A collection of essays written over an 8 year period. They are arranged according to theme and not in chronological order, which can make reading a bit confusing sometimes (as during those 8 years Califia transitioned from female to male) but overall works better, I feel. The four sections are: The Engagement Party, "how and why I reached a point in my life where I wanted to marry someone and raise a child with him"; Like Cats and Dogs, "the interplay between the body, identity, and community"; Destroying the Village in Order to Save It, "document and critique some disastrous policies and laws" which "interfere in what ought to be our privately controlled lives"; and An Insistent and Indelicate Muse, bdsm (to oversimplify).
What I love about Califia (my favorite professional political pervert evar) is the fact that he always makes me question my beliefs, he always makes me think about things in a different way. This is not to say that I always find myself in agreement, but I feel self-examination and introspection are important. All I think about lately, it seems, is sex. I don't mean that I spend every day jilling off to internet porn (though "jilling off" is hands down my favorite euphemism for female masturbation) but rather, well, the politics of sex.
The most moving essay was "The Pink Ribbon Blues" contained in The Engagement Party section, which chronicles the death of Califia's mother to breast cancer. Obviously I have very strong personal connections (my father having died of cancer) but I feel everyone can relate to a sense of loss, the question of mortality. Her writing on bdsm and addiction also hit very close to home. On the former: I'm tired of being ashamed of what gives me pleasure. On the latter: substitute "self-injury" for "heroin" and Califia's voice could be mine.
I don't know what quote(s) I can leave you with that will urge you to pick up this book. There are far too many favorites. There are even more quotes I could transcribe that would leave most of my readers shocked and/or disgusted and/or outraged. Califia is really good at saying things people don't want to acknowledge but, as Mikal Shively said, "The truth is often rude."
All right. I leave you with this:
I do not know how many more thousands of years the savior archetype will have to persist in our myths, legends, and catechisms before we realize that the only effective saviors we could possibly have are one another. p.164 ( )