Date: Tue, 30 Jun 1998 11:21:56 -0400 (EDT) From: George Free <aw570-AT-freenet.toronto.on.ca> Subject: Re: the H&H manifesto On Tue, 30 Jun 1998, malgosia askanas wrote: > George wrote: > > > If I am not mistaken (and I very well may be) the intent > > (consious or not) of this manifesto is to distinguish German Dada, ie H > > &H, from their colleagues, whom they condemn as being merely "art for > > arts sake." In other words, they play at making a political gesture in > > order to distinguish themselves artistically. > > If you mean that the H&H manifesto was merely a move in an internal Dada game > of mutual repudiation or posturing or artistic one-upmanship, then I don't > think there is any basis for saying this. If you mean that it was an act of > self-definition or self-announcement, then this is of course true -- isn't > every manifesto such an act? So then the question is: what is the purpose, > role, significance of such statements of self-definition, such announcements > of intent? I was thinking of the latter, and my point was that despite theri "political " and "anti-art" posture that this is one that makes sense only in an artistic milieu. It is an artistic statement, not a political statement. therefore their position is self-contradictory and self-annhilating. ...but I should back off from this discussion without reviewing the historial specifics, since I think that things only make sense when read in context. > > Hee hee, I don't know if it goes without saying. What do you mean by > "nihilist"? It is not a word distinguished by univocality of meaning. > > by nihilism, I simply mean following a course of thought or action that is self-destructive, self-annhilating etc. There's an interesting distinction betweeen passive and active nihilisim found in Nietzsche and interpreters like Deleuze ...also in Dostoyevski ....whose work I was once particularly fascinated with. Active nihilism is sort of conscious self-cancellation which results in some kind of "re-birth" or dawn of a more highetened/awakened experience. forgive my spelling today, I had to telnet to my mail account and the connection was slow... cheers, George --- from list avant-garde-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
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