Philosophy for Spiders: On the Low Theory of Kathy Acker

by McKenzie Wark

Overview

It's time to recognize Kathy Acker as one of the great postwar American writers. Over the decades readers have found a punk Acker, a feminist Acker, a queer Acker, a kink Acker, and an avant-garde Acker. In Philosophy for Spiders, McKenzie Wark adds a trans Acker. Wark recounts her memories of Acker (with whom she had a passionate affair) and gives a comprehensive reading of her published and archived works. Wark finds not just an inventive writer of fiction who pressed against the boundaries of gender but a theorist whose comprehensive philosophy of life brings a conceptual intelligence to the everyday life of those usually excluded from philosophy's purview. As Wark shows, Acker's engagement with topics such as masturbation, sadism, body-building, and penetrative sex are central to her distinct phenomenology of the body that theorizes the body's relation to others, the city, and technology.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781478021988
Publisher:	Duke University Press
Publication date:	08/09/2021
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	216
File size:	775 KB

About the Author

McKenzie Wark is Professor of Media and Culture at Eugene Lang College at The New School and author of several books, including Sensoria: Thinkers for the Twenty-First Century, Reverse Cowgirl, and Capital Is Dead: Is This Something Worse? Her correspondence with Kathy Acker was published as I'm Very Into You.

Table of Contents

Part I. The City of Memory  1
Part II. A Philosophy for Spiders  51
Null Philosophy  53
First Philosophy  61
Second Philosophy  81
Third Philosophy  120
Afterword. Dysphoric  169
Acknowledgments  179
Reading List 187
Index  195

Editorial Reviews

"This is a formally generous book that avoids classificatory boundaries, happily reflecting many of Acker's iterations. . . . A thought-provoking afterword considers trans writing; like the rest of the book, it is both playful & incisive about gender."

ABC Arts - Declan Fry

"Don’t be frightened by the word 'theory' in the title: Wark is nothing if not gentle with her reader. This slim book will hook you with both its eroticism and its deep dive into Acker’s art. . . . In addition to being erotic, funny, and bold, the book makes a strong case for Acker’s significance as part of the American literary canon. It left me with an itch to return to Acker’s books; and Wark’s accessibly written analysis will surely invite a new generation of readers to discover Acker for the first time."

Women's Review of Books - Clare Potter

In this brilliant reading of one of the late twentieth century's most interesting writers, language ‘messes with flesh’ while ‘logic messes with language,’ transmuting Kathy Acker's sign-worlds into philosophy. I love the fearless way in which McKenzie Wark thinks. I also love the calm voice with which she walks herself (and us) through difficult spaces in theory and memory. Exploring how gender structures writing in ways related to, but ultimately different from, the norms that structure heterosexuality, Philosophy for Spiders radically expands the field of trans girl lit.

Theory of the Gimmick: Aesthetic Judgment and Capitalist Form - Sianne Ngai

McKenzie Wark’s highly personal sex memoir evolves the growing ‘My Kathy’ genre in trans directions. This impassioned, reasonable, and subjective tribute makes more room for Kathy to live on as the future's own creations.

Let the Record Show: A Political History of ACT UP New York, 1987–1993 - Sarah Schulman

"Philosophy for Spiders provides a novel approach to the scholarship on Acker and asks important questions about academic writing itself. It will be of great interest to readers of both Acker and Wark, and to all those working on trans literature, gender theory, and contemporary literature and culture more broadly."

European Journal of American Studies - Maria Markiewicz

"Wark has written a study that not only luxuriates in her brief, passionate love affair with Acker but also attempts to burnish her legacy through a contemporary recontextualization of her work, including a trans reading of Acker’s writings, exploring the ways her fictions abjured gender binaries or even the assumption that her voice emanated from a cis woman. . . . Through Wark’s rereading, Acker is transformed from provocateur porn writer, punk poet, and literary theorist to someone much more resonant: a vulnerable Acker shed of her leather jacket, of her sometimes-bratty persona."

The Nation - Alyse Burnside

"Philosophy for Spiders provides a novel approach to the scholarship on Acker and asks important questions about academic writing itself. It will be of great interest to readers of both Acker and Wark, and to all those working on trans literature, gender theory, and contemporary literature and culture more broadly."--Maria Markiewicz "European Journal of American Studies" (2/1/2023 12:00:00 AM)

"Don't be frightened by the word 'theory' in the title: Wark is nothing if not gentle with her reader. This slim book will hook you with both its eroticism and its deep dive into Acker's art. . . . In addition to being erotic, funny, and bold, the book makes a strong case for Acker's significance as part of the American literary canon. It left me with an itch to return to Acker's books; and Wark's accessibly written analysis will surely invite a new generation of readers to discover Acker for the first time."--Clare Potter "Women's Review of Books" (11/1/2021 12:00:00 AM)

"This is a formally generous book that avoids classificatory boundaries, happily reflecting many of Acker's iterations. . . . A thought-provoking afterword considers trans writing; like the rest of the book, it is both playful & incisive about gender."--Declan Fry "ABC Arts" (9/4/2021 12:00:00 AM)

"Wark has written a study that not only luxuriates in her brief, passionate love affair with Acker but also attempts to burnish her legacy through a contemporary recontextualization of her work, including a trans reading of Acker's writings, exploring the ways her fictions abjured gender binaries or even the assumption that her voice emanated from a cis woman. . . . Through Wark's rereading, Acker is transformed from provocateur porn writer, punk poet, and literary theorist to someone much more resonant: a vulnerable Acker shed of her leather jacket, of her sometimes-bratty persona."--Alyse Burnside "The Nation" (1/13/2022 12:00:00 AM)

"McKenzie Wark's highly personal sex memoir evolves the growing 'My Kathy' genre in trans directions. This impassioned, reasonable, and subjective tribute makes more room for Kathy to live on as the future's own creations."--Sarah Schulman, author of "Let the Record Show: A Political History of ACT UP New York, 1987-1993"

"In this brilliant reading of one of the late twentieth century's most interesting writers, language 'messes with flesh' while 'logic messes with language, ' transmuting Kathy Acker's sign-worlds into philosophy. I love the fearless way in which McKenzie Wark thinks. I also love the calm voice with which she walks herself (and us) through difficult spaces in theory and memory. Exploring how gender structures writing in ways related to, but ultimately different from, the norms that structure heterosexuality, Philosophy for Spiders radically expands the field of trans girl lit."--Sianne Ngai, author of "Theory of the Gimmick: Aesthetic Judgment and Capitalist Form"

From the Publisher