Thursday, March 20, 2008

Value

The value of this blog is that I give the reader unflinching truth about literature, and about the literary world and how it operates.

28 comments:

Anonymous said...

re: “unflinching truth”: “In pursuing a jaundiced view of the world, writers run the risk of lapsing into a kind of reverse sentimentality: All People Are Basically Good can be flipped with surprising ease into Everybody Sucks. The latter view often manifests itself as a bullying righteousness that insists that life at the bottom -- life at its most degrading and sordid -- is Real Life [...] for all its pretense to tough-mindedness and unflinching truth-telling, reverse sentimentality can be every bit as predictable and unrewarding as the more treacly variety.”
-- Washington Post, 08 August 1999.

Anonymous said...

What qualifies you to know how the literary world works? You may know about the "underground" part of it, but what about the "establishment" part? You've never been a part of that portion of the literary world, so how do you know how it works? You've witnessed the products of this literary world, the establishment literature you don't like, but that doesn't mean you know how the process works.

It's like saying you know how a lawnmower works just because you've seen it cut grass.

So to tell the unflinching truth, you must know what that truth is, but how can you when all of your experience with establishment literature has come from the outside?

Patrick S. @ RedFez said...

John,

So you're saying that only insiders can see the "truth" and bestow it upon the rest of us? Jeez i hope not! Ideally that's what the self-educated outsider is supposed to do...observe, study, and report. The activist, the journalist, the broadcaster, the blogger. King Wenclas, Alex Jones, Michael Savage, the ULA, just to name a few in no particular order.

Anonymous said...

When my love swears that she is made of truth, I do believe her, though I know she lies.

Anonymous said...

Patrick,

I'm not talking about examining the finished product, that is, the books published, but the process undertook to get them published. King said he give unflinching truth about, among other things, the way the literary world operates. That is, the process or the inner workings of the inner world. And someone who has never experienced that process is at a strong disadvantage to know what that process is.

FDW said...

+My world is not of this kingdom"

-- Lee Poe

FDW said...

In the venacular venial palance of our time publishing is one thing but for the sake of augment while the demi-mores drag down as is their tendency letters beside doing with so called literature alsoand can on;y mean for their advancement like venom in the bloodstream to say that publishing is limited to the inside.
No king then is implying "printing" and as alll things published are first and formost printed the demi's have lost the aurgument as pubishing has, is, and shall be done mostly on the outside and in fact in the underground. By printers! Glory be to the newspaper/ printing Unions.
That these Tories could claim all the publishing on the inside belies the fact that yes it is also the truth and a truth that King is touching upon that our day and age is lauded over by corporate monopolies and trust funded millionaries-- but a fluke in the history of printing and publishing in this country.
And a fluke that is to be overwhelmed by the freedom of expression and the freedom of, most direly for them, assembly.

FDW said...

That's all the Establishment publishes anon.-- preverse sentimentality. No great emotions, no fine ideals, nor naive but delisciously dark comic parables, no epics, no true elevated lyric, no calls to arms against a sea of troubles, no mythic love, no populist rousing Great Stories.
They are ill- literate cynics and solipsitic plagarists.
And no true transcendant emotions.

FDW said...

That's all the Establishment publishes anon.-- preverse sentimentality. No great emotions, no fine ideals, nor naive but delisciously dark comic parables, no epics, no true elevated lyric, no calls to arms against a sea of troubles, no mythic love, no populist rousing Great Stories.
They are ill- literate cynics and solipsistic plagarists.
And no true transcendant emotions.

Anonymous said...

How could you possibly know a thing like that? Have you read every single work published in the mainstream? Or, have you just decided that none of those authors could possibly be any good?

FDW said...

Tis true-- the whole mainstream, music being the best example, is about feelings, And nostagia (the Jones'n' after them feelings that are gong fer ever)-- to the AUTIST and the critiques there from-- what we gots hear is really musak and kitsch and smaltz
bound up to project the spectacle-- overboard ad and prono budgets, mob action controled and cattle-shooted in gated stadium at high prices-- with the purpose of addicting people to the past that never existing, the great happy-sad complexes of fantasy (cf. "thrills")and the hypnotic "watch the watch not the man behind the curtain" to sell the crap of the mainstream consumer pipedream.
I've never read the obsessive- compulsive Moody, Eggars, Miranda July,etc. all the way thru, but just sampling while standing around in a bookstore, no need to, and I doan think I could stomach the ulterior cynicism and maudlin sentimentality that instead of offering the chace to change the heart of the reader affixes the reader to the affect of being "dirty like that". At the same time connecting the dots that form a blueprint of the devil-in-the-details, which is the only reason I wld. chance being contaminated by their toxic waste in the first place.
More importantly why would I waste valuable time when there is so much fine emotion inducted and of good humor independent/underground writing out there published by the ULA Press?

