The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com Arts Monday, April 10, 2017 — 5A Classifieds Call: #734-418-4115 Email: dailydisplay@gmail.com ACROSS 1 “__ Noon”: Gary Cooper classic 5 Tippy watercraft 10 “Make it snappy,” in memos 14 Length-times- width calculation 15 Take place 16 Pleasant 17 *Niña and Pinta’s sister ship 19 Camper’s quarters 20 Like some rye bread 21 Number of little pigs, in a fable 22 Decorative theme 24 Crystal ball reader 25 Up to now 28 *Leader of the pack 32 Surfing at one’s desk, say 34 Places for studs 35 Fellow 36 Rod’s fishing partner 37 “__ you go again!” 39 Like Solomon 40 Aunt, in Argentina 41 Fashionably smart 42 Crusty roll 44 *Yale, for five U.S. presidents 47 “SNL” host’s monologue, e.g. 48 Door-to-door cosmetics seller 49 Cavalry sword, in Sussex 51 Kitchen cover-up? 53 Granola alternative 56 Luau torch type 57 Coffee break time ... and a hint to an abbreviation aptly placed in each answer to a starred clue 61 Opinion column, for short 62 Unfamiliar (to) 63 Director Preminger 64 Baseball’s “Amazins” 65 Bamboo lover 66 Karate award DOWN 1 “__ it been that long?” 2 Tax-sheltered plans: Abbr. 3 Heredity unit 4 Venomous letters 5 Cleaner sold in green canisters 6 National park in Maine 7 ATM maker 8 Avignon assent 9 Division of history 10 “O Canada,” e.g. 11 *Renamed lemon-lime soft drink 12 Clearasil target 13 Rose of baseball 18 Festoon 21 Lipton products 23 Takes for a sucker 24 Princess Fiona’s beloved ogre 25 Somewhat, informally 26 NBC newsman Roger 27 *Spot for bargain hunters 29 Golfer’s goal 30 Surgical beam 31 January, in Mexico 33 Hawke of “Boyhood” 38 Triple or homer 39 One who scoffs at boxed Merlot, say 41 “Hurry up, will ya?” 43 TV network, e.g. 45 Sidesteps 46 Smashed into 50 “__ sera”: Italian “Good evening” 51 Proton’s place 52 Plumbing unit 54 Calorie-friendly 55 Not domestic, flight-wise: Abbr. 57 Travel guide 58 Dockworker’s gp. 59 Clamorous noise 60 Understood By Agnes Davidson and C.C. Burnikel ©2017 Tribune Content Agency, LLC 04/10/17 04/10/17 ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE: RELEASE DATE– Monday, April 10, 2017 Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis xwordeditor@aol.com WORK ON MACKINAC Island This Summer – Make lifelong friends. The Island House Hotel and Ryba’s Fudge Shops are seeking help in all areas: Front Desk, Bell Staff, Wait Staff, Sales Clerks, Kitchen, Baristas. Dorm Housing, bonus, and discounted meals. (906) 847‑7196. www.theislandhouse.com ANN ARBOR APARTMENTS ‑ CMB Management has 17 premier loca‑ tions to choose from! Call today for spe‑ cials and to schedule a tour of your new home! 734‑741‑9300 CASH FOR YOUR used vehicle Reputable, honest Mike: 734‑263‑0764 BROADVIEW APARTMENTS ‑ FREE Parking, FREE laundry, and FREE resident shuttle! As low as $1110 for rent! 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In this piece from The Mighty, a website dedicated to publishing stories from people with serious health conditions, Alyse Ruriani explains her issues with the show, and with “Thirteen Reasons Why,” the novel on which it’s based. I agree with some of Ruriani’s points; she mentions that the series doesn’t address mental illness’s role in suicide, which is a pretty glaring oversight considering “a mental disorder and/or substance abuse is found in 90% of suicide deaths.” At a time when so many people still don’t understand the nature of mental illness — that you don’t have to have quantifiable reasons why you’re suicidal, that you can be suicidal because mental illness attacks your mind just as clinically as physical illness attacks your body — it’s true that greater exposure to stories explicitly about mental illness are necessary. Maybe it’s better to think of “13 Reasons Why” not as a story about suicide, but a story about bullying. It’s not an entirely accurate portrayal of depression, with its cause-and-effect storytelling, but it does paint a devastating picture of how acts of bullying can pile up and build off each other, how relentless bullying can make a person believe they’re worthless. Organizations like The Trevor Project and It Gets Better exist for a reason. But I also don’t think that even if “13 Reasons Why” was meant to be an accurate depiction of suicide, not every story about suicide needs to fit into that majority statistic. I don’t think “13 Reasons Why” is trying to pass itself off as the definitive portrait of depression and suicide. Can’t this just be a story about one girl and what drove her to suicide? Do we have to expect it to fit into