Which, you should probably know, is a book about p0rnography. (And pop culture, and politics, but also, yeah, smut.) It's one of the first articles of cultural criticism I'd ever read about fat and it helped start me thinking about fat and weight in ways that weren't just personal.

In this new article I think she's overstating a lot of things, like the level of faith that some people supposedly have in the "fat is genetic" argument (does anyone fully buy that?), but it's still worth reading.

The first thing you need to know about the comments is that they aren't posted to the site right away. They're emailed to me and then I approve them if I think they're okay. And by "okay" I mean anything that's 1.) not junk, 2.) not abusive, and 3.) relevant to the discussion.

This means I'm no longer publishing any comment that reads like an email and/or mentions things that are more appropriate for a private message. I don't mind reading these kinds of posts in themselves, but sometimes the comments section of my site reads more like a guestbook, which isn't what I intended. I know some people feel it's easier and somehow less intrusive to communicate via the comments feature, but thanks to the cool little web form I have on my contact page, you can write me without having to open your email program. I like to read my fan mail but there's no reason why everyone else should have to read it, too. And if you submit a comment with a question, I'm not going to publish it unless I'm willing to follow it with an answer, which, sadly, isn't too often.

I won't publish comments that are posted to the wrong blog entry. I won't approve any attempts to respond to entries where I closed or disabled the comments feature. (Because I do that for a reason.) I will not approve any comments written in all caps. I won't approve comments written without punctuation. I'll forgive a few typos, but if your post gives the impression that you're drunker, crazier, or significantly more careless than other commenters, I'll do you a big fat favor and not publish it.

I'll publish a comment that's posted in response to another comment, and I'll probably publish the subsequent comment in response to that comment, but beyond that, all bets are off, because this isn't a bulletin board.

I might not post your comment if it's really long, or if you comment a lot and I think you might need to get out a little more. No hard feelings. I'm also not going to post your comment about how you wish I'd update my site more often, because, alas, it never has the effect you were hoping it would have on me.

Obviously I won't publish your comment if you're a douchebag, or a troll, or if you have a blatantly fake email address, or a bug up your ass about something I wrote, or if you're a robot, or an online casino enthusiast. Also, please don't hit the "post" button 10,000 times thinking that it'll make me publish your comment faster. I'm afraid it won't.

Really, if you're a reasonable person, I'll likely publish your comment. Mostly I'd love it if you didn't care too much whether I approve your comments or not. People post comments for different reasons, and not all of them fit with my idea of what my site is. Thanks for understanding.

The opening chapters are from the perspective of Rachel, a poet and college instructor in her thirties, who brings a succession of one-night stands home to her cancer-stricken mother's apartment; subsequent sections are about other (related) characters. The first sixty or so pages were intense and concise enough for me to want to save the book for when I could focus, and when I got a plane the next day, I packed a couple of novels better suited for "lose yourself while on a long flight" reading instead. Now that I've finally gotten back to it I think I'm sorry I put it aside for so long.