Your Failure To Enthuse Is Violence, Apparently
Mr Roy G Guzmán, whose tweet appears below, describes himself as “a marginalised writer,” and an “artist and influencer,” thereby signalling to lower beings both his suffering and his modesty. He’s also, it seems, a tad sensitive:
Note the gratuitous use of white woman. Perhaps that tells us something about Mr Guzmán’s poetic soul. A sample of Mr Guzmán’s creative output, titled Queerodactyl, is reproduced in full below. But before we venture further, you may wish to grip the arms of your chair:
My heart was a dystopian
berry budding in water tiger
lilies claiming
hocus-pocus wonder. I was broken
vanity, vixen vase, victorious tête-
à-tête — the Scrabble game nobody won
because the tiles aspired speculums.
Ocean-misaligned brook / brook-misaligned
agua
— where else could these gospels have dawned
if not in the bellies of men
hyenaing a becoming?
Twerking in church,
I outperformed the candles
diarized in the simpleminded annexation. Wussup,
Blastoise
with the veiniest homebound
pika-pika aim?
Wussup, Sims
Chumbawamba Family Portrait Simulation?
St. Sunny of the Sissies
beheld the bukkake throng
of mojo-coated cartilage
squandered
on the refurbished bunk
for new cetaceans. A dazzling jeremiad
shone me dead
until I gridlocked the algebraic expressions
of my body in question marks.
These syndicated fiyahs
stigmatized my herculean magma
shades,
but I held these walls apart,
every inch of my mascara cut off
apple pie.
You watched me hobble home
while the streets coalesced magenta. Tell Momma
the holes I cover with one error
swell — & there are only inadvertent landscapes
to dollop with nonetheless.
I’ll give you a moment to process that. To internalise its immensity.
Mr Guzmán tells us that he “holds degrees from the University of Minnesota, Dartmouth College, the University of Chicago, and the Honors College at Miami Dade College,” and is “pursuing a PhD in Cultural Studies (Comparative Studies in Discourse and Society) at the University of Minnesota.” Mr Guzmán is now violently blocking lots of people on Twitter.
Update, via the comments:
After dismissing the recent, rather negative appraisals of his poetry as driven by “toxic masculinity” and “(white) male fragility” – no other possibilities being conceivable, of course – Mr Guzmán has apparently retired from Twitter. We are, it seems, a terrible disappointment to him. Such are the travails of artistic genius. Or rather, such are the effects of spending so much time in the Clown Quarter of academia, where narcissism and flummery are indulged – and consequently being ill-prepared for anything approaching honesty.
Via sk60.
That’s poetry? I’ve heard more poetic flatulence from strangers on a bus.
Oh, and don’t forget, quoting a woke-ling’s tweet, even favourably, is a violation and “causing harm.”
the public’s failure to be impressed
Oh, dear, he’s taken it away so we can’t play with it like, well, Steve E’s fuzzy kitten batting a ball around.
…even favourably, is a violation and “causing harm.”
It could expose the wokeling to the unwoke, who will likely mock.
You can imagine how much fun it was to duplicate his chosen formatting. That’s time I’ll never get back.
No refunds… 🙂
Oh, dear, he’s taken it away so we can’t play with it…
A shame too, he had one great tweet where he was scolding some detractor by
flattering himselfsaying he at least, as opposed to the other person apparently, was “perfoming labor”. Violent emotional labor, no doubt, very much on a par with coal mining.Interesting link about Obama’s youthful poetic exuberances and his continuing interest in the art form. I always get annoyed when politicians dishonesty flatter poets but I have to admit Obama’s statement –
“Poetry matters. Poetry, like all art, gives shape and texture and depth of meaning to our lives. It helps us know the world. It helps us understand ourselves. It helps us understand others, their struggles, their joys, the ways that they see the world. It helps us connect…
I think it’s fair to say that if we didn’t have poetry that this would be a pretty barren world. In fact, it’s not clear that we would survive without poetry….”
– is for the most part fairly conservative, aside from the last rhetorical flourish. Anyway, it’s not half as bad as Trudeau’s statement to a poet: ‘We need poets to change the world.’ Lefty friends just swooned at that one. Ugh!
Violent emotional labor, no doubt,
And again, this isn’t some random idiocy. It’s idiocy that’s been taught. Then eagerly regurgitated.
Seemed apt.
