This seemed, in my mind, to have something to do with Chinese emperors, perhaps from accounts of the old Chinese civil service exams that required extensive memorization. I suppose one of the reasons I squirreled away information was anxiety about this infernal inquisition and the possibility that if you knew … that knowledge could protect you from a punitive, incoherent universe.
People watching is one of life’s great pleasures, and I felt fortunate to live among drag queens and the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, the AIDS activist group and parodic sororital/fraternal organization launched at the end of the 1970s, among people who took any excuse to costume—in a city of parades and street parties and festivals for Dia de los Muertos and Halloween and Gay Pride and Chinese New Year, among subcultures with their particular styles from punk to lowrider to hip-hop to the many people remaking gender to suit themselves and signifying it by personal style and body language.
Rebecca Solnit: Recollections of My Nonexistence (2020) Penguin Books