I really appreciated Hanna’s book, and I enjoyed reading your response here. It’s funny, how if you know Bikini Kill songs, you shouldn’t be surprised by the amount of trauma she suffered—but holy cow!
I’m one of the few women my age who are not into the Miranda July book. One book that I did enjoy that Rebel Girl has me thinking about is Nancy Barile’s I’m Not Holding Your Coat: My Bruises-and-All Memoir of Punk Rock Rebellion.
I read Rebel Girl a couple months ago. I missed Riot Grrrl at the time, and never saw BK live, but in recent years have been fascinated by the movement, BK, and KH. I think seeing the Linda Lindas (all in their teens or younger at the time) cover Rebel Girl during the pandemic helped me realize the brilliance of that song and got me more curious about KH's story.
I appreciate you addressing head-on some of the thornier issues her story raises and recounts, questions of privilege, how change movements can quickly develop oppressive 'rules', and looking from a mature male perspective on the gender dynamics that her work raises. Post #metoo, I think as thoughtful man we need to take a hard look at the scenes / systems / industries / institutions we've been a part of or benefited by: and ask ourselves what were women's experiences there? Did they have access? Were they subject to impossible demands? Did men take credit for their work? What was handed to me (or easier for me) that was difficult / impossible for women?
Alongside the book I can recommend the excellent documentary on KH 'The Punk Singer'.
There's lots to appreciate about this entry John but I want to commend in particular what you say about audiobooks and "real" books. While they come in through different sensory channels I agree the experience of the text through such different media can ultimately be the same and I wonder even if audiobooks and print books, because they both can be so immersive, aren't often more like each other than they are like e-books read on screens with lots of distractions. The points you make about styles of narration are fascinating to me. I do think that doing the characters in different voices might work best with some genres, like for instance I was listening recently to a Dickens novel done that way and it was great. But for a non-fiction memoir an even tone does seem appropriate. Sad to say this is an area where I suppose soon AI will become all too good at "translating" words on a page into spoken words. (As it already does all the time, when one listens to radio now one hears a lot of AI-voiced ads, but they are just still a little bit too weird and creepy.)
You're absolutely right about AI, but it would be hard to nail the nuance. Kathleen talks about extremely painful, personal things in a very visceral way, and you can hear that in her voice. She's a vocalist, after all. My dad, who is a Medeivalist, is very hard line about the tone that a reader's voice brings to a text, that the nuance changes the meaning of the text. But I really don't care about that; I just want to immerse myself in the storytelling.
Planned to get around to Hannah's book and will do so faster now. I saw Bikini Kill at Maxwell's back in the day, and can confirm they were a fantastic live band, even if it was as much about the energy swirling around them as the performance itself. (The opener for that particular show, Huggy Bear — a kind of UK riot grrrl analog — were even better but, unfortunately, are one of those "lost" bands whose discography has never made it to streaming services.)
Related recommendation is Miranda July's ALL FOURS. Very trendy at the moment in my Brooklyn circles, but putting it out there because she has much the same perspective as Hannah having come out of the same scene, and it's another example of a book that I listened to rather than read thanks to Spotify's new Audiobook bundles. I suspect incredible performers/orators like July and Hannah are just naturally going to sound better in audio form. The emotional guidance of a voice just adds a whole other dimension to the work.
Thanks, pal - I will check it out! Yeah I think the opportunity with audiobooks on streaming platforms will be important for niche authors. I'll defnitely read my own book once I get around to writing one!
I really appreciated Hanna’s book, and I enjoyed reading your response here. It’s funny, how if you know Bikini Kill songs, you shouldn’t be surprised by the amount of trauma she suffered—but holy cow!
I’m one of the few women my age who are not into the Miranda July book. One book that I did enjoy that Rebel Girl has me thinking about is Nancy Barile’s I’m Not Holding Your Coat: My Bruises-and-All Memoir of Punk Rock Rebellion.
Thanks for the recs!
I read Rebel Girl a couple months ago. I missed Riot Grrrl at the time, and never saw BK live, but in recent years have been fascinated by the movement, BK, and KH. I think seeing the Linda Lindas (all in their teens or younger at the time) cover Rebel Girl during the pandemic helped me realize the brilliance of that song and got me more curious about KH's story.
I appreciate you addressing head-on some of the thornier issues her story raises and recounts, questions of privilege, how change movements can quickly develop oppressive 'rules', and looking from a mature male perspective on the gender dynamics that her work raises. Post #metoo, I think as thoughtful man we need to take a hard look at the scenes / systems / industries / institutions we've been a part of or benefited by: and ask ourselves what were women's experiences there? Did they have access? Were they subject to impossible demands? Did men take credit for their work? What was handed to me (or easier for me) that was difficult / impossible for women?
Alongside the book I can recommend the excellent documentary on KH 'The Punk Singer'.
Anyway thanks for plugging this excellent book!
Cheers
There's lots to appreciate about this entry John but I want to commend in particular what you say about audiobooks and "real" books. While they come in through different sensory channels I agree the experience of the text through such different media can ultimately be the same and I wonder even if audiobooks and print books, because they both can be so immersive, aren't often more like each other than they are like e-books read on screens with lots of distractions. The points you make about styles of narration are fascinating to me. I do think that doing the characters in different voices might work best with some genres, like for instance I was listening recently to a Dickens novel done that way and it was great. But for a non-fiction memoir an even tone does seem appropriate. Sad to say this is an area where I suppose soon AI will become all too good at "translating" words on a page into spoken words. (As it already does all the time, when one listens to radio now one hears a lot of AI-voiced ads, but they are just still a little bit too weird and creepy.)
You're absolutely right about AI, but it would be hard to nail the nuance. Kathleen talks about extremely painful, personal things in a very visceral way, and you can hear that in her voice. She's a vocalist, after all. My dad, who is a Medeivalist, is very hard line about the tone that a reader's voice brings to a text, that the nuance changes the meaning of the text. But I really don't care about that; I just want to immerse myself in the storytelling.
Oh my I love everything about this take.
Planned to get around to Hannah's book and will do so faster now. I saw Bikini Kill at Maxwell's back in the day, and can confirm they were a fantastic live band, even if it was as much about the energy swirling around them as the performance itself. (The opener for that particular show, Huggy Bear — a kind of UK riot grrrl analog — were even better but, unfortunately, are one of those "lost" bands whose discography has never made it to streaming services.)
Related recommendation is Miranda July's ALL FOURS. Very trendy at the moment in my Brooklyn circles, but putting it out there because she has much the same perspective as Hannah having come out of the same scene, and it's another example of a book that I listened to rather than read thanks to Spotify's new Audiobook bundles. I suspect incredible performers/orators like July and Hannah are just naturally going to sound better in audio form. The emotional guidance of a voice just adds a whole other dimension to the work.
Thanks, pal - I will check it out! Yeah I think the opportunity with audiobooks on streaming platforms will be important for niche authors. I'll defnitely read my own book once I get around to writing one!