Uncreative Writing

posted on reader-list by Vivek Narayan

http://poetryfoundation.org/dispatches/journals/2007.01.22.html

I hadn't read this blog before the remix workshop, but it might be 
interesting to read in light of those issues, re: text.

Kenneth Goldsmith is one of the more somewhat interesting conceptual 
poets, and also also the big brains behind the brilliant, resource-heavy 
site for avant garde poetry, sound poetry, visual ("concrete") poetry, 
experimental film and music, Ubuweb ( www.ubu.com ) with some of the 
best free ( film, sound, etc) downloads around. This is is week-long 
blog for the Poetry Foundation, one of the oldest, most hallowed, 
moss-encrusted institutions / journals for poetry in the US. Goldsmith 
happily describes himself as "the most boring writer that has ever lived".

But the question for me is, what next after this? Do we see these 
experiments in text as the final limit and retreat back, or go beyond 
them? I like Goldsmith's idea for his students that these practices 
should be seen as part of a toolkit, which is then put to *use* in 
various ways. [Even though he seems to see that as second prize.] How do 
we make use of these practices? I do not buy the avant-garde defence 
that these experiments will "by themselves", by their very formal 
existence, bring about change. In fact, despite the extremity and daring 
of these poetic experiments, they also conceal, like much experimental 
art, a deeper *"safeness"*, which actually prepares them nicely for 
gradual incorporation into the institutions and practices of power. 
(Andy Warhol left a legacy picked up, in circular fashion, by 
contemporary advertising; Goldsmith is a well-couched professor at the 
University of Pennsylvania; Christian Bok's project has received 
thousands of dollars in funding because it does not, eventually, as far 
as I can see, pose any fundamental challenge to the discipline of 
biology, and because it has many mainstream applications.)

For a quick read, here are some excerpts from this blog:

*(From "Tuesday")*

"I teach a class at the University of Pennsylvania called “Uncreative 
Writing,” which is a pedagogical extension of my own poetics. In it, 
students are penalized for showing any shred of originality and 
creativity. Instead, they are rewarded for plagiarism, identity theft, 
repurposing papers, patchwriting, sampling, plundering, and stealing. 
Not surprisingly, they thrive. Suddenly, what they’ve surreptitiously 
become expert at is brought out into the open and explored in a safe 
environment, reframed in terms of responsibility instead of recklessness."

For the full text, go to http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/2007-February/008621.html