Status
Available
Genres
Publication
Semiotext(e) (2006), Edition: Later Printing Used, 280 pages
Description
In I Love Dick, published in 1997, Chris Kraus, author of Aliens & Anorexia, Torpor, and Video Green, boldly tore away the veil that separates fiction from reality and privacy from self-expression. It's no wonder that I Love Dick instantly elicited violent controversies and attracted a host of passionate admirers. The story is gripping enough: in 1994 a married, failed independent filmmaker, turning forty, falls in love with a well-known theorist and endeavors to seduce him with the help of her husband. But when the theorist refuses to answer her letters, the husband and wife continue the correspondence for each other instead, imagining the fling the wife wishes to have with Dick. What follows is a breathless pursuit that takes the woman across America and away from her husband; and far beyond her original infatuation into a discovery of the transformative power of first person narrative. I Love Dick is a manifesto for a new kind of feminist who isn't afraid to burn through her own narcissism in order to assume responsibility for herself and for all the injustice in world; and it's a book you won't put down until the author's final, heroic acts of self-revelation and transformation.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member jusi
I found this irritatingly clever-little-me, feminist 'fiction' difficult to wade through, but at the same time there were certain descriptions that struck a chord somewhere deep within. I wish i'd read the afterword first: it made me aware of stuff I'd rather have known before reading the book. so
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I tempered my conclusion, but you could be forgiven for heeding my initial impression. Show Less
LibraryThing member JimmyChanga
I've never read a novel like this before. A blending of the epistolary novel, feminist manifesto, art criticism, tell-all reality-memoir, critical theory, personal essay, and diary. Somehow it all works together, and I would even say that it is a Great Novel.
The first part, which establishes the
The conceit can only go so far (although conceit is the wrong word here, since I think this is pretty much non-fiction, or maybe slightly edited non-fiction), so after the first part, the rest of the "novel" is a slowly evolving amalgamation. The obsession for Dick continues and changes. Her relationship with her husband changes. Her life and relation to her art changes. Her view of feminism changes. She begins to see everything through the lens of Dick. Dick-lens.
It's really hard to describe, but it's super smart, very funny, and sad all at the same time. By the end, the letters get long, and ramble about all types of subjects, but they're written so well that it doesn't matter if it's about an obscure painter or performance artist, it somehow still fits into the book's unique structure. I still flipped the pages maddeningly because I started interpreting everything through the Dick-lens, through what she is discovering about her current situation. It's amazing that she was able to bring these different intellectual subjects so much into the sphere of the personal... where it actually feels like it matters.
Bonus: makes for great reading in the men's locker room.
The first part, which establishes the
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narrative impetus (Chris, the author, falls in love/crush with an acquaintance (Dick) and, together with her husband, writes love letters to him but doesn't send them).The conceit can only go so far (although conceit is the wrong word here, since I think this is pretty much non-fiction, or maybe slightly edited non-fiction), so after the first part, the rest of the "novel" is a slowly evolving amalgamation. The obsession for Dick continues and changes. Her relationship with her husband changes. Her life and relation to her art changes. Her view of feminism changes. She begins to see everything through the lens of Dick. Dick-lens.
It's really hard to describe, but it's super smart, very funny, and sad all at the same time. By the end, the letters get long, and ramble about all types of subjects, but they're written so well that it doesn't matter if it's about an obscure painter or performance artist, it somehow still fits into the book's unique structure. I still flipped the pages maddeningly because I started interpreting everything through the Dick-lens, through what she is discovering about her current situation. It's amazing that she was able to bring these different intellectual subjects so much into the sphere of the personal... where it actually feels like it matters.
Bonus: makes for great reading in the men's locker room.
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LibraryThing member eenee
Recommended. This is a really interesting semi-autobiographical work about the nature of love and infatuation. Sure it is self-indulgent, but that is part of the fun!
LibraryThing member reganrule
Just great. Required reading for everyone everywhere. Except my partner who found it truly disgusting on pretty much every level.
UPDATE 2/22/16: Movie in the works!
UPDATE 2/22/16: Movie in the works!
LibraryThing member joannajuki
I gave this book a review on Amazon that was harsh, and possibly more a reflection of my life and experience than of the author's. This book did frighten me, however, and that's the truth.
LibraryThing member adaorhell
someone told me my writing style was like hers and i haven't written a word since finishing this book because i'm so grossed out at myself.
LibraryThing member Wassilissa
Im Grundsatz ist mir klar, warum dieses Buch als in Meilenstein des Feminismus gilt. Allein seine Existenz und die widersprüchlichen Gefühle, die es auslöst, machen deutlich, dass es immer noch ungewohnt ist über weibliches Begehren so zu schreiben.
Die unverhüllte Lust- ohne reale Entsprechung
Allerdings fand ich das Buch dennoch oder vielleicht auch deshalb mühsam und die Personen samt und sonders psychisch äußerst auffällig. Es gibt keine einzige Figur, die nicht essgestört und völlig egozentrisch ist. Dieses ganze kopfgesteuerte Kreisen um sich selbst finde ich furchtbar. Ich habe mir mehrfach gedacht, dass es für Chris Kraus gut gewesen wäre, ein Kind weniger abzutreiben und Verantwortung für einen anderen Menschen zu übernehmen. Ich bin mit Sicherheit Feministin in meiner ganzen Lebensweise, aber dennoch kann ich diese Personen nicht nachvollziehen.
Die unverhüllte Lust- ohne reale Entsprechung
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– die männliche Reaktion darauf, das hat schon entlarvendes Potential. Auch der Titel „I love Dick“ in seiner Zweideutigkeit zeigt, dass einerseits Lust und Liebe dann doch dem heterosexuellen und maskulinen Mann gilt. Die männliche Figur, die noch am ehesten zur feministischen Liebe taugt, ist aber der nahezu asexuelle großväterliche Partner, der das Spiel mitspielt. Im Grunde unterdrückt aber auch er seine Frau, was an vielen Stellen deutlich wird.Allerdings fand ich das Buch dennoch oder vielleicht auch deshalb mühsam und die Personen samt und sonders psychisch äußerst auffällig. Es gibt keine einzige Figur, die nicht essgestört und völlig egozentrisch ist. Dieses ganze kopfgesteuerte Kreisen um sich selbst finde ich furchtbar. Ich habe mir mehrfach gedacht, dass es für Chris Kraus gut gewesen wäre, ein Kind weniger abzutreiben und Verantwortung für einen anderen Menschen zu übernehmen. Ich bin mit Sicherheit Feministin in meiner ganzen Lebensweise, aber dennoch kann ich diese Personen nicht nachvollziehen.
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LibraryThing member asxz
Not quite what I was expecting. Deeply self-involved and self-referential work that seems to have been very influential, but which left me a little meh. I can kinda see the attraction but it wasn't really for me. I understand the blurred lines between truth and fiction, and some of the other stuff
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going on, but it all felt a little masturbatory, and while I get that that is a worryingly gendered take on a feminist work, I'm not sure if that isn't the whole point and I'm not sure if I was ever really engaged enough to care. Show Less
LibraryThing member ThomasPluck
What begins as obsessive and self-referential expands and twists and gyres into a unique and engaging read.
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
1997
Physical description
280 p.; 6 inches
ISBN
9781584350347
Local notes
fiction