04w29:1 June 16th Posted July 11th, 2004 by timothy. 0 Comments Good Reads Mailing List | 2004 week 29 number 1 (June 16th) ——————————————————————— Super Theory Woman | Jerry Saltz http://www.artnet.com/Magazine/features/jsaltz/saltz7-8-04.asp ” On the night of June 16, 2004, I was a guest on the MSNBC talk show featuring the strangely likable, peculiarly white-under-the-eyes Joe Scarborough, a former Republican congressman from Florida and rabid right-winger […] The first ten-minute segment is a blur to me and seemed to last two seconds. All I remember is Scarborough coming on and asking, “Where’s the outrage?†Then I think he talked about Fraser being a prostitute and breaking the law and asked me, “If I snuck up from behind you and smashed you over the head with a brick and then poured salt in the open wound, would you call that art?†All I could think to answer was “That would be bad art, Joe.†I did pointedly ask if either of them had actually seen Fraser’s videotape. Unsurprisingly, neither had, to which I said something like, “Oh, so you’re like those people who ban books without reading them.†[…] whether you like it or not, Fraser should be commended for doing something brave, and in the middle of a minefield. Outside the art world she will be labeled a slut and a nut. The art world will likely call her a narcissistic showoff. But the art world is a place that says that you should be free.” Joyce’s long-lost, lustful letter smashes auction record | CBC http://www.cbc.ca/story/arts/national/2004/07/09/Arts/sexyjoyce040709.html “The famously erotic missive, initiated by an equally explicit first letter from Barnacle, includes Joyce’s recollection of past sexual encounters with Barnacle describing the time she had opened his trousers and ‘made a man of him’ – and shares his ‘ungovernable lust’ for her. Calling Barnacle ‘my darling little blackguard’ and ‘my strange-eyed whore,’ the letter is signed ‘heaven forgive my madness, Jim.’ Joyce and Barnacle met in Dublin on June 16, 1904 – the day he later immortalized in his masterwork Ulysses. Later that year, they left Dublin and never returned together to Ireland. They married in 1931, about a decade before the author’s death. “ Abracadabra , The Magic of Theory | Timothy Comeau http://goodreads.timothycomeau.com/commentary/2004/06/abracadabra-magic-of-theory.html “Here’s the thing. I’m an artist, so I think I can say I know how the creative process works. I think I’ve had enough dealings with other artists to know that this is usually how it works for most of us. And my feeling is that she thought this guy was hot and wanted to do him; further, she had the wherewithal to frame it within the context of her practice and using a magic spell of theory was able to get her sextape on the wall. She didn’t even give it a title, which is really revealing. Unlike Paris Hilton, who was famous for her green-light blowjobs before her ignorance of Wal-Mart, this from the get-go was meant to be shown off, but it was also an excuse for Fraser to get laid. All well and good and I congratulate her on her cleverness and the originality of her seduction. But the work does not ‘raise ethical and consensual terms of interpersonal relationships’. It’s a simple porn. It might raise these issues if you were an alien. Let’s ignore for a second how typically pathetic that press release is and just assume that all art galleries are currently engaged in the same bullshit, thinking this is what we – an audience of intelligent people – want and expect. And that I think that’s what I finally understand – the art-world orients itself to non-humans. The texts that accompany art works are meant to explain them to dolphins, squid, elephants and ravens, or whatever intelligent non-human life is in outer space. To entertain the ‘questions raised’ is to enter a state where we deny our common humanity for the cheap thrill of speaking of a sex video in terms of the sociological, something most likely done with others in a social situation to begin with, and something that has been done to death already to no apparent end.” —————————————- http://goodreads.timothycomeau.com To remove or add yourself to this list, email subscribe@goodreads.ca emailed by Timothy on Sunday 11 July 2004 @ 6:30 PM