[-empyre-] Apology I sent uncorrected- draft just now-thisis the right one)Queer *Is* Violent: Response to Part of Judith's Position/Statement

[naxsmash]

Thank you David, this is such a rich posting I don't know where to  
begin or end (ahh, a transverse tacking maybe, against the wind)?

>
For me the most personal 'coup' in your post, David is this part:
>
> Torture is not the screams of the tortured alone, nor the laughter  
> or speech of the torturers--it is also something else, that which a  
> Russian artist notes i writing:
> "Language is a fascism not because it silences, censors, but because  
> IT FORCES ONE TO SPEAK"
>
> it is the forced speech which  is important--not what it says, its  
> truth or falsity, but simply that the tortured being as been forced  
> out of the privacy of a realm of silence which makes a protective  
> barrier between tortured and torturer---forced OUT into the realm of  
> speech, of language, a place, site of, control even when it is  
> controlling nothing "coherent" or "useful"--it is forcing the  
> individual to be participating in a collectivity  which it has been  
> resisting--
>

I am going for something about this with a short film that I made with  
my daughter Molly when she was at Cal Arts.  I was stunned by her  
writing reaching this exact place:   the being forced to speak as a  
condition of torture.  The poem imagines the State 'eating' its
subjects in rendition.  A cannibal recipe.   but this part, about  
being forced into speech:


http://www.vimeo.com/5262390

this one is in French as well as English.

especially the fragment here:

"Let me ask you what you are trying to say.
We...
That's not what you said before. Name me five examples.
We...
You can't even do that simple thing?
We...
You live here for free. Pull your shit together.
we...
You're crying already?
we...
Get the fuck out of my vision."

original text by Molly McPhee 2007



Evacuee cake / Molly McPhee, 2007

I am in receipt of words provided to me
Those that indicate we are reciprocals put into pies,
those surgical ones leading to a common maceration
Metrical, non-metric, cage, skull,
test of bars as lexical conversions, receipt with variation,
kits of taste.

Now wild words taste better so bitter whiskers against the bar
kitchen sashes, cull, play similars all

similars as to grow evacuee cakes,
minerals down buttresses
leaks into grip-tie emergencies
grow the garrison



deposit milks marbled culprits            the littlest nutrient, the  
biggest
new fairly voluptuous in liberty around
still muling
still nailing

Let me ask you what you are trying to say.
We...
That's not what you said before. Name me five examples.
We...
You can't even do that simple thing?
We...
You live here for free. Pull your shit together.
we...
You're crying already?
we...
Get the fuck out of my vision.



Of the following, some are waves and some possible treats:
Organ juice solvent on the racks
a lobotomy yielding sweetbreads slippery of words provided,
earths of the released
evacuee cakes scoured with whip frets
Now carnivorous words taste worse so muscles ripped against the bar

Evisceration, then cooking

A recipe enters in throats vitriolic or vittles, now someone who  
wasn't fake
the girds contract sweats bloods
using more bills clips or leave unclipped to fly
from the arch of the gullet to quicklime

own wards pronounced anymore
for army splints only or
flung truants from bridges that boom

Don't Come

But all I wanted now you're gone was an animal to swallow and attest  
you never were.

Receipt of things to bake and fluff:
The brains of words,                              the crowns of  
panthers and illegals
scooped and opened to tissues,
hearings will sew up the next times still won't speak

we'll produce a slightly different texture deeper inside of us

Similars to expect:
scurried, torn, savory, mind numbing, and won,
Combine these, select similars:
roster pads, ghost arms, citizen
Positive, positive to be used in the mouth.


> a critique of sytems of control then begins not at the top, in the  
> language of "those presumed to know"--but from the other way round  
> (which feminism and the studies of everyday life made possible--)-- 
> from the smallest daily facts and acts, that is where as in the  
> "divagations" (also the name of a Mallarme book)-- of the young  
> women of Tehran.

yes, this is the reversal of the oppression.  or transversal, better.

=c
>
>
> The anonymity and dailiness out of which changes are ignited, in  
> part because they are truly hidden in plain sight/site/cite--is a  
> grass roots from the roots up, rather than so called "changes"  
> effected by movements who are following a leader as the Authority  
> and as the Word, Voice, Text of Authority
>
> in a sense a tactics is given to each person to find, and to find  
> ways with others in which, by which, for which --from the very  
> tiniest "molecular" events, positions, objects, words---they are  
> interconnected, what are the shared oppressions that are 24/7
>
> even in movements eventually many ideas, words, voices, texts get  
> lost in the return of competitions for power--
>
> in a sense what one essays as much as possible is to call into  
> question everything around one--continually, to be on the look out  
> as it were for which things begin to reappear and how--
>
> which is what m own artworks etc are based on i cal it Necessity is  
> the motherfucker of Invention-what is refuse is turned into a refuse- 
> refusal--
> here are some works/essays re some of the aspects  of language in  
> relation with torture, and forms of resistance that may existent  
> "right before one's very eyes"
>
> (i don't have any suggestions re an overall theory, only of a smal  
> actions, ideas, steps, methods which one use anywhere anytime--
> to begin by loosening bricks in the Wall until the whole thing is  
> trembling and collapsing-
>
>
> Death from this Window/Doors of Guantanamohttp://www.flickr.com/photos/chirotzer0/sets/72157618302466170/
> slideshow:
> Slide Show--188 imaghttp://www.flickr.com/photos/chirotzer0/sets/72157618302466170/show/
>


