DIY History | Transcribe | Campus Culture | Tess Catalano "Take Back the Night" and other academic essays, 1982

Transcribe
Translate

Tess Catalano "Take Back the Night" and other academic essays, 1982

1982-09-15 Catalano #5 Page 1

Catalano 
Assignment #5
15 Sept 82

It starts with the simple motion of hunting for a cigarette pack; the lighter is sure to be near by. She will knock the pack briskly against her hand force 

[handwritten]
{Did you deliberately avoid the comma on the usual participal form here - "forcing..."} 

out two or three cigarettes, or if its unopened, she will tamp it emphatically once, twice, three times (never four, I've noticed) before opening the cellophane and peeling the foil. All this will be wordless; {see note} undoubtedly mid-sentance, and surely you are not speaking. 
   The amount of time between the cigarette leaving the pack and actually being placed in her mouth is problematic, depending on how passionate her speech is at that moment. or how dramatic 

[handwritten]
{adverb or adjective here?} 

she wishes to hold the silence. It is possible, if she wants to emphasize her point, that she will wield the cigarette like a baton, orchestrating her argument with appropriate stacatto's and cresendo's. Or, should she merely want to intimidate you with  a probing silence, she will hold it, tentatively, between the first two fingers, waiting, lighter poised in the other hand, waiting, eyes finding yours, waiting - you know not for what, but still you dare not speak. 

[handwritten]
{there is an archaic formality to the diction + syntax here}


Then, as if it were the quotation mark at the beginning of her next paragraph, she will deliberately place it in her mouth. Pressing her slightly parted lips with the two fingers of her right hand following quickly like and eager child, by the lighter in the other. 

[handwritten]
{there's some syntactic confusion here}  

But not she reaches yet another semi-climatic point, the lighter stops, a breath away from the cigarette top, and is down again before the flint is struck. The cigarette wags with each strident syllable, muffling the finer points of her diction.

Saving...

Catalano Assignment #5 15 Sept 82 It starts with the simple motion of hunting for a cigarette pack; the lighter is sure to be near by. She will knock the pack briskly against her hand force [handwritten] {Did you deliberately avoid the comma on the usual participal form here - "forcing..."} out two or three cigarettes, or if its unopened, she will tamp it emphatically once, twice, three times (never four, I've noticed) before opening the cellophane and peeling the foil. All this will be wordless; {see note} undoubtedly mid-sentance, and surely you are not speaking. The amount of time between the cigarette leaving the pack and actually being placed in her mouth is problematic, depending on how passionate her speech is at that moment. or how dramatic [handwritten] {adverb or adjective here?} she wishes to hold the silence. It is possible, if she wants to emphasize her point, that she will wield the cigarette like a baton, orchestrating her argument with appropriate stacatto's and cresendo's. Or, should she merely want to intimidate you with a probing silence, she will hold it, tentatively, between the first two fingers, waiting, lighter poised in the other hand, waiting, eyes finding yours, waiting - you know not for what, but still you dare not speak. [handwritten] {there is an archaic formality to the diction + syntax here} Then, as if it were the quotation mark at the beginning of her next paragraph, she will deliberately place it in her mouth. Pressing her slightly parted lips with the two fingers of her right hand following quickly like and eager child, by the lighter in the other. [handwritten] {there's some syntactic confusion here} But not she reaches yet another semi-climatic point, the lighter stops, a breath away from the cigarette top, and is down again before the flint is struck. The cigarette wags with each strident syllable, muffling the finer points of her diction.