Sunday, March 29, 2009
ANTI-MIMESIS IS THE REAL MIMESIS
The odd thing about the supposed anti-mimetic position is that it is, of course, still attempting to express a reality or realities, and that in its further complexity this form more successfully depicts the errancy in the world--a world of slips, mishearings, forgetfulness, double entendres, misunderstandings--and, as such, depicts a reality that seems much closer to what actually is occuring. In this sense, then, the anti-mimetic route displays a mimesis more strongly trying to mimic reality than the mimesis it is assailing as mimetic. Also, in this case, we then see how inherently strange regular A to B to C narrative ultimately is.
The odd thing about the supposed anti-mimetic position is that it is, of course, still attempting to express a reality or realities, and that in its further complexity this form more successfully depicts the errancy in the world--a world of slips, mishearings, forgetfulness, double entendres, misunderstandings--and, as such, depicts a reality that seems much closer to what actually is occuring. In this sense, then, the anti-mimetic route displays a mimesis more strongly trying to mimic reality than the mimesis it is assailing as mimetic. Also, in this case, we then see how inherently strange regular A to B to C narrative ultimately is.
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Reduced to condensity, part 2:
Production of poetry texts is not inherently a good thing; overproduction is often not understood by the overproducer. And then more occurred in the conversation.
The Double Fisherman's Knot is understood and doable. The Figure Eight on a Bight is understood. The Figure Eight Follow-Through is maddening.
That which is produced is not evidence alone that it needed to be.
Locally, Butte County had to make some severe budget cuts in services. They had to choose between closing some fire stations or closing some libraries. They chose to close the fire stations.
Imagine explaining to James Joyce and Gertrude Stein that one has an MFA in Creative Writing and that they, sad to say, do not.
The comfort of whatever structure there is is something that should be investigated, sounded out, and then made uncomfortable again.
A database is a highly organized call-and-response system which compiles, searches, and selects enormous amounts of information, and produces the results for the end user. The database, however, is also a very dumb thing, as it doesn't understand the meaning of a single word that it produces. It is all, simply, character recognition.
There were over 1100 separate wildfires in California last summer.
Production of poetry texts is not inherently a good thing; overproduction is often not understood by the overproducer. And then more occurred in the conversation.
The Double Fisherman's Knot is understood and doable. The Figure Eight on a Bight is understood. The Figure Eight Follow-Through is maddening.
That which is produced is not evidence alone that it needed to be.
Locally, Butte County had to make some severe budget cuts in services. They had to choose between closing some fire stations or closing some libraries. They chose to close the fire stations.
Imagine explaining to James Joyce and Gertrude Stein that one has an MFA in Creative Writing and that they, sad to say, do not.
The comfort of whatever structure there is is something that should be investigated, sounded out, and then made uncomfortable again.
A database is a highly organized call-and-response system which compiles, searches, and selects enormous amounts of information, and produces the results for the end user. The database, however, is also a very dumb thing, as it doesn't understand the meaning of a single word that it produces. It is all, simply, character recognition.
There were over 1100 separate wildfires in California last summer.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
"It is indeed getting more and more difficult, even pointless, for me to write in formal English. And more and more my language appears to me like a veil which one has to tear apart in order to get to those things (or the nothingness) lying behind it. Grammar and style! To me they seem to have become as irrelevant as a Biedermeier bathing suit or the imperturbability of a gentleman. A mask. It is to be hoped the time will come, thank God, in some circles it already has, when language is best used when most efficiently abused. Since we cannot dismiss it all at once, at least we do not want to leave anything undone that may contribute to its disrepute. To drill one hole after another into it until that which lurks behind, be it something or nothing, starts seeping though–I cannot imagine a higher goal for today’s writer.
Or is literature alone to be left behind on that old, foul road long ago abandoned by music and painting? Is there something paralysingly sacred contained within the unnature of the word that does not belong to the elements of the other arts? Is there any reason why that terrifyingly arbitrary materiality of the word surface should not be dissolved, as, for example, the sound surface of Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony is devoured by huge black pauses, so that for pages on end we cannot perceive it as other than a dizzying path of sounds connecting unfathomable chasms of silence? An answer is requested."
