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To respond to some of the interpretation of "Lifting Belly" raised by skumar in the thread, it feels like somehow lesbian sex has been taken without context and overanalyzed. The intimate interaction between two women is often objectified and commodified, and I think it's easy to slip into the space where it can be exoticized or made into a spectacle. I don't think, however, that Stein creates or infers an image of lesbian intimacy that becomes like that stereotypical interaction that is frequently turned to spectacle.

To go on with that, I don't think the use of the word "fire" is problematic, if in fact, Stein was inferring physical intimacy with the use of the word "fire." I think regardless of the sexual object choice, "fire" is and always will be "fire." I think it is overanalytical (is that a word haha?) to infer that the use of this particular word devalues or underestimates the love of a woman by another woman. Of course, physical attraction, like in any other relationship of a different sexual object choice, is important. To think it isn't would be to misunderstand humans.