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Hannibal Lecter, My Father
A collection of early and not-so-early work by the mistress of gut-level fiction-making. You can say I write stories with sex and violence and therefore my writing isn't worth considering because it uses content much less lots of content. Well, I tell you 'Prickly race, who know nothing except how to eat out your hearts with envy, you don't eat cunt'... Edited by Sylvere Lotringer and published in 1991, this handy, pocket-sized collection of some early and not-so-early work by the mistress of gut-level fiction-making, Hannibal Lecter, My Father gathers together Acker's raw, brilliant, emotional and cerebral texts from 1970s, including the self-published 'zines written under the nom-de-plume, The Black Tarantula. This volume features, among others, the full text of Acker's opera, The Birth of the Poet, produced at Brooklyn Academy of Music in 1985, Algeria, 1979 and fragments of Politics, written at the age of 21. Also included is the longest and definitive interview Acker ever gave over two a chatty, intriguing and delightfully self-deprecating conversation with Semiotext(e) editor Sylvere Lotringer—which is trippy enough in itself as Lotringer, besides being a real person, has appeared as a character in Acker's fiction. And last, but not least, is the full transcript of the decision reached by West Germany's Federal Inspection Office for Publications Harmful to Minors in which Acker's work was judged to be "not only youth-threatening but also dangerous to adults," and subsequently banned. Acker is the sort of the writer that should be read first at 16, so that you can spend the rest of your life trying to figure her out; she confuses, infuriates, perplexes and then all of a sudden the writing seems to be in your bloodstream, like some kind of benign virus. She's definitely not for the easily offended—but then, there are worse things in life than being offended. Such as the things that Acker writes about...
160 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1991
9 people are currently reading
422 people want to read
About the author
Kathy Acker
87 books1,166 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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August 11, 2017IMMORAL*
The main character is Janey.
Father and daughter frequently have sexual intercourse.
Sometimes "he fucks her in the ass".
She has two abortions and likes masochistic acts.
She has sexual encounters with an 80-year-old writer.
Anal intercourse takes place including masochistic acts.
The Persian wants to train her to become a whore.
She also finds a Persian Grammar and begins to learn Persian.
Pages 92ff. of her story are in Persian and German side by side.
...childish blabber that doesn't make any sense.
She keeps writing.
Shit, I stink, puke, suck me.
...because in the meantime she got cancer.
On the first 80 pages of the book mostly full page drawings depict male and female sex organs. Such drawings are found on pages 8,16,18,24,28,30,34,38,60,62,64,80,82,201.
The structure of the plot is in part quite difficult to understand.
...whether we are dealing with the protagonist's imagination or real events.
The author is using a number of "styles".
On page 32 two sentences with identical wording are printed consecutively.
On page 55 some sentences end with the word "SPLIT".
Some text are shown in the form of stanzas.
In some poems you find sentences contrary to the grammatic rules.
They do not make sense by itself. [sic]
She has been accused of having copied parts of Pauline Réages' book "The Story of O". (The novel "The Story of O." was put on the list of publications harmful [sic] to minors by decision blah blah blah).
"It is a pity that if a woman throws herself into literary chasms she cannot come up with any varieties or excesses going beyond traditional male fantasies".
[so much for the Office in regard to "The Circumstances" ; now as to "Reasons"]
The petition for putting the book on the Index is justified.
It is confusing in terms of sexual ethics and is therefore equal to "immoral texts" according to [blah blah blah].
...gets in touch with sexual intercourse early in her life.
Already at the age of 10 she has sexual intercourse with her father.
They are also having anal intercourse, cunnilingus and fellatio.
Child sex as well as incest are belittled by these descriptions.
Already before she has been trained to be a perfect whore, who can read the desires of men before they are expressed, she loves first of all sado-masochistic acts.
[Janey is quoted ::] I love to be beaten up and hurt and taken on a joy ride. This SEX--what I call SEX--guides my life. I know this Sex of traitors, deviants, scum, and schizophrenics exists. They're the ones I want.
