No, Borges's character didn't copy Don Quixote, but rewrote it word for word, reimagining the same story in a different time and context. And so, according to Borges, although it was precisely the same on the page, it was an entirely different and possibly greater novel. KJ has copied it, possibly scanned the text? And KG originally copied the text himself. IF KJ typed out every letter himself, maybe it might be parallel. So I guess the whole thing is more an event than a book. What doesn't exist in the typing/scanning is the act of imagination, which is, I guess, also the point, since flarf/conceptual art reckons we've all imagined enough already.

On Tue, Sep 29, 2009 at 8:00 AM, David Latane <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
So . . . it's just like that chap in Borges who wrote Don Quixote?

I just read Raymond Williams's entry in _Keywords_ -- I think I like bürgerlich as a term of abuse better than bourgeois -- all those MacDonald's in the suburbs.  Seriously, William's point about the necessity of continuing to have to use the awkward term for class/economic analysis makes sense. But Williams points out its imprecision as commonly used by "unestablished artists, writers and thinkers" -- and I would still argue that it should be ditched in that regard.

David Latane



From: cris cheek <[log in to unmask]>

Subject: Re: 'Day' by Kent Johnson
To: [log in to unmask]
Date: Monday, September 28, 2009, 3:08 PM


somebody asked about what the book is actually "like"

well it's pretty much exactly "like" Kenneth Goldsmith's "Day"

excepting that the name on the cover is "Kent Johnson"

and not "Kenneth Goldsmith"



that's the point


xx


cris



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