For Its 25th, Purple Includes Reines, Bellamy, More, in 'On Radicality'

Fashion magazine Purple has chosen "On Radicality" for the theme of a Philosophy section in its 25th-anniversary issue. "How can one be radical today in a complex period when we need political change? Is it still possible? Is it absurd? Is it an illusion?" For answers, the editors solicited contributors from "the worlds of philosophy and literature" like Alain Badiou, Chris Kraus, Hedi El Kohlti, Jean-Luc Nancy, Paul B. Preciado, Ariana Reines, and Dodie Bellamy, among others. Reines's piece is rooted in her home state of Massachusetts. An excerpt:

A lot has happened in Massachusetts. You asked me what it means to be radical. The United States as we know them began in Virginia and in Massachusetts. The Naumkeag used to live in this place. “Fishing place.” Namaste. Everywhere I read, the Naumkeag are spoken of only in the past tense. A local hypnotist offers Reiki and something called “Indian Head Treatment.” There is a place around here called “Indian Head Neck.” And we have a holiday called Thanksgiving in my country. It is based on the radical idea that the people who once belonged to this land gave it and its bounty to the white man.

The Salem Witch Trials, some say, were about a land dispute and envy. Others suggest that mold on the local wheat made those teenage girls hallucinate, or that really it was all about sex. I have read that “Naumkeag” used to be the name of Salem, Massachusetts. My grandfather directed a production of The Crucible at Marblehead High School in the mid-’60s. His younger daughter played the temptress Abigail in that production. His other daughter played someone else. Nobody will tell me what really happened, but when my grandparents got divorced, my grandfather lost the right to see his children. There had been some kind of sexual accusation. I don’t know much about it, just rumors. A couple of years ago, my mother told me that before they were married my father raped her. I think at the time she wasn’t really sure what was normal behavior for a man. I think she still isn’t. I don’t know if it’s true, but it would explain a lot.

Sylvia Plath opened the oven door. T.S. Eliot had his wife committed. Eileen Myles’s grandmother was committed. My dad had my mom committed. My grandmother had my aunt committed. My mother moved from Penn Station to soup kitchens to shelters with two rubies in her bra. Emily Dickinson stayed home.

More from "On Radicality" at Purple.