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Life During Wartime: Living the Writer's Life in Dubya's America
(NOTE WELL: Tony Brown says, READ THIS ARTICLE!!!!! It's by Victor Infante, and it's vital thinking for all of us who call ourselves writers.)
I've been in a bad mood since the election. I had spent that night sipping Guinness and watching election results, stopping only to sip more Guinness at a friend's house and watch 'The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.' I then returned home, drank more, and watched more election results.
All the while doing this, I tried to write, but frankly, nothing substantive emerged. It took days for me to be able to really get a grip on what was happening—both to the country and myself. It's not just that George W. Bush is back in office—although I'm not, personally, looking forward to another four years of him. It wasn't just the rampant rumors of election fraud—although that, too, disturbs me.
No, what disturbs me is the sudden shift in the language being used to describe the political climate. The talk of resentment in the red states, of 'moral values' being a top voting priority; the immediate, conciliatory rush for America to come together.
It took me a few days to realize exactly what was bugging me—it's all a crock, and I'm not buying any of it.
I'm not trying to convert anybody here. I don't care if you're a God-fearing war veteran who voted for George Bush and loves America, mom and apple pie—although I'm sure you're a wonderful person. I've known many, many poets, novelists, filmmakers and journalists on the right wing of the political spectrum. But I'm not really talking to you right now. This one's for the rest of us, the ones who have to write in a climate where saying unpopular things is highly, highly discouraged. Where the empty platitude of 'coming together' seems to be a code for 'don't rock the boat,' even if not all of us are entirely comfortable with where the boat's going. This is for those of us on the fringe, who need to check themselves before even their own anti-establishmentarian voices are absorbed into the machine. Even Clash songs are being used to sell cars these days, after all.
This isn't about Dubya or the GOP or any of it. Right this second, as I sit at my keyboard, it's all about me. And maybe it's about you, too. Because as everyone—all the pundits and talking heads on the television screen, all the politicians with their edgy constituents—talk about coming together, I'm left with the stark, identity-shattering realization that I tried that. It didn't work.
I tried unity. I tried the system. I backed the mainstream candidate because I felt that, at that moment in time, he was truly the better alternative. And—for me—he was, but that moment has passed.
The fact is I'm not a Democrat. Haven't been for years. I'm a registered Libertarian and proud of it. I'm a college-educated artist and a devout anarchist. I'm a Christian and I don't give a damn what anyone says about that, be they atheist or the pope. I'm a pacifist with damn good reasons to be one. These are who I am, and the system doesn't have a place for me.
I tried to play nice with America, and America let me down. Whatever. America owes me nothing. America bought what the GOP was selling—again, whatever. America buys a lot of trash it doesn't need. This is politics vis a vis Wal-Mart, and personally, I'm tired of playing.
Because, at this particular moment in history, I'm left with a naked understanding of what I am when you shake all the rest of it away—I'm a writer. When it's all working correctly, I write poetry and fiction that casts light on weird, dark little angles of the world. I write journalism that looks unflinchingly at the world the way it is , not the way I want it to be. At least, that's what I try to do. I'll leave it to other people to decide if I succeed.
Putting George Bush or John Kerry or Ralph Nader or Joseph Stalin in the White House doesn't change any of that. Making people feel better about the state of the world isn't in my job description. But I can see the landscape that my and other people's writing appears on changing, and that is concerning.
There's a chill in the air, but it's not a new thing—it's just that the glacier is finally breaking the surface of the water. For years now, corporate interests—inherently conservative things—have had a stranglehold on the publishing industry. Corporate bookstores create narrow classifications for stocking merchandise that corporate publishers work to meet. Corporate broadcast media airs little that seriously challenges perceptions of the world, and monolithic studios perpetuate bland filmmaking that, ultimately, re-enforces the status quo. This is nothing new. The superhero puts the flag up on top of the White House when the battle's done, and even the edgy anti-hero helps returns the world to order.
Mind you, this is a world where a journalist in Providence, Rhode Island, is sentenced to jail for not revealing his sources, and where the CIA is pressured to present a picture of the world that conforms to the how the White House wants it to be, not how it is. What's the connection? Both journalists and intelligence agents are supposed to present a picture of the way the world is, regardless of who's views that conforms to. In both cases, professionals were punished for doing their job. What chance does a poet have to speak truth to power when even those who's sanctioned role it is to do that are being silenced?
This really is a culture war, and it's in full swing. Everyone's been talking about it for years, but I don't think anyone's really understood what it entailed. Well, here's what it looks like from where I'm standing: a lot of our old arguments don't much matter anymore. The fact is, they probably haven't since Sept. 11, 2001, but now I think I'm ready to declare it official, for whatever that's worth.
I no longer care about the mechanics of running the National Poetry Slam. I no longer care about the stupid Hollywood games that entail getting films made. I don't care about your publication credits, or getting on HBO's Def Poetry Jam. I no longer want to have long, in-depth discussions about the nature of poetry. These things will happen, of course. Life does go on—even life during wartime. But, for me at least, they're not paramount. I do not believe art is a luxury, and never have. I think it's a necessity. But I think a lot of the discussion about art needs to change. Most of it was always inside baseball, anyway. But in the face of a world that's rapidly changing—and from my point of view, not for the better—most of it is just spinning wheels and masturbation.
