2-BSide

4B —Thursday, October 11, 2018
b-side
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

I’ve 
never 
heard 
anyone 
complain about a grilled cheese 
sandwich. 
Even 
the 
most 
cumbersome and uninspiring cook 
— the kind that spikes your blood 
pressure when you watch them 
because their sleeve is dangling 
just a tad too close to the flame, who 
may not even know how to cook 
scrambled eggs without burning 

them — can make a grilled cheese 
taste good. Two ingredients for a 
whole five minutes of happiness.
But, eating a grilled cheese is 
just as easy as making it. What if 
this basic unit of melting goodness 
could be used to inspire social 
change? That’s where FeelGood 
comes into play.
FeelGood is a national volunteer 
movement working to end world 
poverty by 2030. Their vehicle 
to do so is the grilled cheese. At 
the University, FeelGood is a 

student organization that delivers 
handmade sandwiches to locations 
on central campus for a donation 
ranging from three to five dollars. 
All of the profits go toward 
eradicating world poverty. It’s that 
simple.
“World hunger is a problem 
that seems insurmountable and 
daunting,” Ross School of Business 
senior and co-president of the 
University’s 
FeelGood 
chapter 
Madeline Demeter said in an 
interview with The Daily. “But 

FeelGood: ending poverty 
one grilled cheese at a time

TRINA PAL
Daily Arts Writer

ARTIST
PROFILE

IN

Incandescence & Horror 
Porn: To my hairdresser

COURTESY OF FEELGOOD

Nola’s Underground Salon is a 
feel-good sort of place in its own 
right. It’s demurely tucked in the 
basement beneath that random 
food court on North U., requiring 
patrons to deliver themselves from 
the commercial madness above 
when they descend the otherwise 
overlooked 
staircase 
between 
Mezes and Silvio’s. The studio itself 
is much like a womb, wrapped in 
velvet fleur-de-lis wallpaper and 
perpetually bumping some sort of 
warm, spacy noise. My hairdresser 
Nick owns the only bald head I 
have ever considered gorgeous and 
is always garnished in harem pants 
that emphasize his alarmingly 
clear eyes. Going to Nola’s has 
evidently 
become 
a 
spiritual 
experience for me, and I was really 
searching for some relief when I 
crawled down there last Friday, 
feeling utterly shackled by social 
anxiety and Brett Kavanaugh.
Nick, 
being 
the 
mythical 
creature he is, picked up on my 
funk and steered our conversation 
into some revitalizing book talk. 
Somewhere along that path, we got 
into “weird little books,” and his 
entire demeanor seemed shot with 
lightning as he recalled Georges 
Bataille’s novella “Story of the 
Eye.” He needed me to read it.
“It’s written by this crazy 
fucking French librarian,” he 
explained, “but I really shouldn’t 
tell you any more. I used to hand 
it out to my students at the end 
of the semester with an album 
I find rather complementary.” 
That was unique. I asked what 
artist. He replied, “Have you 
listened to of Montreal?” and 
something in my brain exploded. 
Too many wonderful things were 
intersecting right when I needed 
them to. I ordered the book right 
then and there.
“Story of the Eye” is porn. 
And it’s no standard porn — it’s 
sensationally messy, impressively 
constant, 
poetically 
visual, 
overwhelmingly excessive, often 
demonic porn that is constantly, 
constantly flirting with death (if not 
fucking it outright). In its mere 80 
wild pages, the unnamed narrator 
and his main squeeze, Simone, 
manage to write some Kama Sutra 
from hell as a secondary byproduct 
of the relentless pursuit of their 

most unrefined desire. Simone 
and 
Bataille-through-narrator 
boast unfathomable stamina and 
ambition, managing to throw an 
almost satirically obscene orgy 
and execute a full-on asylum 
break, naked, on bikes, in the first 
few chapters. Someone almost 
dies, 
someone 
definitely 
dies 
and a host of others continue to 
die as Simone and the Narrator 
Boi somehow take their lethal 
debauchery abroad, where it is 
simultaneously 
nourished 
by 
and unleashed upon the headiest 
of landscapes: bullfights during 
the day, cathedrals at night. The 
repeated demonstration of this 
relationship 
between 
physical 
and/or material destruction and 
raw sexual energy is some literary 
Ouroboros — create and destroy, 
nourish and damage, turn on and 
turn off, but above all cycle, cycle, 
cycle because, for Simone and 
Narrator Boi, at least, it all seems to 
average out to infinity anyway.
“The 
goal 
of 
my 
sexual 
licentiousness,” 
explains 
Narrator Boi, “(is) a geometric 
incandescence 
(among 
other 
things, the coinciding point of life 
and death, being and nothingness), 
perfectly fulgurating.”
Holy shit. The last thing I’ve read 
that presented “incandescence” 
as a character goal was Virginia 
Woolf’s “A Room of One’s Own.” 
Beneath its indisputably singular 
delivery, there’s some kernel of 
fiery nirvana in “Story of the Eye” 
that it shares with literature-at-
large. These kids are trying to 
transcend. Forget good — they 
want 
incandescent. 
Perfectly 
fulgurating. This is how they do it.
This canonically routine theme 
can certainly get lost in the genre 
sauce. Pornography is seldom 
considered “literature” at all, let 
alone fertile field for transcendence 
stories. Bataille’s novella, with 
its innumerable perversions and 
taboos, takes it a step further 
in terms of accessibility. In a 
particularly 
keen 
moment 
of 
reflection, 
Bataille’s 
narrator 
seems to anticipate this exact 
interpretive 
hurdle, 
explaining 
with some encouraging judgment 
that, “to others, the universe seems 
decent because decent people have 
gelded eyes. That is why they fear 
lewdness … In general, people savor 
the ‘pleasures of the flesh’ only on 
condition that they be insipid.”
Luckily, there exists a trove 

