| Title | : | My Mother: Demonology |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0517144867 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780517144862 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages | : | 268 |
| Publication | : | First published July 20, 1993 |
My Mother: Demonology Reviews
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This one just might be Acker's masterpiece. It all held together in its fragments just right, I think.
What thrills me about her work can only be considered as a series of genial paradoxes. Any single paragraph culled from any of Kathy Acker's novels is wholly unmistakably Acker--and yet they are all made up of things appropriated from other authors' works. Her novels are startlingly unique and unlike anything else you will ever read--yet they are wholly unoriginal works appropriated from various sources. Critics hate them--still they are terrific. Everyone is horrified by the pornographic elements and ignores the politics--yet the politics are deliciously subversive and tough and the pornographic scenes and dirty words liberating, silly, and benign. They have no real plot or characters yet they are engrossing, smart, funny, sexy, and so very, very importantly free--yet, again, they are always written to a certain formula of Acker's own devising and culled entirely from out of the subtexts of other books (and so cannot in any way be considered free). But they feel courageous and say things no one else dares to say--but, apparently, have already said or she would not have copied, culled, or drawn them out of those other books. In answer to those other books. In protest practically of what's in those other books. Even to destroy those and all other books with her own. Kathy Acker writes books that eventually do away with other books--as if their covers were made of sandpaper. -
I thought I was ready for experimental as well as skirting the edges of porn in the interests of the revolution but I had a hard time with this book. Sometimes the (to me) shocking material worked in creating character, tension, and a complex portrayal of a woman struggling against (and sometimes collaborating with) exploitation. The woman veers between self-definition and just rebellion as well as engaging in sadomasochistic activities that I left me confused.
There are passages of absolute beauty and others that are intellectually intriguing. On the whole, the book seemed to me a puzzle I was only partly able to solve.
The intent of the book was not always clear, although perhaps that's just me. I was left both wanting to read more Acker and at the same time leery of so doing. Maybe that's the effect Acker was looking for. I'm not sure. -
This is a hard book for me to rate. Parts of the book are beautiful. There is a dream quality to it--as though you're actually dreaming along with the author. There's a section that riffs off Wuthering Heights that I loved.
But I found the somewhat--if not outright--pornographic scenes hard to take. Not exactly scenes but a motif throughout the entire book. I think this is meant to be disruptive in the way de Sade is disruptive (she mentions him) but then I never really liked de Sade either.
But parts are wonderful. So this book is kind of a 3.0-4.00 read for me. Fascinating but not lovely. My failing I think. -
Blood and Guts In High School is still my absolute favorite by Kathy Acker, but this one feels like her most consistent I’ve read! Every novel by her is more or less a loosely strung together series of essays / reworkings of famous texts,, and this one has some real juicy ones: she rewrites Wuthering Heights, the horror movie Suspiria, Laure’s love letters to George Bataille, and a whoooole lot of other stuff. Very weird, very playful, always a rly truly exciting read!! Def one of her better ones
Also??? As someone w/ a passion for the color red this book absolute rules in its exploration of all the things that color means!!! Rock on Kathy -
::: pulled at random off the shelf because diana abu-jaber's books are NEVER THERE ... and any book with "mother" + "demonology" in the title MUST be read ...
... or not. waste of time. -
I enjoyed the beginning and the last part, but the whole middle section was tough. This book mostly consists of dream sequences that left me confused. I really had to make myself finish it.
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It's the graphic stuff that calls the most attention to itself, but I mostly enjoyed the dream logic. Well, nightmare logic. Thinking about it now, it reminds me of David Lynch's recent films and Willam Burroughs'
Naked Lunch. It was a difficult read, and I may not have finished. -
Hard to rate. At some point, you get lost among the oniric images that Acker draws. However, the fact that it´s a very experimental style is something to keep in mind when you want to approach to this book. Those who didn´t enjoy Burrough´s "Naked Lunch" or the Dušan Makavejev´s film "Sweet movie" (somehow, Acker´s writing reminds me of that kind of movies) surely won´t like this book. But I absolutely recomend it to those who are willing to face something new, bizarre and crazy.
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The illogical flows of this book get caught in that feeling of lingering illness, like a internal seduction continually reapproaching itself again and again. One day I woke up with some type of poisoning; food, alcohol, who knows. I was stuck in bed most the day and the possibilites of depraved fantasies became a rotten taste hidden in my skin, only avoided by endlessly eating.
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One of Kathy Acker's more abstract books, a multi-layered and dense dream about the conflicting desires for love and solitude. I will have to go back and read this a second time to see if I can catch more of its subtlety.
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but I don't like Kathy Acker. Not even Pussy Queen of the pirates.
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This is my first Kathy Acker which I think is v random/ funny I haven't read Blood and Guts in High School or anything. Anyway, going into it not knowing anything was a treat jbc (for any of you already familiar with Acker's work you know this), this shit bends u over and dominates u, forces u to submit to its logic. I think with any super experimental writing there are moments that don't connect esp bc this book vacillates between very serious, grave, shocking and then also very playful and even goofy. That being said, those moments of disconnect became fewer and farther between the more I immersed myself in the logic of the book (as I said earlier) and the highs of this thing are through the roof, past the sky and in fucking space. This book contains some of the most beautiful moments, some of the most shocking and striking images and some of the most intellectually intriguing ideas ever. I think many will be turned off by its crude, violent and shameless depiction of sex, sexuality and sexual violence, I also think that people who want books to have a straightforward linear plot for them to follow will not like this, but then again why would those people be reading Kathy Acker. Also fuck those people.
