Maybe he could be allowed back now? How long ago was he barred and
what was the reason?
On Sun, 27 Sep 2009 23:05:41 +0100, janet blankfield
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>I witnessed as a lurker Kent Johnson being thrown off this list, and
other
>lists, by the people who seem to believe they have a divine right to
>control opinion on mailing lists. I can understand the list police have
>an agenda. I don't understand the silence of those who must have also
>witnessed those events.
>
>KJ was was making fun of bourgeois values. i thought subscribers to
>this list would find his "Poetry as Architecture" posts extremely
amusing
>and interesting. i was astonished by the reaction of poets i considered
>beautiful people. i stll find it astonishing that poets can be so opposed
>to the very thing that poets should find interesing.
>
>On Sun, 27 Sep 2009 13:38:33 +0100
>Tim Allen <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>>> Sean, I don't detect 'bourgeois values' in Kent's work. David B
said
>>> that, not me. It is true that I find Kent's work problematic, but I
>>> think that is in the ways it is supposed to be 'problematic', if you
>>> know what I mean.
>>> I was simply following up on David's use of the word 'bourgeois'
to
>>> see if he was talking about something that I've come across too,
with
>>> names that haven't been mentioned and probably won't be.
>>>
>>> Cheers
>>> Tim A.
>>>
>>> On 27 Sep 2009, at 13:31, Sean Bonney wrote:
>>>
>>> > yeh, totally, Rich. I'd say Kent was one of the American writers
>>> > least deserving of being called 'bourgeois' (thanx for the info
on
>>> > his actual political activites, I didn't know that).
>>> > and Tim, what are these 'bourgeois values' you can detect in
Kent's
>>> > work?
>>> >
>>> > http://abandonedbuildings.blogspot.com/
>>> >
>>> > --- On Sun, 27/9/09, richard owens
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>> >
>>> > From: richard owens <[log in to unmask]>
>>> > Subject: Re: 'Day' by Kent Johnson
>>> > To: [log in to unmask]
>>> > Date: Sunday, 27 September, 2009, 1:21 PM
>>> >
>>> > SEAN &C:
>>> >
>>> > respuesta: Kent as bourgie bastard ...
>>> >
>>> > further clarification re Kent's community college / literacy work:
i
>>> > see Kent's unrelenting attacks on contemporary "avant-garde"
>>> > practice (i.e. flarf, con-po, lang po) as an important extension
of
>>> > his earlier work around social justice issues, cultural politics,
>>> > etc -- & i think Yasusada, Lyric Po After Auschwitz & his other
>>> > guerrilla projects make this pretty clear (precisely in spite of
the
>>> > ambiguity of those projects.
>>> >
>>> > ----------------------> a conversation worth having i think.
>>> >
>>> > ........richard owens
>>> > 810 richmond ave
>>> > buffalo NY 14222-1167
>>> >
>>> > damn the caesars, the journal
>>> > damn the caesars, the blog
>>> >
>>> > --- On Sun, 9/27/09, richard owens
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>> >
>>> > From: richard owens <[log in to unmask]>
>>> > Subject: Re: 'Day' by Kent Johnson
>>> > To: [log in to unmask]
>>> > Date: Sunday, September 27, 2009, 7:44 AM
>>> >
>>> > SEAN &C:
>>> >
>>> > it's also worth adding that a good deal of Kent's work over the
past
>>> > 30 years has been given to issues of literacy, social justice &
>>> > economic inequality -- i.e. he _chooses_ to teach Spanish at a
>>> > community college (w/ a PhD on Creeley &c) vs. competing for
a
>>> > "successful" hackademic career; he worked teaching literacy in
>>> > Nicaragua during the Sandinista Revolution, edited an anthology
of
>>> > Sandinista poetry, etc.
>>> >
>>> > rich ...
>>> >
>>> > ........richard owens
>>> > 810 richmond ave
>>> > buffalo NY 14222-1167
>>> >
>>> > damn the caesars, the journal
>>> > damn the caesars, the blog
>>> >
>>> > --- On Sun, 9/27/09, Sean Bonney <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:
>>> >
>>> > From: Sean Bonney <[log in to unmask]>
>>> > Subject: Re: 'Day' by Kent Johnson
>>> > To: [log in to unmask]
>>> > Date: Sunday, September 27, 2009, 7:24 AM
>>> >
>>> > David, it looks pretty clear that Kent's work is a satire on
Kenny
>>> > Goldsmith. Second, this is the second time in as many weeks
that
>>> > you've accused someone of being "bourgeois", neither time with
much
>>> > justification. Whats the problem?
>>> >
>>> > http://abandonedbuildings.blogspot.com/
>>> >
>>> > --- On Sun, 27/9/09, David Bircumshaw
<[log in to unmask]>
>>> > wrote:
>>> >
>>> > From: David Bircumshaw <[log in to unmask]>
>>> > Subject: Re: 'Day' by Kent Johnson
>>> > To: [log in to unmask]
>>> > Date: Sunday, 27 September, 2009, 6:02 AM
>>> >
>>> > My, Kent's come on. I used to know him before he became a
famous
>>> > bourgeois writer, you know, he even once suggested we
collaborate,
>>> > but I never got him to specially sign anything. I guess though I
>>> > would have had to pay for that privelige.
>>> > One thing, he is a bit out of date, the art of plagiarism by
middle-
>>> > class authors was long ago perfected by Messrs Chaucer and
>>> > Shakespeare. My love to him and his non-ego.