--Beckett, S., Fehsenfeld, M., Overbeck, L. M., Craig, G., & Gunn, D. (2009). The Letters of Samuel Beckett. Vol. 1, 1929-1940. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Or is literature alone to be left behind on that old, foul road long ago abandoned by music and painting? Is there something paralysingly sacred contained within the unnature of the word that does not belong to the elements of the other arts? Is there any reason why that terrifyingly arbitrary materiality of the word surface should not be dissolved, as, for example, the sound surface of Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony is devoured by huge black pauses, so that for pages on end we cannot perceive it as other than a dizzying path of sounds connecting unfathomable chasms of silence? An answer is requested."
--Beckett, S., Fehsenfeld, M., Overbeck, L. M., Craig, G., & Gunn, D. (2009). The Letters of Samuel Beckett. Vol. 1, 1929-1940. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Sunday, March 22, 2009
I was just surfing for a photo of the Oakland cop killer and nothing came up but false matches. One false match was of a school photo of a 1st grade class from 1950-51. It's a black and white photo, of course. What struck me were all of the smiles. Each child is smiling. And then I thought of the quasi-command by the photographer to Smile, and how that is the same everywhere, and suddenly I began to wonder about the reasons why we must Smile in photographs, why the society deems it necessary to create that sense of happiness, though it's a coerced happiness. It seems like this mask of happiness is important, especially to the schools who put their names on the photos. The smiles seemed like a form of advertising, in this sense, and it really began to feel creepy, the uniformity. Every one of them, smiling. No sad face, no grumpy face, no stoic, as you see in life all of the time. But when there is preservation of reality, in schools at least, we ask children to smile to preserve what we know is not true. Adults, though, want to feel good about themselves and the jobs that they're doing, and what better stooges to use to fuel this illusion than the little kids.
Friday, March 20, 2009
The Promotion, directed by Steve Conrad (2008).
Cast includes: Sean William Scott, John C. Reilly, Fred Armisen, Jenna Fischer, and Lili Taylor.
The Promotion is the story of two, dueling assistant managers at a supermarket vying for the job of manager at a new supermarket about to open. It is an odd film. I found it odd because I still cannot tell if the director knew what he was doing or whether he just got lucky. I don't think I've seen a film with such a well-maintained and even-keeled blandness, but a blandness with humor, or because of it. It really is a crazy achievement. The movie sort of hovers slightly above the boring pace of real life, while maintaining its fictional side (though life itself is a fiction). I have avoided movies with Sean William Scott for no real reason, other than believing, mistakenly, that he'd be some scrubbed clean do-gooder, which he is in the film, but there is a confused undertowing in it. I can't articulate it any other way than to say it's simply the greatest bland acting job that I've seen. He could easily over-act in either direction--to make it purposively bland or to loose control of it, but he just doesn't. He is what he is. Other viewers may find his character incredibly boring, and I could understand this, but there is such quality to the blandness I really do admire it. John C. Reilly is playing a familiar role, as the outsized goofball with a heart of gold who listens to self-improvement cds. The female roles are, as always, horribly underdeveloped. But this is not news. The movie will not win any awards for convincing argument, spiritual depth, or investigating anything with any real ambition, but that's not what it's seeking anyway. It's an entertainment, and I found it funny.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
YOU THINK YOU'RE ANGRY, WHAT ABOUT US
The AIG scandal is interesting because it shows the direct, naked money grabs of the upper class at the expense of the working class. Everyone knows this is what happens every minute of the day, but the AIG case clearly, measuredly, shows the contradictions of class--what can be gotten away with when you're wealthy, and how many more abettors one has (lawmakers are especially handy class cousins), etc. This is usually always done away from the cameras, behind the doors. It doesn't relieve the situation, of course, when the people involved in the dispersal of this money actually took money--campaign money--from AIG at one point, and these very people--several senators and our president, in fact--are now doing a pretty bad acting job of being "outraged."