Passages like these are not only youth threatening but also dangerous for adults.
According to [blah blah blah] the distribution of sado-masochistic literature is to be punished and by this the legislature made clear that media containing such materials go far beyond the limits of what is harmful to minors.
Her stories and Persian poems written Cyrillic script deal with sexual themes, too. The following may demonstrate this :: "The only thing is a cunt and a cock".
It does not only glorify fellatio, cunnilingus and anal intercourse, but it also renders a positive picture of deviant pathological sexual acts.
Sexual excitement is increased by sado-masochistic acts.
This is, among other things, the basic message of the novel.
This kind of description gives reason to worry that the still unformed juvenile readers will be hampered from becoming fully responsible personalities...
...and sexual partners...
....i.e. readers who are not yet strengthened by experience and have not yet reached sufficient intellectual maturity...
...in their values...
...as well as in their analytical faculties and more so who are subject to distinct tensions and sensibilities...
....especially in the realm of eroticism and sexuality.
The obvious depictions do not leave anything to the reader's imagination.
...is aggravated by the description and belittlement of abortions.
The protagonist Janey has altogether two abortions.
No exceptions can be granted in accordance with [blah blah blah].
...is neither art nor does it serve any artistic purpose, since a text can only be considered art if it maintains a certain level of artistic standards.
This decision is not only based purely on aesthetic criteria but also according to the importance which a work of...
....art has for the pluralistic society...
...and its ideas about the function of art in society.
These limitations of the freedom of artistic expression are justified by the constitutional principle...
...to honor human dignity.
Particularly contemporary art is in many ways not easy to comprehend...
....since it contains elements of provocation and aggression.
The effects that are triggered through the confrontation with this kind of art.
....works for the intellectual and spiritual development of a not yet fully matured person are not only arduous and depressive but also dangerous according to [blah blah blah].
Children and juveniles are not able to make responsible decisions of this sort.
If the legal community therefore makes this decision for them then society fullfills the youth's right to be protected from...
....an inappropriate confrontation with art.
The above described standards are missing in this book.
The author is using a number of styles to write her novel.
She uses poems, Persian script, etc, as stylistic elements.
The banal street language is used.
Her gradual demise could be interpreted as a consequence of missing personal relationship if it weren't for her death by cancer.
The book argues against capitalist society.
It claims that rich people have all the power, with money--and only with money--the world can be changed.
It attacks the commercial exploitation of sexuality.
The discrimination of women is condemned in brief sequences.
Janey says men teach women ways they want them to be.
Janey, however, is the only female person who appears in the book.
She has an exclusive male fixation.
She has nothing in mind but men.
Except for her intention to go to high school.
The chosen elements of style do not enhance the novel to the level of art.
A colorful, exciting and yet banal and trivial gutter language in itself cannot relay any artistic qualities within a novel.
The novel merely mirrors social problems without being genuinely creative in any way.
It is also remarkable...
...that Kathy Acker...
...who considers herself a "feminist"....
....as she is frequently championed....
...examines less the role of women...[sic]
...her novel....
...than mostly deals with....
...male power and potency.
....charged her with having no new idea exceeding or varying traditional male phantasies.
"She was hatching some crap".
...which, literally, was only remarkable due to the reading-presentation by the author.
After being confronted with the fact that she...
...had already written pornography...
...and performed in sex shows....
...she was accused of imitating traditional literature.
"Blood and guts was an attempt to experiment with writing."
All this makes clear...
...that this novel...
...does not reach...
...the level...
...worthy...
...to be of value...
....to the pluralistic society.
The protection of young people takes precedence over the dissemination of this work as art.
And so, in the annals of The Banned in Germany, we have clear documentary proof that The Revere'd Kathy Acker joins (or is joined by) the inimitable Cannibal Corpse.
Fucked with a Knife ::
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gWM3...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canniba...
