Mark, let me rephrase my last comment. Kent did not ask me to post all
the time for him, he only requested one post and when I offered to do
more he refused. But when I saw Herb Levy's comment, I felt Kent
should respond to that one, as I thought it needed addressing. Kent
chose instead to make a more general statement regarding various
other comments, which I posted for him. So I apologise to Kent if I
have given the impression that he pestered me to make these posts.
On Mon, 5 Oct 2009 21:15:18 +0100, Jeffrey Side
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>Mark, this is the last one I said I would do for him.
>
>
>
>On Mon, 5 Oct 2009 15:15:26 -0400, Mark Weiss
><[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>>Boredom? How very fin de siecle. That other siecle.
>>
>>Jeff, please stop forwarding this stuff. He's either on the list or
>>not. As I told you backchannel, Kent did exactly this--enlisting
>>others to carry his messages--when first dropped from lists.
>>
>>Mark
>>
>>At 03:00 PM 10/5/2009, you wrote:
>>
>>>Jeffrey Side wrote, kindly offering to send in a response by me to
>>>recent posts here. It would be easier to post directly, of course,
>>>but that doesn't seem to be possible.
>>>
>>>Just to say I'm a bit bemused by the many earnest comments (at
>>>Poetics, at the other two major poetry lists, and at the initial
>>>first announcement of the wok here [I just noticed the typo, I'll
>>>keep it]
>>><http://www.digitalemunction.com/2009/09/22/advertisement-kent-
>johnsonsday/#comments>http://www.digitalemunction.com/2009/09/2
2/
>advertisement-kent-johnsonsday/#comments)
>>>
>>>that dismiss my new book as "trivial" in nature, as a "tempest in a
>>>teapot," as a gesture devoid of "risk," and so on. You have to
>>>admit: For a "publication" so trifling, the book sure seems to be
>>>generating a lot of indignation!
>>>
>>>The thing is, these comments on the work's triviality are quite
>>>correct and obviously so. And I am sort of disappointed that part of
>>>its conceptual point seems to have been missed by so many. Alison
>>>Croggon's "yawn," for example, is perfectly poignant, inasmuch as
>>>she seems unawares that the Goldsmith wing of "Conceptualism"
>>>feverishly advocates Boredom as a poetic principle! So why my book
>>>would be dismissed because it out-bores KG's is beyond me. The
>muse
>>>that paid me a visit, you see, *instructed me* to be boring and to
>>>really go all the way, not just halfway, as with the case of KG's
>>>dime a dozen neo-readymade move. My Day aims to be, precisely, a
>>>dialectical advance in the concept of boredom. Which doesn't mean
>>>it's original (well, OK, maybe it is a little bit), or risky, or
>>>worth the paper it's not even written on.
>>>
>>>I hope that helps clarify things.
>>>
>>>Still, it's pleasing to see there are as many poets expressing
>>>enthusiasms about my book as there are those in a snit about it.
>>>Today, for example, Charles Zito posted the following comment at
>>>Digital Emunction, and I share it, eager that the many of you who
>>>are avant-garde academics will use it as he plans to use it. Perhaps
>>>after the full-page ad comes out next month, in a publication widely
>>>available at your local chain bookstore, more of you will? I hope
>>>so, as sales of the book (of which there already have been an
>>>unexpected few!) will help the continuing work of BlazeVOX, to
which
>>>fabulous press I am donating all royalties. Anyway, here's what
>>>Charles Zito wrote:
>>>
>>> >After watching a video on Kenny G, I wondered how far this
>>> conceptualism, with its lack of concern for originality or
>>> copyrights, could go. That it has resulted in this "reproduction"
>>> is truly entertaining. I just wanted to let you know that, as a
>>> result, your accomplishment will be discussed in my graduate
poetry
>>> workshop. Thought you might enjoy that knowledge.<
>>>
>>>Further, just as an informational note (and I promise I am not
>>>making this up), I have heard in the past couple days that there are
>>>tentative plans in the UK for the publication of a _Day Variorum_,
>>>both texts, KG's and KJ's, in one volume, set in parallel columns
>>>for ease of comparison. Hopefully, some of the hefty copies will be
>>>adopted in future seminars at those new citadels of Conceptualism,
>>>U. of Penn and Princeton.
>>>
>>>best,
>>>
>>>Kent
>>>
>>>
>>
>>Announcing The Whole Island: Six Decades of Cuban Poetry
(University
>>of California Press).
>>Forthcoming in November 2009 2009.
>>To read more go to: http://go.ucpress.edu/WholeIsland
>>
>>"The Whole Island is a masterwork of cartography: a map of what is,
>>for English-language readers,
>>an almost unexplored territory, full of poets--at home and in the
>>diaspora--whom we ought to know."
>> -Eliot
>>Weinberger
>>
>>"A definitive anthology guiding curious poets, literary scholars and
>>teachers, and generations of
>>readers out of the shadow of ignorant, imperialist 'lockdown'
>>surrounding the breadth and power of
>>Cuban poetry. [Weiss] provides a salient, comprehensive introduction
>>covering the fascinating vidas
>>of individual poets, literary movements, political exigencies, and
>>the vicissitudes of an ongoing cultural
>>struggle. But the imagination of the poetry rules. What emerges is
an
>>essential compendium to
>>world literature. Presente!"
>> -Anne
>>Waldman
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