NORMALnoise volume 2, issue 2 // spring 2017 2 NORMALnoise the sound issue 3 Dear reader,

You are, I hope, currently making yourself comfortable, getting ready to dive into the latest issue of Normal Noise, which you’ve been eagerly awaiting for months. You’ve told your roommate not to bother you for the next hour or two, you’ve put your phone on silent, you’ve lit some candles. Your tea is almost done. But what’s that? The neighbor’s car alarm is going off? I can practically hear it myself. Maybe you should put on your headphones, replace that meaningless noise with something more meaningful, less distracting. Or, if that’s too much, you could – ah, it’s stopped! Perfect timing. It sounds like you’re ready to go. You know what they say: silence is the key to a sound mind (I may have just made that up).

While the playfulness of the paragraph above may have been a bit of an over-correction for the somber mood of the last issue’s letter from the editor, I hope that it conveys at least a few of the many connotations sound can invoke. If it didn’t resonate* with you, I assure you one of the many explorations of sound in the following pages will. In this issue, you will find a recipe for your very own DIY slime, a poem mimetic of silence, and a loom subversively unraveled, among other things. the sound issue We give our warmest thanks to Barrett, the Honors College at ASU for continually supporting our endeavours. We also thank our faculty advisor, Dr. Mina Suk, Vice Provost and Dean Dr. Mark Jacobs, Associate Dean Dr. A Sense of Well-Being 6 Dagan Sassirini Kristen Hermann, and Kira Gatewood for their guidance both intellectual and administrative. We thank, of A meditation in four parts course, our staff, writers, and artists for their willingness to dedicate such considerable time into issue after issue. Lastly, we thank you, reader. Without you, Normal Noise never would have grown to be as sound* as it Slime, Youth, and Online Media 8 Carolina Mesquita is today. If it’s not DIY, don’t bother

Hands Bloody, Eyes Dry 10 Caroline Kireopoulos *sorry At the intersection of love and mind Sincerely, Eating at Carolina’s 16 Benjamin Shindel Sonoran means sound in Latin Evan Anderson, Editor-in-Chief

Unsound 18 Joey Scaven A poem

It’s Not You, It’s Your Voice 20 Aitana Yvette Mallari Pitch and women in the workplace Normal Noise is a semesterly magazine supported by Barrett, the Honors editor-in-chief Evan Anderson College at ASU. Each issue provokes conversation about the complexities features editor of everyday life through long-form journalism and art. Carolina Mesquita design editor Kaylie Volpe Normal Noise is student-run. Views expressed in the magazine do not reflect those of the administration. Contact the editors at designers Cecilia Nguyen [email protected]. Dempsey Wilken faculty advisor Mina Suk, Ph.D. Like Normal Noise on Facebook and check out our website at normalnoise.wordpress.com.

On the cover: “Still There?” by Carolina Marques de Mesquita, 2017. Watercolor and ink on paper, 9” x 12”.

