Bad Girls and Sick Boys: Fantasies in Contemporary Culture

Rating:
Summary: too credulous but not bad
Review: I looked forward to reading this, and it starts well but then becomes bogged down in lionizing unskeptically such performance artists as Orlan, the woman who continues to have plastic surgery as her "transgressive" "art," and stories of the dated antics of Carolee Schneeman. It's nice that the author doesn't much care for Andrea Dworkin, but she goes head over heels for Bret Easton Ellis and Kathy Acker, whose literary accomplishments I think have been hit and miss at best. The best thing in the book is the attention paid to David Cronenberg and J.G. Ballard, including interviews with each.

Rating:
Summary: An open-minded summary of a controversial topic.
Review: Linda Kauffman's book would shock an academic or one who reads for pleasurer during a quick browse. But upon closer examination, one finds that Kauffman's research presents a solid argument for the anti-censorship stance in the most reliable way possible--through undeniable facts. This books allows radical feminists to be seen in a different light, one that has been shadowed by hypocrisy for too many years.