Robert P. Baird at 3 Quarks Daily draws a fascinating parallel between the motivations and methods of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange and those of the Language poets. He compares Assange’s hatred of secrecy—which he (Assange) views as the essential strategy all authoritarian governments use to maintain their power—with the Language poets’ hatred of “the rules for the ‘clear’ and ‘orderly’ functioning of language” (Charles Bernstein), which they see as similarly essential to maintaining “the capitalist project.” Certainly the paranoia-tinged views of Assange do mirror Langpo’s paranoid fear of “official verse culture” (Bernstein), a.k.a. “the School of Quietude” (Ron Silliman).
But something here doesn’t quite compute. Assange, after all, hates secrets, which (he claims) distort meaning by concealing reality.* Langpo hates the distortion of meaning caused by (wait for it…)—clear and orderly language! This is why they delight in attempting to undermine the referential nature of language. The irony, of course, is that Langpo’s approach results in writing that consists of nothing but secrets: puzzle writing, all gamesmanship, with secret passwords and floating webs of Theory very much like the arcane justifications the Vatican puts forward for this or that social policy. By breaking the connection between words and referents, Langpo, in fact, promotes an aesthetic that serves authoritarian elites by telling the reader that reality either doesn’t exist or doesn’t matter. Like the aide to Dubya who told journalist Ron Suskind back in 2004 that “guys like [him] were ‘in what we call the reality-based community,’ which he defined as people who ‘believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.'” But, the aide observed, ”’That’s not the way the world really works anymore…. We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality — judiciously, as you will — we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.'” Replace “history” with “poetry” in that final sentence and you have a distinctly Langpoesque statement.
My view is that readers certainly don’t need more vacuous political speech in their lives, and they don’t need more vacuous poetry in their lives, either. Both forms of language foster the sense of aimless powerlessness that our political elites count on to keep us in our place. If you’re wondering what that place is like, take a spin through Linh Dinh’s State of the Union. His isn’t the only American reality, of course, but it’s one that neither politicians nor Langpo chooses to acknowledge.
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* As a typical U.S. citizen who is sick to death of being lied to, I have to agree with Assange. (Like Morgan Meis, I’ve become a Julian Assange man.)
Frost AND Edson!<br /><br />they could/should keep us<br />busy reading and doing for a good.long.while.<br /><br />ever see that Voices and Visions film re: Frost?<br /><br />the WCW is pretty good, too. and<br />so's the Pound one<br /> as are all of those bios…<br /><br />Henry Ferinni did a VERY neat film re: his Uncle…. and one on Olson<br /><br /> I'd "spring"
I tried pocket pool<br />but<br />scratched on the ate ball!<br /><br />no longer a need for a TV<br /><br />watch things on your Super-Duper Apple Puter<br /><br />subscribe to Netflix, Comcast, Hulu, Zulu and watch<br />LULU<br /> virtually<br /> strip on de-mand!<br /><br /><br />my question/concern is:<br /><br />who REALLY is Araki Yasusada's
I want to read that position paper, Ed.<br /><br />Makes me think…<br /><br />Frost said free verse is tennis with the net down.<br /><br />Edson said prose poetry is tennis with your pants down.<br /><br />Post-Avant must be pocket pool with the TV on.
