Sunday, September 18, 2016

Poets Are: a) Clowns b) Parasites c) Legislators d) Terrorists





Guess what old cassette I found last night while looking for something else.

Basket of Deplorables, I said to my hyperventilating Hillaryite Colleague freaking out over Trump catching HRC in the polls, when HRC loses this election historians will look back at HRC standing in front of a group of LGBT and denouncing Trump supporters as Basket of Deplorables and declare this the watershed event of the campaign, and they'll be right but for the wrong reason. Yeah, HC said, she shouldn't have said it. Sure, I said, she should have said it, but she should have waited for the first debate and she should have looked directly into camera and called them racist sexist motherfuckers. HC: what? I said, you can't half-fuck kayfabe. HC: what? I said, I said you can't fight kayfabe with half-fucked kayfabe. HC: what?


















QUIZ

Linh Dinh

Invaders invariably call themselves:

a) berserkers
b) marauders
c) frankincense
d) liberators

Our enemies hate us because:

a) we’re sadists
b) we’re hypocrites
c) we shafted them
d) we value freedom

Our friends hate us because:

a) we’re bullies
b) we hate them
c) we’re hypocrites
d) we value freedom

Pushed to the ground and kicked by a gang of soldiers, about to be shot, you can save your life by brandishing:

a) an uzi
b) a crucifix
c) the Constitution
d) a poem

A poem can:

a) start a war
b) stanch a wound
c) titillate the masses
d) shame a nation

Poets are:

a) clowns
b) parasites
c) legislators
d) terrorists

A nation’s standing in the world is determined by:

a) its buying power
b) its military might
c) its cultural heritage
d) God

A country is rich because of:

a) its enlightened population
b) its political system
c) its small stick
d) its geography

A country is poor because of:

a) its ignorant population
b) its political system
c) its small stick
d) its geography

A man’s dignity is determined by:

a) his appearance (skin color, height, etc)
b) his willingness to use violence
c) his command of English
d) his blue passport

Those willing to die for their beliefs are:

a) idealists
b) terrorists
c) suckers
d) insane

Those willing to die for nothing are:

a) principled
b) patriotic
c) insane
d) cowards

Terrorists:

a) abuse language
b) hit and run
c) shock and awe
d) rely on ingenuity

Smart weapons:

a) render hopeless and dormant kinetic objects
b) kill softly
c) save lives
d) slaughter by science

Pain is:

a) payback for evil-doers
b) a common misfortune
c) compelling drama
d) suck it up!

Humiliation is:

a) the ultimate thrill for bored perverts
b) inevitable in an unequal relationship
c) a fear factor
d) sexy and cathartic

The media’s job is:

a) to seduce
b) to spread
c) to sell
d) to drug

The Internet:

a) allows us to be pure minds
b) connects us to distant bodies
c) disconnects us from the nearest minds and bodies
d) improves illiteracy

Pornography is:

a) a lie that exposes the truth
b) a needed breather from civilization
c) class warfare
d) nostalgia for the garden of Eden



Correct answers: c,d,d,b,b,a,b,a,a,c,b,b,b,c,b,d,b,d,c.
—If you scored 14-19, you’re a well adjusted person, a home-owner, with and income of at least $50,000 a year.
—If you scored 8-13, you either rent or live with your parents, never exercise, and consume at least a 6-pack a day.
—if you scored 7 or less, you’re in trouble with the FBI and/or the IRS, cut your own hair, and use public transit as your primary mode of transportation.




12 comments:

  1. Hillary's writing a new book. It's called It Takes a Pillage. It's coming out right after the first war she starts as president, about one week after she's sworn in. By the way, Linh Dinh is a racist who thinks blacks are more prone to violence than whites. He uses statistics to convince people that this is so.

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    Replies
    1. So I've done some minor googling but can't find anything, can you aim me please at instances of Dinh's racial profiling with statistics?

      You're the first person I've heard this from. It would be disheartening if true (and an indictment of my reading of his poems).

      Delete
    2. about linh dinh's alleged racism

      i find by googling an excerpt from an amazon review of a book of his stories

      " Dinh's painful stories feature tricky dialogue rife with pointedly racist misinformation, linguistic confusion, and dunning vulgarities, and evoke a ..."

      without taking the trouble to go and read the entire review - mondays are busy days for me - i find myself hypothesizing that perhaps racist misinformation (if it is misinformation) might appear in a story by linh dinh without linh dinh the author and real person agreeing with it - there is a wikipedia article about the "unreliable narrator"

      and speaking of wikipedia, the article about linh dinh asserts

      "Exploring disgust while toying with frames and assumptions, the poet becomes in one sense a real heir to Charles Bukowski; in another, he joins other younger poets (such as Drew Gardner and K. Silem Mohammad) in a movement toward hard-edged, provocative parody. It might be hard to call Dinh's volume pleasing, but readers of a certain temperament may well find it irresistible."

      in my view, there may be several readers of this blog of that "certain temperament"

      "life is so full of a number of things that i'm sure we should all be as happy as kings" r.l. stevenson







      Delete
    3. by the way, it might be true that rob payne's last two sentences are exactly as fact-based and meant to be taken literally as his first two sentences, which are about hillary's new book, allegedly already in the publication pipeline


      may the creative forces of the universe have mercy on our souls, if any

      Delete
    4. Thank you Charlie, and forgive me - I thought you might do the research for me.

