Examination Question: Section A

[riff]

An interesting note here. Again, I have left my old paper at home.

I find it interesting that last night before going out I was in a state of rapt identification with the characters of breakfast of champions.

This morning I lost it like Dwayne in the nightclub at the end. Go beserk. Bad chemicals in the brain.

Now, a little while later, I can feel the kindness in Kilgore Trout's words.

Art is a mirror, it reflects and distorts. As it reflects and distorts, we are reflected and distorted, and then we stand before the mirror again.

Trout did say that mirrors lead to parallel universes. Leaks, ya know?

 

[GreenEyedGirl]

To do is to be. ~Camus

To be is to do. ~Sartre

Do be do be do. ~Sinatra

There are those who want art to be more like life, and those who want life to be more like art. I think both these miss the point. Art and life are inextricably imbricated such that it is unimaginable to think of one without the other (assuming we hold a suitably catholic notion of art as symbolic action, rather than capital "A" Art--the "classics" or the Great Works).

Although I can appreciate the notion you express here regarding the cathartic nature of art--the old binge/purge syndrome of getting one's senses aroused and sated by looking at a Goya or a porn video--I think this is only one function of art, and perhaps its most insidious one. Bread & circuses.

Although I wasn't paying as close attention in my phenomenology seminar as Free obviously was, I do remember that Heidegger once said something like "Poetically man dwells." I have no idea what he meant by that, but I like the sound of it, for it suggests that to dwell in the world--as opposed I guess to moving through it unconsciously--is perceive and experience it as art, as poetry. The arts themselves--dancing, painting, literature, etc.--give us glimpses of what that might be like.

Okay. There. I responded in kind to your post, and I'll tell you that I might even believe some of what I just said.

Now can we fuck?

I'm confused, first you take me into the cloakroom, then you pull me onto a desk, but before anything happens you are telling me to put my skirt down, stop singing that Police song, and pay attention to class. And now you want to do something?
Okay! But this time, follow through!

"Poeticall man dwells" I really like that! Experiencing life as it happens, being an active participant as opposed to numbly trudging. Art reflecting that movement. Wonderful.
I do, however, the cathartic nature of art. It is almost primal, and I like the concept that are is tied to our primal selves. Maybe it is because I am immersed in the arts that I think so, but the Greeks did use the word catharsis in conjunction with art.
Art as a base and an enlightened sense. Hmmm... possibilities here are very stimulating!

 

[GreenEyedGirl]

An interesting note here. Again, I have left my old paper at home.

I find it interesting that last night before going out I was in a state of rapt identification with the characters of breakfast of champions.

This morning I lost it like Dwayne in the nightclub at the end. Go beserk. Bad chemicals in the brain.

Now, a little while later, I can feel the kindness in Kilgore Trout's words.

Art is a mirror, it reflects and distorts. As it reflects and distorts, we are reflected and distorted, and then we stand before the mirror again.

Trout did say that mirrors lead to parallel universes. Leaks, ya know?

I am sorry that you had a Dwayne moment of dimentia. Bad chemicals are never fun. But I am glad you also found Kilgore's meaning.

The mirror is usually fascinating, rarely kind, and often brutal, but always beautiful.

I hope your day has lifted.

 

[Hamletmaschine]

I'm confused, first you take me into the cloakroom, then you pull me onto a desk, but before anything happens you are telling me to put my skirt down, stop singing that Police song, and pay attention to class. And now you want to do something?
Okay! But this time, follow through!

No more confused than I am, dear. I actually used the term "phenomenology" in my last post, and I swore that word would never cross my lips again.

And speaking of lips, hike that skirt up again and pull those undies aside, assuming you're wearing any, so I can get my tongue between yours, okay?

 

[GreenEyedGirl]

No more confused than I am, dear. I actually used the term "phenomenology" in my last post, and I swore that word would never cross my lips again.

