Solanas at offices in February 1967BornValerie Jean Solanas( 1936-04-09)April 9, 1936, U.S.DiedApril 25, 1988 (1988-04-25) (aged 52), U.S.OccupationWriterCitizenshipSubjectLiterary movementRadical feminismNotable works(1967), a play (wr. 2014)SignatureValerie Jean Solanas (April 9, 1936 – April 25, 1988) was an American and best known for writing the, which she self-published in 1967, and attempting to murder in 1968.Solanas had a turbulent childhood.
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She said her father regularly her and she had a volatile relationship with her mother and stepfather after her parents' divorce. She was sent to live with her grandparents but ran away after being physically abused by her alcoholic grandfather.
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Solanas as a lesbian in the 1950s. After graduating with a degree in from the, Solanas relocated to, where she began writing her most notable work, the SCUM Manifesto, which urged women to 'overthrow the government, eliminate the money system, institute complete automation and eliminate the male sex'.Solanas moved to in the mid-1960s. She met and asked him to produce her play. She gave him her script, which she later accused him of losing or stealing. After Solanas demanded financial compensation for the lost script, Warhol hired her to perform in his film, paying her $25. In 1967, Solanas began self-publishing the SCUM Manifesto. Olympia Press owner offered to publish Solanas's future writings, and she understood the contract to mean that Girodias would own her writing.
Convinced that Girodias and Warhol were conspiring to steal her work, Solanas purchased a gun in early 1968.On June 3, 1968, she went to, where she found Warhol. She shot at Warhol three times, the first two shots missing and the third wounding Warhol. She also shot art critic and attempted to shoot Warhol's manager, Fred Hughes, point blank, but the gun jammed.
Solanas then turned herself in to the police. She was charged with attempted murder, assault, and illegal possession of a gun. She was diagnosed with and pleaded guilty to 'reckless assault with intent to harm', serving a three-year prison sentence, including treatment in a. After her release, she continued to promote the SCUM Manifesto. She died in 1988 of in. Contents.Early life Solanas was born in 1936 in, to Louis Solanas and Dorothy Marie Biondo. Her father was a bartender and her mother a dental assistant.
She had a younger sister, Judith Arlene Solanas Martinez. Her father was born in to parents who immigrated from and her mother was an of and descent born in.Solanas said that her father regularly her. Her parents divorced when she was young, and her mother remarried shortly afterwards. Solanas disliked her stepfather and began rebelling against her mother, becoming a.
As a child, she wrote insults for children to use on one another, for the cost of a dime. She beat up a boy in high school who was bothering a younger girl, and also hit a nun. Because of her rebellious behavior, in 1949 her mother sent her to be raised by her grandparents.
Solanas said that her grandfather was a violent alcoholic who often beat her. When she was 15, she left her grandparents and became. In 1953, she gave birth to a son, fathered by a married sailor. The child, named David (later David Blackwell by adoption), was taken away from Solanas and she never saw him again.Despite this, she graduated from high school on time and earned a degree in from the, where she was in the Honor Society.
While at the University of Maryland, she hosted a call-in radio show where she gave advice on how to combat men. She was also an open lesbian, despite the conservative cultural climate of the 1950s.She attended the 's Graduate School of Psychology, where she worked in the animal research laboratory, before dropping out and moving to attend for a few courses. It was during this time that she began writing the SCUM Manifesto. New York City and the Factory In the mid-1960s Solanas moved to New York City, where she supported herself through and prostitution. In 1965 she wrote two works: an autobiographical short story, 'A Young Girl's Primer on How to Attain the Leisure Class', and a play, Up Your Ass, about a young prostitute. According to James Martin Harding, the play is 'based on a plot about a woman who 'is a man-hating hustler and panhandler' and who. Ends up killing a man.'
Harding describes it as more a 'provocation than. A work of dramatic literature' and 'rather adolescent and contrived.' The short story was published in magazine in July 1966.
Up Your Ass remained unpublished until 2014.In 1967, Solanas encountered Andy Warhol outside his studio, and asked him to produce her play. He accepted the script for review, told Solanas it was 'well typed', and promised to read it.
