The Displaced Nation

So summer ends, at least where we are, and we mark that with another Expat Moments.

The debate over whether aesthetics are universal or encultured is answered definitively in the high aesthetic value North American women place in “decorative” gourds.

Bubonically bucolic, these hideous, misshapen vegetables appear in supermarkets and at farm stands every autumn. The gourds I’m looking at have ridges, bumps and warts that cover the rind completely. Staring at these, my thoughts aren’t of pumpkins and butternut squashes, but of a diseased, pustule-covered body part. The talon-like stem of the gourd is dark, almost black. These . . . things . . . these devil squash would be better placed in a jar of formalin and displayed in the Hunterian alongside Charles Byrne’s skeleton and other morbid curiosities, instead they are arranged into wicker baskets and called seasonal centerpieces.

This post was first published on Culturally Discombobulated.

STAY TUNED for next Monday’s post.

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Related posts:

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• EXPAT MOMENTS: What to wear for an Independence Day Party
• EXPAT MOMENTS: American Dentata
• EXPAT MOMENTS: Two Englishmen in New York
• Staring at the sun — and 3 little “nothing” moments in my displaced life

Img: Various Gourds 2, by Prima Civitas Foundation via Flickr.