On Hell

by Johanna Hedva

On Hell transcribes a body broken by American empire, that of ex-con Rafael Luis Estrada Requena, hacking itself away from contemporary society. Johanna Hedva, author of Sick Woman Theory, takes the ferocious compulsion to escape (from capitalism, from the limits of the body-machine, from Earth) and channels it into an evisceration of oppression and authority. Equal parts tender and brutal, romantic and furious, On Hell is a novel about myths that trick and resist totalitarianism.

Genres: Fiction, Queer, LGBT, Adult Fiction, Literature

108 pages, Paperback

Published February 14, 2018

About the author

Johanna Hedva (yo-haw-nuh head-vuh) is a Korean-American writer, artist, musician, and astrologer, who was raised in Los Angeles by a family of witches, and now lives in LA and Berlin. Hedva’s practice cooks magic, necromancy, and divination together with mystical states of fury and ecstasy. There is always the body — its radical permeability, dependency, and consociation — but the task is how to eclipse it, how to nebulize it, and how to cope when this inevitably fails. Ultimately, Hedva’s work, no matter the genre, is different kinds of writing, whether it’s words on a page, screaming in a room, or dragging a hand through water.

Hedva is the author of the novel On Hell (2018), which was named one of Dennis Cooper’s favorites of 2018. Their next book, Minerva the Miscarriage of the Brain, a collection of poems, essays, and performances that documents a decade of work from 2010-2020, will be published by Sming Sming and Wolfman in September 2020. Their first solo exhibition, God Is an Asphyxiating Black Sauce, is open 20 June - 3 August 2020 at Klosterruine Berlin. Their work has been shown at The Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, Performance Space New York, the LA Architecture and Design Museum, and the Museum of Contemporary Art on the Moon. Hedva has written about the political and mystical capacities of Nine Inch Nails, Sunn O))), and Lightning Bolt; the legacy of Susan Sontag; Ancient Greek tragedies; and the revolutionary potential of illness. Their writing has appeared in Triple Canopy, frieze, The White Review, and is anthologized in Whitechapel: Documents of Contemporary Art. Their essay “Sick Woman Theory,” published in 2016 in Mask, has been translated into six languages, and their practice and activism toward accessibility, as outlined in their Disability Access Rider, has been influential across a wide range of fields.

Reviews

[Ken Baumann · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book so much I published it.

[Christina Dongowski · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ich habe ein bisschen gebraucht, um mit dem Buch warm zu werden, aber im Nachhinein hätte ich einfach dran bleiben sollen. Eine Einstiegshürde war die Sprache voller Expletives. Mir kam das sehr puritanisch-amerikanische Klemmi-Avantgarde vor, aber dann wird klar, dass Hedva die Registerwechsel in der Sprache das sehr bedacht aufbaut. Man liest das Transkript von Interview-Aufnahmen, die die „Erzählerin“ mit R, einem Ex-Hacker, der nun seinen Körper hackt & sich selbst zu einem Flugwesen umbauen will. Eine extrem blutig-schleimige & schmerzhafte Angelegenheit. Der Bodyhacker, Rafael (den naheliegenden Kommentar zu seinem Namen macht er selbst), behält selbst immer das interpretatorische Kommando über seine Story - er kennt alle Mythen über das Fliegen, Legenden & macht ernst mit ihnen. Für ihn ist das der nächste logische Schritt der Hybris & Selbstmythologisierung der digitalen Kultur, in der er lebt, die es aber nie geschafft hat, nicht die schlichtesten rassistischen Strukturen (er ist ein Latino) zu reproduzieren. Irgendwann taucht R. dann unter & die Erzählerin wartet bis zum Schluß des Textes auf eine Nachricht. (Die auch kommt.) Hedva hat es geschafft eine post-humanistischen Erzählung zu schreiben, die ihr theoretisches Gerüst in einer spannenden Story & geschicktem Einsatz von erzähltechnischen Kniffen verbirgt.

[cantread26 · Rating 5 out of 5]

These words rip through you and force you to confront the world you live in, the people you live alongside, and yourself and consider the effects and consequences of “gravity”. I’ve never read a book with more swear words on each page, but once you get past the initial jolt in your mind from reading them so often you are able to see R and his ideas very clearly. The text reveals a system that remains powerful and perseveres subtly until someone like R (Hedva) comes and opens your eyes to the fact that it is a system at all. I underlined many lines wishing to remember them and often felt as if I could cry because this story is heavy with defeat. There is no comforting resolution. This book, and other texts by Johana, have me now thinking about the concept of softness as a method to subvert the capitalist narrative of grit and hard work as the only way to reach its narrow definition of success. A brilliant little book also I will say I loved its small size and pink pages. It looks unsuspecting yet is so powerful.

[Brooks Sterritt · Rating 5 out of 5]

"When you're inside you think all sorts of shit especially shit that doesn't make sense like you think why can't I walk through walls or what would happen if I smashed my head on the ground enough times that my head could dig a hole through this suck-pit and then I could escape."

