Immigrants to America not only suffer through the embarrassment of different manners and the trauma of different cultural signifiers, but also live with a suspicious eye cast in their direction since the events of Sept. 11, said English professor Andrei Codrescu Friday night.
“We do live in an age of suspicion,” Codrescu said. “People who were not born here have probably experienced the unpleasant breath of the authorities.”
Despite this American mistrust of foreigners, Codrescu, at least partially, defended the United States’ actions.
“I don’t think being slightly inconvenienced at this point is unjustifiable,” he said.
Codrescu came to the United States from Romania in the mid-1960s. He gave a lecture titled “The Frisson of Being an Immigrant in the Age of Suspicion” at the International Cultural Center. About 40 people, American and foreign, attended.
The French word “frisson” translates literally into “pleasurable thrill,” but Codrescu said he intended a more ironic tone.
“I think ‘weirdness’ is a better word,” he said.
Speaking against the backdrop of muffled music from Groovin’ on the Grounds, Codrescu addressed three issues foreigners face — “isolation, immigration and assimilation” and “the curious nature of our split existence.”
Codrescu, who escaped the police state of Romania with his mother, said the situation in present-day America still is much better than the totalitarian regime of Romania.
“You cannot compare the terror of the police state with what is happening now,” he said. “There’s just no comparison.”
Reading from his book “Road Scholar,” Codrescu discussed with sardonic wit what it was like to see the Statue of Liberty, “the cover girl of American democracy,” and utopian communities across the country.
Codrescu, the MacCurdy distinguished professor at LSU, is also a poet, novelist, screenwriter, essayist, syndicated columnist and regular contributor to National Public Radio.
He founded the online journal “Exquisite Corpse” in 1983 as “a journal of letters and life.” The journal can be online at www.corpse.org.