North Korea do not game the system

I did not technically write this. President Obama did. It's his Nobel acceptance speech that I cut-up so the hidden meanings could leak through. It's bizzare, surreal, dreamlike, somewhat delirious, but seriously, seriously provocative. The only changes I made were to add punctuation and remove any outright senselessness. I didn't make any changes that seriously affect the (non)sense. It follows below:



Those
an acute sense of the idea that the 'isness' of man's present this: the belief that peace is desirable. believe that we must develop alternatives to violence, nuclear is best. about humanity. Peace entails intervention and complicity in oppression. This brings me care for the sick on a horrific scale. I am working with President Medvedev to no rules. Intransigence must be met with millions whose quiet must be our work, we are moving backwards. They recognized that if in preserving medicine they need to survive. It's evolution. Look War ended with jubilant crowds dismantling- in the midst two, not mere prisoners of fate. Our actions matter, that govern the use of force. Likewise, the fall of reason. I raise this fact is this: begin by acknowledging the hard truth that a door in light is what makes us different from those prevent the slaughter. Holy War can ever be a just war. I a different God. "Violence never brings permanent peace. Development for all and women just when it is easy, but when these are vital ingredients on their side. Let me we must strengthen UN and distant land. That human rights and dignity are advanced over that break rules and laws, I be a voice for those. No repressive regime can move down. I also know arms control and embrace yet, given the dizzying pace of nuclear weapons, and to seek our minds and our hearts as we choose the moral force of non-violence. I know to avoid such tragic choices, the rules of the road if we harden.
We see it in nations that are sacrificed. That is why NATO continues to be In the wake of such destruction. Not leave the task to grandchildren can some places this fear has led to because we seek to impose our will. Also incumbent upon all of us to insist eyes when those laws are flouted. Those open - if we dismiss inexcusable - insurgencies, and failed states; have increasingly trapped those who don't. The world before us, preached - they're why I prohibited it. Would be easier for human beings. World War, the cold forty three, other countries only when it meets certain preconditions: if cruelty and hardship of our soldiers; the seeds of future conflict are the founder of nature makes him moral. Was in the purpose of military action, extend beyond self, engulf an share. As the world grows smaller, will be faced with the choice between armed toward disarmament. Must embrace the role of that militaries indignation. But I also know that and great humility. We can reject that future. I refuse to accept despair as history. I refuse to accept own leaders or assemble - for if we want the Commander-in-Chief of a nation, this statement a reflexive suspicion of We. Have borne this burden not farmers. Prevent the spread is a centerpiece of architecture to keep the peace: acknowledge that must direct our effort, country is rightfully proud. Traditions of different, it is hard. I have spoken, must also others who understand that our common security and opportunity. For true peace is like that no matter how justified. war acts of courage and compassion inspire even better if other peoples' children problem: merely dawn of history, its morality of war. What I do know that development rarely takes root without isolates - and weakens because of the horror. Many more civilians are killed than where millions of its citizens going to war, we not have halted Hitler's armies. Negotiations cannot convince weapons. These extremists are not the water. The human rights are not protected. Peace is world.
Whatever mistakes come here with attacks. Still, we are at war, and I, a young protestor await the brutality. To think has long been a tactic. Combatant and civilian became Conventions. We lose ourselves when we compromise the these efforts succeeded. Yes, love that they that we all one form or another, appeared. Adhering to this law principle applies to those promotion of human unending chaos. There is genocide in Darfur; peace is unstable turn now to our effort a post-World War II - total wars in which the distinction between - The evolution that President Kennedy spoke, my foreign policy. And and soldiers of NATO countries - and other United States of America in the Middle East and power, and sometimes evil. Even those nuclear war. The same the first from peacekeeping and training to wage war. We are more than just War. Furthermore, America cannot insist that as codes of law sought to control civilians. I am as we. Confront the same vision, hard work, that drove drafters of the Universal Declaration who claim to respect international law. Makers of war dispute that if we do nothing, a better place. The non-violence practiced by men- not have to think that human nature is. Long ago Korea enabled democracy to take hold in you. Might think that we all basically want- may not have been practical or possible. But let me- like any head of state. Our conscience can lead to more costly to live out our lives with to be - war is the quiet dignity of reformers like Aung Sang. Have been jailed and beaten in the pursuit. No need for restraint.
States of America clerics and statesmen seek to regulate and persist in Western principles; closest friends are governments that for the chance honor them not as lasting peace. This concept, children and grandchildren, and that we can build a just the hope of living testimony to forsake them. Is hard to conceive of a cause of just war. Evolution of human institutions. the one rule that lies at the heart recorded. But they remind us that no staying power to complete this work, stages of a nation's development. And for the Catholic Church, security hangs in the secessionist movements. Firm to believe that the human condition can be perfected. It solves no social countries, America will always be family. The absence to these movements that hope and history is excused stockpiles. But it is North Korea do not game the system. Those moment of challenge that relations with those who violate international law by brutalizing institutions to prevent the world. In our capacity to exempt from mercy my nation, I cannot be guided by efforts of those who serve and the ambivalence of another World of every major religion. Is that we do not exist. Where by as nations arm themselves, some countries, the failure to uphold human rights nation. Nevertheless, I am a new century. We would have them do unto us. This also why the world must come together and bend this same ceremony.
Years ago the most profound issue- divorce from suffering; the unrecognized we have made our highest aspirations- that for all the when the world stands together as one. The same things; that we all hope not a decade into a the end, proliferation may increase the risk of catastrophe. Terrorism activists who call for swift aspirations that are universal. We arms race of hope can rot peace. But the purpose the instruments of war do have I do not bring one urgent example. Tough enough to the advent of the a world in the future reconciling these terrible wars have been fought, and atrocities committed. Those who look, the nature of peace is that we, her child, asunder, refugees amassed, and children scarred. Murder of innocents by the sense of possibility. We in the name of a role play balance. Agreements among nations. Strong institutions. Support for rights and dignity of every individual horror. Nixon's meeting human rights.
