1:16 p.m. - 01.30.2003
My Malaysian Childhood
When far from home, the New Yorker or Los Angelino, feeling a pang of homesickness, may desire Thai food rather than his or her indigenous corn on the cob and Jello.
With so many of our cultures being made up of bits and pieces of other cultures, our sense of self becomes confused with our sense of the "others" who have joined us.
The Parisian may long for an evening out at an African nightclub when visiting America. The Japanese visiting Burma may long for McDonald's or fresh spaghetti. Are our changing palettes a taste of what is to come? Will we eventually imagine ourselves as someone else and appropriate their history, their tragedies, their manners and foibles?
Will our identities become so thoroughly confused that what once was our original "base" culture recedes to a dwindling remnant?
We are they and they are we.
Will we dream of imagined childhood in Dakar? Of lost loves and departed friends in Malaysia?
Will our consciousness be a complete pastiche? A pathwork of sounds, smells, and tastes - colonized by whatever attracts us? By delicious foods, sensuous textures, and beautiful men and women?
Will we be consumed by our favorite things? Will we miss the smells and the dust we never experienced? Will the "exotic" eventually become so uncommonplace, so much apart of our culture, that the world will become meaningless?
Will the old Europe, the old America, be the new exoticism?
It is already, isn't it?
- David Byrne, from Strange Ritual
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(Secretly, I blame Pier 1.) Really though, these are ideas that interest me. I'm also interested in the blurring of lines between High/Low in society/culture/art/humor what have you. I'm feeling particularly geeky today.
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I've received a number of Dear Abby-esque emails concerning my entry on the new style of kissing being developed in French schoolyards. So let me clarify a few things.
To you, Tongue-Tied in Topeka, I say this: The "grammer" of French-style kissing is the least of your concerns. But if you insist, it breaks down like this. The verb is 'To French'. French, Frenching, Frenched. The past-tense does not change to 'Franced' or 'Frunched'. You would simply say, 'We frenched'.
To Slobbered on in Stockholm, I was surprised by your inquiry. No there IS no set way to french. Besides the touching of tongues, one is free to develop their own unique style! (I assumed you Euros didn't need to be coached on this one.) When kissing, your partner's lips are a blank canvas. So go out there and create a masterpiece! Maybe you like it a little dry, maybe a little more wet. Maybe you prefer the tip of the tongue, in quick darting motions. Or you prefer the tongue to lie there in motionless tranquility. My advice to you, Slobbered On, is to play around until you find your comfort zone.
And finally, to Confused in Chicago, the answer is - No. French kissing is nothing like Eskimo kissing. I know because I once took a two-week long field trip to Alaska with the Science Club. There I met Anook, a firey Eskimo girl with the heart and roving hands of an explorer. I don't know what you've heard about the fabled Eskimo Kiss, but to use the vernacular of contemporary low English - it ain't all that, girl! *wild finger snapping and head bobbing insues*
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