According to Factory lore, Warhol, whose films were often shut down by the police for obscenity, thought the script was so that it must have been a police trap. Solanas contacted Warhol about the script, and was told that he had lost it. He also jokingly offered her a job at the Factory as a typist. Insulted, Solanas demanded money for the lost manuscript. Instead, Warhol paid her $25 to appear in his film.In her role in I, a Man, she leaves the film's title character (played by ) to fend for himself, explaining 'I gotta go beat my meat' as she exits the scene.
Solanas was satisfied with her experience working with Warhol and her performance in the film, and brought to see the film. Girodias described her as being 'very relaxed and friendly with Warhol.' Solanas also had a nonspeaking role in Warhol's film Bikeboy, in 1967.
SCUM Manifesto. Main article:In 1967, Solanas self-published her best-known work, the SCUM Manifesto, a scathing critique of patriarchal culture. The manifesto's opening words are:'Life' in this 'society' being, at best, an utter bore and no aspect of 'society' being at all relevant to women, there remains to civic-minded, responsible, thrill-seeking females only to overthrow the government, eliminate the money system, institute complete automation and eliminate the male sex.Some authors have argued that the Manifesto is and, according to Harding, Solanas described herself as 'a social propagandist', but Solanas denied that the work was 'a put on' and insisted that her intent was 'dead serious'. The Manifesto has been translated into over a dozen languages and is excerpted in several feminist anthologies.While living at the, Solanas introduced herself to, the founder of and a fellow resident of the hotel. In August 1967, Girodias and Solanas signed an informal contract stating that she would give Girodias her 'next writing, and other writings'. In exchange, Girodias paid her $500. She took this to mean that Girodias would own her work.
She told that 'everything I write will be his. He's done this to me. He's screwed me!' Solanas intended to write a novel based on the SCUM Manifesto, and believed that a conspiracy was behind Warhol's failure to return the Up Your Ass script. She suspected that he was coordinating with Girodias to steal her work.Shooting.
Andy Warhol, one of her two victimsOn May 31, 1968, Solanas went to writer to ask him for $50, which he loaned to her. Krassner later speculated that Solanas could have used the money to buy the gun she used to shoot Warhol, as the shooting was only three days later.According to an unquoted source in The Outlaw Bible of American Literature, on June 3, 1968, at 9:00 a.m., Solanas arrived at the, where Girodias lived. She asked for him at the desk but was told he was gone for the weekend. She remained for three hours before heading to the, where she asked for, who was also not available.In her 2014 biography Valerie Solanas, Breanne Fahs argues that it is unlikely that Solanas appeared at the Chelsea Hotel looking for Girodias. Fahs states that Girodias may have fabricated the account in order to boost sales of the SCUM Manifesto, which he had published. Fahs states that 'the more likely story.
Places Valerie at the Actor's Studio at 432 West Forty-Fourth Street early that morning.' Actress states that Solanas appeared at the Actor's Studio looking for, asking to leave her play for him. Miles said that Solanas 'had a different look, a bit tousled, like somebody whose appearance is the last thing on her mind.' Miles told Solanas that Strasberg would not be in until the afternoon. Miles said that she accepted a copy of the play from Solanas and then 'shut the door because I knew she was trouble.
I didn't know what sort of trouble, but I knew she was trouble.' Fahs records that Solanas then traveled to producer Margo Feiden's (then Margo Eden) residence in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, as Solanas believed that Feiden would be willing to produce her play. As related to Fahs, Solanas talked to Feiden for almost four hours, trying to convince her to produce the play and discussing her vision for a world without men. Throughout this time, Feiden repeatedly refused to produce Solanas's play. According to Feiden, Solanas then pulled out her gun, and when Feiden again refused to commit to producing the play, Solanas responded, 'Yes, you will produce the play because I'll shoot Andy Warhol and that will make me famous and the play famous, and then you'll produce it.'
