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Anne asks at the end of this lecture what Salt has to do with feminism.

It seems to me to be exploring the shifting sense of the feminine that we are all encountering, at least those of us who are taking this course, if perhaps less so in the world at large. To my complete amazement, the welcome material sent me by Peace Corps Thailand included an issue of Mango & Sticky Rice, which featured (exclusively) American lesbian wedding experiences!

Know that I have been for 10 years living in the pygmy forest/high desert of Northern Arizona, attending for a period the Cowboy Church. My partner of 5 years is out on the elk hunt, for which he prepared himself as if he were a zombie, unable to focus on anything but the hunt. Nevertheless the (now-not-so) Asian restaurant in town is run by two gays from elsewhere, who rented the shop next door to them to 2 lesbians probably also from elsewhere. The prime mover-shaker in town is a German woman, Lilo, who came home w/ a GI from WWII; her voice is raspy, her attitude macho. For years the outed gay fixture in town has been Louis, who looks and sounds like Lilo.

So Salt casts Truong's waves of feminine feeling onto the waters where they seep as they will (have I captured Anne's style?). We are no longer in control, borders melt -- and so the book asks, who are we really? Men are no longer "men," women no longer "women." Hurrah for al that!