Jenny Diski
Encyclopedia
Jenny Diski is an English writer. Diski was educated at University College London, and worked as a teacher during the 1970s and early 1980s. She won the 2003 Thomas Cook Travel Book Award
for Stranger on a Train: Daydreaming and Smoking around America With Interruptions.
Jenny Diski is a regular contributor to the London Review of Books
; the collections Don't and A View from the Bed include articles and essays written for the publication.
'In a market where, increasingly, authors are encouraged to be reader-friendly...Diski pursue themes that make for a difficult, troubling yet fascinating read: depression
, madness, sado-masochism, and chaos'. However, her later writings may at times take on a more positive tone: 'The warmth of Apology for the Woman Writing is a stark contrast to much of Diski’s writing, which shows life as pointless, something at best to be endured, at worst something that should never have happened...Yet the narratives show forward movement, even if that movement is towards breakdown'
'In Diski's most interesting and original novels she has abandoned any pretence at realism and embraced the possibilities inherent in fantasy and imagination'.
Stylistically, 'her voice - deeply ironic and funny even when confronting the most harrowing of material - is unique'. Interestingly enough, 'as a young woman, Jenny Diski was "adopted" by Doris Lessing
; although she does not discuss this time, Diski’s portrayal of the intricate consciousnesses of thinking women links the two', and arguably 'Diski is in fact a more elegant stylist than Lessing; the style is spare and precise, mirroring the detachment and coldness of many of her heroines and fictional environments'.
With respect to the countercultural
cult of 'casual sex. We tried hard to make sex as casual as sleeping' - Diski notes offhandedly that 'on the basis that no means no, I was raped several times by men who arrived in my bed and wouldn't take no for an answer'.
Like many others, Diski found 'the anti-psychiatry
movement of the Sixties...incredibly seductive. The mad hero became a teacher...shamans, gurus, speakers in tongues'.
Diski returns several times to the vexed question of how far 'the legacy of the permissive
Sixties...caused the greed and self-interest of the Eighties by invoking the self, the individual, as the unit of society'. She concludes mordantly that 'one crucial truth about the Sixties' is that the gulf between the set of beliefs whereby '"the Underground puts self at the centre of its spectrum"[1970]...and those of Conservative government of the Eighties was, in practice, very much slighter than we had imagined'.
Her current partner is Ian Patterson, known as "the Poet" in Diski's writings, who is also a translator and Director of English studies at Queens' College, Cambridge
.
Thomas Cook Travel Book Award
The Thomas Cook Travel Book Award originated as an initiative of Thomas Cook AG in 1980, with the aim of encouraging and rewarding the art of literary travel writing. The awards stopped in 2005...
for Stranger on a Train: Daydreaming and Smoking around America With Interruptions.
Jenny Diski is a regular contributor to the London Review of Books
London Review of Books
The London Review of Books is a fortnightly British magazine of literary and intellectual essays.-History:The LRB was founded in 1979, during the year-long lock-out at The Times, by publisher A...
; the collections Don't and A View from the Bed include articles and essays written for the publication.
Critical comment
Jenny Diski has been described as 'proto-post-postmodern', in being an author who 'sees in the belief in epistemological systems and logic, whether postmodern or otherwise, the general psychosis of postmodern societies'.'In a market where, increasingly, authors are encouraged to be reader-friendly...Diski pursue themes that make for a difficult, troubling yet fascinating read: depression
Depression (mood)
Depression is a state of low mood and aversion to activity that can affect a person's thoughts, behaviour, feelings and physical well-being. Depressed people may feel sad, anxious, empty, hopeless, helpless, worthless, guilty, irritable, or restless...
, madness, sado-masochism, and chaos'. However, her later writings may at times take on a more positive tone: 'The warmth of Apology for the Woman Writing is a stark contrast to much of Diski’s writing, which shows life as pointless, something at best to be endured, at worst something that should never have happened...Yet the narratives show forward movement, even if that movement is towards breakdown'
'In Diski's most interesting and original novels she has abandoned any pretence at realism and embraced the possibilities inherent in fantasy and imagination'.
Stylistically, 'her voice - deeply ironic and funny even when confronting the most harrowing of material - is unique'. Interestingly enough, 'as a young woman, Jenny Diski was "adopted" by Doris Lessing
Doris Lessing
Doris May Lessing CH is a British writer. Her novels include The Grass is Singing, The Golden Notebook, and five novels collectively known as Canopus in Argos....
; although she does not discuss this time, Diski’s portrayal of the intricate consciousnesses of thinking women links the two', and arguably 'Diski is in fact a more elegant stylist than Lessing; the style is spare and precise, mirroring the detachment and coldness of many of her heroines and fictional environments'.
On "The Sixties"
Diski sets out in her personal memoir to describe 'the Sixties then and now as I lived them then and now. I lived in London during that period, regretting the Beats, buying clothes, going to movies, dropping out, reading, taking drugs, having sex, teaching' - almost a stereotypical Sixties life-style.With respect to the countercultural
Counterculture of the 1960s
The counterculture of the 1960s refers to a cultural movement that mainly developed in the United States and spread throughout much of the western world between 1960 and 1973. The movement gained momentum during the U.S. government's extensive military intervention in Vietnam...
cult of 'casual sex. We tried hard to make sex as casual as sleeping' - Diski notes offhandedly that 'on the basis that no means no, I was raped several times by men who arrived in my bed and wouldn't take no for an answer'.
Like many others, Diski found 'the anti-psychiatry
Anti-psychiatry
Anti-psychiatry is a configuration of groups and theoretical constructs that emerged in the 1960s, and questioned the fundamental assumptions and practices of psychiatry, such as its claim that it achieves universal, scientific objectivity. Its igniting influences were Michel Foucault, R.D. Laing,...
movement of the Sixties...incredibly seductive. The mad hero became a teacher...shamans, gurus, speakers in tongues'.
Diski returns several times to the vexed question of how far 'the legacy of the permissive
Permissive society
The permissive society is a society where social norms are becoming increasingly liberal. This usually accompanies a change in what is considered deviant. While typically preserving the rule "do not harm others", a permissive society would have few other moral codes...
Sixties...caused the greed and self-interest of the Eighties by invoking the self, the individual, as the unit of society'. She concludes mordantly that 'one crucial truth about the Sixties' is that the gulf between the set of beliefs whereby '"the Underground puts self at the centre of its spectrum"[1970]...and those of Conservative government of the Eighties was, in practice, very much slighter than we had imagined'.
Personal life
She married Roger Diski in 1976, and their daughter Chloe was born in 1977; the couple separated in 1981 and divorced.Her current partner is Ian Patterson, known as "the Poet" in Diski's writings, who is also a translator and Director of English studies at Queens' College, Cambridge
Queens' College, Cambridge
Queens' College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England.The college was founded in 1448 by Margaret of Anjou , and refounded in 1465 by Elizabeth Woodville...
.