4 NORMALnoise the sound issue 5 Ligeti’s Violin Concerto preclud- they might think. ed Eroica, a chaos through which you painstakingly listened as I wondered if From the silence you would rather sit beside me in the IV For the friends that were present mountains, watching snow fall silent- even when I was not. of his desk, Lu ly, heating water for your earl grey on a I write you now in Spring, after what backpacking stove. The soloist contin- has felt like a decade-long drought; Xun described ued waving her bow and Ligeti earned at trusting that you will respond with com- the mortal least one patron that evening. passion and hardhandedness to what- ever insentient words or insights I have sounds of planes written. I find it necessary to recapitulate flying bombing A Sense of Well-Being III For those living as refugees and my state of mind: to claim that time has migrant workers. bludgeoned me with an understanding missions over In memories, the end of summer in of rebelliously deciding in favor of hap- the Sierra Blancas is marked by sunflow- piness and vitality amidst grey, darkened Beijing during the Dagan Sassirini er fields. As the days grow shorter, the days. air cools; Aspen leaves turn yellow, then From the silence of his desk, Lu Xun Warlord Era. The orange and red as they fall. These events described the mortal sounds of planes sound of death, were captivating at my childhood home flying bombing missions over Beijing in the shadow of a volcanic shell near the during the Warlord Era. The sound of he wrote, only Arizona-New Mexico border. In 2011, death, he wrote, only heightens one’s the Escudilla Wilderness was devastated consciousness of the existence of life. He heightens one’s by the largest wildfire in Arizona histo- was inspired by the young writers of his consciousness ry—caused by the negligence of some- era and the inherent human spirit that I failed again and again to understand ing to leave these types of things behind. one leaving a campfire ablaze. Escudilla shone through their words. “Though the of the existence I For those who have suffered from how humanity could not recognize its Pauses between each movement re- was once known for its iconic display of wild thistle is virtually crushed to death, mental illness. own suffering. minded me of my warm collared shirt fall leaves, a reputation that may one day it will still bear one tiny flower.” of life. You were living in Tucson, but it may Before saying goodnight, you asked and wool tie. Recall that the instants return. A year ago, while summiting Hum- as well have been Cananea. That night I about a stranger from Mogadishu who after snowfall are cold and still, creating Aldo Leopold illustrated it as a solitary phrey’s Peak, I looked to the east hoping first wrote for you was unusually cool: had sat next to me at an Indian restau- a hushed emptiness that makes the air blue mountain, visible anywhere at any to see the Painted Desert and imagined mid-July, eighty-eight degrees in Cen- rant near my house. His name was Ab- feel whole. Sitting there in a seat on the time during his appointment in Arizo- when the atmosphere in our world’s for- tral Phoenix. I had been standing out- shir. He will never know that afternoon balcony, I almost wished I were a child na with the Department of Agriculture. ests was not visibly polluted. It can be side my bedroom window watering the a dam was broken, returning purpose to again, standing outside in damp cotton Those years witnessed the disappearance seen everywhere now: imitating stillness rose bush that thoughts of you called the last six years in this desert. You said socks and a winter coat, two sizes too of grizzlies from the Southwest. Leopold and expanding under the street lamps of to mind. I was standing, having a ciga- you were thankful for each day tears are large. wrote solemnly that, since the begin- every roadway. rette—blowing smoke at the moon in plentiful enough to stream down your Before we left for the symphony, you ning, time had built three things on the I used to regard flowers as symbols of your name. And for the first time, lived face into the valleys of your sunken pulled the bacon from my biscuit sand- ancient volcanic rock of Escudilla: “a love and beauty. Now I consider them a moment of that Neruda poem you cheekbones. wich and set it between your bread and venerable aspect, a community of minor reminders of what we have and how it loved. I still wonder how it is that you fried green tomatoes. I finished your animals and plants, and a grizzly.” In this will inevitably pass on. Over the Paint- remain in my thoughts, even during the drink, an old-fashioned. I was remind- regard, I wonder if one day we will look ed Desert, flowers bloom above the moments I manage to have none. II For those whose hands have stitched ed that your mother told you to marry at mountains and no longer remember timberline where life is fragile, yet resil- I sat at my desk writing about the Col- my clothing. someone that loves you more than you trees, having forgotten the sunflowers ient. Even so, once their environment is orado and other rivers no longer flow- The interstices of silence between love in return. And that an ex-lover springing up from valleys of volcanic silt destroyed they will never bloom again. ing as they once did; rivers that ceased undulating bows stitched together each had explained how her mother would after monsoon rains. Maybe one day we will listen to what it is to coalesce and stream into the ocean, movement of Beethoven’s Sinfonia Ero- be offended if someone tried to serve The problem isn’t that most people they have been trying to teach us. impeded by borders and dams. The ica. As we walked to the car that night I her unpeeled carrots. I’m still trying to think too little. Most people think too moon hung behind the rooftops outside assured you the rhythmic shuffling and read between the lines; nonetheless, in much, but about the wrong things. War- the window. You told me the colonies finger tapping from the seat beside me both moments I felt like family. These san Shire wrote that she comes from two of fish in the Gulf of California were all were quite endearing. The ticket stub are things I try to keep—like secrets of countries: one thirsty and the other on but gone as I read about ship breaking remains in my wallet, and I wish I had a world hidden between musical notes fire, both needing water. I come from yards in Chittagong and watched a video kept the one from our first night at the and beyond the wintry air, somewhere a land of cracked clay and another of Dagan Sassirini is a chemical engineering of a hospital in Aleppo being bombed. symphony in November. But I am learn- in the mind of a violinist. dying embers. We are not as different as student who enjoys cooking Chinese food.

