sisters are standing on their own two feet and ringing their own bells

[two_if_by_sea]

...what a lot of people don’t realize - what I didn’t realize, until I read up on it - is that they didn’t actually kill her for heresy. Her answers, when they tried to trip her up and make her say or confess something heretical, were typically-yet-shockingly smart and charismatic and convincing; she did so well, and won so many people over, that

Comments

[cherrypark]

I don't know if it's because I haven't read your poetry in a while, but this poem seems much more visceral and blunt than what I remember of your style. I think it gets its point across beautifully. I've seen Farewell, My Concubine twice, most recently for Chinese class in college, and I only remember how uncomfortable I felt watching it with strangers. We watched it in the dark, but I can only imagine the grimace that must've shown on my face for the majority of the film.

[two_if_by_sea]

It is very blunt. Rereading the stuff I was writing in that workshop was really strange for me. Like I had two other poems I was rereading to write this post, and one of them was about, god, infidelity and learning to be sick of yourself and your insecurities, and the other one was literally called "what to say when people ask why you write poetry" and the answer was "BECAUSE WE ALL DIE" as;dflkas;dlj and started with the following stanza:

"Tell them your father tied you to the kitchen sink,
beat you to the rhythm of the leaking faucet.
Tell them your brother masturbated
to your underwear. "

WHAT WAS WRONG WITH ME.

It's a really difficult film for me to watch every time, haha. Especially since whenever I try to explain to people what it's about, I'm like, "insert long lecture in here about Mei Lanfang and also Farewell My Concubine being the Fifth Wave answer to Forrest Gump" which I've now learned is why I'm never allowed to talk about this film in public.

[jibrailis]

I own a copy of Farewell, My Concubine. I've owned it for about five years, and I haven't yet watched it because every time I go to, I don't know, I feel uneasy and anxious and terrified, because it's like I'm waiting to be torn by it (and I think I will, I think it's the sort of movie that will get to me the most).

I also think I will go and watch it now, after this.

and your poem, and that excerpt about Joan of Arc -- they are electrifying.

[two_if_by_sea]

You really should. :(((( It's one of those films that years later, I can still remember entire scenes of, and is probably the reason why I Hate Beautiful Things, because it broke my heart in really fundamental ways. It also worries me that so many of the Chinese-language films I love are about male queerness (Farewell My Concubine, Happy Together, The Wedding Banquet, Vive L'Amour, etc etc). :/ It gives me real "AM I JUST FETISHIZING" qualms. BUT MY POINT IS you should watch the film. It's a little long and can get kind of exhausting, but if there was ever a tragedy about art and life, it would be Farewell My Concubine. ♥

[chibi_lurrel]

This is a gorgeous, beautiful post, and a wonderful response to an already heady Tiger Beatdown post (which is one I'm still mulling over).

[two_if_by_sea]

The post is so dense. I thought I already couldn't handle everything Sady had to say, and then I got to the last few paragraphs, and I was just like, "god, it's so much." But totally worth it.

Anyway, thanks for taking time to read this overly long nattering. ♥

[gyzym]

But this was a dance
I started with artifice.
It has never been about being born.
It has never been your fault.

I mean, you know I could sit here and flail at you for hours, going through this piece line by line and marveling at your genius, but this part especially speaks to...well. You know of my constant fascination with the push/pull of adulthood and this speaks so clearly to that debt we owe, all the ways we wind ourselves around our own resentment. I just. You way with words never fails to amaze, Cathy, the end.

[two_if_by_sea]

It is my favorite stanza too. ♥ Other than the bit about cutting your throat a;skdfj because apparently I secretly want to be Jack the Ripper. Certainly makes the ending bit about CUTTING INTO PERSIMMONS AND PRETENDING THEY ARE BOYS' FACES even creepier.

[weatherfront]

You are so hard on your writing, Cathy, but especially on your poetry, and I don't know why. :( ♥ I love it when you deal with the subtleties of the two-way street of influence-- of any sort of influence, really. It's gorgeous.

And that post on Joan of Arc is amazing, and Farewell My Concubine-- well, that's a movie no one can talk about very much, without becoming frustrated with words.

[two_if_by_sea]

WELL I AM JUST-- BEING CHINESE-- and also I have this weird thing, where like, you're allowed to write fiction as you want, even if it is crappy, because everyone has the right to tell stories, but you're only allowed to write poetry if you're actually good at it a;ldskfja;skdfj; IS THAT WEIRD. WRITING IS A PRODUCT OF etc etc.

That post on Joan of Arc is one of the most amazing things I've read recently. :((((((