all of our preconceived notions about why things like this traditionally happen? Besides, though “13 Reasons Why” rarely explicitly acknowledges mental illness (it’s mentioned that Clay used to take pills and see a therapist, but that’s mostly just hinted at), it never outright dismisses the possibility of Hannah having clinical depression. Perhaps this is simply a story with uninformed characters, a story full of people determined to scapegoat, to find someone to blame instead of accepting that not everything is easily explainable. That might seem like a cop-out, to suggest that it’s not the show that’s ignorant but the characters, but there’s evidence for it. “13 Reasons Why” is frequently self- aware in ways that people overlook. There’s one scene in particular, in the final episode of the series, that illustrates this beautifully. The two main characters, Hannah and Clay, each sit down with their guidance counselor, Mr. Porter, at different times. Director Kyle Patrick Alvarez (“The Stanford Prison Experiment”) toggles back and forth between these two conversations, showing us Hannah’s final attempt to seek help at the same time that he shows us Clay confronting Mr. Porter with his failure to save her. “13 Reasons Why” — which, it must be said, isn’t a great show, though it’s often quite a good one — paints Clay a little too frequently as the hero. That continues in the final episode, as he walks Mr. Porter through the final day of Hannah’s life, showing him that it was his negligence that led to Hannah’s final decision to kill herself. And it’s true: We watch Mr. Porter’s session with Hannah, and we see him repeatedly stumble. When Hannah admits she was raped, he reveals his simplistic view of sexual assault, subtly victim-blaming by suggesting that if Hannah didn’t explicitly tell her rapist to stop, she must’ve initially consented then changed her mind. He repeatedly tries to rush her into an explanation for her feelings, then rushes her into revealing the identity of her rapist. Finally, he sets up a false dichotomy: Hannah must either press charges and directly confront Bryce, or “move on.” What makes the sequence a great one, though, is that Mr. Porter isn’t a bad person. He’s probably a poorly trained counselor, but he recognizes his mistakes, and he sometimes says the right things. When Hannah asks him if he can promise Bryce will go to jail, he says, “I can’t promise you that, Hannah. But I will promise you this: I will do everything in my power to keep you safe and protect you in this process.” While the series generally positions Clay as the hero of the narrative, the righteous avenger seeking justice for Hannah by confronting her bullies, Mr. Porter makes some good points in this scene. “Whatever happened to Hannah, between you and her, with other kids, she made that choice to take her own life,” he says. Later, when Clay suggests people should try to do better, Mr. Porter says, “We can try to love each other better, but we’re imperfect people. We love imperfectly, we don’t always get it right … you can know all the signs and understand the issues and still come out missing something.” In that moment, the show’s true philosophy comes out. “13 Reasons Why” isn’t suggesting that there were 13 individual reasons Hannah killed herself, even if Hannah suggests that. In the wake of loss, everyone searches for closure, for some reason to explain how something so tragic could happen. Just because the characters of “13 Reasons Why” never seriously consider mental illness as the sole cause for Hannah’s hopelessness doesn’t mean the show itself endorses that point of view. In the end, “13 Reasons Why” subverts its own title, acknowledging that people are essentially unknowable. Maybe Clay, or Mr. Porter, or anyone could’ve prevented Hannah from resorting to suicide. What’s even more terrifying, what few of the characters consider, is that maybe there was nothing they could’ve done. BEN ROSEN- STOCK ALBUM REVIEW Future Islands returns with stunning ‘Far Field’ On their fifth LP, Future Islands evokes beauty and expanse Three years since their breakthrough album Singles, an album “of singles” that flexed about as much as the title might suggest, Future Islands have returned with their fifth LP, The Far Field. Hailing from Baltimore, Maryland, the three-piece have been committed to their particular brand of hard- edged synth-pop revival for over 11 years. The Far Field is a stunning summation of this dedication and experience, and perhaps the most linear record in the band’s discography. Future