I'm about<br />to re:comment that of what I deleted just priorly to Kent's reply to what I de:leted. Herereeeee ittttt isssss:<br /><br />"Ed Baker has left a new comment on the post "The Poe(li)tics of Reality": <br /><br />WOW!<br /><br />much ado about nothing!… eh?<br /><br />let's just call Credentialism by it s real name<br />and,<br /><br />Kent<br /><br />it
Kent,<br /><br />if you're referring to "Theory of the Avant-Garde" (a work considered indispensable reading, in my view), the point's well taken.<br /><br />I think of passage such as the following: "A contemporary aesthetic can no more neglect the incisive changes that the historical avant-garde movements effected in the realm of art than it can ignore that art has long
Hi Conrad, <br /><br />Thanks for the kudos on the phrasing. Though you know, I think this needs to be kept in mind: the problem to reckon with is how even those radical examples you mention have been long absorbed and domesticated as "Art" and "Literature." (Peter Burger's account of a-g failure remains the indispensable work, even if lots to argue with him on).<br /><br
"But safe to say there is nothing like an avant-garde in American poetry today, if by avant-garde we mean art that confronts and radically disrupts, guided by a stubborn drive of institutional critique. By and large, these are poetic times of accommodation, courtesy, and careerist caution. Seems that way to me, anyhow."<br /><br />Well said, Kent! You've drawn a devastating
yes I have! His Being and EVENT<br />and dig it:<br /><br />this from his MEDITATION THIRTEEN<br /><br />"blew my mind" (what s left of it):<br /><br />"The effective infinity of being cannot be recognized according to the unique metaphysical punctuality of substantial infinity of a supreme being. (…)."<br /><br />page 143<br /><br />this MUST be all about<br />"
Ed,<br /><br />What I mean by "complicated" is: <br /><br />Have you ever read Bourdieu?<br /><br />cheers!
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Joseph and Lyle,<br /><br />Silliman came up with the term, of course, and he uses it as a blanket concept that encompasses Language poetry and pretty much anything since then that gestures towards some degree of abstraction, so far as I can tell. Though as you say, the parameters are pretty vague, and RS also seems to use it to gather anyone who has some kind of *personal* association with
SO many pithy comments! Let me see.<br /><br />Kent—the Langpo poets moved on (I'd never made the connection with the Gulf War; hmmm…), but as you note their entry into academia was excused on the basis of that being "where the real struggle was happening." Do they view themselves as co-opted now? And what did that move into academia have to do with the so-called "post-avant&
well<br />to "lighten" the thrust<br />here<br />poetry as practiced by our Stellar Poets<br />whether In-side University/Akanemia<br />or the Grad-student, post student Poets<br /> "ALL-TO-A-MAN" practice<br /> Safe Poetry<br />wearing rubbers on their pens/minds and "tell" rather than "do"<br /> like a basic
Language poetry (or "Language" poetry) reminds me, more than anything else, of the disjointed fragments, the isolated words and phrases and almost-phrases, that fill corporate memos and endless computer screens every day of the year.<br /><br />(I work for a living in such an environment five days a week. I often have the sense, sitting in my cubicle in the middle of the day, that I'
Joe, hadn't seen that post. Just went there to read and posted this in response to that Langpo aspect of it at 3Quarks. Thought I'd also put it here:<br /><br />Regarding Baird's somewhat misleading Language-poetry analogy, it's worth pointing out that the utopian political-poetic formulations he cites were abandoned long ago by the group's leading figures, around the time, in
Here's an interesting article on poetry from Huffington Post I saw at Bob Grumman's site.<br /><br />http://www.huffingtonpost.com/anis-shivani/american-poetry-dead-end_b_794033.html
Thanks for the thoughts and the link, Conrad. And for your amazing recent posts, all pith and core and more or less mind-blowing….<br /><br />Ed! Don't know if Linh is related to anyone but Rimbaud. Does this not sound as if Arthur might have spat it in the face of The Best of All Possible Worlds had he lived in these times?:<br /><br /><b>Third Coming</b><br /><br />Rough beast out there.
yeah… I HATE IT! I tell you<br />I HATE IT when a poem is v=a=c=u=o=u=s<br /><br />I call that by it's real name: Vacpo<br />and thanks I jus ascovered Linh Dinh acause of you:<br /><br />http://jacketmagazine.com/16/ov-dinh.html<br /><br /><br />do you happen to noh if Linh is related to Ling?<br /><br /><br />an olden friend from my UTE (1954:<br /><br />Ling Ting Tong who ate
Joseph,<br /><br />interesting LangPo and WiliLeaks analogy. Media theorist Geert Lovink (whose writings are worth reading for their insightful forays into cyber reality/expression)has recently posted what he's called "Twelve Theses on WikiLeaks". I'd encourage you, after reading them, to make even more interesting substitutions here.<br /><br />( See http://networkcultures.org/