Holy Anorexia is a sociological study comparing female saints who starved themselves to achieve mystical experiences to anorexic teenage girls today.
Basically the study concludes that both were starving themselves to undermine the patriarchy, though it's the total abjectness of the act (leading to death in cases such as Catherine of Sienna) that I think you will find interesting. Even someone like Simone Weil fits into this category--though I can't remember if she's in the book. I don't think she is.
Not much there about subverting capitalism but it seems a natural connection or next step to me.
j gor- that diatribe was inspiring. enya is the shit. you must try harder to understand her.
In regards to hate--I'm personally acutely aware of what a tragic lack of representation this major human emotion has in literature, aside from things like blogs or other expressions by people that seem to have no self-awareness of what they're doing in the writing. It is an ostracized emotion in our cultural expression, as if to imply that educated or cultured people can transcend it somehow. Whatever the fuck. I think this will (or has) effect(ed) our culture in horrific ways that we aren't even beginning to recognize yet, overall. The way I see it, we need more art that is simply spewing hatred. I've been working on a project myself that was basically just trying to be an exploration of my own abundant hatreds and I can't even keep it going...I might give up on it altogether, which I've never done on a manu/ project before. I'll be writing on the bus or the beach or some other public place thinking "Geez, man...if someone for some reason sees what I'm writing right now, there's a great likelihood I'll face physical danger." The project has disturbed my life from the interior and the exterior. I've never even tried publishing any of the poems. I couldn't even bring myself to if someone asked me for them...I would feel irresponsible just making them available to a public.
What I'm getting at though is, as I've been reviewing your and Joyelle's work for when you guys come to Racine (which has been a great joy for me, recently), it's really been striking me that you're providing what I think are major milestones of that hatred in highly intellectual work and circles. The work you are doing seems really important to me and it's obvious I'm not alone in this.
Last comment--on your closed mindedness...really appreciated those comments. I've been meditating a lot on the concept of diversity lately and, in a big way, I think diversity is something to be lamented. Not superficial diversity like skin color or anything (though no doubt those things have deeper, more important implications), but profound diversities...the diversity of thought, belief, etc. I think, if I am to be honest with myself, I am very against anything much beyond superficial diversities. I don't want to truly support right wing politics or the KKK's philosophy or anything like that. If I really believed in diversity, I think I would embrace all of those things though, because they inhabit the rainbow of human thought as prominently as their philosophical binaries. I'm still meditating on all this/working it out...but your notes on close-mindedness struck a chord with me.
Loved it.
ReplyDeleteWhat? No mention of "The Wall"?
ReplyDeleteObjectionable? Cuddly!
ReplyDeleteAction YES.
ReplyDeleteAlso, you should read Holy Anorexia for sure.
What's Holy Anorexia?
ReplyDeleteOK, I will check it out.
ReplyDeleteYou make me feel disgusted about myself.
ReplyDeleteUnrelated: first class in 3.5 hours.
weird! you actually do say "the wall" in this....
ReplyDeleteSandra,
ReplyDeleteYou're obsessed with The Wall. What's going on?
J
What's going on? Good question that I can never quite answer. Really, though, enjoyed this interview.
ReplyDeleteHoly Anorexia is a sociological study comparing female saints who starved themselves to achieve mystical experiences to anorexic teenage girls today.
ReplyDeleteBasically the study concludes that both were starving themselves to undermine the patriarchy, though it's the total abjectness of the act (leading to death in cases such as Catherine of Sienna) that I think you will find interesting. Even someone like Simone Weil fits into this category--though I can't remember if she's in the book. I don't think she is.
Not much there about subverting capitalism but it seems a natural connection or next step to me.
Very good. Made me feel warm inside.
ReplyDeleteAnd strange with the mentioning of me. I'm not sure what my different ideas are about publishing, but I'll take it.
and is that Pink Floyd's wall? I hope not.
ReplyDeletej gor-
ReplyDeletethat diatribe was inspiring. enya is the shit. you must try harder to understand her.
In regards to hate--I'm personally acutely aware of what a tragic lack of representation this major human emotion has in literature, aside from things like blogs or other expressions by people that seem to have no self-awareness of what they're doing in the writing. It is an ostracized emotion in our cultural expression, as if to imply that educated or cultured people can transcend it somehow. Whatever the fuck. I think this will (or has) effect(ed) our culture in horrific ways that we aren't even beginning to recognize yet, overall. The way I see it, we need more art that is simply spewing hatred. I've been working on a project myself that was basically just trying to be an exploration of my own abundant hatreds and I can't even keep it going...I might give up on it altogether, which I've never done on a manu/ project before. I'll be writing on the bus or the beach or some other public place thinking "Geez, man...if someone for some reason sees what I'm writing right now, there's a great likelihood I'll face physical danger." The project has disturbed my life from the interior and the exterior. I've never even tried publishing any of the poems. I couldn't even bring myself to if someone asked me for them...I would feel irresponsible just making them available to a public.
What I'm getting at though is, as I've been reviewing your and Joyelle's work for when you guys come to Racine (which has been a great joy for me, recently), it's really been striking me that you're providing what I think are major milestones of that hatred in highly intellectual work and circles. The work you are doing seems really important to me and it's obvious I'm not alone in this.
Last comment--on your closed mindedness...really appreciated those comments. I've been meditating a lot on the concept of diversity lately and, in a big way, I think diversity is something to be lamented. Not superficial diversity like skin color or anything (though no doubt those things have deeper, more important implications), but profound diversities...the diversity of thought, belief, etc. I think, if I am to be honest with myself, I am very against anything much beyond superficial diversities. I don't want to truly support right wing politics or the KKK's philosophy or anything like that. If I really believed in diversity, I think I would embrace all of those things though, because they inhabit the rainbow of human thought as prominently as their philosophical binaries. I'm still meditating on all this/working it out...but your notes on close-mindedness struck a chord with me.
Do I smell like feces today?
-Demske