On the Many Deaths of Amanda Palmer
(And the Many Crimes of Tobias James)
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- £9.99
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- £9.99
Publisher Description
“Strange and clever . . . Some inspired thinking about real issues like the slippery nature of the Internet and relationships between artists and their fans” (Flagpole).
Centered around the hypothetical death of a real-life musician and performance artist—Amanda Palmer of Dresden Dolls fame—this book imagines the fallout of her demise. Upon hearing news of Amanda’s death, her fans began posting their own writing, artwork, and thoughts onto the Internet, eventually creating their own genre called the Palmeresque. By collecting a selection of these submissions in one place and providing commentary, On the Many Deaths of Amanda Palmer explores issues of authorship, celebrity, popular culture, marketing strategies, the corruption of art, and the essential questions of modern media.
“A postmodern Russian nesting doll of realities, complete with poems, charts, and censored text, this book is successful on many levels: creepy and fun when accepted at face value; tantalizing when looked at as evidence in a murder mystery; insightful in its commentary on modern celebrity and culture . . . Coy, engaging, and delightfully imagined.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Inspired by the imagined death of the real-life (and living) Amanda Palmer, the front woman for the self-described "Brechtian punk cabaret" band, The Dresden Dolls, Kriwaczek (An Incomplete History of the Art of the Funerary Violin) puts his mischievous faux-scholasticism to work. Presented as an anthology of "Palmeresques," an artistic form of fan response to Palmer's mysterious death, each text offers its own darkly fanciful version of the songstress's demise. Also imagined are a jumble of issues concerning the shady dealings of the Amanda Palmer Trust (APT) selection committee, the possible influence of a murder suspect on their proceedings, and the intervention of the Boston police. A postmodern Russian nesting doll of realities, complete with poems, charts, and censored text, this book is successful on many levels: creepy and fun when accepted at face value; tantalizing when looked at as evidence in a murder mystery; insightful in its commentary on modern celebrity and culture in all coy, engaging, and delightfully imagined. Illustrations. (Jul.)
