{"id":2149,"date":"2025-07-22T12:33:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-22T16:33:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/bdpcblackoutproject\/?p=2149"},"modified":"2025-07-23T15:31:23","modified_gmt":"2025-07-23T19:31:23","slug":"the-cocktail-party-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/bdpcblackoutproject\/the-cocktail-party-2\/","title":{"rendered":"THE COCKTAIL PARTY"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"This<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By Elizabeth Meyersohn<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

THE COCKTAIL PARTY<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nobody likes to be left with a mystery:
It’s so… finished.
UNIDENTIFIED GUEST: Yes, it\u2019s finished.
And nobody likes to be left with a mystery.
But there’s more to it than that. There’s a loss of personality;
Or rather, you’ve lost touch with the person\u00a0
You thought you were. You no longer feel quite human.
You’re suddenly reduced to the status of an object\u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As quickly as we can. When you’ve dressed for a party\u00a0
And are going downstairs, with everything about you\u00a0
Arranged to support you in the role you have chosen,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You have the experience of being an object\u00a0
At the mercy of a malevolent staircase.
Or, take a surgical operation.
In consultation with the doctor and the surgeon,\u00a0
In going to bed in the nursing home,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For those who surround you,\u00a0
All there is of you is your body\u00a0
And the ‘you’ is withdrawn. May I replenish?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Water.
EDWARD: To what does this lead?
UNIDENTIFIED GUEST: To finding out
What you really are. What you really feel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Elizabeth Meyersohn THE COCKTAIL PARTY Nobody likes to be left with a mystery:It’s so… finished.UNIDENTIFIED GUEST: Yes, it\u2019s finished.And nobody likes to be left with a mystery.But there’s more to it than that. There’s a loss of personality;Or rather, you’ve lost touch with the person\u00a0You thought you were. You no longer feel quite human.You’re...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8216,"featured_media":2150,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-erasedland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/bdpcblackoutproject\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/bdpcblackoutproject\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/bdpcblackoutproject\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/bdpcblackoutproject\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8216"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/bdpcblackoutproject\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2149"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/bdpcblackoutproject\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2149\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2338,"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/bdpcblackoutproject\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2149\/revisions\/2338"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/bdpcblackoutproject\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/bdpcblackoutproject\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/bdpcblackoutproject\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/bdpcblackoutproject\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}