2019 Social Justice Kittens calendar–now with Social Justice Puppies!
http://liartownusa.tumblr.com/post/178717122640/announcing-the-2019-social-justice-kittens
2018 calendar:
http://liartownusa.tumblr.com/post/165834277465/announcing-the-2018-social-justice-kittens
I don’t blame people like Guzman for demanding that society support them for producing worthless pretentious twaddle even as they metaphorically spit in our face.
I blame us for acquiescing to it. We’re the idiots.
I think it’s fair to say that if we didn’t have poetry that this would be a pretty barren world.
Yep, because there are no painters, sculptors, musicians, real writers, or other artists in the world. An intellect as deep as a drop of oil on a rain slick street to match the depth of profundity of his so-called poetry.
Poetry is where you find it.
Some of us find poetry in a few, well-written lines of code.
Others in the smooth lines of a well designed car.
Some, in the graceful movements of an even better put together woman/man/cat ( insert ones desired preference here ).
As for written poetry – 99% is pure guff.
Unless youre Benjamin Zephaniah
That guys AWESOME!
…now with Social Justice Puppies!
Thanks pst314, spewed most of a martini through my nose once I scrolled down to the puppy part!
Not sure which entry is the funniest. This is why I block my dog on twitter.
And my favourite:
That’s gold, Jerry! Gold!
Like a bad parody of Alan Ginsberg.
A little less time with the bukkake throng and more with the algebraic expressions and he might have had a salable product to offer.
It’s Vogon poetry
Nah – he seems like he could give Grunthos the Flatulent a run for his money.
Well, Douglas Adams did warn us that the worst poetry of all was composed on Earth. If this is true, it’s disturbing to think that there actually may be a Paula Nancy Millstone Jennings out there.
The “refurbished bunk” line nearly brought me to tears.
The bukkake thongs sound interesting.
Oh wait, that’s not quite what he said.
David’s blogging thong was traumatic enough, so don’t need any more thongs.
Incoming!
https://pjmedia.com/instapundit/316005/
Incoming
@pst314
When you throw yourself on top of one of them to save the rest of us, we’ll speak of you fondly at the regimental club.
I’m crushed.
Stuff like that has no hands to grab me.
I had to look up the definition of Speculum. Now I can’t unsee this.
Mr. Guzman’s claims of violence bring to mind Hugh Mungus vs Zarna where Zarna screamed sexual harrassment because a guy said his name was Hugh Mungus.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzA4dCT4X0I
Laugh away, but these are the people the Republican Party has been surrendering gracefully to.
I made it a third of the way through that. reading this is like hitting your head with a brick because it feels so good when you stop.
It’s a pity Mr Guzmán has retired from social media. I was planning to highlight several subsequent exchanges, all fairly comical, and all now deleted. (Note to self: Always take screengrabs.)
After Mr Guzmán claimed that a lack of interest in bad poetry constitutes “violence,” and by implication that an audience shouldn’t get to determine how bad a poem is, a fellow woke-ling chimed in by insisting that not liking bad poetry is a precursor of oppression, racism, even genocide. At which point, several non-woke tweeters pointed out the figurative violence being done to logic and the meanings of words. A third woke-ling then rushed to Mr Guzmán’s defence and said (I paraphrase), “How dare you question his definition of violence? He works with words for a living.”
The appeal to alleged expertise, and supposedly gainful employment as a woke poet, albeit one who seems determined to spend his entire life in academia, was quite a thing.
Though after digging about, I did retrieve this one:
“There are no bad writers.”
One perhaps shouldn’t judge an entire book by first impressions gained from a flick through – but you can’t exactly stop it, can you? And in general I find one of the main problems with contemporary poetry is disregard for the reader or listener. Words are there to communicate, to connect with an audience, and if you as the writer don’t make the least effort to connect, then what are you doing?
(It would probably be churlish of me to post a link to my poetry book, which has just recently been published, so I won’t…. but I might strongly hint it.)
It would probably be churlish of me to post a link to my poetry book, which has just recently been published, so I won’t.
Don’t be shy, Tim. Go for it.
Why not, my sales pitch is as smooth as sandpaper anyway….
A link is up on my blog with contact details.
One perhaps shouldn’t judge an entire book by first impressions gained from a flick through – but you can’t exactly stop it, can you?
Well, having struggled through quite a bit of Mr Guzmán’s, um, output, much of which is difficult to distinguish at first glance from the example above, I can’t say I was intrigued. It’s quite wearying. But Mr Guzmán and his peers are keen to displace responsibility for any failure to enthuse. Critical comments, even statements of fact, are dismissed as “(white) male fragility” and “trolling,” irrespective of their particulars, and irrespective of whether the person making the comments is actually white or male.
