by Olivia Laing
190 ‘I do not plan to sit calmly . . .’: ibid.
191 ‘Absolutely NOT true’: Christopher Turner, Adventures in the Orgasmatron, p. 340.
192 ‘the continued pressure forced him . . .’: ibid.
193 ‘Not because biologically . . .’: Andrea Dworkin, Last Days at Hot Slit, p. 133.
CHAPTER 6: CELLS
197 ‘I still dream of Orgonon, I wake up crying’: Kate Bush, ‘Cloudbusting’, Hounds of Love (1985).
199 ‘60-year-old divorced . . .’: Myron Sharaf, Fury on Earth: A Biography of Wilhelm Reich (Da Capo Press, 1994)), p. 470.
201 ‘a runway for hugging’: Peter Reich, A Book of Dreams, p. 80.
201 ‘Oh my God, oh my God!’: ibid., p. 81.
201 ‘His heart had stopped . . .’: ibid., p. 82.
201 ‘Come back, come back’: ibid., p. 85.
205 ‘unceasing vigilance’: Sarah Handley-Cousins, ‘The Auburn System: Prison and Punishment in the 19th Century United States’, digpodcast.org, 11 March 2018.
206 ‘in prison, all work . . .’: Karen M. Morin, ‘Security Here is Not Safe: Violence, Punishment, and Space in the Contemporary US Penitentiary’, Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, Vol. 31, Issue 3, 1 January 2013.
207 ‘His welcome to white America’: Bayard Rustin, ed. Devon W. Carbado and Donald Weise, Time on Two Crosses: The Collected Writings of Bayard Rustin (Cleis Press, 2015), p. 173.
208 ‘Our anchor giving way’: Malcolm X with the assistance of Alex Haley, The Autobiography of Malcolm X (Penguin, 2007 [1965]), p. 99.
208 ‘A white man in charge . . .’: ibid., p. 101.
209 ‘like a pink poodle’: ibid., p. 112.
209 ‘groovy, frantic’: ibid., p. 140.
210 ‘I never will forget how shocked . . .’: ibid., p. 266.
211 ‘Months passed . . .’: ibid., p. 267.
212 ‘Any person who claims . . .’: ibid., p. 245.
213 ‘Who will still be there . . .’: Edith Jacobson, ‘Notes From Prison’, translated for the author by Rebecca May Johnson, in Ulrike May, Elke Muhleitner and Otto F. Kernberg, Edith Jacobson: Sie selbst und die Welt ihre Objekte (Psychosozial-Verlag, 2005), p. 181.
214 ‘had put the analytic movement in danger’: Per Anthi and Svein Haugsgjerd, ‘A note of the history of the Norwegian Psychoanalytic Society from 1933 to 1945’, The International Journal of Psychoanalysis, Vol. 94, 2013, p. 718.
215 ‘a rare opportunity to observe . . .’: Edith Jacobson, ‘Observations on the Psychological Effect of Imprisonment on Female Political Prisoners’, in K. R. Eissler, ed., Searchlights on Delinquency: New Psychoanalytic Studies (Imago, 1949), p. 343.
216 ‘sudden violent attack . . .’: ibid., p. 344.
217 ‘estranged body parts’: Edith Jacobson, ‘Depersonalization’, Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, Vol. 7, Issue 4, 1 October 1959, p. 587.
218 ‘the contradictory educational system of cleanliness and order’: Edith Jacobson, ‘Observations on the Psychological Effect of Imprisonment on Female Political Prisoners’, p. 353.
219 ‘hard labour, hard fare, and a hard bed’: The Prisons Act 1865.
219 ‘in a strong grown man . . .’: Oscar Wilde, Letter to the editor, Daily Chronicle, 28 May 1897.
220 ‘I have the most urgent need of fresh air’: Marquis de Sade, Letters from Prison, p. 120.
220 ‘the panic of complete helplessness drives us to fantastic extremes’: Nancy Princenthal, Agnes Martin: Her Life and Art, p. 161.
222 ‘truly constructive development’: Edith Jacobson, ‘Observations on the Psychological Effect of Imprisonment on Female Political Prisoners’, p. 359.
