Misappropriation

By Rose Jacobs. In summer 2012 my mother-in-law, a daughter of the German industrial heartland, mentioned plans for the afternoon that had her very excited: She was headed to a public viewing. It  wasn’t morbid curiosity—some sort of Teutonic necrophilia—that had her raring to go. In Germany, a viewing has nothing to do with open caskets. Rather, it’s the public screening of a film or a televised event—in this case, the London Olympics. She couldn’t hide her annoyance at my confusion. It was an English phrase, after all, untranslated. As she’d put it, “Ich gehe zu einem Public Viewing.” What, exactly, didn’t I understand? Read more...