I've never read anything by Kathy Acker before today. I've seen her name all over the place, name-checked by everyone from Kathleen Hannah to Richard Hell to Kate Zambreno. But every time I venture into a book store, new or used, I fail to find any primary texts from the writer herself. While I'm sure I could have read (and probably have read short texts of) her work online, I've never immersed myself in a novel or collection of essays. I finally found a copy of work with her name on the cover, Hannibal Lecter, My Father, a collection of interviews, prose, dramatic work, essays, and more.
The first piece of the collection, and my introduction to her greater themes, was a couple of interviews from 1989-90 with French literary critic Sylvère Lotringer. The two discuss memory, identity, community, plagiarism, censorship, tattoos, and mythology. The part I really liked was about plagiarism and how we use other people's work. Acker recognizes it's impossible to create without experience in reality, and for her, words and text are just as much a staple of reality as material and experiences. She explains: "What I'm doing is simply taking text to be the same as the world, to be equal to non-text, in fact to be more real than non-text, and start representing text." Of course, I'm yet to read any examples of her doing this, but I hope to change that soon.
Showing posts with label kate zambreno. Show all posts
Showing posts with label kate zambreno. Show all posts
6.08.2015
2.05.2013
52 Books 52 Weeks
(Full reviews for Heroines and the Aviator's Wife on Frontier Psychiatrist: Behind Every Great Man...)
3. Heroines by Kate Zambreno (finished January 19th)
Zambreno takes an experimental approach to describing the lives of specific women writers over the past 150 years, particularly with Vivienne Eliot and Zelda Fitzgerald. Plenty of wordplay (particularly with homonyms; for example, the title of the book), non-linearity and changing perspectives (including autobiographical accounts) make it a challenging but important read for anyone interested in feminist works. Read more of Zambreno at Frances Farmer is My Sister.
4. Mrs. Dalloway by Virgina Woolf (finished January 26th)
While I've never read anything by Woolf I would say has drastically changed my life, I feel she is an important writer and one I particularly need to catch up on. Mrs Dalloway is throwing a party in early 20th century London, and the book describes through various perspectives and stream-of-consciousness writing the eccentricities and complexities of the people involved. I hated parts of this book (a few of my annotations include circling phrases and wondering "WHY?") but found other parts rather poignant. Certainly not a long novel, but could have benefited from even more edits and finished as a novella.
5. The Aviator's Wife by Melanie Benjamin (finished January 29th)
No, I haven't gotten around to The Paris Wife yet, although that may hold more interesting subject matter. Benjamin's historical fiction work explores the personal relationship between Anne Morrow and her husband Charles Lindbergh. An overwhelmingly popular couple, harassed constantly by the paparazzi, they had to deal with communication issues (duh), a kidnapped and murdered first born child, and a perpetual state of movement, the couple eventually betrayed by the country that once adored them (some of that may have had to do with Chuck's anti-Semetic, pro-Nazi point of view, pre-WWII). The book was interesting enough, but I feel like Benjamin just didn't get as deep into Morrow's mind as she could have.
Zambreno takes an experimental approach to describing the lives of specific women writers over the past 150 years, particularly with Vivienne Eliot and Zelda Fitzgerald. Plenty of wordplay (particularly with homonyms; for example, the title of the book), non-linearity and changing perspectives (including autobiographical accounts) make it a challenging but important read for anyone interested in feminist works. Read more of Zambreno at Frances Farmer is My Sister.
While I've never read anything by Woolf I would say has drastically changed my life, I feel she is an important writer and one I particularly need to catch up on. Mrs Dalloway is throwing a party in early 20th century London, and the book describes through various perspectives and stream-of-consciousness writing the eccentricities and complexities of the people involved. I hated parts of this book (a few of my annotations include circling phrases and wondering "WHY?") but found other parts rather poignant. Certainly not a long novel, but could have benefited from even more edits and finished as a novella.
No, I haven't gotten around to The Paris Wife yet, although that may hold more interesting subject matter. Benjamin's historical fiction work explores the personal relationship between Anne Morrow and her husband Charles Lindbergh. An overwhelmingly popular couple, harassed constantly by the paparazzi, they had to deal with communication issues (duh), a kidnapped and murdered first born child, and a perpetual state of movement, the couple eventually betrayed by the country that once adored them (some of that may have had to do with Chuck's anti-Semetic, pro-Nazi point of view, pre-WWII). The book was interesting enough, but I feel like Benjamin just didn't get as deep into Morrow's mind as she could have.
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