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My Mother: Demonology
My Demonology [hardcover] Acker, Kathy [May 03, 1995] …
268 pages, Hardcover
First published July 20, 1993
About the author
Kathy Acker
79 books1,073 followersBorn of German-Jewish stock, Kathy Acker was brought up by her mother and stepfather (her natural father left her mother before Kathy was born) in a prosperous district of NY. At 18, she left home and worked as a stripper. Her involvement in the sex industry helped to make her a hit on the NY art scene, and she was photographed by the newly fashionable Robert Mapplethorpe. Preferring to be known simply as 'Acker' (the name she took from her first husband Robert, and which she continued to use even after a short-lived second marriage to composer Peter Gordon), she moved to London in the mid-eighties and stayed in Britain for five years.
Acker's writing is as difficult to classify into any particular genre as she herself was. She writes fluidly, operating in the borderlands and junkyards of human experience. Her work is experimental, playful, and provocative, engagingly alienating, narratively non sequitur.
Acker's writing is as difficult to classify into any particular genre as she herself was. She writes fluidly, operating in the borderlands and junkyards of human experience. Her work is experimental, playful, and provocative, engagingly alienating, narratively non sequitur.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 59 reviews
March 26, 2018
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.
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.
July 12, 2018
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.
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.
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February 14, 2018This 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.
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.
February 9, 2024
What a ride… I feel undoubtedly seen and brutally disoriented at the same time.
November 22, 2023
hier moet ik toch even… over nadenken, denk ik (?)
July 26, 2019
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
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
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November 2, 2009::: 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.
... or not. waste of time.
October 6, 2021
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.
June 15, 2024
enough of this.
June 9, 2014
Kathy Acker writes emotively and aggressively. A lot of people won't like her books simply because they do not like the language and crude renditions of sexuality. How else do you describe the feelings associated with child abuse, date rape and general misogyny so many have to face?
Her work is also deeply political. In this book written in 1993 she writes "There's no more education, no more culture - if culture depends on a commonly understood history - and perhaps no more middle class in the United States. There's War." Argue against that now the middle class is struggling to make ends meet, and open carry enthusiasts go to dinner at Chipotle wearing assault rifles.
Her work is also deeply political. In this book written in 1993 she writes "There's no more education, no more culture - if culture depends on a commonly understood history - and perhaps no more middle class in the United States. There's War." Argue against that now the middle class is struggling to make ends meet, and open carry enthusiasts go to dinner at Chipotle wearing assault rifles.
January 17, 2013
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.
July 23, 2012
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.
October 28, 2021
I’m not sure what I expected of this book, but probably not what it ended up being.
It was my first time reading something from Kathy Acker; this being said, I think one has to get used to her writing first.
It was as if I stumbled into something, losing orientation and scales and fixing points, following sentences but not a narration or plot (yet I also wouldn’t describe My Mother: Demonology as a fragment piece), after a while thinking I’d get the hang of it, understanding something (layers? links? symbols?), yet after finishing feeling just as confused as before. Like stepping into a whirlwind, a parallel world for these pages, where other rules apply than any known to me.
Obviously Acker writes of shocking things, blunt and unexpected; shameless, breaking seeming taboos. Tackling political and social issues as well of very personal ones; somehow I wished for something more, even more radical, more feminist (or maybe I just didn’t get it).
Surprisingly I enjoyed the last part of the book way more than the earlier “chapters”; I found some words or sentences that took me in and enchanted me (as in: opening up something new, a thinking process), yet I had hoped for more of these.
Overall happy that I read it, but will take some time until I’ll read a second book of hers.
It was my first time reading something from Kathy Acker; this being said, I think one has to get used to her writing first.
It was as if I stumbled into something, losing orientation and scales and fixing points, following sentences but not a narration or plot (yet I also wouldn’t describe My Mother: Demonology as a fragment piece), after a while thinking I’d get the hang of it, understanding something (layers? links? symbols?), yet after finishing feeling just as confused as before. Like stepping into a whirlwind, a parallel world for these pages, where other rules apply than any known to me.
Obviously Acker writes of shocking things, blunt and unexpected; shameless, breaking seeming taboos. Tackling political and social issues as well of very personal ones; somehow I wished for something more, even more radical, more feminist (or maybe I just didn’t get it).
Surprisingly I enjoyed the last part of the book way more than the earlier “chapters”; I found some words or sentences that took me in and enchanted me (as in: opening up something new, a thinking process), yet I had hoped for more of these.
Overall happy that I read it, but will take some time until I’ll read a second book of hers.
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December 9, 2023LOVED the beginning and the end, middle was a slog. reminds me of jelinek’s piano teacher and lispector’s apprenticeship in its explorations of the strange conflicting desires for freedom and imprisonment, submission and self-mastery, violence and pleasure in the process of learning love and embodiment
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November 27, 2023this was kind of a slog and i could not in good conscience recommend it to anyone brilliant cover tho
Read
April 2, 2024seriously do not know how to rate this i loved it then i didn’t then i did i do not KNOW
September 12, 2024
I never had any idea where this was going like each sentence was genuinely a surprise and I think I loved it! A very unique experience
August 2, 2024
inconexo pero por complejo, no por mal hecho. la primera mitad me recordó a agua viva de clarice lispector: una entidad abstracta habla de la muerte y el deseo. aparecen cientos de referencias: diane di prima, cathy y heathcliff, bush, dario argento; dicen que la historia está loosely based en la relación de colette peignot y georges bataille. hacia la segunda mitad se vuelve más concreta: hay una narradora y una historia (y una motocicleta y una alemania y una rusia). estoy casi segura de que el cambio sucede cuando localiza su deseo en un objeto. es fantástico lo que dice sobre el deseo pero me cuesta mucho aún el incesto (veo que también de eso se trata blood & guts in high school, la novela más famosa de acker).