Investments in with Poland created space. Not just mothers facing punishing poverty still takes the time to think decades. For this of our souls. or nations educate their children victim to the temptations of pride, many countries, there is a disconnect by the false suggestion that unto others as leaders in my country and power; those without nuclear weapons will the opposite is true. Only when Europe, the Balkans, or in other places that we was not questioned; who seek peace cannot stand idly time. Third, a just peace includes not only walls. Commerce has stitched much of intentions, will at times fail to right the weak alike- must adhere the cost a sudden revolution in human nature- our values. I reject this choice.
But we must try as best we can of perestroika. Not let us live the final response to the ambiguities of the peace. And yet this truth must of the fortitude and foresight of bringing about history; the imperfections to standards of globalization, sometimes necessary is not a call to meeting these challenges will require rights. Cannot be about exhortation alone. At cannot argue with those who find these men, this old architecture is buckling under the weight military action today, no matter down. The other is a conflict imperatives of a just peace. We must imagination; an failed states like Somalia, where idea for which the destructive power of war to open societies. Pope John on issues of war as they please; choose their Nations, mechanisms to govern the waging of repressive regimes lacks the satisfying purity of from fear, but freedom wrongs before us. But we do We do not have to live in an of war. The total number of civilians who food, or clean of faith - for the heirs it in after the Woodrow Wilson received this Prize - America led and nations like Iran and oppression will always be their differences.
Such children cannot aspire the Norwegian Nobel Committee, citizens of civilians by must remain a standard "just war" emerged, suggesting coexist with another - boldly decades ago. And it will require us idealized world to these are organizations to relieve to teach we all confront difficult questions about how those regimes that break the rules must be denial of human aspirations. So even as we respect, think clearly about peace. First, in dealing with those nations -are served by the I did not acknowledge the considerable controversy faith in human progress - must always have a moral and strategic interest in binding the men and women around the world who don't, our action can appear them.
In the middle between the times, it must be coupled with painstaking diplomacy. Gave way to wars between nations at the beginning, and not or idealists - a tension that suggests Third Reich and the Axis powers, World War - and such pressure exists only wars. One of these wars is winding we are; to understand and peace then we lose what nothing weak -nothing passive - to global security will never waiver. Honor those ideals by upholding them Human Jews seems from poverty, and connected where citizens are denied the right to the prospect of war and lasting. King said at this occasion Schweitzer and King; Marshall and Mandela - my modern technology allows rallied around America, bearer in the conduct carrying out divine will, then place for his dreams. The pregnant mother, or keep the peace. deep ambivalence about in the creed and lives of joined by and human suffering. And sadly, their own government, or that your generous decision has generated. Of visible conflict. Only just that faith it will continue to be true. II was a conflict in which a vicious adversary that abides by others follow narrow pursuit of interests or for more than six decades. With the, we will not eradicate violent conflict; how we- intractability of depravation- who have distorted and defiled the great sacrifice is full of glory, whose bargain is clear: all mindful of what Martin Luther King said in describe themselves as realists more than the power of any other nation. The world together. Billions have us reach for the world that ought. Middle East, as the conflict between Arabs and other. These questions are not new. War, in political rights - it must encompass economic crippling status quo. al Qaeda's leaders to lay down their arms. To say that force is America, and citizens of the We have done so out of enlightened self-interest, her government has the courage to march their citizens.
No matter how callously surely helped restrict the most dangerous the Geneva Conventions. Where force is necessary, we of force. Even as only improved nuclear age, it became clear to to balance isolation and engagement; pressure and their examples alone. I face the world as torn asunder by tribal lines. Most dangerously, we stand together, the less likely we expressing devotion to country, to cause such. So part of face more drought, famine and mass displacement that who cast their ballots in the face of future intervention - no Somewhere today, in the here and now, have been lifted refuse to follow them ourselves. For when we exist in the world. A non-violent movement could governments fear. Outsized rage to murder innocents on intervention later. That is capacity and courage against a democracy, and our War. In kill. Some will be killed.
And so I sent a clear message to all about the of those senseless attacks and religion is used to justify the surprise that people fear the loss of what. Fight it.
The Nobel Committee recognized this peace based upon the inherent act unilaterally if necessary to defend my truths - that war is sometimes necessary, and different or pray to within America, there has long Your Majesties, Your Royal Highnesses, Distinguished Members of who believes regional peacekeeping, and conflict. At times, it even feels foreign to local cultures to all but those they help - to we see it in the broader public. Nothing naïve - on. Somewhere today, a be far more deserving of this honor been scarred by war. Inaction tears at their own people.
When yet I would of young there will be war, and of law have haltingly advanced. We are powerfully their religion. In must remember that it was not simply and defend of new threats. The in our lifetimes. We believe that their lives torture. That is why I just incompatible with the concept of of the last century, nations agreed to that guides us on our journey. They cherish about their particular identities, reduce America. Yet the world to defend ourselves and all nations from further - that brought stability to more practical, more attainable peace, based confronts him." So let will find the use than the defeat of to confront climate change. There modernity, it should come as no me today, a definitive solution to the problems. But there has been no Third source of our strength. That is For if we lose of human progress; that is expression of human feelings. Concretely, we of those men and women who acted so be the North Star creates new and first to kill - their race, their tribe, and perhaps most and speak of three ways. Soviet Union, It is missions more complex, America cannot with difficult questions about incapable of reaching within groups. So did philosophers, whom we fight. Change behavior, "Let us focus," he said, "on a set China, on a path be justified. Be remiss if of armed conflict-filled man”. At the justified. I make some measure of happiness and fulfillment for ourselves. That is a Red Cross, and a driving force behind protect the rights of an endless campaign to impose. But empowered dissidents throughout Eastern Europe.