King Wenclas said...

One thing being demonstrated here: that the demi-puppets (or at least the "pod" portion of them) don't believe in truth. They're unwilling to back with they say with their own identities-- which tells me they don't believe in their words themselves.
Re: Washington Post. Who wrote that?
Your standard variety yuppie?
This is the fact, chump: The top 5% of this society gets 100 times the media space than the bottom half put together.
We've had ENOUGH of genteel yuppie "real life." Time to see the other point of view, don't ya think?
Re the publishing industry:
I posted the result of some research into it, facts taken from a 991-page book written by an Insider. My conclusions were drawn from his presentation.
Can you tell me what part of my series is wrong?

Anonymous said...

Well, you admit you "skimmed" the book. So your analysis is based on skimming.

I know only a handful of people in publishing, but they're not rich kids. They're people who love books. And it doesn't seem like you even read the books you're talking about them - just leaf through the press and read a paragraph or two here and there. There are lots and lots of books written about all sorts of Americans, published by major houses. Nobody has time to read all of them, so your insistence that nobody wants to publish relevant books ends up sounding like nobody wants to publish you.

Your turnarounds on Robbe-Grillet prove you don't do your homework - is he a shining example for undergrounders, or a solipsistic mainstreamer? Maybe he's neither: an individual. Maybe we're all individuals. And maybe we all have individual tastes. Of course, it's easier to rant about pod people, isn't it?
--the wandering jew

Anonymous said...

@King:

It was David Gates in the Washington Post. Here's the article:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/books/reviews/wondersoftheinvisibleworld0808.htm

FDW said...

skimming the Anonamouch--
most glaringly for me and gleaningly
most talltellingly is he she or its
cla'm--- "Maybe he's neither: an individual. Maybe we're all individuals. And maybe we all have individual tastes."
Tautology followed by the silly cliched solipsism "blah, blah, tastes."
Weal, taste is like scruples a socially conditioned apprehesion of one of society's (especially in this freak'n' Notion these daze)number who'd, like scruples and other such wds of shim-sham, marry's subjective perception to their class- distinct ideology/belief system to use sensitivity as an excuse to justify their economic superiority/inferiority.
In other words BouZgHEE. ( cf. ATDPs, EYE OPENER, Oct.3 /07, comment 10/04/07)
And yes pod people- aren't individuals they're the collective concs., of a super- ego. Ya know
admitting you have a problem is half the cure-- for alieNation

Anonymous said...

Yeah, my taste is shaped by sociological position. Whose isn't? The writing you seem to prefer, based on the writing you post, seems informed by a confrontational self-reflexive slang borne out of Beat and beer. Do you seriously believe that to be underepresented in American culture?

--the wandering jew

FDW said...

Its subversive and subterfuge. A cut up of cliff notes tickling the soles of the hanged man's enchanted corpse.Really, I just entertain myself otherwise a waste of time, but it may just maybe to seduce the young mind over to the darkride of the Imagination and though the sticks be picked up some kid might build a house of stone from the proscibed perscriptive "syn-tax" hoes of cards fallen hard down.
You dig, scarecrow?

FDW said...

Don't give a fig 'bout taste and scruples and why not morality.
Affectation at best that lends a flourish and perhaps the swish of a gaudy fandango to the stale air of feelings toward a thing or occasion, but of little use to the sensibility of a cultured person independent of economic class or conditional e-judication merged in the experience of the awe of the beauty of a thing.
You can brandish and flourish your sword til your blue in the face but all ends with the clean clear single thrust of the a calm and disciplined opponent.
I'd rather speak of "savor" than taste. Someone who hankers for the taste of a thing or their taste wants to bite off more than they can chew-- and then some, consuming rather the savoring the Autistic experience and leaving well enough enough alone for the others in the party.
Perception and its ontologies and the grand emotions of the aesthetic experience.
Concrete parabolas to carry my dirty laundry in rather than abstract feelings that are drunk through a glass darkly.

