[Lacanian-Orientation-US] REPORT : CLINICAL STUDY DAYS 4

An expert in the oral object, Manya Steinkoler procured the greatest breakfast and coffee-break snacks of New York — of real New Yorkers not trendy post-modern genderless New Yorkers who eat the kind of bullshit nouvelle foods Zizek critiques such as eggless egg salad and vegetarian meat. This tasting jubilee began on Friday afternoon with the famous Zomick’s Babka, or as it is more particularly known by all New York Babka afficionadoes, with the « Zomick’s Babka Melt-Away. » The Melt Away, made famous by Zomick’s kosher bakery, is the very best part of the Babka. It’s basically a condensed Babka; there is very little air (in the Babka or in the eater of the Babka); there is very little room or relief in between the chocolate and the crust or in between one’s belt and one’s belly. Vaccuum-packed, concentrated, fossilized, all of Eastern Europe is essentially compressed into chocolate crumb yeast cake so condensed and rich, it’s like a heavy chocolate brick. Who needs the pyramids? Needless to say, the « Melt Away » is obviously the envers of what happens when you eat this cake (the original Ellis Island name, « Pound It On, » however, had less marketing success). Yet, if « Melt Away » is understood in the Jonesian spirit of the aphanisis of the subject due to its sublime unity with the oral object, well, so be it, or as they say, Zei Gesund! Some have actually posited that Zomick’s Babka is the « mission impossible » Kantian Das Ding an Sich but Kant, who never left Konigsberg was unfortunately not familiar with it so he became a philosopher. Yet many have posited nevertheless that this would not have changed his philosophy because he would have been able to defend Newtonian physics with the gravitational force exerted by the Babka alone. (I remain skeptical). Significantly, at the time of the purchase of the Babka, Prof. Steinkoler was working on a paper on Bartelby and Kafka – thus — thought impossible by Babka afficionadoes – the jouissance of the Babka was actually increased in this instance by the associative jouissense (who would have thought that a babka could lack?? The adding of jouissense in this instance was diagnostically determinant since its addition demonstrated that it was possible for Babka to lack) (This is debatable, however and could be a topic for further clinical discussion) We should add for those unfamiliar with this delectable dessert and its delightful name, that the word Babka derives from the Polish noun meaning « grandmother. » This is why many of her grandchildren have become cardiologists and psychoanalysts. Saturday morning, attendees were served the famous « Ottomanelli’s muffins. » These are enormous globular rotund orbs rather like small planets or large Buicks and come in a variety of flavors. As a beloved old Italian man in the neighborhood used to say about these muffins, « Mr. Ottomanelli has no relation to organized crime. But if you want someone’s knee-caps broken…hold on to one of those muffins for a few weeks! » Saturday night we ate at New York’s famous P.J. Clark’steakhouse. Our specially prepared menu was entitled, « Gastronomic Interpretation » in honor of the Clinical Study Day. True to the American experience, however, the portions were simply too large to leave any room for interpretation. Finally, Sunday morning we had what is known as the Sunday New York Breakfast: H & H bagels, cream cheese and smoked salmon.