Issue 1 Polite Clarification
Indulge me in an obscure analogy. Let's say I sit down and write the most vile, nasty, over-the-line-type-of-toxic-racist missive I can think of. Better yet, rearrange some Google vomit into an original composition and save myself a few minutes. If I were to distribute this speech, it would be considered a hate crime. I could, however, shape this text into letterforms -- say, large 120pt letters composed of 10pt type. If I were to spell something like "racism is bollocks" out of such illegal text, the mode of reading would be altered. The formerly despicable statement would be neutralized.
This is an approximation of my original expectations regarding the reception of this magazine. I expected its size, format, and (to my eye) clearly algorithmically generated content to make our intentions clear. I wholeheartedly support the world of small press publishing and small press writing. Following the distribution of Issue 1, I would consider myself to be a member of that community on some small scale.
Further, I encourage anyone with a favorable disposition and the means to cover shipping to send one or more than one chapbook of your own assembly to the For Godot editorial team. No pressure. [Edit: We will trade a physical copy of Principal Hand 002 in return for each package received.]
Stephen McLaughlin
Schilperoortstraat 84 A2
3082SX Rotterdam, NL
Gregory Laynor
427 South 45th Street, #1R
Philadelphia PA 19104
Vladimir Zykov
440 W. Sedgwick St. C218
Philadelphia PA 19119
I should note that the address and phone number which Ron Silliman so kindly shared on the front page of his blog belong not to me but to my parents. I'd really appreciate it if you didn't wake them up in the middle of the night. Please direct all rambling expletive improvisations to my American voicemail line, 1-856-393-1706. I promise to listen to every single one.
I should also note that the email address posted by Ron Silliman has been sitting idle since I was in high school. I haven't checked it yet, but I'm looking forward to what I'll find.
This is an approximation of my original expectations regarding the reception of this magazine. I expected its size, format, and (to my eye) clearly algorithmically generated content to make our intentions clear. I wholeheartedly support the world of small press publishing and small press writing. Following the distribution of Issue 1, I would consider myself to be a member of that community on some small scale.
Further, I encourage anyone with a favorable disposition and the means to cover shipping to send one or more than one chapbook of your own assembly to the For Godot editorial team. No pressure. [Edit: We will trade a physical copy of Principal Hand 002 in return for each package received.]
Stephen McLaughlin
Schilperoortstraat 84 A2
3082SX Rotterdam, NL
Gregory Laynor
427 South 45th Street, #1R
Philadelphia PA 19104
Vladimir Zykov
440 W. Sedgwick St. C218
Philadelphia PA 19119
I should note that the address and phone number which Ron Silliman so kindly shared on the front page of his blog belong not to me but to my parents. I'd really appreciate it if you didn't wake them up in the middle of the night. Please direct all rambling expletive improvisations to my American voicemail line, 1-856-393-1706. I promise to listen to every single one.
I should also note that the email address posted by Ron Silliman has been sitting idle since I was in high school. I haven't checked it yet, but I'm looking forward to what I'll find.
Labels: issue 1
This entry was posted by Stephen McLaughlin, on
05 October 2008.
You can leave your response.
"What a long, strange product rollout it's been!"
--Krusty the Klown
I'll send you a book!
Speaking of the bollocks, never mind 'em ... as an old album cover used to say ...
Bravo!
Nice work on putting the issue out!
The note is very much appreciated, guys.
ryan
I know you boys won't mind one little bit if I actually use the poem attributed to me. There's a couple of good lines in there. I don't know why you did all of this, but it certainly made me laugh. Especially all the hysterical responses from those who have no sense of humor. Carry on, gentlemen.
For pity's sake, do not let Ron bully you. His eminence grise is not always in the right.
I like this. I even like the poem my computer self wrote. This whole thing is charming. I'll send you a self made chapbook for Erica to chew up.
Maryrose
Hello there.....the poem attributed to me is not mine. Very curious indeed.
