Fashioning the Body: Versions of the Citizen, the Self, and the Subject

i guess, if my life is a performance and it is all fodder for writing, isn't every piece of my writing and the little conversations, the interactions that imprint on my brain during the day all performance.  i have a hard time coming up with just one script!  :)

so what i wrote, i guess.

nothing on stage in the Garden of Eden.  I have been miraculously transported back in space.

First person comes on stage, naked, bringing clothes. "I believe it is fun to play with appearances, you're performing your gender with every moment you breathe.  so have fun, change your pronoun a bit, don't you know the story of Samael and Lilith, of Adam and Eve? So become blissfully naked and free, play with the goth chicks dipped in honey, screw around and have fun, there's only you and you alone!" plays in the background, a mantra from a genderqueer support group, MAKE ZE AND HIR THE ONLY PRONOUNS NOW!  person looks very confused.  "So why the fuck would I have to take a label then regarding my gender?" person responds.

"You want to be like God?  You think that's the best way of being with God? MORAL SIN.  YOU'RE KICKED OUT OF PARADISE.  OH, AND YOU'RE NAKED."

(monotonic, voice of Metatron)

CAIN'S SURFACE-LEVEL IDENTITY

fade

Alarm clock

Music of Marty Robbins, "El Paso"

put on binding devices

penis

undergarments

undershirt

overshirt

another shirt

pants

no shoes

another person comes on

ABEL'S SURFACE-LEVEL IDENTITY

Alarm clock

Music of King Missile, "Detachable Penis"

quickly! bra, underwear, jeans, FEMINISM IS FOR THE WHALES!  SAVE THE WHALES! t-shirt

the two bring their bodies to God. Abel's body is accepted while Cain's is not.

"Come into the genderqueer group with me, Abel!"

(Cain kills Abel)

God wonders where the hell Abel is.  Am I my brother's keeper? Cain says.  The voice of Abel's blood screams to Cain from the ground.  And a raven comes, picking at the ground to show him how to cover the corpse of his brother.  And Cain cries, woe to me, am I unable, with all of the dirt in the world, to cover the corpse?  And he is remorseful.  And maybe God might forgive Cain, but Metatron doesn't.

"I banish you, Cain, to the moon!  For you will never fit in and you will never care about anything else but making your body fit in!  Go with your twigs to the moon!"

Cain leaves, taking a rosary with him.

Raven and Abel stay.

and in the background, you hear, "some folks say, i should get it permanently attached, but, y'know, i like having a detachable penis."