Friday, December 03, 2010
Stop the Phoniness!
The problem with establishment literary journals like n+1 is the pose they adopt of caring about the inequities of this society, when the pose runs counter to themselves and everything about their lives. These characters live among the most privileged levels of this country, certainly the most aristocratic level of the literary realm, from which they love to pontificate to and about those below-- which comes across frankly as unaware flatulence. Be true to yourselves, guys! You're aristocrats. Admit it.
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p.s. The n+1 guys aren't unusual. They're representative.
They, like so many other establishment writers, are artistic reactionaries. They see no alternative whatsoever the institutional mindset-- they posit different institutions, NYC and the MFA system. Both are gigantic, and so the loyalties involved aren't to art, but to the institution itself. Both are increasingly inhabited by the same kind of people, with the same mindset. CONFORMITY is what these systems, and their acolytes, like n+1, are about.
In their essay about MFA vs NYC, the n+1 boys claim that in style and viewpoint "We're all MFAs."
Really?
I'm not.
What I'm trying to do with "POP" is break the accepted aesthetic.
I have a way to go but I'll get there.
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