Kathy Acker

Quotes

• “In the total devastation of the heart which is the world, the lands-lords rule. There is no way we can defeat the landslords. But under their reins and their watchful eyes.I sail as the winds of lusts and emotions bare me. Everywhere and anywhere. I who will never own, whatever and whenever I want, I take.”
• “It's all up to you, girls. You have to be strong. These are the days of post-women's liberation. You have grown up by now and you have to take care of yourself. No one's going to help you.”
• “Even a woman who has the soul of a pirate, at least pirate morals, even a woman who prefer loneliness to the bickerings and constraints of heterosexual marriage, even such a woman who is a freak in our society needs a home.Even freaks needs homes, countries, language, communication.The only characteristic freaks share is our knowledge that we don't fit in. Anywhere. Is it for you, freaks, my loves, I am writing and it is about you.”
• “You create identity, you're not given identity per se. What became more interesting to me wasn't the I, it was text because it's texts that create the identity. That's how I got interested in plagiarism.”
• “At a certain point I realized that the "I" doesn't exist. So I said to myself: If the "I" doesn't exist, I have to construct one, or maybe even more than one.”
• “My nutritionist read my pathology report and said, "There's only one way you can beat your cancer." "What's that?" "You have to find out what caused it."”

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Key facts

Born

Karen Lehman , ( 1947-04-18 ) April 18, 1947 (disputed) , New York City, New York, U.S.

Died

November 30, 1997 (1997-11-30) (aged 50), Tijuana , Baja California , Mexico

Occupation

Novelist poet playwright essayist critic performance artist

Citizenship

United States

Subject

Sexual politics, sexual taboo, sexual desire, queer and female fantasy, power dynamics, fragmented identity, childhood trauma, death and disease, violence and abuse, adolescent rebellion, pornography, literary plagiarism, language as resistance and inadequacy

Literary movement

Postmodernism Post-structuralism Post-structural feminism Blank Generation (literary) New Narrative

Notable works

Blood and Guts in High School (novel), Great Expectations , New York (short story)

Notable awards

Pushcart Prize (1979)

Spouse

Robert Acker (1966–19??), Peter Gordon (1976; annulled)

via Wikipedia infobox

Wikidata facts

Image

1996 Kathy Acker 004.jpg

via Wikidata · CC0