A previous blog entry described my protest against the anointing of Gary Snyder with the Robert Creeley Award in Acton (see http://wwwtheamericandissidentorg.blogspot.com/2010/03/fierce.html). The protest was staged because Snyder was a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets, which had censored and banned me. Snyder was indifferent to that censorship incident and banning. The directors of the Robert Creeley Award, including Bob Clawson and Penelope Creeley, were also indifferent to that censorship incident and banning. Clawson would later inform me that Penelope had mentioned during the ceremony that she respected my right to free speech, that is, to protest... as if I'd needed her "respect" with that regard. The cartoon explains why that "respect" was as vacuous as vacuous gets.
Friday, April 30, 2010
Penelope Creeley
A previous blog entry described my protest against the anointing of Gary Snyder with the Robert Creeley Award in Acton (see http://wwwtheamericandissidentorg.blogspot.com/2010/03/fierce.html). The protest was staged because Snyder was a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets, which had censored and banned me. Snyder was indifferent to that censorship incident and banning. The directors of the Robert Creeley Award, including Bob Clawson and Penelope Creeley, were also indifferent to that censorship incident and banning. Clawson would later inform me that Penelope had mentioned during the ceremony that she respected my right to free speech, that is, to protest... as if I'd needed her "respect" with that regard. The cartoon explains why that "respect" was as vacuous as vacuous gets.
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28 comments:
You know you hit the big time when you get the Asians chiming in...I guess that's one language you don't know?
Yes, not sure where the chintoks are coming from. But I have an idea of what they're saying. Don't you? One thing is good about the blog. I can't get more than one or two interested in it, sure, but if you google Snyder + dissident, for example, you'll be directed almost immediately to the blog I did on Snyder. That's why I'm doing it. Otherwise, I would have quit. Social networker, I am not. I leave that to your buddy Tim.
Do you think you empower the Robert Creeley award by protesting who it is given to?
I think all awards are ridiculous, but maybe I would have a different opinion if I had ever actually won one.
the more I read this guy, the more he reminds me of you:http://kingwenclas.blogspot.com/
that comment was for Slone, not Troxell.
Hiya, Spencer!
Spencer,
Not quite sure what you mean. There are always tons of excuses for not doing, including the possibility of empowering the Award, though again I'm not really what that means. I did not expect to enlighten anyone at all. I did not expect to bump into anyone with similar ideas. My protest was against CENSORSHIP, Snyder's role in it, and the Award's indifference to it. My protest was an open expression of my self as an INDIVIDUAL and thus a manifestation of my human dignity. Those who remain silent, lose human dignity, though gain awards and positions.
M,
Well, as mentioned, I definitely do not copy from King. I barely no him. He has published some of my protest essays and I signed one of his petitions against PEN. Is he a cartoonist too? Is he an academic by profession like me? Is he unemployed?
T.
Over at the Daily Kos* I was accused of lending 'doing a disservice to everyone' by alternately challenging the virtue of polling and the amount of respect the American people's opinion should be given regarding various esoteric issues, i.e., do they deserve headlines or that much thought at all.
That's why I'm asking, because the question had recently been put to me.
I guess in a way, whenever someone begs the question like that they are really either asking you why you bother getting out of bed, or are embarrassed that you're making a scene, or are hoping that if we ignore a problem it will go away.
Hi Mather.
*http://spencertroxell.blogspot.com/2010/05/drudge-headline-rasmussen-poll-33-want.html
This is all so vague, Spencer. I really don't know what you're saying.
I'm guessing as to why a person might ask the question I opened with, which is, essentially, 'why are you protesting a silly poetry award ceremony, and what do you hope to accomplish with your protest.'
I guess I'm surprised that you weren't expecting to change anyone's mind.
'an expression of my self as an INDIVIDUAL' can work, but since you were expressing yourself in a public forum, I would expect the reaction of others to have some effect on your choice.
Good. Now I understand: “why are you protesting a silly poetry award ceremony, and what do you hope to accomplish with your protest.” That’s clear. I protested, and I repeat over and again because people can’t seem to understand, because the poet awarded the prize was part of an organization that censored me. Is that so difficult to comprehend? I’m viscerally against censorship, whereas most citizens could give a fuck about it. I’m thus different from most citizens. I also protested against the directors of the award for giving an award to a proponent of censorship and for not giving a damn about censorship. Also, I protested because in doing so I get to see what today’s poets are like right up in-your-face close, whether they give a damn about censorship, etc. Finally, I protested because often I get inspiration that sparks my satirical cartooning and writing. So, I accomplished the writing of an essay critical of poets, several cartoons, and several chapters for my ongoing manuscript, Conversations with the Established Order.
I stand as an individual, not as a member of a group. The reaction of other poets is inevitable scorn and mockery… not openness. If Snyder had not been a member of the censoring Academy, I would not have protested. Snyder too manifested indifference to censorship. I don’t like to step out and stand in front of these people at all.
I know you're not copying Wenclas. It seems more like he's copying you, but that's probably not it either. It just seems like you two share a lot of the same fire, influences and messages. He's quoting Solzehitzin and Orwell, talking about apparatchiks, etc. Much of his rhetoric reminds me of you. That's all. I don't think he's a cartoonist and I have no idea what he does for a living. I find both of your blogs interesting. I put the address up because some of the recent comment sections under his posts seem like arguments I have seen here.