I don't really care what you write—mainstream genre fiction, romantic comedies or 'fight the power' slam poems—the fact is we're, as a profession, under siege. Whatever your point of view—and remember, I don't even fit the traditional mold of a bi-coastal liberal—this is what's important: not arcane discussions about the nature of art, not pointless mechanics that insinuate that art and writing are something inherently separate from the world they exist in, but rather vivid and unflinching art that speaks truth regardless of how unpopular or commercial it is.
Submitted by ocvictor on Sunday, November 21, 2004 (18:18:09) (4040 reads)
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| "Features: Life During Wartime: Living the Writer's Life in Dubya's America" | Login/Create an Account | 12 comments |
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Re: Life During Wartime: Living the Writer’s Life in Dubya’s America
(Score: 1 )
by Tony on Sunday, November 21, 2004 (18:21:41) |
If I could give this six stars, I would.
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Re: Life During Wartime: Living the Writer’s Life in Dubya’s America
(Score: 1 )
by ocvictor on Sunday, November 21, 2004 (18:25:42) |
Tony, I am blushing. Thanks!
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Re: Life During Wartime: Living the Writer’s Life in Dubya’s America
by Anonymous on Sunday, November 21, 2004 (22:55:01) |
As a writer and a sort-of journalist, I absolutely support you - the nature of this business - this ART - is in danger and we need to preserve it and protect its credibility. I remember reading in a journalism textbook that "Poets make the worst journalists" - and I was startled. What better profession for a poet - an observant, well versed individual with something to say. What better to benefit the field of journalism than someone with honest insight. Whether some writers like it or not, we, indeed, are very much connected to the rest of the world and it's our duty to remain steadfast and show everyone what we've spoken all along.
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Re: Life During Wartime: Living the Writer’s Life in Dubya’s America
(Score: 1 )
by ocvictor on Sunday, November 21, 2004 (23:48:42) |
Why thank you, masked writer!
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Re: Life During Wartime: Living the Writer’s Life in Dubya’s America
by Anonymous on Monday, November 22, 2004 (04:02:40) |
Thank you, Victor. While the neocons continue to plow over humanity in their attempt to reverse every aspect of human progress that can't net them a quick buck (bloodstained or not, it's still legal tender, eh?), any and all perpetual adolescents on the left need to stop navel gazing over any and all personal b.s. now (including identity politics) and do what courageous, emotionally mature people do: stand up to evil and halt it in its tracks.
Love,
Amélie
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Re: Life During Wartime: Living the Writer’s Life in Dubya’s America
(Score: 1 )
by John on Monday, November 22, 2004 (09:39:12) |
I think the major focus should be on corporate controll of America - not just the Neo Cons.
Democrats and Republicans currently have much the same aims, it's just the choice of tools they use that are the sticking points.
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Re: Life During Wartime: Living the Writer’s Life in Dubya’s America
(Score: 1 )
by ocvictor on Monday, November 22, 2004 (19:30:52) |
When I'm honest with myself, I can't help but think that the neocons, Dubya, all of it are just symptoms of a greater sickness.
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Re: Life During Wartime: Living the Writer’s Life in Dubya’s America
by Anonymous on Monday, November 22, 2004 (14:06:33) |
I so wish you were wrong.
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Re: Life During Wartime: Living the Writer’s Life in Dubya’s America
(Score: 1 )
by ocvictor on Monday, November 22, 2004 (14:56:48) |
Yeah. Me, too.
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Re: Life During Wartime: Living the Writer’s Life in Dubya’s America
by Anonymous on Wednesday, December 01, 2004 (15:13:57) |
Well, I did this the day after; this kind of thing may be the best we can do--react, and hope for a response.
***
ELEVEN LINES AFTER AN ELECTION
The civics textbook’s recession
Could illustrate expert opinion
Exploding like citizens fired on
Or freed at last from a fixed gun:
The fox the dogs always outrun
And cripple for master’s fun.
Crazy losers with nothing in common
May fly up now to the cold sun
Colored sunshine yellow in the cartoon:
What all schoolchildren learn:
Today’s final topic’s division.
***
We throw these pebbles into the void and take such satisfaction as we can from the echoes, and my whole life has been wartime (tail end of Viet Nam, Cold, Grenada, Nicaragua, Iran, Iraq, Iraq), and writing has always (in some way) been about the war between the writer and the world. Some people think that <i>everything changed</i> when Reagan was elected, or when GWB stole the 2000 election, or on 11 September 2001, or when the US dropped the only A-bombs used in wartime, or, or, or . . . I disagree. I agree with President Eisenhower, who said "Things today are more like they've always been," or David Byrne, who just said "Same as it ever was." The current crisis is the ongoing crisis, which explains the frustrating reptitive quality of our talking about it.
I also think that the only real truths are the internal ones--which is a philosphical discussion for another time.
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Re: Life During Wartime: Living the Writer’s Life in Dubya’s America
(Score: 1 )
by ocvictor on Wednesday, December 01, 2004 (15:21:32) |
Gah. Love the poem!
Change is theonly constant in life, but then, there IS something different in the air right now, and I yearn to understand it. Poem by poem, if need be.
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Re: Life During Wartime: Living the Writer’s Life in Dubya’s America
(Score: 1 )
by ocvictor on Wednesday, December 01, 2004 (15:48:56) |
The current crisis is the ongoing crisis, which explains the frustrating reptitive quality of our talking about it.
Hmm. And this thought is going to stick with me a while, isn't it?
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