Fledgling Demagogue
Posts: 2,384
Karma: 31132263
Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: White Plains
Device: Clara HD; Oasis 2; Aura HD; iPad Air; PRS-350; Galaxy S7.
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Thanks for the rec, Tara.
If it were my list, I'd include a number of books, such as Nightwood, by Djuna Barnes, The Waves, by Virginia Woolf, At the Bottom of the River, by Jamaica Kincaid, Two Serious Ladies, by Jane Bowles, The Laugh of the Medusa, by Hélène Cixious, Childhood, by Nathalie Sarraute, Blue Eyes, Black Hair, by Marguerite Duras, Black Sun, by Julia Kristeva, The Hour of the Star, by Clarice Lispector, O Taste and See, by Denise Levertov, Three Lives, by Gertrude Stein, Descending Figure, by Louise Gluck, The Well of Loneliness, by Radclyffe Hall, Pale Horse, Pale Rider, by Katherine Anne Porter, The Garden Party, by Katherine Mansfield, Black Tickets, by Jayne Anne Phillips, A Plague of Doves, by Louise Erdrich, Childlike Life of the Black Tarantula, by Kathy Acker, A Wild Patience Has Taken Me This Far, by Adrienne Rich, Sula, by Toni Morrison -- and I'll stop there, as additional names might trigger a political discussion which has no place on the lightside of these forums.
Personally, I'm surprised no one has mentioned some of the more interesting books on the list, specif. The Bloody Chamber (a book which influenced me directly in style and method, and was the basis for Neil Jordan's fun film, The Company of Wolves); The House of Mirth, by Edith Wharton (probably the most perfect book on the list, complete with a valuable overview of politics and power in NYC); the stories of Colette, if only for their lightness, attractiveness, wit and clarity; The Bell Jar, by Sylvia Plath (if for no other reason than its having influenced generations -- I myself used to listen to recordings of Plath reading her poems long before such recordings were easy to attain); The Second Sex (for obvious reasons); The Flame Throwers, by Rachel Kushner; Bad Behavior, by Mary Gaitskill (which an ex of mine loved so much she promptly set up an interview with the author for the Village Voice, and which contains a far more accurate -- and funny -- account of an S&M relationship than anything ever written by E. L. James); and Kindred, by Octavia Butler (I thought we had tons of SF fans here on MR, and Butler was an SF pioneer!).
I can't comment on Dora: A Headcase because the author's in my circles, but it looks tremendous, and I shouldn't comment on Acker (even though she's gone) because I named one of her books, but there's a point at which excellence as well as bias should be acknowledged.
The one entry I don't agree with is the book by Eileen Myles, though half of New York, San Francisco and LA would disagree with my disagreement.
"Love is when you wake up as a cannibal, or else awaken destined for devouring.
"Agony: the spoken word exploded, blown to bits by suffering and anger, demolishing discourse. This is how she has always been heard before, ever since the time when masculine society began to push her offstage, expelling her, plundering her. Ever since Medea, ever since Electra."
"You only have to look at the Medusa straight on to see her, and she's not deadly. She's beautiful and she's laughing."
-- Hélène Cixous
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