RAT Re: Betty Jane's Kitchen

["erik ehn" <shadowtackle@worldnet.att.net>]

I've been thinking a lot lately about rigor and identity (latter via
Mitchell's question, former via Odin Theater) - about who Rat is and about
what new American theater is saying as a movement. Spongy rigor is no rigor
at all and I get worried that that's what I'm imposing on audiences - high
demands with little precision (a militaristic brutality); in terms of
structures, am I complaining that the food's no good and that the portions
are too small? Then, also, are we precisely and purposively something all
together? Hopeful avenues for development.

Then the Betty Jane thread pops up out of the toaster, and I get out of my
head and into my more urgent appetite. We're not likely to get where we're
going through rational argument and mental adventurism. Rat will become what
it is through the experience of hospitality. We will become something new,
distinct from immediately available models, when our polity centers on the
exact action of breaking bread.

Heard this morning:

"Every celeb-
rat-
ion

contains a
RAT...

Radience
And
Transfiguration"

- e