Re: RAT (not about) COLUMBINE

[Ezra Buzzington <jonoh1@juno.com>]

On Sat, 24 Apr 1999 20:19:50 EDT Lorddada9@aol.com writes:
>a message to you, johnathan...
>
>i agree with you about art needing to be "evil", but what is evil is 
>relative 
>to the system(s) it opposes. you seemed to have only read beyond good 
>and 
>evil and completely missed out on ecce homo, twilight of the idols, or 
>even 
>thus spoke zarathustra.

Ok. I admit it. I have no idea what you're talking about. Sorry. Dumb it
down for me.


 you have also seemed to read your own 
>projections 
>into my writing as well -- the association you posed between my quote 
>and an 
>anti-vietnam sentiment was perhaps logical (i am guilty of the 
>occasional 
>"hippy-sim" in my tone), but only in the most unproductive, 
>unimaginative 
>way: cynical.

So...I read something into your writing that <was> there? But in a
cynical way? (Read: unproductive, unimagninative). Personally I don't
find cynicism unimaginative or unproductive. I find closing oneself <off>
to cynicism (or anything else) very unproductive. And besides, I wasn't
being cynical by the Viet Nam war comment. I was merely poking fun of the
"hippy-sim" tone. It made me giggle. Lighten up.


 i have never avoided dark truths in my mailings (you can 
>read 
>that in my introductory email, it was the first one to have columbine 
>in caps 
>- or if you have already deleted it, i will be more than glad to mail 
>of copy 
>of it to you),

No please. I read it. I read it.

 preferring to address them as needed instead of 
>dwelling on 
>them or pushing them on others.

('them" meaning "Dark truths", right?) "Dark truths" are always there.
Whether we acknowldege them or not. And there is a huge difference
between acknowledging, dwelling and completely avoiding. And I have
noticed that the artists who embrace the concept of "darkness" working in
tandem with "light" (fill the blank here - god/devil, good/evil, etc)
<far> more prone to include light in their work than the artists who are
blinded by light. Before one ascends, I highly recommend a good
grounding..

 amongst this group, i believe there is 
>no 
>reason to continue to dwell on that which is already a given reality.

Sorry. You lost me.
>
>but you are correct, i do need to clarify my position on art and life. 
>art as 
>a representation of life is a culturally dead subject.

Well here we disagree. Art, IMHO, no matter what crap is thrown at it
will always be a representation of life. What else could it possibly be?


i believe, and 
>am 
>currently in the beginning stages of practicing, in the position that 
>what 
>can be considered art, or as the new-agers call abstractly 
>"creativity", does 
>not have to separated from the quickness of living.

They really call it simply "creativity"? Isn't that just
so...well...creative? Ick. I believe that everybody <is> creative. It's
part of human existence. In fact, in my philosophy, it's what creates
life itself. Thoughts are things and all that. However, I will scream
long and loud unto my grave that everybody is NOT an artist. To think
otherwise is to deliver a horrible disservice to the art and a smack in
the face to all artists present and past who have sacrificed their entire
lives to a muse that could possibly destroy them. Ick.
  And of course if art is separated by the "quickness of living" than I
pretty much guarantee you you'll have the slowness of bad art.

>
>i was first brought to this point of view by the works of the 
>situationist 
>international and later influenced by the writings of hakim bey. 
>theatre is 
>in a special relation to this concept of not existing separate from 
>life 
>because theatre holds the mostly unexplored yet potentially dangerous 
>element 
>of immediacy. and that immediacy of theatre makes it dangerous because 
>it 
>opens a spiritual (but not necessarily metaphysical or religious) 
>potential 
>for transformation. the moment of the seemingly unreal (or evil, if 
>you 
>prefer) in theatre quickly becomes the real.
>
>so, i was incorrect in saying that art infuses life with wonderful 
>things 
>because, as you pointed out, the opposite of wonderful is necessary, 
>but even 
>more so correct was your observation that art is not the infuser in 
>life. 
>life is beyond judgment or any value we can possibly give it. but what 
>i want 
>to make clear is that it is our will to transform the current social 
>realities we face (and all political dualities inherent in those 
>social 
>realities) that is important, and that to use our will through art, 
>not as a 
>means to distance life or represent it, but to intensify it, and 
>thereby, 
>hopefully, transform social realities by inverting what is personally 
>beneficial to a given individual, and abandoning the rest for 
>something as of 
>yet undiscovered, but not undiscoverable, is what i think we are all 
>striving 
>for.
>
>i hope that clears things up for you.

Actually no. I have no idea what you're talking about. All I know how to
do is create riveting theatre that represents life in a creative way that
forces (and yes, that word is intentional) an audience to think for
itself and be responsible for their thoughts. I truly wish I could follow
your previous post but it's just not my style. Sorry. Again, I plead,
(though not on my knees) dumb it down for me. (And I know for others
though they are understandably loathe to admit it.) But to quote that
martyr Aileen, that's my cross to bear.
>
>and, just as a bit of advise, learn to stand on your own legs. your 
>compulsion to make yourself to appear taller by tearing down others is 
>cheap, 
>unproductive, and altogether ugly. at least act as if you have a 
>greater 
>spirit than that. in this world you cannot afford to burn bridges 
>before you 
>cross them.

Oh, come on. Look in a mirror and deliver these lines to your reflection
and see if <you> can take them seriously. I think it's just too cute that
you can get all this psyco-analysis from a few teensy posts and a flip
comments.  A bit of advise (sic) to you, David. Pull that pedestal outa
yer butt and get down and dirty with the real folk. And if I burned some
bridge by posting my opinion  then so be it. This list is not about
holding one's tongue. At least not for me. And besides, there are no
bridges left in my life. I burned those all long ago.
Thanks for the laugh,
Jonathan

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