222 ‘exceptional’: ibid.
222 ‘social and cultural development . . .’: ibid., p. 367.
223 ‘War is wrong . . .’: Bayard Rustin, ed. Michael G. Long, I Must Resist: Bayard Rustin’s Life in Letters (City Lights, 2012), pp. 11–12.
223 ‘There is little doubt that Rustin . . .’: ibid., p. 10.
224 ‘plausible, smooth and ingratiating . . .’: ibid., p. 19.
224 ‘the lovely natural scenes . . .’: ibid., p. 19.
225 ‘I shall not help them rob me . . .’: ibid., pp. 29-30.
225 ‘a constitutional homo . . .’: ibid., p. 44.
226 ‘he never knew there was a closet to go into’: Rachelle Horowitz, We Were There: The March on Washington – An Oral History, 2013.
226 ‘For these are our only weapons’: Bayard Rustin, I Must Resist, p. 63.
226 ‘We are willing to pay a price for freedom’: ibid., p. 72.
226 ‘I am needed on the outside’: ibid., p. 83.
227 ‘Unjust social laws and patterns . . .’: Jervis Anderson, Bayard Rustin: Troubles I’ve Seen (Harper Collins, 1997), p. 115.
229 ‘Hell no . . .’: Bayard Rustin, Time on Two Crosses, p. 36.
229 ‘these men and thousands like them . . .’: ibid., p. 40.
230 ‘If the law of cause and effect . . .’: ibid., p. 57.
232 ‘torn . . . distressed . . . uneasy’: Bayard Rustin, Time on Two Crosses, p. 285.
232 ‘the greatest demonstration for freedom . . .’: Martin Luther King, ‘I Have a Dream’, March on Washington, 28 August 1963.
233 ‘The conviction was sex perversion’: Strom Thurmond, We Were There: The March on Washington – An Oral History, 2013.
234 ‘the crap that was going on in those motels . . .’: Bayard Rustin, Time on Two Crosses, p. 302.
234 ‘There is no question in my mind . . .’: ibid., p. 299.
236 ‘think about imprisonment as a fate . . .’: Angela Davis, Are Prisons Obsolete? (Seven Stories Press, 2003), p. 15.
236 ‘Are we willing to relegate . . .’: ibid., p. 16.
CHAPTER 7: BLOCK/SWARM
243 ‘You gays! Why don’t you . . .’: Susanne Bösche, Jenny Lives with Eric and Martin (Gay Men’s Press, 1983), p. 38.
243 ‘It can never be wrong . . .’: ibid., p. 44.
243 ‘positive images’: Margaret Thatcher, Speech to Conservative Central Council, Margaret Thatcher Foundation, 21 March 1987.
243 ‘Children who need to be taught . . .’: Margaret Thatcher, Conservative Party Conference, 9 October 1987.
244 ‘the acceptability of homosexuality . . .’: Local Government Act 1988.
245 ‘but I’m afraid we rather have been invaded’: ‘Lesbian protest at the BBC’, BBC News, 23 May 2018.
245 ‘beeb man sits on lesbian’: Daily Mirror, 24 May 1988.
246 ‘It is not in the role of an artist . . .’: Agnes Martin, ‘Beauty is the Mystery of Life’, in Frances Morris and Tiffany Bell, eds. Agnes Martin, p. 156.
248 ‘black American man and a beautiful mixed-caste girl’: James Dalrymple, The Times, 31 May 1992.
249 ‘the emission of a succession of repetitive beats’: Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994.
250 ‘hemp-smelling bivouacs’: Hayley Dixon and Izzy Lyons, ‘Boris Johnson calls Extinction Rebellion activists “crusties” who live in “hemp-smelling bivouacs” ’, Telegraph, 7 October 2019.
255 ‘slowly, very slowly’: Wilhelm Reich, People in Trouble, p. 26.
255 ‘It was not a riot per se . . .’: ibid., p. 25.
257 ‘The gory events . . .’: ibid., p. 32.
257 ‘Somewhere a great deception was hidden’: ibid., p. 28.