There is reserve the right to accomplishments are slight. Was rarely observed. The capacity of human beings- reason, it is not merely scientists. And increasingly given way to wars within of the giants of places like the Balkans. Has promoted peace and prosperity from Germany, has helped underwrite global security world: I receive this honor years, such carnage would twice engulf witness. To or sectarian conflicts; the growth of own security cannot ignore the rejected League of Nations - an ordered the prison at Guantanamo Bay closed. And world may no longer shudder, the international community must mean something.
We can do that- for that is we will am, responsible for the deployment of thousands America, the world's sole military superpower. Which my own war, treaties to protect human rights, prevent sewn, economies are wrecked, civil societies torn became free. Did it finally find peace? America a warped view of promises human war whose violence and suffering is little scientific terrorism and piracy is joined. Education or a job that supports a cannot avert their might, these practical world, we are the Geneva about.
And yet, I do not believe history in the direction of justice. In self-defense; if the forced used of just war and the fight to defend. Surrounding my receipt of this prize, a stark choice between the believe. That but on a gradual when nations - acting individually or to recognize how similar a quarter century after the United States Senate the decisions that we make world stage. Compared to some years to come. The leaders must be consequences.
And the closer has never fought a war of peace. Let The ideals of liberty, self-determination, equality and continues to support beatings; to the hundreds of thousands who have with Mao appeared without fear. Pent up grievances fester, the medic, or replace one with the the responsibility, undercut the legitimacy of suppression of tribal and religious identity. Can we? Must God?
The cruelties of the marched silently through the streets of Iran. Will fuel more conflict for - some known, some obscure the core struggle of also say this: the security; it is also true head of state sworn the relationship between war and all nations- strong and one final to the bravery of Zimbabweans Crusades. re amply it as silly or naïve; if we very ideals that we the questions that must weigh on abroad to Oslo and Rome; to Ottawa arbitrary, and America's commitment of justice; those who toil in humanitarian and prosperity. Entire region. I believe that force can. For if you truly believe that you are world, recognized the need to confront Saddam Hussein, sought power and settled held accountable. Of force not only necessary, but morally human nature. We are fallible. We make mistakes, to protect that war is justified more complicated ones. Condemnation without discussion - can carry forward a ourselves to certain rules of conduct. And even Marshall Plan and a United speak freely or worship who care for their the wake of - including Norway - in an effort. It is telling that the leaders of these Walesa. Ronald Reagan's efforts still strive for dignity. We can understand that danger is rarely enough to achieve it. One in which we are More and more been lifted from poverty. Few countries. That is why from want. It is undoubtedly true and the cultural leveling of effort to defined.
Neither America's the divine that still stirs within each history who have received this prize - never trumpet it as world without all free people and free victor and vanquished alike that the world needed point about the use steps be?
To begin with, I believe that It is an award that speaks to is the fact that I they have shown in Afghanistan. But in So yes, in new ways about the notions when he invaded Kuwait - a consensus that people. For make no mistake: evil does to the American matter how justified. This becomes particularly important when Rights after the Second World died exceeded the number of soldiers who perished. Lead to violence.
We also know that up for the eternal 'oughtness' that forever so many years ago, As someone who stands here as a direct the cause. At times, this or disease - the manner in which tribes seek. For peace is not merely the absence that President Kennedy called for interests - nor the world's blood of our citizens and the strength of in concert - we must with us, and peace, and our effort to a hollow promise.
And yet all too sanctions without outreach- and with a clear mandate can play to The concept of a with deep gratitude that a cruel world still has. A is that, and then civilizations possible, civilians are spared from violence. For most will bear- no need to spare to enough proved inexhaustible, as of love has always been of ethnic tragedy. The soldier's between two nuclear superpowers, but two seemingly irreconcilable often, these words are ignored. In by their act alone.
This that America did not seek; nations to make clear. Continued expansion of our moral our challenge Americans to battle in a up new ways to kill one another, all responsible nations the unique culture and systematic rape this continent. And while it, I understand why war is not popular. But we honor those who return home incentives, so keep the peace. Somewhere today, in this in unstable regions for truly be lasting.
It was this insight with increased pressure indispensable. That is why that spark of be bound by a treaty it was simply a fact, like drought no simple formula here. Every circumstance, but the by famine are more diffuse, and/or East Asia. Those insistence that there is something irreducible cynicism - it is a recognition of those with nuclear weapons will work which threats blurred. In the span of thirty point because in many countries there is a religion. Is not we make difficult decisions about that we will have the will, or our arms. The service and sacrifice of our that is why society from within. And that is why helping. There will be times true in, And then there are like? What religion of Islam, and who attacked my civil and international institutions - not just treaties and declarations, then the words of Gandhi and King. But as a still reach for those ideals that will a new path unless it has to standards strengthens those who make it this truth. Through the a soldier sees he's outgunned but stands perfect for us to still. In part, this is because I of man and the limits lose our moral compass. Like generations have not just freedom I have reaffirmed America's commitment to abide by war. Itself is never glorious, and still, strive for justice. We can admit the been a tension between those who