Anonymous said...

I’m telling you: check out two minutes of this poor hairball stammering and sweating. It gives you a whole new perspective. Pity is the word. Wandering Jew, I love you: "Beat and beer" is right. Someone around these parts has mistaken retardation for erudition.

http://ia300237.us.archive.org/1/items/ULATVEpisode2

Karl Wenclas said...

A lot of snobbery presented here.
Again, what passes for American literature today is coming almost completely from the top 5% of American society. Our own aristocracy.
Sure, to themselves they appear to be regular people. They have no clue about those inhabiting the rest of the society-- especially not about those in the bottom half.
Yes, "Beats and beer."
This is the real bottom line, chumps: Your precious literary machine, given the amount invested in it, is a failure. It's producing no great writers, only many marginally talented competent ones.
Sure, it has its successes, does a few things right.
So did the Soviet Union!
That didn't mean it wasn't in bad need of change.
Re Robbe-Grillet: Yes, he was an individual, whatever that means. But his philsophy, so representative of the trends of the last fifty years, was exactly the wrong direction for literature to go in.
As I've said, it was a retreat into solipsism. I'll be presenting more examples of this on my two main blogs.
Pod people? Yes! What the lit scene badly needs is excitement. Energy. "Beer and beats." Which the underground has been providing. Enough of genteel stagnation.
Curious to me how demi-puppets can find so many flaws in a handful of rebels, yet find not one thing wrong with a massive publishing/writing industry soaking in billions of dollars, employing or bilking many thousands of people, and producing as a result: sweeping mediocrity.
Re Walsh. Check out his poetry sometime before judging. He's one of the best poets in the country.
(You should find some examples on the ULA P&F blog.)
He follows in the true, interrupted stream of poetry-- in the line of Berryman and Dylan Thomas, and other greats before the John Ashbery enervated quacks came on the scene.
To Mr. Walsh:
Please give me a reason why I shouldn't ban you from my blogs for one month, seeing as you attempted to have me banned from the ULA's forum? Reciprocity is only fair!
Please note (to FDW and everybody):
THIS IS NOT A DEMOCRACY.
This is one of my personal blogs, which I operate through the indulgence of Google and Microsoft, and which people like you post on through the indulgence of me.
I believe in open and free discussion-- but am not going to continually let that belief be taken advantage of by one and all to my own detriment.
Re the ULA. I'm still listed as a Supporter of it. I wish it only the best. How could I not? I'll forever be identified with it. That doesn't mean I give up my rights of free speech, or my ability to ask questions. It's BECAUSE I want the best for the ULA that I've hated to see the ideals it was born with trampled.

Anonymous said...

A brief history of chumps:

“Time for you to go back to what you do best, chump.” 05/07/05.

“The bottom line, Chump, is that if I didn't believe 100% in the ULA mission, in what we're doing, I would long since have fallen by the wayside.” 08/05/05.

“Maybe next month, chump.” 08/29/06.

“Until then, stop the whining, chump.” 10/25/06.

“Think the ULA is not for real, chump?” 04/08/07.

“Well, where is it, chump? What have YOU done?” 09/15/07.

“Is that all YOU can bring, chump?” 10/25/07.

“Besides myself, I'm being pronoid, and really sympathetic toward you, chump.” 02/07/08.

“This is the fact, chump.” 03/22/08.

“This is the real bottom line, chumps.” 03/24/08.

— Chumps! You’re all chumps, chumps! —
— and that’s the bottom line! —

Frank Marcopolos said...

Actually, Frank Walsh gives an insightful analysis of "Howl" on that video, IMO.

Anonymous said...

So "Beer and Beats" is your brave new option injecting excitement into the literary world? You really aren't paying attention. There are more Beaty poets, hanging out in bars and calling for revolution, in any given American city than fans of John Ashbery worldwide. That's subversive? That's a new direction? That's underground? I looked at Walsh's poety: it sounds like any open mic night in any college town on any given night. That's revolution?

I see lots of flaws in lit and publishing today but too many people liking Robbe-Grillet or Ashbery or Rick Moody? That's like saying that waterpolo coaches are what's wrong with American sports.

