With book titles like “”Hannibal Lecter, My Father”” and “”Pussy, King of the Pirates,”” it is not difficult to imagine that Kathy Acker had a difficult time getting her work published in the 1970s. However, the UCSD alumna eventually became a prominent figure in the post-modernist movement. After her death on Nov. 29, 1997, at a holistic treatment facility in Tijuana, some worried that her work might disappear into the oblivion of dusty library shelves. Far from disappearing, however, last month saw the publication of “”Essential Acker,”” an anthology of her writing and the first academic conference in her honor will be held Nov. 7 and Nov. 8.
Acker was born in 1944 in New York to a Jewish family in the glove business. Her father, Donald Lehman, left her mother, Clare, when she was three months pregnant with Kathy.
In 1963, she went to Brandeis University to study the classics. It was at this time, at the age of 19, that she married Robert Acker, a penniless 17-year-old friend, in what would be a short-lived marriage.
In 1965, she came to UCSD to study under Herbert Marcuse, a Marxist psychologist. She also studied poetry during the 1960s under Jerome Rothenburg before turning to novel writing.
Her early works, half-poetry, half-prose concoctions, were all self-published or produced by small underground presses. She had to carry them from bookshop to bookshop to sell them. Although she could have worked as an academic, she claimed that she did not want any distractions from her writing. Instead, she worked mindless jobs, including one in the sex industry.
Her breakthrough came in 1984 with “”Blood and Guts in High School,”” an emotional novel infused with poems, maps and drawings. At the time, she had moved to London to be with her second husband, experimental composer Peter Gordon. The punk writer turned literary celebrity continued to write novels, stories, essays, a film script and an opera libretto. In addition, Acker returned to UCSD periodically to teach classes and do readings. The sound recordings of her dynamic readings are available in Geisel Library.
In the early ’90s, she created the writing department at the San Francisco Art Institute before moving back to London in 1995. It was there that Acker was diagnosed with breast cancer.
Back in San Francisco, Acker underwent a double mastectomy. She chose to rely on faith healers and alternative medicine both for financial and spiritual reasons. In an article at the time, Acker wrote, “”I knew I wanted to live. To live was to stay alive and to not be reduced to materiality. There was no way I was going to go through chemotherapy.””
Direct and unapologetic are the words to describe Acker. New readers are often surprised by the graphic sexual imagery and language that abounds in her work, but these descriptions are not necessarily employed simply for their shock value.
“”It’s not just that it’s explicit, but that it’s a form of feminine abjection,”” said UCSD literature professor Judith Halberstam, who will speak at the upcoming conference on Acker. Acker frequently used a masochistic, self-deprecating voice in her novels.
“”This is the gesture that people object to. It’s like she’s saying ‘If you think that women are just T and A, let me perform this role for you,'”” Halberstam said.
It is through this performance of societal expectations that Acker seeks to change the rules and have the reader question what they truly desire.
Acker’s writing also involves taking passages from famous texts and implanting them into her own works with little or no change, a technique referred to as “”pastiche.”” It is a technique used to “”re-identify”” with the classics; Acker seeks to rewrite these canonical, classic pieces from a female perspective. Halberstam assigned Acker’s novel, “”Great Expectations,”” to her literature class this quarter.
“”[Pastiche] has become a trademark thing with her,”” Halberstam said. “”I would call it something like ‘creative plagiarism.'””
It is exactly this practice of “”creative plagiarism”” that endangers the memory of the deceased author. Though it seems that Acker uses a distinctive voice, it is difficult to say that even the most educated academic would be able to identify a quote from one of her novels as her own because so many other voices are woven through her narratives. Halberstam seems to think that maybe this is as Acker meant it.
“”Her personality was very much part of the experience of her work,”” Halberstam said, who suggested that her writing might not be meant to last in the same form and purpose after her death as it did while she lived.
As of now, most of Acker’s books are still in print. The earlier works are not so easy to find, but with some searching one can still locate them.
A conference on Acker’s work, “”Lust For Life, The Writings of Kathy Acker,”” will be held on Nov. 7 and Nov. 8 in the Fales Library at NYU. The Fales Library holds the largest collection of materials about the downtown New York scene from the 1970s to the 1990s.
“”It was time for a serious scholarly symposium on Acker’s work and her legacy,”” said Marvin Taylor, director of the Fales Library Special Collection. “”There is a healthy and important cult of Acker. There should also be a vigorous critical community interested in her work.””
The conference is set to coincide with the publication of “”Essential Acker.””
“”Our hope is to introduce Kathy’s work to a whole new generation of scholars and students,”” Taylor said. “”The work is so rich, so sonorous, so theoretically sophisticated and so much fun that more people should read it.””
When questioned about the controversial nature of Acker’s writing, Taylor appeared unconcerned.
“”Controversial? Maybe to the radical right. Maybe in 1975. The work is still fresh, still challenging, still vibrant. Yes, it deals with sex in a non-apologetic way. The narratives are sexy. It’s part of, but not all of, the importance of the work,”” Taylor said.
This being the case, it seems that Acker’s writing has long been fulfilling the purpose that was intended. Society has changed, and this can be attributed in part to the writings of postmodernists. With this knowledge, it is clear that no matter how many of her pieces remain in print in the coming years, Acker will continue to live through those that she has affected.
Acker’s Legacy of Prose
“”Bodies of Work””
Acker’s first book is a 175-page collection of scholarly and provocative essays, covering everything from body-building to the work of contemporary artists and philosophers.
“”Hannibal Lector, My Father””
Acker collects a handful of early and hard-to-find works including “”New York City in 1979,”” “”Lust,”” “”The Birth of the Poet,”” and a fragment of the previously unpublished “”Politics.””
“”Pussy, King of the Pirates””
Acker transforms Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic “”Treasure Island”” into a wild trek through real and imagined history, including the most famous whorehouse in Alexandria.
“”Empire of the Senseless””
Set in the near future, in a Paris devastated by revolution and disease, Acker narrates a story between two terrorists and occasional lovers.
“”Pussycat Fever””
This embellished edition includes excerpts from “”Pussy, King of Pirates”” and includes original illustrations by Diane DiMassa and Freddie Baer.
“”My Mother: Demonology, a Novel””
Based loosely on the relationship between Colette Peignot and Georges Bataille, Acker tells the powerful story of a woman struggling with contradictory impluses.