Yes this article (among many of its type) : irresponsible, very 'othering'
"In the final moments before her death, Mariam Makhniashvili stood alone on the shoulder of a Toronto expressway, half a world removed from the life she had known for more than 17 years in the mountainous west Asian country of Georgia. Then, she went over the concrete barrier and plunged five storys into a wooded ravine below".
The authors of the article don't know this they are imagining. And it is an unlikely scenario and hides the problem inherent in the theory: how do you stand "alone" on the edge of the busiest bridge in North America? "Half a world away" very isolating phrase and "mountaneous" and "West Asian" that can't be good! Why is the article not asking for witnesses to come forward who saw this unusual event? Why were and are LE not asking? As for Mariam we are now almost ready for charaterizations her her as an "inscrutable" Asian to emerge in the picture - wait that is in a subsequent paragraph.
"For 2½ years, the mystery captivated the city, a fascination deepened by Ms. Makhniashvili’s equally inscrutable personality. An introvert, she had few close friends, spending her time studying physics".
I got the impression she had a very wide range of interests not just physics and the article actually unwittingly later proves that but yes many of them academic we know she liked music the outdoors parks. Has it ever occurred to anyone that Mariam isn't here to tell us herself what her passions were? The friends from Georgia sound to me in articles like they care for her very much but the Globe would have preferred a bit more of a party animal. The article sort of blames her for leaving behind a "troubled" family.
"Searchers had not previously checked the spot where her remains were discovered. Her body could easily have lain there undetected since the day she vanished".
This is simply untrue the body could not easily have lain undetected since the day she "vanished".
"Investigators said she was alone when she died and that there was no sign of foul play. She left behind no note and there was nothing to say exactly what had brought her to the precipice".
Why would a paper suicide note survive 2 and a half years in situ? There is something almost macabre here she was alone at the top of the "precipe" she was alive when she fell, she was alone when she died. Note how this fits with the earlier characterization of Mariam as an introverted bookish loner.
"Frequent electrical blackouts led the family to spend a lot of time attending violin recitals in Tbilisi’s opera house – which had a generator – and the building became a fixture in Ms. Makhniashvili’s life. When she grew older, she had a season pass to see musical events, which she attended with her two close friends, Dea and Gvantsa. The trio bonded over a shared love of math and science. Instead of having slumber parties and gossiping, they studied together.
In late 2003, Mr. Makhniashvili moved to Los Angeles to pursue an academic job; his wife followed shortly after. For the next five years, the family lived apart, linked by long phone conversations on weekends. The father would send philosophy books to his children and they would read together, with Mariam translating English-language texts into Georgian. She had a particular interest in the philosophy of ethics and discipline."
They went to the violin concerts in search of light not from a love of music music contradicted in the next sentence by the seasons tickets with, wait for it, "two friends". I thought Mariam was a weird loner why is she behaving in this very cultured highly sociable way? Apparently she should have have been gossiping and having slumber parties a weird phrase sort of a blast from the past phrase. Mariam's chosen subjects of interest are suddenly no longer physics but ethics and "discipline". What does that latter term mean I think it is just a mistake of the authors?
"She started school in September, but left little impression in her brief time there". What could she possibly have done to make an impression in four days this was another major way of othering Mariam in emphasizing that nobody noticed her much sort of as if to say she deserved it.
Better stop just to say at the end the authors try to co opt statements of Mariam's father to the suicide theory they stop just short of that i.e. because he said he dreaded that her body was somewhere that he actually envisioned suicide a possibility in fact he adamantly rejected.
"In the final moments before her death, Mariam Makhniashvili stood alone on the shoulder of a Toronto expressway, half a world removed from the life she had known for more than 17 years in the mountainous west Asian country of Georgia. Then, she went over the concrete barrier and plunged five storys into a wooded ravine below".
The authors of the article don't know this they are imagining. And it is an unlikely scenario and hides the problem inherent in the theory: how do you stand "alone" on the edge of the busiest bridge in North America? "Half a world away" very isolating phrase and "mountaneous" and "West Asian" that can't be good! Why is the article not asking for witnesses to come forward who saw this unusual event? Why were and are LE not asking? As for Mariam we are now almost ready for charaterizations her her as an "inscrutable" Asian to emerge in the picture - wait that is in a subsequent paragraph.
"For 2½ years, the mystery captivated the city, a fascination deepened by Ms. Makhniashvili’s equally inscrutable personality. An introvert, she had few close friends, spending her time studying physics".
I got the impression she had a very wide range of interests not just physics and the article actually unwittingly later proves that but yes many of them academic we know she liked music the outdoors parks. Has it ever occurred to anyone that Mariam isn't here to tell us herself what her passions were? The friends from Georgia sound to me in articles like they care for her very much but the Globe would have preferred a bit more of a party animal. The article sort of blames her for leaving behind a "troubled" family.
"Searchers had not previously checked the spot where her remains were discovered. Her body could easily have lain there undetected since the day she vanished".
This is simply untrue the body could not easily have lain undetected since the day she "vanished".
"Investigators said she was alone when she died and that there was no sign of foul play. She left behind no note and there was nothing to say exactly what had brought her to the precipice".
Why would a paper suicide note survive 2 and a half years in situ? There is something almost macabre here she was alone at the top of the "precipe" she was alive when she fell, she was alone when she died. Note how this fits with the earlier characterization of Mariam as an introverted bookish loner.
"Frequent electrical blackouts led the family to spend a lot of time attending violin recitals in Tbilisi’s opera house – which had a generator – and the building became a fixture in Ms. Makhniashvili’s life. When she grew older, she had a season pass to see musical events, which she attended with her two close friends, Dea and Gvantsa. The trio bonded over a shared love of math and science. Instead of having slumber parties and gossiping, they studied together.
In late 2003, Mr. Makhniashvili moved to Los Angeles to pursue an academic job; his wife followed shortly after. For the next five years, the family lived apart, linked by long phone conversations on weekends. The father would send philosophy books to his children and they would read together, with Mariam translating English-language texts into Georgian. She had a particular interest in the philosophy of ethics and discipline."
They went to the violin concerts in search of light not from a love of music music contradicted in the next sentence by the seasons tickets with, wait for it, "two friends". I thought Mariam was a weird loner why is she behaving in this very cultured highly sociable way? Apparently she should have have been gossiping and having slumber parties a weird phrase sort of a blast from the past phrase. Mariam's chosen subjects of interest are suddenly no longer physics but ethics and "discipline". What does that latter term mean I think it is just a mistake of the authors?
"She started school in September, but left little impression in her brief time there". What could she possibly have done to make an impression in four days this was another major way of othering Mariam in emphasizing that nobody noticed her much sort of as if to say she deserved it.
Better stop just to say at the end the authors try to co opt statements of Mariam's father to the suicide theory they stop just short of that i.e. because he said he dreaded that her body was somewhere that he actually envisioned suicide a possibility in fact he adamantly rejected.
