Just to remind people in the NYC metro area to come to the Fat Girl's Flea Market. I will be there selling my book from about 1pm until I sell out, the event ends or I collapse from exhaustion. But don't come for me. Come for the fabulous clothes and the amazing atmosphere.
So I finished FatLand, a novel by Frannie Zellman, put out by Pearlsong press (not to be confused by the fat hating book by the same name). In FatLand, it is about 30 years in the future and laws regulate food and fat people. These oppressive laws drove a group of fat people to form their own country which is located near Colorado. Life seems idyllic in FatLand where being fat is okay, people are happier and healthier. However there are outside and inside forces who want to cause upheaval in this utopia. Meanwhile the US (called "The other side" in the book) is a dystopian nightmare as people have to pay enormous taxes to eat "sinful" foods, forced on diets and placed in "re-education camps" if they don't follow the rules.
Frannie's novel is beautifully fat positive. It's a boost to self-esteem and encouragement to help pass size discrimination laws (such as what they are pushing now in Nevada). While I am not sure fat people would form their own country, the US Pro-health laws of the novel are rooted in things like forcing fat people to pay more for insurance (regardless of their health) or not allowing fat people eat in restaurants if they are "too fat". The main characters are proud to be their size. My only issue was the character Mira who feels compelled to leave FatLand because she is thin and doesn't feel comfortable. She is even pressured by her mother, a founder of FatLand, to gain weight. I find it odd that a country founded on the principles that biology dictates size would pressure her to gain weight. I can understand maybe her peers might be snide having grown up where fat is beautiful, but Mira's mother should at least understand. Even if she didn't, this is something that needed to be addressed more.
And as a sci-fi reader/writer, I certainly would like to see more of the creation of FatLand. How is it that FatLand was formed without firing a shot? I can't imagine to US annexing land or allowing part of Colorado to secede.
We need to see more novels about FatLand and especially need to see more media including books, movies, and TV showing people of *all sizes* not just ones that look like Jennifer Aniston. In the meantime we need to support media that does have positive fat characters.
Thanks for the review of Fatland (incidentally it could use a comment or two from you at Amazon, I only saw two reviews there). I've added it to my wish list and twittered your review.
Posted by: Moe | March 31, 2009 at 06:22 PM
Lara..thoroughly enjoyed your review and comments. Don't want to give it all away, but in the second part of my FatLand trilogy -FatLand: The Early Days- I address exactly the issue you have raised and delve more deeply into FatLand's creation.
I think it will be fun for you to see, and will give you a heads-up when it is finished.
Posted by: Frannie Zellman | April 02, 2009 at 02:23 AM