amend that epiphany:

flarf is theatrical

voices are inhabited, Dustin Hoffman isn't really Tootsie...

aw gee,it's always a debate of what versus what. I'm old, so I met LANGUAGE poetry at the beginning. it was a bump in the road that made me curious. what exactly was jostling me? in my investigation I learned a lot, got cramped and bullied, worked my way thru to some Bramhall distinction of the poetic process. flarf qua flarf belongs to a handful of people. these people (shall I name them?) have done their own working thru. it's not just about Google, it's not just about bad taste. that handful of people found an engine that they decided they could use. this is pretty normal art type stuff. the way people have reacted is so Rolling Stone magazine. or god damn Time. binaries, and social compotes, and ideological mayhem. Kent Johnson: tie the head on straight!. elevation of side issues, personality spats, trenchant dicta: poetry burns this stuff for breakfast. I'm on the flarf list, I see flarf happening in real time, I add to the pile, it's just association with the language. there's a lot of grabbing, punching and confusion in the scrum. then the ball is freed. watch the ball, damn it!