Ken,
The other week I saw a performance by a friend of mine, Kate Pendry,
which as the "thin red line" pulling it all together featured the
story of Marc Lépine's shooting of 14 students at the École
Polytechnique in Montreal some 17 years ago.
As I went out from the theater into the night, I had half an hour to
kill before meeting up with Kate after the show, and out of boredom I
checked the news on my mobile. The main headline was, you guessed it,
"School shooting in Montreal." It was chilling; it had all happened
more or less while we were watching her show, as if the performance
had somehow conjured a new creature into being.
This poetry may be imperfect, but it has a growling force to it, which
-- like Lépine in the performance -- goes way beyond the simple
invocation of scary names.
I hope you continue despite (or perhaps because of) being at a loss!
Turn up the goddamn heat!
--Knut
On 9/20/06, Ken Wolman <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Whoever, last winter, suggested I read Ai put me onto something. "Vice" has been a learning experience from which I hope never to recover. I'm still learning my way into this strain of language to express the unspeakable. This is (I hope) the first and worst of the gallery of monsters that began with Lynndie England and Charlies Manson. This is so imperfect that I am for the moment at a loss how to continue. Oh well.
>
>
> KATZENJAMMER COLUMBINE: THE KIDZ ESCAPE TO COCONINO COUNTY WHERE THEY HIT PASSERS-BY WITH BRICKS AND BULLETS
> (for Eric Harris & Dylan Klebold)
>
> [Prologue]
>
> Mutterschtupper!
> Maybe, Eric, wir lighten das Fuses,
> blow der C4 unter der Schoolhaus,
> ja, ja! EWIGE VERNICHTUNG, woo-hoo!
> Sterben alles, sterben glucklich!
>
> [Das Lied von Eric und Dylan]
>
> Wir sind das jungen Katzenjammer,
> wir gecroaken der Kapitan
> (er ist unser Vater NICHT, der grosse Schwein!)
> und die Frau Mama.
> Und die Kinder
> und die Teachers.
> Das ist ein Cartoon,
> aber wir slashen und burnen,
> leave not a rack behind!
> Wir morder alles, alles!
>
> [Der Sprecher]
>
> Ach! das Katzenjammers, kleine Ungeheuren!
> Sure as Hoell: aber ein Candle
> nicht holden zu Dylan und Eric,
> going nach Valhalla,
> Die Gotterdammerung of Littleton,
> auf der School Library.
> Himmel, diese kinder aus Hans und Fritz!
>
> Denke der Our Gang lynch boys, Spanky pulling
> on a Schwartze's legs to break his neck,
> or R. Crumb drawing Charlie Manson
> sending out his disciples to do his holy will.
>
> [Das Lied von Eric und Dylan, II, translated into English]
>
> Once too often, tough guys,
> we carried the burden for every kid
> every victim of the school bully,
> we are the secret saints of the insulted,
> the injured, the high school kid who
> shits himself in fear on the school bus.
> Our mistake was shooting the wrong ones,
> but no! no wrong ones, even Cassie Bernall
> she was a Gospel bully, die all die merrily
> or not, just die!
>
> Our revels now are ended.
>
> We invented Zero Tolerance.
> We had none.
>
> We are not America, not 1999
> not now, we are forestbound beasts,
> Georg Buchner walken und sprechen,
> die Wasser is Blut, Blut,
> good night, Herrgott Teufel, now
> turn up the goddamn heat!
>
> KTW/9-20-06
>
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