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Incriminating Evidence
mixed-genre, illustrations by Kristian Hoffman
- GenresPoetryRead For School
192 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 1992
6 people are currently reading
189 people want to read
About the author
Lydia Lunch
49 books198 followersLydia Lunch (born Lydia Koch) is an American singer, poet, writer, and actress.
In the mid-'80s, Lunch formed her own recording and publishing company called "Widowspeak" on which she continues to release a slew of her own material from songs to spoken word.
Later, she was identified by the Boston Phoenix as "one of the 10 most influential performers of the '90s", Lunch's solo career featured collaborations with musicians such as J. G. Thirlwell, Kim Gordon, Thurston Moore, Nick Cave, Marc Almond, Billy Ver Plank, Steven Severin, Robert Quine, Sadie Mae, Rowland S. Howard, Michael Gira, The Birthday Party, Einstürzende Neubauten, Sonic Youth, Die Haut, Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, Black Sun Productions and french band Sibyl Vane who put one of her spoken words into music. She also acted in, wrote, and directed underground films, sometimes collaborating with underground filmmaker and photographer Richard Kern (including several films such as Fingered in which she performed unsimulated sex acts), and more recently has recorded and performed as a spoken word artist, again collaborating with such artists as Exene Cervenka, Henry Rollins, Don Bajema, Hubert Selby Jr., and Emilio Cubeiro, as well as authoring both traditional books and comix (with award-winning graphic novel artist Ted McKeever).
In 1997 she released Paradoxia, a loosely-based autobiography, in which she candidly documented her bisexual dalliances, substance abuse and flirtation with insanity.
In the mid-'80s, Lunch formed her own recording and publishing company called "Widowspeak" on which she continues to release a slew of her own material from songs to spoken word.
Later, she was identified by the Boston Phoenix as "one of the 10 most influential performers of the '90s", Lunch's solo career featured collaborations with musicians such as J. G. Thirlwell, Kim Gordon, Thurston Moore, Nick Cave, Marc Almond, Billy Ver Plank, Steven Severin, Robert Quine, Sadie Mae, Rowland S. Howard, Michael Gira, The Birthday Party, Einstürzende Neubauten, Sonic Youth, Die Haut, Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, Black Sun Productions and french band Sibyl Vane who put one of her spoken words into music. She also acted in, wrote, and directed underground films, sometimes collaborating with underground filmmaker and photographer Richard Kern (including several films such as Fingered in which she performed unsimulated sex acts), and more recently has recorded and performed as a spoken word artist, again collaborating with such artists as Exene Cervenka, Henry Rollins, Don Bajema, Hubert Selby Jr., and Emilio Cubeiro, as well as authoring both traditional books and comix (with award-winning graphic novel artist Ted McKeever).
In 1997 she released Paradoxia, a loosely-based autobiography, in which she candidly documented her bisexual dalliances, substance abuse and flirtation with insanity.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
January 27, 2020
I can't help but wonder how marvelous a novel by Lydia Lunch would be, and why on earth she doesn't write one.
Good Lord, this woman can write... and for me this collection of various texts and fragments, beautifully matched by b/w photos and K. Hoffman's illustrations, was further proof - as if I needed it! - of her ability to exploit the whole spectrum of language, with excellent results on all fronts.
This is indeed a composite work in which all her recurring themes are to be found, conjuring up something other than the fictionalised memoir & miscellaneous of a controversial performer. Because her writing is just as multifaceted as her onstage persona. It's a medium she masters so much and so effortlessly that she can afford all her shortcomings and bullshit, thus challenging the reader to take part in her ruthless war against the industry of Good Taste.
Lydia is indeed a very dangerous bullshitter, one we're so enchanted by that we'd never allow her to be any different.
As a matter of fact, one can't take all stories, rants and anecdotes too seriously; but one isn't supposed to, either. It's not what she says, it's the way she says it. The way her razor-sharp words keep carving beauty out of monstrosity, page after page, with an intensity only Jean Genet ever reached. And that's just one of her sources of inspiration, along with Cioran, Celan, Bukowski, Burroughs... Steinbeck, Acker, Job, Isaiah.
If you think this is far-fetched, then you really need to (re)read her.
From gorgeous pieces of poetic prose to the visceral realism of the (allegedly biographical) narrative sequences; from her tales of outrageous, irresistible black humour to memorable descriptions of the American landscape, which are simply perfect in their atmospheric vividness; from the gutwrenching play "South of Your Border" ('An experimental exploration into the cause and effect of the many faces of oppression, rated Triple X, written, directed and starring Lydia Lunch and Emilio Cubeiro') to moments of lyrical stream of consciousness, Lunch's writing is a cross between complementary opposites, giving birth to something you can only love or hate.
Needless to say, how anyone could hate such a gifted writer is beyond me.
I'd like to point out another important aspect of Lydia Lunch's work (one that is often overshadowed by its aesthetic quality): what I dare call its inherent moral value.
Her pseudonym is itself quite a good memento. It was the bums living in her NYC neighborhood who first called her 'Lunch' when she started cooking meals for them, making the best of the little food she - still a young nobody from nowhere - could afford in those days.