6 NORMALnoise the sound issue 7 about race, gender, or location as ducer of slime must live a life of rel- they pertain to slime videos. Produc- ative privilege if their resources are ers of slime often choose to remain ample enough for them to dedicate INGREDIENTS anonymous, and because their vid- such time and money to the creation • 1 bottle of Elmer’s Glue - eos only give us view of their hands, of slime and the maintenance of their white, clear, or glitter glue we cannot make assumptions about social media presence. Nonethe- works fine. their identities. Further, while the less, the ingredients that homemade • ½ cup warm water majority of slime videos are absent slime requires can often be found • Activator - this is a mix- of music or narration (to enhance hidden in your cupboards at home. ture of 1 cup warm water Slime, Youth, and Online Media: slimey sounds), I’ve also encoun- You didn’t ask for it, but here it is: the and 1 teaspoon Borax tered slime videos with voiceovers in very best slime recipe to jump start powder. a variety of languages. A global phe- your slime brand. • Shaving cream If It’s Not DIY, Don’t Bother nomenon! • Glitter Still, one could argue that the pro- INSTRUCTIONS Consider the following. What if Carolina Marques de Mesquita we are just using slime to distract us from the real issues at hand: cur- rent attempts to repeal the ACA, Kellyanne Conway’s theory on mi- crowave surveillance capabilities, the fact that “How Far I’ll Go” from Moana did not win the Oscar for Best Song, etc. Are you okay with succumbing to this distraction? If f you have a moderate social for the Chicago Tribune about two example, the Youtube channel The yes, proceed. media presence, you’ve probably 13-year-olds who sold over 100 tubs Hydraulic Press, which has amassed Pour a bottle of Elmer’s Glue into Iencountered slime videos, and of slime across the country. Ellen at the time of this writing over 1.6 a kitchen bowl, while still ponder- chances are that you were both cap- Byron of the Wall Street Journal also million subscribers, features videos ing step 1. tivated and repulsed. Unlike memes, reported on the middle-school slime of everyday objects - alarm clocks, Add a bit of water and stir. Add slime videos are of ambiguous or- industry in February, and noted that batteries, Rubik’s Cubes, ski gear - activator and stir. Add shaving igin, and tracing their populari- sales for Elmer’s Glue - slime’s main being crushed by a hydraulic press cream and stir. More water and ty is difficult (note that the online ingredient - doubled in December. to the satisfaction of viewers. Simi- shaving cream will create slime social forum and meme database The Instagram accounts of popular lar channels require resources out of that is more “jiggly” (I swear I re- “Know Your Meme” has no entry for slime producers and curators - such reach to the youths consuming on- searched this). “slime”). The basis of slime’s appeal as users theslimeyhoe and slimey- line media via Youtube, Instagram, Repeat step 3 until desired tex- is the “satisfying” sounds that slime sugar - can amass anywhere between and Twitter. Hence: slime. ture is achieved. Knead glitter into creates when your turn it over and 100,000 and 500,000 followers. I must admit that as much as I was slime with hands. Continue knead- squeeze it in your hands, and small When it comes to slime, the sheer repulsed upon my first encounter ing until slime is jiggly, sticky, and video edits or extra slime ingredients variety is also astounding: in addi- with slime, I am now enthralled by stretchy. For best results, keep in a can enhance the effect of the squish- tion to crunchy slime (an internet the mystery of slime videos and the sealed tight container for 2 days be- ing, popping, clicking, and sucking favorite), I’ve encountered metallic sensation they have created online. fore use. sounds that slime makes. Producers slime, iceberg slime, foam slime, and Perhaps my attempt to make sense of slime might add, for example, tiny edible slime. Slime kits (usually mar- of this peculiar youth trend is evi- styrofoam balls, plastic beads, glitter, keted for kids) are available to the dence that I am aging prematurely. or confetti to create “crunchy” slime. gunk-oriented, but it seems that DIY Yet what intrigues me is that slime Forget the bygone days of Play-Doh, and homemade slime incur greater is largely apolitical - a rare thing on Silly Putty, or Floam: if it’s not DIY, respect on the internet (and that’s the internet, where nothing is above don’t bother. what we’re all after, right?). critical discourse (far and wide, What is critical to slime is that its Of course, satisfying videos are not young journalists observe trivialities Carolina Marques de Mesquita is a sopho- appeal can’t really be rationalized, a new phenomenon, but it is precise- and wonder: “Can I get a thinkpiece more studying political science and English and its popularity is gargantuan. In ly this DIY component that distin- out of this?”). It is difficult, for exam- literature. She enjoys coffee, yoga, and March 2017, Vikki Oritz Healy wrote guishes slime within the canon. For ple, to make claims or observations admiring local succulents.

8 NORMALnoise the sound issue 9 Hands Bloody, Eyes Dry

Caroline Kireopoulos

y fingers fight numbness with and her body once she finishes weaving port for our team and completing it well; an agility I impose on them. a burial shroud for Odysseus’s father. At I tear away each stitch they stab across MType, type, shiver, type, flex. night, invisible to the men, she undoes the loom--the loom, which is a Google The more quickly I write this lab report, the day’s work to prolong the time be- document unvisited by all those with the more likely I’ll achieve one-third fore she must submit to one of them. whom I have shared it. Penelope does the amount of sleep my doctor recom- She weaves in the day to convince not sob as she unweaves the shroud, mended during my last appointment. Ithaca that she intends to fulfill their and neither do I. (To cry when pulling Type, type. I work outside because when expectations of her as a woman, and an all-nighter is really not efficient.) We my bouncing ankles and knees are too at night she undoes those expectations pull at strings, punch at keys. frenzied for any more cups of coffee, the in solitude. I adhere to my own social Of course, I have to unweave my own cold air keeps me awake. Type, type, in- obligations as a woman in lab groups stitches as well. The handiwork I do in sert equation. From a lack of sleep or a and study sessions, but later, alone and the day often dismays me. During class- lack of caffeine, the computer blurs un- numb, I extract myself from the roles es, group meetings, and career fairs, I derneath my hands and my keyboard I earlier contrived. Both the picture of rarely act like a forthright Athena or a becomes a loom. faithfulness to her wifely role and her se- fearless Artemis. But they were goddess- Penelope’s hands are bloody, but her cret resistance to it are necessary to Pe- es, right? eyes are dry. She is not mourning Odys- nelope’s survival. The same is true of me. How can I invalidate the stereotype of seus. She is focused: her eyes are lasers The lab report is not complete. My the woman engineer? I am trying to be and her nails tear away the patterns she partners, who call me “mom” when I an exception to it. But how can I break wove in the light of day. She is a faith- take lead, do not contribute. I, like Pe- out of social constraints if I am not tied ful wife, and a loveless one. She weaves nelope, work long hours to undo the up in them as well? Isn’t it necessary, and demurs, unweaves and connives, ruins of social expectations forced on in the moment, to laugh at “mom” and not because she longs for her husband to me in the day. A “mom” does not suc- appear to shrug it away? I might weave return, but because these tricks protect ceed in chemistry, but still, they scrawl demise in the day because I am a college her from the wantonness of her pseu- that nickname across the shroud I weave student in Arizona, not a goddess on do-suitors. With her husband Odys- for them as I take lead, week after week, Olympus. I will unweave twice as much seus gone, Penelope has told the men of on each lab assignment. At night, I com- at night. I promise I will stay awake. Ithaca that she will marry off her wealth pensate for this by completing the lab re- I, like Penelope, am an engineer.

