Fiction, truth, and the best book of 2010

"You should never just read for 'enjoyment.' Read to make yourself smarter! Less judgmental. More apt to understand your friends' insane behavior, or better yet, your own. Pick 'hard books.' Ones you have to concentrate on while reading. And for God's sake, don't let me ever hear you say, 'I can't read fiction. I only have time for the truth.' Fiction is the truth, fool! Ever hear of 'literature'? That means fiction, too, stupid."

Such is the wisdom of John Waters, culled from his 2010 book Role Models, which I am enjoying so much that I know I will flip back to page one as soon as page 294 rolls around. Waters is a American treasure ( though he'd hate to be described as such), and I truly hope he's willed his brain to the Smithsonian. In my parallel universe, John Waters is on the Supreme Court and a pencil-mustachioed Antonin Scalia is skulking around Baltimore in a Comme des Garcons ensemble, Super-8 camera in hand.

The only addition I would make to the above observations is that nonfiction (the category which includes Role Models, as it is a collection of essays, all of them GREAT) can be just as fake as fiction is true. Stories are how we make sense of this filthy world of ours. Even a "nonfiction" "political memoir" like The Radical Housewife has a few, er, moments of inspired creativity--though the story about Michele Bachmann yelling at my son and nephew is as horrifyingly true as it is truly horrifying. Bachmann, the real person, is so outrageously bizarre that if she didn't exist, Waters would have invented her. As long as a loony like Bachmann wields power, Waters' declaration that "fiction is the truth" will hold....well, true.

May you create a few tales of your own this new year--the taller the better. Onward to 2011!

Snowed out, wracked with doubt

I was born in Minneapolis and have lived nearly all of my life here, so I don't fear snow. What I do fear are snow days, and last week the kids had two. I am fortunate that I don't have a 9 to 5 work schedule that required me to take unpaid leave to keep an eye on the little goofballs--I'm unpaid all the time! Sadly, I was hoping to use last week to change that (have I mentioned The Radical Housewife, my completed manuscript, lately? Yes? No? Maybe?). Still, I was able to scratch out a little time for writing, with the following treats now available for your online enjoyment:

CD Review: Nu Shooz, "Pandora's Box." Elevate Difference, December 15, 2010

Won't somebody think of the employment discrimination? I mean, the children? Feministing Community Blog, December 17, 2010

Now all intellectual activity has been suspended until January 3rd, that blessed day when Winter Break is over. And if you haven't guessed, I am that uber-correct liberal who calls this time of year "the holidays," mostly because it drives Christian fundies crazy. I continue to marvel at how knotted up these folks get at THE VERY IDEA of children not being required to decorate trees in their classrooms, for this will endanger their own personal relationship with Jesus, their Lord and Savior. I'm no biblical scholar, but I imagine that if you're on Team Jesus, skipping tree-decorating in favor of making non-denominational ginger bread people (not ginger bread men, mind you!) isn't going to hurt you a bit. If Jenny Erikson of The Stir lived down the block from me and plopped an enormous Nativity scene in her front yard, it would only bother me if I were questioning my own atheism. I might find myself irrationally (pun intended) hostile towards it, tempted to kick Joseph's cold plastic butt to reassure myself, in vain, that it meant nothing, nothing....such is the m.o. of the defensive hypocrite. Why did George "rentboy.com" Rekers work so hard to curtail the rights of gays and lesbians? Why does Jenny think that PC liberals like me are out to ruin Christmas? You're obsessed with what you fear.

Me? I'm obsessed with writing and rewriting the shit out of my not-totally-radical-yet book proposal as I am, in fact, terrified of the whole process. I act tough, but if the mighty Metrodome can deflate, a housewife can too.

Blizzard people

We will return to your regularly scheduled feminist blog posts once we recover from... Snowmaggeddon 2010.

Doing it anyway

I attended two very different activist gatherings last week. One consisted of parents and administrators at my kids' school, while the other brought together local feminists (aka Cackle of Rads, Twin Cities chapter), a number of whom are involved in Democratic party politics. At both meetings, I heard the following:

"The left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing."
"Is anyone looking a the big picture here?"
"We're talking to a brick wall half the time."
"Is this sabotage? Or just idiocy?"
"I'm exhausted."
"All of this work was for nothing?"
"We're not even talking about the same thing."

"What is wrong with people?"
"They want to wear us down so we will give up. And it's working."

Luckily each meeting came with some of my favorite treats in the world (coffee and mini-scones, Surly Bender and popcorn) to soothe my growing agitation. In the very cold light of Monday morning, though, it's obvious to me that we'll need more than snacks to get out of this.

What do we need? INSPIRATION. My most recent post for Elevate Difference could not have arrived at a better time, for Courtney E. Martin's new book Do it Anyway provides just the kick in the butt all of us need. Martin subtitled her book "the new generation of activists," tailoring her message to activists under 35 and the baby boomers who dare mock them, but as I wrote in my review, this is a book for everyone.

We all need to be told that even though improving our communities is hard, we have to do it anyway, especially when times are bleak. For example: instead of drowning in coffee this morning, I wrote a long letter to the Minneapolis Public Schools' Out 4 Good program, requesting that my son's middle school get some sorely needed anti-bullying support. Lately, when Elliott speaks out against sexist and homophobic teasing, he gets relentlessly teased for his trouble. I see him tiring of being That Feminist Fifth Grader. And like the times I tell him to brush his teeth or finish his salad, when I tell him to "do it anyway!" his eyes glaze over (I wonder if Courtney would consider writing a version for middle schoolers?).

The book would make a delightful holiday present for any activist burnout you know, be s/he feminist, PTA volunteer, phone banker, social worker, candidate, advocate, angry letter writer, all of the above and more. Order it online through the link at Elevate Difference and ED will get a little dough from Amazon for your trouble. DO IT! Anyway!