Minutes to Go

I didn't write this. Brion Gysin did. But he's dead so I don't think he'd care and it's cool as fuck:

the hallucinated have come to tell you that yr utilities
are being shut off dreams monitored thought directed
sex is shutting down everywhere you are being sent

all words are taped agents everywhere
marking down the live ones to exterminate

they are turning out the lights

no they are not evil nor the devil but men
on a mission with a spot of work to do

this dear friends they intend to do on you

you have been offered a choice between liberty and
freedom and No! you cannot have both

the next step is everyone into space but it has been
a long dull wait since the last tower of babel
that first derisive visit of the paraclete

let's not hear that noise again and again
that may well be the last word anywhere

this is not the beginning in the beginning was the word
the word has been in for a too long time
you in the word and the word in you

we are out
you are in

we have come to let you out

here and now we will show you what you can do
with and to
the word
the words
any word
all the words

Pick a book any book cut it up
cut up
prose
poems
newspapers
magazines
the bible
the koran
the book of moroni
lao-tzu
confucius
the bhagavad gita
anything
letters
business correspondence
ads
all the words

slice down the middle dice into sections
according to taste
chop in some bible pour on some Madison Avenue
prose
shuffle like cards toss like confetti
taste it like piping hot alphabet soup

pass yr friends' letters yr office carbons
through any such sieve as you may find or invent

you will soon see just what they really are
saying this is the terminal method for
finding the truth

piece together a masterpiece a week
use better materials more highly charged words

there is no longer a need to drum up a season of
geniuses be your own agent until we deliver
the machine in commercially reasonable quantities

we wish to announce that while we esteem
this to be truly the American Way
we have no commitments with any government
groups

the writing machine is for everybody
do it yourself until the machine comes
here is the system according to us


B.G.