of amazingly helpful theory on 
pornographic literature to dissolve 
some of these insidious barriers of 
convention, and perhaps embolden 
us to embrace some new flavor. 
In her essay “The Pornographic 
Imagination,” which references 
and is often included in critical 
editions of “Story of the Eye,” 
Susan Sontag taps into the unique 
power of porn: “the physical 
sensations involuntarily produced 
in someone reading the book carry 
with them something that touches 
upon the reader’s whole experience 
of humanity — and his limits as a 
personality and a body.”
The thrill of pushing it. We do 
this all the time: It’s the arguably 
masochistic euphoria of writing 
a thesis, fighting through a long 
run, giving or getting an awesome 
hickey. Corpse pose at the end of 
the specific agony that is hot yoga. 
Overwhelming the senses tends 
to shock them into a brand new 
sense of their own, and this style 
of writing captures that. It would 
be hypocritical if that were not 
“literature.”
“Story of the Eye,” without a 
doubt, is a whole different sort 
of “pushing it.” Writing a thesis 
and necrophilia aren’t exactly 
comparable. To this, I say poetry: 
Bataille is pushing our literary 
senses, rousing us with so many 
scandals that they seem to molt 
their literal meaning, instead 
operating as vector-like stimuli 
that culminate in destroying our 
idea of what we can possibly feel 
while reading something. Sontag, 
expectedly, is a little more cerebral 
about horror-porn, explaining that:
“Human beings … live only 
through excess. And pleasure 
depends on ‘perspective,’ or giving 
oneself to a state of ‘open being,’ 
open to death as well as to joy. Most 
people try to outwit their own 
feelings; they want to be receptive 
to pleasure but keep ‘horror’ at a 
distance. That’s foolish, according 
to Bataille, since horror reinforces 
‘attraction’ and excites desire.”
Pleasure 
and 
horror 
— 
Ouroboros 
2.0. 
Per 
my 
hairdresser’s recommendation, I 
began to listen for this exciting, 
excessive relationship in the music 
of of Montreal and was pleasantly 
surprised to find its undercurrent 
pulsing beneath wide swaths of 
their discography. The group’s 
frontman, Kevin Barnes, seems to 
have mastered the art of accepting 

VERITY STURM
For the Daily

BOOKS NOTEBOOK

grilled cheese sandwiches are 
super simple and easy. And people 
love food.”
Some may be skeptical of the 
monetary impact one sandwich 
can make, but about one half of the 
world lives off of less than $2.50 
per day. The international poverty 
line is currently set at $1.90 per day. 
About 820 million people suffer 
from world hunger. Anything and 
everything is helpful to bridge 
the international gap between the 
privileged and underprivileged.
“We can have such an impact 
with just one sandwich,” Demeter 
said. “People think, ‘If I’m not 
donating at least $100 then I’m 
not having an impact,’ and that 
prevents people from donating 
when 
really 
any 
amount 
is 
powerful and helpful.”
All the money FeelGood raises 
from grilled cheese sales goes 
toward the Commitment 2030 
Fund: a group of organizations 
that are dedicated to ending 
world poverty by the year 2030. 
A majority of the money raised 
within these organizations goes 
toward Asia, Africa and Latin 
America: places where the need 
is greatest. FeelGood is optimistic 
that the Commitment 2030 Fund 
can accomplish its goal.
“(World 
hunger) 
has 
been 
halved before, so I feel like it’s 
foreseeable to do it again,” LSA 
junior and marketing chair of 
FeelGood Dylan DeBaun said.
The Commitment 2030 Fund 
targets world poverty in an 
environmentally 
sustainable 
way instead of “handing-out” 
money, which often inspires no 
lasting change in an impoverished 
community. The Hunger Project, 
one of the organizations in the 
alliance, aims to eliminate world 
hunger in a self-reliant way by 
ensuring that agricultural and 
culinary skills taught to the 
community will be conserved 