But then that’s what “social justice” posturing is generally for, and why it appeals.
It’s perhaps worth noting the parallels with other efforts to shift blame for incompetence and misjudgement – say, the unsuccessful Ghostbusters remake, or woke Star Wars, where the explanations favoured involved “sexism,” “toxic fandom” and “toxic masculinity,” rather than a failure to create a product that audiences were happy with.
Twerking in church,
I outperformed the candles
I also used to sometimes turn up at Midnight Mass when drunk.
Actually, now I think about it, when staggering home through the streets afterwards we too had to avoid stepping in the “coalesced magenta”, especially if it was below freezing and Christmas Eve fell on a Friday night.
He works with words for a living.
I suppose “works with” can be synonymous with “tortures” or “mangles”.
Better still, “is emotionally violent to”.
“There are no bad writers.”
Yes there are, and do I get a grant ?
“There are no bad writers.”
Obviously hasn’t seen the new woke Doctor Who.
Guzman lost me at “dystopian berry.
He is a product of the zeitgeist where individual experience is reduced to deterministic intersections of social forces.
Jacques Derrida is to blame. Or rather, the university sophomores who grabbed a phrase or two from him and expanded them into a metaphysics.
Laugh away, but these are the people the Republican Party has been surrendering gracefully to.
What’s worse is that we pay these people to write these things and to behave in this manner. We shouldn’t laugh. We should be happy that we’re getting what we’re paying for.
“How dare you question his definition of violence? He works with words for a living.”
So did Goebbels.
Yes there are, and do I get a grant ?
Philistine! Don’t you know real poetry is not supposed to rhyme? Here, similar subject matter…from Mrs. Jones’s third grade…
Of all the birdies in the sky
I wish I were a duck
I’d fly down the beach at night
And watch the people swim
Philistine! Don’t you know real poetry is not supposed to rhyme?
Quite. In other words, remove anything like rhyme or meter which require artistic skill in production, a theme which has surfaced numerous times on these pages when our host gets peckish and takes it out on us. (Yes, I know. No refunds . . .)
The thing is, there is good modern poetry which dispenses with the classic forms. In the wayback, I had the opportunity to take an “Intro to Poetry” course from a rather renowned American poet, who’d won a bundle of awards. It’s interesting to note, not once during the course was he self-referential. He didn’t use the class as a platform to declare his own greatness or demand veneration.
Best story: I was a freshman. I wrote a paper and received a “C-” which was devastating to my ego. I went to see him about the grade and he spent a few moments reviewing my work, then looked up and asked me a question: “Do you own a Thesaurus?” When I replied in the affirmative, he said, “Throw it away.” Point being, I was trying to sound like an intellectual and wound up channeling a pretentious asshole. (“And that’s unlike today how precisely,” I hear you ask. “Bugger off,” I explained.)
That’s the problem with Mr. Guzman. He’s trying too hard and demands respect without having earned it. My freshman poetry professor grew up on a farm and his hands showed hard manual labor; his face showed years of California sun. His poetry reflected that upbringing. In other words, it was authentic. Mr. Guzman is just a poseur. That’s why his poetry is crap.
Philistine! Don’t you know real poetry is not supposed to rhyme?
Limericks:
There was a young lady from Bude
Who went for a swim in a lake.
A man in a punt
Stuck his pole in the water
And said “You can’t swim here, it’s private”.
There was a young man from Milan,
Whose poems would never quite scan.
There was nothing more worse
Than his terrible verse,
But he didn’t give a shit.
“Don’t you know real poetry is not supposed to rhyme?”
Did the Literary Review’s poetry competition – “for poems that rhyme, scan, and make sense” – die with Auberon Waugh? A cursory glance at the website doesn’t turn anything up. (The Bad Sex in Fiction Award is still going strong* though, you’ll be pleased to hear.)
“He’s trying too hard and demands respect without having earned it.”
It seems to be all the rage these days.
*Oo-er, missus.
Philistine! Don’t you know real poetry is not supposed to rhyme?
wordShamed
by patriarchal Xtian worshipBook Reference
violently mindtossing likesound syllables
into
the Gutter of oppression
like the unspaced brownbodiesredbodiesyellowbodiesblackbodies
of colonial misogynistxenophilia
Damnit, the formatting was lost, as will my grant, no doubt, and don’t ask how it got posted twice.
the unspaced brownbodies
Band name.
Band name
“like the unspaced brownbodiesredbodiesyellowbodiesblackbodies
of colonial misogynistxenophilia” is actually a Chumbawumba lyric.