Well, I might as well start off with one of the more intense books I've had the privilege of reading: Blood and Guts in High School, by Kathy Acker. I’m pretty far from a feminist, but due to my required reading lists this quarter, this year might be the year of change. Acker begins her book with anecdotes about her character, Janey, and the sexual relationship she has with her father. Complete with hand-drawn pornographic pictures, which makes this book hard to read on buses when people are peering over your shoulder. Though this book was assigned to me by a professor, I’ve had a hard time getting the images it has left behind out of my mind. One of the main themes throughout the book is that helpless ten year old Janey is subjected to atrocious treatment by the males she encounters in her lifetime.
After reading the painful novel, filled with more horror stories of Janey with her father, Janey as a slut, and, finally, Janey as a whore under the care of a Persian slave trader, I researched Acker to see what went through her mind when she was writing. In an interview found here, Acker states, “I don't remember. I write it to get it out of me. I don't write it to remember it.” This is a very good point. Blood and Guts in High School falls into the category of experimental fiction, which is pretty much exactly what it sounds like. The important word there is fiction. This work of fiction is a complex, dark story that Acker was able to formulate in her mind, and though it isn’t a true story, she was able to use her life experience and what she has seen to write novel.
Acker also states in the interview, “but I'm starting to worry about self-censorship.” When I read this, I was taken aback. Acker’s writing seems to be so off-the-wall out there that there is no way that she has held anything back. But still, she worries that she has. What I’m hoping I get from this reading is a slightly different approach to writing. I take many writing workshop classes and have ample space to express myself in a peer-reviewed setting. I hope I can begin to take my unique life experience farther and turn them into pieces of writing. Acker is inspiring in the way that she has awful, disgusting thoughts and things that have happened around her, but she manages to find a way to get these things out of her mind and onto paper. This process is ultimately beneficial on multiple levels: Acker can forget the sad memories and a new piece of brilliant literature is available to be read by the world.
After reading the painful novel, filled with more horror stories of Janey with her father, Janey as a slut, and, finally, Janey as a whore under the care of a Persian slave trader, I researched Acker to see what went through her mind when she was writing. In an interview found here, Acker states, “I don't remember. I write it to get it out of me. I don't write it to remember it.” This is a very good point. Blood and Guts in High School falls into the category of experimental fiction, which is pretty much exactly what it sounds like. The important word there is fiction. This work of fiction is a complex, dark story that Acker was able to formulate in her mind, and though it isn’t a true story, she was able to use her life experience and what she has seen to write novel.
Acker also states in the interview, “but I'm starting to worry about self-censorship.” When I read this, I was taken aback. Acker’s writing seems to be so off-the-wall out there that there is no way that she has held anything back. But still, she worries that she has. What I’m hoping I get from this reading is a slightly different approach to writing. I take many writing workshop classes and have ample space to express myself in a peer-reviewed setting. I hope I can begin to take my unique life experience farther and turn them into pieces of writing. Acker is inspiring in the way that she has awful, disgusting thoughts and things that have happened around her, but she manages to find a way to get these things out of her mind and onto paper. This process is ultimately beneficial on multiple levels: Acker can forget the sad memories and a new piece of brilliant literature is available to be read by the world.
Thanks for posting the interview of Kathy Acker. She was one fascinating person.
ReplyDeleteAre you still going to UCSD? I was reading your review on Les Guerilleres and then I realized that based on all the books you were assigned, you were probably in the same class that I am in now.
Hi! I graduated from UCSD last March, but I wrote this blog to fulfill one of my Sixth College requirements two years ago, while analyzing things that I read in an experimental writing course. Is this the class you're taking? It was one of my favorite ones.
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