[-empyre-] David Chirot: Queer *Is* Violent: Response to Part of Judith'sPosition/Statement

[David Chirot]

i'm going out the door to work so not much time to reply

there is ahidden joke n the uctting up meth as not only is tha to show one
despises the yuppies gentirfying the "dirty river"-
but also hat else are dope fiends going to do when they have dope to cut for
others?

but cut it so there is more for ME or for WE--

one may try to fool oneself thatthere is an altruistic reason for deploying
one's selfishness and greed/lust for ever more more more more--
thatis part of the buizarre humor--

that altrusim may be in reality a form of getting something for oneself in
the guise of working for a cause or--benefitting others in some way--
one has to be awareof one''s real motives concealed with ion those outward
seemingly socialy "positve" ones--

to laugh at oneself is often the best medicine standing between one and the
litany of jails institutions and death--even if for amonet--
in itself this functions like a tactioc of self preservation--to undercut
the seriousness of one's addiction and the actions itmakes one take while
pretendding the actions mean something else--


thereis akind of stock holm syndrome often found among people who are
selling al they have to dealer in order to keep on getting their dope--so
the dealer becomes not a vulture swoopingon them in times of weakness and
holding them hosdtage al themore to his pwoer ofver them, but also since the
deaelr though roipping one off--is thus turnedinto a saviour, a frieind, in
times of need--

the gallows humpor "tactics" so to speakare one way to prevent oneself from
being so serious about things thatone begins to lose track of how the bottom
line fucntion of this whole eleaborate charde is money and power--others
moneyand power over them via the addiction
once the addict is too borke or to much of a darg
that goodold loving buddie the dealer is gone--

sorry i have to run but wil try to repond a bit beter if i can later onthank
yu for a the questions--
and ideas and examples!
a bientot
see you in a minute
david


the sense of violence was very great al the time in taht era
i had just dropped off some book reviews at the gay community news offices
downtown--and shortly after the offices were blow to kingdom come, wit the
editor stil inside--

the eroticizing of the pilicemena's boot--
may be a way to "over turn its power'
into mething that is contolled by the point of view of Genet
he robss the boot of its powerin the police sense
and turns it into a fetioch of his own

(rmeber the velvet underground song boots of shiny shiny letaher--)

burroughs was struck by how Genetet cd be turned on by the crotches of the
police as they charged at the crowd--

again ii think it is a way for genet to turn them from oppressors to
dominated or manipulated lovers in HIS world--

drug addiction and alcoholism also--drugs and boose do not care who the hel
any one is as long as the body provides anice warm home for the pearsite to
move intoa nd take over the biocehmical physicalogical funtions which affect
behaviours and destory mental functions--

Genet himself became heavil dependedent on nembutal starting in the last
fifites/early sixties--

On Tue, Jul 21, 2009 at 10:25 AM, Robert Summers <robtsum at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi David,
>
> I have some questions and comments re: your post:
>
> You state, "... a fighter -- i remember at the time what an immense
> moment and example this was, like the lid had been blown off the
> streets, the sewer lid, and suddenly swarming forth from the degrading
> darkness into ful view were these gladiators, tough guys, men on the
> move with weapons against the forces endlessly making them stay "in
> the closest" or bars, behind the scenes ..."
>
> I like the metaphor (but is it?) of the "sewer lid being blown off"
> and the "monstrosity" emerging: a swarm (a "war-machine"? fueled by a
> superhuman love).  I think this could be a
> corrective-as-a-return-to-radicality in "queer politics" and "queer
> action/s" that would counter the conservative turn in the major "gay
> and lesbian movements" in North America (esp. the USA) -- for example
> Equality California and the HRC, which in many aspects just has
> bisexuals and transsexuals as tokens.  Such "gay" and "lesbian"
> movements are "fighting" more for "gays in the military" and "gay
> marriage" then AIDS/HIV, queer youth, rethinking kinship, etc.  Prop 8
> in California passed, in large part, because the gay, white,
> middle-class "community" did not reach out to the working class, the
> working poor, and people of color -- as well as the places outside of
> there comfort zone: East LA, South Central, the Inland Empire, etc.
> With regard to Stonewall, I want to add that "queers" -- or then
> "gays," in the broader sense of the term, -- of color, trannies (of
> color), dykes (of color), and drag queens (of color) were also at
> Stonewall and involved in the revolt/revolution, and a similar event
> took place in LA approx. two years earlier; thus, complicating the
> narrative, the history of the "gay and lesbian movement" and
> problematizing the "masculinist" actions taken during the 3 day (?)
> up-rise.  I would like to know more of what you think of "queer
> friendship," "queer kinship," and "queer politics" -- then and now.
>
> Also, you write about "queer" and the class issue.  What does "queer
> theory" and "queer politics" have to say about class?  Has it done a
> poor job in addressing this issue: the class issue -- not to mention
> the race issue, which often dovetails into the class issues of the
> poor?
>
> Finally, for this email to you (and others), you write, "i [would]
> read Genet aloud to him and his mangy dog -- while he cut up the meth
> -- the cutting it was also a form of violence against the middle and
> upper class customers -- working kids and women like ourselves got the
> good stuff ..."
>
> This reminds me of a story by Foucault (?).  He and Jean Genet were in
> a protest and the police arrived, and as Genet was thrown to the floor
> by the police, he was drawn to the shiny, leather boots of the police.
>  This is interesting to me because Genet (as in his writing)
> eroticized power, and he reversed (if only momentarily) the movement
> of power, by turning the Subject (the Police) into objects (of
> perverse pleasure and desire).  This also shows the power of
> disidentification, if you will.  I just love the fact that the
> brutality of the police was eroticized -- turned in another direction:
> one unrecognized and unstoppable by the police, the State apparatus.
> This is similarly played out in _Funeral Rites_ and even _Un Chant
> Amour_ -- as well as the play of _Un Chant Amour_ in Todd Haynes's
> _Poison_.  Here is a link to a brilliant essay on _Poison_ and "queer
> cinema":
> http://www.rochester.edu/in_visible_culture/issue1/bryson/bryson.html
>
> Thanks for your intriguing post; there is much there what needs
> further discussion, I think.
>
> As Ever, Robert ...
>
>
> Robert Summers, PhD/ABD
> Lecturer
> Art History and Visual Culture
> Otis College of Art and Design
> e: rsummers at otis.edu
> w: http://ospace.otis.edu/robtsum/Welcome
> _______________________________________________
> empyre forum
> empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
> http://www.subtle.net/empyre
>
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