Sara Nelson of Publishers Weekly made an apologia on her blog for David Foster Wallace, admitting his work is "difficult" for readers but that it's the job of publishers to search for and present such work-- presumably because of its high quality. This shows that the monopoly publishing industry is fundamentally flawed, flawed at its very foundations: its understanding of what is or isn't art.
Nelson mistakes information for art. Foster Wallace filled his books with huge chunks of information and words, to the extent they're impressive feats. But what has this to do with art?
Anyone can cobble together a mass of sentences, chapter by chapter, until there are enough to fill a thick volume. "Difficult," yes. Inscrutable, for the most part, fit for academic monks in dusty libraries to pore over in mad quests for purpose and sense. Fine, it's been done. But this isn't literature, or rather, it's a very obscure branch of literature, extending into rarefied air. It's not how literature is going to grab and hold a new audience, which can be done only with clarity, passion, movement, excitement-- the pounding pulses of readers frantically turning pages of books in enthrallment to plot, characters, color, and enlightenment spoken by a captivating voice, presenting work and a world open to all.
That the purveyors of books today at the highest levels don't understand this is both tragedy AND farce.
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Sara Nelson of Publishers Weekly, a well-educated literary person, admits she couldn't finish David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest. Yet at the same time she believes this is the kind of product which should be presented to the American public.
Think if Nelson were an executive at an auto company. She presents a complex, high-tech marvel which doesn't run. The first 43 pages of the owner's manual are devoted to how to put the key into the ignition, footnotes included. The vehicle is not user-friendly, but to Sara Nelson of the Dinosaur Motor Company that's not the point.
Few people will want the car and those few who do will be a select group. Like Nelson, they'll buy the car not to drive it, but to park it on display, permanently, in their driveways. The point is the car's overcomplexity, unwieldiness, and artificial status.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
De-Centralize!
Thanks to the incompetence of Nancy Pelosi and George W. Bush, the Big Bailout bill crashed and the American public staved off the loss of more liberty for a few more days.
The real problem is that the country's financial system is too centralized on the island of Manhattan, which makes nuclear financial meltdown possible.
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A similar situation afflicts literature, along with a similar intertwining of institutions public and private; the Buddy System of conglomerates, elite schools, and foundational grants, all Insider run; a literary merry-go-round.
The real problem is that the country's financial system is too centralized on the island of Manhattan, which makes nuclear financial meltdown possible.
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A similar situation afflicts literature, along with a similar intertwining of institutions public and private; the Buddy System of conglomerates, elite schools, and foundational grants, all Insider run; a literary merry-go-round.
Monday, September 29, 2008
The Machine
The Machine of literature destroyed David Foster Wallace, as it has destroyed many writers. (See Ray Carver.) DFW was "all-in" to its standards and aesthetic ideology; its postmodern insanity. His suicide was a suicide of the mind. We need to question why this occurred.
Saturday, September 27, 2008
The Death of Postmodernism Part III
David Foster Wallace was the star of stars of the literary intelligentsia. Dave Eggers, George Saunders, and many others borrowed DFW's hyper-talkative style, if not the full madness of his hyper-intelligence. Where does their cause go now?
Philosophically, postmodern literature is a dead end; self-referential to the point of becoming an endless vortex collapsing into itself: untethered madness. Its writers convey not knowledge, clarity, or wisdom, but linguistic posing-- the most educated writers in history whose glibness hides a collection of know-nothings. They show the markers of schooling, the footnotes and academic jargon, prisms of theories and assumptions cribbed from textbook after textbook, which serves for them not as avenues into the truth of the world, but barriers layered upon it, which is just as well because the fundamental premise of their philosophy is that truth is an outmoded concept.
It's a philosophy without core meaning, with nowhere to go. Literature isn't a way for them to become better persons, or to touch the soul-- another concept they disbelieve-- but serves instead merely as an affirmation of self. Members of a privileged class, they've already arrived at the end of their journey. Their nonsensical scribblings are celebrations of this fact. Even when they're critical of something the emphasis is on the scribbling: Look at me! SEE George Saunders care about the environment with attention-getting prose. SEE Dave Eggers befriend starving Africans. What they create isn't truth, but illusion; linguistically gaudy movie posters. Not gaudy enough to reach the populace of course, which has never been their goal, but to impress their elevated beings along with a coterie of similarly miseducated affluenti similarly in love with their stations and themselves.
It's not enough. It's not enough for literature and it's not enough ultimately even for them.
Philosophically, postmodern literature is a dead end; self-referential to the point of becoming an endless vortex collapsing into itself: untethered madness. Its writers convey not knowledge, clarity, or wisdom, but linguistic posing-- the most educated writers in history whose glibness hides a collection of know-nothings. They show the markers of schooling, the footnotes and academic jargon, prisms of theories and assumptions cribbed from textbook after textbook, which serves for them not as avenues into the truth of the world, but barriers layered upon it, which is just as well because the fundamental premise of their philosophy is that truth is an outmoded concept.