* Excerpts, judiciously snipped, from Decision #3659 (regarding Blood and Guts in High School) of 1986 of The Federal Inspection Office for Publications Harmful to Minors (Germany) reproduced in this publication under Review. I propose we appoint too from among our members an Office for Publications Harmful to XYZ ; de jure-ically recognizing the de=facto'd. But at least, you know, someone was thinking of the children.
The main character is Janey.
Father and daughter frequently have sexual intercourse.
Sometimes "he fucks her in the ass".
She has two abortions and likes masochistic acts.
She has sexual encounters with an 80-year-old writer.
Anal intercourse takes place including masochistic acts.
The Persian wants to train her to become a whore.
She also finds a Persian Grammar and begins to learn Persian.
Pages 92ff. of her story are in Persian and German side by side.
...childish blabber that doesn't make any sense.
She keeps writing.
Shit, I stink, puke, suck me.
...because in the meantime she got cancer.
On the first 80 pages of the book mostly full page drawings depict male and female sex organs. Such drawings are found on pages 8,16,18,24,28,30,34,38,60,62,64,80,82,201.
The structure of the plot is in part quite difficult to understand.
...whether we are dealing with the protagonist's imagination or real events.
The author is using a number of "styles".
On page 32 two sentences with identical wording are printed consecutively.
On page 55 some sentences end with the word "SPLIT".
Some text are shown in the form of stanzas.
In some poems you find sentences contrary to the grammatic rules.
They do not make sense by itself. [sic]
She has been accused of having copied parts of Pauline Réages' book "The Story of O". (The novel "The Story of O." was put on the list of publications harmful [sic] to minors by decision blah blah blah).
"It is a pity that if a woman throws herself into literary chasms she cannot come up with any varieties or excesses going beyond traditional male fantasies".
[so much for the Office in regard to "The Circumstances" ; now as to "Reasons"]
The petition for putting the book on the Index is justified.
It is confusing in terms of sexual ethics and is therefore equal to "immoral texts" according to [blah blah blah].
...gets in touch with sexual intercourse early in her life.
Already at the age of 10 she has sexual intercourse with her father.
They are also having anal intercourse, cunnilingus and fellatio.
Child sex as well as incest are belittled by these descriptions.
Already before she has been trained to be a perfect whore, who can read the desires of men before they are expressed, she loves first of all sado-masochistic acts.
[Janey is quoted ::] I love to be beaten up and hurt and taken on a joy ride. This SEX--what I call SEX--guides my life. I know this Sex of traitors, deviants, scum, and schizophrenics exists. They're the ones I want.
Passages like these are not only youth threatening but also dangerous for adults.
According to [blah blah blah] the distribution of sado-masochistic literature is to be punished and by this the legislature made clear that media containing such materials go far beyond the limits of what is harmful to minors.
Her stories and Persian poems written Cyrillic script deal with sexual themes, too. The following may demonstrate this :: "The only thing is a cunt and a cock".
It does not only glorify fellatio, cunnilingus and anal intercourse, but it also renders a positive picture of deviant pathological sexual acts.
Sexual excitement is increased by sado-masochistic acts.
This is, among other things, the basic message of the novel.
This kind of description gives reason to worry that the still unformed juvenile readers will be hampered from becoming fully responsible personalities...
...and sexual partners...
....i.e. readers who are not yet strengthened by experience and have not yet reached sufficient intellectual maturity...
...in their values...
...as well as in their analytical faculties and more so who are subject to distinct tensions and sensibilities...
....especially in the realm of eroticism and sexuality.
The obvious depictions do not leave anything to the reader's imagination.
...is aggravated by the description and belittlement of abortions.
The protagonist Janey has altogether two abortions.
No exceptions can be granted in accordance with [blah blah blah].
...is neither art nor does it serve any artistic purpose, since a text can only be considered art if it maintains a certain level of artistic standards.
This decision is not only based purely on aesthetic criteria but also according to the importance which a work of...
