Here’s a nice link, thanks to Whitney, who sent it to me:
http://library.nothingness.org/articles/4/en/display/274
You’ll notice that it’s a list of ways to talk like a situationist. If you notice, too, every one of these items in the list one can check as your professor having done or said. Except one. I have not denounced universities or art yet. So, in order to fulfill my duty to talk like a situationist this week, here’s another link to how I denounced a university, and did so regularly as a union organizer:http:
To be fair about the situationists, I mean, the original group–they were very politically active and deplored universities as corporate engines that did not allow the same access to immigrant and poor populations in France. Divestment was also a big issue. Also, the really nice thing about this friendly joke article is that it re-enacts a rhetorical strategy of deflating an opponent: generalize, caricature, disempower words and actions by using them in simplified ways. Very similar to how a political opponent (John McCain, say) tries to deflate and trap another, more “dangerous” opponent (um, the African American candidate, “that one”).
Along the same lines, there’s an interesting debate going on right now about a pirated, unauthorized collection of poetry, For Godot–
http://poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2008/10/3785_page_pirated_poetry_antho.html
that I apparently appear in–which combines the names of avant-garde poets of today with long, dead avant-garde writers of the past and inserts a poem under each of those names that none have actually written. The debate is about a lot of silly things (including who actually constructed the book), but most interesting for us are the strands about whether this gorilla project is “situationist.” You’ll see a lot of the same deflationary language by those who dislike the collection but “like” situationism, those who like both, and those who dislike neither. The blog discussions are so interesting (socially) that I think you should read the comments of at least one of the blogs, The Poetry Foundation’s. Tell me what you think. Better, tell them by posting. If you all post, then you can take over the blog for a day, effectively performing an imaginary coup on the question of situationism. Weird thought, that is.
To get my take on this project, which has made quite the stir in the “experimental” poetry ”scene,” (not my thoughts, but the book, that is) you can read my comments. Suffice it to say here, it’s nice to appear in the same collection as Tristan Tzara, Emily Dickinson, and Bob Dylan. Or, are they my comments? Hmmm….
(to be continued.)
a friend who is quite versed in the writings of situationists has informed me that situationists hate the term “situationism.” huh.
Qui a peur du grand mauvais loup? Grand mauvais loup, grand mauvais loup, qui a peur du grand mauvais loup? lalalalala.