Kicking the Pricks [Paperback]

Derek Jarman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 1998

The shockingly honest journals of the acclaimed filmmaker and gay rights activist.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

The provocative title of this fourth volume of the journals (e.g., At Your Own Risk, LJ 12/92) of the late British avant-garde filmmaker, artist, and gay activist suggests a look back in anger and defiance of the conventional. It is, but it is also rich in wit, intellect, and a clearly articulated aesthetic. Written while editing his film The Last of England (1987) and originally entitled that in Britain, this first American edition goes by the uncompromising title Jarman (1942-94) originally chose. Part memoir, part career retrospective, the journal is a collage, incorporating dryly moving personal reminiscences from childhood through the 1980s, glimpses of his filmmaking genius at work, and penetrating critiques of his own art and those of others, as well as vivid prose and poetry miniatures. Filled with startling verbal and photographic imagery, this book, like Jarman's films, may not appeal to every taste, but his importance as an artist and its own merits justify its inclusion in all film, art, and gay studies collections.?Richard Violette, Social Law Lib., Boston
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Kirkus Reviews

This impassioned and reflective final volume in the late avant-garde filmmaker's diaries articulately mixes personal recollections, travelogues, and interviews, plus a few fantastic vignettes thrown in. Written during the making of Jarman's apocalyptic antipatriotic film The Last of England, the journal more or less anchors itself on that work-in-progress, in contrast to the color schemes of Chroma (1995), the previous volume of diaries. This book shares much of the same subject matter with its predecessors: Jarman's esthetic perspective and artistic training as a painter, his struggle with his sexual identity and escapades during the sexual revolution, his opinions on the British cinema world and its reactions to his controversial films Caravaggio, The Tempest, et al. Filming The Last of England supplies this book with not only a thematic focus but also a sense of immediacy, as Jarman works out his film vision of an Albion wrecked by its own imperial identity. Unpacking the film's literary and visual allusions, he succinctly describes it as ``a dream allegory [where] the poet wakes in a visionary landscape.'' The most striking feature of the journal, however, is Jarman's bitter yet ruefully sympathetic portrait of his domineering father--``the classic fag's father''--a WW II bomb- squadron leader who embodies much of what his son detests in the English establishment and the military mentality. A keen amateur moviemaker, RAF officer Jarman took films of his bombing runs as well as his family during the war, which wound up in The Last of England as both nostalgia and ironic counterpoint. In a sense, Jarman points out, his father was equally betrayed by his country: Emigrating from New Zealand, he had to become more British than the British and fought an exhausting war only to go adrift in contemporary England. The rich, raw, kaleidoscopic finale of a personal and artistic statement. (100 b&w photos, not seen) -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 300 pages
• Publisher: Overlook TP (April 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0879518448
• ISBN-13: 978-0879518448
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.8 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,841,142 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Straight Talk on the American Dream, June 18, 2002

By 

Big Dave (Boise, Idaho) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pick a Better Country (Paperback)

This book, written in a punchy and engaging voice, is part memoir, part political diatribe and all truth.

The American Dream is out there, in reach of every American. You work hard, you take risks, you invest the time, the money, the training, and you make a good life for you and your family. This is the archetypal American Story, it is Ken Hamblin's story, and, as Ken fiercely argues, it is a common story. It can be your story.

Even if you're black, poor, and from a rough neighborhood.

In his explication of the American Dream, Hamblin particularly attacks those that would force black Americans to be victims, from the "black thugs" and the "brood mares" that demand ever-increasing entitlements that can only destroy their own lives and the vitality of their communities, to the "poverty pimps" and the "egg-sucking dog liberals" whose own power depends on telling the black underclass that they are doomed to failure and victimhood, the only salvation lying in voting for the politician who will bring back a bigger bite of the welfare apple.

Hamblin punches hard and talks straight, punctuating each chapter with correspondence -- both supporting and hateful -- he has received in response to his writings and radio show. Entertaining and informative.

28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This should be a must-read textbook for inner-city schools, October 11, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: PICK A BETTER COUNTRY: An Unassuming Colored Guy Speaks His Mind About America (Hardcover)

Ken Hamblin is a first generation,self-made American. He does not use hyphens or letters to descibe himself. Instead,he calls himself colored or negro. In his book he illustrates the disservice done by liberals to blacks and other minorities in America. He points out the fact that the liberal's patrinization of minorities has done more harm than good because it fails to allow an individual to accept responsibility for their own actions. Ken Hamblin uses examples from his own experiences as a journalist. He also cites personal observations while traveling across America on his Harley-Davidson motorcycle and in his airplane, of what he sees going on around him. Witty and at the same time hardhitting, he exposes the on-going liberal hypocrisy and how it rewards laziness,while simultaneously condemning achievement. He offers simple, easy to adopt solutions to this problem. He also prints comments from listeners of his syndicated radio program. America still works, the dream is still alive. The viewpoints are an American view. Very real, very informative, and very entertaining.

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Required reading for anyone living in darktown., June 30, 2000

By 

R. J. Riggs (Plano, TX) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Pick a Better Country (Paperback)

Darktown. Black trash. Brood mares. Ken Hamblin speaks the truth, a truth that is bare and bold and harsh. So harsh, in fact, that some reviewers make claims that he uses no facts and two sentences later cite his use of factual events in an attempt to disparage him.

This book has driven the Left mad because a kid from the ghetto has learned that the American Dream is alive and well, whether you are black, brown, or white, if only you would embrace it. I think this book should be in every poor and rural school in the country. It is an outstanding tome on what it means to be an American.