Leslie Jamison submitted an essay regarding her tattoo quoting the Roman playwright Terence (195/185–159 BC) stating "I am human: nothing human is alien to me," which appeared in NYT Sunday (4/13/14). It can be found in his play Heauton Timorumenos ("The Self-Tormentor"). Terence was the first Roman playwright of North African descent. This may be the ultimate example of cultures in collision. Jamison (b. 1985) attended Harvard and just released essays in "The Empathy Exams." She got the tattoo to mark a break from her partner, to brand herself to mark a new era. She was reclaiming her body, in a sense opposite from being pregnant, it was "the residue of intimacy." The tattoo was to serve as epigraph for her new book. While the article focuses on her need to explain the tattoo to observers, it is light on explaining what it really means.
Rayner Teo in a 2009 blog opines on the second line "nothing human is alien to me." It alludes to a universal quality that we all share - humanity. It is an embracement of everything human. It implies that one is familiar with all the joy and suffering that is the human condition. Perhaps we can strive for this as the culmination of a lifetime of experience. It is a worthy goal without passing oral judgement. Teo is sympathetic to sinners who writer difficult literature or make gritty movies, rather than moralising self-righteous preachers who repress their own humanity in pursuit of false goodness.
Jamison does say it's about empathy and camaraderie, a denial of singularity and exceptionality. The implication is that we're all in this together, but do we need to discount exceptionality ? Jamison feels her tattoo is not yet true for her but it establishes a goal, an asymptote, a horizon, in line with Teo's vision. Jamison recalls a drugstore clerk saying "you will leave a little piece of yourself with everyone you imagine." Is this what Terence had in mind ?
No comments:
Post a Comment