It's a philosophy without core meaning, with nowhere to go. Literature isn't a way for them to become better persons, or to touch the soul-- another concept they disbelieve-- but serves instead merely as an affirmation of self. Members of a privileged class, they've already arrived at the end of their journey. Their nonsensical scribblings are celebrations of this fact. Even when they're critical of something the emphasis is on the scribbling: Look at me! SEE George Saunders care about the environment with attention-getting prose. SEE Dave Eggers befriend starving Africans. What they create isn't truth, but illusion; linguistically gaudy movie posters. Not gaudy enough to reach the populace of course, which has never been their goal, but to impress their elevated beings along with a coterie of similarly miseducated affluenti similarly in love with their stations and themselves.
It's not enough. It's not enough for literature and it's not enough ultimately even for them.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
The Death of Postmodernism Part II
I'm more interested in defining the 21st century than in becoming boxed into any of the literary categories of the 20th.
The underground has drawn from many streams, from the oldest sources, but represents in itself a new source of refreshment and sustenance, set apart from the stagnant cesspools of literature now.
Our goal has been not to become the academy but to overturn the academy, along with the moldy premises which define the academy-- to see literature as a living thing which exists in society outside the academy. Maybe, the underground means no more academies.
The literary underground represents roots writing: literature at its beginning. A new beginning. It's grounded writing and has to be based on grounded thinking.
My emphasis on truth and honesty-- my insistence that demi-puppets not be demi-puppets-- has not been for tactical reasons. It's an essential part of the movement we're trying to create. Truth, the search for truth, has to be our fundamental principle. Not tactically, but philosophically. It's fundamental to our battle for groundedness, for sanity, which I fight for and which all of us should fight for, as our culture is swiftly slipping away from it into the solipsistic madness of the mind.
It's what distinguishes us from postmodernists, who beginning with Heidegger, Derrida, and DeMan have embraced belief in the Lie, the philosophy of the Lie, which has continued through to the postmodernists of our own day, who'll be discussed in Part 3 of this essay.
The underground has drawn from many streams, from the oldest sources, but represents in itself a new source of refreshment and sustenance, set apart from the stagnant cesspools of literature now.
Our goal has been not to become the academy but to overturn the academy, along with the moldy premises which define the academy-- to see literature as a living thing which exists in society outside the academy. Maybe, the underground means no more academies.
The literary underground represents roots writing: literature at its beginning. A new beginning. It's grounded writing and has to be based on grounded thinking.
My emphasis on truth and honesty-- my insistence that demi-puppets not be demi-puppets-- has not been for tactical reasons. It's an essential part of the movement we're trying to create. Truth, the search for truth, has to be our fundamental principle. Not tactically, but philosophically. It's fundamental to our battle for groundedness, for sanity, which I fight for and which all of us should fight for, as our culture is swiftly slipping away from it into the solipsistic madness of the mind.
It's what distinguishes us from postmodernists, who beginning with Heidegger, Derrida, and DeMan have embraced belief in the Lie, the philosophy of the Lie, which has continued through to the postmodernists of our own day, who'll be discussed in Part 3 of this essay.
Liberal Psychodrama
A SPECULATIVE HYPOTHESIS
It's interesting to watch Sarah Palin being viciously and gleefully mocked by Sarah Bernhardt, Julie Brown, Saturday Night Live, David Letterman, Garry Trudeau, and so many others in a kind of piling on. She's attacked for her look, background, accent, and culture-- in a way that would never be done to a minority candidate. It's a visceral, undisguised hatred of the white lower-middle class. By contrast Obama is treated by white liberals as one of them.
What's happening?
The white liberal culturati based on their islands of privilege don't see themselves as white Americans-- they're "Citizens of the World"-- ironically enough, as THEY were the beneficiaries of America's racism, and not the gun-toting hard-scrabble citiziens of places like western Pennsylvania, many whose families worked in coal mines, or of Alaska, for that matter. It's because of this very guilt that liberal minds disconnect themselves from their own heritage.
Sarah Palin is everything they hate, in part because she clings to the ideals of America past-- and it must be said that much of affluent liberal hate is self-hate.
It's interesting to watch Sarah Palin being viciously and gleefully mocked by Sarah Bernhardt, Julie Brown, Saturday Night Live, David Letterman, Garry Trudeau, and so many others in a kind of piling on. She's attacked for her look, background, accent, and culture-- in a way that would never be done to a minority candidate. It's a visceral, undisguised hatred of the white lower-middle class. By contrast Obama is treated by white liberals as one of them.
What's happening?
The white liberal culturati based on their islands of privilege don't see themselves as white Americans-- they're "Citizens of the World"-- ironically enough, as THEY were the beneficiaries of America's racism, and not the gun-toting hard-scrabble citiziens of places like western Pennsylvania, many whose families worked in coal mines, or of Alaska, for that matter. It's because of this very guilt that liberal minds disconnect themselves from their own heritage.
