Obviously, there would be no literary rebellion if underground writers and ideas were acknowledged by mainstream literature. Speaking for myself, I've never wanted to exclude anyone. The idea is to have underground writers INCLUDED in the discussion.
I started out as a newsletter writer in 1992 writing book reviews, but also discussing literature from a new perspective, questioning why it couldn't be more relevant to things that were happening in the world around me. (Such as: the destruction of the working class.) Subsequent encounters with the corruption of the literary establishment radicalized my attitude toward the literary world.
It was further hardened when the ULA was formed. We began to expose some of the corruption, and received a hurricane of outrage-- not least that we supposedly had no talent, were not writers, and so on. This came from all sides.
Would I like to see good underground writers published-- by anyone? Yes! Along with publication, I want to see them given the attention they deserve.
At the same time I recognize that the system HAS to change. No, giving one group of writers a seat at the table isn't enough-- but might be a starting point, necessary leverage, to allow our advocacy to begin to change the literary world as a whole.
The idea, though, is to give all writers leverage-- every writer-- which writers by and large, except for the very connected, don't have now.
Friday, May 30, 2008
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Indy's Inspiration
UNSAID anywhere that I can find is a mention of a major influence for the "Raiders"/Indiana Jones series, 1959's "Journey to the Center of the Earth." (The famous chased-by-a-boulder scene is right out of this flick.) "Journey" has a few cheezy special effects, and, like "Raiders" et.al., is not without some cheezy acting, but is more intelligent, mysterious, and magical, with a classic Bernard Hermann score. Worth a look.
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Cosmic
HISTORIANS
have called the encounter 2,000 years ago between the ultimate bureaucrat, Pontius Pilate, and the ultimate rebel, a Galilean, "cosmic." It was a confrontation between legality and truth. Pilate asked, "What is truth?" because he didn't know. The little-known rebel lost the encounter, but that moment marked the beginning of the overturning of Empire: the known world turned upside down, as if the universe itself became broken.
The literary rebellion has had two such cosmic encounters in its short history, albeit on a much less important scale.
One was in 2006 during the underground's Howl Protest at Columbia University's Miller Hall, when Eric "Jelly Boy the Clown" Broomfield stepped unexpectedly onstage, and he and lit-Insider Jason Shinder stared face-to-face at each other. (An amazing happening.)
Before this, was my 2001 talk with George Plimpton at CBGB's gallery, in the aftermath of the ULA's debate with Open City and Paris Review. Plimpton allowed me to glimpse for a moment, as we talked over beers, the real person, tough and intelligent, behind his jocular facade.
He misread me, though; had no understanding of me whatsoever. Surrounded perpetually by sycophants, he believed there was no writer alive who couldn't be bought-- who wouldn't jump to his tune. The idea of an actual literary rebellion was beyond his understanding. It existed outside his complacent conception of the universe. He invited me to lunch at his house. I turned him down. He paused, then motioned to a flunkie for the money to pay for our beers, which he did with an extravagant flourish.
One afternoon in New York the aristocratic leader of the literary establishment met the beat-up leader of the literary rebellion; a signal turning point; the opening moment in one more revolution in the universe.
have called the encounter 2,000 years ago between the ultimate bureaucrat, Pontius Pilate, and the ultimate rebel, a Galilean, "cosmic." It was a confrontation between legality and truth. Pilate asked, "What is truth?" because he didn't know. The little-known rebel lost the encounter, but that moment marked the beginning of the overturning of Empire: the known world turned upside down, as if the universe itself became broken.
The literary rebellion has had two such cosmic encounters in its short history, albeit on a much less important scale.
One was in 2006 during the underground's Howl Protest at Columbia University's Miller Hall, when Eric "Jelly Boy the Clown" Broomfield stepped unexpectedly onstage, and he and lit-Insider Jason Shinder stared face-to-face at each other. (An amazing happening.)
Before this, was my 2001 talk with George Plimpton at CBGB's gallery, in the aftermath of the ULA's debate with Open City and Paris Review. Plimpton allowed me to glimpse for a moment, as we talked over beers, the real person, tough and intelligent, behind his jocular facade.
He misread me, though; had no understanding of me whatsoever. Surrounded perpetually by sycophants, he believed there was no writer alive who couldn't be bought-- who wouldn't jump to his tune. The idea of an actual literary rebellion was beyond his understanding. It existed outside his complacent conception of the universe. He invited me to lunch at his house. I turned him down. He paused, then motioned to a flunkie for the money to pay for our beers, which he did with an extravagant flourish.
One afternoon in New York the aristocratic leader of the literary establishment met the beat-up leader of the literary rebellion; a signal turning point; the opening moment in one more revolution in the universe.
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
The Opportunity
Given the choice between joining one million unquestioning people supporting a stagnating System, or being a lone rebel against it, I'll take the one every time. How many times does history offer that option? It's an opening that has to be taken.
Monday, May 19, 2008
Key Points
A POSITIVE MESSAGE
Here are some key points about what I propose literature needs.
1.) NEW WRITERS.
MFA programs were intended to professionalize creative writing and increase the value of the individual writer. They've had the opposite effect, because what they in fact do is create too great a supply of writers (an artificial supply); moreover, writers who sound the same. These programs produce competence instead of originality; treating literature not as an art, but a trade.