10 NORMALnoise the sound issue 11 (What, you think Odysseus was the en- smother me with expectations, a blanket gineer? Do you have any idea how many under which you will bury me: here lies Caught in the times his ship broke?) Using technical a motherly figure who died faithful to abilities, I create systems and stories some Odysseus of a pre-planned, insidi- crux of polar to combat that which society has en- ously advertised secretary’s job? gineered me to be: a cheerleader and a Welcome to the night of the loom. It is stereotypes, I am nerd. a night of bloody hands and dry eyes. Let the intersection of Pick your poison--we’ll begin with the me tell you about anger and exhaustion woman, the cheerleader. I am motherly, twisted into knots of convention and in- love and mind; quiet, friendly, aesthetically pleasing; I stitution that I painstakingly untie. Let it write reports because I am obviously a be devoid of statistics (you know them) I am the special secretary; I can’t drive quite straight-- and publishable insights (I lack them); project fathered maybe that’s because my contacts are let it be rich in undergraduate impuri- out-of-date. Yes, contacts, because I don’t ties and let me cajole you into sparing by Amelia wear glasses. I wear makeup. Maybe I a moment for the engineering woman’s am so thoughtful tonight in the cold be- emotions. Earhart’s plane cause, well, it’s been that emotional week Sappho is not quite a household name, and born of of the month, if you know what I mean. but loiter long enough on Tumblr or in And you do know what I mean--we all your Human Event professor’s office and Odysseus’s wife know--and I spend every week outside you’ll run into her. She was a Greek lyric in the cold trying to overcome it. poet from the island of Lesbos who lived Now the engineer, the nerd: I’m not around 500 BCE. That’s all we really social nor aesthetic; I do the work a know about her. For centuries, schol- businessman won’t do because I can’t ars have theorized about the context of speak the way the businessman speaks; her performances, her sexuality, and I am a paragon of intelligence--it’s a pity even the details of her death. We know I fill so much of that brain space with this information about dozens of Greek violent-video-game-World-of-Dun- male writers, but with Sappho, all is un- geon-Warcraft-Dragons-nonsense. Oh, confirmed. Multiple times over history, and Tetris--I play Tetris. I don’t go on facts about her and copies of her work dates but I’m not gay and the closest have been twisted and destroyed to force glamorous, sexy representation of my her to symbolize the sinful woman, even work on television is neither Grey’s Anat- as the definition of that changed across omy nor How to Get Away with Murder, the years. Today, we don’t know who she but Mythbusters. actually was. I said you could pick your poison, but Until the twentieth century, religious I lied to you. Tonight, we’re chugging and cultural leaders forced Sappho into both bottles, because I am the female en- an inexcusable, promiscuous role, which gineering student. Oh, might the gods of made her inconsequential. Both Saint physics answer us--what kind collision Gregory of Nazanius in the fourth cen- can we expect between the soft-spoken, tury and Pope Gregory VII in the elev- modest girl and the awkward, pale nerd? enth ordered Sappho’s works burned. Will I be elastic or will I be a disaster? The theologian Tatian called her, “a Caught in the crux of polar stereo- whore of a woman who sang her own types, I am the intersection of love and licentiousness.” I have, of course, proud- mind; I am the special project fathered ly commissioned my tombstone to read by Amelia Earhart’s plane and born of this, but that aside, we must wonder at Odysseus’s wife. Can I rip my way out the excessive diminution of Sappho into of the shroud you have forced me to a merely sexual, and therefore mean- prepare or will I find it a blanket with ingless, character. The scapegoating of which you will warm me on this Febru- women must always be carefully exam- ary night, a blanket with which you will ined because of cases like Sappho: her

