GARY INDIANA DEVOTED several pages of I Can't Give You Anything But Love to Acker, which felt like reason enough for me to give her another try. I had read In Memoriam to Identity years and years ago (early 1990s, I think--it was before she passed) and not liked it much. It seemed to me a case of assuming that trafficking in transgression would suffice to make writing interesting in the absence of imagination, insight, and style. But no, it does not suffice. The literature of transgression can be powerful when imagination, insight, and style are present (e.g. Rimbaud), but without them, all you get is...well, In Memoriam to Identity.
Blood and Guts in High School is a much better known book, so I thought it was a good bet for my second Acker. It concerns Janey, who at the beginning of the novel is ten years old and living with her father in Yucatan. The first event in the story is that her father breaks up with her...so, yes, we have some transgression going up. Janey moves on to a variety of different locales, New York City, France, Morocco, getting involved with a few other men, such as Jean Genet and a Persian slave trader.
Much of the book is devoted to texts and drawings by Janey. Some of these were interesting: an analysis of The Scarlet Letter and some gonzo translations off Sextus Propertius.
I finished the book, however, with no desire at all to read any more Acker. She seems convinced that being bad makes you interesting. It does not.
No comments:
Post a Comment