File spoon-archives/avant-garde.archive/avant-garde_1995/avant-garde_Dec.95, message 24


Date: Tue, 5 Dec 1995 18:03:32 -0500
From: ostrow-AT-is2.nyu.edu (Ostrow/Kaneda)
Subject: Re: unsolicited intrusion


There are a number of issues here, none of which are the reason I'm on this
list.  This being said I will address your mis-representation.

Firstly Mr. Yang I do not consider you some mis-guided liberal but  assume
that you are part of this intrusion. I could easily berate you but I will
try instead to reason with you not for the sake of your soul but to set an
example, Please do not take this as encouragement for there will be no
further reponses, I also want to say at this point that any publication of
these remarks  I will consider an infringement of my copyright, for I
reserve all rights  to my part in this exchange.  Be aware I do not have
the time or energy to engage in a deep analysis but these cursory remarks
will have to suffice.

You write >In another sense, nothing in John's presentation seems stilted
or designed to
>provoke by manipulating or distorting what actually goes on in an
>abortion.>They seem to be a fairly straightforward recitation of the
>procedures that a doctor actually performs when he performs an abortion.

This discription is not that of the general run of the mill abortion, but
was chosen by those who (if they did publish it in the NY Times) for its
shock value right down to the reference to an angelic face. What was
represented is a  not the common abortion by suction but a some what
conflicted discription and contrived fantasy of a trisemester abortion.
Furthermore my fine feathered apologist, the circumstances of this
procedure are not explained. Was the mother life in danger.  This type of
abortion is not elective surgery. This having been established let us
proceed to your  further point which  beyond the fact that no one was
talking about  war and abortion seems to rely on a profound horror of
death.

> It seems to me a legitimate point to make that when you are discussing
>realities such as >war and abortion--that an important part of that
>reality isprofoundly emotionally and >viscerally disturbing.

Whole this is true, one can and should remember that the horror of war is
suffered by the living, as are the consequences of  ones own actions in
life. Abortion is not horrible, what is horrible is a society that cares so
little for their children (and so much for the abstract notion of Life)
that it does increasingly less to profide those who are not aborted with
any form of security.  The abuse of the living is what should concern you.
The bourgeoisie will not shoulder its responsiblity for the values it has
foistered on others, as you now know human life under this system has no
value unless itshows a profit. Therefore weep for th living and not the
unborn.


Calling it an avant garde ploy that is
>already horribly passe seems to be just a knowing and strategically fortified
>way of sweeping it under the rug-- a troubling recapitulation of the
>convnetional bourgioues attitude towards the violent  ( do you mean
>violence)that substitutes  bored "in the know-ness" for revulsion and
>shock.

I think your fiend John's second post, firstly confirms that his posting is
a ploy , it=wouldn't surprise me if he isn'tcollecting thes post as a
"Piece" secondly  revulsion and shock is tittilating (sp?) and if you
aren't aware of this  easily marketed (just think of most big money
entertainment ),  a reasoned discussion that is not the product of either
oppurtunism or hysteria is more difficult.  Propose something useful,
pointing fimgers and terrorizing people is an act of fustration and
demonstrates a lack of imagination. It is this lack of imagination that
lead to the institutionalization of the avant garde and the appropriation
of its tactics by the right,  By the way conscience is no substitute for
consciousness. Finally most no nothings meet a timely end brought about by
their own stupidity and self-righteousness.  I think those who are anti
abortion should set their own house in order.


Saul Ostrow
Art Editor Bomb Magazine
Co-editor of the Journal Lusitania
General Editor for the book series "Critical Voices"




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