through 
generations. 
The 
Pachamama Alliance works to 
reduce the risk of infant mortality 
by providing safe birthing kits 
to women in the Amazon and 
training them to be dulas, among 
other goals. FeelGood is proud to 
partner with organizations that 
prioritize sustainability instead of 
freely giving out money.
“If you go into a community 
and give them a water purification 
system — what happens if it 
breaks?” Demeter said. There’s 
almost no impact unless the 
community is taught how to 
maintain the system and can 
troubleshoot for problems. This 
type of lasting change is why 
FeelGood prefers to think of 
themselves as partnering with 
disadvantaged populations instead 
of viewing their donations as 
charity.
“We give a hand-up, not a hand-
out,” Demeter added.
It’s easy to stigmatize world 
hunger, especially living in the 
United States and even just in Ann 
Arbor.
It can be difficult to put 
yourself in the shoes of someone 
malnourished, and as a result 
many tend to look down on 
underprivileged individuals. As a 
student organization, FeelGood 
seeks to break down this stereotype 
by starting conversations with 
their customers and within their 
meetings.
“It’s inappropriate to call these 
countries ‘Third World Countries.’ 
There’s 
a 
hugely 
negative 
connotation with that,” Demeter 
said. “They’re born into this 
situation; it’s not in their control. 
They’re really just like us.”
Few realize that world poverty 
has 
a 
gender 
component 
as 
well: About 60 percent of those 
suffering from world hunger are 
women. This is largely due to the 
lack of resources female farmers 

have access to compared to their 
male counterparts. Women are 
often given less land to farm on, 
as well as fewer cattle and seeds. 
Many organizations that target 
world hunger focus on women 
specifically, and FeelGood is no 
exception.
“We’re 
a 
gender-based 
organization,” DeBaun said. “We 
focus on empowering women in 
other countries.” Often times, 
women are more involved in 
the community, as well as food 
production for their family unit. 
Lifting up women can lead to 
lifting up an entire community of 
people.
When FeelGood isn’t running 
delis, rushing off to make a delivery 
or dressing up in a giant, plush 
grilled cheese sandwich suit, they 
facilitate necessary conversations 
about world poverty with their 
members and across campus. They 
aim to de-stigmatize the issue by 
making it more well known while 
still conveying the full gravity 
of the situation. Every semester 
comes with a new fundraising 
goal as well as different areas of 
monetary allocation.
“It could mean allowing two 
elected women representatives in 
India to be trained and supported 
throughout the course of their 
five year term, or 23 biodigesters 
installed in rural villages in Nepal. 
It could mean 2.5 years of training 
on water resource management for 
a one-hand pump in Malawi or 120 
safe birthing kits,” Demeter said, 
speaking on FeelGood’s goal for 
the fall.
World poverty is understandably 
grim, but FeelGood tries to tackle 
the 
problem 
with 
optimism 
instead.
“When you hand someone a 
grilled cheese sandwich, they just 
smile,” DeBaun said. That smile is 
exactly what FeelGood is aiming 
for.

and exploring the wit between his 
own feelings in whatever form, 
image or taboo they may naturally 
assume. Furthermore, he pays 
direct homage to Bataille in his 
work: Barnes opens “The Past is a 
Grotesque Animal, ” the intense, 
ever-building 12-minute volta of 
his most critically acclaimed album 
to date, Hissing Fauna, Are You the 
Destroyer?, with the statement-
confession that, “I fell in love with 

the first cute girl that I met / Who 
could appreciate Georges Bataille 
/ Standing at a Swedish festival / 
Discussing ‘Story of the Eye’.”
Skeletal Lamping, the album 
that Nick would pair with “Story 
of the Eye,” is Barnes’s self-
proclaimed project to “bring all 
(his) 
puzzling, 
contradicting, 
humorous … fantasies, ruminations 
and observations to the surface” 
in an effect that comes off as 

quintessentially 
Bataille. 
In 
particular, the bouncing disco 
“Gallery 
Piece” 
achieves 
that 
poetically overwhelming volley of 
scandals, shooting off triplet after 
triplet of schizophrenic, verb-
based desires: “I wanna make you 
scream / I wanna braid your hair 
/ I wanna kiss your friends.” It’s 
churning, obsessive, funky and 
infectious; in fact, one might call it 
incandescent.