Ok so this book is loosely based on the relationship and correspondences between Bataille and Colette Peignot but a lot of it is a series of dream sequences within which the protagonist Laure (the name that Peignots work was posthumously published under) is processing and reconstructing her childhood in her quest for self discovery/ self annihilation. And ok in this book, Acker captures the circuitous and surreal logic of dreams, the FEELING of being in a dream, better than anything I've ever read (sorry Leonora Carrington, you come close tho). This alone was such a treat to be immersed in.
Then there is the Ackerification of Suspiria and Wuthering Heights, two sections that follow the plots of the movie and book respectively but with Acker's surreal edits, additions and distortions. These parts were so awesome and it made we so glad I've watched Suspiria and read Wuthering Heights so I could enjoy the sections on both levels (also just two pieces of media that I rly love on their own).
Maybe my favorite section was the one about the artist father needing to paint a portait of NYC but needing to "touch" true horror in order to do so. I won't spoil what he does but this section rly reminded me of the second part of Han Kang's The Vegetarian. Both are about artists who, due to their relationship to their work and to another person in their life, they must do the one thing that is truly forbidden or taboo in order to "create" the piece they are trying to create. This process by which the artist flirts with and then gives himself over the violent forbidden takes place in both books. I thought this section was just stunning (and ofc disturbing but that comes with the territory).
I also think that Kathy Acker (in this case through Laure) has an important political perspective and the way this book explores womanhood and sexuality feels so so complex and rich and necessarily shocking, uncomfortable and violent. Bc of this and bc of how much of this book is about the symbolism of dreams it feels v Freudian, v psychoanalytic and I think through that lens it is also v fascinating and successful.
Anyway 4.5 and I will def be reading more Acker, this was a ride. At first I was rolling my eyes but the deeper I got, the more I fell in love. -
i am huge fan of kathy acker, new narrative lit, and experimental genres, but this book got super hard to read towards the entire middle section (President Bush, all-girls school murders? idk?) - it was almost unbearable, and I know that it's possible Kathy intended that. for some reason I plowed through. I'm SO glad I did because the last part of this book - about being in Germany on the writer's tour + all the love letters - was so intellectually and emotionally riveting. it reminded me of 'I'm Very Into You', even though this book predates that communication. she even rolls in some bits of criticism on the literary and academic community of the time (holds true today), while toiling with whether to go home with another writer, or go back to her hotel room and be alone. the beginning of this novel was also full of brilliance, memory and dreams, grappling with the self of childhood. “Dear B, The more I try to tell you everything, the more I have to find myself. The more I try to describe myself, the more I find a hole. So the more I keep saying, the less I say, and the more there is to say.” There is so much to unpack here about the relationships between women and men, and communication - can we ever truly communicate with another person?
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“Memories do not obey the law of linear time,” is one of the many lines from this book that stuck with me and is an excellent descriptor of how the book makes you feel with these disjointed stories, dream-like and poetic while traversing the land of Laure's self-discovery. Acker's self-described punk style never strays from the grotesque and traumatic in order to explore the trail of femme traumas and their impacts on Laure's life. Many sections of the novel stick with me, but my favorite has to be the sections referencing Dario Argento's "Suspiria." Acker pulls on the movie's themes of violence, the male gaze, and witchcraft in order to inform her own text, transforming and building on what is presented in the film.
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Sadly I have outgrown Kathy Acker. As a young man, late teens / early twenties I loved her (and was lucky enough to see her perform live as well). Her approach to literature, art, fiction and story-telling was just what I needed to hear and read back then. Now I am too old for her, in body and mind.
I have come to the conclusion that nobody’s dreams are of any importance or interest to me, including my own, and also the dreams of Alexander the Great, Roger Federer and Kathy Acker, whose books are mostly her dreamscapes.
Still, she writes beautifully and I can pick up a line or paragraph here and there and remember being young, flat stomach’d and full of hope. -
I can’t give a rating to this one mostly because I have decided not to finish it. I ripped through the first 50 pages and then found myself losing interest and understanding 50 pages thereafter. While I love the reflective writing that spins through memories and dreams, I found myself too often wondering the real plot and importance of each sequence. I really thought I’d love this one but it has lost my interest. Maybe I’ll revisit later in life.
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Kathy Acker was probably the best writer of her type of her period, if not the entire century, and this may have been her best work. Absolutely recommended, but if you're unfamiliar with Acker or her work, I'd recommend looking a bit up about her before reading it because some of her stuff can be a shock to the system...
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"Why are human beings still rational, that is, making nuclear bombs polluting inventing
DNA etc.? Because they don't see the absolute degradation and poverty around their flesh because if they did, they would be in such horror they would have to throw away their minds and want to become, at any price, only part-humans." -
I think it has a very therapeutic effect. If she could write that, I can think weird stuff too and it's ok. Also, it's far less "provocative" than I expected after reading some reviews.
Some parts were a bit boring (the one based on Suspiria, Hell Screen, Wuthering Heights etc) but some other were truly exciting and made me feel less alone. -
This book had a lot of hot political takes that I found personally relevant. Kathy Acker does a great critical inquiry into violence. I think she’s definitely my current favorite author, and this book was so different and thought provoking. Will be reading more of her work asap.
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DNF
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By far the most agonising of all Acker's works to get through
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Yeah, good. I don't really know what to think of Kathy Acker after a certain point. . .
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Mind-blowing and singularly beautiful until you realize that all the best parts were lifted directly from
Laure: the Collected Writings. Acker was always honest about her interest in "appropriation", but she relied too heavily upon it for my taste, especially here. The book remains compelling but loses much once you know that it's built on the hallucinations of another. -
I actually enjoyed the first half of this book and the way it made me examine language as well as sexual and gender norms. And then I got lost in one of the dream sequences (and the next, and the next) and found the things I wanted to understand (plot) were not at all what the author was interested in exploring. So I stopped reading it.
