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LEFT CURVE NO. 25 EDITORIAL
"There's a happiness, a joy/ in the soul, that's been/ buried alive in everyone/ and forgotten," begins the poem, "The Happiness," by Jack Hirschman, printed on the back cover of this issue. A lot of wordless saying reverberates in this poem's few words. The 21st century is here and, as many felt would be so, nothing really happened: no apocalyptic fissures opened up, no cleansing deluge swept across the land; rather just more of the "same ol' same ol'". Most of us remain passive spectators of a relentless quantified expansion of the status quo into who knows where or why. Qualitative change for some new (lasting) beginning is hard to discern. And this is so irrespective of all the bewildering activity going on everywhere at an ever-accelerating velocity. Modernity's grid hasn't evaporated, it just shifted, unnoticed, onto some other level... and another... and another... its logic still unfolds relentlessly--no longer recognizable from a centered perspective. Each level appears more diffuse, X-treme, absurd, banal; yet, at the same time, strangely repetitive ("It all looks so strange but I swear I've been here before"). Quantified uniformity spreads into, through or out of everything. Contradictorally, at the same time, it is a space that is free-flowing, open-ended, place-less, without boundaries, diverse, hybrid, and it circulates digitalized across all contemporary networks (economic, political, cultural). The past, or what's left of it, has been reconfigured into a constantly mutating present of sameness. The old "subject" may be dead, but something has been left behind, buried alive, alone.
There's a need for excavation, digging out, a bringing-forth to the light of (to)day. Easier said then done. In any case, this journal is informed by such concerns and we do so by taking a conscious stance external to the given reality through which we must daily navigate. Part of that work involves a re-evaluation of the past. The essay, "Aime Cesaire's Poetics of Fugitive Intervention," by E. San Juan, Jr., takes a look back at the contradictory legacy of European surrealism juxtaposed to Martiniquan Aime Cesaire's singular utilization of that tradition. San Juan's exposition addresses the shortcomings of surrealism with: "...its irresistible aporia, the irreconcilable conflict between the oneiric, utopian-oriented imagination and the intractable limits of determinate historical reality," which, he feels, "may be transcoded on another level so as to make it accessible to the impact of cultural praxis. One way of reconceptualizing the contradiction has been achieved by Cesaire's method of critical dialectical transformation, a mode of reshaping one's view of the world that one can label 'marronage poetics'"- by which San Juan means a "fugitive poetics."
The article, "The Election Nobody Won" by William Hathaway, is an excellent account of the latest American docu-drama (a sequel to other live-productions like the "O. J Simpson Trial," "Billy's Cigar and Monika" and similar late 20th century spectacles). Hathaway not only clearly describes the blatant fraud and manipulation characteristic of the presidential "election" of 2000 but also makes the important observation about the "win-or-lose" pathology of American culture that "generates the crassest kind of competition, cripples our cooperative instincts, and creates an endemic self-dislike..." Hathaway, however, is not a resigned cynic and encourages us to organize outside of the Tweedledee and Tweedledumb two-party system.
The uprising of the Palestinian people (Intifada) of the past year is a clear example of the desperation of a long-suffering people. For decades Palestinians have been subjected to mass expulsions, land seizures, demolition of homes, arbitrary arrests and imprisonments without trial, torture, state-sanctioned murder, assassinations and constant humiliation in a land that they have inhabited for centuries. And the situation could very well get even worse now with an Israeli government headed by Ariel Sharon, a figure who, by any definition of international law, should be treated as a war criminal, if "only" for his role in the invasion of Lebanon and massacre of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon in the 1980s. Yet, therešs been no arrest warrant issued by The Hague, as there has been for Milosovic, for example--much less any mention of NATO intervention or the deployment of UN "Peacekeeping" forces. For some strange reason, it's okay for Israeli troops to attack Palestinian villages with tanks and helicopters, but any Palestinian reaction is labeled "terrorism." The article by Edith Cacciatore, "I Saw Why the Palestinians Are Angry", provides a clear eye-witness account of what Palestinians have had to contend with for decades. Etel Adnan's "A Reply, Forty Years Later" is a moving testimonial by a distinguished Lebanese-born poet about the suffering of the Palestinian people and the double standard by which the Palestinians have been viewed in the West, as compared with other people's resistances to oppression and struggles for self-determination. We are also pleased to present recent poetry written by people of diverse backgrounds about the Intifada.
