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magnetgrrl's review against another edition
5.0
Reading this book and its companion, Angry Women in Rock, gave me some my first experiences with queer culture and feminism in general. It was also the most radical thing I had ever encountered, as a 16 or 17 year old baby dyke just realizing how many different types of women in the world there were. I remember reading this and feeling positively subversive. Reading about these women made me feel less alone in my small midwestern town. It also make me feel totally inspired to do something great, and for the first time like that might actually be possible.
leilaniann's review against another edition
3.0
This book has really great interviews with bell hooks and Diamanda Galas, but unfortunately the other people were more boring than not. Can we get a few more angry women in there who identify as more than just performance artists?
meganmilks's review against another edition
5.0
DIAMANDA GALAS: The original nature of woman's voice has always been tied to witches and the shamanistic experience--the witch as transvestite/transsexual having the power of both male and female.
LYDIA LUNCH: They're killing too much of the earth and not enough of the people! Another reversal of intelligence.
bell hooks: In [b:Toni Morrison|6149|Beloved|Toni Morrison|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165555299s/6149.jpg|736076]'s The Bluest Eye, there's a moment when the little girl, a victim of rape/incest, says to another little girl whom she wants to be angry, "Anger is better -- there is a presence in anger." I was always moved by that contrasting of victimization vs. being victimized; it's important to maintain the kind of rage that allows you to resist.
KATHY ACKER: In early books, the characters changed gender a lot: I never got 'his' and 'her' right! And the dumb reason was: I just didn't remember, I didn't care. ... I think the reason was probably my hatred of gender.
LYDIA LUNCH: They're killing too much of the earth and not enough of the people! Another reversal of intelligence.
bell hooks: In [b:Toni Morrison|6149|Beloved|Toni Morrison|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165555299s/6149.jpg|736076]'s The Bluest Eye, there's a moment when the little girl, a victim of rape/incest, says to another little girl whom she wants to be angry, "Anger is better -- there is a presence in anger." I was always moved by that contrasting of victimization vs. being victimized; it's important to maintain the kind of rage that allows you to resist.
KATHY ACKER: In early books, the characters changed gender a lot: I never got 'his' and 'her' right! And the dumb reason was: I just didn't remember, I didn't care. ... I think the reason was probably my hatred of gender.
uncleflannery's review
4.0
Can't review this book because the bell hooks (and Lydia Lunch, less so) interview motivated me in the same way as all the David Foster Wallace I've read did, not to be ironic, flippant, not to operate on default mechanisms of distrust, fear, and meanness, not to be afraid of loneliness, not to perpetuate hurt, and then talking about it I get very serious and humorless, and I can't be any of those things on the internet without also being self-editing. The internet is the exact place to be ironic and flippant and being otherwise feels downright unnatural. So allow me to sum up: good book! Well curated and edited. As a nascent feminist, still overcautious about most things, some of these women scare the living shit out of me but like I said, some of these interviews really cut to the quick, not just about sexism, but about failures in human relationships in general. I didn't like this at first because it lacked a sense of humor but it is okay to assert, without a wink to the audience, that some things deserve to be taken seriously.
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