The White House has embraced con-artist Kenny Goldsmith. He will lead a “poetry workshop for children” with Mrs. Obama. This should be rich. For years now Goldsmith has been insulting the intelligence of college students, readers of the Harriet blog and Poetry magazine (see here and here), as well as credulous members of what passes for the “avant-garde” in this country. According to his Wikipedia page, Goldsmith’s classes at University of Pennsylvania, Center for Programs in Contemporary Writing, involve “appropriation, theft, stealing, plundering and sampling. Cheating, fraud and identity theft are all encouraged.” He ought to fit right into the Washington scene.
"I don't think Poetry has ever been sicker or more healthy"<br /><br />I hope you're right! Historically, periods of stagnation in poetry conceal fermentations that make the wine of later periods. Creative destruction, maybe? Although I don't believe in "the wisdom of the Market"….
Hey Joe!<br />(ain't that an old rock song?)<br /><br />I was reading some flarf the other day, well reading maybe is too strong a word since there is actually nothing there to read and it occurred to me that my time would be better served reading the dictionary. As to reading sentences over & over again I don't see much in the way of improvement.<br />(In either case the computer
Oh my god — they hired Kenny!
they've been in the shit so long<br />they can no longer smell the stink<br /><br /><br />K.<br /><br />that guy who runs UBU banned me from his site <br />as he said "as long as I am running things"<br /><br />and<br />some guy up in Philidelpia a 'poet' when i cracked that<br /><br />"Philidelphia is a nice place to visit<br />but, I wouldn't want to die there&
There is plenty of disappointment to go around. I'm disappointed in myself half the time. What disappoints me about Mr. G is the gullibility of his supporters, among which one must count Al Filreis, the <i>Poetry</i> crowd, the UBUistas, Juliana Spahr (an admiring promoter of Mr. G's "work"), and the misguided functionaries at U of Penn. They all ought to know better.
And, oh, let me say yet again: academics like Mr. G have killed poetry.And I'm a little angry, and a little disappointed, that the Obamas didn't invite an elementary or secondary teacher to teach poetry to the kids. That's where the most good can be done: with impressionable young people who take naturally to the poetry residing in things.<br /><br />The thought that a third-rate
Bravo, Joseph!<br /><br />Bravo!<br /><br />Words to give heart to those of us (like me)who are wondering if poetry lives at all anymore.
Well, Donald, your brother-in-law's "art" is not art; it is a con job by definition: "an instance of deceiving or tricking someone." He has deceived his students—many of them, at least, since by all accounts he is a popular "instructor"—into believing that art can be created from plagiarized materials using cheating and fraud. If that is <i>not</i> a con, I'd
My brother-in-law, Kenneth Goldsmith, is many things (try sitting next to him at a family dinner, I dare you), but he is not a con-artist. You can disagree with his art and how he goes about it, but calling him a con-artist is a reductionist argument at best, and an ad hominem attack at worst. <br /><br />-donald donegan jr.
If there's a Big Lie in the po-biz avant, Goldsmith has played Goebbels in getting it out.<br /><br />And Vassilis, there's a documentary on Kenny G called (ironically enough), <i>Sucking On Words</i>—a title one preposition and one object of that preposition <i>too long</i>.
Tsk, tsk Joe, no big deal–as you say, what he teaches has been the usual fare for our fair favorite sons for ages, but if Michelle lets them attend together with the children, she will be giving them a golden opportunity to wax poetically as they get sucked down the toilet.
Oh well … you expected them to invite Silliman? <br /><br />this Goldsmith, from what I see, should fit right in<br /><br />add lying to that list as<br /><br />lying is what allows (our) society to function … it's what separates us from the beasts…<br /><br />and 2.5 million poets-teachers and it s only taken six of them to destroy poetry !