From: WDubin-AT-aol.com
Date: Fri, 30 Aug 1996 13:56:10 -0400
Subject: Poison meat


Hi to all,

Frank,

I will try to answer some of the things you've written, but I'm doing so
after having read Celine's most excellent version, and she has said much of
it far better than I could.

First: changing the world... there seem to be TWO major factions, actually
>from the very beginning, in Surrealism (of course sometimes one person
contains both, so I'm not being simplistic, but please grant mer my example).

The first was(hopefully we still are), the ARTIST (all media)... the second
was the individual who chose action on the "political" front to alter social
"injustice".

For some of us, being the ONE automatically includes the OTHER, but we only
EXPRESS it through  the MEDIUM we know best.

Through-out my life, I've been pissed-off about the political events
surrounding my life, but I am simply NOT the sort of person who riots in the
streets. Understand, I am all FOR this person... I'll buy them the fucking
gun, but I, myself, BEING HONEST WITH WHO I AM, simply am NOT that p;erson.

Instead, as Celine so adaquedtly responded already, I, and people like me
(like us), cause Giant Revolutions in our studio's. On the off chance you
think this is slightly less full-filing than street-action, I refer you to
the work of Delacroux, and certainly Hugo, and, I assume J'Acusse is known
also.

We also do this other thing... we JOIN orginizations which are supposed to be
REVOLUTIONARY... the one I joined is called Surrealism. Perhaps, in the early
days, it WAS... and, at least political-action-in -the-streets is still the
function of the Paris group and such people as Carlos... but somewhere down
the line the ACTION of the artist was demeaned , and our RIGHT of
revolutionary action no longer was respected.

You say "It is oooooooh so easy to withdraw..." Shit, Frank... do you think
I've withdrawn? Well, spend a day or so in MY head... ity might be rougher
than any street action you've seen. And, if you think living as an artist in
a world where even the people who are SUPPOSED to be on your side have
absolutely no conception of what your talking about.... well, I can't explain
the un-explainable.

Now, you recommend I join a fucking church.... Well, Frank, I THOUGHT I had
done my best to do the exact opposite, but the actions and the worship
expressed in so many posts have convinced me I already have.

Is Auschwitz a great work of art? I can answer this simply... no, it  wasn't.
The fact that it was an extreamly efficent machine which functioned quite
well at its appointed tasks hardly makes it a work of art.

HOWEVER, if you draw a collorarly between the ABILITIES of the 19th. century
Pompier painters such as Gerome, Bourgereau, and Cabannel (for Paris), you
will see how the erfficency of the death camps and efficency of the academic
artists reach a parallel plane.

This does NOT automatically bestow ART on either the Pompier painters, nor
the death-camps. Just as there are extreamly few ARTISTS in any century,
there are extreamly few artistic murder's. Simply increasing the body-count
doesn't increase the artistic level. If body count were the criteria, then
the catholicks would be the winners.

At this juncture, I must ask if you are recognizing the differences between
an artist and a person who does art.

What is wrong with killing for the purpose of pleasure? Why is killing OK if
its got political overtones and is for the revolution. What about the
revolution of PLEASURE.

Violence without a purpose... everything is without a purpose... 

How would I avoid playing the power-game? Well, obiviously I can't... no-one
can. If you work for someone, you have YOUR power-games... if they work for
you, you still have power-games... there NEVER is a point, given that TWO
HUMAN BEINGS ARE INTER-ACTING, when power-games arn't in play... and if they
choose NOT to inter-act, the refusal to inter-act is simply ANOTHER
power-game.

Lets face it, unless you exist in a hole in the ground, and refuse to eat the
worms that crawl past you, LIFE is a continual power-game.

Being able to create solutions that go beyond Hollywood (the city I grew up
in, by the way), is as easy as my next fantasy.

A foot-note...Frank, you seem to be the one who is taking all the heat with
this. While I am somewhat discouraged that your position seems so opposed to
ours, so far you haven't drawn a gun, so, like Celine, I say that my comments
arn't directed AGAINST you, but to you.

Wm.