Where cultures cross
Eric Selinger recalls a day at the bookstore:
I decided to take one quick look at the other side of the romance aisle before I hit the road. And there she was: a woman, veiled, in a jet-black burqa, sitting on the floor with a romance open in her lap and a stack of them at her side.
She didn’t look up, and I didn’t stare. Burqas, saris, shtreimels: in my neighborhood, you see them all daily. Still, the contrast between her clothes and the books she was reading made the image not only memorable, but also a sort of Rorschach test.
What goes through your head when you see something like this?
When I tell friends and colleagues the story, they project all sorts of ideas into it. One student of mine, from Bosnia, reacted sharply and sympathetically: “Oh, that poor woman!” To her, the clothing meant repression, and the novels, a secret escape. Another had the opposite reaction. “Maybe she always loved romance novels,” she said, “and she’s just kept reading them. Just because she’s super-modest in public doesn’t mean she’s super-repressed.” Some picture her as an immigrant, learning English and a strange new culture. Others imagine she’s moved here from Pakistan, a Mills & Boon reader from her girlhood, longing for a taste of home. A few of my students immediately claim … her as one of their own: a native-born Chicagoan, proud of her heritage, who’d have told me off, and rightly so, if I’d paused for a second look.
Any of these — or none of these — could be true. But “project” is precisely the right word: we don’t know, so we apply whatever data, or anecdotes, or whatever, we have available. And inevitably, the responses say more about the respondents than they ever could about the subject.
Dwayne "the canoe guy" »
15 September 2008 · 9:06 am
I once saw a woman in a full burka in a Wal-Mart parking lot and she was with two men. As I walked past I almost…almost.. stopped and gave a wolf whistle and said “YEAH, BABEEEEEEE!”, just to be stupid and see what would happen.
I’m so glad that I’m older and have some self restraint.
Tatyana »
15 September 2008 · 12:20 pm
Yes, but some explanations are more likely than the others.
F.ex, variant with “a woman from Pakistan nostalgic for books of her girlhood” is much more unlikely than the version provided by a Bosnian.
McGehee »
15 September 2008 · 12:45 pm
I may be trying to come up with something no one else is saying, but I want to think she’s just an ordinary American gal who likes those bodice-rippers but doesn’t want to chance being recognized at the bookstore perusing them.
Probably her friends’ “book club” only ever reads Proust and Kierkegaard.
Tatyana »
15 September 2008 · 1:44 pm
So, Chaz, which suggestion you find to be more plausible, McGehee’s or the Bosnian’s?
Or you still “don’t know”?
CGHill »
15 September 2008 · 1:51 pm
At that level of implausibility, it’s hard to pick between ‘em.
fillyjonk »
15 September 2008 · 2:37 pm
I tend to think that when we “project,” it’s kind of like when we “assume,” and we all know what happens when you assume.
I’d probably just smile at the apparent incongruity, remind myself that life is full of interesting moments, and move on to the historical fiction section (which was probably where I was bound in the first place…)
Bounded Rationality »
15 September 2008 · 2:40 pm
My Early Cultural Perceptions…
I’ve met him once, and on that one and only observation, I think he would be a great neighbor to have. I enjoy very much reading whatever it is he’s thinking. This particular blog entry (which is in reference to another post) struck me today……
McGehee »
15 September 2008 · 3:50 pm
Best answer so far.
Tatyana »
15 September 2008 · 4:38 pm
Remind me not to ask your advice about stock market.
It’s just common sense, as I see it, that Bosnian (who, after all, lived in a muslim-populated country and has actual life experience with Islam) is closer, in all probability, to truth than McGehee (as entertaining his version as it is).
Your hesitation to judge, so common to many Americans, is why Dearborn, MI is no longer American city.
CGHill »
15 September 2008 · 6:45 pm
Why on earth would anyone even consider asking my advice about the stock market in the first place? I have a 401(k) in the middle five figures that lost about $180 today. If this confers experience, I’m hanging out my shingle as a Community Financial Advisor.
Tat »
15 September 2008 · 9:36 pm
You just confirmed my point.