eating of the forbidden fruit. Parenthetically there’s something reminiscent of Faust in this act of seeking from the tree of knowledge. One always thinks of unveiling as the source of shame, but in representations of the bible in classical art through the ages, the fig leaf together with the emotion of shame only begin to appear in the aftermath of defiance. The worship of the Golden Calf falls in a similar category. You’ve undoubtedly had those dreams where you find yourself standing amongst a group of people in your underwear. If you have certain proclivities you might even find yourself dancing naked on a table top in front of leering eyes. Actually, the notion of the secondary sex characteristics as a hidden treasure is comforting. There are societies where people walk around in a nude or semi-nude state. If you’ve ever been on a nude beach or nudist colony, you realize how unremarkable nudity can become. The glory of nudity resides in the act of revelation. It’s a little like a fortune cookie which when cracked reveals its prophecy. The synecdochic obsession with body parts ie biceps, legs, chest or breasts is one of the tangential issues that derive from this obsession.

Read  "White Meat, Breasts" by Francis Levy, Evergreen Review

Journal of Medieval Scholasticism: Can You Be Psychoanalyzed Over Zoom?

photo portrait of Sigmund Freud by Max Halberstadt (1921)

Remember psychoanalysis, the form of psychotherapy where the patient lay on the couch with his doctor rarely saying anything? Remember how Viagra was accidentally discovered as a treatment for E.D. when patients who had been treated for Angina displayed erections? Psychoanalysis turned out to be a sleep inducer for patients and doctors suffering from insomnia. Patients could never be sure, but one of the ways you knew your doctor might be sleeping through a session was the sound of soft snoring, which you may have conveniently defended yourself against; conversely from the patient’s point of view, your doctor might as well have intoned “nighty night” as you prepared to lie down looking forward to the prospect of 50 minutes of sleep. Nothing like the feeling of safety that came from having someone sleeping in back of you. And this would have gone on for years (a la Freud's Analysis Terminable and Interminable from l937) if it weren’t for the pandemic  Sure your analyst might simply turn off his video function as you lie down on your sofa and drift off, but the protected feeling of having the other body looking over you would be lost. Then there are the interactions and bodily responses like skin respiration, flatulence and yes tumescence which are often the products of free associating in the moments when a patient is not sleeping? And what about the much-vaunted transference? How are you going to fall in love with anyone when one or both of you are muted?

Read "As I Lay Down" by Francis Levy, illustrated by Hallie Cohen, Noise

Journal of Medieval Scholasticism: How NOT to Become an Influencer

William of Ockham (photo: Moscarlop)

A recent Times Arts & Leisure profile paints Demi Lovato as having 100M followers on Instagram. But what does it take to be someone who succeeds in having 1 or even none? Being a plain Jane or Joe is one of those old-fashioned talents, anachronisms like cursive writing that are quickly become obsolete. Remember those guys who used to sharpen your knives? Their horse-pulled carts rumbled over cobble-stoned streets, You never required an appointment to sharpen your shiv. People who are influencers want to have lots of followers. However, there are still those who enjoy their privacy, rich people who live in exclusive gated communities, where mail boxes have numbers but no names. Is it possible to have an Instagram or even Twitter account which exists for the sake of itself and which no one looks at but you? It may sound like a hard thing to achieve, but anything, even anonymity, is possible, if you try. Yes, you can stick to yourself on Instagram.

Read "White Meat, Breasts" by Francis Levy, The Evergreen Review

Journal of Medieval Scholasticism: How Many Spring Breakers Can Safely Fit Into a Phone Booth?

 

“How many Spring breakers can safely fit into a phone booth?” is one of the most frequent questions CDC administrators are currently being asked. Of course, telephone booths are practically obsolete. One’s going to be hard put to locate one in Daytona, Miami or any of the other well-known Florida waterholes known for their attraction to hellions. In fact, one of the few remaining uses of phone booths is as repositories for bodies. But if you're going to get yourself stuffed into one, there's the matter of vaccines, masks and social distancing. Those who have gotten both of their vaccines can fit themselves into a phone booth containing as many vaccinated people as will fit and not have to wear a mask. If 20 or more people are fitting into a phone booth and some are vaccinated while others are not, it’s recommended that both those who are vaccinated and those who have yet to be vaccinated still wear masks and maintain at least six feet of distance from each other in the phone booth, due to the dangers of asymptomatic transmission.

read "Limbo" by Francis Levy, The Evergreen Review