Some stories of trans life
My father read books when he wanted to understand things, and I do as well. Life, as well, has presented me with some stories.
The Bride Was a Boy. Manga by Chii. My daughter got this book and read it. Then, she gave it to the rest of the family with sticky notes as personal commentary. Chii recounts her transition (MTF) in a light, pleasant way, highlighting various social concerns as well as Japanese law when it was written.
I saw that Rockhurst University would be screening the documentary, Chasing Chasing Amy. The filmmaker, Sav Rodgers, previously gave a TED talk where he said that Chasing Amy saved his life, when he was growing up in Kansas. I was afraid the film would be just a fan movie, but it went deeper and further, boosting voices of those who find Chasing Amy to be problematic while continuing to look at its value. The film also ends up documenting his transition as a trans man. The documentary is a fun, upbeat movie, which also confronts serious issues in media and in life. I enjoyed the film, and am excited to see what Sav Rodgers does next.
This month I also read Detransition, Baby, a novel by Torrey Peters. I loved the book. It was witty, gossipy, and a great story. It was told in a non-linear way, beginning with the impossible inciting event and with flashbacks to an impossible romance. Every chapter is listed in relation to the conception (one month after conception, three years before conception). I really loved her choice of non-linear storytelling and felt that it served the narrative especially well. Despite being an absolute trainwreck of a story for the characters, it also was filled with hope. Sex? Yes, there’s sex, but that never really detracts from a book for me. Most curiously, I was struck by how its starting point is similar to the disastrous resolution of Chasing Amy.
Rockhurst also had a poetry workshop with Grace Wilentz, poet, teacher, and one of the curators of SEED Journal: Objects of Wonder. Seed is a wild, extravagant project. It’s a multimedia, limited edition journal, coming in various forms. Different forms the journal has taken include: a hand-printed box with 12 artworks, a field journal, a handbound accordion book with envelopes. It’s a beautiful, amazing journal which feels like it’s transgressing the norms of capitalism with its artful extravagance. Grace generously offered some copies of Issue 4: Metamorphosis, and I snagged one all to myself. Reading this issue is like attempting to read the Sunday paper as a child. The poems and artwork are stunning, and the inner set includes folded up broadsheets of prose.
My older daughter and I share a love of poetry, so we attended together. Grace specifically shared with me a poem from that issue called “I am trans” by David Banach, which recounts the ebb and flow of T and culture in his development as a cis man. During the workshop, I started a poem. After the workshop, I finished the poem, which is being designed as a broadsheet and will be posted on campus.
Earlier in the month, we also attended a poetry workshop with Diana Goetsch via Zoom. Goetsch is a great teacher of writing poetry. I read her memoir, This Body I Wore, which tells the story of how she came to “crack her egg” as a woman after the age of 50. This memoir also uses a non-linear structure, starting with dressing in women’s clothes in the 1980s and 1990s, flashing back to childhood and youth (late 60s through early 80s), and then coming back to 2002 through 2019. It’s beautifully written and profoundly moving.