I go out and party every weekend. I am constantly trying to avoid real life running away to the closest frat party or kickback (a small get together with friends). Every weekend I overindulge with drinking often doing way more than I need to because I like the feeling of not being in control. Growing up partying was something only the white kids did and I was always jealous of the freedom they had. I grew up with very strict parents and had to hide everything. So when I came to college I fully got into the partying culture because it was version of freedom. The loud beats, the dark room,  and strangers all give me a sense of freedom that I didn’t have as a kid. Drinking is very much a weird part of college it’s something we do but never really think about till it get’s bad. 

It’s interesting to see the perspective of drinking from a historical perspective. So often, especially being on a college campus, the perspective on drinking is for partying and getting wasted. And of course, Michael and most experts advocate for the moderation of alcohol. Yet I think the college culture tends to be on the side of overly excessive binge drinking. Especially the poem he showed us. It showed the benefits of moderate drinking, becoming more sociable, allowing everyone to have a good time. But once certain people have had too much, the party or I believe the poem was describing the human condition, worsens and worsens till the humans themselves become unrecognizable. It shows excessivity can be dangerous, the better route would be everything in moderation.

I think binge drinking is something that most college students have either seen, experienced, or talked about within their campus lives. This cafe was extremely interesting to see the varying places where binge drinking started from like in the Roman Empire. Holding the little gauntlet that they would use to drink their wine was something that was eye opening as it showed how items have progressed in time. In general, the cafe was extremely interesting to see the varying viewpoints one could have seen a painting compared to how it can be depicted through words. I think that the painting and its description was intriguing in its depiction of drinking as something both enjoyable but also sorrowful. This painting and its description can definitely be used to help others realize how alcohol can be enjoyed but also one should take precaution in doing so.

I went to this Rose Café the day before I left for Spring break to go to Las Vegas and celebrate my 21^st birthday. I know, the irony. It was interesting to see how alcohol had been used even since ancient times. It is a part of our society, binge drinking, but everything is good in moderation. I enjoyed that he had a group draw what we were reading on a white board. It added an extra element and made the talk more engaging and fun. Binge drinking is not the best way to drink, which I learned in this talk and quickly found out in Sin City.

I am very fascinated by history and cultural anthropology topics, so I was very intrigued by the topic discussed during this seminar. In colleges binge drinking is a big part of the social culture, but where did this idea of drinking games originate from? During the event, Professor Fontaine explained to us that it surprisingly did not originate from well known wine producing countries, but instead in Renaissance Germany as the feudal system began to disintegrate. As knights became less useful, they began to play drinking games to prove their strengths and out win each other. This is similar, to the bro culture that exists in Greek life. However, more than just a way to showoff to each other, drinking games have become a form of bonding between these individuals. They are ways to ease interacting with each other in a chill environment.

The Micheal Fontaine Cafe was unexpectedly fascinating. I wasn’t sure what to expect from a discussion about binge drinking. However, the history and culture behind the phenomenon was so interesting, and it was discussed in an engaging and entertaining way. I never realized the extent to which drinking shaped the development of society in the ancient world. The examples of art and literature depicting  drinking was so vivid, and it mimicked scenes of society today. As one of the students who drew one the white board to visualize the garden poem, it was exciting to bring the work to life, and it was a lot of fun. This Cafe was incredibly interesting, and it makes me want to consider taking some Classics courses at Cornell.

Michael Fontaine, an expert on ancient European cultures, explained to us the origins of “bro culture” and binge drinking, things that affect our society today. These social ills were documented in ancient cultures in painting and in literature, and people then already acknowledged it as an issue.

The origins can be traced back to German knights, who after fighting in the Crusades, had nothing to do after going home. Warriors without a war, a life without purpose, the knights turned to alcohol as their escape. As they tried to fill the void in their hearts, they fell further and further into the void of alcohol induced insanity.

What then does this say about our society now, especially in college where society considers to be where “people who will actually accomplish something in life” go? While so called “bro culture”, or the peer pressure best your “bros” to drink more than they can to prove that you’re a “real man”, causes people to irrationally binge drink at parties and such, people actually seek out these situations where they can freely drink away their sorrows. Are do we college students feel like the crusaders did after there were no more wars to fight? While we still go to class, study, write reports to chase after vague notions of a better future, maybe we are really all empty and purposeless on the inside. So much so, that people will turn to binge drinking as a temporary refuge from the torment of the void in their hearts.