Sarah Palin is everything they hate, in part because she clings to the ideals of America past-- and it must be said that much of affluent liberal hate is self-hate.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Artificial World
DAVID FOSTER WALLACE AND THE DEATH OF POSTMODERNISM
One of the most important books of the last 100 years is Jerry Mander's Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television, which looks at the effect of technology on human beings as a species. Part of Mander's argument is that technology is driving us crazy.
Noteworthy to me is that early in his career David Foster Wallace had a hyper-relationship with television. He wrote long essays about the shows he'd watched in his childhood. (I covered this back in 1994 in a parody in New Philistine #17.)
Most of DFW's writings have been examples of the overstimulated brain. Wallace had an extremely high I.Q., but it was intelligence largely untethered from reality. This was evident to me even in his recent book of "Lobster" essays, full of embarrassingly ignorant, albeit facilely-written, screeds about questions of society or race. He carried the standard liberal qualities of narcissism, arrogance, and wish-to-believe while knowing little about how the world actually operates.
For those who celebrated DFW, intellect was all. In his books he took readers on ever-more convoluted journeys into ever-more solipsistic workings of the brain, through ever-more layered levels of sentences of words piled upon words, linguistic fireworks deconstructing in ever-more complicated ways the meanings and dis-meanings of language itself. The books were pathways into madness and insanity. The real world was glimpsed through distorted funhouse mirrors of the massive amount of information which had been pumped, since birth, from reading, television, and computers, into David Foster Wallace's hyper-developed brain. Like the characters in the sci-fi movie "Forbidden Planet" he'd taken a hit from the brain-boost machine, and it destroyed him.
The danger for America is that our best-educated people are also the most psychotically detached from the natural world. They're the most immersed in the wonders of virtual learning, of artificial reality. It distorts their ability to judge what is actually happening, and fills them with myths about a planet they no longer fully experience..
That, for instance, the oceans will soon cover the earth is to them accepted belief. Eve Ensler writes emotional essays about polar bears without ever having seen one, except for CGI versions in Coca-Cola commercials on television screens, and puts her knowledge of the subject above that of an Alaskan governor who has lived in a wilderness land her entire life. Can you see what's unreal about this? Yet Ensler is affirmed right, because she's of the intellectual "in" crowd and because she carries the received myths of the hyper-intellectual postmodern age on her side; is more sympathetic to the plight of polar bears than Governor Palin, has more feeling for them, because she doesn't know them, even though the feeling is more for HERSELF and her detachment from nature including from polar bears than for polar bears themselves.
The suicide of David Foster Wallace, or of Liam Rector-- the transparent insanity of so, so many of today's literary people-- represents the failure of today's literary ideology. It's a subject I'll explore in Parts Two and Three of this piece.
One of the most important books of the last 100 years is Jerry Mander's Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television, which looks at the effect of technology on human beings as a species. Part of Mander's argument is that technology is driving us crazy.
Noteworthy to me is that early in his career David Foster Wallace had a hyper-relationship with television. He wrote long essays about the shows he'd watched in his childhood. (I covered this back in 1994 in a parody in New Philistine #17.)
Most of DFW's writings have been examples of the overstimulated brain. Wallace had an extremely high I.Q., but it was intelligence largely untethered from reality. This was evident to me even in his recent book of "Lobster" essays, full of embarrassingly ignorant, albeit facilely-written, screeds about questions of society or race. He carried the standard liberal qualities of narcissism, arrogance, and wish-to-believe while knowing little about how the world actually operates.
For those who celebrated DFW, intellect was all. In his books he took readers on ever-more convoluted journeys into ever-more solipsistic workings of the brain, through ever-more layered levels of sentences of words piled upon words, linguistic fireworks deconstructing in ever-more complicated ways the meanings and dis-meanings of language itself. The books were pathways into madness and insanity. The real world was glimpsed through distorted funhouse mirrors of the massive amount of information which had been pumped, since birth, from reading, television, and computers, into David Foster Wallace's hyper-developed brain. Like the characters in the sci-fi movie "Forbidden Planet" he'd taken a hit from the brain-boost machine, and it destroyed him.
The danger for America is that our best-educated people are also the most psychotically detached from the natural world. They're the most immersed in the wonders of virtual learning, of artificial reality. It distorts their ability to judge what is actually happening, and fills them with myths about a planet they no longer fully experience..
That, for instance, the oceans will soon cover the earth is to them accepted belief. Eve Ensler writes emotional essays about polar bears without ever having seen one, except for CGI versions in Coca-Cola commercials on television screens, and puts her knowledge of the subject above that of an Alaskan governor who has lived in a wilderness land her entire life. Can you see what's unreal about this? Yet Ensler is affirmed right, because she's of the intellectual "in" crowd and because she carries the received myths of the hyper-intellectual postmodern age on her side; is more sympathetic to the plight of polar bears than Governor Palin, has more feeling for them, because she doesn't know them, even though the feeling is more for HERSELF and her detachment from nature including from polar bears than for polar bears themselves.
The suicide of David Foster Wallace, or of Liam Rector-- the transparent insanity of so, so many of today's literary people-- represents the failure of today's literary ideology. It's a subject I'll explore in Parts Two and Three of this piece.
