A Different Kind of Intimacy: The Collected Writings of Karen Finley (Paperback)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: veal calf, own mama, New York, Jesse Helms, Los Angeles (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In 1978, Karen Finley was arrested while portraying "a mix of red-light-district prostitute and locked-up psychopath" in the window of a defunct JC Penney. This was, as she puts it, "the beginning of my career causing psychic disturbances." In a retrospective that should appeal to fans and scholars of performance art, Finley, well-known as one of the NEA 4, presents the full scope of her socially conscious art, from performance texts and elaborate installations to segments of her already-published parodies of the self-help movement and Winnie-the-Pooh. Her direct imagery has forced her audience to look at the hopelessness of the disenfranchised, the cruelty of misogyny and the heartbreaking self-betrayal in a victim's own sense of shame. In short, muddled transitional essays, Finley describes her growth as an artist in the pressure cooker created by an eight-year First Amendment battle, the AIDS crisis and her father's suicide. Numerous photographs, drawings and reproduced documents, including a copy of her father's suicide note, deliver the visual context for her writings. Often distressing and downright ugly, this collection expresses the enormous personal and creative costs Finley absorbed while fighting in the culture wars, but, better yet, it presents the "organic explosion" at the heart of her confrontational art. (Nov.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"[A] retrospective that should appeal to fans and scholars of performance art." -- Publishers Weekly, October 23, 2000

"[It]ranges[s] from bitterly ammusing . . . to profoundly somber . . . it embodies the spectrum of emotions attendant to any normal personal life." -- Christina Cho, The New York Times Book Review, April 22, 2001

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Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Running Press; illustrated edition edition (October 30, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1560252936
• ISBN-13: 978-1560252931
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #718,612 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Always Challenging, Always Important, Always Amazing., November 28, 2000

By	Chris Ohnesorge "chrisomatic" (San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Karen Finley's latest book, both a memoir and a collection of her work is a window into the life of one of the most important artists of the 20th century. Karen Finley has always flown in the face of convention creating work that is both political and personal, challenging and difficult, redemptive and healing. As one of the now famous NEA Four she became Jesse Helms' favorite whipping woman in his plot to further toss American back to the 1950s forever

In her book Karen Finley shares pieces from her acclaimed performances and books as well as insights into her life at the time she was working on them and the events that helped shape her work throughout the years. From friends and loved ones dying of AIDS, to her own battles with censorship, the suicide of her father and the many evolutions her work has gone through the reader is priveleged to share intimate details of her life and be even more changed and challenged by her work.

This books is a must have for any artist, activist, thinker, woman, man, whoever. To read it is to confront your own fears, demons, priveleges, biases and secrets.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The High Priestess of Confrontation, The Muse of Truth, December 6, 2000

By	Christopher P. Barton "cpb" (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

forget what you think you know about karen finley, because unless you've actually been to one of her performances and/or read her essays, you don't know much. okay. so let's forget about the yams, the chocolate, the nudity, the naughty words and all of that. just for the space of this review, humor me. still with me? karen finley is amazing. she is the (unwilling) joan of arc of pop culture as we know it. she dared to deconstruct dysfunction, patriarchal power junkies, AIDS hysteria, sexism, homophobia....okay, you get the idea...and she tackled all these things, and so many more subjects, on a human level, on a confrontational level, with compassion and parody combined, with anger and love combined, espousing politically correct ideas in a very unpolitically correct voice during very PC times. while this book is not a "compilation", per se, it is a kind of experimental autobiography, with big chunks of finley's work interspersed throughout - sort of a show and tell exhibit in a book. it works. it's immensely, addictively readable, and quite user-friendly for such a confrontational artist. the only frustration i had with this work was the ending, which frustrated and disappointed me, though the discouraging ending could easily be yet another performance art prank served finley style.....

10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars In your face senator Helmes, February 11, 2001

By	Ricky R Renn, [e-mail] (Atlanta Georgia, United States) - See all my reviews

I saw Karen Finley in Charleston SC years ago. I had no idea what to expect....I had never heard of her before. The tardy Ms. Finley entered the auditorium from the back, totally naked. I knew then that she was like no other person on earth. She yelled and screamed her stories, her anger , her pain....our pain....to the gods above. Through out the performance she gradually clothed herself until she ended the performance fully dressed. I was dumbfounded, changed...and I fully understood how her nudity was necessary to her art...to her connection with her audience. For years I search for information on this woman, hoping to see another performance....to again experience what I felt that night. Catharsis. I was thrilled when an internet search brought me here, to her memoirs. This book did not disappoint. It gave great insight into the life of this very strange, and gifted woman. Though everyone may not agree with her beliefs and politics, they have to admire her intelligence and strength. One suggestion Ms.Finley, get a website so people like myself can let you know how you've made a difference in their lives.R.Renn