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A S K_C A M I L L E +|+ C A M I L L E+P A G L I A | PAGE 2 OF 2
Dear Camille:
I am curious as to your thoughts on the impact a name has on someone's
personality. It seems that
the trend in Middle America is to bestow a pretentious name on a child
in a desperate attempt to come across as being sophisticated. What
effect is this going to have on this generation, in light of the fact
that until now 20 or so names have dominated each gender for decades upon
end? Furthermore, I am
curious to how someone with such a demure name as Camille turned into
one of my favorite "pagan
divas"?
As for me, simply look below for the creative fruits of my parents'
labor. Feel my pain?
Matt Smith in Washington, D.C.
Dear Mr. Smith:
The curt Anglo-Saxon monosyllables of your name ring with the hammer blows of
Thor! Your parents willed you masculine decisiveness and earthy practicality.
I have an archaic, superstitious belief in the magic of names. Naming the
animals was in fact the first independent act of Adam in Eden, before the
birth of Eve.
For much of history, names were links to half-mythic ancestors, burdening the
individual by duty to the past. In the more socially mobile modern world,
parents must arm their children for the future and therefore bestow on them
names of auspicious strength or grace. Now soap operas are the new Bible:
hence the epidemic of "Brittany" and "Chad" on birth certificates.
Artists, actors and drag queens remake themselves, of course (Archie Leach to
Cary Grant; Marion Morrison to John Wayne; Betty Perske to Lauren Bacall; Roy
Scherer to Rock Hudson). Personally, I wasn't thrilled with "Camille" in my
youth, since it sounded too much like the sickly Parisian cougher of "La
Traviata." But it's a family name: "Camilla" has ancient roots in my
mother's region in central Italy.
We are Volsci, the fierce warriors led in Virgil's "Aeneid" by the Amazon
archer Camilla. I say that exactly like Jeri Ryan as "Voyager's" sensational
Seven of Nine, who is always sternly declaring, "I am Borg!"
Dear Camille:
The practice of female circumcision (or female genital mutilation) among
immigrant communities has been receiving a fair bit of media attention in
Australia of late. It seems to me that here is a case where cultural
relativism needs to take a back seat to basic human rights. Do you agree
that as a society we should seek to stamp out this practice even in the face
of opposition from its "victims"?
A recent issue of the Lancet refers to the lengths prostitutes in southern
Africa go to in keeping clients happy at the expense of their own pleasure
and health. Because of their clients' desire for a "hot, dry and tight"
experience, these women are forced to go to extravagant, painful and
injurious lengths (including the use of cleaning chemicals along with more
traditional herbal methods) to remove the possibility of moisture from their
genital area. It seems that the tissue damage this involves could, by
enhancing the possibility of transmission, be a significant contributor to
the high rates of HIV infection among these communities.
How is it that such practices, which are so obviously detrimental to the health and
pleasure of the women involved, can become so pervasive?
Shane of Sydney
Dear Shane:
Since Jean-Jacques Rousseau joined the concept of "natural" rights to the
imperative of political reform, modern civil liberties movements have sought
to defend the individual against the tyranny of the group. Coerced female
circumcision is a remnant of a tribal past where identity was determined by
subordination to hallowed custom. Ironically, this grisly and barbaric
practice also reveals just how wrong Rousseau was about the "noble savage" of
primitive life, who is still sentimentalized by PC academics.
Circumcision of powerless girls should certainly be criminalized and brought
under state jurisdiction. However, what adult prostitutes choose to do is no
one's business. There are enough bizarre rituals in the Western free
world -- from bust amplification and body piercing to gay rectal fisting -- to
show that self-maiming satisfies some eternal human need for sensory
exploration and self-definition.
Dear Camille:
When taking my little sister out trick-or-treating on Halloween, I was
surprised to find only about one in every 10 houses participating -- a far
cry from my own childhood, just a few years ago. Children who dressed, as
I did, in elaborate costumes of favorite fictional or historical characters
were given paltry opportunity to show off. Is Halloween in decline? The
news was full of stories about alternative ceremonies, born out of real
concerns about safety, such as trick-or-treating during the afternoon --
defeating the purpose, I think; heading out into the Freudian night is
integral to the fun. And many churches and schools, alarmed by the "pagan"
origins of the holiday, are replacing Halloween with "Harvest Parties" --
this from people who can buy fresh pineapple year-round. As a related
phenomenon, the horror film seems to be in decline, with "Psycho"-inspired
comedies like "Scream" being the sole relief from updates to tired series.
(The most frightening Halloween movie release was "The Mighty.") Do you
find any of these recent developments alarming, or are critics of Halloween
correct? Is there no longer an important cultural function for it? Just
as David Bowie is "afraid of Americans," have we become so scary that we no
longer need to be scared?
Pat Daily
Dear Pat Daily:
It is very sad that Halloween, my favorite holiday, has slowly lost its
special status. But life is far more dangerous than in the stable communities
of my childhood, when longtime neighbors could be trusted. Abductions were
unheard of, and traffic was sparser and slower. Trick-or-treating today is
like running the gauntlet down Machine-Gun Alley.
As Halloween shops have multiplied in the malls, costumes are so elaborate,
plentiful and cheap that children's imaginations are being somewhat crimped.
I remember breathlessly planning my fancy costumes for months (they were
ingeniously fabricated from scraps by my parents). In the conformist 1950s,
Halloween was a Saturnalian opportunity to explore socially forbidden aspects
of the self: In elementary school, I was successively a matador, a Roman
soldier and Napoleon. What bliss!
Today the young have a wider spectrum of personae to choose from for everyday
work or play. The Goth disciples of Marilyn Manson, for example, don't need
to wait for Halloween to dress like ghouls and agitate their parents. Plus
the plethora of slasher films now on video (a gross-out teen genre inaugurated
by "Friday the 13th" in 1980) makes horror a year-round phenomenon.
Yes, the eerie sense of ghost-filled pagan night has been lost -- probably
because the once-dangerous wilderness has been receding with the spread of
suburban developments. Now we get our kicks from Mother Nature on TV every
time El Niño fires up the Pacific or hurricanes blast the Atlantic.
Apocalypse now!
Postscript: Whenever I strafe the PC ghetto of Boston-Cambridge, I pay a
courtesy call on the cultivated Christopher Lydon, whose lively, intellectual
radio program, "The Connection," is broadcast on Boston's WBUR. I'm scheduled
to appear on the show for an hour at 10 a.m. on Nov. 18 to discuss
educational reform, the subject of my lecture the prior evening at Harvard's
Kennedy School of Government.
Having trouble relishing your moods? Ask Camille.
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