Friday, September 19, 2008
Election Hysteria
I've never seen such waves of mad hysteria over a Presidential campaign that, whichever way it ends, isn't likely to change much of anything, given that Presidents are front men for a status quo system, and that both major political parties are owned by giant corporations. (Both parties are implicated in the current financial mess.)
Never have I seen so many media persons losing their heads at once.
If Obama somehow loses an election he should win, it will be because of public backlash to the mainstream media. The media response to Sarah Palin has revealed the media's innate snobbishness, and is turning off large segments of the American populace. There may be many reasons to question Palin, but that she graduated from a little-known college, is from a faraway state, talks with a twangy accent, and-- unlike a Hillary Clinton-- is a self-made woman, aren't among them.
I recall the literary establishment's reaction to the DIY outsiders of the Underground Literary Alliance, the sense of entitlement that privileged Ivy Leaguers have, and can't help noticing now the same classist, hyper-emotional hatred and scorn.
Never have I seen so many media persons losing their heads at once.
If Obama somehow loses an election he should win, it will be because of public backlash to the mainstream media. The media response to Sarah Palin has revealed the media's innate snobbishness, and is turning off large segments of the American populace. There may be many reasons to question Palin, but that she graduated from a little-known college, is from a faraway state, talks with a twangy accent, and-- unlike a Hillary Clinton-- is a self-made woman, aren't among them.
I recall the literary establishment's reaction to the DIY outsiders of the Underground Literary Alliance, the sense of entitlement that privileged Ivy Leaguers have, and can't help noticing now the same classist, hyper-emotional hatred and scorn.
David Foster Wallace
In my opinion, DFW pushed the envelope of overintellectualized postmodernism, and paid the resulting price.
Too much writing burns out fuses in the brain, which has happened to me of late. Trying to read DFW's style of work gives me a headache. I couldn't imagine writing it.
Too much writing burns out fuses in the brain, which has happened to me of late. Trying to read DFW's style of work gives me a headache. I couldn't imagine writing it.
Saturday, September 06, 2008
The Dally
Jeff Potter of the ULA is supposed to have a table at the Dally in the Alley street festival in Detroit. I'm on my way there now. Look for me at the ULA table.
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NOTE: I'm moving to my other blog, www.literarymystery.blogspot.com. Any posts on this one will be responded to there, likely Monday. That's my new hangout. (Comments about the theme, thesis, and plot of the narrative there are welcome.) Thanks. Bye.
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NOTE: I'm moving to my other blog, www.literarymystery.blogspot.com. Any posts on this one will be responded to there, likely Monday. That's my new hangout. (Comments about the theme, thesis, and plot of the narrative there are welcome.) Thanks. Bye.
Wednesday, September 03, 2008
Post Mortem II
THE BOTTOM LINE about the literary rebellion is the way it revealed the intolerance of the high priests of the literary mainstream.
When we exposed blatant cronyism, corruption, and plagiarism there was no attempt by the individuals involved to admit mistakes, return ill-gotten monies, and reform the mechanisms of the system. Instead, TO THIS DAY, there's been denial and stonewalling. There was, by the bulk of the lit community, including from many lit-bloggers, embrace of the corruption, and attacks upon the whistle blowers; accompanied by rationalizations and lies; accomplished in the most underhanded and cowardly way. Behind the reaction were some of the richest and most pampered members of the literary community.
This is the reality. This is the truth of the matter. This is the story which should be told and remembered; the literary history. It's the story of democracy against aristocracy. It's the story of the failure of an art to accept disagreement and dissent; of its unwillingness to reform itself. It's the story of the monopolization of culture, the insularity, snobbery, and closed-mindedness of establishment literature centered in the privileged salons of New York.
Have I made mistakes? Yes, tons of mistakes, as I wrestled with venomous ghosts around me on all sides.
The principle-- the necessity-- of the literary revolution remains.
When we exposed blatant cronyism, corruption, and plagiarism there was no attempt by the individuals involved to admit mistakes, return ill-gotten monies, and reform the mechanisms of the system. Instead, TO THIS DAY, there's been denial and stonewalling. There was, by the bulk of the lit community, including from many lit-bloggers, embrace of the corruption, and attacks upon the whistle blowers; accompanied by rationalizations and lies; accomplished in the most underhanded and cowardly way. Behind the reaction were some of the richest and most pampered members of the literary community.
This is the reality. This is the truth of the matter. This is the story which should be told and remembered; the literary history. It's the story of democracy against aristocracy. It's the story of the failure of an art to accept disagreement and dissent; of its unwillingness to reform itself. It's the story of the monopolization of culture, the insularity, snobbery, and closed-mindedness of establishment literature centered in the privileged salons of New York.
Have I made mistakes? Yes, tons of mistakes, as I wrestled with venomous ghosts around me on all sides.
The principle-- the necessity-- of the literary revolution remains.