And speaking of lips, hike that skirt up again and pull those undies aside, assuming you're wearing any, so I can get my tongue between yours, okay?

Finally! Nothing better than being petted by teacher! And perhaps you should keep your mouth busy for awhile, so you won't be tempted to say "phenomenology" again. I'm nothing if not helpful!

 

[riff]

No more confused than I am, dear. I actually used the term "phenomenology" in my last post, and I swore that word would never cross my lips again.

And speaking of lips, hike that skirt up again and pull those undies aside, assuming you're wearing any, so I can get my tongue between yours, okay?

At least you didn't say "Weltanschaaung." I give you 10 bonus points on next exam. hehehe

 

[Hamletmaschine]

And you lose ten for misspelling "Weltanshauung"

 

[lavender]

 

[Hamletmaschine]

Just seeing if you were paying attention.

 

[riff]

And you lose ten for misspelling "Weltanshauung"

Smart ass. You know what I meant. Hey, Best American Poetry 2001 has some good shit in it. Fuck spelling and grammar. I hate rules. That's why I hated Dr. Striar, the fat bastard (Renaissance Poetics).

You know what that fuck did? He wrote a greek word (in greek) on the blackboard. Some poor chick asked, "What does that mean?" He said, "It's Greek."

"But I don't read Greek," she said.
He retorted (asshole), "Miss __________, that is YOUR loss...."

Bastard.

 

[lavender]

 

[Hamletmaschine]

... I hated Dr. Striar, the fat bastard (Renaissance Poetics).

You know what that fuck did? He wrote a greek word (in greek) on the blackboard. Some poor chick asked, "What does that mean?" He said, "It's Greek."

"But I don't read Greek," she said.
He retorted (asshole), "Miss __________, that is YOUR loss...."

Bastard.

A friend of mine had a classical rhetoric seminar with a turd like that once. He didn't think anyone in the class was worthy to sit in on his seminar, and so he taught it in classical Greek. He taught the whole motherfucking course in classical Greek. They all failed, too.

 

[GreenEyedGirl]

Smart ass. You know what I meant. Hey, Best American Poetry 2001 has some good shit in it. Fuck spelling and grammar. I hate rules. That's why I hated Dr. Striar, the fat bastard (Renaissance Poetics).

You know what that fuck did? He wrote a greek word (in greek) on the blackboard. Some poor chick asked, "What does that mean?" He said, "It's Greek."

"But I don't read Greek," she said.
He retorted (asshole), "Miss __________, that is YOUR loss...."

Bastard.

Its all Greek to me!

(Sorry - really I am - but some one had to say it)

 

[riff]

It really makes me want to go back to UNF and beat the shit out of him if he is still there.

 

[GreenEyedGirl]

It really makes me want to go back to UNF and beat the shit out of him if he is still there.

I have a theory/mantra I am going to share, it helps me get through many days:

Three out of three people die.

That's it. Take it in what ever direction you need. Some days I think of all the wonderful ways they could meet their maker, and other days it gives me a smidgeon of sympathy for them as mortals (although those days are few and far betweeen, and I will never admit to them in public).

So if Asshole Greek Geek Man's death is not to be at your hands, at least you can savor the imagination of it.

 

[Hamletmaschine]

Three out of three people die. . . . And there are three of us here in this thread now. . . .

(Someone had to point that out.)

 

[GreenEyedGirl]

Three out of three people die. . . . And there are three of us here in this thread now. . . .

(Someone had to point that out.)

Shit! Quick, run out and pull three other posters in, so we can all live! We'll use them as a shield for Death, and to be nice we will give them shiny new dollar coins for Charon.

 

[riff]

Well, it is dropping down to two. It Friday night and I am unplugging. If I don't wind up in the emergency room or dead or in Vegas, I'll catch yall later.

SUPPORT THE ARTS

 

[Gnufi Poppets]

It is being that I am missing all the hot sex there is the being all the time on this threading here with the art and the culture in the mixing in of it?

