The Law of Gravity
The Law of Gravity
Dom
Ever since I can remember I’ve felt like—I’m not a girl.
Dresses are so uncomfortable—you can’t run, you can’t roll around in the mud.
I always liked playing hockey with the boys more—I was the best at baseball, the best at hockey.
When I was ten, one day, when she didn’t happen to be drunk, my mother forced me to try on a bra—
“You have to be more feminine.”
Really.
The shame I felt in the dressing room that day.
When I’m in girl’s clothes, I’m wearing a disguise, you understand?
I screamed at her—
I’m never going to be a girl!
And she knew there was no way I was going to wear that thing under my overalls.
Pause.
It doesn’t matter what I am. I won’t ever be like everyone else.
Not like I chose it.
This is how I am.
That’s all.
There is a bridge that connects to Not-The-City to The City. Dom lives in Not-The-City but dreams of crossing the bridge one day so he can finally be himself without all the hate and bullying. Fred has moved to Not-The-City from Way-Too-Far-From-The-City. Fred doesn’t know anyone until one day he meets Dom. But as the two boys get to know one another, Fred gets pulled in another direction by some kids at school, in particular, a guy named Jimmy. Jimmy isn’t Dom’s biggest fan, and he knows a secret about Dom that he wields like a weapon: Dom is trans. When Fred finds out, he isn’t sure what to think, but eventually the two boys work to recover whatever friendship they might have and look to a possible future across the bridge.
Olivier Sylvestre’s play/novel is a realistic portrayal of two 14-year-olds desperate to escape their suburban lives and hopefully find a future that is more exciting—and more accepting—in the big city. At the same time, the narrative works as a metaphor of adolescence, exploring the desire to move forward, to get past the awkward stages and become an adult with autonomy and a chance to find an accepting community. The bridge, which Dom and Fred never actually cross, serves as a physical and symbolic boundary that they want to cross in an effort to become themselves, whatever that might eventually look like.
Because The Law of Gravity is a play, the narrative is told entirely through character exposition and dialogue, with some stage directions to clarify scene transitions. This style of storytelling is not always easy to interpret as a reader as there is so much left up to interpretation, which can be a benefit for some readers while leaving others feeling somewhat lost without more explicit and plentiful details. The dialogue as well can leave much to interpretation which, when performed on stage, can allow greater freedom for the actors to make the characters their own and to use body language to make up for empty space in the script.
Overall, The Law of Gravity is a moving and intriguing piece of writing that holds much potential for readers who are open to interpreting a play as written, rather than performed. Dom and Fred are both realistic and sympathetic characters who are driven forward to an unknown future by unique but connected circumstances. By reading between the lines, readers will hopefully see and identify with the heart of the narrative and will find themselves satisfied by the ending, as ambiguous as it is.
The Law of Gravity is an informative and entertaining piece of writing that deserves space on a library or classroom shelf.
Rob Bittner has a PhD in Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies (Simon Fraser University), and is also a graduate of the MA in Children’s Literature program at The University of British Columbia in Vancouver, British Columbia. He loves reading a wide range of literature but particularly stories with diverse depictions of gender and sexuality.