| samenvatting: |
Kathy Acker (1947-1997) was a rare and almost inconceivable thing: a celebrity experimental
writer. Twenty-five years after her death, she remains one of the most original, shocking,
and controversial artists of her era. The author of visionary, transgressive novels
like Blood and Guts in High School; Empire of the Senses; and Pussy, King of Pirates,
Acker wrote obsessively about the treachery of love, the limitations of language,
and the possibility of revolution.
She was notorious for her methods--collaging together texts stolen from other writers
with her own diaries, sexual fantasies, and blunt political critiques--as well as
her appearance. With her punkish hairstyles, tattoos, and couture outfits she looked
like no other writer before or after. Her work was exceptionally prescient, taking
up complicated conversations about gender, sex, capitalism, and colonialism that continue
today.
Acker's life was as unruly and radical as her writing. Raised in a privileged but
oppressive Upper East Side Jewish family, she turned her back on that world as soon
as she could, seeking a life of romantic and intellectual adventure that led her to,
and through, many of the most thrilling avant-garde and countercultural moments in
America: the births of conceptual art and experimental music; the poetry wars of the
60s and 70s; the mainstreaming of hardcore porn; No Wave cinema and New Narrative
writing; Riot grrls, biker chicks, cyberpunks. As this definitive biography shows,
Acker was not just a singular writer, she was also a titanic cultural force who tied
together disparate movements in literature, art, music, theatre, and film.
A feat of literary biography, Eat Your Mind is the first full-scale, authorized life
of Acker. Drawing on exclusive interviews with hundreds of Acker's intimates as well
as her private journals, correspondence, and early drafts of her work, acclaimed journalist
and critic Jason McBride offers a thrilling account and a long overdue reassessment
of a misunderstood genius and revolutionary artist.
|
Nederlands
English