257 ‘Every individual is virtually an enemy . . .’: Sigmund Freud, trans. James Strachey, ‘The Future of an Illusion’, in The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume XXI (Hogarth Press, 1973), p. 6.
257 ‘civilisation overcomes the dangerous aggressivity . . .’: Sigmund Freud, trans. James Strachey, ‘Civilisation and its Discontents’, in ibid., pp. 123–4.
258 ‘a stupid, idiotic automaton . . .’: Wilhelm Reich, People in Trouble, p. 27.
259 ‘Fifty-three years have passed . . .’: Elias Canetti, trans. Joachim Neugroschel, The To
rch in My Ear (Pan Books, 1990 [1980]), p. 245.
260 ‘The files are burning! All the files!’: ibid., p. 245.
260 ‘Everything yielded and invisible holes . . .’: ibid., p. 248.
261 ‘poetics of political nightmare’: Susan Sontag, ‘Elias Canetti’, Granta 5: The Modern Common Wind, 1 March 1982.
263 ‘The block was an armoured mass . . .’ Stefan Jonsson, Crowds and Democracy: The Idea and Image of the Masses from Revolution to Fascism (Columbia University Press, 2013), p. 46.
264 ‘a swarm of people coming across . . .’: Jessica Elgot and Matthew Taylor, ‘Calais crisis: Cameron condemned for “dehumanising” description of migrants’, Guardian, 30 July 2015.
264 ‘animals’: Dara Lind, ‘Trump’s Animals remark and the ensuing controversy, explained’, Vox, 21 May 2018.
264 ‘pour into and infest’: Ben Zimmer, ‘What Trump Talks About When He Talks About Infestation’, Politico, 29 July 2019.
264 ‘monstrosity’: ‘Trump calls immigration crisis “a monstrosity” ’, CNN, 19 June 2018.
264 ‘You look at what is marching up, that’s an invasion’: Peter Baker and Michael D. Shear, ‘El Paso Shooting Suspect’s Manifesto Echoes Trump’s Language’, New York Times, 4 August 2019.
266 ‘egregious display of hatred . . .’: Ben Jacobs and Warren Murray, ‘Donald Trump under fire after failing to denounce Virginia white supremacists’, Guardian, 13 August 2017.
266 ‘the opposite of cuck’: Maya Oppenheim, ‘Neo-Nazis and White Supremacists applaud Donald Trump’s response to deadly violence in Virginia’, Independent, 13 August 2017.
268 ‘What kind of man am I . . .’: Robert Slifkin, Out of Time: Philip Guston and the Refiguration of Postwar American Art (University of California Press, 2013), p. 65.
273 ‘I perceive myself as being behind the hood . . .’: Philip Guston, ed. Clark Coolidge, Philip Guston: Collected Writings, Lectures, and Conversations (University of California Press, 2011), p. 282.
273 ‘In masking himself as his would-be persecutor . . .’: Aaron Rose, Imagining Jewish Art: Encounters with the Masters in Chagall, Guston, and Kitaj (Legenda, 2009), p. 71.
274 ‘black with Cossacks’: Wilhelm Reich, Passion of Youth, p. 57.
275 ‘Our whole lives (since I can remember) . . .’: Dore Ashton, A Critical Study of Philip Guston (University of California Press, 1992), p.177
275 ‘my father had felt tremendous regret . . .’: Musa Mayer, Night Studio: A Memoir of Philip Guston (Thames and Hudson, 1988), p. 229.
276 ‘Can you imagine how it feels to find your father like that?’: ibid., p. 12.
277 ‘in this private box . . . to be hidden and feel strange’: ibid., p. 24.
278 ‘embarrassing’: David Kaufmann, Telling Stories: Philip Guston’s Later Work (University of California Press, 2010), p. 19.
278 ‘a mandarin pretending to be a stumblebum’: Hilton Kramer, ‘A Mandarin Pretending to be a Stumblebum’, New York Times, 25 October 1970.
278 ‘It was as though I had left the church . . .’: Robert Slifkin, Out of Time, p. 108.
279 ‘sinister . . . distance’: James Baldwin, ‘Open Letter to Angela Davis’, in Angela Davis, If They Come in the Morning: Voices of Resistance (Orbach and Chambers, 1971), p. 22.
