After work, i stopped by to see a friend. We talked at length about research and she told me that i needed to track down a NYTimes Magazine article from about two years ago that discusses the Pro-Ana community. She thought i’d find that report fascinating.
I went home, poured some OJ and picked up the magazine on the top of the magazine stack to read some non-theory before going to bed. On the top of the stack was a NYTimes Magazine with a discussion of the architectural replacements for the WTC site. I groaned since this was one of the topics in my theory reader that i was avoiding. I noted it that it was an older Magazine, thought it odd to be on the top of our stack, put it down and went to bed.
My roommate woke me this morning when the cable modem guys came. He said that it was really strange that there was an old NYTimes Magazine in the kitchen. I told him i’d seen in too. I poured some cereal and picked up the same Magazine, avoiding the cover story. The first page i turned to after the cover story was the Pro-Ana story.
I didn’t live in that house on the date it was printed. No one in that house at that time had a subscription to the NYTimes. I had cancelled my subscription to the NYTimes after their dreadful coverage of Afghan bombing. We only have about 4 other NYTimes Magazines in that stack. Strange strange strange.
for people as clueless as me: Pro-Ana = Pro-anorexia.
Not so strange. Shakespeare said it first (or at least most famously): “There are more things in heaven and on earth than are known in your philosophy, Horatio.” Or danah, as the case may be.
We’ve experienced some strange goings-on at and around the McLuhan Program that have turned out to be tremendous academic and research assistance. I wouldn’t be surprised to find out – obviously at some much later date – that there are a bunch of post-grad spirits who act as good research advisors to we in the corporeal academy.