....art has for the pluralistic society...
...and its ideas about the function of art in society.
These limitations of the freedom of artistic expression are justified by the constitutional principle...
...to honor human dignity.
Particularly contemporary art is in many ways not easy to comprehend...
....since it contains elements of provocation and aggression.
The effects that are triggered through the confrontation with this kind of art.
....works for the intellectual and spiritual development of a not yet fully matured person are not only arduous and depressive but also dangerous according to [blah blah blah].
Children and juveniles are not able to make responsible decisions of this sort.
If the legal community therefore makes this decision for them then society fullfills the youth's right to be protected from...
....an inappropriate confrontation with art.
The above described standards are missing in this book.
The author is using a number of styles to write her novel.
She uses poems, Persian script, etc, as stylistic elements.
The banal street language is used.
Her gradual demise could be interpreted as a consequence of missing personal relationship if it weren't for her death by cancer.
The book argues against capitalist society.
It claims that rich people have all the power, with money--and only with money--the world can be changed.
It attacks the commercial exploitation of sexuality.
The discrimination of women is condemned in brief sequences.
Janey says men teach women ways they want them to be.
Janey, however, is the only female person who appears in the book.
She has an exclusive male fixation.
She has nothing in mind but men.
Except for her intention to go to high school.
The chosen elements of style do not enhance the novel to the level of art.
A colorful, exciting and yet banal and trivial gutter language in itself cannot relay any artistic qualities within a novel.
The novel merely mirrors social problems without being genuinely creative in any way.
It is also remarkable...
...that Kathy Acker...
...who considers herself a "feminist"....
....as she is frequently championed....
...examines less the role of women...[sic]
...her novel....
...than mostly deals with....
...male power and potency.
....charged her with having no new idea exceeding or varying traditional male phantasies.
"She was hatching some crap".
...which, literally, was only remarkable due to the reading-presentation by the author.
After being confronted with the fact that she...
...had already written pornography...
...and performed in sex shows....
...she was accused of imitating traditional literature.
"Blood and guts was an attempt to experiment with writing."
All this makes clear...
...that this novel...
...does not reach...
...the level...
...worthy...
...to be of value...
....to the pluralistic society.
The protection of young people takes precedence over the dissemination of this work as art.
And so, in the annals of The Banned in Germany, we have clear documentary proof that The Revere'd Kathy Acker joins (or is joined by) the inimitable Cannibal Corpse.
Fucked with a Knife ::
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gWM3...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canniba...
* Excerpts, judiciously snipped, from Decision #3659 (regarding Blood and Guts in High School) of 1986 of The Federal Inspection Office for Publications Harmful to Minors (Germany) reproduced in this publication under Review. I propose we appoint too from among our members an Office for Publications Harmful to XYZ ; de jure-ically recognizing the de=facto'd. But at least, you know, someone was thinking of the children.
September 9, 2018
In the middle of a project of reading all of Acker's work in order so I'll return here and say something about the pieces as I read them in reverse chronological order.
"Algeria"
This particular piece is perhaps a tad too close to its source material--two films: Gillo Corvo's The Battle of Algiers and Marcel Camus's Black Orpheus--for my taste. Frankly I think Acker's better off appropriating literary works as she can subvert them both linguistically as well as imagistically. Here she just kind of novelizes the scenes from the films as I remember them so those passages kind of bored me. The subversion in this particular text is all in the pastiche--which is pretty great, though, I must admit. By mixing the desperation of the Algerian people under French rule, their pain and struggles, with autobiography about her own romantic suffering, her experiences working in a 42nd Street sex show, and the trauma of her mother's suicide, she creates a certain amount of frisson. I'm not sure where she was going with the Black Orpheus chapter, but perhaps I'm just not an attentive enough reader to "get it." "Algeria" is something of a dry run for the novel to follow, Great Expectations, and that novel is probably more successful as a text although the pain of those personal experiences was a tad more vividly described here so more powerful and angry. Appreciation of these elements, then, would again fall to a reader's taste. Raw experience isn't exactly what I come to Acker's work for so I preferred the novel's more fleshed-out literariness, but seekers of raw human experience in fiction might well prefer this. I also enjoyed the disturbing and provocative choice to call all of the women in the text "Cunt" (in bold no less) and to end with the affirmative chapter entitled "A Cunt Belongs to no Man." Kudos for that. Also the bringing together of the most gut-wrenching scene form the The Battle of Algiers film and overall meaning of the text as a social document in the final lines was quite good--if not Acker's usual technique.