Today, we learn that the head of AIG is outraged as well. How swell. "Showing outrage" is the newest toy for the underclass to play with, to coddle them. "See," they say to a scandal-obsessed media who cares more about ad dollars than truth, "see, we understand the workers; we know that they're angry, but we're even angrier. Can you believe what we did to ourselves? It really is shocking!" The emotion of "outrage" is being used as deferral device--by acknowledging the "outrage" the AIG heads are adopting the "outrage" of the public; they are joining in that outrage, and strangely absolving themselves in the process by joining in the outrage that they created by their outrageous acts. But the comedy, the horrible comedy of it, is what we must see as the picture. Imagine an area A as AIG headquarters, with all of the execs eating gold donuts, and then imagine another area, area B, where the workers are, across the street, let's say. On the street, looking up at area A. The area B workers are outraged at the ridiculous, deplorable behavior of area A, and the media is amplifying that outrage, so the golden donuted suits above can hear. There is a meeting of sugar-dusted suits. The execs then meet on the street, across the street from area B. The AIG execs, with plan in their donut-y heads, wave over to area B and say, "HEY, WE'RE OUTRAGED AS WELL. MAYBE MORE SO! CAN WE COME OVER BY YOU AND SHOUT AT WHAT WAS ONCE US?" The workers don't understand this change, the media doesn't care, as it's just more scandal--their daily soup--and so the execs waddle over to the workers. Now joinng in area B, the AIG execs and the workers and the media (and the Senate--they just arrived), all turn toward the AIG headquarters, area A, and growl, and aim their clever picket signs towards it. One AIG exec actually rolls up his sleeves and makes a sign himself, so outraged is he with who he is. The sign says, "WHO DO I THINK I AM?," and points it at the empty AIG building.
"Being outraged" is the weakest sense of doing something. In the hands of the underclass, they are doing the only thing they can do, class power-wise: demonstrating and protesting this illegality. The upperclass has the express duty to actually fix the situation because they bare the responsibility of the nation's laws and direct the means of production. The upperclass doesn't get to be merely "outraged." Their direct class responsibility is to fix it, because they are the only ones who can.
The AIG scandal is interesting because it shows the direct, naked money grabs of the upper class at the expense of the working class. Everyone knows this is what happens every minute of the day, but the AIG case clearly, measuredly, shows the contradictions of class--what can be gotten away with when you're wealthy, and how many more abettors one has (lawmakers are especially handy class cousins), etc. This is usually always done away from the cameras, behind the doors. It doesn't relieve the situation, of course, when the people involved in the dispersal of this money actually took money--campaign money--from AIG at one point, and these very people--several senators and our president, in fact--are now doing a pretty bad acting job of being "outraged."
Today, we learn that the head of AIG is outraged as well. How swell. "Showing outrage" is the newest toy for the underclass to play with, to coddle them. "See," they say to a scandal-obsessed media who cares more about ad dollars than truth, "see, we understand the workers; we know that they're angry, but we're even angrier. Can you believe what we did to ourselves? It really is shocking!" The emotion of "outrage" is being used as deferral device--by acknowledging the "outrage" the AIG heads are adopting the "outrage" of the public; they are joining in that outrage, and strangely absolving themselves in the process by joining in the outrage that they created by their outrageous acts. But the comedy, the horrible comedy of it, is what we must see as the picture. Imagine an area A as AIG headquarters, with all of the execs eating gold donuts, and then imagine another area, area B, where the workers are, across the street, let's say. On the street, looking up at area A. The area B workers are outraged at the ridiculous, deplorable behavior of area A, and the media is amplifying that outrage, so the golden donuted suits above can hear. There is a meeting of sugar-dusted suits. The execs then meet on the street, across the street from area B. The AIG execs, with plan in their donut-y heads, wave over to area B and say, "HEY, WE'RE OUTRAGED AS WELL. MAYBE MORE SO! CAN WE COME OVER BY YOU AND SHOUT AT WHAT WAS ONCE US?" The workers don't understand this change, the media doesn't care, as it's just more scandal--their daily soup--and so the execs waddle over to the workers. Now joinng in area B, the AIG execs and the workers and the media (and the Senate--they just arrived), all turn toward the AIG headquarters, area A, and growl, and aim their clever picket signs towards it. One AIG exec actually rolls up his sleeves and makes a sign himself, so outraged is he with who he is. The sign says, "WHO DO I THINK I AM?," and points it at the empty AIG building.
"Being outraged" is the weakest sense of doing something. In the hands of the underclass, they are doing the only thing they can do, class power-wise: demonstrating and protesting this illegality. The upperclass has the express duty to actually fix the situation because they bare the responsibility of the nation's laws and direct the means of production. The upperclass doesn't get to be merely "outraged." Their direct class responsibility is to fix it, because they are the only ones who can.
