Death by Flarf

... oh not really, just opening grandly. I got Mainstream by Michael Magee (BlazeVOX 2006), so I must regale the 1st impression. so okay, that's James Dean getting oiled on the front cover. I've only just begun the ride with the book, but want to note the starting point. I like jumping in like this, yipping about what I see, right from the beginning. Magee supplies a useful afterword, a divagation on and about flarf. it sometimes seems as if artists should hear the Miranda Act before they bespeak their work. there's all this, oh but Gary said this, Kasey said this resistanceinstead of criticism of THE THING ITSELF. I speak generally; flarf is just a recent group that must bear up to this lazy ass critcism. I take writers' pronouncements on their work not as definitive, but as processual steps. any interesting artist is just guessing as to how to get along. artist statements are often useful and illuminating but really, read the poems then say something. Magee is thoughtful about his work and what it 'means' in that vaunted larger sense. he's not saving baby harp seals but neither is he poking holes in the ozone layer. he's writing, one piece at a time. I don't even really want to talk about flarf qua flarf, nor do I want to place an equal sign between Sullivan and Mohammad, Gardner and Degentesh, or whoever and the other one. what I know of Magee's work from reading it is a rupturing hilarity, 1st of all. that comedic spot on the flarf oeuvre is one of its easiest markings. a disjuptive interjection comes thru often, I see, in Magee's work. I just wrote disjuptive, that's portmanteau-speak for disjunctive and disruptive. what I would say is common among the flarf writers that I've witnessed: the voices, or tonal shift. it's not just a matter of disparate sources. it's just lame to worry that part overmuch. why so? because we all shift tone all the time. those sources are in our ear. we speak ironically, sarcastically, imitatively all the time. it's no biggie to write that way. disparate tones also appear in flarf. you've caught You Tube examples, right? kinda theatrical in the sense of shifting vocal appeal. do listen to flarf poets before handing them your cruel walking papers. I'm finding with Mainstream that I had ought to read aloud. reading to myself I convert the tones to one tone, a devilish flattening. this is not just a flarfian problem, but I entreat you to be wary particularly with flarf production because it works with the protean. and I will add that you might want to avoid the critical warfare concerning flarf because that's proving to be sleight of hand. screw the categories, read the poems.