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I suppose I'm one of those "list police" (sigh), with an "agenda"
(sigh - for what?) although when I ran that list, years ago now, I
never banned Kent from poetryetc. But my memory of the Britpo disaster
- which effectively destroyed the list, since dozens of people, mostly
those who wanted to talk about poetry, left at that point - aligns
with Mark's. I personally lost it with Kent when he published a series
of emails that I had allegedly written - my name was on them - but in
which the text had been changed to suit Kent's purposes (ie, to make
people look like bigger idiots than they were). There was no
acknowledgement in Kent's publication that the text had been changed,
and it was basically untrue and unjust. It might be odd of me, but I
dislike that kind of defaming.

And I guess in Tim's and Rupert's eyes I'm wholly bourgeois too. I
don't argue with it. Certainly I've got impeccable middle class
credentials, and I never could buy the creed that the individual
matters less than the collective. Yet until recently I've never had
money, and for a couple of decades - from about 1995 - my income was
so uncertain that with depressing frequency I didn't know how I would
be buying dinner tomorrow or next week. I know all the humiliations of
poverty intimately. I've been homeless, with children, twice. I've
never had a "career" except by accident (and certainly have never had
the qualifications to flee to the academy). Right now I'm thinking of
giving up my latest accidental career. I don't give a fuck about money
except when I don't have it. But, yes, bourgeois I am, and I can't
deny that at least some of those values over which I have so far
sacrificed at least two "careers" so far stem from bourgeois
intellectuals. Even my favourite definition of an intellectual -
quoted I think in Said's Culture and Imperialism - is a 19C bourgeois
one ("the intellectual is a person who will say the truth, no matter
what the price").

What I dislike with a passion are the crass materialisms and suicidal
blindnesses of mass consumerist society. To me the huge social issue
at the moment is what we are doing to our global environment. But I
also understand that people have to eat.

xA


On Mon, Sep 28, 2009 at 8:48 AM, Mark Weiss <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> I have a complex history with Kent, of whom I'm genuinely fond. As I
> remember, he came onto this list and tried to sway it entirely to his agenda
> and away from British poetry. At the time he was using weblists as
> performance spaces, and devil take you if you didn't want him performing in
> your living room. He was also publishing private emails, rewritten to serve
> his purposes. When called to accounts he tended to become abusive, and to
> carry on backchannel.
>
> He hasn't done that sort of thing in a couple of years. His ouster from list
> after list had nothing to do with his opinions.
>
> Mark
>
> At 06:05 PM 9/27/2009, you 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-&#8203;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 thhe 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 acttiv ity
>> >> > (employ
>> >> > ing self and ego-&#8203;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-&#8203;
>> >> > cases of the avant-&#8203;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-
>> >> > &#8203;dark of
>> >> > an inno cent pre-&#8203;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
>



-- 
Editor, Masthead:  http://www.masthead.net.au
Blog: http://theatrenotes.blogspot.com
Home page: http://www.alisoncroggon.com