[New-Poetry] Academy-Award Winnning Sad Thought

[Crisman Cooley]

My sentiments too.  When I first started reading new-po I wondered  
"Where is the true Dadaist?  Where is the silent piece?  Where is the  
readymade?"  Then I read about Goldsmith's _Day_, and as you report,  
the more interesting _Fidget_ and I felt at ease.  No surprise that  
Goldsmith (I believe) started as a visual artist well schooled in  
Duchampianism.  It is telling in the conceptual nature of his work  
that I haven't actually sought out the text of _Fidget_.  Simply   
accepted the necessity of the gesture and felt relief that I didn't  
have to make it.

Skip, pardon me, I think many of your posts are interesting and  
thought provoking-- I couldn't help being very surprised that you  
were lauding a television show screen writer (at least I think you  
were-- don't have the post at hand).  Can you explain?  I live in the  
media shadow.  We get one station here-- badly-- and it's Mexican tv.

Cris


> Date: Fri, 18 May 2007 14:56:59 -0500
> From: "Skip Fox" <skip at louisiana.edu>
> Subject: RE: [New-Poetry] Academy-Award Winnning Sad Thought
>
> Nice. But I'd argue that _Fidget_ is worth a look. He tries to  
> capture every
> movement of his body that he can (aware there's always selection, a  
> fiction
> of sorts) for a 18 hour period (or 16?). A book without a head.  
> During the
> book he masturbates, has a strongly anxious reaction to his own  
> recording,
> takes a walk, and gets drunk. (The last chapter is a letter-reversed
> word-by-word "copy" of the first, which he has trained himself to  
> read . . .
> it's on ubu.com).You're right, a conceptual artist, in words, yet  
> one who is
> pushing some conditions in interesting ways. I'm glad he's doing it.
>
>