There has been a new development in the Johnson/Goldsmith debate.
Charles Bernstein notified me to say that he had reproduced, in 2006,
Kenny’s ‘Weather’ in full:
http://epc.buffalo.edu/authors/bernstein/blog/archive/weather.html
The inference being that Kent's doing the same with Day is passe. In
response to this new development Kent says:
‘Fascinating!
There is an important difference, though. Bernstein announces that the
work is by Goldsmith, and he seems to add his name in a playful sort of
gesture, a kind of "afterthought" beneath "Kenny Goldsmith's The
Weather." It's a "half-hearted" ironic tweak, so to speak.
I'm not doing that. I'm *erasing* Goldsmith's name and affirming
myself as the book's Author! I'm affirming (sardonic though the
affirmation is) the book as my "property." Which is to say that the
category of Authorship is bracketed in uncomfortable sorts of ways.
Feel free to send this on to Charles.’
Which I did. I won’t quote Charles’s full response as I haven’t got his
permission to do so. But he said that he used his version of ‘Weather’
in teaching a course on Goldsmith. And said the piece ‘seemed more
fresh three or four year ago’
Kenny’s response to this is:
‘I think you need to spread this all over the place, Jeffrey. It takes the
whole discussion into a new area. Please quote my letter if you do so
at Poetics and your blog. There is simply no comparison.
Charles *always* needs to be first! (note the hilarious remark about
how it seemed "more fresh three or four years ago"!)’
Which is why I’m posting it here.
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