Feel good food for the feels

If you’re anything like me, 
when you get the feels, you 
get all the feels. One night, 
feels and all, you find yourself 
spoon-deep in a Ben & Jerry’s 
Cherry Garcia pint, running 
dangerously low on fuel. With 
a Calc 3 exam tomorrow and 
no episodes of “Shameless” 
left to watch, these are murky 
waters. You rush to the fridge 
in search of one more thing to 
take the pain away, but you’re 
met with nothing. Just a fridge 
as empty as a your wallet, your 
hopes and, now, your dreams. 
But, don’t let the panic sink 
in just yet — Trader Joe’s has 
everything you need to stave 
off all the feels this fall.
There’s 
something 
inexplicably satisfying about 
walking into Trader Joe’s and 
being blanketed by the warmly 
tinted lights and aisle after 
aisle of pleasantly packaged 
products. And with fall just 
over the horizon you can 
count on pumpkin flavored 
everything to be filling up the 
shelves.
But sifting through all that 
Trader Joe’s glory can be 
difficult, so here’s a little guide 
to take the edge off:
If your S.O. has run off 
(no horse, no other lover — 
they’re just running in the 
opposite direction, leaving 
you in the dust with a black 
hole in your chest) you 
should eat: Brownie Crisp 
coffee ice cream sandwiches
Don’t even stop to think 
about 
texting 
them 
back, 
they’re long gone now. It’s 
just you and a box of the most 
pleasure-filled 
desserts 
in 
existence. Biting into these, 

you won’t even have time to 
ponder what your long-gone-
lover is up to. Fudgy brownie 
crisp outside and espresso 
ground ice cream: a dreamy 
flavored medley you need. 
It’s the most Penelope Cruz 
(“Vicky Cristina Barcelona”) 
ice cream sandwich on the 
market — filled with spite, 
allure 
and 
straight-up 
seduction. I now pronounce 
you two a match made in 
heaven. If there’s anything you 
need to melt the break up feels 
away, this is it.
If 
you’re 
listening 
to 
Mitski’s latest album, Be the 
Cowboy, while sitting in a 
puddle of bittersweet, sappy 
tears, you should drink:
You should just drink. It 
doesn’t even matter what. Just 
drink.
Just kidding — if you want 
something to truly feel good, 
Trader Joe’s has a cinnamony, 
fall-fantastic Spiced Cider you 
can chug, or mix in with some 
rum for an extra punch in the 
face of feeling. Serve it hot or 
cold, just like your marble bag 
of emotions.
But if Spiced Cider isn’t 
enough to endure the heartfelt 
chords Mitski strikes in the 
build up to “Nobody,” then 
try La Ferme Julien Rosé. 
Imported from France, because 
who doesn’t love sipping on 
a nice glass of French wine 
pretending that you’re walking 
down les rues de Paris while 
Mitski softly serenades you 
through earbuds. Maybe with 
an “Old Friend,” or just on 
your own, thinking about a 
“Lonesome Love,” TJ’s has 
the specialty drinks that will 
make your “Washing Machine 
Heart” sing from delight. At 
least until your glass runs 
empty.
If the weight of your past 

drunken texts, failed exams 
and arguments with your 
mom are flashing before 
your eyes, you should eat: 
Pumpkin Joe-Joe’s
Yep. 
Only 
Trader 
Joe’s 
comes up with a food name 
that isn’t clever at all but 
somehow sounds quirky and 
cute because it has the name 
“Joe” in it two times. Pumpkin 
Joe-Joe’s take your average 
trendy pumpkin spice oreos 
one step further into Bougie 
City, with pumpkin flavored 
cookies and pumpkin flavored 
cream. There’s really no other 
reason to eat Pumpkin Joe-
Joe’s if you’re having afflictive 
mental flashbacks besides the 
fact that they taste great and 
are fall flavored.
If you’re laying in a field of 
grass, the stars in the night 
sky and all their grandeur 
unraveling profound depths 
of existential thought within 
you, you should eat: Harvest 
Spice Trek Mix
Studies show nuts are filled 
with Omega-3 and Vitamin E, 
making them the perfect brain 
power snack. Grab a copy of 
Nietzsche’s or Kant’s most 
renowned 
works, 
discover 
what dark matter consists of, 
become the last airbender. We 
need to keep this thought train 
chugging down its track. 
If you just feel hungry, 
you should eat: T&J’s Hatch 
Chile Mac & Cheese
Mac & cheese. Enough said.
If you’re allergic to nuts: 
No saving the earth kingdom 
for you, I guess.
Now you’re equipped with 
a grab ‘n go list for all the 
feel good foods from Trader 
Joe’s you’ll be needing this 
fall. So put on your favorite 
compulsively 
oversized 
sweater and get on in there. It’s 
about damn time you feel good.

TESSA ROSE
For the Daily

FOOD NOTEBOOK

