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Introduction
In his biography of Kurt Cobain, Charles Cross tells the story of Nirvana's 1989 road-trip with the band Tad. As the story goes, Tad's lead singer, Tad Doyle, suffered a gastrointestinal ailment and had to vomit every morning before the van could depart. Cobain reputedly loved this ritual, describing Doyle's upheaval as a work of art. One of Doyle's band-mates, Kurt Danielson, recalled how Cobain would respond to the occasion:
He would stand there patiently, holding this plastic tub with a delightful glitter in his eyes. He'd look up at Tad expectantly, and finally Tad would puke, and it would just come out in a glorious, colorful flow, and Kurt would catch it all. No one else got to hold the tub; it was Kurt's job and it was his delight. (Cross 2001, p. 140)
Cross goes so far as to say that 'in some ways, Tad's gastrointestinal system became Kurt's muse that fall' in 1989 (Cross 2001, p. 140) and, in fact, Cobain based the song 'Breed' (first called 'Imodium') on the medication Doyle took for frequent bouts of diarrhea.1 Cobain himself suffered digestive ailments, including a chronic stomach condition, irritable bowel syndrome and frequent vomiting, ailments which did not improve with his heroin habit and relentless touring schedule. These physical conditions shaped his life and subjectivity; he once mused that if a rock 'n' roll opera were to be written about him, it would be 'all about vomiting gastric juices' (Cobain 2002, p. 185).
Cobain's Journals, published in 2002 by Riverhead Press, attest to the importance of his health and body to his aesthetic ideals and output. The volume of excerpts was compiled from 23 of Cobain's personal notebooks (some 800 pages), purchased from Courtney Love for $4 million. It contains, in approximate chronological order, handwritten prose, copies of newsletters, scrawled notes on gig logistics, drafts of song lyrics, and numerous drawings. These fragments are predominantly handwritten, often on stained notebook pages, filled with cross-outs, marginalia and drawings.
Having studied the larger archive of journals from which the published volume was excerpted, Charles Cross notes that 'his [Cobain's] songs and his journal entries ... were obsessed with the human, bodily functions: Birth, urination, defecation,...