an excerpt from the BLAST manifesto:
"WE ONLY WANT THE WORLD TO LIVE, and to feel it's crude energy flowing through us....The moment a man feels or realizes himself as an artist, he ceases to belong to any milieu or time. Blast is created for this timeless, fundamental Artist that exists in everybody....It is not necessary to be an outcast bohemian, to be unkempt or poor, any more than it is necessary to be rich or handsome, to be an artist. Art is nothing to do with the coat you wear. A top-hat can well hold the Sixtine. A cheap cap could hide the image of Kephren."
7 comments:
Is it just me, or does anyone else get leery when you see the word "manifesto"?
There's just something . . . ickily overzealous about them, I think. It reminds me of Madonna's song "Vogue" (yes, I'm that old), but at least she had music to fill in the vacuum that always seems to attend posturing.
I like the Vorticist idea about everybody getting in on the art scene, but I question how much they really mean it. If a person in a top hat creates something that moves him/her, but it's actually been done 20 times before, would the Vorticist celebrate it (the idealized, manifesto-ed path) or identify it as cliche (the actual path?)?
Maybe it's the blog-era ennui that's got me down. We're so swamped in declarations and manifestos and causes and what-not, that I just switch over to put-up-or-shut-up mode.
Is that cynicism?
Or have I just drafted a manifesto?
I say cynicism.
To me, "Manifesto" has an inherent energetic valence, a vibrating and passionate core. Maybe it is "overzealous." But instead of legions of day-to-day zombies I enjoy seeing spit fly from speaking mouths. Even when it's ridiculous.
I also don't feel inundated with declarations, and causes, etc. so maybe I'm not getting the transom. I'd think I would like to feel that way, though, that swampiness. To be near-drowning with cause.
I have to agree about seeing something passionate in others.
But I question:
- Are all passions created equal? Are there some that really ought to be squelched? The straw-man is Nazi fervor, but there are other places where intense energy may be an intense problem.
- Is a zombie here the same as a zombie there? Does my perception of a zombie really comment more on my lack of relationship and understanding about the person, rather than their actual levels of passion? Are private passions less-than public ones? I mean, even a zombie is willing to risk gun fire to reach a plate of brains. :)
Of course they're not; but you were speaking about the general use of the word "Manifesto." All of it is subjective, and based on personal perceptions, but if you want to speak in a larger way about the "idea" of manifestos I find it disingenuous to then dissect. As an idea, they are just that, a concept. When that potential is enacted, they can be brutal or beautiful or beastly or buttery, et. etc. etc.
By the by, did anyone see the new issue of POETRY with the section 8 MANIFESTOS?
Sometimes you have to say some pretty crazy stuff to make your point: to wit, Mina Loy saying that women need to kill of their desire to be loved in order to achieve full independence. Not going to happen, but, she's kinda gotta point.
And I much prefer the buttery manifesto to any other (though, to be fair, I don't mind the savory ones either.)
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