I thought I would review for my web site. But once I read it, I
realized that it came very close to the sort of book I feel can cause
harm by pretending to offer help. I think that's why fat activists
are discarding the term "size acceptance" in favor of Health at Any
Size, "http://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/p.asp?WebPage_ID=320&Profile_ID
=41160">Love Your Body, and Fat Pride--the last one may scare some
people, but it's pretty hard to distort into a diet message!
June 9 to June 17 1976 I read:
The Other Side of the Clock: Stories Out of Time, Out of Place,
Philip Van Doren, Ed., Stern, Comp.
Star Mother, Sydney J Van Scyoc
All the Colors of Darkness, Lloyd Biggle Jr.
my comment was "poorly done"
If You Have a Lemon, Make Lemonade: An Essential Memoir of a Lunatic
Decade, Warren Hinckle
Maybe not so essential in that it's out of print now.
The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula Le Guin
Crazy Salad, Nora Ephron
This one made the most impact on me of the books I read that week
June 9 to June 17, 2006, I read:
The Amulet of Samarkand,(The Bartimaeus Trilogy, Book 1),
Jonathan Stroud
This was fun
Not Fade Away: A Short Life Well Lived, Peter Barton and Laurence
Shames
I borrowed this book to read because I wanted to know what it had in
common with another book Shames co-authored with the man whose life it
detailed--Michael S. Berman--entitled Living Large: A Big Man's
Ideas on Weight, Success, and Acceptance (discussed below).
I was curious why Berman selected Shames to help him write the story of his
life. I didn't find a website for Shames, who also writes mystery
fiction, but I found an interesting Shames quote: “Success and failure.
We think of them as opposites, but they're really not. They're
companions - the hero and the sidekick.”
After reading Not Fade Away, I can see how Peter Barton's story
meshed with Berman's view of his situation--or possibly the spin his
publisher wanted to put on it.
Not Fade Away - A wealthy, creative entrepreneur, cable TV
pioneer, who has everything he ever wanted deals with his impending
death from cancer in early middle age.
Living Large - well-known political activist and Washington
Lobbyist, despite a happy marriage and fulfilling life, deals with
prejudice against fat people and a life-long eating disorder.
In my opinion, this also describes a life-long dieting addiction. But
they say you can't see your own eyebrows, and Berman (and his doctors)
can't see the yo-yo diet reality being fostering here in
the name of "acceptance."
I'm not the only person who hoped that Living Large would be
that rare and interesting thing, a positive book by a fat man
about his experience. There was much spirited discussion at
"http://www.bigfatblog.com/archives/cat_fat_and_men.php">bigfatblog
I could discuss the co-opting of the size acceptance movement by the diet
industry. But I have a headache and I don't feel like any heavy ranting
today. I very much like Marilyn Wann's discussion of the spiral of
self-acceptance at the very bottom of the bigfatblog page referenced
above.
When I sat down to read Living Large, I found that the primary
"accepting" that Berman did about his body was to accept that he will
always be fat, and that he intends to fight it every day of his
life. Hence the parallel with Peter Barton's dying of cancer.
Berman's web site
lists his weight from birth till now, and the diet he was/is on from
then till now, including calorie counting and frequent fasts under medical supervision). The blurbs in the Praise section are mostly from people invested in the diet industry.
I feel for Michael S. Berman's very real suffering, and I am glad that
he has found some measure of peace. Who knows? Perhaps he is in one
stage of that spiral of self-acceptance. However, I hope his
conditional self-esteem view doesn't damage anyone who confuses
perpetual dieting with Health at Any Size.
I must stop now as I feel a primal scream coming on.
By the way, we're still waiting for that self-accepting book by a fat
man.
Jonathan
Stroud
Peter
Barton
Laurence
Shames
rel="tag">Michael S. Berman
fat
size
acceptance
health
rel="tag">Health at Any Size
rel="tag">bigfatblog
Warren
Hinckle
Nora
Ephron
fat pride
Lynne
Murray
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