12 NORMALnoise the sound issue 13 disparagement was neither a distraction World, was to supplement straightfor- intercepted; Cavendish, foreseeing the writes in the foreword to The Blazing things as men have tried. When they fail, nor a sexist product of the time, but ward philosophy with the covert and same fate, wrote a story to ridicule the World, “but ambitious as any of my sex their failure must be but a challenge to “Women must try the continuous slandering of a woman metaphorical logic of an imaginary tale. critics. was, is, or can be; which makes that others.” creator of the past meant to discourage The Blazing World is Cavendish’s utopia, Engineers have never been restricted though I cannot be Henry the Fifth, or Midway through the lab report con- to do things as woman creators of the present and fu- a prosperous society she uses to criticize to technology. An engineer is a person Charles the Second, yet I endeavor to be clusion, I stop typing and reflect. How do ture. the real world. who transforms the realities of life, both Margaret the First; and although I have I name the life-giving pride, the venom- men have tried. Oh, and it works! Women in art still The Blazing World is a counterpart to material and immaterial, into tools of neither power, time nor occasion to con- ous creativity, the secret passion that has When they fail, walk a tricky line. You’ve undoubtedly Earth that can be reached only via the social change. The shroud changed the quer the world as Alexander and Caesar coursed through the woman engineer’s heard about the differences in Holly- North Pole. The main character, referred story, didn’t it? And the poetry, and the did; yet rather than not to be mistress of desecrated story? I’ll tell you: inheriting their failure wood roles for men and women. And to only as “the Empress”, is kidnapped fancy: they implemented change too, one, since Fortune and the Fates would the history of the woman engineer is like isn’t it true that woman songwriters by an admirer on Earth and taken away yes? Of course the work of engineers give me none, I have made a world of learning how to bleed tenacity. must be but a today have to broadcast intense pride in on a boat. As the boat passes the North has included the Hoover Dam and the my own: for which no body, I hope, Penelope’s loom spins beneath my challenge to their sexuality in order to sing about it Pole, the Blazing World sucks them in, Apple computer, but hasn’t the purpose will blame me, since it is in every one’s fingertips and Earhart’s plane lands in at all? Even J.K. Rowling used her ini- killing the kidnapper in the process. Di- of these and any engineering project power to do the like.” I pray, as she did, the palm of my hand. I type my lab re- others.” tials instead of her first name because vinity chooses to protect the Empress been to change the way humans interact that women continue to engineer imag- port, scratching gruesomely across the her publishers didn’t think boys would out of respect for her virtue, and talking with the world, its resources, and each inary utopias that scorch some message threads of “mother,” of “secretary.” I read a book written by a woman. Sap- animals arrive and take the Empress other? Engineering is more relevant and of equity and respect on the real sky know where Penelope sleeps at night (at pho effectively symbolizes 2500 years to safety. The Empress begins to rise in human than typically acknowledged. outside. We have a history that is largely Sappho’s side), where Cavendish hides of diminishing women creators by sex- her new society as the animals see her Engineering is creating. quiet, but that is really what makes it so her pens, and where Earhart’s body lies. ualizing them. Very little of her work wisdom and natural leadership. Unlike When an engineer is a woman, there is profound. Women have a grand ability I see through beggar costumes, holy remains, but her convoluted reputation the men of Earth, the inhabitants of the a pressure to create excellence. In 1920, to create sound and the illusion of our denigrations, and jaded rhetoric. lives on. Sappho made sound, but histo- Blazing World respect women. after Amelia Earhart’s first attempt to fly silence across history is the misogynist’s My verdict? You can’t have me. ry smothered her into silence. As the story progresses, the animals to Rome, the New York Post published a most profound weapon. But we do cre- Making sound is not just about pro- come to believe she is a deity and they short article condemning her and all of ate—we create sound, poetry, novels, duction, it’s about the environment in convert to her religion: she is not just womankind: “About all she has proved is airplanes, machines, and more—and which production is possible. Either the the Empress of the Blazing World, she that well-known phenomenon of nature trade injustice for irony. world cancels sound or allows it to rever- is the Empress of reason, too. This esca- that a girl can’t jump quite as far as a boy Since the morning Penelope first berate and too often, the gender of the lates the grievance of poor treatment on can.” This diminution rings louder than found splinters beneath her nails, pow- sound’s author determines the world’s Earth—by writing the Empress as hon- the destruction of Sappho and the judg- erful women have turned the instru- reaction. The Greek and Judeo-Christian orable and rational in a self-declared ment of Cavendish--this reeks of mod- ments that muffle them into sounding context allowed the sounds of countless work of fancy, Cavendish asserts that ern misogyny and its supposed rejection boards. To strangle Penelope with a label writers—Homer, Aristophanes, Aristo- women are not honored nor respected of bias that pretends to use science to of “faithful” provided her the line by tle, Plato—to reverberate, but the am- for virtue or intelligence on Earth. The justify discrimination. which she designed survival; to criticize biguity around the most famous Greek intention of the story is sly: as a female Of course a single woman’s failure Cavendish and to acclaim her were one. woman writer indicates that the same writer in the seventeenth century, Cav- does not indicate a shortcoming of her Sometimes, making sound is only possi- grace was not extended to the second endish was notoriously disrespected entire gender. Nevertheless, this is the ble by recognizing and subverting hos- sex. and mocked. Rather than directly de- brand of pressure that the engineer- tile environments, like snapping sound This cruel rule, however, did not send mand equity, Cavendish wrote a story ing woman, outnumbered one to nine, waves through gauntlets. women into despair. You must remem- that, if criticized on behalf of its female faces. She may only overcome prejudice At the end of Homer’s epic, Odysseus ber that women, as the Garden of Eden authorship and protagonist, would only with excellence—but she will not forget (who cheated on Penelope for seven teaches us, are rather conniving. A real be proven correct. Women, it seems, that progress is visceral, that women be- years on a tropical island, by the way), daughter of Eve, Margaret Cavendish can only thrive in a world of fancy. She fore her—Sappho, Cavendish, Earhart, appears in beggar’s clothes to test his designed a world to escape the sex- doesn’t promote her work as a satire, and many more—have ensured that en- dear wife’s faithfulness. Yet she is the ist twists that critics have wrought on but by mocking her claims, her critics durance and advancement are wound one who, by instituting a final compe- woman creators forever. evidence them. The Blazing World was tightly within woman’s instinct and in- tition among the suitors, facilitates the Cavendish was a seventeenth century criticized for the virtue and intelligence tuition. The perseverance of womankind destruction of Odysseus’ final enemies. writer and scientist who encountered of the female main character, and that to create without nurture has given rise Likewise, through the ages, women en- Caroline Kireopoulos is a freshman major- significant opposition on account of her response substantiates its message. to a tradition of bravery, a tradition that gineers have facilitated victories that pull ing in Mechanical Engineering and Political gender. In 1666, she published a “fancy”, Engineers are designers, and so are has never died. The woman engineer— the genders closer to equality. “I want to Science. Her tattoos—the Fundamental Theorem of Calculus and Hillary Clinton’s or a fictional work, in conjunction with a women. When one solution fails, we the woman creator—is proof of the im- do it because I want to do it,” Amelia campaign slogan—aptly describe her ec- series of philosophical observations. The develop another: we don’t stop. Sappho mortal capacity of a caged human. Earhart wrote to her husband before her centric spirit. purpose of the fancy, titled The Blazing met with slander she could not have “For I am not covetous,” Cavendish final adventure, “Women must try to do Photography by Dagan Sassirini.

