the best american nonrequired reading 2004
i really like these anthologies. sure, there are always one or two items that doesn't really float my boat (i still don't understand the inclusion of the adrian tomine story last year, which is my least-favorite tomine story ever, and which i maintain was probably picked to up their indie cred), but the vast majority of the stories and essays are really great things i might not have seen otherwise (i'd only read two of these before--the sedaris story, of course, and the piece on the guy living in the paris airport). highlights for me came in pairs: the stories "zoanthropy" and "we have a pope" from the first half, and the stories "good world" and "the minor wars" from the middle. i was also pretty engaged by the final essay, a piece on that michigan's womyn's festival and its exclusion of transsexual women. i can't believe that argument has been raging for over ten years. camp trans sounds like a lot more fun anyway.
you should see the idiotic justifications for not letting trans women in--things like "male-to-female women will still act like men." seriously, 10+ years of this crap. it's totally unbelievable and i really think the womyn's festival should be a little more inclusive.
ReplyDeletecamp trans was actually started by the women who weren't welcome at the womyn's festival, but sort of disintegrated and was revived by trans men. anyway, definitely an interesting article.