INTERESTING to see over the past weeks the extent to which I'm reviled by much of the literary community. It's been just when I've been knocked down by life to one knee that characters have run out of the shadows to take shots at me: a poet; "Gawker" and his foppish NY acolytes; and a prominent member of the lit-blogger community. (On the previous post; others.) Funny that when I've been around to engage in debate they've had nothing to say, for the most part.
A curious phenomenon. The writer Fran Upman experienced something similar recently when going through personal difficulties and trying to step back from her blogging. Then-- then!-- do the carrion come into the daylight. In both cases, prematurely.
I'm generally blackballed. Lit-bloggers who apparently read this site won't deign to link to it. In their minds that'd give public recognition to its ideas. An entire organization exists whose prime motivating force seems to be resentment of me. You'd think I'm this great terrible threat to literature, controlling millions of dollars of resources, generating millions of dollars of false hype and publicity; awarding seven-figure advances to utter mediocrities or making decisions about what grant money is awarded to which writers. I've been built up in somebody's head to be a large and powerful entity.
Yet in reality, all I have is my voice. That's it. I own nothing in this world-- nothing beyond a duffel bag of clothing. (And thus, approach the John-the-Baptist ideal of a raggedy voice in the wilderness.) For the last few years I've been living out of that duffel bag.
What's happening?
First, I've been made aware by the armies of literary darkness that I'll be granted no quarter. The tiny outpost of outspokenness which the ULA represents, our insignificant band of literary rebels, is hemmed in on all sides, outnumbered exponentially by numerous evil legions. If the group quickly decouples itself from me, they'll be spared. I'm the sacrifice. Am I being hyperbolic? Only slightly! It's clear that once out of the ULA I'll be nothing more than a brief chapter of deleted history; shoved down the memory hole; banished because I've antagonized the powers-that-be. The literary nobles will grant amnesty to some (not many, I'd wager) but not to the chief instigator.
Second-- and in this case I'm not at all exaggerating-- what we see are manifestations of the intolerance of dissent which exists in the literary community. Can anyone doubt this? The problem which the blacklisters, or Gawker, or OW people, or Daniel Green have isn't with me-- I'm nobody with not a shred, not a microdot, of power-- but with this very blog you're reading. They'll be satisfied only when it's silenced-- not even then, because it's when I've begun posting less regularly that their distemper increases.
Read this blog's archives. What's its crimes? Nothing more-- nothing less-- than to expose literary corruption and engage writers with ideas; to inform, stir, motivate, or outrage. To cause people to think!
Such contrary activity can't be tolerated in this day and age.
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4 comments:
...The unpleasantness here lately has been sickening--yeah, it's like what happened at my place. It could also be some of the same people doing it at both our places.
Sadistic people who love playing Kick The Vagrant don't impress me at all. Kicking people when they're already really down--wow, what an achievement! Now that takes guts! When I went to school in Manhattan, I saw tons of sadists like that, most were yuppies but not all (I wrote about this in the opening of my second novel); I hated it there, between that cold sadistic stuff and the pollution and overcrowding, being there most days ran me down both mentally and physically, I got really physically sick.
Also, I think you DO have some things that are threats to the typical literary world: integrity and sincerity. Some people apparently want those two animals driven to extinction.
So don't be whole, don't be sincere, and many people will link to you in two seconds--that's the ticket to "success"! I think the world's become a giant ass-backwards insane asylum.
However, there are pockets of hope scattered around. Do you know about the Philly Orchard Project? On their site is a list of other cities doing the same stuff. I think it's an excellent movement to turn the cities agrarian, basically so people can eat fruits and vegetables inside them without needing as much or even any money.
The key phrase here is increased property values. Who has the say in that and where does this now clean and veggie/fruity larder go to when the property taxes go up and the plant or garden land becomes more valuable. Where are the existing completed or in progress plots located-- a long the red lined borders of the secret immanent domain of the U of P in west philly for example? It would be nice its a great concept which will happen down the road-- when the cars are removed from the neighborhoods and the ashphalt tore up and the sustainable renewable energy by and for and of traditiional philly hoods are running things and trading energy and food to each other without government or special neo-liberal interests doing what they want for the good of the people, etc.