As she was leaving Feiden's residence, Solanas handed Feiden a copy of her play (a partial copy of an earlier draft of Up Your Ass ) and other personal papers.Fahs describes how Feiden then 'frantically called her local police precinct, Andy Warhol's precinct, police headquarters in Lower Manhattan, and the offices of Mayor and Governor to report what happened and inform them that Solanas was on her way at that very moment to shoot Andy Warhol.' In some instances, the police responded that 'You can't arrest someone because you believe she is going to kill Andy Warhol,' and even asked Feiden 'Listen lady, how would you know what a real gun looked like?' In a 2009 interview with James Barron of The New York Times, Feiden said that she knew Solanas intended to kill Warhol, but could not prevent it. (A New York Times assistant Metro editor responded to an online comment regarding the story, saying that the Times 'does not present the account as definitive.'
)Fahs additionally cites Assistant District Attorney Roderick Lankler's handwritten notes on the case, written on June 4, 1968, which begin with Margo Feiden's stage name, 'Margo Eden', address, and telephone numbers at the top of the page.Later that day, Solanas arrived at the Factory and waited outside. Morrissey arrived and asked her what she was doing there, and she replied 'I'm waiting for Andy to get money'. Morrissey tried to get rid of her by telling her that Warhol was not coming in that day, but she told him she would wait. She went up into the studio.
Morrissey told her again that Warhol was not coming in and that she had to leave. She left but rode the elevator up and down until Warhol finally boarded it.She entered with Warhol, who complimented her on her appearance as she was uncharacteristically wearing makeup. Morrissey told her to leave, threatening to 'beat the hell' out of her and throw her out otherwise. The phone rang and Warhol answered while Morrissey went to the bathroom. While Warhol was on the phone, Solanas fired at him three times.
Her first two shots missed, but the third went through both lungs, his spleen, stomach, liver, and esophagus. She then shot art critic in the hip. She tried to shoot Fred Hughes, Warhol's manager, in the head, but her gun jammed. Hughes asked her to leave, which she did, leaving behind a paper bag with her address book on a table. Warhol was taken to, where he underwent a successful five-hour operation.Later that day, Solanas turned herself in, gave up her gun, and confessed to the shooting, telling a police officer that Warhol 'had too much control in my life.' She was fingerprinted and charged with and possession of a deadly weapon. The next morning, the ran the front-page headline 'Actress Shoots Andy Warhol.'
Solanas demanded a retraction of the statement that she was an actress. The Daily News changed the headline in its later edition and added a quote from Solanas stating 'I'm a writer, not an actress.' At her arraignment in she denied shooting Warhol because he wouldn't produce her play but said 'it was for the opposite reason', that 'he has a legal claim on my works.' Solanas told the judge that 'it's not often that I shoot somebody. I didn't do it for nothing. Warhol had tied me up, lock, stock, and barrel. He was going to do something to me which would have ruined me.'
She told the judge she wanted to represent herself and she declared that she 'was right in what I did! I have nothing to regret!'
'The judge struck her comments from the court record' and had her admitted to for psychiatric observation. I consider that a moral act. And I consider it immoral that I missed. I should have done target practice.— Valerie Solanas on her assassination attempt on Andy WarholAfter a cursory evaluation, Solanas was declared mentally unstable and transferred to the prison ward of Elmhurst Hospital. Solanas appeared at on June 13, 1968. Represented her and asked for a writ of, arguing that Solanas was being held inappropriately at Elmhurst.
The judge denied the motion and Solanas returned to Elmhurst. On June 28, Solanas was indicted on charges of attempted murder, assault, and illegal possession of a gun. She was declared 'incompetent' in August and sent to. That same month, Olympia Press published the SCUM Manifesto with essays by Girodias and Krassner.In January 1969, Solanas underwent psychiatric evaluation and was diagnosed with chronic.
In June, she was finally deemed fit to stand trial. She represented herself without an attorney and pleaded guilty to 'reckless assault with intent to harm'. She was sentenced to three years in prison, with one year of time served. After murder attempt The shooting of Warhol propelled Solanas into the public spotlight, prompting a flurry of commentary and opinions in the media. Robert Marmorstein, writing in, declared that Solanas 'has dedicated the remainder of her life to the avowed purpose of eliminating every single male from the face of the earth.'