"Algeria"
This particular piece is perhaps a tad too close to its source material--two films: Gillo Corvo's The Battle of Algiers and Marcel Camus's Black Orpheus--for my taste. Frankly I think Acker's better off appropriating literary works as she can subvert them both linguistically as well as imagistically. Here she just kind of novelizes the scenes from the films as I remember them so those passages kind of bored me. The subversion in this particular text is all in the pastiche--which is pretty great, though, I must admit. By mixing the desperation of the Algerian people under French rule, their pain and struggles, with autobiography about her own romantic suffering, her experiences working in a 42nd Street sex show, and the trauma of her mother's suicide, she creates a certain amount of frisson. I'm not sure where she was going with the Black Orpheus chapter, but perhaps I'm just not an attentive enough reader to "get it." "Algeria" is something of a dry run for the novel to follow, Great Expectations, and that novel is probably more successful as a text although the pain of those personal experiences was a tad more vividly described here so more powerful and angry. Appreciation of these elements, then, would again fall to a reader's taste. Raw experience isn't exactly what I come to Acker's work for so I preferred the novel's more fleshed-out literariness, but seekers of raw human experience in fiction might well prefer this. I also enjoyed the disturbing and provocative choice to call all of the women in the text "Cunt" (in bold no less) and to end with the affirmative chapter entitled "A Cunt Belongs to no Man." Kudos for that. Also the bringing together of the most gut-wrenching scene form the The Battle of Algiers film and overall meaning of the text as a social document in the final lines was quite good--if not Acker's usual technique.
March 18, 2018
OK, so I didn't read the whole thing. I did get enough into the book to realize it just wasn't holding my attention, so I feel that I can put this on my "Read" shelf for 2018. I will be reading Blood and Guts in High School and Pussy, King of the Pirates, though, because I really am curious about Kathy Acker's work and her place in literature. She was a pioneer and I want to really have a sense of what her writing was about before I make a final determination on whether or not she deserves a place on my bookshelves.
I'm feeling pretty critical of Acker's work so far - but Hannibal Lecter, My Father is some of her very early writing, so I'm going to cut some slack at this point. However, so far I'm finding:
1. Acker's writing is clunky, junky, with awkward usage. It kept pulling me out of the story - so annoying.
2. Narrative is *not overrated - Maybe I'm not "punk enough" to enjoy this style, but I kept getting very irritated with the lack of a coherant storyline.
3. Splicing long passages of dialogue dealing with existentialist philosopy in the midle of brutally awkward sex scenes is ridiculous.
I got interested Acker's work after reading Chris Kraus' biography After Kathy Acker. Some of her criticism of Acker's writing does have a basis in fact. I'm still not convinced Kraus was fair in criticizing Acker's style, personality, and way she conducted her intimate relationships, though.
More to come...
I'm feeling pretty critical of Acker's work so far - but Hannibal Lecter, My Father is some of her very early writing, so I'm going to cut some slack at this point. However, so far I'm finding:
1. Acker's writing is clunky, junky, with awkward usage. It kept pulling me out of the story - so annoying.
2. Narrative is *not overrated - Maybe I'm not "punk enough" to enjoy this style, but I kept getting very irritated with the lack of a coherant storyline.
3. Splicing long passages of dialogue dealing with existentialist philosopy in the midle of brutally awkward sex scenes is ridiculous.
