on 3/25/01 11:00 AM, Geraldine Monk at [log in to unmask] wrote:
> Couldn't help but smile at the Fake Greek Fisherpoet
> 'Karavis' calling the likes of Kent 'mere pranksters'.
> Maybe there are enough of them around to start
> their own mailbase!
I love it, Geraldine! A fake listserv for pseuds., with each (covertly
moderated) discussion thread on a topic other than the one in the post
headings, which (also intended to confuse the archival trail) must have
absolutely no bearing on the topic either--assuming that there is any such
topic to begin with. All flames would be considered merely diversionary
unless exposed as "sincere," and all flame wars would be staged for
strategic purposes.
It would be like something between a Mad Magazine feature and a convention
of the Society for Creative Anachronism, which is maybe what po-mo hoaxes
like Kent's really come down to anyway. There's something quaint even in the
more vicious instances about dissimulation as a protest mode against the
simulacrum of a literary governmentality in which only Kent et al. still
believe.
Candice
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