>
>
> David-Baptiste Chirot: "Waterboarding & Poetry"
> Wordforword #13 Spring 2008
> (also has Visual Poetry by chirot)
>
> heatre only but  the real world (west Los
>
> > Angeles), i mean , here's the problem with Genet for me, leaves me  
> so
> > cold (probably as cold as
> > acorpse after being beaten in some alley), because in the end it's  
> all
> > about his f-ing freedom, I say, so what, so what next.  its  
> convenient
> > to hate the world and to hate the specific places and sense of place
> > in the world-- hey like Palestine, sure, so specially glorious
> > that Gaza strip,  but only if it never becomes a state. A specific
> > place and its familiars (the bus station mens room in the Back Bay
> > 1980 for example) must be ratted out, must be exposed as vulnerable,
> > as a mere shadow-play, a theatre ( yes so its ok to kill, there).
> > Right. And then, in the handing out of treats (after or before the
> > bloodbath).  Isn't it only ever ok to save the best meth for women  
> and
> > street kids because they look and act weak.   Us 'girlies' 'we' get
> > the good stuff from the strong
> > protector- lurker in the dark- but watch out if we ever become other
> > than 'women' or 'working kids' , that's when we become monstrous to
> > Genet and he (like David's meth head) has to be the
> > only monster. No Caliban in love with Ariel, this one.   He cuts up
> > the meth, or he will cut you, if you get too strong to move out of  
> the
> > shadows.   The  young women of Teheran  now rip and slash their
> > chadors to pray in a new way, they burn them against the tear gas.
> > Bataille in Erotism elides the erotic with death and names such
> > 'transgression' to motivate all politics-- it's interesting (i was
> > checking last night.. that central to the argument is that eros,  
> gets
> > down to being about reproduction, that's "all").  You end up with  
> one
> > man standing , the author (aka prick, who writes 'beautfully' and
> > 'scandalously' : reproduces himself through the violence of the  
> text,
> > and also dreams of same in the 'location' of cocks inside police
> > trousers, that's where he'll write his next text)...)  Following  
> this
> > logic , the young beautiful women of Teheran 's 'divagations' (wow
> > that s a cool word) has to lead to their destruction; in this Genet
> > and the conservative ayatollahs are agreed.  It's only ever ok for
> > them (the 'girls")  to enact beauty if they are going to be mowed
> > down.  LIke the sissy boys in Stonewall eighties they gotta be  
> stuffed
> > back in the garbage dump, glorious compost.  In the Sotomayor  
> hearings
> > last week the ranking Republican oozes about how  the judge is a  
> real
> > american story of success and a real family person, etc etc, and  
> then
> > accuses her of racism (bullies always accuse others of exactly what
> > they are doing and think no one else can see). That's just so no
> > Puerto Rican woman in her mid fifties with the most extensive trial
> > career of any potential Supreme Court judge in the last 100 years in
> > America, can EVER have power over the folks who want to be in charge
> > of who gets the really good crystal.  Tara Mateik s work- the
> > performance replay/"docudrama"  of the Billie Jean King/Bobby Riggs
> > match complete with replay of the TV commentary (old fart Cosell vs
> > 'cute' Rosie Casales) is pertinent here.  Tara does this series of
> > inversions and replays that work more like montage , where you bring
> > disparate elements together, sublating/cutting/melding- to produce a
> > kind of direct address:  "look at this! watch me !" This to me is an
> > antidote to the death cult of Genet and the Republican guard.
> > Politically the twists and turns are so important because, as Tara's
> > work shows, the powers who want to humiliate and torture the 'weak'
> > must be confronted with a 'twisted' or torqued (twerk) display of
> > largesse , even nonchalance (coolness),
> > and a slight smile at the edge. " RC: I just wonder whether Bobby
> > would look better in a tennis dress . . . better than the shorts  
> maybe."
> >
> > -christina
> >
> >
> > Judith wrote,
> >
> > "
> > >  I also read a really amazing account on
> > > one of the Tehran sites today of last Friday's prayers in which  
> the
> > > raconteur details the divagations from the "proper" format of  
> various
> > > religious practices: women doffing the chador and praying, sexes
> > > praying
> > > together, burning chadors to mitigate teargas, etc.
> >
> > David wrote
> > >
> > > he explained again for him it was a class thing--and gave me a  
> great
> > > many more examples of al kinds of things he had learned to work on
> > > since he began chrusing the bus station bathroom  at age 15 to  
> find
> > > marks--some of the things he told me of were more sublte yet  
> just as
> > > vioent in other, more aesthetic ways--
> > >
> > > on the rare times our days off somewhat converged we wd work on  
> his
> > > autobio and i wd read Genet aloud to him and hims 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--
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > Genet's fascaintion with the beauty of the vioent aspectsof State
> > > and Men--Burroughs noticied with horr that while the two were
