Shock and Awe
It is necessary and fitting that Karen Finley has returned to the city where she cut her teeth to celebrate the expanded edition of her first book. Shock Treatment was originally published by our own City Lights in the midst of the public furor over obscenity and NEA grants. Remember that? The powder keg under Jess Helm’s ludicrous witch hunt was Finley’s own 1989 performance “We Keep Our Victims Ready,” which, significantly, was inspired by a 16-year old girl found wrapped in a Hefty bag and smeared in feces, who was later accused of staging the sexual assault to avoid a real assault by her step-father. Overflowing with crude unmitigated rage, Shock Treatment clawed at the bulwarks of homophobia, misogyny, racism, and casual violence, inspiring women like Kathleen Hannah, Michelle Tea, and Miranda July to step up (while also inhibiting our own guy pals from asking out girls for fear of being perceived as sexist). Twenty-five years later, Finley might be less ferocious but she remains astute. If you want proof, she will be offering a psychic reading or intuitive bookmark to anyone buying the new edition, which features new work.
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