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Language of the Power Elite
I can’t believe this bit of brilliance from Keston Sutherland came to me via Harriet, which has been toadying to Con Writers and their Maven-in-Chief Marjorie Perloff for a long while now. I’m thankful to whatever whistleblower at Harriet found it and posted the link to it, though. Here’s a sample: [S]ignificantly for so-called “conceptual” poets, the refusal to give a conceptual account of the “subject” whose rejection defines the schema of their art is a manifest expression of contempt for the very work of conceptual definition itself.Read More
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Pretentious
Okay. Drop by this post on the Poetry Foundation’s blog Harriet, if you feel like a good laugh.Read More
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A World of Things
Bill Knott asks some important (to the extent that poetry is important) questions here and here. His focus is Objectivism (the Zukofsky/Williams/Reznikoff/Oppen Objectivism, not the hilariously stupid “philosophy” cooked up by that maven of selfishness, Ayn Rand), one of the root assumptions of which is the notion that content doesn’t matter. In fact, Objectivist poetry exalted a world of things, a world without meaning—except for the significance imposed upon it by the poet.Read More
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Wring Them Hands*
This bit of hand-wringing is amusing, coming as it does from the folks who last year brought us a celebration of Flarf and Conceptual Writing—two “movements” aiming to elevate plagiarism to an art form.Read More
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Heartless Imperialism
In the middle of a fascinating essay on Artificial Intelligence and what the author calls the “cerebral imperialism” that drives it, I came across this: Intelligence co-developed with other processes embedded in the body and designed for evolutionary advancement–love, for example, and empathy. A non-loving and non-empathetic humanlike empathy is a terrifying thing. In fact, we already have non-loving, non-empathetic autonomous creations that function by using humanlike intelligence. They’re powerful and growing, and they operate along perfectly logical lines in order to ensure their own survival and well-being. Here are two of them: British Petroleum and Goldman Sachs.Read More
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Skeptic Pens Prose Poem
Professional skeptic Michael Shermer’s 100th column in Scientific American is a terrific piece, partly because it contains—in addition to his usual dose of clear thinking and deft handling of Big Ideas—this passage that amounts to a prose poem. It must be true — I saw it on television, at the movies, on the Internet. The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits, That’s Incredible, The Sixth Sense, Poltergeist, Loose Change, Zeitgeist the Movie. Mysteries, magic, myths and monsters. The occult and the supernatural. Conspiracies and cabals. The face on Mars and aliens on Earth. Bigfoot and Loch Ness. ESP and PSI.Read More
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“Avaunt, malignant enchanters!”
Regarding my just previous post, you can find Kenneth Goldsmith’s introduction to the Flarf/Conceptual Writing section of the latest issue of Poetry here.Read More
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A Blogger’s Notebook 9
THE EXHIBITION After Kenneth Goldsmith* It was clear that the artist had gone mad when he began to mistake his tools for works of art. And yet, as is often the case, there were those willing to indulge his madness. Hangers-on who praised his insight into art’s dependence on mechanical processes. Gallery owners who displayed his palette knives, worn-out brushes, canvas stretchers, rags. Wealthy patrons who relished the adventure of investing in aesthetic futures.Read More
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Parsing the Pointless
I can’t resist pointing this blog’s readers to today’s entry on Silliman’s blog, wherein he lavish roughly 2,800 words on a book whose aim he characterizes thusly: “[I]t wants to place conceptual writing — including flarf & more than a few kinds of appropriative techniques — into a historical context that renders all that has come before obsolete & irrelevant.” In other words, the authors use history in order to render history meaningless. In true intellectualoid fashion, Silliman parses the pointlessness of this effort in a way that foregrounds not only his own poe(li)tical obsessions but his shirt size.Read More
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Revelation and Relevance in Poetry
Seth Abramson devotes two recent blog posts (here and here) to a single issue: “How to Make Poetry Relevant.” His point of departure is yet another post, this one by K. Silem Mohammed, which Abramson calls “flarfist” (not familiar with Flarf? Oh, benighted soul! See here and here [scroll down to “Feature: Flarf”], if you have the stomach for it). But Mohammed’s post seems pretty straightforward to me, and insightful to boot. For once it’s Abramson, usually so balanced and incisive, who intercepts Mohammed’s pass and takes off down field the wrong way.Read More
Joseph Hutchison, Colorado Poet Laureate 2014-2019, has published 20 collections of poems and edited or co-edited three poetry anthologies. He currently directs two master’s-level programs for University College at the University of Denver: Professional Creative Writing and Arts & Culture Management. Joe lives with his wife, Melody Madonna, in the mountains southwest of Denver, Colorado, the city where he was born. 
