Statement for Dialogues of Cultures Conference, New York, United Nations
(2001)

by John Kinsella



These remarks are prefatory. Not in a way, I'd hope, that dictates the
possible ensuing text, or, indeed, to indicate that any text might in
fact follow. From the Hegelian refutation of the preface for a
philosophical work, to the observation of Derrida that "Prefaces, along
with forewords, introductions, preludes, preliminaries, preambles,
prologues, and prolegomena, have always been written, it seems, in view
of their own self-effacement"; through to his question via routes,
marks, and erasure: "But does a preface exist?" [Derrida, Dissemination,
Chicago, p9], we might be rightfully suspicious of the integrity of the
prefatory comment, its allusion to a whole, its "residue" that will
inform and tyrannise our reading of the "main" data, inscription. So,
this is a warning. To myself, to the group as a whole. If we are looking
for conclusions, for closure, we are sadly misguided. A conclusion would
be absolutism: the consequences would be narrowness and inclusivity. Our
responsibility is to question, to open our discussion to a wider
audience, to create a space for poetic dialogue. We must accept that we
will create nothing more than a preface, that the main text is
unreachable, that it will always elude us. And this is desirable.

I'd like to suggest an expression for the occasion, one I've found
useful over the years in such contexts: international regionalism. If
globalism is about ironing out the differences on the level of the
international marketplace structures and bureaucracy, an ism driven by a
lust for markets and profits, international regionalism is the opposite.
It is the process of opening international lines of communication while
respecting regional integrity. Difference is good, desirable, and not
the individual's to negate outside his or her own self and community.
The World Wide Web has been friendly to international regionalists - one
can retain a sense of place physically, and enter the international
source of the net. But how international is it? Most people log on to
sites in one language, and though all or most national languages have a
presence, many dialects and hybridised tongues don't. And languages
change and evolve; the movement is significant. How does the net cope
with this? Of course, in itself, it doesn't. It is without ethics.
Protocol, and the laws of individual countries and international law,
might restrict certain contexts of availability, but ultimately it is
the individuals, communities, groups, governments, religions, and so on,
that constitute and direct it. The boundaries between different spaces
are highly fluid - filters and firewalls are nominal infrastructural
control. English is it at the core of the web - the colonising language
to beat all colonising languages has found another power vehicle. Be
wary of this? It goes hand in hand with decisions made on a global level
within the United Nations and its affiliate organisations. Specific
languages carry specific proto-cultural agendas. The international
regionalist is aware of this, and moves through language barriers. I am
not suggesting a hyperspatial Esperanto, but I am suggesting a
non-monolingual approach to the issues of cooperation, sharing, and
understanding.

International consensus is a variable in its effects. It can be
oppressive, as in the case of the sanctions against Iraq, which work
only in part in placing pressure on the cruel regime of Saddam Hussein,
but work in entirety in oppressing the people, when it serves the
interests of the majority to isolate and destroy a minority. It can be
selective, when the environment is contaminated by greed and profit,
such as the selective whaling ban that sees whales taken for research
ending up on commercial production lines. It is also exclusive -
recognised nation states having the only say, or cultural minorities
having their say diluted through the process of departments,
representatives, and collective voices. More optimistically, consensus
can be used to insist a wrong is put to rights, or that the hypocrisy of
one of the above examples might be put right. Looking to Lyotard we
read:

... the principle of consensus as a criterion of validation seems to be
inadequate. It has two formulations. In the first, consensus is an
agreement between men, defined as knowing intellects and free wills, and
is obtained through dialogue. This is the form elaborated by Habermas,
but his conception is based on the validity of emancipation. In the
second, consensus is a component of the system, which manipulates it in
order to maintain and improve its performance. It is the object of
administrative procedures, in Luhmann's sense. In this case, its only
validity is as an instrument to be used toward achieving the real goal,
which is what legitimates the system - power. [Lyotard, The Postmodern
condition: A Report on Knowledge, Minneapolis, 60]


Accepting that we should be suspicious of any declaration of a specific
number of possible outcomes - two in this case - and also of any text
that qualifies with 'men' instead of 'men/women' or 'people'; it is
worth considering this statement carefully. If we are to accept the
expression "Dialogue between cultures", which originally came out of the
marginalising and culturally insensitive "Dialogue between
civilizations", then we share territory with the point Lyotard makes
about dialogue between individuals, or their representatives, and free
will and knowing intellects. We are aware of the conditions of language
and the social and cultural environments in which we operate. The
dialogue is framed by variables that are recognisable. And our aim in
coming together from various parts of the globe is to discuss issues
relevant to language, to poetry, to the validity of 'presenting' poetry
to an international or internationalised audience. We will attempt to
find points in common and reach consensus, to mark the page, to mark
space with our shared goals. I am sure we'd all agree that the outcome
of such a course of discussion and epilogics is desirable.