Friday, August 29, 2008
Art as Criticism, Criticism as Art
Enjoy the serialized novel at www.literarymystery.blogspot.com while it lasts. Has there been anything like it? "Plutocracy USA" is a fictional story which impressionistically records literary history, and comments on that history-- and on the art form, and on itself. The tale investigates the literary psyche: group and individual alike, in a hectic search for truth and meaning.
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In the meantime, THIS blog contains a ton of new ideas, with arguments and justifications for those ideas. It's an imperfect but formidable book unto itself, as you'll discover if you jump into its archives.
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In the meantime, THIS blog contains a ton of new ideas, with arguments and justifications for those ideas. It's an imperfect but formidable book unto itself, as you'll discover if you jump into its archives.
Monday, August 11, 2008
Post Mortem I
Several frustrations about my work with the ULA:
TALKING POINTS
The ease with which the opposition implanted its talking points into ULAers. Which led, ultimately, to my being blamed for every ULA failure, while our successes apparently dropped from the sky.
ANALOGY
Draw an analogy to a Delorean-style car company taking on the then-giants in the 1970's. Imagine the company attacked, with focus of criticism on the head guy. (DeLorean of course was set-up personally.) ANYTIME you compete with a monopoly you're going to create enemies. The front guy is always going to be attacked, and-- as with DeLorean-- destroyed. Toward myself, too many ULAers took the "blame the victim" stance. The fault for opposition to us was mine. Why? For competing TOO WELL; for being too vociferous, and therefore "alienating" competitors and their flunkies who'd never give us the time of day anyway.
Because some ULAers wanted to buy the myth of the level playing field, it was easy for them to be panicked and stampeded by any anti-Wenclas statement made by low-level literati. The thinking: it's him who's the problem, not us, so let's throw him to the wolves and everything will be okay. Which is what happened. ULA solidarity, so necessary, was broken time after time.
HATE MAIL
I see no difference between anonymous hate mail sent in letters to someone (which I've received) and anonymous comments posted on a blog. The motivation is the same-- to harass and embarrass the person without attribution, responsibility, or repercussions. The goal isn't to debate-- but on the contrary to close off discomforting debate.
THE SCRIPT
It's amazing how consistently my opponents across the board held to the same script. To the end they didn't vary from it. This includes the entire parade of false characters from "Bryan Guski" to "Jimmy Grace" to "Quilty 10" to "Harland/May" to those behind the many anti-ULA blogs that popped up regularly.
CONSPIRACY OF SILENCE
The inability of so many concerned parties to answer ANY questions about these matters-- to instead stonewall or run away-- raised more questions.
SILENCE II
There were four main internal disputes in the ULA: in 2001, 2005, early 2007, and late 2007. The final one succeeded in detaching me. What was gained?
I was in the dark about each of them; was caught by surprise-- blindsided-- and have yet to receive about them a credible explanation. Given that, is it any wonder I've had it with all writers?
A major impetus behind the ULA campaign was a search for truth; for honesty and transparency; which proved to be elusive even within the ULA organization.
(p.s. My serial novel is ongoing at www.literarymystery.blogspot.com. About a dozen sharp chapters to come.)
TALKING POINTS
The ease with which the opposition implanted its talking points into ULAers. Which led, ultimately, to my being blamed for every ULA failure, while our successes apparently dropped from the sky.
ANALOGY
Draw an analogy to a Delorean-style car company taking on the then-giants in the 1970's. Imagine the company attacked, with focus of criticism on the head guy. (DeLorean of course was set-up personally.) ANYTIME you compete with a monopoly you're going to create enemies. The front guy is always going to be attacked, and-- as with DeLorean-- destroyed. Toward myself, too many ULAers took the "blame the victim" stance. The fault for opposition to us was mine. Why? For competing TOO WELL; for being too vociferous, and therefore "alienating" competitors and their flunkies who'd never give us the time of day anyway.
Because some ULAers wanted to buy the myth of the level playing field, it was easy for them to be panicked and stampeded by any anti-Wenclas statement made by low-level literati. The thinking: it's him who's the problem, not us, so let's throw him to the wolves and everything will be okay. Which is what happened. ULA solidarity, so necessary, was broken time after time.
HATE MAIL
I see no difference between anonymous hate mail sent in letters to someone (which I've received) and anonymous comments posted on a blog. The motivation is the same-- to harass and embarrass the person without attribution, responsibility, or repercussions. The goal isn't to debate-- but on the contrary to close off discomforting debate.
THE SCRIPT
It's amazing how consistently my opponents across the board held to the same script. To the end they didn't vary from it. This includes the entire parade of false characters from "Bryan Guski" to "Jimmy Grace" to "Quilty 10" to "Harland/May" to those behind the many anti-ULA blogs that popped up regularly.
CONSPIRACY OF SILENCE
The inability of so many concerned parties to answer ANY questions about these matters-- to instead stonewall or run away-- raised more questions.
SILENCE II
There were four main internal disputes in the ULA: in 2001, 2005, early 2007, and late 2007. The final one succeeded in detaching me. What was gained?
