A review by documentno_is
Empire of the Senseless by Kathy Acker

adventurous challenging dark sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.75

 Vestiges of a dying empire 

 

Acker tends to speak of empire in a disjointed anti-American pro nothing sort of vagueness that I can’t stand. She explicitly defines that she thinks humans are evil and then dooms them to their evil fates- no hope for salvation, god is just a tool of capitalism. It’s all a little too pessimistic for me, somebody who has viewed anarchy as a form of hope. 

 

Her writing is equal parts pain and wordplay, and while I commend the experimentation I’m left with a sort of empty feeling in its wake. Sometimes Acker reverts to a childlike word association, nauseous ad nauseam, every time she approaches poignancy she almost immediately devolves back into edgy nonsense. Rebellion seemingly for rebellions sake, or in pursuit of healing pain? She’ll reference psychology and principles of German philosophy only to unravel the same presumptions in the same sentence. She so boldly presents us with the ultimate of depravity, the worst humanity has to offer and then cheapens its by her stylistic choice to use cunt in every sentence. I wanted to like Acker so badly, and she certainly piques my interest- I also have to admit I found this more easily accessible than Blood and Guts in High School ( white girls in Native American headdresses type beat, she attempts some kind of vague attempt to address racial discrimination but doesn’t have the knowledge to do it appropriately.) I suppose I’ll never be able to fully get behind Ackers transgressive shock value style, mainly because it doesn’t try hard enough to amount to some greater answer for its violence- suffering because life is suffering, but why does she feel the need to rub my nose in it ? I suspect that her attempt is to speak to what was going on in this era, but wonder if this target ever reached the ears of anybody who needed to hear it. 

 

One of my favorite things about Empire of the Senseless is the weaving in and out of the modern day- one second we are in a pirate fantasy and the next moment we are on the streets of Detroit, contending with an American reality. The more fantasy elements of this book weave together to create an almost Mad Max Fury Road story of deprivation, violence, and desperation and it clearly seeks to expose the depths of human depravity. There is violent ideology, peppered with actual violence (mostly towards women) and then finally even the language itself is violent- she chooses the most jarring and uncomfortable words in every use case. 

 

There are passages from this novel that were so affecting- like when she brought up the MK Ultra experiment and I had to contend with the fact that I hadn’t even known the aspect of the CIA buying brothels in Paris. I can’t help feeling, especially with the very end, that a lot of the attempt is a little misguided. Acker was of course writing down her beliefs, many of which were unpopular in American society and it’s easy to sympathize with her viewpoint in this regard, she clearly has an eye for style and structure and a distaste for the rules of the system of writing- all of which is admirable in its own right. That said, the digressive quality especially when it comes to leaving her point for a particular character journey, only to devolve back into nonsense makes the experience of reading this very unpleasant. Furthermore, I don’t really need a white novelist parroting the n-word at me to be able to wrap my head around the concept of discrimination (reminded me a lot of her mentor Burroughs actually.) I’m not sure how much she was adding to the conversation, agreeing with others in a more uncomfortable lens, but I’m equally sure she wouldn’t give a fuck about what anybody thought she could or couldn’t say- transgressive, taboo, anti-novelist be damned. I just didn’t like reading it, even if I respect a lot of it. 

 

The whole world is men’s bloody fantasies.