Outsiderism
I was trying to chase spring a few times too many, maybe: Montreal in May can be so perfect, the terraces, streets, up-up-uphill walks, the chocolatines, the fleurs. But instead it rained, and rained a lot, and I really oughtn’t complain about it since it was only my first, second and third days of Montreal rain to the locals’ seventh, eighth, and ninth.
I went to sell books to anarchists, something I’ve never done before to that scope and degree, and it was unusual and comforting and alienating and familiar all at once. It was in many ways just like the kind of zine show I’m used to here in Toronto, but it was one where you weren’t allowed to bring peanuts in, the bathrooms were marked “gender-neutral”, and it was unclear from the get-go which crime I was to be made to feel the most guilty for: being American, being from Toronto, or bringing in a cup from Starbucks. (Hey, it was 8:30am.)
Throughout the day, I was asked no less than four times if I (or Infiltration was a “collective”. Really! Once I was asked if it was a feminist collective. Infiltration’s been accused of being a lot of things, now—but never that. Sales to girls at zine shows got so bad that one year, Jeff and I put up a sign at the table saying “Infiltration is vagina-positive!”. The sex-positive vegan punk chicks slowed down for just a little longer then, but they still kept going.
So what’s so weird about being an American, a Torontonian, or a girl explorer? One thing that’s interesting about festivals like the one I attended in Montreal is that, underneath the guise of inclusivity and equality, are a bunch of people that expect you to conform to their exact ideologies because you’re part of the same counterculture. I have no problem with reveling in solidarity, mind you—but I think underground movements of any kind would work better if they embraced those of us that might be perceived as slightly different, part of other worlds, or even coming in from the (rainy, rainy, rainy) outside. (We’ll talk more about Canadian anti-American racism later, as I’m much too tired right now.)
I wonder what the subversives think of poutine?