Called her the ' of feminism.' , the New York chapter president of the (NOW), described Solanas as 'the first outstanding champion of women's rights' and 'a 'heroine' of the feminist movement', and 'smuggled her manifesto. Out of the mental hospital where Solanas was confined.' According to, the NOW board rejected Atkinson. Atkinson left NOW and started another feminist organization, According to Friedan, 'the media continued to treat Ti-Grace as a leader of the women's movement, despite its repudiation of her.' Another NOW member, called Solanas 'one of the most important spokeswomen of the feminist movement.'
English professor Dana Heller argued that Solanas was 'very much aware of feminist organizations and activism', but 'had no interest in participating in what she often described as 'a civil disobedience luncheon club.' ' Heller also stated that Solanas could 'reject mainstream liberal feminism for its blind adherence to cultural codes of feminine politeness and decorum which the SCUM Manifesto identifies as the source of women's debased social status.' Solanas and Warhol After Solanas was released from the New York State Prison for Women in 1971, she Warhol and others over the telephone and was arrested again in November 1971. She was subsequently institutionalized several times and then drifted into obscurity.The attack had a profound impact on Warhol and his art, and security at the Factory scene became much stronger afterward.
For the rest of his life, Warhol lived in fear that Solanas would attack him again. 'It was the Cardboard Andy, not the Andy I could love and play with,' said close friend and collaborator. 'He was so sensitized you couldn't put your hand on him without him jumping. I couldn't even love him anymore, because it hurt him to touch him.' Later life.
Solanas died in 1988 of pneumonia at the Bristol Hotel in San Francisco.Solanas may have intended to write an eponymous autobiography. In a 1977 interview, she announced a book with her name as the title. The book, possibly intended as a parody, was supposed to deal with the 'conspiracy' that led to her imprisonment.
Solanas's cousin claimed the man was a sailor, and that Solanas may have also given birth to a second child before leaving home. Lord stated that Solanas and her son lived with 'a middle-class military couple outside of Washington, D.C.' Before she went to the University of Maryland. This couple might have paid for her college tuition, according to Lord. The original title of the work is Up Your Ass, or, From the Cradle to the Boat, or, The Big Suck, or, Up from the Slime.
'The Times does not present Ms. Fieden's account as definitive. but considers this just one angle of the story'. is the active and professed refusal to obey certain laws., feminism based on women showing and maintaining their equality by their own choices and acts.
Violet objected to assassination; for a possible contrast in her views, see, p. 241 for another near-killing of Andy Warhol. was a philosopher and a critic. Although Up Your Ass was written in 1965, it was not produced as a play until 2000, and was not published until 2014 (as a ebook).References. ^, p. 1., p. 178. State of California. California Death Index, 1940–1997. Sacramento, CA: State of California Department of Health Services, Center for Health Statistics., p. 184.
^., p. xi. ^, p. 3., p. 141. ^, pp. 35–36., p. 48., p. 132., pp. 23–24. ^. ^ Judith Coburn (2000).
Retrieved November 27, 2011. ^ Jobey, Liz, Solanas and Son, in, August 24, 1996., p. 602., p. 154. Regarding the honor society:, p. 152. ^.
^, pp. 15–16., pp. 264–., p. 89. ^, p. 168., p. 169., p. 447. Solanas, Valerie (July 1966). 'For 2¢: pain'.: 38–40, 76–77. Solanas, Valerie (March 31, 2014). VandA.ePublishing.
^ Barron, James (June 23, 2009)., retrieved on 2009-07-06. ^, p. 201.
Warhol, Andy (Director) (1967). (Motion picture)., p. 152, citing, p. 211. ^, p. 9., p. 603., pp. 514–519. See also, p. 17., p. 165, citing as excerpting SCUM Manifesto Kolmar, Wendy, & Frances Bartkowski, eds., Feminist Theory: A Reader (Mountain View, Calif.: Mayfield, 2000), & Albert, Judith Clavir, & Stewart Edward Albert, eds., The Sixties Papers: Documents of a Rebellious Decade (1984)., p. xxi.
