Jill Soloway’s newest show, “I Love Dick,” based on the acclaimed novel of the same name by Chris Kraus, is a part fiction, part memoir take on an artist’s growing obsession with a man called “Dick.” With Kathryn Hahn playing Chris and Kevin Bacon as Dick, the show frames Chris’ obsession with Dick as being the sudden inspiration for a rejuvenation in her art as well as her sex life with her husband, portrayed by Griffin Dunne.
In both the novel and the show, Kraus’s sexual frustration manifests itself in a series of short stories, made up as letters to Dick. To celebrate the upcoming release of the series’ first season in May, Amazon is launching a microsite under the title, We Will Not Be Muzzled, allowing people to write in their own letters to Dick.
The site captures the same energy of “I Love Dick” for the show’s “celebration of art and a celebration of women artists” according to co-executive producer Heidi Schreck. Users of the site will also be able to celebrate their own art unselfconsciously. The project is purely meant to allow people to engage in a safe space free of likes, comments, and judgment.
Fans of the show will get to engage with the peculiar brand of writing Kraus became known for in the aftermath of “I Love Dick,” tentatively referred to as a confessional. In a 2006 interview, Kraus pushed back against the idea of “confessional” writing, holding it accountable for unnecessary guilt women feel. According to her, it “points towards this great disgust with female-ness. As if a revelatory female self cannot be anything but compromised and murky.”
Despite her own reservations about the trappings of the word “confessional,” We Will Not Be Muzzled still offers its users the chance to embrace their thoughts even if it’s in anonymity. “I Love Dick” premieres on Amazon Prime May 12. Check out their website in the meantime at www.wewillnotbemuzzled.com
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