Eurydice in the Underworld

by Kathy Acker

This is an anthology of short fiction and other writings by Acker, including Politics, her debut work written at the age of 21, and The Translations of the Diaries of Laure the Schoolgirl, plus The Birth of a Poet, a play in three acts. It also features an interview with Acker.

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories, Feminism

188 pages, Paperback

First published August 4, 1998

About the author

Born 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.

Reviews

[Onur Yz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Uzun zamandır böylesi sert bir metin okuma isteğindeydim. Ama bir türlü kısmet olmuyordu. Depresif metinler epeyce yordu beni son dönemde. Ve isteyenin bir yüzünü kara çıkardı Kathy Acker. Eserleriyle ilk tanışma serüveni de bu kitap ile başladı, muhakkak devamı gelecek. Türkçeye çevrilmeyen eserlerini de okuma niyetim olduğunu söyleyebilirim.

Diğer yandan Eurydice / Orpheus hikayesi çok uzun zamandır ilgimi çeken bu mite dair ilk uyarlama Brian Large'ın müzikali idi. Magdalena Kozená ve Madeline Bender'ın sahne performansı beni çok etkilemişti. Sonrasında Romeo Castellucci ve harika kadın Pina Bausch'un uyarlamalarını izledim. Vincent Bataillon'ın müzikalini görmeye fırsat olmadı. Bu mit ile alakalı bir metin okuma imkanı olmadı ama mutlaka olmalıydı. Gregory Orr'un Orpheus & Eurydice: A Lyric Sequence'ını okumuş olmalıydım.

Kathy Acker'ın "Eurydice ölüler diyarında" isimli kitabı bu mite göndermeler içeriyor ama kesinlikle bu mitin bir uyarlaması değil. Daha çok Eurydice'in ölümü kabullenmesi diyebiliriz, yaşayanlar diyarına bıraktığı kalıcı bir eser, orada tutunabilmenin dolaylı bir yolu.

5 yıldızı eksik etmezdim lakin uzatılmış bir kitap. 300 sayfa değil de 200 sayfa olsa daha derli toplu olsa yıldızlı bir 5'i hak ederdi. Söyleyecek çok şeyi varmış evet ama özellikle "play" olarak yazılmış kısımların içine dahil olmak pek mümkün değil. Ama şu var ki çoğu cümlesi beni çok sarstı, acilen notlar almamı gerektiren satırlar, paragraflar oldu. Kendi adıma kesinlikle doyurucu ve düşündürmeye sevk edici bir eserdi.

[Viola V · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful, shattering. Contrasting her first writing with her last writing. The 1997 stories, drawing from Acker's experiences with the breast cancer that would eventually kill her, are heartbreaking.

[Erik Zhivkoplias · Rating 3 out of 5]

As one should admire, respect and praise Nina Hagen as a character, it would be a huge mistake to actually listen to her music. Same applies here but remember folks, - while we fuck we can’t die. Kathy proved it the hard way.

[Jens · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kathy Acker (1947-1997) was a literary terrorist. She was a novelist, performance artist, playwright and essayist. Kathy Acker is known for her postmodern, experimental, and sex-positive feminism. Her radical and at times seemingly anarchic aesthetic stances made Kathy Acker a Punk icon.

The quote above taken out of KATHY ACKER - BIOGRAPHY, gives one a good idea as to what to expect from the work. The first part of this collection is the play / short story Eurydice in the Underworld which was written by Acker in the last year of her life can serve as a glimpse as to what to expect form Ackers fiction.
It's highly autobiographical, Acker suffered - at the time of writing - through a double mastectomy after being diagnosed with breast cancer and the play is vaguely strung around a woman's 'awakening' after surgery having been performed on her, it borrows from the established, in this case the well know greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, Orpheus entering the underworld in an attempt to rescue his wife Eurydice who had been taken from him but failing at the last instant, and transplants it into a highly sexual, experimental, and angry story.
... more to come ...

[Alex Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am kind of tired of all these collections of early Acker work, as they repeat and milk her writings. Much of this is still understated, as this includes works in progress, various attempts at subversions and so on. Still, like many of these collections of her earlier writings, if you like her stuff and want more, this is one way to get at it. I wouldn't read any of these collections if you were just looking for a taste. Read Pussy King of the Pirates, Blood and Guts in Highschool or Empire of the Senseless if you want a more completed sense of what Acker is doing.

Having said this, I did enjoy her plays here, and I don't normally enjoy plays.