14 NORMALnoise the sound issue 15 Eating at Carolina’s: Sonoran Means Sound in Latin

Benjamin Shindel

or the last couple years I have in Phoenix, the original Carolina’s place, Chanpen, and Little Miss kitchen behind. It is easy to tell that version to hard shells. The best ta- food itself, Carolina’s is dependable been following the running Restaurant in South Central Phoe- BBQ, which smokes its meat on Carolina’s makes Sonoran-style food male on the menu is the red beef (not and consistent. I have heard they Fdialogue on the Phoenix New nix, a couple miles from the house site. Carolina’s predates all of these because they refer to burritos as bur- red chile beef) tamale, which con- make menudo on weekends, so I Times’ food blog about Arizona’s where I was raised. Carolina’s is just restaurants by at least forty years. ros. An empowering feature of the tains whole cubes of beef encased in may return in a couple weeks to grab regional cuisine and Phoenix’s sig- inside the “loop” of downtown, sit- As a student in Tempe, I know it’s menu is the ability to deep fry any the mealy masa. Also satisfying was that and a half dozen of their fresh nature dish. Unlike New Orleans or ting in the same corner of Central a good sign when I read on Caro- burro into a chimichanga for a small the green corn tamale. Other favor- tortillas. Chicago with their gumbo and deep Phoenix as the new Welcome Chick- lina’s website that a couple decades added price. I take advantage of this ites on the menu were the beef en- dish pizza, Phoenix is seen as lacking en and Donuts and the aging but ago, they bought up the adjoining with the red chile burro, which turns chilada (a Sonoran enchilada is flat, a dish of its own. The closest thing wonderful Wong’s Chinese Dining. property and broke down the wall, out to be the most rewarding thing I layered, and mushy) and the Oaxa- that Arizona has to a regional cui- Carolina’s is across the Salt River bed expanding their eating area into the have eaten in quite a while. ca Special, another beans and burro sine is Sonoran-style Mexican food. from the neighborhood of my child- new room. I have watched Tempe Though the classic “red or green concoction. My chief recommen- Though geographically between Tex- hood and the spare few restaurants haunts like Cornish Pasty Co, Crêpe chile” question is the guiding philos- dation with the menu is to get the Mex and New Mexican food to the that have been popping up in the last Bar, and Cartel Coffee Labs perform ophy of New Mexican cuisine, Caro- burro deep fried into a chimichanga, East and the Baja Mexican cuisine of few years like my favorite Valley Thai the same ritual. lina’s provides most of its food with transforming a Southwestern dish California to the West, Sonoran food Carolina’s is known for their best- the same options, albeit with beef into a specifically Arizonan one. The eschews the complexity of all three, of-the-Valley house-made flour tor- attached. I usually pride myself as a chimichanga, though cooked across favoring a small palette of ingredi- tillas. These are Sonoran tortillas: green chile man, but I try both and the US, is claimed by several Arizo- ents and catering to a narrow palate. flat and large and perfect for wrap- the red chile comes out on top. The na restaurants as their invention. It’s Sonoran food is dependable, unsur- ping around copious amounts of “3 way” burro is an interesting dish, not easy to describe how the burro prising, and comfortable. While the chile beef or smearing with cheese which combines red chile beef, green is improved by the deep frying. The New Times mostly laments Phoe- and baking until the cheese crisps. chile beef, and cheesy beans into appetizing brown color, the extra nix’s lack of a central culinary vi- The menu on the wall of the restau- the wrap. It is delicious and I pack heat, and the contrast between the sion, they also frequently take article rant is perfect. It is disorienting, it away quickly, but it’s also hard to outside and inside surfaces of the space to praise the Sonoran hot dog, lengthy, had ambiguous (but great) differentiate the flavors because it tortilla are all relevant factors. the chimichanga, and tortilla soup, prices, and doesn’t match the on- mostly tastes like the beans. All signs point to Carolina’s con- Benjamin Shindel is a sophomore major- all staples of Sonoran cuisine. line menu. I order awkwardly at the The tacos and flautas are fairly -or tinuing to produce quality Sonoran ing in materials science. He likes looking With a few friends, I head to the counter, trying to cover all of the dinary, partially because the tortillas food for at least as long as it has al- through microscopes and writing poetry purported capital of Sonoran food bases, while peering into the active lost much of their allure in their con- ready been around. Like Sonoran about his lunch.