[Yente · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ik denk dat dit een heel cool boek is en het is vast baanbrekend en never done before, maar ik kwam er niet doorheen.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely adored this book ever since I lay my eyes on its pages. Angry, radical, soft and emotional. I have never related so much to a book. Raw and pure stories about the limits of our flesh bodies, capitalism and so on.
I could feel every single bone in my body in the end and hear my blood pumping through my veins. It hurt!! But couldn’t stop.

[Renée Pinksterboer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dit was zo zo zo cool en slim en ik denk dat ik op een vreemde manier verliefd ben op dit boek. Iedereen moet dit lezen!

[Lib]

DNF - chaos

[Quentin Montemayor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Different than anything I’ve ever read. A quick and interesting read with a bit of a strange format but it worked well. It’s challenging. The choppiness and aggressiveness of some of the writing is so spot on for the character and what she’s trying to accomplish with the story. Overall very glad I picked this up and gave it a chance. It will resonate with anyone who has come up against the prison or medical industrial complex in any form in their lives.

[Hosho · Rating 5 out of 5]

Structured as a series of interviews, Hedva delivers a compelling and conversational yarn that's a punk mix of hacking, nihilism, and bio-engineered, modern-day legend of Icarus...that also happens to dovetail as an understated love story to boot. A blisteringly quick and interesting read, beautiful printed and produced.

[Vivienne Strauss · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book like no other I've read and I've read a variety. At times I wasn't sure if I "liked" it, but hell, I couldn't stop reading. It feels like the rambling monologue of an insane person to start with but then you get to see his point. I loved the open ending.

[Holly · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don't quite know what I just read. It came across as trying to be edgy and experimental but it fell flat.

I don't consider myself sensitive or anything but so much of this story was crude. I think maybe the goal was more to be raw and the exact opposite of purple prose but it did something wrong along the way.

I want to find something to like about this book but I am struggling. All of the critiques of society in the story, of which there are many, are shallow and unexplored. There is little to no depth to almost any of it. There were a couple of lines about how brown-ness is often equated to a disability and how that's messed up and wrong. I did feel like that conversation almost went into slightly deeper waters but beyond that it read more like a list of things wrong with the world.

[Julian · Rating 5 out of 5]

“What do you want me to say I been trying to talk to you this whole fucking time. Alright okay no I got you I can answer. The language is fucking made of like blood with chunks in it. You want like a little hymn about blood is that what you want? Okay I can do you right Mama I treat you good remember I was raised pure a sinless Catholic angel Rafael from on high."

Brain buzzing!!

[Kiyomi · Rating 3 out of 5]

It drew me in fast with the constant radical ramblings. Unlike anything I’ve ever read and does leave you wondering “what was that?” In a positive way.
But probably not a book I would pick up and re-read. One and done for me

[Kent Adams · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amazing and powerful novel, especially if you've read Hedva's other works.

[Melissa]

teder en ruw tegelijk

[Ana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Calming, helps with rage and anxiety.

For fans of Kathy Acker and Tetsuo the Iron Man.

[Emma · Rating 5 out of 5]

Disgusting and vulgar but beautiful. Feeling crushed by the weight of gravity. If that doesn't describe modern life...

song: Aphex Twin - Wax The Nip (came to me as I was walking through a CVS)

[Zach Werbalowsky · Rating 4 out of 5]

small interesting book packed with ideas and hell i coulda used a lil more i liked its little world //

[a____ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anxiety? What gives me anxiety? Uh huh haha well here’s what gives me fucking anxiety. I hate the size of the universe. That’s what.

[DIktgymnasiet · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing! Best novel with a crip perspective I've read.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was so pleased by Salt Is For Curing as my first book from Sator Press that I decided to try another, and ended up selecting On Hell. I did not know what I was getting into.

At first I wasn't sure that I was going to finish this book because it is just so vulgar. And I don't just mean "bad words" (though it is pretty much wall-to-wall swears) but in the full sense of the word -- making coarse and explicit reference to sex and bodily functions at all times. This book starts out as a series of interviews where we read only the interviewee's responses -- and he is someone who is brimming over with a simmering rage at the world, at the government, at the prison-industrial complex. The language is a wall thrown up as defense that takes a bit to see through -- that Rafael is a man so fed up and so resistant to spending another moment in this hell that he is turning himself into a modern Icarus.

So many thoughts on body hacking/modification, privilege, prison, escape. A challenging novel, but never a boring one.

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

On Hell touches on racial inequality, the justice system, and the desire to break free from our society. It’s short and sweet and I plan on reading it again. This is the type of story where the reader will take away something new each time. There is an unexpected plot turn, giving you perspective on both characters. Hedva leaves just enough to the imagination. She doesn’t explain the themes, but lays out enough for the reader to contemplate on their own. Plus, the book itself is beautiful.

[anna marie]

https://entropymag.org/dan-bustillo-a...

[Carly Weiss · Rating 5 out of 5]

Insane, first out there work of literature I was introduced to. Still think about it.