Across the Pond

"In reality you do not, as I had hoped, get any distance on Europe from here. You do not acquire a fresh angle on it. When you turn around, it has quite simply disappeared." I have been rereading Jean Baudrillard's America, the French philosopher's collection of travel notes on the US. Baudrillard wrote as a European, more specifically as a Frenchman. He can be arrogant and annoying but his fascination with America is palpable throughout the book and his observations often ring true for me. Yes, Europe becomes small when we get here. It happens when we come as visitors, because of the sheer immensity of the country, and it happens when we come as immigrants: Europe suddenly feels far away; it seems more distant than the US does from Vienna. The reason? I have not lived in any US city other than Los Angeles and can only speak for what happens here but  L.A. plunges us into the here and now - although not i...

Teacher P., who is American, calls me Baby. Good for her. There is something democratic about this address, something egalitarian (unless, of course, the term is being used in a sexist way). Now, just for the record: Teacher P. and I have not met in person. The class is online, and P. used the Baby in a written comment on my home work; By the look of her photo P. is young enough to be my daughter; I am by no means the youngest in the class. Most of my fellow students seem to be in their twenties or thirties. Baby. We are more formal in Austria, don't even use first names easily. It is not Franz and Liesl but Herr Mair and Frau Müller (Mr. Mair, Mrs. Müller), at least until the first drink. If a person has a title, academic or occupational, we use it - instead of the name. Herr Mair becomes Herr Magister (Mr. MA), Frau Müller becomes Frau Doktor (Mrs. PhD); the school staff goes by Herr Professor and Frau Direktor. The neighbor across the street is Herr Hofrat (Mr. Counsellor...