Blood and Guts in High School
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Blood and Guts in High School is a novel by Kathy Acker.
| Author | Kathy Acker |
|---|---|
| Genre(s) | Experimental Fiction |
| Publisher | Grove Press |
| Released | 1984 |
| Media Type | Hardcover, Paperback |
| Pages | 165 pages (paperback) |
| Size and Weight | 6.8 x 4.2 x 1.1 inches; 8.64 ounces (Paperback edition) |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-80-213193-X (Paperback edition) |
Contents |
[edit] Plot Introduction
Blood and Guts in High School describes the plight of Janey Smith, a ten-year-old girl who is spurned by her father, with whom she is sexually involved, when he takes a new lover. Fleeing to New York, she joins a gang and is kidnapped by a Persian slave trader who locks her away. When Janey develops cancer, she is released and travels to Tangiers, where she wanders the desert with Jean Genet until they are imprisoned.
[edit] Plot Summary
Blood and Guts in High School is the story of Janey Smith, a ten-year-old American girl living in Merida, Mexico, who departs to the U.S.A. to live on her own. She has an incestuous sexual relationship with her father, whom she treats as “boyfriend, brother, sister, money, amusement, and father”. They live together in Mexico until another woman begins to interest Janey’s father. Janey realizes he hates her because she limits him and he wants to have his own life. Her father agrees to let her go and puts her into a school in New York City. For a period of time her father sends her money but later she begins to work to get by. She has many sexual partners. She seems to be addicted to sex and does not care who she sleeps with. In New York City she joins a gang, the Scorpions. One day the group crashes a car while running from the police and Janey is the only one who survives it, almost unharmed. Afterwards she begins to live in New York slums. Two thieves break into her apartment, kidnap her, and sell her into prostitution. She becomes the property of a Persian slave trader who keeps her locked up, trying to change her into a prostitute. We get the account of Janey’s dreams, visions, journal entries and poems that she writes while being held captive. Shortly before the kidnapper is to release her to become a prostitute for him, she discovers she has cancer. The slave trader lets her go and she illegally goes to Tangiers. There she meets Jean Genet, the talented, iconic French writer, and they develop a relationship. Janey and Genet travel through North Africa and stop in Alexandria. Genet treats Janey badly, but the worse he treats her the more she loves him. He decides to leave her. Janey gets arrested for stealing Genet’s property. Shortly afterwards he joins her in prison. A rebellion breaks out and they are both thrown out of Alexandria. They travel together for some time, then Genet gives Janey some money and leaves. Soon after they part company, Janey dies.
[edit] Characters
- Janey Smith
- Jean Genet
- Tommy
- Persian Slave Trader
[edit] Storytelling Technique
In Blood and Guts in High School, Kathy Acker uses the technique of collage. She inserts letters, poems, drama scenes, dream visions and drawings. This creates a challenging text with a disturbed linearity. Acker freely admitted to using plagiarism in her work.
[edit] Quotes
- “One of the landlords burned down his building so he could collect the insurance money. Two families and one pimp were sleeping in this building when it burned down. The landlord sold the charred lot for lots of money to McDonald’s, a multinational fast food concern. This is how poor people become transformed into hamburger meat.” (56)
- “A scholar is a teacher. Teachers replace living dangerous creatings with dead ideas and teach these ideas as the history and meaning of the world. Teachers torture kids. Teachers teach you intricate ways of saying one thing and doing something else.” (68)
- “When you start doing something for someone else, you start to perceive that you’re the cause of all the pain in the world and that only you can do something about it.” (98)
[edit] Points of interest
- Blood and Guts... was banned as pornographic in West Germany and South Africa.
- Laura Parnes has created a "re-imagining" of this novel using video.[1]
- A quote from Acker[2]
...while writing it, I never considered that Blood and Guts in High School is especially anti-male, but people have been very upset about it on that ground. When I wrote it I think it was in my mind to do a traditional narrative. I thought it was kind of sweet at the time, but of course it's not.
