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scribblepost's review against another edition
5.0
A feverish, immersive read. And an unusual approach to critical writing, which sounds far too dry, given how much Martin's voice permeates the text. I loved the dips and shifts within its vernacular, between the subjective and analytical, her impassioned words and his. Also: a GORGEOUS cover. Such a beautiful book, inside and out. The last sentence, before the afterword, is perfect.
jacob_wren's review against another edition
5.0
A few short passages from Acker:
*
On other maps the rooms may be left by no longer existing in time…
*
We will go on from here, in this essayistic work, of which Acker’s fantastic, crudely philosophical letters are only one part of what will be revealed, to arrive at an injunction to “Define to love.” She underscores in her original. Acker begins to do this by exploiting, and upsetting, comfortable rhetorical models of logic. For example, after the opposition “love of knowledge” versus “love of sex” is established to mirror – Acker’s word – the mind : body opposition, Acker decides such a separation is resolved by the logical progression of her next sentence, that: The lovers of knowledge and the lovers of sex both love cats. Other oppositions, and their resolutions through third terms, follow. Acker does what she says she will do here: “Define to love by increasing complexity.”
*
To not revise is noted in some contexts, one developmental strategy, in an evolving work, her finding a way to continue moving forward through some of the initial stumbling blocks. Not looking back might be made part of a process. Up and flinging yourself into another field of concerns, chance then upon what might return. Beyond unfiltered transcription of first thought, slap-dash, much could be made equally of an eventual revision process. Both Peter Wollen and Leslie Dick share in this understanding and contribute it to the Lust for Life volume. Wollen: “Acker used to read her own texts too, each one eight times, re-drafting it after each reading – once for meaning, once for beauty, once for sound, once to the mirror, to see how it looked, once for rhythm, once for structure, and so on.” Dick, “Acker rewrote her texts eight times: once for sound, once for meaning, once for ‘beauty,’ once for structure, once in the mirror for performativity, etc.” How much more exhaustively I would like to be able to get us into those eight times – like training each of the spider’s eyes, one at a time, back onto the composing – by knowing those last two missing criteria I cannot begin to imagine, trust I know.
*
Part of Acker’s plan and one I hope to share some part in through writing on her work, textual contours, her wild calls to intellectual arms, is to somehow redress understandings of a life by troubling the more traditional coordinates of knowledge, to make these for us more permissive, less constrictive, to revalue that which has been stripped of all meaning but meaning made with one over the other.
*
Bohr, the dada physicist, felt there was no real contradiction between science and art, said that as continuity is to discontinuity, logic is to instinct. (Kathy Acker)
*
A difficult read, or listen, is not a proper commodity. (Kathy Acker, from her speech for the “Artist in society” conference)
*
We whose psychologies are made by outer circumstances or politics, who are distorted in and by society whose nature is such that we are from our births apart, we are forced to consider our obsessions. (Kathy Acker, The Burning Bombing of America)
*
I can understand everything that hunger and poverty make you do – that’s my brand of intelligence. (Marguerite Duras, Whole Days in the Trees)
.
*
On other maps the rooms may be left by no longer existing in time…
*
We will go on from here, in this essayistic work, of which Acker’s fantastic, crudely philosophical letters are only one part of what will be revealed, to arrive at an injunction to “Define to love.” She underscores in her original. Acker begins to do this by exploiting, and upsetting, comfortable rhetorical models of logic. For example, after the opposition “love of knowledge” versus “love of sex” is established to mirror – Acker’s word – the mind : body opposition, Acker decides such a separation is resolved by the logical progression of her next sentence, that: The lovers of knowledge and the lovers of sex both love cats. Other oppositions, and their resolutions through third terms, follow. Acker does what she says she will do here: “Define to love by increasing complexity.”
*
To not revise is noted in some contexts, one developmental strategy, in an evolving work, her finding a way to continue moving forward through some of the initial stumbling blocks. Not looking back might be made part of a process. Up and flinging yourself into another field of concerns, chance then upon what might return. Beyond unfiltered transcription of first thought, slap-dash, much could be made equally of an eventual revision process. Both Peter Wollen and Leslie Dick share in this understanding and contribute it to the Lust for Life volume. Wollen: “Acker used to read her own texts too, each one eight times, re-drafting it after each reading – once for meaning, once for beauty, once for sound, once to the mirror, to see how it looked, once for rhythm, once for structure, and so on.” Dick, “Acker rewrote her texts eight times: once for sound, once for meaning, once for ‘beauty,’ once for structure, once in the mirror for performativity, etc.” How much more exhaustively I would like to be able to get us into those eight times – like training each of the spider’s eyes, one at a time, back onto the composing – by knowing those last two missing criteria I cannot begin to imagine, trust I know.
*
Part of Acker’s plan and one I hope to share some part in through writing on her work, textual contours, her wild calls to intellectual arms, is to somehow redress understandings of a life by troubling the more traditional coordinates of knowledge, to make these for us more permissive, less constrictive, to revalue that which has been stripped of all meaning but meaning made with one over the other.
*
Bohr, the dada physicist, felt there was no real contradiction between science and art, said that as continuity is to discontinuity, logic is to instinct. (Kathy Acker)
*
A difficult read, or listen, is not a proper commodity. (Kathy Acker, from her speech for the “Artist in society” conference)
*
We whose psychologies are made by outer circumstances or politics, who are distorted in and by society whose nature is such that we are from our births apart, we are forced to consider our obsessions. (Kathy Acker, The Burning Bombing of America)
*
I can understand everything that hunger and poverty make you do – that’s my brand of intelligence. (Marguerite Duras, Whole Days in the Trees)
.
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