The Consumer

by Michael Gira

  (1983)

  Thanks to: Jarboe, Charles Neal, and Gary Ichihara for their editorial assistance and advice, and to H. Rollins for publishing this material - M.G.

  M. GIRA

  * * *

  Gira was born in Los Angeles, CA in 1954. In 1983 he founded the highly influential musical group Swans. He has released over a dozen albums, both with Swans and related projects.

  In 1995, Swans released The Great Annihilator, and Gira released his solo album Drainland.

  Photo: Wim Van De Hulst

  Praise for The Consumer

  This is repulsive writing. Brilliant, disciplined and repulsive writing…

  - Nick Cave, author of And the Ass Saw the Angel

  The Consumer is a look at the inner world of illusion, hallucination, self-hatred, a search for identification through mis-identification of a lost soul. It is an all consuming book. It is certainly not a book for the squeamish, yet even the squeamish, I believe, will be hypnotized by this book. Though hallucinatory, the writing is extremely clear, crisp, succinct, as the narrator literally eviscerates himself for the reader. Yet, at the end I found myself with an unanswearable question: are the hallucinations a distortion of reality, or really closer to the reality of the world?

  - Hubert Selby, Jr., author of Last Exit to Brooklyn; Song of the Silent Snow

  M. Gira is an astonishing writer whose belief in the power of language is almost supernatural. The Consumer is one of the purest, scariest, most beautiful books I’ve read in years.

  - Dennis Cooper, author of Try; Frisk

  © 2.13.61, Inc.

  The Consumer

  Author: Michael Gira

  Original publication: 1995

  Photography: Wim Wam de Hulst

  Jacket Design: Superlux

  ISBN: 1-880985-26-8

  v1.0 for /lit/

  PDF source from z-lib