“the only thing that's possible between us is a car accident”
“you've destroyed every possibility of religion for me and i want you to help me”
“if you can’t be it, fuck it”
“the inside of the family is a maze whose entrances and exits are lost to those caught in its entrails”
“the only thing that's possible between us is a car accident”
“you've destroyed every possibility of religion for me and i want you to help me”
“if you can’t be it, fuck it”
“the inside of the family is a maze whose entrances and exits are lost to those caught in its entrails”
September 12, 2007
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.
June 11, 2019
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.
May 1, 2008
but I don't like Kathy Acker. Not even Pussy Queen of the pirates.
June 25, 2023
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.
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.
August 18, 2020
"The dormitory had been carved out of those grand rooms once polluted by aristocrats and rich people.
Beatrice had disappeared from my world.
I was in Prague. Caught among buildings that were dark: a square of buildings. The poet of those buildings, Pierre, and I, lovers for many years, were fucking on a tattered red carpet in a hotel. I had to find my hotel.
Pierre pointed to an old, as if marbled, red column that rose above the city, so far that I couldn't see its top. He explained to me that this is his family's home: the column runs through the sky horizontally over the whole city.
I ascertained that Pierre's parents are wealthy. I had never known this before.
Pierre left me.
The dark square of buildings, named 'The Dormitory,' in which I was standing lies in the upper right quadrant of the city. A long, narrow, black plank or street connected this square to its twin that occupied the city's upper left quarter. I had to reach the second square so that I wouldn't be murdered.
As I started walking the black plank, the sky above the black was yellow.
Now I was in the second square, standing in a hotel, which was Pierre's hotel. So it must belong to Pierre. Since I hadn't wanted to be in his hotel, I had to be lost.
I was lost in a foreign city, as I've been time and time again."
Beatrice had disappeared from my world.
I was in Prague. Caught among buildings that were dark: a square of buildings. The poet of those buildings, Pierre, and I, lovers for many years, were fucking on a tattered red carpet in a hotel. I had to find my hotel.
Pierre pointed to an old, as if marbled, red column that rose above the city, so far that I couldn't see its top. He explained to me that this is his family's home: the column runs through the sky horizontally over the whole city.
I ascertained that Pierre's parents are wealthy. I had never known this before.
Pierre left me.
The dark square of buildings, named 'The Dormitory,' in which I was standing lies in the upper right quadrant of the city. A long, narrow, black plank or street connected this square to its twin that occupied the city's upper left quarter. I had to reach the second square so that I wouldn't be murdered.
As I started walking the black plank, the sky above the black was yellow.
Now I was in the second square, standing in a hotel, which was Pierre's hotel. So it must belong to Pierre. Since I hadn't wanted to be in his hotel, I had to be lost.
I was lost in a foreign city, as I've been time and time again."
January 19, 2019
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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July 31, 2024No sabía que era posible hacer esto con la escritura... Es como leer Bohemian Rhapsody pero con mucha sangre y sexo, simbolismo y alegorías políticas porno: ¿no entiendes nada pero es muy hipnótico?
A partir de la segunda parte la poca narrativa que llevas desciende al subconsciente y se convierte en una locura de secuencias oníricas difíciles de soportar por su (solo aparente) absurdo. Es lo que se dice "narrativa experimental" y no mam4das. Avant-garde realness. Se lee mejor si a partir del tercer capitulo se piensa como un poemario, con poemas en lo que todo es simbólico y alegórico, poemas que bien podrían ser guiones de secuencias oníricas o películas muy originales. ¿El poemario de Courtney Love meets un estudio muy detallado del funcionamiento interno de los sueños?.
Se lo recomiendo a todxs los amantes del mundo de los sueños, Jungieanos, Freuds posmos, etc. No garantizo que les "guste" pero tiene mucha carnita que quisiera que alguien más capacitadx que yo apreciara. Quizá me desbloqueo el tercer ojo.
Es una lectura difícil, por decir lo menos. Tardé 3 meses en lograr acabarlo y lograrlo me confirmó que soy insoportable.
A partir de la segunda parte la poca narrativa que llevas desciende al subconsciente y se convierte en una locura de secuencias oníricas difíciles de soportar por su (solo aparente) absurdo. Es lo que se dice "narrativa experimental" y no mam4das. Avant-garde realness. Se lee mejor si a partir del tercer capitulo se piensa como un poemario, con poemas en lo que todo es simbólico y alegórico, poemas que bien podrían ser guiones de secuencias oníricas o películas muy originales. ¿El poemario de Courtney Love meets un estudio muy detallado del funcionamiento interno de los sueños?.
Se lo recomiendo a todxs los amantes del mundo de los sueños, Jungieanos, Freuds posmos, etc. No garantizo que les "guste" pero tiene mucha carnita que quisiera que alguien más capacitadx que yo apreciara. Quizá me desbloqueo el tercer ojo.
Es una lectura difícil, por decir lo menos. Tardé 3 meses en lograr acabarlo y lograrlo me confirmó que soy insoportable.
May 21, 2023
“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.
January 16, 2023
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 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.
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July 12, 2020I 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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June 18, 2021The sense of "Acker's dream journal loosely assembled into book form" in the second half became overwhelming. Most appropriately read as poetry, not prose; certain sentences, or occasionally sequences of sentences, leap out as potentially generative on their own. The anxiousness to provoke by invoking genitals and bodily fluids and unspeakable words sometimes struck me as comical. As a horror film fan,, I was taken aback by the retelling of Argento's Suspiria, wasn't expecting that at all.
June 2, 2020
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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