William S. Burroughs reviews.

This is a review of the first four of William S. Burrough's works by J.G. Ballard, written in 1966. Probably the best review of his work I've come across by a non-Beat source, short of his biography.

And this one is, true to form, a collection of blurbs by Marshall McLuhan on Burroughs' aesthetic and the significance of his work. Truly crazy. Crazy awesome anyway.

So You Want to be a Writer

by. C. Bukowski

if it doesn't come bursting out of you
in spite of everything,
don't do it.
unless it comes unasked out of your
heart and your mind and your mouth
and your gut,
don't do it.
if you have to sit for hours
staring at your computer screen
or hunched over your
typewriter
searching for words,
don't do it.
if you're doing it for money or
fame,
don't do it.
if you're doing it because you want
women in your bed,
don't do it.
if you have to sit there and
rewrite it again and again,
don't do it.
if it's hard work just thinking about doing it,
don't do it.
if you're trying to write like somebody
else,
forget about it.
if you have to wait for it to roar out of
you,
then wait patiently.
if it never does roar out of you,
do something else.

if you first have to read it to your wife
or your girlfriend or your boyfriend
or your parents or to anybody at all,
you're not ready.

don't be like so many writers,
don't be like so many thousands of
people who call themselves writers,
don't be dull and boring and
pretentious, don't be consumed with self-
love.
the libraries of the world have
yawned themselves to
sleep
over your kind.
don't add to that.
don't do it.
unless it comes out of
your soul like a rocket,
unless being still would
drive you to madness or
suicide or murder,
don't do it.
unless the sun inside you is
burning your gut,
don't do it.

when it is truly time,
and if you have been chosen,
it will do it by
itself and it will keep on doing it
until you die or it dies in you.

there is no other way.

and there never was.

The Reconquest of Art

Comin' straight from the underground. The Cat Piano at chunnel.com. I like this site because it directly recognizes that the global artistic underground needs to be connected and provides a place to do it. Arty shorts, ads with actual artistic content for products with that aren't evil. It's only by taking back control of art from the big studios and ad agencies that we will liberate our culture from the corrosive authoritarian influences that currently dictate, or at least attempt to dictate, our output.

Which provides a convenient segue into The Society of the Spectacle. Written by Guy Debord back in 1968 and elucidated Situationism, the artistic heir of Surrealism, this particular text discusses the advent of the Spectacle. The Spectacle is the aesthetic means by which global capitalism effects it's cultural agenda. Being becomes having becomes appearing until that's all that even matters. Appearances. The content is drained from art and all that remains is it's meaningless shell. It's inevitable when the only goal is to turn it around for a profit. Take for example Pop Art and it's debased successors.

We are given art by mandate, and only given the option of which banality to prefer. But things have been changing little by little and the speed at which they change gets faster every day. The internet in it's early forms allowed us to communicate more rapidly and as speeds increase it we can share art more and more effectively. Films, photos, anything. We no longer must accept what's piped into our homes by News Corp. Anyone with the desire and the tools can create art and share it with anyone almost anywhere on Earth. The Spectacle won't be dismantled easily, it's tentacles extend everywhere and burrow subtly and deep. It will be a fight, but a fight we may well win.

More Rediscovered Poetry

I found these in a notebook in the pocket of my winter jacket. They're from last winter. I hope you like em.

Highway of cars,
just as dawn
cracks slow- an
egg over the horizon,
rendered invisible in the
morning dark.

Headlights strung
out on gossamer,
beads of hand-
carved amber and
you cannot tell sky
from city through the
window of the train.

All fades with the dawn
like a theater when
the lights come up.

----

A weathered rock
only earthly remain
of a poor old man
how many years has
he been lying?

Ice water in the vein,
boyfriend splits.

----

Mid-November
and the trees have
begun to change.
Leaves crinkle
voiceless.
Foliage of another fall.

----

Oh policeman!
Eyes grey as
a glacial field,
and heart far colder
still.

You never feel
a moment's
compunction
arresting kids
for hurting
no one.

Legal technicalities
restoreth thy soul.

----

My mood crystalizes on the
limbs of the ice-varnished trees
threatening to crack at the sigh
of the wind.

Held in horrible potential
this life so delicate
and rashness never rewarded.
A moment's carelessness
untold beauty destroys

I feel a fear in my deepest
heart I never before have
known. A real, true, serious,
poignant ache for someone
other than myself.
Someone who isn't answering
her telephone.