>>> >
>>> > David Bircumshaw
>>> >
>>> > Author of 'If It's On the Internet, It Doesn't Exist'
>>> >
>>> >
>>> >
>>> > 2009/9/26 Jeffrey Side <[log in to unmask]>
>>> > 'Day' a new work by Kent Johnson:
>>> >
>>> > http://www.digitalemunction.com/2009/09/22/advertisement-
kent-
>>> > johnsonsday/
>>> >
>>> >
>>> > Price: $21, plus ship ping and han dling. ($250 for each of ten
num
>>> > bered
>>> > copies signed by the Author, no charge for ship ping and han
dling.)
>>> > All
>>> > copies come with spe cially designed, affixed stick ers (on
cover,
>>> > back
>>> > cover, title page, spine, etc.) to impart author ship, copy right,
>>> > blurbs,
>>> > and co-​production.
>>> >
>>> > If the 836-pp. Day estab lished Kenny Gold smith as with out a
doubt
>>> > the
>>> > lead ing con cep tual poet of his time, the 836-pp. Day by Kent
John
>>> > son
>>> > may well be remem bered for nudg ing the pol i tics of Con cep
tual
>>> > Poetry
>>> > out of blithely affir ma tive, insti tu tional fram ings, and into
>>> > truly nega
>>> > tional crit i cal spaces.
>>> >
>>> > –Juliana Spahr
>>> >
>>> >
>>> > Recent trends in tech nolo gies of com mu ni ca tion have
already
>>> > begun to
>>> > sub vert the roman tic bas tions of “creativity” and
“authorship,”
>>> > call ing
>>> > into ques tion the pro pri ety of copy right through strate gies
of
>>> > pla gia ris
>>> > tic appropriation… Such devel op ments have caused poets to
the o
>>> > rize an
>>> > inno v a tive aes thet ics of “conceptual literature” that
has begun
>>> > to ques
>>> > tion, if not to aban don, the lyri cal man date of orig i nal ity in
>>> > order to
>>> > explore the poten tials of the “uncreative,” be it auto
matic, man
>>> > ner ist,
>>> > aleatoric, or ready made, in its lit er ary practice… Such activ
ity
>>> > (employ
>>> > ing self and ego-​effacing tac tics via uncre ativ ity, uno
>>> > rig i nal ity, appro pri
>>> > a tion, pla gia rism, fraud, theft, and fal si fi ca tion as its pre
>>> > cepts) has
>>> > become one of the most rad i cal, if not one of the most pop u
lar,
>>> > limit-​
>>> > cases of the avant-​garde at the advent of the mil len
nium.
>>> > With Day,
>>> > Kent John son claims his place as one of the major fig ures of
this
>>> > new
>>> > writ ing, show ing, in single move, how Con cep tual Poetry has
been
>>> > nearly forty years behind the pol i tics of Insti tu tional Critique.
>>> >
>>> > –Chris t ian Bök
>>> >
>>> > As he once asked, at the blog of the Poetry Foun da tion
(though with
>>> > what seems in ret ro spect a disin gen u ous banal ity),
“Nearly one
>>> > hun dred
>>> > years after Duchamp, why hasn’t appro pri a tion become a
valid, sus
>>> > tained[,] or even tested lit er ary prac tice?” Here now, Kent
John
>>> > son
>>> > wagers the query with a vengeance, brazenly upping the ante of
Uncre
>>> > ative dialec tic by throw ing down before us a ready made ges
ture
>>> > that is
>>> > noth ing but dizzy ing in the syn the sis of its con cep tion: a
fla
>>> > grant appro
>>> > pri a tion of a Con cep tual work’s Author ship and Copy
right, cat
>>> > e gories
>>> > which them selves had been branded into this same text, in fla
grant
>>> > appro pri a tion by another K (yes, me), in first, anti thet i cal
>>> > instance.
>>> > Thus, here at Boring Ranch, in gamble with a gambol, he claims
all the
>>> > cow chips, one could say, with the sear ing, aster isked irony of
a
>>> > double-
>>> > K smok ing iron. His Day emerges hot and bright from the dead-
>>> > ​dark of
>>> > an inno cent pre-​dawn, a sort of authen tic After life
that
>>> > rises from
>>> > the “orig i nal” sim u lacral body in which it had lain
(latent and
>>> > expec
>>> > tant). As in the best of Sher rie Levine, but more rad i cally
>>> > still, it sum
>>> > mons us, now, that we might think harder in its sudden light.
Indeed,
>>> > Kent Johnson’s Day stands as the first Con cep tual ges ture
of its
>>> > kind in
>>> > the his tory of Amer i can poetry: An open, lit eral theft of an
>>> > entire “book,” exhib ited with out shame, as a new and
strange Work of
>>> > Art in our Museum of Modern Poetry. I can only tip my hat.
>>> >
>>> >
>>> > –Kenny Goldsmith
>>> >
>>> > Order from BlazeVOX Books. Orders also avail able in the near
future
>>> > from SPD and Amazon
>>> >
>>> >
>>> >
>>> > --
>>> > David Bircumshaw
>>> > "A window./Big enough to hold screams/
>>> > You say are poems" - DMeltzer
>>> > Website and A Chide's Alphabet
>>> > http://www.staplednapkin.org.uk
>>> > The Animal Subsides
http://www.arrowheadpress.co.uk/books/animal.html
>>> > Leicester Poetry Society: http://www.poetryleicester.co.uk
>>> > Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/david.bircumshaw
>>> >
>>> >
>>> >
>>> >
>
>
>--
>
>life's a beach
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