This is the thinking I am the doing that we are the all getting us the big canvas the spread out on the floor and are the pouring of the many colored paints the here and the there and the everywhere there is the being even the all over our bodies and then it is a we are the rolling around in the big naked flesh orgy ball and having the wild pigment sex with the oinking and the squealing and the oh my oh yes we are the cumming the again and the again and it is the sex juices all the mixing in with the many colors of the paints and when it is all the dry we are the hanging it on the frames and selling it for the big bucks and becoming the famous artists!

 

[GreenEyedGirl]

Ahhhhhh..... Gnufi, but would that be art, or just evidence of Life's primal need?

And I hope Riff posts his paper excerpts soon, I really am curious as to what inspired him to begin this great thread.

 

[riff]

Ahhhhhh..... Gnufi, but would that be art, or just evidence of Life's primal need?

And I hope Riff posts his paper excerpts soon, I really am curious as to what inspired him to begin this great thread.

OK... I will start now. If it is quiet, it is because I am typing.

 

[freescorfr]

Ahhhhhh..... Gnufi, but would that be art, or just evidence of Life's primal need?

And I hope Riff posts his paper excerpts soon, I really am curious as to what inspired him to begin this great thread.

Gnuffi's art is what riff posts in his other threads every day.

Riff may be typing, but before he gets back to us I'll reveal the truth.



The letter to Angela - is as important to this question as Riff's paper. They both appear to have a certain nostalgia. Taken together with his porn threads they have the potential for creating an anti-porn skin-flick, Starring Angels's Parrot and Flaubert's Ashes.

 

[riff]

Exerpts

Dear Angela

.... My task is.... well, let me say what it is not. I am not writing an essay. An anti-essay?

....Webster's defines the anti-novel as a work of fiction that lacks most or all of the traditional features of a novel. How does a student go about criticizing an anti-novel? Criticizing any work of literature is always risky business. It is a game of scholastic poker; what is at stake, the "ante" if you will, is the student's grade. I am not bluffing! But perhaps I should sweeten the pot a little more. Webster's does not define "anti-essay." They would not dare touch "ante-essay."

.....Even my professor says it is a book "I really don't have a lot to say about...." I think he is bluffing. Never, NEVER, trust anyone at the pokertable.......

[shift to the cover of the novel and the comments by critics on the back of the cover]

....for that matter, why even take the trouble of reading it? Why not just read the back cover?

..... all of this raises an interesting issue. Readers read to experience reading. Barnes, I would assume, took great care in arranging all of the words and spaces between them 'just so'....

....who are these bastards writing on the cover of the book? They are not Barnes, but they have become part of Flaubert's Parrot.... ......Someone might say, "yes, we find their words on the cover of the book, but technically speaking...."

Technically speaking what? Such voices seem to say that literature is an idea. They may be right about that, but I am here to argue that literature has flesh as well as spirit. Literature is a very real, concrete thing. I hold it in my hands, I look at it, and if I read it while lying on the beach it ultimately smells of suntan oil. The medium is the message. Everything I experience while reading literature becomes part of my experience of that literature......

How will this do for now? There is more, ya know.

 

[freescorfr]

As I read that I thought "flesh". It's all electronic now - he wrote that a while ago - and then I look at where I am sitting - within inches of my left hand there is a large book open - The Cambridge Guide to English Lit., which I'd had for a quick consult - some Levi- strauss, Jacques Salome: on the right Confuscius, Heidegger, Kafka and a poetry Anthology. All buried in papers. In fact I'm surrounded by books - they are my insulation in this barn.

Thank God the books don't get too emotional or they'd be yelling "You always take me for granted, you bastard."

 

[GreenEyedGirl]

Taken together with his porn threads they have the potential for creating an anti-porn skin-flick, Starring Angels's Parrot and Flaubert's Ashes.

I would pay good money to see that! That would be Art, without a doubt.