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?
Comments
I'm assuming you chose to simply ignore the irony of Anarchists imposing even stricter rules on things than anyone else?
Posted by: Jeremy Wilson | May 28, 2006 10:04 AM
Yah i'm with Jeremy on the irony of that conversation. But that's all of what I find exhausting about dealing with idealogues on the left (and slipping over into counter culture). They are rule-bound, and not in a way that uses rules to achieve forward motion but rather just uses them to right some wrong.
I've heard stories of ActUP meetings grinding to a halt because their rigid 'F/M/ftm/mtf/q..." question asking structure didn't merely allow for all to be heard but REQUIRED that they did, and if nobody from the whatever category had anything to say they'd wait. Now the story may be apocryphal, but in any case it is illustrative of how the far left (and yes I mean the NDP as well) can be more interestd in process and procedure than acheivemnt. But I'm a white male, so what do I know.
How did you not just tell them to fuck off and buy your book? Wouldn't that just have been the MOST anarchic thing to do?
Posted by: Mark | May 30, 2006 03:43 PM