The work of Jack Hirschman has been getting some (belated) recognition in the past few years; though, ironically, more in Europe then in his homeland. Jack's been a vital part of this journal, so it is fitting to publish the articles by Marco Nieli, "Jack Hirschman's Arcanes" and "Interview with Jack Hirschman", which provide a theoretical perspective to Jack's work. Hirschman is unique among contemporary poets in being able to combine mythological/ historical/ philosophical depth, refined yet free-flowing poetics, with contemporary events, revolutionary politics and every-day life of the streets---all the while eschewing the bogus allure of literary academia.
The selection of poems by Paul Polansky from his book, Not A Refugee: The Plight of the Kosovo Roma (Gypsies) After the 1999 War, movingly documents an issue that has been all but ignored in the mainstream media. While all attention has been focused on the conflict between the Serbs and Albanians in Kosovo, the Roma have in the meantime been victimized by both groups--as indeed they have been throughout Europe. The tragic, intricate saga of the Balkans has yet to play itself out and now it seems that it is the Albanians who have become the most destabilizing force--another example, unfortunately, of the not uncommon phenomenon of an oppressed people, in seeking retribution for their own past suffering, turning into oppressors themselves.
We are introducing in this issue poetry of Hungarians living in Transylvania. Very little is known in the West about this group; for example, that they constitute the largest ethnic minority in Europe, or that they have faced discrimination and restrictions on the public use of their language. At the same time it is worth pointing out that Transylvania as a region has unique characteristics that cross ethnic boundaries and set it apart as a distinct region within Romania. It is of interest to note, for example, that the multi-ethnic organization, Pro-Transylvania was outlawed for its advocacy of Transylvanian autonomy in the fall of 2000. Our contributor to this section, Paul Sohar, is a Hungarian-born poet and translator who has been collecting and translating the work of Transylvanian poets for many years. This issue also includes a review of an important art exhibit, After the Wall, Art and Culture in post-communist Europe, by Bálint Szombathy, who currently resides in Budapest. Mr.Szombathy's review points to the selective and contradictory nature of the western reception of the art of post-communist Europe. As is the case for most cultures anywhere in the world that are appropriated by western institutions, the presentation, more often then not, are dictated by the agendas of the West, rather than by the culture of the particular region being allowed to present itself.
One of the most significant, if not the most significant, developments facing the new century is that of biotechnology and genetic engineering. The potential consequences of the quantification, manipulation and commodification of the very code of life itself are staggering to contemplate. This is even more so in a social atmosphere such as ours, in which cut-throat competition for fame and money dominate. The article by Richard Hayes, "The Politics of Genetically Engineered Humans", succinctly addresses this extremely vital problem. Artists, always keen to "make art" out of the latest trends, have, in their own way, joined in on the fray about genetic engineering. Dale Hoyt's article on Eduardo Kac's glow-in-the-dark "GFP Bunny," gives us an "artistic" critique of one of the most publicized and controversial examples of "bio-art."
This issue also features fine literary works, from short stories (In Flames by Daryl Glenn, Purple Moon by Paul Wolf, musical prose (The Reaper and the Dancing Shadow by Robert Gregory), to poetrythe latter being too numerous to comment on here. I do encourage the reader to give all the material in this issue the full attention that they deserve. In keeping with the need to re-think the past, I also wish to draw attention to the article by John O'Kane, "Cultural Politics, Political Economy & the Impossible Society", in which the author tries the theorize the means by which the Right gained ascendancy in the U. S. during the past several decades. The debate, "The Right to Difference is a Fundamental Human Right", from the UK is a worthwhile, multifaceted exposition on the question of "universal or relative" cultural forms that has been the underlying issue in all the recent controversies about "identity politics." We hope that the reader will find this issue engaging and stimulating about many of vexing issues that we all face today. Please share your ideas with us and lend us your support by subscribing or ordering more issues. - the editor
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