> > > covering the Chicago 1968 Democtatic Cnvention for Esquire--that
> > > genet was fascainted by the area of the crotch of the police men's
> > > uniforms--and inhis pieceon the "pigs" genet finds an eroticism in
> > > these violent State sponsored thugs--
> > > this attraction to viooence as an erotic imagery rather than  
> acts--
> > > that is the fantasies of the cocksof criminals pasted to the
> > > insideof lockers or tiny mirros i one's cell--islinked with the
> > > fascation for the outer images which give evidence bybulgesof the
> > > interior life of the trousers so to speak-
> > > itis the surfaces which indicate depths thatcontradict the  
> surfaces
> > > that genet enjoys pullingout fo the hat continually for the  
> reader--)
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > In life, the rebellions of the Black Panthers and Palestinians are
> > > only aesthetic-erotic as long as they take place as a form of
> > > theater--and when the play suddenly bursts in to life, it no  
> longer
> > > interests him, in fact he refuses it. he walks out just like any
> > > other person leaving the theater, ironically "playing" on the  
> "play
> > > being finished,punkt, fin fine over-- having reached its end."
> > >
> > > leaving the theater "like any one else" yet bringing the vision of
> > > the theater, a Queering vision, into the streets with him.as
> > > himself, his living being.
> >
> >
> > Tara wrote
> >
> > > In Putting the Balls Away, I reenact the 1973 tennis match between
> > > Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs in the famed battle of the sexes.
> > > Formally Putting the Balls Away is executed in three distinct  
> ways:
> > > an interactive performance, a single channel video, and a video
> > > installation. During the performance video of one player is rear-
> > > projected opposite the live performance of the other. I perform  
> both
> > > Billie Jean and Bobby.  After each game the competitors "switch
> > > sides" (contruction/deconstruction of gender). The match is  
> enacted
> > > shot for shot. It's is important so that the action can match the
> > > commentary. The Battle of the Sexes was the most-watched live
> > > sporting event of all time in 1973 that pitted chauvinist against
> > > feminist when women tennis players demanded equal pay to that of
> > > their male counterparts.  Excerpts from the sports commentators,
> > > Howard Cosell and Rosie Casals, exemplify the spirit of the match:
> > >
> > >
> > > HC: There’s the velocity that Billie Jean can put on the ball and
> > > walking back she’s walking more like a male than a female.
> > >
> > >
> > > RC: I just wonder whether Bobby would look better in a tennis
> > > dress . . . better than the shorts maybe.
> > >
> > >
> > > HC: Billie Jean of course won the first set, to the absolute  
> delight
> > > of all of the women in the arena. They actually stood and gave her
> > > an ovation and I suspect many in their living rooms did the same
> > > thing.
> > >
> > > http://www.taramateik.com/index.php/projects/details/putting_the_balls_away_performance/
> > >
> > > This footage is from a performance at the Guggenheim. I also
> > > performed it one other time, in Houston, the original site of the
> > > match.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> >
> > Davin wrote
> > >
> > > violwrite this, a pacifist), I wonder what
> > > the implications of an abstract pure violence would have for my
> > > opposition to the forms of violence that we are familiar with  
> (from
> > > physical force to threats of force).
> > >
> > > Peace!
> > >
> > > Davin Heckman
> > > <www.retrotechnics.com>
> > >
> >
> > Robert wrote
> > > ertain *violence* to/of queer(ing).  In
> > > > the words of Sedgwick, "'[q]ueer’ is a continuing moment,  
> movement,
> > > > motive—recurrent, eddying, troublant. The word ‘queer’ itself  
> means
> > > > across -- it comes from the Indo-European root -twerkw, which  
> also
> > > > yields the German quer (transverse), Latin torque (to twist),
> > > English
> > > > athwart” (_Tendencies_, 1993: xii).  This *speaks* of a certain
> > > > violence (*torque* can also be traced to torture, which is an  
> act of
> > > > violence), and to queer (or queering -- which I want to also use
> > > as a
> > > > transitive verb, which would violate/torture rules of grammar)  
> *is*
> > > > violence against the normative (and queer _does_ do/enact more  
> than
> > > > just this), and we can *see* a certain *queering* as a certain
> > > > *violence* when Derrida states, in a way that shows the slippage
> > > > between binary oppositions, *... a caress may be a blow and vice
> > > > versa. … And let us not exclude either that certain experience  
> of
> > > > touching (of 'who touches whom') do
> > > > not simply pertain to blows and caresses.  What about a kiss?   
> Is it
> > > > one caress among many?  What about a kiss on the mouth?  What
> > > about a
> > > > biting kiss, as well as everything that can then be exchanged
> > > between
> > > > lips, tongues, and teeth?  Are blows wanting there?
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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> > empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
> > http://www.subtle.net/empyre
>
>
>
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