4 abr 2006

Rant number 3: I find this so full of condescension that it makes me want to puke. The use of the "royal we" itself makes me want to puke. April is zero tolerance month at Bemsha Swing.

We want poets to educate themselves to a point where they can begin to see their ideological confusion clearly and unashamedly. We have every right to request that of our fellow poets. In a time like the one we live in, it behooves us to get our politics in order, and that means a lot of legwork, which always includes self-critique.

We?re very forgiving. Everybody needs a wake-up call, sometimes.

... We?re asking our fellow poets to be careful and to think deeply and humanely about what they do.


Who is he to be forgiving anyone else? Did I miss the part where he was made god? Where's the evidence of his superior thoughtfulness, care, and humanity, where is his own self-critique? Certainly not in this stale rhetoric, which resurrects the least noble side of Marxist aesthetics: the petty personal attacks and name-calling, the race to adopt the most "correct" position, the insincere pretention to "self-critique," the stale vocabulary of "petty bourgeoisie." What the hell does that even mean any more? Are we like in 1860?

4 comentarios:

Gary dijo...

From what I can gather, Chris thinks he's god because he had to work for a living for much of his adult life.

Henry Gould dijo...

I heard God actually worked only six days & then took a nap. She was the first yuppie bourgeois slacker.

Gary dijo...

Yes, but when God slept on that crucial seventh day, those who were still working took over his job.

*Someone* had to do it!

Dan Coffey dijo...

How in hell did you find the time/psychic energy to read through that post?

Btw, the Dan in the signature is tied to the surname Coffey, much like one half of a bagel is tied to the other, even after going through the scary bagel-slicing machine.