^, p. 202., p. 334. ^, p. 51. ^ Krassner, Paul (September 10, 2009). Archived from on May 14, 2012. ^, pp. 202–203. ^, p. 133., pp. 133–134.,., pp. 134–137.
^, p. 137. ^, as accessed June 13, 2013. Archived from on November 5, 2012. Retrieved July 7, 2009., as accessed November 18, 2012 (interview of Margo Feiden overall approx.
1:14–18:56 from start) (fragment approx. 5:06–5:45 from start) (based on cbc.ca link before archive.org link provided here). O'Brien, Glenn (March 24, 2009). Interview Magazine: 1–3.
Retrieved October 18, 2012., p. 347. ^, p. 203. ^, pp. 151–173., p. 31., p. 53. ^, p. 152. ^, p. 204. ^ Faso, Frank; Lee, Henry (June 5, 1968). 'Actress defiant: 'I'm not sorry '.
P. 42. ^ 'Valerie Solanas replies'. The Village Voice. XXII (31): 29. August 1, 1977. ^., p. 198., p. 221. ^, p. 153.
^, p. 55. ^, p. 17. ^, p. 109. ^, p. 138., p. 124., p. 139., p. 54. ^, p. 160., p. 48., pp. 55–56. April 3, 2007, at the, Dennis Drabelle, book review, November 16, 2003., p. 74. ^, p. 151., & Brian Van der Horst, Valerie Solanas Interview, in Scenes (col.), in The Village Voice (New York, N.Y.), vol.
30, July 25, 1977, p. 2. ^, p. 164., p. v., pp. 183–189., p. 189., p. 425., p. xxxi. Oliveros, Pauline (September 1970). Deep Listening.
Retrieved November 27, 2011. Archived from on April 26, 2012. Retrieved November 27, 2011.
B. Ruby Rich (1996). Retrieved November 27, 2011. Michael Schaub (November 2003). Retrieved November 27, 2011. ^ Carr, C. (July 22, 2003).
The Village Voice. Retrieved August 13, 2015. Genzlinger, Neil (March 1, 2001). New York City: New York Times Company. Retrieved November 27, 2011. Marks, Peter (July 19, 2011). Washington DC: Nash Holdings LLC.
Retrieved November 27, 2011. Retrieved November 27, 2011. Retrieved August 7, 2019.
Bradley, Laura (August 29, 2017). New York City:. Retrieved September 6, 2017., p. 153., pp. 29, 30, 31, 33, 153., chap. 6 esp. Pp. 151–158 and see pp. 21, 24, 26, 29, 63 & 178., p. 151., pp. 151–153., pp. 152, 153., p. 172, citing Bockris, Victor, The Life and Death of Andy Warhol, op.
Cit., p. 236. ^. Solanas, Valerie (March 31, 2014). VandA.ePublishing.Bibliography.
SCUM Manifesto by Valerie Solanas Book Resume:Classic radical feminist statement from the woman who shot Andy Warhol “Life in this society being, at best, an utter bore and no aspect of society being at all relevant to women, there remains to civic-minded, responsible, thrill-seeking females only to overthrow the government, eliminate the money system, institute complete automation and destroy the male sex.” Outrageous and violent, SCUM Manifesto was widely lambasted when it first appeared in 1968. Valerie Solanas, the woman who shot Andy Warhol, self-published the book just before she became a notorious household name and was confined to a mental institution. But for all its vitriol, it is impossible to dismiss as the mere rantings of a lesbian lunatic. In fact, the work has proved prescient, not only as a radical feminist analysis light years ahead of its time—predicting artificial insemination, ATMs, a feminist uprising against underrepresentation in the arts—but also as a stunning testament to the rage of an abused and destitute woman. In this edition, philosopher Avital Ronell’s introduction reconsiders the evocative exuberance of this infamous text. From the Trade Paperback edition. ![]() Comments are closed.
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