In 1988, when I proposed the concept of THE BEAT CRITIQUE
to AS22O's reigning bureaucrats , THE IDEA I WAS SELLING was
THE PROMOTION OF AS22O VIA THE ANTITHESISIS OF HYPE!
I had already seen decades of fluffy non-profit, academic or corporate "house-organs" cranking out self congratulatory text to no effect. AND I had seen its competition on TV since the day I was born - THE COMMERCIAL LIE, dressed up as a piece of ass or president of the class or any number of an infinity of options used to oblitterate the reality of information in favor of consumer choices.
ALL LANGUAGE AND METAPHOR HAD BEEN DILUTED BY ADVERTISING and Absurd, hyperbolic,PUBLIC RELATIONS SLANG was at-large everywhere, from madison avenue to congress- AND MIXES OF HARD N SOFT sells were being deployed to promote everything from toenail polish to political head tripz.
My Idea was essentially to employ reverse psychology to take our grungy little funk dungeon on Richmond street and lend it a cache of fabulousness, simply by becomming the personification of empty elocution at the service of blind hauteur.
It wunt like I didnt know how it sounded, I worked at Wellesley for a semester almost..Raised by an alumna as well.., Im quite familiar with the well phrased aspects of empty and blind.
Naturellement, I wasn't permited to phrase my pitch that way. I mean, I couldnt admit that what I was doing was promoting AS22O via a critical trope, because, by1988 I was already functioning as the shadow government of AS22O, at the same time as being UMBERTOS FAVORITE PERSONA NON GRATA.
So it had to SEEM TO have something innit for my ego. Even if it was just to give Umberto and Jim Finnerty something to grasp at. But I MOST CERTAINLY WAS allowed to admit that THE STRATEGY behind my assuming the posture of Critic and antithetical PR apologist, WAS TO INVENT INTRIGUE, where there was virtually none. But of course I couldnt say that either.
Having endured a childhood as the spawn of an antropologist and a Mass Media News Editor, both posessed of gigantic sensitivities to linguistic spinz, I was, by 1985, so OVERQUALIFIED to promote AS22O that you could not even begin to compute the degree to which my attitudes had developed ironic penumbras.
It was probably there, at that VERY moment i RECOGNIZED AN ASPECT OF CRITICISM which informs EVERYTHING I WRITE.
"THE EXPRESSION OF AN OPINION ONLY SERVES THE PURPOSE OF PROPELLING YOU MORE RAPIDLY TO THE OPPOSITE VIEWPOINT."
Opinions unexpressed are more pernicious than the love which dare not speak its name,
but ... E X P R E S S E D
QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS FREES THE CONSCIOUS MIND TO WANDER
FREELY.
THUS EMPOWERED, I BEGAN MY CAREER AS A DISSONANT HYSTERIC.
I suppose, at the time, the greatest thing I could lend AS22O was something in the way of controlled opposition. An effort which you could undermine. An opportunity for IN- HOUSE-CONTROVERSY, it wasnt exactly bicameral government but it provided an arena for the play of opposites .. A right to be lefted.
With the mechanics of reverse psychology PR in place, my critical deconstruction of the beatnik league inspired endless building and I started to create slogans and logos n rubrics n mottos n statements of purpose brimming with the essence of creativity which I naievely called "PURE ADVERTISING" and it all was just alot of purple smoke to create the mirror image of herculean artistical efforts. Heh
I had no idea what I was doing when I began to generate artifacts in and for AS22O, naturally, like everything else Ive ever done, it has a seemless quality and a flawless logic which make it seem intentional.
The only Intentional aspect was that I was DELIBERATELY finding the flaws in the beatnik league effort and used snide "conventional wisdomz" to support my faux theorems.
And even though I announced my intention to persue a REVERSE PSYCHOLOGY PROMOTION, after the first issue, IT JUST WASNT FUNNY ANYMORE! at least not to them living in squalor on richmond St.
OH yes! They got quite mad.And in a further development of the METAPHYSICS OF THE WORD , the souls congealed around Umbertos head invented counter intelligence about my intentions.
EVEN I forgot what they were...... briefly.
By 1990 I had happily regained my own point of view again. US vsTHEM
believe it er nutt, does not configure or compute in my tiny mind. All of creation being one seamless fabric.
Still, we are required to deal in illusions
