The Audacity of Nope

announcements March 2009 | Vol. VII No. 7 One Civilized Reader Is Worth a Thousand Boneheads The Center for The Audacity of Nope the Humanities Advisory Board t the end of January, when not My “audacity of nope” has more humble origins; 2008–2009 a single House Republican it springs from my husband’s usual response to the Nancy Berg Associate Professor of Asian and Near voted in favor of the stimu- endless stream of home equity loan offers and the Eastern Languages and Literatures lus plan, Comedy Central’s preprinted check offers from the credit card compa- Ken Botnick Associate Professor of Art Stephen Colbert assumed his nies encouraging us to spend money we do not have Gene Dobbs Bradford best fake-conservative pundit on things we do not need. He opens the envelope Executive Director Jazz St. Louis persona and declared the word singular, looks at the offer and says “nope,” and Lingchei (Letty) Chen Aof the day to be “The Audacity of Nope” (broadcast shreds it. Not that we escaped being caught up in Associate Professor of Modern Chinese Language and Literature January 29, 2009; see www.colbertnation.com). In the bubble that led to the current financial mess. Elizabeth Childs this somewhat rude fake rant, Colbert exclaimed No, we did not. Shortly after our daughter gradu- Associate Professor and Chair of Department of Art History and that “these hard times demand an even larger ated from college and moved out, when we might Archaeology meaningless gesture.… It won’t be easy, but you are have stayed put or even considered a smaller place, Mary-Jean Cowell fighting for a principle! If we can’t have a perfect bill we bought a bigger house. Still, we have avoided Associate Professor of Performing Arts Phyllis Grossman to stimulate the economy—you’d rather have no taking out a home equity loan or running up the Retired Financial Executive economy at all.” totals on our credit cards. Michael A. Kahn And that is what I think Author and Partner I was unhappy when Unfortunately, the current Bryan Cave LLP I saw and heard this. First, these financial institutions Chris King stimulus debate is only an find audacious: How dare we Editorial Director I was disappointed by the The St. Louis American Newspaper blind partisanship of the attempt to hit the reset not take them up on these Olivia Lahs-Gonzales offers? Despite being ignored Director debate. I was reminded of button on a game too many Sheldon Art Galleries a line from Helen Suzman, of us were losing anyway. for years, these invitations Paula Lupkin to debt continue to arrive in Assistant Professor of Architecture who had passed away only Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts twenty-eight days earlier. Suzman, who spent some the mail in envelopes that look as formal as a bill, Erin McGlothlin practically forcing you to open them. I miss the days Associate Professor of German thirty-six years in the South African Parliament Steven Meyer and was known for her early public criticism of when junk mail looked like junk and you could Associate Professor of English throw it away without opening it and without a Joe Pollack apartheid, said she once glanced at the opposition’s Film and Theater Critic for KWMU, benches and saw a shiver running around looking second thought. Writer Anne Posega for a spine to run up. From what I have read of the Now that the consumer economy has slowed Head of Special Collections, Olin Library politics surrounding the economic stimulus propos- so dramatically, our failure to use other people’s Qiu Xiaolong als here and now in the U.S. Congress, I think there money to fund that “once in a lifetime vacation to Novelist and Poet Sarah Rivett are a large number of homeless shivers in search wherever” or that “65-inch flat-panel HD televi- Assistant Professor of English of spines running around both party benches in sion set” only contributes to the problem. But is the Henry Schvey Professor of Drama our capital. But I was also unhappy because I had choice between going into unsustainable debt and Wang Ning already started these notes using the same phrase as watching our neighbors get laid off because we are Professor of English, Tsinghua University James Wertsch Colbert’s word of the day for my title. not buying things? Nope. We do not really have Marshall S. Snow Professor of Arts and Sciences Director of International and Area Studies Ex Officio Ralph Quatrano Interim Dean, Faculty of Arts & Sciences Zurab Karumidze visit our blog site at http://cenhum.artsci.wustl.edu/publications/blog.html Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia editor’s notes continued not be joined to restore that shattered economic system. This is, however, an opportunity to shift the nation’s priori- ties