----

In our transparent age
we define ourselves by
our secret shames.

The things that make us
cry and roll around at night
sleep a distant dream's dream.

Lies we've told and lines we've
drawn and lives we've taken.
Things you could never tell your
lover, never mind your mother.

What flaws hide in the diamond
of your soul?

For all our money and all our science
all we really have is our tragedies.

----

Ice on the wire kills
light and sound, the train
coasts for a moment-
motor silent.

The sound of one hand
clapping is no
sound at all.

----

trees glowing from without
rain shards of glass
and phone poles bleed
clear blood from 'neath
the shelter of false skin.

Skate on sidewalks and
walk on grass, hardened
under foot.

Just Because I Care About Syntax Does Not Make Me a Grammar Nazi

I frequently get accused of being a Grammar Nazi. I have to say, at first glance it seems as though this might even be a reasonable charge, based on my proclivity for using words like proclivity and my borderline obsession with dependent clauses. I did, after all, post a quote by George Orwell about the decay of language being connected to political chaos as my status on Facebook last week. However, I didn't mean it in the sense you probably assumed that I did. How biased of you.
I delineate sharply between myself and "language mavens" like the late Christopher Buckley. And in this delineation, I feel, lies the key to why I am in fact not a Grammar Nazi. Sure, I'll argue with people on the internet when the things they say make no sense, not even in the sense loose fashion of poetry. And there is a hell of a lot of it out there. It's kinda fun, despite the fact that it makes me look like a pretentious ass.
I don't mind nonsense. Really. Bob Dylan is one of my favorite musicians, and even he doesn't know what a lot of his songs mean. Or Hunter S. Thompson, a master of drug-crazed babbling. He's the one that said after all nonsense is all good, "as long as it sings,". What I meant by the George Orwell quote, and what Orwell meant himself, I'm guessing, had more to do with the semantic twisting of language by those who would spin and obscure the truth than it did about people not using grammar in the ordained way.
But the difference between myself and people who really do deserve the label of Language Nazi, or at least Language Fascist, is a deep one, and one that regards our respective understandings of how language exists.
To clarify, there is a bit of a gap, or at least a tension, between prescriptive and descriptive grammars. Prescriptivists like Avril Incandeza or Mr. Buckley seem to regard language as an edifice, a Platonic ideal the perfection thereof is to be aspired to. This is the grammar they teach you in school, and I have to admit, I can see the appeal. There isn't much like a perfectly crafted sentence. It's like a well rolled Cuban cigar or a really quality distilled bottle of Absinthe. Completely intoxicating.
But descriptive grammar, to me, seems to have more bearing on the world people actually live in. Everyone (except the rare feral child) speaks language, or language speaks through people, depending on how seriously you take Lacan and Baudrillard. However, the language that they speak is modified by where they grew up, their economic level, how much education they've gotten, how much they use the internet, any number of factors. Languages are composed of diverse dialects, and each dialect is composed of diverse idiolects. And as long as communication is achieved, it's functionally successful. Clarity can be measured by how successful the communication was, but even still, this leaves no place for the Queen's English or the dictates of the French National Academy of Language.
Who cares about all that formalized crap? Language derives from culture, and culture is a human phenomenon. And humans, living on earth, are constantly contending with difference, and the dynamic fact of being alive on a moss covered rock hurtling through space. So language changes as people change, as cultures change, as populations change, as meta-narratives rise and fall. Perfection against which to judge exists only in stasis, and stasis is a myth outside a lab or the depths of space. So speak, play with language. It's yours. It's ours. Keep changing it, because stasis is death and if we let it die then we are all of us fucked.

The Reason for the Lack of Updates

I don't update this thing often. I realize that I say that every time I do update, but I figure I should explain why. After all, it's been around for a while and it doesn't even have ten posts. Kinda sad really. But I have another blog, Moderately Evil, who's link can conveniently be found in the links list. That one is for political stuff, this one is for art and literary things. Apparently I'm more concerned about politics than literature. But given the world situation at the moment, I think this is understandable. Additionally, the vast majority of my literary/artistic energies are going into writing a novel which takes up a substantial portion of my free time (and is dedicated to a much missed friend), so that holds the updating of this bugger up somewhat. I plan to start updating more soon though. This is going to be my base for self-promotion of my novel, so I guess I should start building up a fan base. Though if I'm as unsuccessful at drumming up visitors here as I am at Moderately Evil, there isn't much point. Gonna give it a shot anyway. See you soon.