16 NORMALnoise the sound issue 17 risk-risk-risk what throes Unsound from its collapse hums of ringing necks paroxys’ death Joey Scaven supremum cast of bivalent asperity This poem is a mime of silence. It seeks to present the mild resonance existent in the proselytor’s punct barrage in lattice stillness. This noise is a constant presence, like the faint static we see when closing roars reflexions roars lithium calamity our eyes, as our retina are unable to distinguish between intrinsic activity and natural superbolid’scoring the sky’s two photons. This aural hum is all that we experience for a considerable portion of our a second sun and a second thunder lives, even in sleep. During our somniferous states tof half-consciousness, we may experience a more striking sensation of this voidal sound. Such otoacoustic reverie (this is the sound of walking through walls and paint- are perpetually turbulent, yet preternaturally suspended, never moving definitively ings) forward. If such quietus is allowed full attention, it shouts back, electrifying the senses there is no ecliptic plane but in constant piteraq least-conscious. This act’s an ideation of the multanimous’ nondual hush -- a music the sarabande swells a masterful food to pyrocumu heard of the slightest dreams; a vertigo felt of the idlest calm. vitreous malacquiesce threnody oh domine fili unigenite belie shepherd’s ano teleia so sweetly unself there’s a bluebird little kärleksrik and believably nåd permutation my body is a broke for soothing proprioception harkish mordent penam solapsis raws the glottal adenoia portamento and froth refrantic vertigo bleating obelos fumbles the cruel anise shade grandisonant basso-grave canescent festina laid saw palms the chalk the facade no egress in its flurries ossicle disturbance beyond with its epaxial solace tendency so wrought free ascendancy coos flitting become bremsstrahlung it’s wrung like grace on streetsides plosive or docile accostment over eridanus coma who’s o’bliterate farandish waste comes to this caustic regressive triumph so aimlessly ages neither unheeded surrain seraph in sull of grass careens thrashing’strangling amphoric for the inexorable mega- “that snowy feeling” a’basal eigenlicht lophone to cryophiles drowsy on nettle coldest peace atonic laury micropyles just festering sun tumbling maise bilious winnowing thrum ### awl anisomerous indissoluble vermifuge for abasing sense’steeped in adrenocorticot ah non giunge uman pensiero they shamble up waking catatonic fractolesced al contento ond’io son piena insatiable grips that rash the hypnic jerks ah non credea mirarti it’s so warm it’s so hard to wake in mourning sì presto estinto lasps to throat only rasps such thesive obmutescence o fiore acting excessive lentice-lentiform putamen-pallidus amber lashes new petrichae cuts o’faustian crush in the alarming room

18 NORMALnoise the sound issue 19 don’t want to say anything political. I don’t want to be anything political.” Once you’re a model, your face represents your company. For pag- eant contestants, representing where you’re from means having your name It’s Not You, It’s Your Voice: permanently attached to a location and its people. For Montagne, that means a lot of silence and learning Pitch and Women to bite her tongue and hide her views for the sake of her sponsors, her com- pany, and of course, herself. When in the Workplace asked about her thoughts on Donald Trump’s influence on the Miss USA pageant, she fell silent. Her eyes held Aitana Mallari the answers. She folded her hands on top of her lap. The process of becom- ing as non-controversial as possible is a kind of unlearning, a decon- ditioning process that was necessary in order to become America’s sweet- heart. Her trained voice was muted by contract. And she knew that. It’s a tough act to follow, being rec- he men in the café saw her be- “Low?” I said. “Why?” necessarily respect you,” she said as ognized close to every day. fore I did. “Mine’s too high. I had to lower I wiped a lipstick stain off my coffee. It didn’t stop at voice. This mindset TThey weren’t even subtle it for TV.” I never heard voices the Montagne said she learned to uti- bled into the rest of her life. It was about it, swiveling their heads as she same way again. lize her voice to fit any situation, how she described her experiences— passed by. Not college students or A woman’s voice is judged before from sounding sweet and innocent the way she spoke of men and had hooligans—the corporate lifeblood it is heard. during promotional events to lower- the aftertaste of rusty metal on the of Downtown Phoenix. It’s the reason why former Miss ing her pitch during recorded inter- roof of her mouth. She perfected the Still, former Miss Arizona Mau- Arizona Maureen Montagne will views.“I do model,” she said, “and if art of disguising her true self behind reen Montagne captivated them. scan a panel before uttering a single I’m going into a casting, you bet I’m a Vaseline smile and doesn’t hide the Montagne, 23, sat across from me, word, as speaking in the wrong pitch going to raise my voice. If I’m going fact that very few people, me includ- barefaced, donning a maroon Arizo- could mean disaster. into a corporate interview, I’m going ed, will ever really know who she is na State University tank and chunky According to Montage, it’s an issue to speak differently.” when the stage lights are off. black Buddy Holly glasses. Her slen- men do not have to deal with and Montagne said that although it is She calculated every word the der fingers wrapped around a Star- women have to be constantly aware important for a woman to be herself, same way one would calculate calo- bucks cup. She was a model: off-du- of. there is an aspect of acting involved ries before every meal. She spoke of ty, yes, but she was not unaware. “Man is man and they’re going to in any interview. “If you’re going to girls in the industry who could not ty. I’ve had unhealthy eating habits is a woman. Her shoulders were still lifted and look at him for his resume and his be smart and play the game, you’re handle the sacrifice of personality. in the past. Crash dieting. You can’t “It was very competitive,” she said her chin was poised. It’s as if there’s skill set,” she said. “For women, we’re going to have to see what the client Still, when they left modeling, they just eat whatever you want and diet about her modeling career. “I would an imaginary camera on her all the judged a little extra.” wants and put your best foot for- didn’t leave empty-handed: they hard. You also can’t say everything say be yourself, work as hard as you time. And Montagne is no stranger to ward,” she said. were now burdened by eating dis- you want to say.” can. At the end of the day, your merit We met in Tempe almost a year judgement. In fact, it’s been an inte- However, she says she knows her orders, emotional trauma and worn She pointed out that a man’s per- and hard work will pay off. You’re prior at a Filipino-American student gral part of her life since childhood. limits. “Anything that deals with psyches from fending off sexual ha- sonal opinions makes him a individ- going to have to hold your tongue event. I asked about her short stint Montagne, an ASU business com- client-to-client interaction. They’re rassment. ual, while a woman’s makes her a tar- more than a man would. In the end, in the broadcast journalism world. It munications major, said she had a going to look at your charisma to “This business isn’t cut out for ev- get. According to her, this inequality it’s all a game.” was then that she gave me one of the very high voice (“like a five-year- look to your personality. If a man erybody,” she said. “The industry will between men and women was, is, Making assumptions of some- oddest compliments I’ve ever heard. old”) and received vocal training in says something aggressive, it’s bold eat you alive. Most models are 15, 16. and will always be prevalent. One one’s character based off their voice “I love how low your voice is,” order to sound more mature. “When and new. I wouldn’t call myself bossy. I see them crying, developing eating might as well just use it to their own is not a new concept. Entertain- Montagne said. people see a pretty face, they don’t I’m quiet but firm. Just because I disorders. They just want to be pret- advantage, especially if that someone ment media uses vocal stereotypes