CHAPTER 8: 22ND CENTURY
285 ‘We want to destroy sexism . . .’: Andrea Dworkin, Last Days at Hot Slit, p. 60.
286 ‘she managed to tear through . . .’: Federico Garcia Lorca, In Search of Duende, trans. A. S. Kline, www.poetryintranslation.com.
286 ‘This is a song by a Bahamian . . .’: Justin Vivian Bond, Joe’s Pub, 20 September 2013.
288 ‘Don’t try to sway me over to your way. Your day, your day will go away’: Exuma, ‘22nd Century’, Do Wah Nanny (1971).
289 ‘I had not made a connection . . .’: Nina Simone, with Stephen Cleary, I Put a Spell on You (Da Capo Press, 1991), p. 86.
289 ‘fanatic’: ibid., p. 16.
290 ‘my white momma’: ibid., p. 24.
292 ‘I can’t be white . . .’: Alan Light, What Happened, Miss Simone? (Canongate, 2016), p. 128.
293 ‘We never talked about men . . .’: Nina Simone, I Put a Spell on You, p. 87.
295 ‘I suddenly realized what it was to be black in America in 1963’: ibid., p. 89.
295 ‘Nina, you don’t know anything about killing . . .’: ibid., p. 89.
295 ‘ten bullets’: Cohodas, Princess Noire: The Tumultuous Reign of Nina Simone (Pantheon Books, 2010), p. 145.
296 ‘political weapon’: Nina Simone, BBC Hardtalk, 25 March 1999.
296 ‘I’m not non-violent’: Joe Hagan, ‘I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free: The Secret Diary of Nina Simone’, The Believer, August 2010.
296 ‘That’s OK, sister’: ibid.
296 ‘helps to change the world . . .’: Nina Simone, BBC Hardtalk, 25 March 1999.
296 ‘Motherfucker, I am civil rights’: Alan Light, What Happened, Miss Simone?, p. 102.
296 ‘I am not the doctor to cure it however, sugar . . .’: ibid., p. 158.
297 ‘I’m counting their heads as I’m making the beds’: Bertolt Brecht, trans. Marc Blitzstein, ‘Pirate Jenny’, The Threepenny Opera (1928).
297 ‘Oh but this whole country is full of lies/You’re all going to die and die like flies’: Nina Simone, ‘Mississippi Goddam’, Nina Simone in Concert (1964).
297 ‘I just want them to be in pieces . . .’: Alan Light, What Happened, Miss Simone?, p. 148.
298 ‘just running back and forth . . .’: Nina Simone, I Put a Spell on You, p. 18.
298 ‘source of power’: Joe Hagan, ‘I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free: The Secret Diary of Nina Simone’, The Believer, August 2010.
298 ‘the same sense of being transformed . . .’: Nina Simone, I Put a Spell on You, p. 92.
300 ‘Everybody is half dead . . .’: Nina Simone: Historical Perspective, dir. Peter Rodis (1970).
300 ‘I have always been struck . . .’: James Baldwin, No Name in the Street (Vintage, 2007 [1972]), pp. 53–4.
302 ‘sleeping pills to sleep + yellow pills to go on stage’: Joe Hagan, ‘I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free: The Secret Diary of Nina Simone’, The Believer, August 2010.
303 ‘They don’t know that I’m dead and my ghost is holding on’: What Happened, Miss Simone?, dir. Liz Garbus (2015).
304 ‘exiled, jailed or underground’: Nina Simone, I Put a Spell on You, p. 115.
304 ‘that what she saw contributed to the . . .’: James Baldwin, ‘Sweet Lorraine’, Esquire, 1 November 1969.
304 ‘Do you realise how . . .’: Nina Simone, Westbury Music Fair, 7 April 1968.
306 ‘What’s free to me? Same thing it is to you. You tell me . . .’: Nina Simone: Historical Perspective, dir. Peter Rodis (1970).
307 ‘there is no civil rights movement. Everybody’s gone’: ibid.
307 ‘This is 2000 now . . .’: Nina Simone, São Paulo, 13 April 2000.
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