Havana v. Oslo, Hysteria v. Obsessiveness, and the Absurdity of Categories. Having visited Havana just a few months ago, I find the contrasts between it and Oslo mind-boggling. Oslo looks like Havana after a major steam clean.
The pretty, colorful buildings—many of which date from a similar era—have been fully restored. They shine with fresh paint. They look freshly scrubbed, gleaming in the sun when the omnipresent clouds part. In Havana, most of the buildings are falling apart, crumbling. The city looks like orders for much-needed paint were never filled. Few facades are even whitewashed. Signs of disrepair are everywhere. Mud runs through many of the uneven streets. And yet, Havana has its own chaotic charm.
Havana features a true rainbow of colors of persons, from white to yellow to tan to brown to black. Mostly they have chocolate brown eyes. They intermix with ease. Unlike Oslo, with its remarkable social security system, most Cubans live near or below the poverty level. They struggle to economically survive. Nonetheless, they exude a friendliness and warmth. They have an indescribable emotional availability. The streets in Oslo are crowded with mostly tall white people.
Many look strikingly Nordic, with sharp facial features, blonde hair, and steely blue eyes. They seem emotionally distant—polite, remote, reserved. Jacques Lacan, the obscure French psychoanalyst and philosopher who writes with such little respect for his readers! Hysterics , who tend to be highly emotional, disorganized, and unable to think of themselves as desirable. Obsessives , who emphasize cognition and are highly organized.
The diametrical opposite of hysterics, they struggle to see others as worthy of their desire. They seek the ideal, the unattainable. Foucault, who devoted an entire volume to studying the absurdity of identification systems, would have dismantled it. You walk through streets in Havana sensing danger, the exotic, the erotic. Crime is rare. The impulsivity, the alcohol, the riskiness, even the embargo.