I was in the dark about each of them; was caught by surprise-- blindsided-- and have yet to receive about them a credible explanation. Given that, is it any wonder I've had it with all writers?
A major impetus behind the ULA campaign was a search for truth; for honesty and transparency; which proved to be elusive even within the ULA organization.
(p.s. My serial novel is ongoing at www.literarymystery.blogspot.com. About a dozen sharp chapters to come.)
Monday, August 04, 2008
Death of a Giant
Alexander Solzhenitsyn was a true literary giant-- and a true dissident who stood up to bureaucratic oppression in his country. He wasn't beyond criticizing liberal phoniness in the United States. Needless to say, a man of absolute integrity.
As a novelist, Solzhenitsyn proved that the stuff of literature, presented in a basic style, is timeless.
More than this, Solzhenitsyn realized that what we present in the West isn't good enough, because our junk culture, including most of our literature, is detached from eternal truths and divorced from the human soul. Yes, literature, as art, is a LIVING thing. What counts are not the rules, the dots and jots on the page, but the truth and emotion conveyed. ("King Lear," which I've been reading and re-reading of late, is the perfect example of this.)
The writer, like Solzhenitsyn, must believe first in a foundation of honesty and truth. This was crucially important for him in a society, the Soviet Union, built upon lies, and it's almost as true for us in America today which is engulfed in the culture of the Lie-- which is the essence of postmodernism as we know it. It's why I've argued for tearing down the house of literature and constructing another on a wholly new foundation. It's a worthy cause.
From the moment I read "Denisovich" then the Gulag saga, I was influenced and inspired, to a high degree, by the work and life of Solzhenitsyn. Not a bad model to have!
As a novelist, Solzhenitsyn proved that the stuff of literature, presented in a basic style, is timeless.
More than this, Solzhenitsyn realized that what we present in the West isn't good enough, because our junk culture, including most of our literature, is detached from eternal truths and divorced from the human soul. Yes, literature, as art, is a LIVING thing. What counts are not the rules, the dots and jots on the page, but the truth and emotion conveyed. ("King Lear," which I've been reading and re-reading of late, is the perfect example of this.)
The writer, like Solzhenitsyn, must believe first in a foundation of honesty and truth. This was crucially important for him in a society, the Soviet Union, built upon lies, and it's almost as true for us in America today which is engulfed in the culture of the Lie-- which is the essence of postmodernism as we know it. It's why I've argued for tearing down the house of literature and constructing another on a wholly new foundation. It's a worthy cause.
From the moment I read "Denisovich" then the Gulag saga, I was influenced and inspired, to a high degree, by the work and life of Solzhenitsyn. Not a bad model to have!
Monday, July 28, 2008
Getting Out
OBLIGATIONS
I have two book reviews yet to post at my review blog-- www.blitzreview.blogspot.com-- Will do so asap.
BACKLOG
I have over a dozen ready posts for this and my other blogs (not counting LitMystery), and notes for a score more. How many, if any, I'll post; whether or not I'll save them for a possible future print-zeen, or File 13 them-- I don't know.
THE CAMPAIGN
Some people forget that I was recruited, chiefly by Doug B. and Steve K., to get back into lit at a time in '98-'99 when I was doing no writing at all. I determined then to return only to lead a campaign that was balls-to-the wall. I left a good-paying job and moved to Philly to get things going. I pursued the campaign as far as it would go, pulling undergrounders along as far as I could. Now I intend to pick up my life where I left off. I have a few loose ends to tie up first.
GOALS
The biggest misconception about myself was that I was an embittered writer out solely for himself, to get "published" in any way possible. That's the one thing I never pushed for, even within the ULA itself. My plans were always larger. To be published by the congloms for a token advance and a blowjob I can do without. I entered the campaign not as a writer, but as a salesman; a promoter. My motivations: to change literature from the standpoint of a reader, sure. I also saw tremendous business opportunity if the campaign to create a REAL, distinct alternative to moribund established lit was successful. The opportunity is still there.
STRATEGY
For the literary underground, a Big Media campaign was the only way out, and remains the only way out. Content niche-dwellers (OW etc.) aren't ready for prime time. They're intimidated by the larger world, and so are unwilling to leave their safety zones. That's not a criticism. It's a statement of fact.
VALUE
As is this statement: With my varied skills, including at ideas, showmanship, and p.r., from the start I was the most valuable piece of the puzzle. Others couldn't deal with this. What I badly, badly, badly needed to complement my skills was a genuine and willing "Zeen Elvis" personality or two to be at the forefront of the group.
P.R.
That my photo went out with our first big story was unfortunate-- but no one else was available for the photog, or, except for Mike J., to meet the journalist for the story. It's more clear now that no one else in the immediate group was ready for the attention and noise. (I received squawking about nearly every story we got. My actions, no matter how beneficial to the campaign, were never good enough. So be it.)
PERSONA
"Crazy King Wenclas"? I played my role well.
BETRAYALS
Discussion of saboteurs belongs in my fictional serial at
www.literarymystery.blogspot.com
I'll say here: I don't know what they gained. Maybe someday they'll tell me.
