It is quite easy in art to decry rape, genocide, nuclear war, incest, drug abuse, racism, homophobia, etc. I mean, in arts circles the pro-rape, pro-genocide, pro-nuclear winter, pro-incest, pro-drug, KKK, & John Birch lobbies are so pervasive! I recall what Don Moss uttered after reading Carolyn Forche’s travesty The Angel Of History: “Y’know, Dan, before reading this book I never realized WAR IS BAD!”
You see, “Liberals” prefer being liked to being excellent. I like Maya Angelou’s sentiments—who wouldn’t? —Ted Bundy? But they’re trite & poorly structured. It’s part of a noxious trait that artists have— a desire to both show, yet shield their humanity from non-artists. Instead of merely acknowledging artists DO things differently &/or better than non-artists, artists adopt the hubris that they ARE different &/or better than non-artists. Artists KNOW implicitly that art is not a life necessity— go 2 weeks without garbagemen or 2 weeks without artists & tell me who you’ll miss more. Same goes for doctors, plumbers, & policemen. Art is not meat & potatoes like those pursuits. It is a chocolate sundae & artists resent this fact furiously (as a poet, trust me— few artists accept art’s superfluity as I do) so they concoct & construct grand rationales for art’s relevance/necessity. They then engage in banal homiletics— both poetic & prosaic— rather than engage with fresh wordplay, startling POVs, interesting & diverse subject matter. This is the dirty little secret artists (overwhelmingly liberal) dare not speak. This is why PC Elitists, nowadays far more so than conservatives, traffic in censorship— something, to his credit, even Bly excoriates. (I guess he’s not totally hopeless, after all.) But the sway of PC Elitism over contemporary art is just a passing phase. Multiculturalism will sort out its own in a few decades & the bad will fall by the hands of the next waves of Multiculturalists themselves. The Millennial era will be seen as one of laze, lost opportunity, & frittered talent.

Poetic Sanity in the Asylum: CosmoDan

Schneider Pt II

May9

In today’s bastardized tongue a “Conservative” can claim that title even though he/she wants to peer into people’s bedrooms & women’s bodies. A “Libertarian” can claim it part of his/her creed that corporations can run roughshod over the environment & the populace’s health—for poor corporations need to have liberty just like individuals— in fact MORE liberty than individuals. And a “Liberal”, today, can say with a straight face, that it’s fine & even constitutional to censor books, games & ideas if it offends someone for ANY reason— especially if it “Harms Children!”— the ultimate skirt for cowards to hide behind. For “Liberals”, especially, the NEED to tell truths (a noble pursuit— to “Liberals”) trumps the WANT to entertain (a frivolous waste). So few poets today— of any stripe— enjoy “foolin’ with words” (as Bill Moyers might grin)— they must SAY something; oblivious to the fact that all words & phrases have meanings, & by occasionally letting wordplay guide one, you get ideas anew, & sometimes a better way to express the original idea desired. But to that ilk joy, knowledge, & such discovery become gauche— how dare you contemplate or luxuriate when there’s so much suffering!

( how DARE you ! )

Poetic Sanity within the Asylum: CosmoDan

Schneider Called It in 2001 !

May9

Dan Schneider on Robert Bly:

Bly falls into didacticism—a trait he always displays with audiences—reading & rereading the most inconsequential images, lines, stanzas, & poems as if of cosmic import. It’s also the dead giveaway of a man unsure of himself, his talent, & in need of constant reinforcement. But then he’s always played the “insecure liberal”, wasting time & energy in politics that should go to art, who needs to show his/her innate goodness, go to a [3rd World country/rehab center/orphanage/social activist group] to see how the other ½ lives, translate 5th rate poetasters into English, & leach bad poems from the transformative period so crucial to their growth as a poet/person. It’s all part of the co-opting of language & freedoms by so many groups—PC Elitists among them.