2.) NEW WRITING.
The current literary products; novels. stories, poems; aren't good enough. They're not working. The audience for establishment stories and poetry in particular has dwindled-- their impact on the culture even moreso. The prevailing philosophy of what constitutes "good" writing is flawed.
3.) NEW COMPANIES.
The big publishing companies are dominated by a highly-educated elite out of touch with the vast bulk of the American people. The literary art has to be released from its bureaucratic prisons and returned to its roots, to become organic, authentic, and alive. This is what the zeen movement has been doing.
4.) NEW MARKETING.
To strongly revive interest in literature, a break with the present is required. The new writer and new writing, revealed through new products, have to be different in every conceivable way-- look, sound, taste-- from the established mainstream.
Here are some key points about what I propose literature needs.
1.) NEW WRITERS.
MFA programs were intended to professionalize creative writing and increase the value of the individual writer. They've had the opposite effect, because what they in fact do is create too great a supply of writers (an artificial supply); moreover, writers who sound the same. These programs produce competence instead of originality; treating literature not as an art, but a trade.
2.) NEW WRITING.
The current literary products; novels. stories, poems; aren't good enough. They're not working. The audience for establishment stories and poetry in particular has dwindled-- their impact on the culture even moreso. The prevailing philosophy of what constitutes "good" writing is flawed.
3.) NEW COMPANIES.
The big publishing companies are dominated by a highly-educated elite out of touch with the vast bulk of the American people. The literary art has to be released from its bureaucratic prisons and returned to its roots, to become organic, authentic, and alive. This is what the zeen movement has been doing.
4.) NEW MARKETING.
To strongly revive interest in literature, a break with the present is required. The new writer and new writing, revealed through new products, have to be different in every conceivable way-- look, sound, taste-- from the established mainstream.
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Change and the Personal
The biggest weakness of the status quo mindset, starkly obvious, is that it wants to personalize everything. Therefore, criticisms of a system or bureaucracy must be happening for personal reasons. Criticism of Writer A can't possibly be for his corrupt actions. This is incomprehensible. It has to, somehow, be personal. In a society where the concept of altruism has been obliterated, the "real" motivations of the critic are then studied. What has he to gain? What has he gained? What are we missing? It couldn't possibly be ideas themselves which motivate the person. The system's apparatchiks operate on such a base, cynical level that understanding any larger concept, any greater force or historical current, is beyond them.
Which is their great weakness. To think of all things, all ideas, all happenings solely on the level of the personal is a giant handicap. But there it is. They give themselves away time and again. Their feeble mentality gropes for ways to understand what I'm doing. So devoid of sense of how ideas and events interact over time; so lacking in reading of business or history; they search for answers in characters from movies! "Oh, Rupert Pupkin." The dilemma in their brains is resolved. They can go intellectually back to sleep.
They stumble through a fog of their own arrogance and complacency. One can put an idea directly in front of them; one inch over their heads, in the form of a marquee sign, with neon lights, and they won't see it.
Which is their great weakness. To think of all things, all ideas, all happenings solely on the level of the personal is a giant handicap. But there it is. They give themselves away time and again. Their feeble mentality gropes for ways to understand what I'm doing. So devoid of sense of how ideas and events interact over time; so lacking in reading of business or history; they search for answers in characters from movies! "Oh, Rupert Pupkin." The dilemma in their brains is resolved. They can go intellectually back to sleep.
They stumble through a fog of their own arrogance and complacency. One can put an idea directly in front of them; one inch over their heads, in the form of a marquee sign, with neon lights, and they won't see it.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Why Zeens?
WHY PRINT-ZINES (ZEENS)?
Because the nature of zeens makes them an active agent and promoter of literature, as opposed to blogs and web-sites, which seldom get their authors out from behind the computer. On-line literature will seldom snag people who aren't already interested in literature.
The successful zeen publisher is out in the world; selling, trading, promoting, marketing his or her wares. It brings literature TO the public-- more often to those not previously interested in literature. The demographic is broader.
Passive lit-blogs or active zeens?
Lit-blogs are written by and for the same folks who've studiously gone through writing programs; who buy their reading exclusively at B&N and Borders.
Anyone who's tabled at, or been to, a crowded Zine Fair knows that it's a true alternative to conglomerate dominance. Most lit-bloggers by contrast are unthinkingly supportive of the status quo.
The revival of literature depends upon reaching a much wider swath of the American public than it does now. Zeens can do that.
Because the nature of zeens makes them an active agent and promoter of literature, as opposed to blogs and web-sites, which seldom get their authors out from behind the computer. On-line literature will seldom snag people who aren't already interested in literature.
The successful zeen publisher is out in the world; selling, trading, promoting, marketing his or her wares. It brings literature TO the public-- more often to those not previously interested in literature. The demographic is broader.
Passive lit-blogs or active zeens?
Lit-blogs are written by and for the same folks who've studiously gone through writing programs; who buy their reading exclusively at B&N and Borders.
Anyone who's tabled at, or been to, a crowded Zine Fair knows that it's a true alternative to conglomerate dominance. Most lit-bloggers by contrast are unthinkingly supportive of the status quo.
The revival of literature depends upon reaching a much wider swath of the American public than it does now. Zeens can do that.
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