From the JB Artforum Interview
I am in love with the Liz Kotz interview with Judith Butler that we read for class. My copy of it is marked with exclamation points, notes, questions, and a heart next to "Joan Nestle."
This is one of my favorite parts, among many, in the interview:
Our friend J.B. said, "I... would love to sit down with Spinoza's Ethics and write commentaries that no one would ever read. And I don't want to have to justify that to anybody. I do think it is important to pursue intellectual questions that cannot be be readily justified through a direct or predictable relationship to politics. I don't want to think always in reference to that standard, and I worry about the effects on thinking that such a rigid notion of political accountability might have."
I drew a big asterisk next to this section and wrote "balancing utility with the sublime!" While my idea of doing something just for myself is definitely not reading and writing about a crusty philosophy book, I really appreciate what J.B. is saying. Not everything has to be for political output. In order to get to a point of producing work or thought that is politically effective, you can't confine yourself to one path or method. You have to let yourself have other pursuits, which can be enjoyable, to participate in the world, in politics, from a thoughtful perspective. I don't think there can or should be any activity or discipline that exists sheerly for political utility. All content and no form? How can that be effective in touching peoples lives?
Here's my argument: If people had no joy in their lives, if every activity had to be directly functional, we would all be so miserable that we could never get anything done. For example, I am obsessed with pop music. (When I say pop music, I almost always mean solo female vocal performers who I find to be the most brilliantly POP and not just "popular.") Yes, I do use pop music as a lens to view more "important" or identifiably academic issues like misogyny, power, consumerism, bodies, symbols, etc. However, I actually LIKE pop music. It's not some quaint, strange, low thing that normal, ill-advised people eat up while I study it anthropologically. I actually love it. We're led to believe that pop music is okay for dumb young girls and apolitical gay men. No "intelligent" person would ever admit to liking a song with a pop vocal that you can dance to. But no one is willing to broach the reality that the acceptability of Pop Music is so deeply tied in with sexism, classism, and homophobia. My love of pop has to become political then. But what's equally significant is that I would love it regardless.
Thank you, Judith Butler. Your intellectualism inspires me everyday to listen to more Janet. And you can work on your Spinoza.
I'm just getting started on this. There's so much more to say.