I really didn’t know what I was walking into when I signed up for this Rose Cafe. I thought that we would get a lecture as to why we shouldn’t binge drink and how it is a problem that needs to be fixed but. I thought Renaissance Germany would be mentioned for a minute. I was not prepared at all for Michael Fontaine’s presentation. I absolutely love the classics and I love getting to learn about Ancient Greece and Rome any chance I get. When Professor Fontaine started talking about the origins of binge drinking and drinking games coming from 500 years ago I was pleasantly surprised. He also brought in replicas of what the Romans used to drink wine out of. You could tell that he has done a lot of research on this time period and that he genuinely loves what he is studying. I found out he is teaching two courses next year (one in the fall and one in the spring semester) and I definitely want to take one of his courses. This was such a cool Rose Cafe! I really would like to hear more from professors studying the classics.

I think that this Rose Café provided an interesting way to think about the cultural association of binge drinking with masculinity or toughness. I was surprised that I had never really questioned or interrogated the the fact that being able to drink massive quantities of alcohol is often taken to signal masculinity and toughness. It was fascinating to hear that this association originated so long ago, originally among German knights who were losing their prominent positions as defenders of society and, accordingly, an arena in which to prove their masculinity and toughness. Hearing about where this association of heaving drinking with masculinity originated made me curious about what societal conditions make this association so prominent and relevant still today. Indeed, I do not think that just because something gets incorporated as a cultural fact in the historic past, it continues to remain relevant. I think it would be super interesting to interrogate what cultural functions this association performs today. Additionally, I think that while heavy drinking is a gendered phenomenon, it definitely is also a behavior in which women engage. I had never thought about whether women’s heavy drinking offered a means of conveying some cultural signal, and if it does, what this cultural signal might be. I would definitely also attend a Rose Café that covered that topic. Essentially, what I really enjoyed about this discussion was that it forced us to revaluate aspects of our culture that we accept as natural or normal, and I thought that comparisons to countries where this association was not accepted as normal and was actually frowned upon really underscored this point.

I really enjoyed listening to Professor Fontaine speak a bit about binge-drinking’s history in this past week’s Rose Cafe. One thing that I learned at this talk was that currently binge-drinking is defined by the government using the number of drinks you consume. It was also really interesting reading Professor Fontaine’s translation of an old text on binge-drinking! I cannot imagine how much time and effort it takes to translate texts in a way that keeps the original author’s meaning and style but still makes sense and flows when read in English. As we went around the room reading the text and trying to decipher its meaning, I was definitely reminded of my previous language classes. I haven’t taken a language class since freshman year so this was a fun refresher of what it was like! Lastly, I also did not know that there were so many different kinds of instruments used to consume alcohol and they all looked very unique and beautiful. I would love to see these instruments in person!

So I went to Prof. Fontaine’s Rose Cafe about binge drinking. It was waaaaay more interesting than I thought it would be. I was ready to get lectured about binge drinking, but he had a whole historical and artistic presentation of binge drinking ready to go. The story he translated about how important it was to drink in moderation was pretty crazy. I’m not sure how the guy who wrote it thought his students would react to it. Why didn’t any of my teachers write creative stories to teach us about the dangers of binge drinking? All we got were crappy videos. It was also interesting that wine-drinking countries have lower rates of binge-drinking. The argument I’ve always heard is that countries with lower drinking ages tend to have less binge drinking because kids learn from their parents how much is appropriate to drink at a time. Here, we just smuggle in alcohol and drink as much of it in one sitting as we can because it’s hard to get more. Maybe the US should lower its drinking age to something more reasonable like 16 or 18. I’m also trying to figure out why ancient people drank wine out of saucers. There must be a reason for it. It might be easier to smell? Ah ok, I just looked it up and apparently, it made it easier to drink while lying on a couch somehow and it also helped them play whatever drinking games they had. Interesting. It seems easier to spill out of a saucer like that, but maybe they knew what they were doing?