Amazon.com says "thanks Kate"

Okay, maybe Amazon.com doesn't actually say thanks, but the reviews for Hello, Cruel World are almost all positive.  Surprisingly, only one reviewer didn't like it, saying,

"I think there are better ways to help kids than to say that anything they do is okay. I was alarmed by the advice in this book."

Reading Bornstein's book in an academic setting can make us lose sight of the actual people Hello, Cruel World is supposed to impact.  It's good to see that Bornstein is not just intellectually engaging, she's also effective.

Kate Bornstein's Personal Homepage

www.tootallblondes.com is Kate Bornstein and Barbara Carrellas' (hir partner) personal website. It's interesting to note how inconsistent Kate is in hir use of personal pronouns, using both she and ze. This inconsistency is probably a function of the multiple identities she juggles, which she discusses in the fascinating article "Hoowahyoo?". It's also interesting to see how naively the couple reacts to their trip to Africa, despite having experienced a lot in their lives. Generally a good resource in thinking about Hello, Cruel World.

Acker on narrative

remarks, prose

Baldwin

"People invent categories in order to feel safe. White people invented black people to give white people identity... Straight cats invent faggots so they can sleep with them without becoming faggots themselves." (in 1971, quoted in A QUEER READER)

the Viegener I was telling you about

Foucault

there is lots of good Foucault business in Clint Eastwood's CHANGELING, out now, up the street at Destinta for another week or so?--along with some food for thought as to scapegoating: who is being, by whom, just the police, the narrative, the director, the writer?

I forgot to mention, Acker was vegetarian.

ACKER, from ANGRY WOMEN (Juno Books):
"A gay friend of mine said something interesting to me. I asked her if she differentiated between gay and straight women, and she said, 'Yes, women who are gay are really outlaws, because we're totally outside the society--always.' And I said, 'What about people like me?' and she said, 'Oh, you're just queer.' Like--we didn't exists?! [laughs] It's as if the gay women position themselves as outside society, but meanwhile they're looking down on everybody who's perverse! Which is very peculiar..."

&
"...we're looking for a society that allows us the fullness of what it is to be human, I would think--it's hard to know because I've never been there! But I read about societies in which ecstasy and joy and certain areas of sexuality are venerated (not just in individual situations--or maybe it can be even individual experiences that go further). And: a whole range of feelings--really, a fuller life! I keep thinking: what we know of as 'life' is so thin and juiceless and boring, frankly--we're ground into nothing before we even start out! I mean, take tattooing (which has been denied us for so long): it's beautiful, the colors are gorgeous, the images: if you have the tiger on you, you have the spirit of the tiger in you--that's something: to find out what it is to be an animal! We forget everything: we forget all of this!"