MaryAnn McCarra-Fitzpatrick
Mount Vernon, New York
http://mccarra--poetry.blogspot.com/
thank you for the poems
Yes, thank you. I am quite excited by this project on a conceptual level, and I think the poems generated are awesome.
--Marie Buck
U R OK!
wow, what a great marketing strategy. I should have thought of this for Tilt Press, that small press I run without reading fees, offering opportunities to emerging poets exclusively, on my own dime.
I'll send you all three slated chapbooks that Tilt Press will be publishing this year, for free, because if there's anything that I love more than mockery, it's poetry.
whine, whine, cry, cry. But seriously - would any of you boys be interested in volunteering your time to my piddly press and help get our name out there, because you are, leaving all my sarcasm behind, marketing geniuses.
One dangerous thing about cloning poems, or making a programme write poems, is that it kills Creativity that fathers and mothers what we do as poets. I admire this "fake anthology" though, for the simple reason that it certainly throws up interesting issues for the theorizing authorship (of poetry) in the Age of Artificial Intelligence. Gradually, we see the realization of the "death of the author", far beyond what Roland Barthes had imagined, the demystification of the person of the poet, and the dissolution of the homocentric in writing and reading. Who says genius is not an incarnation of madness?
-- Obododimma Oha
Hi - just wanted to second everyone here by saying I think this is terrific and interesting. Actually, people's reactions are really what's interesting...seems shockingly Old School to be pissed about such an obviously Dadaist act of appropriation!
Appropriation: 2 Case Studies
1917, Marcel Duchamp - The Richard Mutt Case
2008, Stephen McLaughlin - The For Godot Case
http://lesfigues.blogspot.com/2008/10/appropriation-2-case-studies.html
I'm honored to be in any publication that include work (whether real or not) by Raymond Queneau.
I still have no idea why I'm in there, but It's funny regardless. "My" poem isn't half-bad either.
I don't have a chapbook at present, but i'm going to put one together and include the poems of "mine" from the anthology.
I will send it to you when I am no longer in the philippines. this piece is brilliant and I am delighted to have been one of the names used in it.
will you be publishing your list of sources for names at some point? it seems like it should be included the same way original publications are included in the "best american poetry" series.
-JF Quackenbush
It's amazing --all this high brow theorizing about this project. It's a bunch of young guys wanting to be noticed. Oldest game in the book. Hats off to them, for clever marketing. The poetry-that's another story. But for PR, these guys are geniuses. Good way to launch a magazine--Google alerts to thousands in the poetry community. Hope the "real" thing measures up.
I just want to say that I do not object to your project and I am not upset about my name being used. However, I do think it is a rather insipid project. Though the intentions which you mention may have been good, the project itself is disappointing... also disappointing, I must add, are the vitriolic attacks on the project. I would encourage you to take a new approach to the material, because nothing is really being said here, aside from some banal points regarding authorial relations and textual promulgation that have frankly been done to death in the conceptual field.
Oh, Jonathan, I bet you haven't even read the magazine!
Ross Priddle (Trademark)
Donald Ross Priddle (Registered)
D. Ross Priddle (Copyright)
drosspriddle (Registered Trademark)
Karen Eliot (TM)
Istvan Kantor (C)
Monty Cantsin (R)
Luther Blissett (C)
hmmm, now i gotta chose an identity to post this...
I posted "my" poem from the anthology on my blog, it looks good there! I adopted it!
I think the only reason I was included is because I have made it my postmodern-avant-garde-performance project to have sex with everyone who does something to promote my career.
Okay, deep breaths... who's first? Stevie-kins? Vladdy-boo?
I loved it. Keep it up!
"...a meaning in some human future;
to stop being what one was in endlessly anxious
hands,
and ignore even one's own name like a broken toy." -
Rainer Maria Rilke, "The First Elegy"
you should totally do that thing where you spell RACISM IS BOLLOCKS out of hate speech
leave a response