Islands regularly tours with drummer Michael Lowry, but recruited him to play for the studio recordings this time around, lending the album a greater sense of direction. Despite the relatively boring “Candles,” The Far Field delivers on the promise that Future Islands made with Singles in 2014: a purposeful step towards accessibility without compromise of the band’s core values. Singles “Ran” and “Cave” signal urgency, frontman and vocalist Sam Herring’s familiarly hearty rasp soaring over fast footstep-like cymbals. In the music video for “Ran,” Herring, fittingly, runs across a countryside before closing out the last minute crooning from behind dancing embers. Like Future Islands’ live performances, Herring’s face contorts itself, the visible strain in his brow evidence of his earnestness, an earnestness perhaps even more central to the band’s identity than Herring’s voice. Although The Far Field is stylistically distinct from the rest of the group’s releases, it is also, in some ways, a return to form. On the lyric sheet included with the vinyl edition of the album, just below the list of acknowledgments, is a small note that the album’s title was inspired by Theodore Roethke’s poem of the same name, itself the fifth in a series titled “North American Sequence.” The poem informs not just the album’s themes, but the band’s mission statement. “I learned not to fear infinity / The far field, the windy cliffs of forever / The dying of time in the white light of tomorrow / The wheel turning away from itself / The sprawl of the wave / The on-coming water.” So ends the second part of “The Far Field,” evoking images of vastness, the same way The Far Field does with its soaring quality and occasional slow builds, from individuality to infinity. In Evening Air, Future Islands’ second album, was similarly inspired by a Roethke poem. (The artwork for both albums was also done by the same artist, Kymia Nawab.) Practically, the effect here is almost insignificant, but the connection does bring a greater sense of purpose and cohesion to the band’s work. The opening track, “Aladdin,” rises out of nothing with a fade-in that will have you wondering for a moment whether you actually clicked play. The sort of detail that reveals its importance over listens, this fade-in is an indicator of Future Islands’ commitment to a theme. It makes sense that an album that confronts the relationship between the finite and the infinite must become slowly, from nothing, as did man. Where Roethke is “renewed by death, thought of [his] death, / The dry scent of a dying garden in September,” Herring struggles, on “Cave”: “Is this a desperate wish for dying? / Or a wish that dying cease? / The fear that keeps me going and going and going / Is the same fear that brings me to my knees.” What’s more, Roethke’s “dying garden” is reflected in the roses (“Through the Roses,” “Black Rose”) of The Far Field. “Through the Roses” struggles with reconciling the highs and lows of life, before the chorus’s proclamation that “It’s not easy, just being human.” Though keyboardist Gerrit Welmers’s and bassist William Cashion’s arrangements are expansive and sprawling, Herring’s accompanying narratives are often autobiographical in nature. “Black Rose” finds Herring wishing for another chance at love with a particular significant other, while “Beauty of the Road” is similar in thought and the most pointedly autobiographical, opening with the lines: “Left out on the road eight years ago / And you left too but I never really thought you would go.” On The Far Field, lyrical and stylistic decisions juxtapose the singular man and the expansiveness of being, continuing Future Islands’ obsession — a welcome one — with nature. All of the band’s album titles, save Singles, refer to nature (Wave Like Home, In Evening Air, On The Water, The Far Field) and mentions of blizzards, gardens, fire, rain and the overwhelming power of water are sprinkled throughout the album. The album’s only duet, “Shadows,” even invokes religion, with mentions of Dante and the Garden of Eden that further contextualize the experience of the individual. Masterfully creating a space both large enough to lose yourself in and simultaneously small enough that you may just see what looks like your reflection, peering back out at you, The Far Field leaves us with one final suggestion: “All finite things reveal infinitude.” SEAN LANG Daily Arts Writer The Far Fields Future Islands 4AD SEARCHING FOR FREE WEBKINZ CODES? SO ARE WE! E-mail arts@michigandaily.com for information on applying.