--the wandering jew

FDW said...

And deliberat'ly perversion for criticism.
And the artist with the autist
then Simon of Cyrene was a retard to carry a while the cross of the KING [sic].
And mistaken mistakes and misteps for cynicism and skulduggery.
And mistaken the attentive reader who is not and could never be these bottom feeders for fools.
Anonymice take heed
for I am the ancient big cat, devourer of men and systems who watches above you from the tree at the center of the world. My roar you misrepresent and bear false witness against to assure yourselves in your trembling and smallness of mind.
I pick the place and I pick the time coming out of the shadows, the darkness is my sign.
You can never wear it as perfectly as I,
who plays with my prey before I dine.
The human I have respect for,
no more, no more,
Death-in-life, I make you mine.



http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.012.ntbb.html

FDW said...

King;
Weird reversals of psychic vectors in their direction but not
magnitude.
Freudian psychoanalytic symptoms like "projection", "substitution", "inversion", and toward me definitely "transference".
More prosaicly put, denial and the transposing of cause and effect to elicit self-justification.
Nothing atypical of the michu-puggala, but still the difference from the regulars that you insist on engaging on this "pers-blog" while threatening to suppress (while harping about open discussion!) me despite the fact that you conveniently bring up the ULA here there and everywhere in what ever contxt is convenient to your justification-of-the-day and try to downplay if not kiss up to the serious threat BD poses in his capacity of neo- liberal fascist to the Alliance's integrity while exposing all of us including yrself to IT to cut off your Pollock nose despite your prize-fighter's face, while you loud and clear throughout all this goofy squabbling claiming you're done with the ULA, come out of nowhere attacking me and JP and SK because your afraid of something the rest of us in the ULA have got over and are all working together and seperately (EGALITARIAN TRUMPS ELITIST), at the same time welcoming you back into the fold, for the whole time defending you one way or another here or there or everywhere, ISTHAT YOUR HEART IS IN THE RIGHT PLACE! While theirs'... well, what can you do they are pod people or straw-dawgs.

By the way the moron anonymice who stupidly put up a corrupted link to ULATV files because of the gross incompetence one finds on the other end is Pfat Kink, J.Rat Fink is probably not far from his behind niether. When I think how they both "accidentally" tried to fck up the Howl protest/action-reading at Columbia Easter Monday-Tuesday of 2006 it makes me wonder if those OW rats had their ULA schism planned a long time before the fat hit the fire.

TH suggested that you take a month off from the proboardsforum to cool off while I just supraceded the suggestion.
"Do what tho wilt shall be the whole law, love under will."

Transmission ended........

King Wenclas said...

Frank, get your facts straight, please. Tom suggested we both take a break-- not that I be banned from the site. (Which you had mentioned before his remarks!)
You initiated this dispute. YOU, with your post on my other blog, which happened to be completely wrong. You owe me an apology, my man. We should be on the same side, but I care not to be continually disrespected.
Make up your mind. Thanks.

Anonymous said...

Frank said,

"
By the way the moron anonymice who stupidly put up a corrupted link to ULATV files because of the gross incompetence one finds on the other end is Pfat Kink, J.Rat Fink is probably not far from his behind niether. When I think how they both "accidentally" tried to fck up the Howl protest/action-reading at Columbia Easter Monday-Tuesday of 2006 it makes me wonder if those OW rats had their ULA schism planned a long time before the fat hit the fire."

Whaaa?? How so did I try to wreck the event? By getting drunk and having a good time? By editing the video footage?

Frank, I know you don't like me, but what's with rewriting history? I mean, I HAD MOVED TO PHILLY A WEEK BEFORE TO BE PART OF THE ULA.

Your logic.....I mean, is there any? Sometimes I think you're hitting the keys just to hear the pretty sounds.

King Wenclas said...

I'm going to can comments period, here, for a few days, to lessen the bickering-- and so I can focus on posting, because I have a lot of good stuff to put up.
Frank, I agree with your comment of the ULA Forum that we can resolve differences via phone-- once I get one again! (Waiting for the promised Bush $300 payoff.)
I've reached a point also, however, as I say, that I don't care if I AM banned from the forum-- so you won't see me there for awhile, which should make at least some people happy.
I have enough other on-line hangouts. . . .