In fact the city she portrays is far from being a glamorous Wonderland of fashion, show-business and finance: it's a hellish concentration camp of shattered lives instead, where only poverty, sickness and desperation can thrive. Lydia was hardly a novice in that department. Although still in her teens, she was already well-acquainted with degradation and had a first-hand knowledge of human meanness and damaged souls... starting with her own.
Such are the souls she loves the most, though. Such are the men she desires sexually and psychologically, the creatures she portrays so beautifully and honestly that their wretched existence becomes a monument to itself: the long-lost hopes, soiled purity and abused innocence relentlessly perpetuating the cycle of violence and pain.
That's where her self-analysis reaches the highest level of awareness, what with the chapter dedicated to her father and the explicit account of his incestuous passion (it started when the author was 6 years old), or the description of the mental drives drawing her towards every psychopath, criminal and outcast roaming the streets.
The truth is, she never misses the target. Either she's a megalomaniac poser or a committed pasionaria, the woman knows what to say and how. And to whom.
Her invectives against Exploitation - of life, death, environment, art, morals - are far beyond the politically correct of the post-Live Aid era, the annoying sort of captatio benevolentiæ that soon became the (registered) trademark of so many tamed 'rebels' in the 80s and 90s. No way. Lydia Lunch is not afraid of words, and she uses them all - either you like it or not. She makes them all sound exactly as they should, without asking for approval nor permission: because words belong to no one. They possess a dignity of their own that mustn't be scathed by the hypocrisy and meanness of anybody's self-righteousness.
Beware: these texts aren't going to please you. You'll hardly feel comfortable in their company, and rightly so. What they deal with is the destitution and neglect of real life and real death; the cycle of abuse that permeates so many families, marriages, sex affairs... the illness we pretend not to notice until it takes the shape of a weirdo going on a shooting spree... the desensitised boredom we feel while hearing of a war in a godforsaken place we don't give a shit about, since we weren't planning to go there anyway... so why the fuck should we even bother...
You can't expect to read Lydia Lunch and keep your hands clean. The question is, how clean were they in the first place?
See also:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Good Lord, this woman can write... and for me this collection of various texts and fragments, beautifully matched by b/w photos and K. Hoffman's illustrations, was further proof - as if I needed it! - of her ability to exploit the whole spectrum of language, with excellent results on all fronts.
This is indeed a composite work in which all her recurring themes are to be found, conjuring up something other than the fictionalised memoir & miscellaneous of a controversial performer. Because her writing is just as multifaceted as her onstage persona. It's a medium she masters so much and so effortlessly that she can afford all her shortcomings and bullshit, thus challenging the reader to take part in her ruthless war against the industry of Good Taste.
Lydia is indeed a very dangerous bullshitter, one we're so enchanted by that we'd never allow her to be any different.
As a matter of fact, one can't take all stories, rants and anecdotes too seriously; but one isn't supposed to, either. It's not what she says, it's the way she says it. The way her razor-sharp words keep carving beauty out of monstrosity, page after page, with an intensity only Jean Genet ever reached. And that's just one of her sources of inspiration, along with Cioran, Celan, Bukowski, Burroughs... Steinbeck, Acker, Job, Isaiah.
If you think this is far-fetched, then you really need to (re)read her.
From gorgeous pieces of poetic prose to the visceral realism of the (allegedly biographical) narrative sequences; from her tales of outrageous, irresistible black humour to memorable descriptions of the American landscape, which are simply perfect in their atmospheric vividness; from the gutwrenching play "South of Your Border" ('An experimental exploration into the cause and effect of the many faces of oppression, rated Triple X, written, directed and starring Lydia Lunch and Emilio Cubeiro') to moments of lyrical stream of consciousness, Lunch's writing is a cross between complementary opposites, giving birth to something you can only love or hate.
Needless to say, how anyone could hate such a gifted writer is beyond me.
I'd like to point out another important aspect of Lydia Lunch's work (one that is often overshadowed by its aesthetic quality): what I dare call its inherent moral value.
Her pseudonym is itself quite a good memento. It was the bums living in her NYC neighborhood who first called her 'Lunch' when she started cooking meals for them, making the best of the little food she - still a young nobody from nowhere - could afford in those days.
In fact the city she portrays is far from being a glamorous Wonderland of fashion, show-business and finance: it's a hellish concentration camp of shattered lives instead, where only poverty, sickness and desperation can thrive. Lydia was hardly a novice in that department. Although still in her teens, she was already well-acquainted with degradation and had a first-hand knowledge of human meanness and damaged souls... starting with her own.
Such are the souls she loves the most, though. Such are the men she desires sexually and psychologically, the creatures she portrays so beautifully and honestly that their wretched existence becomes a monument to itself: the long-lost hopes, soiled purity and abused innocence relentlessly perpetuating the cycle of violence and pain.
That's where her self-analysis reaches the highest level of awareness, what with the chapter dedicated to her father and the explicit account of his incestuous passion (it started when the author was 6 years old), or the description of the mental drives drawing her towards every psychopath, criminal and outcast roaming the streets.
