File spoon-archives/avant-garde.archive/avant-garde_1995/avant-garde_Dec.95, message 14


Date: Tue, 05 Dec 1995 01:51:53 -0500
From: Eric Feinblatt <eric-AT-amanda.dorsai.org>
Subject: Re: unsolicited intrusion


Ostrow/Kaneda wrote:

> I can only assume that you are some failed avant garde artist in the artaud
> tradition attempting to shock and repulse. The problem is that adults do
> similar things to one another as well as to children . Its a cruel world
> and I would suggest you do something positive. Perhaps you should
> reconsider your aesthetic and engage in work that has a positive slant.
> The abject has had its day, the morbid and moribund becomes banal to easily
> in these days of ethnic cleansing and budgetary cut backs. Yeas a good
> career move for you would be as a performance artist.


Gee, Saul, I think you've made a rush to judgement. I don't think 
that John Young was promoting the "Right to Life" cause on this list 
but, rather, was using this quote from the Times as an example of 
how the tactics of "shock and revulsion" have been appropriated. We 
find ourselves now on the other side of the fence - not just up 
against the wall - but thrown there by those who have taken our 
modus operendi and used it against us. It is not just a question of 
taking a positive stance but of creating an intelligent discourse 
that neutralizes such inflammatory "arguments". Sure, we're all 
beasts but saying so doesn't change things a whit. Hyperbole has 
often been the most effective way of swaying peoples' points of 
view. Finding oursevelves now the victims of such method is rather 
uncomfortable but hardly different from when we were chanting "hey, 
hey LBJ, how many kids did you kill today?" The point here, and I 
agree with you, is to construct some kind of instructive analysis. 
Shibboleths don't work any longer. Even invoking the postive slogans 
of May '68 (to return to the subject of previous posts), for 
example, the sublime "Power to the Imagination", rings rather hollow 
in the face of budgetary cutbacks and ethinic cleansings. But few 
among us have had the inclination for considered thought - 
performance has always been easier.

-Eric


     --- from list avant-garde-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---

     ------------------

   

Driftline Main Page

 

Display software: ArchTracker © Malgosia Askanas, 2000-2005