and expectations and to recognize our country’s chance for creative positive leadership in the world economy and its global environment. We need the audacity to say nope to the philosophy that de- pends on satisfying a never-ending array of individualistic material desires, and to strive for a better solution. Unfortunate- ly, the current stimulus debate is only an attempt to hit the reset button on a game too many of us were losing anyway. So I hope at least some of those shivers find their targets before it is too late to make an opportunity out of a choice. Too many of us have opened into now, the solution is to stimulate the this crisis. other formal-looking envelopes and seen economy through some combination of large chunks of our retirement plans a reduction in interest rates (which are Jian Leng and investments disappear into the thin pretty near zero already) or government Associate Director Wall Street air to be hopeful enough to investment in infrastructure (which is Center for the Humanities take on any more debt. Too many of our supposed to be what the stimulus bill is neighbors opened letters from their hu- about). The idea is that the injection of man resources departments telling them income results in more spending in the Breaking News they no longer had a job or health insur- general economy, which in turn stimu- ance. Too many of our recent graduates lates more production and investment Asia Weekly just announced its opened their newspapers or news web- involving still more income and spend- Ten Best Novels in Chinese for sites, added up the numbers of laid-off ing whose total increase in economic 2008. Two of the novelists earned workers, and wondered how they were activity is a multiple of the original the Ph.D. in Comparative Litera- going to find a job and pay down their investment. ture and Asian and Near Eastern student loans. Others opened ominous- But, all ten-step programs are based Languages and Literatures at looking formal envelopes announcing on an admission of the problem. Just as Washington University in St. Louis that their adjustable-rate mortgage had alcoholics will not stop drinking until and were students of Robert Hegel, been reset well beyond any hope of mak- they have hit rock bottom and admit- the Liselotte Dieckmann Professor ing the payments. We are all recovering ted it, we recovering consumers who of Comparative Literature. Among consumers preaching the audacity of still have jobs must admit that we have the recognized authors are alumni nope now! to go out to dinner rather than cook at Li Yongping, whose novel is entitled But the audacity here is a two-sided home and that we must continue buying The End of a Great River, and Qiu coin. As bad as the audacity of spend- things we do not really need but simply Xiaolong, who wrote Years of Red ing without any regard for the resulting want. I may not, however, be ready to Dust. level of debt (because the value of our concede that my addiction to an audac- Qiu Xiaolong will read from houses was rising), the audacity of nope ity of nope is a problem. I suppose that and sign his newest novel, The (not spending because our houses and is where the Chinese meaning of the Mao Case, on March 24, 8 pm in other investments have lost value or we English word “crisis” comes into play for the Hurst Lounge (Duncker 201) have lost our jobs) is even worse for our me. The Chinese equivalent to “crisis” at Washington University in St. way of life. Apparently, John Maynard is “Weiji,” which actually translates as Louis. The event is free and open Keynes has a ten-step program to help. “crisis and opportunity.” The difference to the public. Please call the Center If Keynes is to be believed, when we is very significant in the present situa- at 314-935-5576 to reserve a seat. consumers can no longer spend due tion. Although we are all hoping to piece Refreshments will be provided. to a depression or a deep recession back together our Humpty Dumpty such as the one we are sinking economy, I suspect the fragments can- book of the month by Gerald Early The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great comics caused in the post-World War II Comic-Book Scare and How It years of 1948 to 1955, writes: Changed America Created by outsiders of various sorts By David Hajdu [mostly Jews], comics gave voice to their Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2008, makers’ fantasies and discontent in the 434 pages with photos, notes, brash vernacular of cartoon drawings and bibliography, and index word balloons, and they spoke with special cogency to young people who felt like Come mothers and fathers throughout the outsiders in a world geared for and run by land adults.

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