Thanks. That makes sense to me. Thanks for encouraging me to be straightforward.
I think I suffer from a little bit of an anti-democratic impulse. Whenever I see people holding up signs in front of a government building, or on a college campus, words like 'mob' and 'herd' pop into my head. The thought that violence may not be far off occurs to me.
That you stood in protest on your own seems braver than the kind of group protest I described above. When you're in a group, you're part of a movement. When you're alone, you're just a nut.
I think most people are all for free speech so long as it doesn't make us uncomfortable.
So, he's used the term apparatchik! Maybe he has checked out my site, but he's never mentioned it to me. He's not big on communicating. But I'm glad he's out there taking the icons to task. I'll have to check his site out again. Thanks always for the comments, Mather.
Spencer,
Glad you didn’t take offense at anything I stated. Sometimes I just let it out and people get pissed off. I forget to hone and soften the edges… or just don’t feel like it.
Well, I share that anti-herd impulse with you. I have never protested with a group, always alone. Alone one tends to see a helluvalot more.
When alone, you’re perhaps a nut but only in the eyes of the herd. Alone, you’re an individual. So I disagree with your “nut” point.
The crux of CORRUPTED notions of free speech is right here in your phrase:
“I think most people are all for free speech so long as it doesn't make us uncomfortable.”
The First Amendment (Europeans and Canada do not have a First!) exists to protect the “speech that makes us uncomfortable.” The speech that makes us comfortable needs no protection. Most people do not understand that… and in that sense their education failed them. Academics for the most part DO NOT understand this fundamental principle of American democracy. And they continue to produce graduates who don’t understand it either. PC proponents would prefer no First Amendment at all and create hate speech laws akin to those in place in Europe and Canada.
Censorship is quite similar. Academics are calling it MODERATION and MODERATING today and willingly, if not eagerly, CENSOR anything that makes them feel uncomfortable.
T.
I'll never be uncomfortable with conflict. I'm an atheist and an epicurean. This is the only guaranteed shot at life I have, and I'm not going to avoid growth and experience by cowering inside a shell of dogma. Conflict can be uncomfortable, but embracing it is the only way to live authentically.
I'll side with a lone nut over a flock of sheep any day.
Yes, now that I straightened his ASS out, I really like what G. Tod's doing with his protests. I wonder though, re: the Wenclas doppelganger. What came first the chicken or the Slone? i.e. are these two sucking each other's dicks?
So, ST is back! King and I do not know each other. I certainly have not copied his stuff. All of my stuff comes from personal experience as an ACADEMIC at various colleges and universities. King does not have that university experience. So, I don't know what his experience is or why and where he's coming from. No matter. I am happy that he is out there. He has published several of my essays on ULA. He's in PA and I'm in MA. So, ST, as to your brilliant dick-sucking statement, the answer is NO. For me writing from direct experience is the key and what tends to differentiate me from other academic poets. They avoid like the plague writing what they know best: CORRUPTION IN ACADEME. Mather writes from his experience as a cabbie and that's why his stuff is good. It's authentic. What we need in poetry is a helluvalot more authenticity.
Amen
At this moment, I sit across from the 12 shelves of books called Christian Inspiration at the B&N in Hyannis, MA. Time to get out of here.
T.
Ok, mi hermano... since you want me to ask, what does ST stand for?
Just an error. I meant to write MPP, not ST. BTW, Mather and MPP, did either of you pose the same question to Wenclas? And if not, why not?
I did pose the same question to Wenclas on his blog. He said he knew of you, and pointed to the fact that he's got a link to American Dissident on there which I did not notice at first. That's all he said.
Glad you did, M. You did already mention that you weren't implying that I was copying from him and I thank you for that. Of course, I doubt any of this will matter in the year 2011. We shall both be vanished into nothingness in the year 2090. Just applied for adjunct Spanish courses in Lakeland, FL... wherever the hell that is. $3K per course... which isn't bad for the south. I told the guy if he got me 2 courses, then I'd be willing to drive down. My car is 20 years old. BTW, I was proud of myself: I put in two hood pins and it solved the hood problem of no latch. Amen. Cost me $9 for the pins and about 2 hrs. of drilling labor. Next step is to get the smashed windshield fixed. Anyhow, I'll put another toon up here this week to move things along a bit.
It appears you are the original in this case, Slone. Congrats on having a wannabe you - not many can say the same. BTW, did you ever finish that Schopenhauer book. If so, you should check out Parerga and Paralipomena vol. 2, particularly the beautiful chapter "On Authorship and Style." Here are a few quotes: "...literary journals are now run by university guilds or literary cliques, and perhaps in secret even by publishers and booksellers, for the benefit of the book-trade; and there are, as a rule, a few coalitions of inferior minds who prevent good work from rising to the top. Even Goethe said that nowhere was there more dishonesty than in literature..."
About people who write anonymously: "Your name, you scoundrel! For to mask and disguise yourself and to attack those who go about undisguised is not the act of an honorable man, but of knaves and rascals. Therefore your name, you scoundrel!"
And a last about $$: "As soon as a man writes because he wants to make something, he writes badly."
etc., etc...
Nice Schop quotes. I'm gonna look for that book.
MP,
You’ve got a good memory! Those quotes definitely whet my appetite, so I shall check it out. I read some of Shopenhauer auf Deutsch. Many thanks for resparking my interest!
Glad you're back in town. Let the ole by-gones be by-gones. Few can seem to do that!
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