Simba: A Collection of Personal and Political Writings from the Nineties Hardcore Scene by
Vique Martin My rating:
3 of 5 stars Here compiled in book form is personal, even confessional, writing along with some interviews from Vique Martin's Simba subitlted "A Collection of Personal and Political Writings from the '90s Hardcore Scene". "Personal" for sure, but the "political" is as in sexual politics and such life-style choices as vegetarainism, etc. that arises in the interviews with 90s hardcore bands and scenesters, such as Positive Kim. But, as I guess as
Shane Bugbee tried to convince me in his
2013 interview on Outsight Radio Hours, everything is politics.
Apparently chronological, the main thrust of the writing is as Vique's diary on life, sexual exploration, dealing wit love and loss, and identity. Her writing gets increasingly overt as she sets aside metaphor for over even explicit depictions and revelations. In probing her own world view and identity she let's out some real insight as in this quote: "...I donb't believe that talent is directly related to [the] creative drive in the slightest. It often seems to be the most medicore people who push themselves the hardest. The ones with talents are often people who place other priorities over their art and then turn around and write a book or paint a picture or write a record that someone else could have spent fifteen years trying to achieve with no comparable results... This dramatic notion, of a musician with all this music just inside of them, with this need to fulfill their destiny, does not ring true to me. It is a different drive that makes people want to create. Not one related to talent...]
View all my reviews