I got interested Acker's work after reading Chris Kraus' biography After Kathy Acker. Some of her criticism of Acker's writing does have a basis in fact. I'm still not convinced Kraus was fair in criticizing Acker's style, personality, and way she conducted her intimate relationships, though.
More to come...
February 24, 2025
I first read Kathy Acker in high school. She had good titles and looked cool, not that I understood what she wrote. It was dirty and strange, which I liked. That was over 40 years ago. Now I’m back, with her early work in Hannibal Lecter, My Father.
March 9, 2025
for those who remain jealous of kathleen hanna’s pilgrimage to ask kathy acker what to do with her life, this is about as close as you can get nowadays. a lovely little pocketbook for fans looking for a little more.
October 23, 2017
ACKER IS BLUNT & OVERWHELMING...!
November 14, 2017
only makes one more compelled to read more. more to come.
September 22, 2023
Struggled with this one a bit - loved the interview at the beginning, but the rest is stories and plays and excerpts and was just hard for me to get into.
August 18, 2024
New York in 1979 and Lust: A Sailor’s Slight Identity are standouts. I’d love to know what texts she’s maiming in Lust.
September 17, 2015
I agree with much of the other commentators. The interview at the beginning was well worth the read. The selection of other works afterwards appear to be padding to exemplify the interview and also by giving us more of Acker's work, but of works that may be less known.
Still, her methodology and philosophy come together in her interview and presents itself as a force. At first a critique, and then with the yet to be Pussy: King of the Pirates the making of a new mythology. Acker did manage to mature as a writer, not to destroy and create but to end with creating.
In some ways, I wish I read this first, before reading some of her other works, especially when she was churning them out in a way, the same book over and over at some point in the middle there.
It is telling to see how as a mere writer, she was able to provoke so much "bad touch" in the areas of culture, when government and legislation were involved. We cannot hide from that which we do not understand only because there is so much more we do not, cannot understand.
Still, her methodology and philosophy come together in her interview and presents itself as a force. At first a critique, and then with the yet to be Pussy: King of the Pirates the making of a new mythology. Acker did manage to mature as a writer, not to destroy and create but to end with creating.
In some ways, I wish I read this first, before reading some of her other works, especially when she was churning them out in a way, the same book over and over at some point in the middle there.
It is telling to see how as a mere writer, she was able to provoke so much "bad touch" in the areas of culture, when government and legislation were involved. We cannot hide from that which we do not understand only because there is so much more we do not, cannot understand.
July 5, 2022
A short book of various work by Kathy Acker. There is a play and some selections of her early writing in prose. The book includes an interview with Acker, in which she talks about the sex industry, the contemporary art scene and subversion in art. It also includes a reproduction of the decision of the German court to ban Acker’s novel Blood and Guts in High School.
Acquired Jun 15, 2001
Midway Books, St. Paul MN
Acquired Jun 15, 2001
Midway Books, St. Paul MN
March 8, 2009
Acker discusses her development as a writer and the philosophy or her work...and the book includes her story ALGERIA (which mus be read, not simply reviewed)...how much more of a gift could this compilation be?
April 5, 2014
Enjoyed the innovation, and the discussion of collaging / appropriation from long before it became a "thing". However, the relentless discussion of sex and eroticism got pretty tiresome to me -- just a personal preference.
Want to read
December 20, 2009Hannibal Lecter, my father by Kathy Acker (1991)
December 23, 2015
Recommended by McNally Jackson, this was one of the most challenging books I've ever read. It is raunchy and raw yet honest. Is it smut or art? This book is banned in Germany.
Read
December 9, 2022Great introductory interview between Sylvère & Kathy... Lust & Algeria are incredible.
October 1, 2012
Very interesting. My favorite section was the "interview" at the opening, however.
April 29, 2017
??xnox?????X?????? ? ? ? X? No. Not for me. I am uncomfortable.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews