Today's Topics:
Ginsberg and Blake
Re: In Mourning
Re: In Mourning
Ginsberg Testimony
Re: In Mourning
Re: A stonking good art history bookshop site...
Re: Ginsberg Testimony
Blake & Donne
Boehme
Re: Boehme and Phony Questions
Re: Ginsberg Testimony
Re: Boehme and Phony Questions
books
RCPT: Re: Question
RCPT: Re: a source for an image in Night Thoughts
Testimony 2
Re: Ginsberg Testimony
Blake & Donne -Reply& Boehme
Re: books
culture and democracy
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 7 Apr 1997 16:45:08 -0400
From: pas@mnsi.net (Paul Stone)
To: blake@albion.com
Subject: Ginsberg and Blake
Message-Id: <199704072045.QAA17377@backup.MNSi.Net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
>>difference between them - Blake I think was a poet but his intent was not
>>poetical as that might be commonly understood. Ginsberg intent was to be a
>>poet as it is commonly understood, and the world reviled him, loved him and
>>so honoured him as a poet. Like Byron. He had a role. To me Blake is
>>involved in something different. Shakespeare was a poet too, but like
>>Blake his adgenda was different.
>I don't understand these assertions at all. If Ginsberg had a role, was
>that a role solely poetic, as you asserted, or some other role, e.g.
>non-poetic roles a la Byron of carouser or revolutionary? Are you saying
>that Ginsberg was interested in poetry for its own sake while Blake was not?
>Sure, Ginsberg was a master at self-promotion, but for the rest, I don't
>think you have a leg to stand on.
>That Ginsberg could have been inspired by Blake to seek to integrate the
>visionary imagination into the everyday hell of urban existence is the
>essence of democratic modernism, and I thank my lucky stars that I could
>live in this age to see it happen. Can I get a witness? Now who will be a
>witness?
At least Ginsberg walked the walk AND talked the talk -- which is
more than you can say about most 'beat' poets who are (in my opinion)
nothing more than a bunch of glorified hippies with modest writing
abilities. Allen Ginsberg was always hanging with these (other dudes) but he
was one of the few who was also talented as an artist. I think Blake lived
his chaotic life in just as true a fashion, although I would esteem him as a
much greater artist.
I guess what I am trying to say is that people who live
incredible/remarkable lives are not necessarily artists, and artists don't
have to live incredible lives. But when you combine the two, in most cases,
you have more greatness. In Ginsberg and Blake, art and life mix in the
strangest/pleasurable brew that we have to remember them by.
Paul Stone
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 06 Apr 1997 14:08:21 -0800
From: David Rollison
To: blake@albion.com
Subject: Re: In Mourning
Message-Id: <33481ED0.549F@marin.cc.ca.us>
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TOM DILLINGHAM wrote:
>
> Joz--I don't accept your distinction suggesting that Blake was not an
> intentional poet--I think he makes it clear that he feels himself to be
> a poet in a particular prophetic poetic tradition, as well as in a bardic
> tradition, which is not quite the same thing. Ginsberg is decidedly
> in the bardic tradition, with some excursions into a prophetic mode
> but not exactly in Blake's manner.
> As for tuning--Ginsberg often performed his musical settings of Blake's
> poems, especially the Songs of Innocence and of Experience. MGM records
> issued an album of Ginsberg singing those settings, with a group of
> musicians backing him, (recorded in 1969) and there was supposed to
> be a second volume of them, but that never appeared (to my knowledge) because
> apparently the first album did not sell well. Many people have found his
> performances hard to take at first because of the very "untutored" singing
> styles that he and Peter Orlovsky used, but I have found that a couple of
> hearings not only make the songs accessible, but his melodies stick with
> me more persistently than any other musical settings of the poems, though
> a couple of Greg Brown's have staying power. I think someone recently
> posted a message that the album had been reissued on CD--I certainly hope
> that is true, or will be true, but I have not yet seen evidence of it.
> Tom Dillingham
The CD is titled "HOLY SOUL JELLY ROLL" and is, I believe, issued by
Rhino Records.
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 7 Apr 1997 19:09:11 -0500
From: tomdill@wc.stephens.edu (TOM DILLINGHAM)
To: blake@albion.com
Subject: Re: In Mourning
Message-Id: <97040719091143@wc.stephens.edu>
Thanks for the information about Rhino Records' reissue of the
Ginsberg Blake. Now if I can just persuade some store in town to
special order it--so far it is not in stock. Tom Dillingham
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 07 Apr 1997 20:15:29 -0700
From: Hugh Walthall
To: blake@albion.com
Subject: Ginsberg Testimony
Message-Id: <3349B851.3AFB@erols.com>
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The beautiful lies Ralph tells about AG do invite comment. On aesthetic
grounds (and these are the only grounds there are, except coffee
grounds, and oh yes, there used to be the Polo Grounds) I have always
preferred the work of his old college room mate, John Hollander. And I
was lucky enough to have read Blake deeply and well--before I ever saw a
word by Ginsberg. Like hearing Armstrong play trumpet before hearing
Bix.
That said, I am reminded of a passage in Southey's prose rendering of
Amadis DuGaul-- where Amadis is escorting a damsel on some quest or
other, accompanied by her servants and his Page, and his dwarf.
Suddenly a powerful Knight appears and asks Amadis to grant him a boon--
Sir Knight, if I can, I will.
Give me the head of thy Dwarf.
Sir Knight, I cannot. He is a poor thing, but mine own.
To me Ginsberg is a nerdy relative who must nevertheless be defended
against bullies. While I despise most of his poems, I cannot question
the quality of his heart.
I close my testimony with what I think is a variation on an old yiddish
vaudeville number:
Throw Ginsberg from the train--
a kiss.
Oddly, I miss him. I think the world is a poorer place.
Hugh Walthall hugwal@erols.com
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 7 Apr 1997 20:42:40 -0500
From: jmichael@seraph1.sewanee.edu (J. Michael)
To: blake@albion.com
Subject: Re: In Mourning
Message-Id:
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
>Thanks for the information about Rhino Records' reissue of the
>Ginsberg Blake. Now if I can just persuade some store in town to
>special order it--so far it is not in stock. Tom Dillingham
Try CDNow if you have Web access: http://www.cdnow.com. I just checked
and they have Holy Soul Jelly Roll for $46.77 on CD, $32.98 on cassette.
For those of us on tighter budgets, they also have a Ginsberg video called
"Sings Blake" for $17.99, although when I ordered it it said stock was
"low."
Jennifer Michael
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 7 Apr 1997 22:18:00 -0400 (EDT)
From: BUMTOMD@aol.com
To: blake@albion.com
Subject: Re: A stonking good art history bookshop site...
Message-Id: <970407221640_1387325688@emout03.mail.aol.com>
hi. please remove BUMTOMD@aol.com from the mailing list. thanks.
sp
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 8 Apr 1997 05:20:48 -0700 (PDT)
From: Ralph Dumain
To: blake@albion.com, blake@albion.com
Subject: Re: Ginsberg Testimony
Message-Id: <2.2.16.19970408071930.30077208@pop.igc.org>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
At 08:15 PM 4/7/97 -0700, Hugh Walthall wrote:
>The beautiful lies Ralph tells about AG do invite comment. On aesthetic
>grounds (and these are the only grounds there are, except coffee
>grounds, and oh yes, there used to be the Polo Grounds) I have always
>preferred the work of his old college room mate, John Hollander. And I
>was lucky enough to have read Blake deeply and well--before I ever saw a
>word by Ginsberg. Like hearing Armstrong play trumpet before hearing
>Bix.
Ginsberg called me up after reading this and said: "I always liked Hugh for
his sardonic humor and groundedness in reality, but lately he gives me a
pain up my ass. Hugh has amply demonstrated his erudition and
qualifications for living in his favorite century, the 18th. I'm surprised
he knows the historical significance of Louis Armstrong. Who's my Louis,
anyway, Ted Joans? I forgive you for dissing me, because I've never tried
to squelch criticism. But Hugh is just jerking off in public. Go set him
straight."
Very well, let's review.
My post emphasized Ginsberg's relationship to the society around him. Never
did I assert that Ginsberg was Blake's poetic equal. Perhaps you may recall
a post of mine a couple of years ago in which I had some harsh words to say
about Ginsberg (which some found offensive) in reaction to his little
pamphlet "Blake's Myth and Your Reason" (approximate title). I think
Ginsberg too much lost track of the wiry and bounding line, an unfortunate
trait of Caucasian Bohemianism. Ginsberg was too emotionally dependent on
the riffraff he kept company with: Pound, Kerouac, Casady, Burroughs, the
Hells Angels. A nice Jewish boy he should know better than to muck about
with white trash. And this Naropa Buddhist crap. And the formlessness of
his analysis of Blake as correlate to aforementioned meshugaas. And above
all, his inability to look back forty-fifty years and recognize the
limitations of his cohort and how naive he was about certain things and people.
In all these things, Ginsberg was so typically American, so un-European
(i.e. mindful of structure and organization and always knowing your history
and your place.) But Ginsberg had a grandeur lacking in his running
buddies, a grandeur that came from from attempting to unify the prophetic
imagination with everyday life and to break the iron grip of Fordism.
The most shallow question one could ask is whether Ginsberg is Blake's
poetic equal. A more insightful line of enquiry is: how does poetry relate
to non-poetry, or the social environment surrounding artistic production?
If art represents potentials not present in life, what are the implications
for blurring the distinction between art and life or attempting to combine
and fully realize both at once? What the Beats should have realized is that
no segment of society is self-identical. The truth of the Beats is not
merely the Beats, but the totality of Beats and non-Beats, i.e., Bohemia and
Fordism comprise a dialectical whole. Bohemia tries to find a spot to live
like a human being in the interstices of industrial capitalism. Should we
be shocked that they would be flawed, be unable to topple the system from
the territory they held within it?
Poetry is a lot worse off now that Ginsberg died, for while poetry as a form
abounds -- poetry slams everywhere, hiphop -- the actual content is more
insipid and unimaginative than at any time in history. This also says
something about what is going on in non-poetry and the cooptation of
discontent by the culture industry. Ginsberg is dead in more ways than one.
His era is dead. By today's standards he is already a quaint figure. The
twentieth century is dead. But there is nothing -- nothing at all-- like
that historical moment in which people discover what it is like to will
freedom and their consciousness explodes into new territory. Such moments
created Allen Ginsberg and Charlie Parker, Ornette Coleman and John
Coltrane. We are merely coasting on their achievements. We have no
conception whatever of how to advance from here. Actuality has coopted
potentiality, and the divine vision is darkened.
Jerusalem, weep at thy soul's disease.
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 08 Apr 1997 05:32:38 PDT
From: "Jenny H."
To: blake@albion.com
Subject: Blake & Donne
Message-Id: <199704081232.FAA17254@f5.hotmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain
Was Blake at all familiar with the poetry of John Donne? Donne's Sonnet 14,
while in a completely different style from Blake's poetry, seems to be saying
much of the same thing as Blake, particularly in the Illustrations of the Book
of Job.
Batter my heart, three-personed God; for, you
As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend;
That I may rise, and stand, o'erthrow me, and bend
Your force, to break, blow, burn, and make me new.
I, like an usurped town, to another due,
Labour to admit you, but oh, to no end,
Reason your viceroy in me, me should defend,
But is capived, and proves weak or untrue,
Yet dearly I love you, and would be loved fain,
But am betrothed unto your enemy,
Divorce me, untie, or break that knot again,
Take me to you, imprison me, for I
Except you entral me, never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.
---------------------------------------------------------
Get Your *Web-Based* Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com
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------------------------------
Date: Tue, 08 Apr 1997 05:35:28 PDT
From: "Jenny H."
To: blake@albion.com
Subject: Boehme
Message-Id: <199704081235.FAA28284@f40.hotmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain
I've tried sending this message several times, but I think it's gotten
lost...please tell me if you're getting multiple copies of this:
Raine says that Blake studied "Western Esoteric tradition both orthodox and
heterodox." Does anyone have any information on what specifically he studied?
I'm also interested in Boehme's influence on Blake.
---------------------------------------------------------
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------------------------------
Date: Tue, 8 Apr 1997 10:18:41 -0400 (EDT)
From: Alexander Gourlay
To: blake@albion.com
Subject: Re: Boehme and Phony Questions
Message-Id:
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
On Tue, 8 Apr 1997, Jenny H. wrote:
> I've tried sending this message several times, but I think it's gotten >
lost...please tell me if you're getting multiple copies of this: > > Raine
says that Blake studied "Western Esoteric tradition both orthodox and >
heterodox." Does anyone have any information on what specifically he
studied? > I'm also interested in Boehme's influence on Blake. > > >
---------------------------------------------------------
> Get Your
*Web-Based* Free Email at http://www.homail.com >
--------------------------------------------------------- > >
Perhaps Jenny H's dimwitted question didn't get a reply because her
posts were all transparently phony -- ersatz questions that are really
advertisements for her company (the name of which I have slightly modified
above). If she actually has anything to say or ask about Blake maybe she
could try doing so without insinuating a commercial message into every
post. I don't care how dumb the questions are, or how frequently they
are asked, but it is annoying to get dumb questions from somebody who is
only pretending to be interested in the answers.
Sandy Gourlay
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 8 Apr 1997 10:07:13 -0500
From: tomdill@wc.stephens.edu (TOM DILLINGHAM)
To: blake@albion.com
Subject: Re: Ginsberg Testimony
Message-Id: <97040810071337@wc.stephens.edu>
Ralph--Probably your greatest post ever--substantial and, to my mind,
unanswerable. I wish I had had the imagination to write as well.
Tom
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 08 Apr 1997 10:24:26 -0700
From: Steve Perry
To: blake@albion.com
Subject: Re: Boehme and Phony Questions
Message-Id: <334A7F4A.A852A00E@surf.com>
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Alexander Gourlay wrote:
---------------------------------------------------------
> Get Your *Web-Based* Free Email at http://www.homail.com
>
--------------------------------------------------------- > >
Perhaps Jenny H's dimwitted question didn't get a reply because her
posts were all transparently phony -- ersatz questions that are really
advertisements for her company (the name of which I have slightly modified
above). If she actually has anything to say or ask about Blake maybe
she
could try doing so without insinuating a commercial message into every
post. I don't care how dumb the questions are, or how frequently
they
are asked, but it is annoying to get dumb questions from somebody who is
only pretending to be interested in the answers.
Sandy Gourlay
However,
Sandy Gourlay has proven that HE is the ignoramous. Hotmail is a
free web based email service that people who don't feed from the public
trough with free .edu addresses use. Part of the way it stays free
is by advertising. Jenny has no control over the signature
that comes with her messages.
On the other hand Sandy, you do have control over the spitum that drools
in your post. I doubt that the people at your school intended for
your free account be used for personal invective.
Better to ask a dimwitted question than be a dimwit.
--------------98DB6437D37A8BA3AC64DADD
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Alexander Gourlay wrote:
---------------------------------------------------------
> Get Your *Web-Based* Free Email at http://www.homail.com
>
--------------------------------------------------------- > >
Perhaps Jenny H's dimwitted question didn't get a reply because her
posts were all transparently phony -- ersatz questions that are really
advertisements for her company (the name of which I have slightly modified
above). If she actually has anything to say or ask about Blake maybe
she
could try doing so without insinuating a commercial message into every
post. I don't care how dumb the questions are, or how frequently
they
are asked, but it is annoying to get dumb questions from somebody who is
only pretending to be interested in the answers.
Sandy Gourlay
However,
Sandy Gourlay has proven that HE is the ignoramous. Hotmail is a
free web based email service that people who don't feed from the public
trough with free .edu addresses use. Part of the way it stays free
is by advertising. Jenny has no control over the signature
that comes with her messages.
On the other hand Sandy, you do have control over the spitum that drools
in your post. I doubt that the people at your school intended for
your free account be used for personal invective.
Better to ask a dimwitted question than be a dimwit.
--------------98DB6437D37A8BA3AC64DADD--
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 08 Apr 1997 11:30:05 -0700
From: Chris Sachs
To: blake@albion.com
Subject: books
Message-Id: <334A8EAD.4032@pacbell.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Thank you for answering my question re: "Auguries of Innocence". My
next question is: Where may I find or purchase a copy of Blake's
illustrated Book of Job and The Notebook where "Auguries of Innocence"
is published. My copy of The Notebook of William Blake is a
photographic and typographic facsimile and only contains bits and pieces
of his works. "Auguries of Innocence" is not among them and it is not
included in my text: The Norton Anthology of English Literature, which
has many of his works but to no avail is the poem. I would appreciate
any help regarding this matter. Chris
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 8 Apr 1997 22:22:18 MET
From: "Ib Johansen"
To: blake@albion.com
Subject: RCPT: Re: Question
Message-Id: <6930BF5E7D@hum.aau.dk>
Confirmation of reading: your message -
Date: 7 Apr 97 13:59
To: chaz@take3soft.com
Subject: Re: Question
Was read at 22:22, 8 Apr 97.
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 8 Apr 1997 22:22:58 MET
From: "Ib Johansen"
To: blake@albion.com
Subject: RCPT: Re: a source for an image in Night Thoughts
Message-Id: <69339069CD@hum.aau.dk>
Confirmation of reading: your message -
Date: 7 Apr 97 14:23
To: blake@albion.com
Subject: Re: a source for an image in Night Thoughts
Was read at 22:22, 8 Apr 97.
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 08 Apr 1997 19:40:14 -0700
From: Hugh Walthall
To: Blake@albion.com
Subject: Testimony 2
Message-Id: <334B018E.740@erols.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
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Oh Ralph.
Ginsberg always was a quaint figure. Not even a cult figure. Maybe a
cult figurine.
How dare you put him in the same sentence with three real american
artists.
Hell, I was trying to say something nice about him because he died and
all, but if you want the gloves to come off, Ginsberg's great virtue was
always that he was NOT, say, W.D. Snodgrass.
Re-read the opening of Kaddish where Ginsberg starts crying when he
listens to Ray Charles--another artist of considerably more range and
vision and acheivement than Ginsberg. Sentimental fluff.
And if all those nasty things happened to the best minds of his
generation, who was left? Ginsberg?
It's not true, anyway. Ginsberg's generation produced a bumper crop of
poets. It's a generation that includes Ray Charles, Hank Williams,
Coltrane, as well as Richard Howard and James Merrill. If you want
wonderful art, you must look High & Low.
Ginsberg was dissipated. He did have something to dissipate. It's just
that he was real good at it.
You can say anything you want about me Ralph, but the 10th Century?
That hurts.
However, there is a wonderful book called The Year 1000 by I think,
Henri Foucault? Anyway, these days I'm usually hanging out in China
about 180 c.e.
Hugh Walthall hugwal@erols.com
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 8 Apr 1997 22:17:56 -0700 (PDT)
From: Ralph Dumain
To: blake@albion.com, blake@albion.com
Subject: Re: Ginsberg Testimony
Message-Id: <2.2.16.19970409001632.2fbf1798@pop.igc.org>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
At 10:07 AM 4/8/97 -0500, TOM DILLINGHAM wrote:
>Ralph--Probably your greatest post ever--substantial and, to my mind,
>unanswerable. I wish I had had the imagination to write as well.
Thanks for the kind words. I paid my dues until I finally learned what to
say and how to say it.
I've been busy as hell. Haven't advanced one iota in working on my book,
but we've spent endless time interacting with visitors and other people,
including the Aussie guy I met in DC, but who is now here after returning
from London. The days are busy. But I have to return to DC late Thursday
and endure DC again for a week or two. That means I've got a lot to do in
the next day. However, I'll make a brief attempt to answer your previous post.
>But I have been wondering what is your take on the work of Walter Benjamin?
Everybody tells me I should read Benjamin. Not any of his colleagues, but
Benjamin specifically. A lot of James people are interested in Benjamin and
tell me there is a link. I don't know what to make of this, since I have
read only a few essays in ILLUMINATIONS. I don't understand the essay on
art in the age of mechanical reproduction. "Unpacking my library" was
interesting. The famous "theses on the Philosophy of History" is quotable,
at least. But I don't know enough of Benjamin to know what to make of him.
I need to know what I should be reading of his. I wish someone would give
me a brief explanation of what he is all about.
Thanks for the specific recommendation of the two essays you mentioned. Are
those essays available only in the new SELECTED WRITINGS volume, or are they
available in earlier, cheaper editions of B's translations? Are these
essays short enough to photocopy?
So, we've got to think of some title for you as consultant/liaison to the
CLR James Institute. This is part of our master plan for a funding
strategy, which may mean money for us, and maybe some day money for others.
So how do we pitch your connection to the Institute? Romantic period
literature, lit theory in general, West Indian lit, American lit, Melville?
Other ideas?
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 09 Apr 1997 08:57:32 +0200
From: P Van Schaik
To: blake@albion.com, vala2@hotmail.com
Subject: Blake & Donne -Reply& Boehme
Message-Id:
I doubt that Blake would have approved of the imagery of imprisonment
and chastity in relation to God, though he might have liked the vigour and
wit of Donne if he had read him. Re Boehme , while it is known that
Blake read him, Boehme's language and expression of ideas are often
rather turgid and difficult to relate to Blake other than in relation to the
"turba" which one can relate to Blake's ideas of the Fall, along with other
Gnostic ideas. I think I pointed out in an earlier post that Andrew
Welburn's work on "Blake and the Imagination" may be helpful in this
regard. Pam van Schaik, Pretoria, RSA
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 09 Apr 1997 08:52:16 +0100
From: timli@controls.eurotherm.co.uk (Tim Linnell)
To: blake@albion.com
Cc: csachs@pacbell.net
Subject: Re: books
Message-Id: <6678.199704090652@merlot.controls.eurotherm.co.uk>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
>Thank you for answering my question re: "Auguries of Innocence". My
>next question is: Where may I find or purchase a copy of Blake's
>illustrated Book of Job and The Notebook where "Auguries of Innocence"
I might have a few spare proofs of plates from the Book of Job in the loft
somewhere which you could have if you like (I think we're using them as
wrappers to protect our collection of Blake manuscripts...)
OK, only kidding. You can get hold of a facsimile copy of the book of Job
via one of the on-line book services: go to www.excite.com and look for
something involving 'bookstores' and you should find what you need (possibly
via the banner advert). It costs about $9.95. I have a reference for a UK
source of the book (since I was considering buying it myself) but this is
probably of limited use to you.
I have a follow on question: if anyone already has this book, does it
contain both the engravings and the watercolours?
All the best,
Tim Linnell
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 9 Apr 1997 09:00:05 -0400 (EDT)
From: bouwer
To: blake@albion.com
Subject: culture and democracy
Message-Id: <199704091300.JAA28606@host.ott.igs.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
streets of shuddering cloud and
lightning in the mind leaping toward poles of
Canada and Paterson....
(Howl - Ginsberg)
I am following with interest the discussion about "culture"
on the Blake list at the moment. It is of particular interest
to me, because I am reading parts of "The C.L.R. James Reader"
edited by Anna Grimshaw. (For those who do not know, Ralph
Dumain is thanked in the Preface for editorial work.) At the
moment I am reading James on "American Culture" and Ralph's
posts are therefore of particular interest to me.
However, there is a certain unease in me when I hear Ralph
talk about "the repressive and backward culture in which Blake
lived." While it may be true that on the eve of the French
Revolution England did not exactly welcome political firebrands,
England then and frequently afterwards has provided a generous
and fertile soil for the development of new ideas. Moreover,that
country of under a hundred million people has in the past two
hundred years produced more first class poets and philosophers than
America in the equivalent timeframe with its much larger population.
It is a ploy for Americans to call British society aristocratic
and pride themselves on their own great "democratic" tradition.
They do not fool us who are looking at them from the outside. We
know that an important sector of the American population had to fight
as recently as 1964 for their democratic rights. We on the outside
continue to see white males at the helm in America, while women
frequently are heads of state on the Indian subcontinent(that quiet
democratic giant that produces more movies and computer programs
than the United States.) The world does not really appreciate America
for the glory of its democratic underpinnings ( I think that honour
still belongs to France and England) but for among other things
being the birthplace of jazz, an art form that had precious little
to do with the flowering of democracy. (On the contrary, jazz was
born in a distinctly un-democratic environment.) To expect that a
genuinely true new flowering of the arts will take place in America
BECAUSE of its assumed democratic underpinnings, seems to me a vain
hope. A small contingent of blacks that arrived from Africa in
manacles, and continued to be slaves until a little more than a hundred
years ago, did more to shape what the outside world sees as "American
Culture" than all the arrivals from Europe that came through Ellis
Island. One in four people on this earth is Chinese. The future of
"democracy" and "art" probably depends more on what goes on in the
next hundred years in Mainland China and on the Russian subcontinent
than on what happens here on the North American continent. Already it
seems to me South America has produced more giants of literature than
their brothers to the North. Let us not be insular and assume that all
hope resides in North America.
Gloudina Bouwer
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End of blake-d Digest V1997 Issue #43
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