[Newspoetry] the legitimacy of illegitimacy

[los libros sin espinas]

A cease and desist seems to be like a literary award. I don't think 
Newspoetry ever got one for

http://www.newspoetry.com/cgi-bin/fuck?url=http://www.nytimes.com/

---------- Forwarded message ----------

I've been given a cease and desist from the New York Times regarding the use
of their images and homepage design and the use of their advertiser's images
in my Raoul Vaneigem Meets the Talking Spiderheads from Mars series.

I knew this would happen eventually, and don't see any real need to argue
with them as I didn't intend these detournements to be anything more than
graffiti on a wall, subject to the elements.  I'm taking them down in 5
days -- they requested they come down in 10 days, but I'm being a nice guy.

However, I'd like to give folks the chance to download the page for their
own private viewing (not to be put on their website).  Your very own piece
of illegal net art!  (No one will ever know you have it, shhh.)

The cease and desist letter states: "Most significantly, you have
substantially changed the lead article to include long and rambling made-up
quotes from British Prime Mininster Tony Blair regarding the need to act
against Iraq, under the byline of Raoul Vaneigem."

Of course, I didn't actually write any of the text that appears in these
pieces.  Anything that was not part of the original NY Times article was
taken from the writings of Raoul Vaneigem, the French Situationist --
considered a great prose stylist -- either from The Revolution of Everyday
Life or from Contributions to The Revolutionary Struggle, Intended To Be
Discussed, Corrected, And Principally, Put Into Practice Without Delay.
Both of these texts can be found at www.nothingness.org.

Here are the links to the three pages:

Blair Presents Dossier on Iraq's Biological Weapons
http://www.arras.net/blair_presents_dossier.htm

Daschle Denounces Bush Remarks on Iraq as Partisan
http://www.arras.net/daschle_denounces_bush.htm

Clinton Says He Backs Tough U.N. Resolution on Iraq Inspections
http://www.arras.net/clinton_backs_resolution.html

Get your kicks quick!

cheers
Brian

PS I wrote these lovely words to a friend this afternoon about the pages --
obviously I was on my soap box:

The point, as I see it, was to turn the mundane materials of the New York
Times into poetry by juxtaposing the page -- ads, logos, links, etc. -- with
revolutionary rantings by a type of person we probably won't see for some
time, i.e. Vaneigem.

If Vaneigem's writings are able to make this transformation -- a Catholic
sensibility like his might even suggest something like transubstantiation,
which of course doesn't sound so radical when it's digital materials we are
talking about -- then it opens up a window of possiblity for
social/aesthetic activity.

The logical next step would be to take a city, fill it with Situationist
graffiti, etc. etc. or with young Situationist recruits acting on Vaneigem's
precepts -- not likely.

The target was not the New York Times -- it's easy enough to make fun of a
newspaper -- but to take the reality of the Times, all of its mundane
details, and somehow suggest that this reality is a form of social control
that can be evaded by simple but artful acts of detournement, tiny gestures
that don't even rely on wit, puns, knowledge etc., but are simple collages
that punch holes in the spectacle.

But added to that, throw a critique back at Vaneigem suggesting that
revolutionary rhetoric is always outpaced by the course of events,
especially when the course is determined by spineless world leaders with
their fingers on the red buttons.