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CRITIQUE:

Narrative and Identity

"Great Expectations" starts with the description of a number of methods by which the consciousness, identity or self of the narrator is formed, whether in fact or in fiction.

The first method is plagiarism. A male narrator called Peter derives his name and identity in the same manner as Dickens' Pip. Acker's first (male) narrator copies Pip, his only precedent.

The first (female) narrator could follow the same precedent if she wished, but instead defines herself in relation to her parents, in particular her mother, who has committed suicide 12 months before on Christmas Eve, 1978.

The second method is that, craving love, she gets a Tarot card reading about her future love life.

The third method is a dream in which she discovers her materialist side, living in a "New England-ish" mansion in Seattle.

The fourth method witnesses her playing with her mother in what she describes as "magic snow":

"I lived in my imaginings."

Seattle Penthouse

Love and Desire

The narrator's mother is pivotal in each of these perspectives. In the Tarot card reading, her mother appears as the Empress. She is also the cause of her need for love:

"Before I was born, my mother hated me because my father left her (because she got pregnant?) and because my mother wanted to remain her mother's child rather than be her child's mother.

"My image of my mother is the source of my creativity. I prefer the word consciousness. My image of my hateful mother is blocking consciousness.

"To obtain a different picture of my mother, I have to forgive my mother for rejecting me and committing suicide.

"The picture of love... is forgiveness that transforms need into desire."

The narrator loves, so that she might be loved in return:

"My mother is the person I love most. She's my sister. She plays with me."

When not loved, she thinks her "mother's a bitch":

"I was shy of my mother because when she was on ups she was too gay and selfish and on downs she was bitchy."

The lack of (reciprocal) love from her mother leaves the narrator with a need for love from any source, which transforms into an overwhelming desire:

"Desire is Master and Lord."

Her relationship with her mother has created a fragmented self or consciousness, which extends into the fictional narrative itself.

"This is the province of the ones who think they live their dreams."

"My SELF is my desires and dreams."

The narrator concludes that -

"Women will do anything, not for sex, but for love, because sex isn't a thing to them..."

When her desire is repressed, "I was forbidden to act on my desire, even to admit my desire to myself."

Fear and Violence

When the narrator receives a large inheritance -

"I knew I was no longer a person to a man, but an object, a full purse. I needed someone to love me so I could figure out reality."

"Fear is feminine: for women it lies in the heart of heterosexual sex."

Still, once again, the narrator admits "I like sex a lot." She also makes a comment that could equally be attributed to Acker herself:

"Well you can say I write stories about sex and violence, with sex and violence, and therefore my writing isn't worth considering because it uses content much less lots of content and all the middle-ranged people who are moralists say I'm a disgusting violent sadist."

De-Fragmentation of the Self

Ultimately, the narrator needs love, so she can de-fragment her self and consciousness, and perceive and understand the world around her.