PARADOXIA: A Predator's Diary

Back when I was an angry teenage Riot Grrrl, I picked up a book called Angry Women that forever changed my life. Of all the women that were interviewed and profiled in that book, it was Lydia Lunch that inspired me the most. In that interview, she declared an "all-out war between the sexes" and suggested that women run their own planet since they commit only 13% of all crimes. I was so amazed by the harshness of the way she spoke and wrote and immediately became a devotee.

Lunch is well-known for her work as a musician (Teenage Jesus and the Jerks), performance and spoken word artist (Oral Fixation), and writer (Incriminating Evidence, Adulterer's Anonymous). Her newest book, Paradoxia: A Predator's Diary, is a biography of sorts, chronicling her adventures as she moved from New York to Los Angeles to New Orleans. Lunch reveals her misadventures with the opposite sex in great detail, including her brief stints as a sex worker for a time in New York.

"I've always had a masculine nature. Most men can't stand the competition. It drives them crazy...Forces them to want to lash out."

Aaaaah, I knew there was a reason I loved Lydia so much. Like her, I engage in a battle of the sexes nearly everyday, but there's no denying that we both love men as much as we hate them. Much of her animosity towards men began with her father, who sexually abused her from a young age. But she admits, "the only thing my father taught me was to never give up. Act like a man. And even though as a species I deplored them, I still found myself both siding with and lashing out against their sex."

As the chapters flow, each segment seems seedier and sleazier than the previous one, but never for a moment are you not mesmerized by the power she has to manipulate those around her. She talks of turning tricks in Detroit with a barmaid named Judy who "had a great attitude about sex, only fucking men for money." The sex is hot, wet, and dirty, and the clients are demanding coke-heads who demand "pussy that knew how to work for that dollar." Lunch is shameless and has no regret for her past, nor should she. The way she writes about these escapades makes me love her even more.

She admits she's been called "insane, a sociopath, a lunatic, demented, heartless, cunt, slut, evil, and cold...all by people who loved me or said they did or thought they did. Although they probably didn't ever really know me." I did actually meet Lydia at a book signing for this book a few weeks ago and was amazed at how nice and friendly she was. She gave me a hug and smiled. It was not what I expected of her, but felt so good to know that she could be misunderstood too, just like myself. Our words may not always reflect who we are, but are an expression of our reality, our anger, our disillusionment with the world around us.

In today's world of Paris Hiltons, Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohans, and the like, Lydia would be a much more suitable role model for girls and young women. She's honest and not afraid to flaunt her sexuality in a dominant and predatory way. Instead of being ashamed at her past indiscretions, she flaunts them with pride and uses them as building blocks in her long and productive life. Here's hoping a new generation of girls will discover Paradoxia the way I discovered Angry Women all those years ago.

Review by The Libertine.

Title: Paradoxia: A Predator's Diary
Author: Lydia Lunch; Thurston Moore (Afterword), Jerry Stahl (Introduction)
Publisher: Akashic Books (October 2007)
ISBN-10: 1933354356
ISBN-13: 978-1933354354