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

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