Damn Straight they Can

Maurice Sendak, Author of Where the Wild Things Are, has told parents who are worried that the new movie based on his book will scare their children to "go to hell". Damn straight. As far as I'm concerned, coddling a child is one of the worst things you can do to her. Or him for that matter. It's almost a form of negative abuse. Sure you're not molesting them, hitting them or swearing at them, but a child protected from ever having to be scared is going to end up a whiny little wimp totally unable to think for himself. Kids need to experience the full range of emotions so that they can learn to deal with them while still young and pliable. Plus, the habits of mind that this sheltering fosters are a timidity and unwillingness to stand up for yourself. Maybe that's why, in our child-centric, foam-padded culture, we are almost completely unable of generating any new and daring thought of any sort, be it art or politics.

Federico Garcia Lorca

This article, looking at the Spanish government's pursuit of truth, or rather the lack of such pursuit, in the cases of the mass graves wherein are buried the victims of Fascist violence during the civil war; takes as it's starting point the death of Federico Garcia Lorca, Spain's greatest poet, and one of the highlights of twentieth century world literature. Imagine if Dali were a poet, and not such a repulsive human being.

0_O

James Joyce reading a selection from Finnegan's Wake. Friggin sweet.

America (Is Alan Ginsberg Still Naked?)

America, when will you learn
to fuck for love,
rather than cheap thrills?

When will you stop whoring
yourself to next season's
high-drama?

I am not a maniac, though
I think sometimes it seems
that way.

I don't really want to overthrow
the government, I just want you
to come to your senses.

America, when will you show your
six wings, your buddha
consciousness?

Tell me, America, why does he
who fights with Empire
become it?

When will you stop giving your
dirty bomb penetrator-cocks
to Israel?

When will you wake up, and realize
that a class war is being waged and you're
on the losing side?

America, I smoke cannabis
whenever I can (which
isn't often.)

My girlfriend is still a
communist, and she ain't sorry.

I sometimes worry she'll call me Karl
when we fuck.

America, was William Burroughs right?
Are you the last and greatest betrayal of
the last and greatest of human dreams?

For god's sake, I am not a hippy. I have
a full time job. Still, I wonder,
why we gotta go so fast?

Is history really an unstoppable tide?
Or is it just a bunch of rich old white men
trying to make as much money off our backs
as they can before the ship sinks?

In Honor of Bloomsday

Since yesterday was Bloomsday, the day on which Ulysses is set and the day that James and Nora Joyce had their first date, I spent the day writing down EVERY SINGLE FREAKING THING that I did. Over all, I think I was relatively successful. Imperfectly of course, since if I was going to do this seriously, I would need a rotating daily system of notebooks which I would use over the course of weeks, possibly months. An interesting idea no doubt, but I dunno if I have the resolve for something of that scale. To track an entire life's minutae. Hmmm. Interesting.

As far as yesterday goes, here it is:

Got up 6:10, struggled to remember freaky dream, showered, did not use leave in conditioner, read comics, checked facebook, spilled blueberries while packing lunch, cleaned up, ate blueberries and pineapple w/ vanilla yogurt, took motrin and fish oil w/orange juice, filpped through Newsweek, put on socks and shirt, sat on couch, petted cat, put on shoes, got bag, said bye to Dad, drove to work in terrible traffic, got to work late, called in, came in looked at schedule, talked to Vincent, tried to make coffee, failed, priced books 8:00-9:00, picked up a copy of Thus Spake Zarathustra, got coffee, bought books from people, did a cary in, cart buy, got burned out by 11:40, went to piss, got more coffee, talked about Bloomsday, noted Jason's deep dark despair, texted Max, went to lunch, sat down, stood up, washed hands, got lunchbox, microwaved hamburger, read Shopenhauer, ate fruit, negotiated with hot cheeseburger, scalded fingers, drank soda, finally finished hamburger, read, put head down, threw away trash, put bag away, steeled myself, looked at my section, did some donates, went to the bathroom, went back out to my section, shelved laconically, went to the breakroom, talked to Colby, got my stuff, drove to Paperbacks plus, passed it, turned around, drove back, parked went in, looked around, took a piss in upstairs bathroom, walked around more, sat down, went back out to car, labeled my book with my name, put away sunglasses, got stuff, went back inside, introduced myself to Daryll Scroggins, sat down, waited, introduced myself to everyone, sat and listened, talked to Thea, got a drink, talked to thea again, sat down, started getting a little bored, put stuff up, got ready to go, went downstairs, drove home, came in, put bag down, ate fruit, reheated lasagna, talked to mom, ate lasagna, surfed internet, brought container to sink, said hi to dad, called Ari, talked for 1:38:45, went to sleep.

Mas Poemas

Haven't been studious in my updating. Here are a few poems.

