Describe Of Books Empire of the Senseless
| Title | : | Empire of the Senseless |
| Author | : | Kathy Acker |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | Deluxe Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 240 pages |
| Published | : | January 13th 1994 by Grove Press (first published 1988) |
| Categories | : | Fiction. Science Fiction. Novels. Feminism |
Kathy Acker
Paperback | Pages: 240 pages Rating: 3.49 | 1543 Users | 81 Reviews
Rendition Concering Books Empire of the Senseless
Set in the near future, in a Paris devastated by revolution and disease, Empire of the Senseless is narrated by two terrorists and occasional lovers, Thivai, a pirate, and Abhor, part-robot part-human. Together and apart, the two undertake an odyssey of carnage, a holocaust of erotic. "An elegy for the world of our fathers," as Kathy Acker calls it, where the terrorists and the wretched of the earth are in command, marching down a road charted by Genet to a Marseillaise composed by Sade.
Present Books Conducive To Empire of the Senseless
| Original Title: | Empire of the Senseless |
| ISBN: | 0802131794 (ISBN13: 9780802131799) |
| Edition Language: | English |
Rating Of Books Empire of the Senseless
Ratings: 3.49 From 1543 Users | 81 ReviewsCriticize Of Books Empire of the Senseless
I mean I guess it's... poetic? But also like being trapped in someone else's really, really fucked up nightmare. Nigh unreadable! Sample paragraph:"Let's fuck on top of this fountain. Splashing the waters of hydro-chloric acid into my nostrils. Daddy. Pull off my fingernails. My back has been carved into roses. You scream that it's not only by you. As if you're alive or as if I'm not dreaming. As if I really possessed you and you really possessed me, we tore off each other's head and ate out theEmpire of the Senseless is the 2nd Acker I've read after Blood and Guts in High School, and this comparative heavyweight tome reads like the epic she'd been working up towards. Two terrorists, polysexual Parisian pirate Thivai and anarchist female cyborg Abhor act out a "holocaust of the erotic" on the high seas. Yes it's messy and very much of its Reaganite culture wars time but it's got plenty humour and exuberance going for it. Dive in, the water's lovely.
Conflicted about this book but ultimately gave it four stars. I love the setting and the character Abhor, as well as an Acker novel with a bit of a conventional plot, but was a bit put off by the way Acker has some sort of ridiculous contempt towards Abhor, the best character in the book. Like classic Acker, it inevitably leaves you dividedwhich I believe is always her goal.
Some thoughts on revolutionary language:The part of our being (mentality, feeling, physicality) which is free of all control let's call our 'unconscious'. Since it's free of control, it's our only defense against institutionalized meaning, institutionalized language, control, fixation, judgement, prison.Ten years ago, it seemed possible to destroy language through language: to destroy language that normalizes and controls by cutting that language. Nonsense would attack the empire-making
Continuing in my project of reading all of Kathy Acker's work in reverse chronological order...I seem to recall reading an interview with Kathy soon after Empire of the Senseless was published in which the interviewer noted that the novel had much more of a narrative thread than her previous works and Acker admitting that, yeah, it was the first time she'd really thought much about narrative when composing a novel. Interesting--since I'm going in reverse order--to note that the strategy stands
This book is a much more interesting object than it is an enjoyable text, which is much of the point. When first published, this would have been astounding; part of a completely new way of conceptualising and understanding literature. Now that the punk and postmodernist influences which fuelled it have been historised though - basically now that you can recognise what it's doing as actual quantified literature techniques, and make a grasp of understanding it on your first reading instead of just
All of the negative reviews do a wonderful job of explaining why this novel is so wonderful. It sucks. There is hardly any plot, and what little of a plot exists is nearly impossible to follow. It is filled with over the top violent, and sexual imagery, that serves little purpose outside of shock. It is absolute shit, and should never be looked at as a piece of art or literature. Acker directly plagiarizes Gibson. It is wonderful. Please read it. It is horrible. Post-modernism Never read it.
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