QUESTION
Are undergrounders, and the lit world, better off without my presence? I guess we'll find out!
(I'll do at least another post or two this summer before I sign off.)
I have two book reviews yet to post at my review blog-- www.blitzreview.blogspot.com-- Will do so asap.
BACKLOG
I have over a dozen ready posts for this and my other blogs (not counting LitMystery), and notes for a score more. How many, if any, I'll post; whether or not I'll save them for a possible future print-zeen, or File 13 them-- I don't know.
THE CAMPAIGN
Some people forget that I was recruited, chiefly by Doug B. and Steve K., to get back into lit at a time in '98-'99 when I was doing no writing at all. I determined then to return only to lead a campaign that was balls-to-the wall. I left a good-paying job and moved to Philly to get things going. I pursued the campaign as far as it would go, pulling undergrounders along as far as I could. Now I intend to pick up my life where I left off. I have a few loose ends to tie up first.
GOALS
The biggest misconception about myself was that I was an embittered writer out solely for himself, to get "published" in any way possible. That's the one thing I never pushed for, even within the ULA itself. My plans were always larger. To be published by the congloms for a token advance and a blowjob I can do without. I entered the campaign not as a writer, but as a salesman; a promoter. My motivations: to change literature from the standpoint of a reader, sure. I also saw tremendous business opportunity if the campaign to create a REAL, distinct alternative to moribund established lit was successful. The opportunity is still there.
STRATEGY
For the literary underground, a Big Media campaign was the only way out, and remains the only way out. Content niche-dwellers (OW etc.) aren't ready for prime time. They're intimidated by the larger world, and so are unwilling to leave their safety zones. That's not a criticism. It's a statement of fact.
VALUE
As is this statement: With my varied skills, including at ideas, showmanship, and p.r., from the start I was the most valuable piece of the puzzle. Others couldn't deal with this. What I badly, badly, badly needed to complement my skills was a genuine and willing "Zeen Elvis" personality or two to be at the forefront of the group.
P.R.
That my photo went out with our first big story was unfortunate-- but no one else was available for the photog, or, except for Mike J., to meet the journalist for the story. It's more clear now that no one else in the immediate group was ready for the attention and noise. (I received squawking about nearly every story we got. My actions, no matter how beneficial to the campaign, were never good enough. So be it.)
PERSONA
"Crazy King Wenclas"? I played my role well.
BETRAYALS
Discussion of saboteurs belongs in my fictional serial at
www.literarymystery.blogspot.com
I'll say here: I don't know what they gained. Maybe someday they'll tell me.
QUESTION
Are undergrounders, and the lit world, better off without my presence? I guess we'll find out!
(I'll do at least another post or two this summer before I sign off.)
Monday, July 14, 2008
No Peace
It's obvious that peace isn't possible for me with this blog's enemies. I'm supposed to keep this blog going just so long-time foe "Harland" can continue to take shots at me. At the same time I'm not to attack the person's identity directly, now that it's been admitted to me. I don't wish to anyway. The person is in a panic that I might leave and in a panic that I might stay; detests this blog but doesn't want it to go away. For me it's a no-win situation.
MONOMANIA
Monomania has come from "The Assassin," as fixated on destructive revenge as Uma Thurman in "Kill Bill" or Greg Peck in "The Bravados." As Stephen Boyd eventually tells Peck, "I'm tired of you dogging my trail!"
MYSTERY
The serial "Plutocracy USA has turned into a series of chases, quests, searches. We're getting into the heart of the tale. Chapters to come include "Soul of an Assassin," "I, Moby Dick," and "The Court of the Demi-Puppets." A new chapter or two will be up this week.
www.literarymystery.blogspot.com
MONOMANIA
Monomania has come from "The Assassin," as fixated on destructive revenge as Uma Thurman in "Kill Bill" or Greg Peck in "The Bravados." As Stephen Boyd eventually tells Peck, "I'm tired of you dogging my trail!"
MYSTERY
The serial "Plutocracy USA has turned into a series of chases, quests, searches. We're getting into the heart of the tale. Chapters to come include "Soul of an Assassin," "I, Moby Dick," and "The Court of the Demi-Puppets." A new chapter or two will be up this week.
www.literarymystery.blogspot.com
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Aftermath
WAGING PEACE?
Harland's plans for war with this blog were about as farsighted as the U.S. military's in 2003 for Iraq. After initial success-- then what? "Harland" is clueless.
What do I do now? Am I banished to a used car lot?
Fact is that without my writing and shit-disturbing I'm a very ordinary guy. I have a strong personality, but need ways to access it.
OCCUPATION?
I've yet to receive from "Harland" (May Barber) any coherent occupation policy about these blogs, which need direction fast as they're losing their audience. Shades of Don Rumsfeld! (Show "Rummy" the door, May.)
Why would I be okay with this? "Harland" has cut down myself and my writing. I offer the person the opportunity to do better. I'm calling the person's bluff. Besides, as Colin Powell told Bush Jr. about Iraq, "If you break it, you own it."