Sunday, March 15, 2009
EVA SCHLEGEL
Portrait / Foto: © Martina Gasser
Some Works:
Untitled 142, 2007, Lambdaprint, 205×105cm
Untitled 004, 2002, Lambdaprint, 205×105cm
Untitled 025, 2004, Lambdaprint, 120×100cm
Friday, March 13, 2009
Links for you:
Academic Earth--"Thousands of video lectures from the world's top scholars." Participating universities are Berkeley, Harvard, MIT, Princeton, Stanford, and Yale. OPEN ACCESS. Good stuff.
Occupational Outlook Handbook--The Occupational Outlook Handbook is a nationally recognized source of career information, designed to provide valuable assistance to individuals making decisions about their future work lives. The Handbook is revised every two years. Very thorough, and very helpful.
Academic Earth--"Thousands of video lectures from the world's top scholars." Participating universities are Berkeley, Harvard, MIT, Princeton, Stanford, and Yale. OPEN ACCESS. Good stuff.
Occupational Outlook Handbook--The Occupational Outlook Handbook is a nationally recognized source of career information, designed to provide valuable assistance to individuals making decisions about their future work lives. The Handbook is revised every two years. Very thorough, and very helpful.
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Financial sociopaths, Bernard and Ruth Madoff, enjoying themselves.
Bernard pleads guilty today, taken away in handcuffs.
Hopefully, Ruthie's next.
*
In other news, New York Social Diary is one of the more guilty of the guilty pleasures.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
3 pieces in Sidebrow. (Well, let's be honest: 2 pieces and something barely something).
Monday, March 09, 2009
Encounters At the End of the World, directed by Werner Herzog. 2007.
Werner Herzog's lifelong pursuit for deeper spiritual meaning, of discrediting normative reality, of depicting dreamers and poets and the people who don't fit in, continues beautifully in this documentary set in various places on Antarctica. Through interviews with diving cellular biologists, Cambridge volcanists, poetic physicists, grow-room linguists, and many more "who fell to the bottom of the world" to meet, we take note of the unbelievable strangeness of life, of the overwhelming mystery of it all. We watch as a penguin takes off in the wrong direction, away from the feeding pools and away from home, to wander off toward the mountains, and beyond that, certain death. But, as we learn, if you were to "save" the penguin and bring it back to home or the feeding pool, it would wander right back out again into the middle of the continent, far away from food. The diving biologists sink under the massive ice and search for micro-organisms in the floor of the ocean, never daring to forget where their entry/exit hole is, for to lose sight of it would mean certain death as well, because they are beneath an ice ceiling larger than the state of Texas. The hole is the only way out. They look like astronauts under the ice, floating in the water. The musical score is Russian Orthodox church music, and some weird guitar sounds. It's magical, enchanting, earthy, and ineluctable. One comes away from the film with a renewed humor of all that we don't know, with the hard-to-trace neutrinos topping the list. They are all around us, bombarding us, and we cannot see them, yet they made life possible. They are science's stuffing, but they cross over quite easily into a form of the Unknown, like a God, an Ex-planation, that serves as a marker of something that will never be fully understood. On the second disc Herzog is interviewed (65 min.) by the director Jonathan Demme. Very insightful, and humorous, too, especially when Herzog explains that he can tell who does and who doesn't know how to milk a cow. Highly recommended.
Friday, March 06, 2009
Sunday, March 01, 2009
Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired, directed by Marina Zenovich, 2008.
I've seen all of Roman Polanski's films, except for the extremely hard-to-find What? and the recent Oliver Twist. Along with Fassbinder and Herzog, he is one of my favorite directors. It was always difficult, then, to admit to loving his films while knowing in general that he had had sex with a very young girl, 13 at the time, while he was a lecherous 44 years old. One begins to try to understand this by throwing in the dramatic horrors of his life, with the Nazis destroying his community of friends and family, killing his mother in a concentration camp, putting his father in one, and he himself surviving in a barn during these years. As if this wasn't bad enough, his second wife, Sharon Tate, and his son-to-be (Tate was 8 1/2 months pregnant), are murdered by Charles Manson's followers. One puts these things in place in one's head, but there still isn't space for the sex with a 13 year-old girl. This documentary is a crucial movie in understanding why Polanski left the United States, which, one learns, was not fully based on running away from the charges, but running away from a crazed judge. None of this relieves the feeling of what he did, even though the woman has now forgiven him, and there was a civil settlement a few years ago that she won. The documentary doesn't muddy the role he played in the crime, but it fully explains the context of the situation of why he left. Even the prosecutor could understand why he left: the judge was half-baked and completely untrustworthy.
