Great Demon Kings: A Memoir of Poetry, Sex, Art, Death, and Enlightenment
Written by John Giorno
Narrated by Max Bellmore
5/5
()
About this audiobook
*This program includes archival recordings of John Giorno reading his poems, and an excerpt from Pierre Huyghe's Sleeptalking*
A rollicking, sexy memoir of a young poet making his way in 1960s New York City.
When he graduated from Columbia in 1958, John Giorno was handsome, charismatic, ambitious, and eager to soak up as much of Manhattan's art and culture as possible. Poetry didn't pay the bills, so he worked on Wall Street, spending his nights at the happenings, underground movie premiers, art shows, and poetry readings that brought the city to life. An intense romantic relationship with Andy Warhol—not yet the global superstar he would soon become—exposed Giorno to even more of the downtown scene, but after starring in Warhol's first movie, Sleep, they drifted apart. Giorno soon found himself involved with Robert Rauschenberg and later Jasper Johns, both relationships fueling his creativity. He quickly became a renowned poet in his own right, working at the intersection of literature and technology, freely crossing genres and mediums alongside the likes of William Burroughs and Brion Gysin.
Twenty-five years in the making, and completed shortly before Giorno's death in 2019, Great Demon Kings is the memoir of a singular cultural pioneer: an openly gay man at a time when many artists remained closeted and shunned gay subject matter, and a devout Buddhist whose faith acted as a rudder during a life of tremendous animation, one full of fantastic highs and frightening lows. Studded with appearances by nearly every it-boy and girl of the downtown scene (including a moving portrait of a decades-long friendship with Burroughs), this audiobook offers a joyous, life-affirming, and sensational look at New York City during its creative peak, narrated in the unforgettable voice of one of its most singular characters.
This program includes the following archival recordings:
1. "There Was A Bad Tree" (2001), recorded by Bob Bielecki, 2010. Courtesy of Giorno Poetry Systems, New York, NY
2. Excerpt from Pierre Huyghe's Sleeptalking (1998), Courtesy of Pierre Huyghe studio
3. "Thanx 4 Nothing" (2007), recorded by Ernst Thoma, 2010. Courtesy of Giorno Poetry Systems, New York NY
A Macmillan Audio production from Farrar, Straus and Giroux
John Giorno
John Giorno (1936–2019) was a New York–based poet and performance artist and the founder of Giorno Poetry Systems. His own poetry collections include The American Book of the Dead, Balling Buddha, and Cancer in My Left Ball, and he established the Dial-A-Poem phone service. A longtime member of the Lower Manhattan art scene, Giorno was also an AIDS activist and Tibetan Buddhist whose work has been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, among other institutions.
Related to Great Demon Kings
Related audiobooks
Thalia Book Club: Icon: Featuring Mary Gaitskill, Rick Moody & Jill Nelson in Conversation with Amy Scholder Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Conversations Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Eat Your Mind: The Radical Life and Work of Kathy Acker Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Confessions of an English Opium Eater Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOnce In A Lifetime: The Crazy Days of Acid House and Afterwards Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Confessions of Aubrey Beardsley: Digitally narrated using a synthesized voice Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFigure it Out: Essays Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lucian Freud: Eyes Wide Open Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Under the Red White and Blue: Patriotism, Disenchantment and the Stubborn Myth of the Great Gatsby Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMinor Characters: A Beat Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Queer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Strange Tools: Art and Human Nature Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Re-Sisters: The Lives and Recordings of Delia Derbyshire, Margery Kempe and Cosey Fanni Tutti Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Theory of the Gimmick: Aesthetic Judgment and Capitalist Form Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Shadows of Love, Shadows of Loneliness: Volume One: Photographs: 1980-2020 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Death of Bunny Munro: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Dirtbag: Essays Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Wajatta: Casual High Technology Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDavid Lynch: The Man from Another Place Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Jimmy Neurosis: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Power of Cute Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5The Drag Roast of Heklina Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEverything, All the Time, Everywhere: How We Became Postmodern Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Anarchism: What It Really Stands For Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsArt Sex Music Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Self-Portrait Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Shock and Awe: Glam Rock and Its Legacy, from the Seventies to the Twenty-first Century Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Care of the Self: Volume 3 of The History of Sexuality Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Yage Letters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5100 Quotes by Gaston Bachelard Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Literary Biographies For You
The Year of Magical Thinking Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Professor and The Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Glass Castle: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5People, Places, Things: My Human Landmarks Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Writing into the Wound: Understanding trauma, truth, and language Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dad on Pills: Fatherhood and Mental Illness Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Memorial Drive: A Daughter's Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Shakespeare Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Angela's Ashes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Devil and Harper Lee Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Moveable Feast: The Restored Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Deliberate Cruelty: Truman Capote, the Millionaire's Wife, and the Murder of the Century Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Papillon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Poetry Unbound: 50 Poems to Open Your World Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Shakespeare Was a Woman and Other Heresies: How Doubting the Bard Became the Biggest Taboo in Literature Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Marriage Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius: A Memoir Based on a True Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5These Precious Days: Essays Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Chronicles: Volume One Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Moveable Feast Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Life and Times of Hannah Crafts: The True Story of The Bondwoman's Narrative Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Dust Tracks on a Road: An Autobiography Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lit: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Murder Your Life: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Thousand Naked Strangers: A Paramedic's Wild Ride to the Edge and Back Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Real Lolita: The Kidnapping of Sally Horner and the Novel that Scandalized the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Capote: A Biography Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Intelligence for Dummies: Essays and Other Collected Writings Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Great Demon Kings
1 rating0 reviews