The truth is, she never misses the target. Either she's a megalomaniac poser or a committed pasionaria, the woman knows what to say and how. And to whom.
Her invectives against Exploitation - of life, death, environment, art, morals - are far beyond the politically correct of the post-Live Aid era, the annoying sort of captatio benevolentiæ that soon became the (registered) trademark of so many tamed 'rebels' in the 80s and 90s. No way. Lydia Lunch is not afraid of words, and she uses them all - either you like it or not. She makes them all sound exactly as they should, without asking for approval nor permission: because words belong to no one. They possess a dignity of their own that mustn't be scathed by the hypocrisy and meanness of anybody's self-righteousness.
Beware: these texts aren't going to please you. You'll hardly feel comfortable in their company, and rightly so. What they deal with is the destitution and neglect of real life and real death; the cycle of abuse that permeates so many families, marriages, sex affairs... the illness we pretend not to notice until it takes the shape of a weirdo going on a shooting spree... the desensitised boredom we feel while hearing of a war in a godforsaken place we don't give a shit about, since we weren't planning to go there anyway... so why the fuck should we even bother...
You can't expect to read Lydia Lunch and keep your hands clean. The question is, how clean were they in the first place?
See also:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
November 26, 2014
"I'm sitting in my usual get-up...some dirty panties, beat up heels, lipstick and a hole in my heart the size of my heart." That's Lydia! The gutter is nothing but a runway for her art. This is a good book to get to know her, though some of the pieces are better spoken. My favorite in this collection is 'Shotgun'. If you get bored with your suburban days and routine has swallowed you whole, take two doses of Lydia and call me in the morning!
June 16, 2014
Not my favorite Lydia Lunch book ( that would be Paradoxia). Some of it gets to 'ranty' but there are definitely some of her precious gems in there as well. The author photo is one of my favorites ever. I did an etching based off of it.
April 9, 2010
like an oreo this little book was for me very black and white, and also like an oreo the best part was in the middle. lydia's larger than life stories are wonderful but there are many instances of poor editing/sequence choices, and many people won't even reach the real meat and juicy stories (or the excellent example of her as a playwright and stage actress) because of the self-conscious warnings being screamed at potential readers throughout the first 1/3 of the book. although the concept of creating a book that insults and warns/wards off the reader is lovely, in practice i know there were stories and a theme she felt compelled to share so she might as well give up being self-conscious at this point, considering she's already talking about fist fucking, rape, murder, sex, drugs, rock'n'roll (rather, daresay NO FUCKING WAVE?) and everything that the life/death-obsessed persons crave [anyway...:].
i read it in a few sittings on the bus. borrow it or steal it. definitely worthwhile, so pay no mind to what i humble consider slow beginnings. there is substance, the kind that will make you laugh and cry and scream at once, if you're patient.
oreos? really? i'm turning into cookie monster.
i read it in a few sittings on the bus. borrow it or steal it. definitely worthwhile, so pay no mind to what i humble consider slow beginnings. there is substance, the kind that will make you laugh and cry and scream at once, if you're patient.
oreos? really? i'm turning into cookie monster.
February 23, 2015
In my continuing effort to thin out my library, or at least read books I've been carting around unread for a while, I've finally gotten around to reading this Lydia Lunch book/collection from more than 20 years ago. I kind of wish I'd gotten it out of the way, and out of my library, all that time ago.
What Lunch has offered here is a collection of badly written screeds on what she considers the misery of her existence, past and present. Included are a number of pieces that she produced as spoken-word performances, both live and filmed, as well as two short plays. Though she aims to shock and confront the reader, there's not really anything here that can't be found better-presented elsewhere. There's no real structure to her ramblings, and her painful overuse of ALL CAPITAL LETTERS does nothing more than underline the pointlessness of the whole project, when it could effectively amp up her rant when occasionally necessary.
This edition includes some neat and graphic black-and-white illustrations from Kristian Hoffman, as well as a handful of Lunch herself looking tortured and moody. I can only imagine the reaction this book will receive when it shows up at a local charity shop, but that's where my copy's destined. One more space made on my shelf. Thanks, Lydia!
What Lunch has offered here is a collection of badly written screeds on what she considers the misery of her existence, past and present. Included are a number of pieces that she produced as spoken-word performances, both live and filmed, as well as two short plays. Though she aims to shock and confront the reader, there's not really anything here that can't be found better-presented elsewhere. There's no real structure to her ramblings, and her painful overuse of ALL CAPITAL LETTERS does nothing more than underline the pointlessness of the whole project, when it could effectively amp up her rant when occasionally necessary.
This edition includes some neat and graphic black-and-white illustrations from Kristian Hoffman, as well as a handful of Lunch herself looking tortured and moody. I can only imagine the reaction this book will receive when it shows up at a local charity shop, but that's where my copy's destined. One more space made on my shelf. Thanks, Lydia!
November 2, 2013
Own it; read it ages ago.
August 12, 2008
This is a collection of Miz Lydia's various spoken-word rants...if you dig her, you'll dig this.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews