Sun Poisoning

Lisa Rosman states "More than any other writer of the 1980s Janowiz captured the true zeitgeist of that decade in which the spirit of the 1960s finally loosened on America. Conservatism and Capitalism were on the rise, gentrification was the name of the game, and "alternative" scenes were suddenly more about aesthetics - music, fashion, pop art, blackened catfish and hair than ideology"
This quote encapsulates the book as a whole but relates to this story with the ideas of being alternative in relation to art and a form of escapism from everyday life by going on vacation.


Sun Poisoning is an interesting short story by Tama Janowitz as it has a humorous take on the everyday antics of preparing for a holiday and what you do on holiday from a woman's perspective. It touches on the stress of getting ready for a holiday and how as a woman you are expected to take pride in your physical appearance due to the medias standards of beauty. In that respect the narrator states that "Somebody made a big mistake when they assigned you to a female sex role; you'll never get over feeling like a female impersonator" suggests  that society have ridiculously high expectations of beauty for women that they feel like they do not fit in to their own gender. Particularly as the characters in this story can be considered bohemian as they are a couple who live quite unconventional lifestyles centred around the world of the arts. Therefore as a woman who does not necessarily conform to societies expectations she struggles to identify with the typical gender roles of women.

The woman and her boyfriend are going on holiday to Haiti following his art show in New York, yet she believes that it is more hard work to go on holiday rather than stay at home. This is apparent as she is not too pleased over the course of the holiday as she faces little obstacles that stop her from relaxing. One of these obstacles is when the water stops working in the cabin so she cannot take a shower, despite this being temporary to her this is a massive inconvenience and is the first disappointment of the holiday. He boyfriend also spends a lot of time talking to different people instead of spending time with her which she does not approve of and quickly tries to call him out on his twisting of the truth to get him out of the conversation so they can both relax. Despite this their ultimate failure is spending too much time in the sun whilst enjoying themselves on the beach. Consequently the boyfriend gets tropical fever which ruins the holiday and the woman has a bright red nose, therefore ruining her appearance and enjoyment of the vacation. It is trivial issues that arise on a typical holiday that ruin the vacation for the couple but it emphasises that no matter how hard you prepare for a holiday something will go wrong.


Sources
http://www.signature-reads.com/2016/04/slaves-of-new-york-reason-to-revisit-this-1980s-gem/