Christopher Busa

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Our Brief Correspondence

Below is the brief correspondence I had with Busa.  See also my essay "Bards of a Feather Flock Together… At the Fine Arts Work Center of Provincetown" (https://wwwtheamericandissidentorg.blogspot.com/2018/08/b-ards-of-feather-flock-together-at.html).  Not one of the artists and poets contacted would respond.

From: George Slone [mailto:todslone@hotmail.com]
Sent: Friday, April 13, 2018 8:33 AM
To: cbusa@comcast.net
Cc: eileen.myles@gmail.com
Subject: The Crux...

To Christopher Busa, Founder and Editor, Provincetown Arts, “An annual magazine devoted to art, writing & theater since 1985”:  

Might I humbly suggest that you insert the word “establishment” in front of the word “art” in your subtitle?  After all, should not art and writing be concerned with rude truth?  

I attach a challenging aquarelle because it stands at the crux, at your very problematic crux.  Examine it, if you still have an iota of curiosity regarding things exterior to your art-establishment safe space.   Why will nobody publish it?  Is that a problem?  Yes!  It is a problem.  It is at the very crux of the art problem… to the extent that any artist even capable of contemplating it will likely experience problems in the world of the art establishment, your world.  I also attach the old aquarelle I did with you standing in the background.  

“Go away troll,” had written one of your poesy-establishment cover girls, Eileen Myles.  And indeed that seems to be the extent of permissible debate in the establishment world of poesy and art today.  Rude truth is not permitted in such safe spaces.  Only ideological echoing is permitted.  The crux!  Think!  Now, why not one little page in your journal devoted to criticism of you and your journal?  Pipe dream?  You bet!  The crux!  Think!

G. Tod Slone, PhD (Université de Nantes, FR), aka P. Maudit,

Founding Editor (1998)

The American Dissident, a 501c3 Nonprofit Journal of Literature, Democracy, and Dissidence

www.theamericandissident.org

wwwtheamericandissidentorg.blogspot.com

From: Christopher Busa

Sent: Friday, April 13, 2018 3:12 PM

To: 'George Slone'

Subject: RE: The Crux...

Silly Slone, I was trained in literary studies during a decade in graduate school with some of the foremost critics of the time. Your idea of criticism, from the shrillness of your rants, excludes any sense of illumination. Please do not contact me again. CB

From: George Slone [mailto:todslone@hotmail.com]
Sent: Friday, April 13, 2018 2:57 PM
To: Christopher Busa
Subject: Re: The Crux...

Hi Chris,

Well, I had to laugh out loud at your two little sentences of utter outrage.  The, your, severe hatred for criticism is truly mind-boggling, at least for a staunch independent thinker like me.  Also, your predictable "go-away-troll"-type B ad-hominem response confirms that hatred for anything not hagiographical in nature... and scorn for vigorous debate, cornerstone of democracy.  It is indicative that perhaps you have never been exposed to criticism, that you exist in a safe-space art bubble.  

It is quite sad that your attitude mirrors that of most poets, artistes, writers, journalists, and professors in today's America, where egregious backslapping and self-congratulating, as in your "excellent writing” statement, is the general modus operandi.   It is equally sad that you and those like you cannot comprehend that safe-space zones devoid of real external critical voices do not benefit creativity.  On the contrary, they benefit tourist-friendly art-as-usual, castrated and fully palatable for the business-as-usual establishment.  Below is the preface to one of my poetry books, Blackhole Abyss.  I should have dedicated it to you.  It includes an email sent to one of your likely cohorts, Michael Roberts.  Anyhow, thanks for your response, though again I encourage you to open your hermetically closed doors…   

G. Tod

Preface
L’Art pour l’art Is Cooptation

With artists it’s always the same thing—100% innocuous/anodyne, total absence of criticism or even reflection on the human condition in their art.  It is always the forme that counts, rarely the fond. Mega-sized paintings, photos, and sculpture are art, no matter what. It leaves me bewildered though, at this point, only a tad, for evidently to climb the art-establishment ladder one must follow establishment instructions and avoid establishment taboos. 

   The art reflects the vacuum in which the artists live—the safe cocoon, often an academic sinecure and/or group-think coterie. The art, rather than questioning and challenging, facilitates the continuing intrinsic corruption of society and its holier-than-thou community pillars. L’art pour l’art, or art for the sake of art, in today’s society is so commonplace, so widespread, that one might not even wonder if any other art modus operandi might even exist. 

  On Cape Cod, where I’ve been living since 2010, the art scene is very big.  Sadly, the art apparatchiks, who manage and fund it, are professionals—gatekeepers of propriety, close friends of the Chamber of Commerce—, who do not believe in inclusion and free expression.  Yes, they like the terms and will use them, but only in the Orwellian sense, as in we believe in inclusion, but your art is too critical, so it can’t be included.  The art scene on Cape Cod is 100% smiley-face art—innocuous and safe. Rare—very rare—artists who question and challenge local authority figures will not be funded or invited.  The local newspapers will not cover their art or art-related stories.  For the local art apparatchiks, the rare critical artist simply does not exist.  I do not exist.  

The birds squawk outside as if humans in general didn’t exist, as if in a time of pre-humanity.  Always I look for that beauty.  Now, here’s an email I sent to Michael Roberts, Executive Director, Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown.  Did he respond?  Of course not!  What does that signify?  Well, clearly the nail got hammered on the head!  

Hey, how come nobody contacted me to teach a workshop. Hell, I even live on Cape Cod.  Here’s what I’d like to teach.  Is it not odd that you seem to offer everything BUT? 

The Rare Poet as Truth-Teller

What is needed in the art and writing world is criticism.  How does one shake up the established order when the artists and writers are essentially an integral part of it and, consciously or not, abide by the thou-shalt-not-criticize-the-pillars-of-the-art-community commandment?  Few poets take risks.  Few poets will dare speak rude truth to power. Most would rather turn a blind eye, join the club of censorship and ostracizing, and otherwise climb the networking ladder of publications, awards, invitations, grants, workshop instructorships, tenure, and general anointment. In this course, you will be encouraged to question and challenge that dubious modus operandi and, from that, create poems. You will learn that conflict with power—literary, artistic, cultural, etc.—on all levels can provide a wonderful source for creativity…  

From: Christopher Busa <cbusa@comcast.net>
Sent: Friday, April 13, 2018 9:26 AM
To: 'George Slone'
Subject: RE: The Crux...

Clearly, your eyes are too clouded to read excellent writing, let alone understand. You are a silly pest that sucks blood from living things.