      I think the Bukowski comparison apt - I also think a Borzutzky comparison is apt. Dinh's poetry always struck me as addressing racism rather than being racist, but all readings are the reader's alone.

      Delete
  2. a)through a combination of circumstances in the last twelve hours
    i came across the following poem, quoted in a dharma talk by tara brach

    b)in connection with the above, i heard that a relative of mine ran into the relative of one of my high school english teachers - this english teacher (who died of alzheimer's in the last couple of years, i'm told) had mentioned to their relative that as a teenager i used to read the dictionary for recreation - as if that were unusual - i guess it might be, in some contexts

    c)
    She Dreamed of Cows

    by Norah Pollard

    I knew a woman who washed her hair and bathed
    her body and put on the nightgown she'd worn
    as a bride and lay down with a .38 in her right hand.
    Before she did the thing, she went over her life.
    She started at the beginning and recalled everything—
    all the shame, sorrow, regret and loss.
    This took her a long time into the night
    and a long time crying out in rage and grief and disbelief—
    until sleep captured her and bore her down.

    She dreamed of a green pasture and a green oak tree.
    She dreamed of cows. She dreamed she stood
    under the tree and the brown and white cows
    came slowly up from the pond and stood near her.
    Some butted her gently and they licked her bare arms
    with their great coarse drooling tongues. Their eyes, wet as
    shining water, regarded her. They came closer and began to
    press their warm flanks against her, and as they pressed
    an almost unendurable joy came over her and
    lifted her like a warm wind and she could fly.
    She flew over the tree and she flew over the field and
    she flew with the cows.

    When the woman woke, she rose and went to the mirror.
    She looked a long time at her living self.
    Then she went down to the kitchen which the sun had made all
    yellow, and she made tea. She drank it at the table, slowly,
    all the while touching her arms where the cows had licked.

    "She Dreamed of Cows" by Norah Pollard, from Death & Rapture in the Animal Kingdom. © Antrim House, 2009. Reprinted with permission.

    d) a life-changing dream also takes place in james tate's poem "i left my couch in tatamagouche" - which i have nicknamed "the couch not taken" after robert frost's poem, which i believe tate is responding to - one could find my analysis which explores this by googling "the couch not taken" and reading the comment by me about the article first in the list of results




    -

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  3. http://www.unz.com/ldinh/blacks-cops-and-a-sinking-economy/

    "By July 4th, there had been more than 2,000 shootings this year in Chicago. Though only a third of its population, blacks commit more than 70% of the city’s murders, and this huge discrepancy is repeated across the country."

    And this:

    "I’ve wandered through dozens of unfamiliar European and Asian cities late at night without fear of physical harm. In the US, this would not be too wise, mostly because of black crimes. Though all Americans recognize this menace, it’s not supposed to be aired, and even the term “black crimes” is taboo in polite company."

    Anyone who uses statistics the way Dinh does is a prick and Dinh fits right in with the racists assholes that permeate the Unz Review.


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    Replies
    1. Thanks for the link. I'll need reread it and think about it. And then think about it when I read his poetry next time.

      Delete
  4. Also, I was of course joking about Hillary's new book but I wasn't joking about the wars she will be starting. I give her six months before she becomes one of the most unpopular presidents in recent history.

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    Replies
    1. hillary's inclination toward mass murder is real, alas, although - and alas again - our alternative is trump

      her unpopularity is already up there, and i think it fairly likely that she will not even become president

      one could ask:

      q. how about hillary as president?
      a. compared to what?

      may the creative forces of the universe stand beside us, and guide us, through the metaphorical night with the metaphorical light from above



      Delete
    2. True, Hillary is not popular, nor is Trump. But if anyone could lose to Trump it would be Hillary. Another question one could ask if she does become president might be will she cause a nuclear holocaust with Russia and China. Obama has been reckless in this regard with his pushing of NATO up against Russia's borders creating a situation where anything can happen. Hillary would likely be even more aggressive (Putin is Hitler says Hillary)than Obama in confronting Russia. I have serious doubts as to her sanity. We're in the hands of idiots unfortunately. I suppose the upside is if we're all dead global warming won't be a worry. With Hillary in charge we'll certainly need the help of the creative forces of the universe.

      Delete
  5. Hillary's mistake is being a vicious corporatist and neocon.

    But that's also why's she's filthy rich.
    ~

    ReplyDelete