Tuesday, March 14, 2006

Speaking of the People. . .

. . . I found it interesting to watch people's reactions to the cover of the Bedside Guide at the bookfair. I was prepared for the explaining I'd have to do -- and most seemed either receptive or amused. The few skeptical glares were diffused with my assertion, "I'm a porn peddlar."

Then again, I'm a woman. On Saturday, PF sat at the table for a couple hours and had a different experience. Specfically, one woman was very vocal in her outrage, "What the hell is this?" and "Oh, I bet there are TWO women in the entire book" kind of thing. PF explained what the anthology was, that it was edited by two women and that she could take a look at the back cover and see the many women contributors. According to his account, this woman opened the book, read one poem, flipped to another and then another and then put it down. Guess it wasn't what she expected after all -- and I'm not really sure if it was the cover she had a problem with or that she was attributing the cover to a man. (BTW, the cover designer is also a woman)

The moment turned back when PF invited her to the pajama party. "Oh, I bet you're going to have women prancing around in skimpy negligees and high heels!"

Um, is there any other way to go to bed?

That chick is lucky I wasn't around. I would have given her quite the dressing down. Of course, I have a feeling that if I was around, this incident would not have happened.

3 Comments:

At 12:56 PM, Blogger François Luong said...

I loved that cover! I was actually amused at the reactions of various friends seeing me read it. The majority of them thought poetry anthologies should only have dull and boring covers.

 
At 3:49 PM, Blogger Jeannine said...

It's called post-feminism, people! You know, the fun, empowered, sexy woman...it's been mentioned in all the magazines, you think the general public would be clued in by now ;) Not all feminists wear ugly pants and frown a lot...

 
At 8:26 AM, Blogger Patty said...

Jeezus -- what is UP with people? Here, I thought the cover was terrific -- sexy and smart and fun -- and simply assumed everyone else would think so, too (my typical problem, I s'pose)...?
How did I miss all these grumpy people at AWP? I guess I was walking around in my own little cloud!

 

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