I doan like to be negative and I'm not cynical especially cynical like the coward sadists who have made their deposits on this Blog and your own recently. But I've seen and continue to witness "set ups" like this(could possibly be), like the City's Green Space program which turns out in many cases to be a land larder sold off to real estate interests to be pulled right from under the neighborhood's feet. Especially in West Philly. Where are the examples and where? Also consider the source-- the UCD linked mouth piece of the University of Transylvania, "The Daily Pencilpushian".
"America is a front for a pizza shop."
FDW c/o the MP
...I was only trying to help, not harm. I know about eminent domain as I currently have several acres of a woodland property I've been keeping as a wildlife/wildland preserve and would have liked to possibly open to the public someday, but that the state intends to put a major highway over and will likely confiscate. Joy! I've always said/believed that private citizens must address environmental issues, must buy up land and preserve it if they can afford that because governments won't likely preserve it (not that all private citizens care about this because in my opinion and experience, many do NOT care--they're unfortunately just as bad as governments). Unfortunately, as human populations continue growing and resources continue dwindling, governments will use that as an opportunity to confiscate even more from citizens and consolidate centralized power even further; this was yet another a theory of mine that seems to be happening in real life now....
Wild spaces in particular are extremely important green areas because they're more productive in many ways, but all green areas are important. No matter where people live, cities, suburbs, rural areas, no matter what their socioeconomic statuses, all humans need oxygen to survive; humans can live for days without water, weeks without food, but only minutes without oxygen. And trees and other plants, and plankton (...also being decimated...) provide nearly all or maybe all the oxygen to earth's atmosphere (at the uppermost surface some rocks might readily release oxygen when crushed or heated, but that process probably doesn't spontaneously happen nearly enough to sustain much life here). Without any oxygen, all humans would die; with decreasing amounts of oxygen, which some scientists are saying has already been happening, many will likely suffer more and more health problems. But it seems the human species is determined to harm and even kill off its own self and every other species with it.
I don't know much about the local politics in Philadelphia. What you said about cynicism--I'm a very cynical person. I'd like to donate money to different things, but I don't trust where the money will go. I only know that when opportunities arise to learn something for free, and to receive food for free, if people need either or both, they should consider exploring that stuff--at least I would. You can't really know what something will turn out to be until it's engaged, until that something is put into action. Urban-based agrarian movements are an opportunity to learn a skill, one I think will become more important as collapses happen worldwide, which skill is: sustainable agriculture, growing your own food responsibly. Agriculture's not a skill humans are born with because it's an artificial construct, but it's a construct that I think domesticated humans need today as they've denuded the planet of too many wild plant foods (recognizing which is yet another survival skill I think people should acquire).
Even if that Philly Orchard program or similar ones winds up being the same-old same-old politically, winds up not benefiting the people who need it most, once people have engaged with it and have learned about soil structure, seeds, composting, plant growth, plant variety, how to plant, how to feed plants, etc., they could probably take that knowledge and start their own movements in the way they want, use that knowledge to personally survive better, and so on.
Look that sort a community garden thing has been going on in Philly ethnic especially working class and now the so called working poor for a few hundred years. Community based, etc. And throughout the country. These communties know all about it and have been doing it. I find neo liberal programs always are "reform" minded while either they and or the corporate government have hidden agendas. The people are smarter than that but are continuously being marginalized if not re-possed and reduced to bouzghee points of "order". Only after a time of self- determing "anarchy" (for lack of a better term) will the marbles shake down in a natural way. Public ownership is that what your suggesting? Well that was a given but its been coopted and stolen tghe Purple People Eater of the immanent domain system.
The mis-direction of Equality is not up to the ethics of Egalitarian.
FDW c/o the MP
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