There are a wide variety of underground writers-- not so wide a variety that they can't be lumped into one of a dozen or so general categories. To follow will be several of them, including:
-The Ghost;
-The Cynic;
-The Intellectual;
-The Opportunist;
-The Fan;
-The Bolshevik;
-The Mullah;
-The Mole;
-The Talent;
-The Ideologue;
-The Recluse;
-The Legend.
About Me
- Karl Wenclas
- New ideas. New writing. Karl Wenclas is currently an editor at New Pop Lit. www.newpoplit.com Contact Karl at ampoplitNOSPAM@gmail.com
11 comments:
--The Man Afraid Of Commenters
--The Coward Who Brags Of Bravery
--The Secret Desirer Of Shallow Literary Fame
Okay, thanks for the clues.
Now I know who May Barber/The Assassin/Harland is.
Hmm. "Coward" is a strong word coming from someone who hides his/her identity. If you really have a problem with me I'm right here in Detroit, easy enough to find as the city is depopulated. Bring it on.
Re "Shallow Literary Fame"???
Well, believe what you want. As I've said, that wasn't what my campaign was about. If it was-- would I have pissed off so many folks? Wouldn't I have long agao abandoned my principles and become a literary whore like just about everyone else?
Fact is that even in 2003 when i was getting a ton of write-ups and attention, I made NOT ONE MOVE to personally capitalize on it.
How do you deal with that?
Does the truth move you in the slightest?
My attitude is that the only person I need to please (along with the big guy upstairs) is myself. My integrity, my self-respect, is extremely important to me.
I think one thing that most bothers folks about myself is that I'm NOT for sale; never have been. The history of my life proves it.
p.s. Read the Vicomte de Braggelone sometime, Dumas's masterpiece. (Avoid abridgements.) The theme is the character of D'Artagnan, who takes poverty over dishonor throughout.
Character-- a trait few people today know anhything about.
You talk about bravery-- while you hide?
Very sad-- why I'm getting out.
Anyone who reads Dumas should be able to grasp why people hide their identities on the web. "It is the word, the deed, not the man."
I don't have a problem with you personally. I find your arguments unconvincing, and your methods shoddy. You shut down a fiery conversation based on your belief that you were arguing with someone you knew previously. Is that honor?
You do everything you can to capitalize on your own notoriety. You're a noisemaker. You say you'd like to tear apart a system, but you want to make sure everyone knows about you while it happens. Would D'Artagnan make sure he was on Page Six whenever he drew his sword? Macolm McLaren would - obviously a model for you. Not a man known for his integrity.
You're so cute when you say you're quitting. You know you'll always be here, taunting those who you find in your path, and then ducking away whenever anyone addresses your points head-on. You're not a whore, no - just a guy who beats up whores. I wonder what Dumas thinks of that sort of man.
Well, if you knew anything about Dumas you'd realize he was far from perfect himself-- but he had a heart and he knew the ideals he had to portray in his art.
Sorry, I can identify with D'Artagnan when he becomes middle-aged and is still living in poverty.
No, I haven't sold out. That's a fact you can't contend with.
Yes, Malcolm McLaren WAS a model for me, as were many others-- an apt model for anyone trying to build an alternative to a stale art form.
Duck away? The past seven years of argument engaged in by myself, here and on many other forums, is proof against that. For seven years I've taken on all comers-- very few brave enough to use their own identities.
Curious how my opponents want to have things both ways. I heard time and again that I was wasting my time merely arguing, when I should be writing.
Yes, I shut down a fiery conversation when I realized the person's identity, for sound reasons.
As for noisemaking; Page Six; etc.-- this was a MUST in an attempt to build a profile for the underground lit movement. One can't avoid the context within which we operate. It's Business 101, in fact-- free publicity necessary for those who can't pay for it. How can you not get that???
Regarding the System I attacked-- my arguments were right and just. Mainstream lit and the print media remains dominated by an Ivy League elite centered in New York. One can argue that this isn't a bad thing, but you can't argue the fact.
For me to judge whether lit is in good shape, all I need do is pick up magazines at a bookstore shelf.
Harpers-- August issue contains a poem by Charles Bernstein. Well-intentioned, and I'm sure Bernstein's a nice person. But--?? When reading it I was trying to determine what was poetic about it. Hardly a virtusoso performance. More like playing chopsticks on a piano-- all music-- all poetry-- stripped from it.
All I need do is compare CB's poem, reprinted from Poetry mag, with one by a Frank Walsh which pushes the envelope of wordplay, rhythmn, meaning, music. How can one get attention, while the other be completely ignored?
Moving to the short story, recently in the New Yorker there was one by Roberto Bolano-- the Latin American underground literary rebel adopted by our Overdogs AFTER he was dead.
Meanwhile, the elite studiously ignore literary rebels alive now in their own land. What up with that?
But don't think I have any problem living in obscurity. I took my shot, dragging the underground dog pack, kicking and straining against me the while, as far as it would go. May a better person have better luck with it-- and a steel armored vest wrapped around his-or-her back.
p.s. Not wishing to contend with someone I know personally is the essence of honor. Or maybe I can't contend with the person. Take your choice.
Oh, you know that Harland is no personal enemy of yours.
Just as surely as you're not giving up.
Which in turn will lead to attracting another individual who disagrees with you.
Who you'll decide is a public figure.
Repeat and fade.
?? Why so bothered by what I do?
Giving up? I have no reason to continue.
p.s. I'd like to believe "Harland " is no personal enemy of mine. Words and actions have said otherwise.
We have some unresolved issues which need to be discussed, no doubt.
p.p.s. I could as well ask if you're a personal enemy of mine. Look at the remarks made in your first comment.
"Harland" has done likewise, running me down, under various guises, personally!, for seven years. A public enemy anyway.
I'm ready to forget that and move forward, if that be possible. If not, I'll easily enough vanish.
Keep in mind that "Harland" has the upper hand in whatever dispute we have, and will have to decide how it's resolved. I can only stress that I'm no personal enemy of Harland's. . . .
(Anything else I have to say on this topic will be said in my story or off-line. Thanks for your input.)
when are you going to finish writing these profiles. What the hell is the Mullah of the underground???
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