However, we must be wary that the second possibility isn't in fact the
outcome. In some ways it is the more likely. We talk about coordination,
advocacy, missions, marketing, fund-raising, implementation plans, and
reports to the Secretary-General of the United Nations; we talk about an
internationalism using the net that relies on the sponsorship by
countries operating within the selective consensus of self-interest, of
profit, and the corporate colonisation that is globalisation. If not, we
are at least skirting these territories. We run the risk of becoming
that instrument that legitimises, which reinforces power structures we
might wish to challenge as editors, as poets and writers.

A poet is not necessarily going to challenge a power structure, but I
feel strongly that to evolve an ethical consciousness, we must place
pressure on language, encourage its growth. It is clear that I feel the
poet is obliged to challenge the centrality of the state, to challenge
controls over free will and intellect. But these expressions themselves
are the product of 'Western Civilisation' - of a culturally
appropriative machine, a religion absorber, a product substituter, and
above all else, a systemiser of patriarchy*. Most poetry canons are the
extension of patriarchy. The poem is the body inscribed with codes of
conduct. The four-line rhyming stanza, the Petrarchan sonnet, all
control the corporeal shifts of information. We are obliged to test
these forms - not to reject them, which would lose control of context,
but to challenge and reinvent them. Recognise them for the controlling
forces they are. Han-shan, poet of "The Cold Mountain", knew this twelve
or thirteen hundred years ago, despising "regulated verse". The poems of
this Buddhist monk recluse were collated from the page that is the tree,
the wall. [see Henricks, The Poetry of Han-Shan, Albany, introduction]

Language is a most effective colonising force when used aggressively,
but it is also a most liberating force. To articulate is to define self
and community. As poets we should place pressure on language, to
undermine it at the points where it has become a control factor. This
is "linguistic disobedience". My call: REHABILITATION, PREVENTION, and a
linguistic disobedience.

If we're aiming to utilise poetry as a means of cultural dialogue, we
must consider its liminality - where it genre-shifts into prose, into
other forms of expression. To isolate this dialogue to "pure" poetry, if
such a thing exists, is to close off any number of possibilities. It is
also culturally disrespectful: the poetic unit differs not only between
languages and cultures, but also within languages and cultures
themselves. We should also consider the place of visual art and music
in this exploration. If we start prioritising art, it becomes just
another commodity fetish.

To develop an international web portal for poetry is to open the
possibility of religious and cultural offence. The words that liberate
for one people may oppress another. The possibility of reply, of
dialogue on the site, should be created. Nothing should be closed off.
Copyright, for example, might be the writer's only defence against a
loss of income and exploitation for a morally offensive purpose, but it
is also the straitjacket that helps maintain and legitimise the system
Lyotard notes. To control language is to empower oneself, the group, the
nation, and increments of that. But to share and give language, to
exchange language, is to create something far more respectful and
liberating.

Apart from issues of respecting regional and personal integrity, the
issue of how publications and ventures are funded is significant. As
someone who deeply objects to the monetary market economy, I would
ideally like these processes to be driven by good will, exchange, and
community. Of course, this is just not going to happen. It's not the
world we live in - yet, at least. My vegan anarchist pacifist small
community barter-based hope is certainly not immediately at hand, though
when one thinks about it, it is surprising how many communities within
oppressive state structures still manage to operate in such ways in
actuality, disguised by a veneer of participation within the nation.
Anyway, given that money is going to be a factor, we must consider what
kind of funding we can attract, and what kind of funding we want to
attract.

The present Australian government's treatment of indigenous peoples in
Australia is reprehensible - I certainly wouldn't fund a dialogue using
their money. Not would I personally knowingly take money from companies
exploiting animals. Some of you might. Is this a consensus question,
with its obvious exclusivity, or is it a recognition that
internationalisation is only achievable through an ongoing dialogue, a
community of links if you like? There are major net spaces that bring
together different literary journals, political and ethical groups,
religious groups and so on. Maybe the word comparative could be used
here. Do we want a controlling centre, or do we want many smaller
centres, or better still, a series of fragments that are greater than
the whole, that never really add up but are constantly discussing,
disagreeing, exploring possibilities, accumulating small outcomes as an
on-going process?

*The word patriarchy here is not used as part of an erasure of
difference among experiences of women worldwide, but only to mean "the
rule of the fathers".

note: "LIMINALITY, RESISTANCE, and linguistic disobedience" might be
more appropriate...