The act of writing burns about a calorie a minute. Fingers flex and extend across the keyboard. Biceps curl to reach across the desk. Your trapezius collaborates with nearby neck muscles to hold up your head.
In On Muscle: The Stuff That Moves Us and Why It Matters, author Bonnie Tsui proves the parallel between writing and physicality, wrestling themes related to the body’s fibrous strands into five chapters, on strength, form, action, flexibility, and endurance. Tsui interweaves scientific research—on, say, the energy required for humpback whales to breach (hint: It’s more than what’s required for typing)—with the stories of uniquely embodied individuals, like Ku Stevens, the student-athlete who hosts a 50-mile run in honor of his great-grandfather’s escape from an Indigenous boarding school. Or Jan Todd, a champion powerlifter (the first woman to move over 1,100 pounds) turned sports-philosophy professor.
Tsui’s first-person reporting produces visceral descriptions of movement as she jumps, sprints, and lifts in search of meaning—as she did with long-distance, open-water running in her 2020 bestseller, Why We Swim, a survey of humans’ relationship to water. In On Muscle, Tsui periodically refers to the aerobic routine she practiced with her father, starting at age five. “I kept lifting and stretching and moving, in pursuit of the life of physicality he introduced to me,” she writes. “And, as part of the same inheritance, to ward off the specter of death, too.”
I spoke with Tsui on Zoom about the connective tissues between exercise and art, fathers and daughters, and more.
This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
How did you integrate your own physical movement into the reporting process?
I started writing this book in the pandemic, so I was reporting during a time when people weren’t really moving or available in person. I remember feeling so stymied. For example, I had to write around the Ku Steven’s Remembrance Run; I could only guess what that [two-day run] would feel like from a sensory perspective. But then when I finally got to go—and be in this collective body moving across the desert—it was so special. You have to be there to experience that big sky and heat, and the crazy effort of trying to move your body through that landscape.
All of the activities I tried for reporting were very joyful. The first time I did double Dutch was terrifying. I was scared I was going to mess up in front of everyone! But there was this feeling of elation. It was lightness, it was levity. I felt lucky to be learning in the presence of all these people who were so inviting. There were 3-year-olds jumping, and also women in their 60s and 70s—all jumping like they’re little girls.
I often find exercise to be less levity, more pain.
Moving bodies can be a way to transcend difficulty. Think about charity runs—there’s an earned aspect. There’s something atavistic about this suffering on behalf of your community. The concept of physical effort to demonstrate care—so palpable and visual. It’s a historic form of movement.
How did you select people to interview?
I always gather stories, and I see what happens when they rub up against each other. That friction is always very interesting to me; I really wanted to get those layers of meaning just right.
Early on, I knew I wanted to talk to Jan Todd. She was a pioneer in powerlifting and could speak to what it was like to occupy that body. Also, her experience as a sports historian and academic writer on these topics was really valuable. By Jan telling me her story, I felt like I could tease out these ideas of strength. I also wanted to know, What is power in this modern world? We’re occupying increasingly virtual lives, and yet there is still so much that is important and grounded in your physical state of being.
Recently, I’ve noticed that more women are getting into weight training. Historically, why haven’t muscles been considered feminine?
I was struck by some recent research about how NCAA female athletes conceive of themselves as having a “performance body” on the court. They were so proud of their strength and muscles. But then, when they get off the court, they return to a “social body.” In that environment, they became self-conscious—“Oh, I don’t want my jeans to fit weird” or “I want to be more feminine.” These biases still find you, no matter what. It’s the same thing for young boys and men who are experiencing this uptick of disordered eating and body dysmorphia coming from this messaging of “You need to look like a Marvel superhero.”
Throughout On Muscle, you grapple with your relationship to your father, who lives in China. Did you feel you needed to visit him to be able to finish the book?
I felt like I had to close that loop somehow. I had been talking with him throughout the writing process, mostly revisiting memories, trying to connect across this vast geographical distance we had between us. He would talk to me about what exercise routines he was doing. There was always something new.
What’s your exercise routine when you’re on deadline for a book?
I’ll stand at my desk sometimes when I’m reading. When I’m really trying to write, I need to sit down. Then I start slumping over my desk. My brother, who’s a physical therapist, has told me a million times that you have to change your position every 20 minutes. And I’m like, How am I supposed to do this? It’s a battle.•
Join us on May 15 at 5 p.m. Pacific time, when Claire Vaye Watkins will sit down with CBC host John Freeman and special guest Karen Russell to discuss Gold Fame Citrus. Register for the Zoom conversation here.
WHY I WRITE
Exploring her reasons for writing, Claire Vaye Watkins writes, “I have been trying to make something beautiful with words for as long as I could physically form their shapes.” —Alta
EXCERPT
Read the opening pages of Gold Fame Citrus. —Alta
EVENT RECAP
If you missed last week’s event with Ishmael Reed, read a recap or watch the video. —Alta
MOTHER AND DAUGHTER
Alta contributing editor David L. Ulin writes about Joan Didion’s Notes to John and the questions raised by posthumous publication. —Alta
30TH EDITION
To commemorate this weekend’s L.A. Times Festival of Books, critic Carolyn Kellogg looks back at the first fest, in 1996. —Los Angeles Times
BOOKSTORE AWARD
Less than a year after a devastating fire forced it to relocate, Oakland’s East Bay Booksellers has been named a finalist for Publishers Weekly’s Bookstore of the Year award for “its commitment to small indie publishers and fostering curiosity.” —San Francisco Chronicle
Alta’s California Book Club email newsletter is published weekly. Sign up for free today.
