Pool

[susanstinson]

SisterSpit Northampton was last night. There's something about folks putting the work in to pull people together to listen to music, listen to poetry and fiction, be willing to respond, to be moved or scared or bored or changed or entertained or all of the above right there live in a roomful of others, hearing each other's responses, mingling breath, touching or not, drinking or not, mmm, it moves me a lot.

One of the things I read was a piece called "Drink," inspired by the Nolose conference and the influence of the speculative fiction I've been enjoying lately. In it, a group of fat women drink a swimming pool, drain it right down to the damp, blue bottom. Last night I got asked, as I have before when I've read it, if it's really true, if fat women really do gather to do that every year -- it was obviously a sincere question, and, although the feeling of the piece is true to some of my experiences of an atmosphere of collective transformation, risk and sensual explorations at Nolose, it startles me when what I think of as being very obviously an act of imagination makes people really itch to know if it's fact. Is it because people will believe anything about fat women, or something else? And why does something as simple as a poem like Pretty Fat, which is mostly the repetition of the words "pretty," "fat," "lard," "ass" and a list of parts of the body gives people such a feeling of release that, almost any setting, they gasp and cheer? Mysteries for me as I go into the working day.

Comments

[misia.livejournal.com]

I think that the questions are probably the result of an equal combination of wondering about the (percieved) Other -- "do They really do that?" -- and the simple fact that you describe the swimming-pool draining with such detail and familiarity and affection that it seems supremely plausible.

As for "Pretty Fat," well, I think it's just a very fun piece, and very liberating. It's still so rare to hear anyone talk about fat in a celebratory way, let alone to revel in the language of doing so.

I'm glad that it went so well and was so much fun!

[susanstinson.livejournal.com]

That's lovely praise, Misia, thank you. It does, though, it really just blows my mind that a group of folks drinking a whole pool full of chlorinated water would EVER seem plausible -- I tend to be pretty willing to suspend disbelief, but part of me almost always knows that I'm playing...

It really was fun -- Evelyn Harris (for many years of Sweet Honey in the Rock) and Lenelle N. Moise did a tribute to Maya Angelou that was breathtaking.

good idea

[little_star]

I'll suggest that we add pool drinking to our list of workshops this year :)

amazing what a little imagination might suggest - gee, what do all those fat folks do when they're together????

Re: good idea

[susanstinson.livejournal.com]

Cool about the workshop, bounce! Who would lead it, though? I've been that thirsty in my life, but only in a metaphoric kind of way.

Right, what DO those fat folks do?

Re: good idea

[bearsir.livejournal.com]

when asked "what do you do...?", about being queer or trans or fat or anything else, I tend to give a slow, slow grin and say "anything we want."

Re: good idea

[susanstinson.livejournal.com]

perfect.