The King Wenclas insurgents are isolated on Literary Mystery (www.literarymystery.blogspot.com), their last stronghold.
OTHER INSURGENTS
DIY moderates like Brady are silent. The ULA's sole conservative, George, who has always been critical of the literary establishment (and of everyone else) has been purged for outspokenness. Rather than broadening, the movement has narrowed, for good or ill.
"LIBERATION"
In stages, the ULA has been liberated from my presence. The alleged dictator is gone; statues of evil King Wenclas toppling throughout the realm. Strangely, new ULA kingpin Jeff Potter has still asked me to get publicity, as if it's a matter of snapping my fingers and saying, "Abracadabra." (The last publicity I received, the Philly radio show, was both scorned and misused.) He's asked for new ideas. I can hardly offer new ideas when the ideas I've offered aren't followed.
CENTRAL AUTHORITY
With my toppling there is no central authority in the Rebellion. I kept things together for many years not through any institutional role, but the force of my personality.
With no central authority, and none proposed, we see the ULA breaking into fiefdoms in which one individual, with one area of the Rebellion (say, books) will hold absolute power. This goes against the cooperative spirit of the ULA's original vision. One can't ask for volunteered work without respecting the volunter's input. Maybe this set-up will work. Time will tell.
WHERE NOW?
Whither the cause? Where are the strategies? To ask me to continue to serve the Rebellion with a dozen knives in my back is unsound. Defeated? Certainly. Defeated twenty times over; smashed, stomped, pulverized from every direction in every way possible. I'm in the position everyone wants: sidelined. Hannibal of Carthage after Zama. Vercingtorix laying down his sword. Crazy Horse captured. A handcuffed and unlistened-to opponent of literary Empire.
Harland's plans for war with this blog were about as farsighted as the U.S. military's in 2003 for Iraq. After initial success-- then what? "Harland" is clueless.
What do I do now? Am I banished to a used car lot?
Fact is that without my writing and shit-disturbing I'm a very ordinary guy. I have a strong personality, but need ways to access it.
OCCUPATION?
I've yet to receive from "Harland" (May Barber) any coherent occupation policy about these blogs, which need direction fast as they're losing their audience. Shades of Don Rumsfeld! (Show "Rummy" the door, May.)
Why would I be okay with this? "Harland" has cut down myself and my writing. I offer the person the opportunity to do better. I'm calling the person's bluff. Besides, as Colin Powell told Bush Jr. about Iraq, "If you break it, you own it."
The King Wenclas insurgents are isolated on Literary Mystery (www.literarymystery.blogspot.com), their last stronghold.
OTHER INSURGENTS
DIY moderates like Brady are silent. The ULA's sole conservative, George, who has always been critical of the literary establishment (and of everyone else) has been purged for outspokenness. Rather than broadening, the movement has narrowed, for good or ill.
"LIBERATION"
In stages, the ULA has been liberated from my presence. The alleged dictator is gone; statues of evil King Wenclas toppling throughout the realm. Strangely, new ULA kingpin Jeff Potter has still asked me to get publicity, as if it's a matter of snapping my fingers and saying, "Abracadabra." (The last publicity I received, the Philly radio show, was both scorned and misused.) He's asked for new ideas. I can hardly offer new ideas when the ideas I've offered aren't followed.
CENTRAL AUTHORITY
With my toppling there is no central authority in the Rebellion. I kept things together for many years not through any institutional role, but the force of my personality.
With no central authority, and none proposed, we see the ULA breaking into fiefdoms in which one individual, with one area of the Rebellion (say, books) will hold absolute power. This goes against the cooperative spirit of the ULA's original vision. One can't ask for volunteered work without respecting the volunter's input. Maybe this set-up will work. Time will tell.
WHERE NOW?
Whither the cause? Where are the strategies? To ask me to continue to serve the Rebellion with a dozen knives in my back is unsound. Defeated? Certainly. Defeated twenty times over; smashed, stomped, pulverized from every direction in every way possible. I'm in the position everyone wants: sidelined. Hannibal of Carthage after Zama. Vercingtorix laying down his sword. Crazy Horse captured. A handcuffed and unlistened-to opponent of literary Empire.
Saturday, July 05, 2008
New Chapter
Chapter Nineteen of "Plutocracy USA" is now up at
www.literarymystery.blogspot.com
We are introduced to a new character, Roody McDoody, who as you may remember used to post comments on this blog. . . .
www.literarymystery.blogspot.com
We are introduced to a new character, Roody McDoody, who as you may remember used to post comments on this blog. . . .
Tuesday, July 01, 2008
FYI
Most of my public literary activities are suspended while I negotiate terms with the person who's defeated me. I trust the individual will be wise and generous. . . .
I suggest readers delve into this blog's archive, which has a ton of material.
I'll also be continuing the story at
http://www.literarymystery.blogspot.com/
Thanks.
I suggest readers delve into this blog's archive, which has a ton of material.
I'll also be continuing the story at
http://www.literarymystery.blogspot.com/
Thanks.
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