20 NORMALnoise the sound issue 21 to let audiences know immediately alternatives. For women who tend When it comes who a character is. David Britton, to heighten their pitch, she recom- a Juilliard-trained musician and mends drinking warm tea to calm to finding the opera singer, says that “in traditional pre-interview jitters. If the interview opera, low voices oft times play the is over the phone, Bovio suggests perfect way to cunning, villainous parts while the putting it on speaker and walking speak, there’s no higher voices would generally repre- around. “You can use your gestures, sent heroism and youth.” you can speak better, and it helps you way to be sure In theatre, women with softer, think a little better if you’re standing higher voices play characters that up,” she explains. that whatever a are delicate and sometimes naïve The best way a woman can avoid woman decides to while women with stronger, deeper speaking in higher pitch or giggling voices are likely to be cast as femme is to always be confident and know do will be free of fatales. Think award-winning musi- the interview material to the fullest. cals like “Wicked,” where the sweet- “They’re interviewing you because criticism. voiced and popular Glinda befriends you’ve established yourself in your lower-toned and unliked Elphaba. industry,” Bovio said. “You want it Think the smoky allure of red-dress to be a comfortable environment for cartoon Jessica Rabbit, or the Disney y ou .” princesses that could hit the whistle When it comes to finding the per- notes as they try to find their prince fect way to speak, there’s no way to charming. be sure that whatever a woman de- Those associations are carried into cides to do will be free of criticism. the workplace, where women with Women who verbally emulate men high-pitched voices are taken less in power are deemed bossy, while seriously. “Women do tend to raise women who don’t are seen as too their voice. I usually hear a high- delicate for the industry. er pitch because of nervousness,” Montagne said that being com- said Sonia Bovio, a former media fortable with her voice did not hap- trainer with over 25 years of experi- pen overnight, but her hard work has ence. She’s worked with companies paid off over the course of her career. around the world, providing leaders “I used to be shy and had greater dif- in business with proper public rela- ficulties with public speaking,” she tions training. In short, she teaches said. “I would practice in the mirror business leaders how to give squeaky and watch videos online.” clean answers to journalists’ messy According to Britton, women out- questions. side of opera have adopted lower “I’ve had employees who have had tones.“I’ve noticed a societal trend higher pitched voices. They will go that lower, gravely female voices are into meetings and the client will treat acceptable in public discourse,” he them like a child.” Bovio said she said. does not know if this is due to a lack “You can get past all the other hur- of respect or is simply a knee-jerk dles—your voice, your looks,” Bovio response, but it’s a universal reaction said. “What really matters is what that comes from men and women you have to say.” alike. As a consequence, women If only what women had to say lower their voice in hopes that they were all that mattered in the first would get at least a fraction of the place. opportunities that men have. Aitana Mallari is a sophomore studying “I think it’s wrong to make some- journalism. If she’s not writing, she probably one change their voice to be taken should be. @aitanamallari seriously,” Bovio said, but there are Photography by Cecilia Nguyen.

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