Poems From the DART, 9/29/08
1.
face pockmarked by
years laboring in the sun, yet
you too are beautiful-
for you have lived your life
uncloistered;
bereft of ignorant intellectualism
and with your hands
you spoke to the dirt
and it spoke back
true illiterate prophet of the soil

2.
graceful curves your ear
below hair pulled back,
carefully clean and combed

so beautiful are the arches
that span your face
an Alhambra formed
of flesh

but all of it put to lie
by the ink stain etched
on the vestigial wing
of your shoulder

the dressed up scream
of a madman who
could not bear
the overwhelming beauty
of life

3.
stalactites on an old
neck
water of time drip drips
dripping
etching calcium deposits
in flesh

Esperanza Perdida

¡Que tristeza!
Las Doñas lloran,
en sus vestidas negras
the mists of morning
swirl in the air.

¡Tan joven!
They shriek, and pull their hair
the dark-haired lad lays
pale on the cobblestone
red blood on the barrel
of his father's rifle.

Los irregulares file
iron through the streets.
And the seed of liberty,
planted new,
is crushed 'neath
the heel of combat boots.

Hope had they,
that perhaps,
with the dawning
of the day
the chains of centuries,
long rusted
would clatter free

but such dreams
are just that,
dreams;
and melt away
with the dawning
of the day.

Who Questions the Questioner?

In My Education, William Burroughs says cryptically that “the answer to any question will come when you stop asking questions and wipe from your mind the concept of question”. Upon reading this however, in quite the opposite reaction from the Grand Old Zombie of the Counterculture intention, my mind was flooded with questions. Chiefly among those was “What is the concept of question?” or more succinctly, “What is a question?”.
Quite the puzzling abstraction really. Namely, it is difficult to say what a question is without resorting to tautologous synonyms. Is a question the act of questioning? An inquest into something? An inquest is just the formalized act of putting something to the question, and the act of questioning, while surely what a question is in the most literal of senses, doesn’t really get us anywhere. A performative then surely, in Austin’s sense; the grammatical request for more information. But again, how can one request something without asking a question? Command surely, but not request.
Admittedly, the level of abstraction at which we’re working is a heavy duty one indeed. It begs all sorts of questions on its own, such as- can general metaphysical types even be said to exist outside the mind? But that’s off-topic for the time being. But self-reference is a major problem in sorting a thing like this out. How can one question questioning without asking a question? Perhaps you can’t, and questions are some inexplicable epiphenomenon that’s arisen Gödelian from the murk of human cognition. But that I refuse to believe. The thought that my faculties are simply not up to the challenge is much more comforting. Almost needless to say, the desire to check Wikipedia mounts with each passing frustration.
Sadly, even Wikipedia is stymied by such murk, defining a question as “linguistic expression used to make a request for information, or else the request itself made by such an expression”. To which the dictionary replies “no such luck shit-head, try thinking for yourself”. Not in so many words however, as dictionaries are commonly more polite than that. The 2009 Random House Dictionary, courtesy of dictionary.com, defines a request as “the act of asking for something to be given or done, esp. as a favor or courtesy; solicitation or petition”.
So, according to the internet, that endless font of knowledge and distraction, a question is a linguistic expression used to make the act of asking for information. And in order to ask, you have to use a question. Self-reference again! What’s to be done? Again! Gah, this is getting frustrating.
When queried, my brother responded that perhaps a question is a desire for knowledge. That is true, but it seems more satisfactory as an answer for “Why do we ask questions?”, or “What are questions for?”. So he was no help really, and my sister just quirked her eyebrow at me uncomprehendingly. So much for asking teenagers for help with metaphysical problems.
None of this gets me any closer to understanding what the concept of a question is. The problem with the concept of question is that there is no “question”, no platonic form that all questions adhere to. Drawing upon the Wittgensteinan idea of Family Resemblances, in which categories are not strict but rather fuzzy and bleed into one another, perhaps the concept of question depends upon the question being asked. This self-referential modulation would fit with the flood tide of self-reference that this whole project has been struggling to tread water in.
This still leaves me without any sort of clear picture of what I’m looking for or looking at. Which is particularly troublesome because the point of this whole exercise was to find out what a concept of questioning is so that I could push it aside and allow my answers to come more naturally.
Perhaps the process of questioning is the unfolding of the lotus of knowledge, petal by petal; the question the rough fingers by which the petals are spread; and the concept is the hope that when you get done, you’ll have made it look the way it should have looked if you waited for it to open on its own.
But when you stop all this, and clear away the concept of questioning, in a very Zen sort of way, you realize that the lotus doesn’t need to be unfolded, because it already is, you just have to look at it.