GPD, &c., Issue 9: The Not-So Simple Tomato

Gender Trouble

                September 23, 2018

            GPD, &c., Issue 9: The Not-So Simple Tomato

Reactions to Last Issue:
For those of you who better digest information when using your ears, Emily recommends Terry Gross’ interview with Michael Pollan.

Another friend proposes that the reasonable response to climate change might be to load up the old leaf blower with acid and dose the neighborhood. I’m not sure that would be an effective way to deliver drugs to the masses, but I’m not unsympathetic with the underlying sentiment.

And Cara D. has “mixed feelings about the whole ayahuasca/spiritual tourism trend.” As a participant in that trend, she thinks ayahuasca can have incredible healing value, but she recognizes the potential for exploitation, as described in this article. I’m not convinced that whenever a white person uses ayahuasca it’s “nothing more than a Band-Aid for the symptoms of first-world problems: boredom, loneliness, and a lack of real community” whereas people of color can use it as way to honor ancestors and reclaim tradition. As Cara writes:

“It's sad that [white people] go to these places to unload their mental/emotional garbage and may do not do enough of the work of bettering themselves at home…. [But,] I think ayahuasca is more than a bandaid for the symptoms, I think it is capable of changing consciousness permanently. This includes helping people to change destructive or toxic behavioral or thought patterns.” 

The article’s argument also draws on a brand of totalizing and deterministic identity politics, which I think worth resisting. I’m open to being wrong here, but am feeling more confident after reading some Judith Butler this week. Here’s one of my favorite quotes from her Gender Trouble:

“it has become increasingly important to resist the colonizing epistemological strategy that would subordinate different configurations of domination under the rubric of a transcultural notion of patriarchy."

I’d like to do a full newsletter soon on her thinking, which I find both insightful and confusing. Please send thoughts if you have them. Speaking of future issues...

Coming Up Next:

Movie Reviews
Sexuality and Identity feat. Judith Butler, Simone de Beauvoir, and Michel Foucault
A Guide to Lazy Days in Our Nation’s Capital
On Sobriety

Neruda - Ode to Tomatoes

The street
filled with tomatoes,
midday,
summer,
light is
halved
like
a
tomato,
its juice
runs
through the streets.
In December,
unabated,
the tomato
invades
the kitchen,
it enters at lunchtime,
takes
its ease
on countertops,
among glasses,
butter dishes,
blue saltcellars.
It sheds
its own light,
benign majesty.
Unfortunately, we must
murder it:
the knife
sinks
into living flesh,
red
viscera
a cool
sun,
profound,
inexhaustible,
populates the salads
of Chile,
happily, it is wed
to the clear onion,
and to celebrate the union
we
pour
oil,
essential
child of the olive,
onto its halved hemispheres,
pepper
adds
its fragrance,
salt, its magnetism;
it is the wedding
of the day,
parsley
hoists
its flag,
potatoes
bubble vigorously,
the aroma
of the roast
knocks
at the door,
it's time!
come on!
and, on
the table, at the midpoint
of summer,
the tomato,
star of earth, recurrent
and fertile
star,
displays
its convolutions,
its canals,
its remarkable amplitude
and abundance,
no pit,
no husk,
no leaves or thorns,
the tomato offers
its gift
of fiery color
and cool completeness.

Related Thoughts:

Neruda abused women; my long-time favorite author David Foster Wallace did too. I found this recent discussion of Wallace, and this slightly older meditation on Woody Allen to be thoughtful reflections on how to deal critically with the art of misogynists. Please avoid the comments section, which is a whole bunch of “the art is great, ignore the man” horseshit. Hannah Gadsby points out just how stupid this type of thinking is, on the subject of Picasso, in her brilliant Nanette (netflix).

Two tomato recipes I’ve really enjoyed this summer: 
I. Gazpacho
Combine and blend:
Few cloves of Garlic
Maybe half a Red Onion
Very generous pour of decent Olive Oil
Handful of farmers’ market tomatoes
Two or one cucumber(s)
Salt & Pep
Optional flavor additions: Cumin, Watermelon, and/or Lime

II. Cast-Iron Roasted Cherry Tomatoes
Set oven to something reasonably high
Halve the tomatoes and place face down in well oiled baking sheet
Sprinkle with salt & pep
Optional: add whole garlic cloves
Roast in oven until delicious smelling

Add to pasta with pesto, salad, or anything else

What are your favorites?

Tuneage:
Sean F. shares three great tunes:

Trape La Verite - Yemen Blues
Jesus Is Waiting - Al Green
Norrland - Gidge

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