Directory of Lost Causes (By Quentin S. Crisp)

Chomu

This post isn't really about my eyes, but I'm afraid I am going to have to repeat myself and say that my eyes are realy pretty bad at the moment. So the fact that I am using the Internet at all is testament to how unavoidable it has become in modern life. However, I'm so uncomfortable sitting here that I can't look at the screen, and, well, I don't want to spend much time doing this. If I don't respond much over the Internet these days, please don't be surprised. I am going to the doctor again this week, and hope to get referred to a specialist. I hope there's some solution. It's hard for me being a writer and having to avoid using the computer.

Anyway...

What I really wanted to talk about was the new blog/magazine that I am inolved with. It is called Chomu, and you may find it here. A little while back, Justin Isis, writer and contributor to the blog of the Great Swifty, got in touch with me because he'd come across me on the Internet somehow. It appeared that we had influences and interests in common. There followed an interview with me, and now there is Chomu.

The idea of Chomu is... Well, have a look. It is described as a 'da-dao-ist' magazine. I personally don't want to define the angle too closely, but I think there's a definite ethos at work there. We are, in fact, looking for contributors. Actually, I should discuss with Justin where it's best for potential contributors to write to. For now, send me a private message via Opera, if you like. [Addendum: We've decided that for the moment we're only taking contributions from people we already know. Sorry. There are many excellent reasons for this, which I won't go into here. Anyway, it'll certainly save my eyes from having to deal with thousands of contributions sent in from those who are lining up to be a part of Chomu.]I'm afraid that my eyes - yes, there's a reason I mentioned them - may really slow down any work or communication with a computer at the moment, though.

Maybe you're wondering what the word Chomu actually means. Well, watch this space, as they say. Or rather, watch this space, as I am currently working on a small piece entitled 'Chomu - The Entomology of the Word', which should explain everything. Or something, anyway.

Now, I really need to give my eyes a rest. Thank you.

Oh yeah, by the way, if you're a computer techy person and would like to get involved in Chomu based on what you see, to make it look like a real webzine, do get in touch. that would be great.

Playing Politics

I read this entry on Interbreeding today, and it reminded me of some of my feelings about politics and communism. I don't consider myself a political person. Because, in the same way people pester you to say what football team you support, they will often pester you to say what your politics are, I suppose I have tended to think of myself or represent myself as left-leaning, but I basically think that politics itself - left or right - is the problem not the solution. Interbreeding tells us that, "There is nothing noble about politicians. One of the core features of the dictatorship of the proletariat is their abolition." I agree with the first sentence. The second sentence is interesting because it reminds me that I feel myself becoming very sympathetic towards the idea of communism. However, as a political, historical phenomenon, I more or less hate communism. I have said in the past that any ideal society has to be communist in a way. The word 'communist' obviously belongs to the same etymological family as 'commune' (noun and verb) and 'community'. I feel strongly that what is missing from modern society is a sense of community. But any communism that takes place must, to succeed, be apolitical. It must represent the end of politics, not just another form of politics. To reiterate - politics is the problem, not the solution.

I suppose I'm not particularly optimistic about the possibility of a successful (that is, a spontaneous and apolitical) communism. There are too many people in the world, and their interests and values seem too much at variance. I only have to look at any public forum on the Internet, with ordinary people (idiots, as they were called in Greece) giving the world the benefit of their views, and I become depressed at the chaotic conflict of it all and wish to withdraw. And, since the population has reached its current state, where there is no room for people to leave and set up there own country (everywhere has already been taken), this withdrawal is what the triumph of capitalism is built upon. Money and politics are the symptoms of distrust and disharmony. Politicians feed on conflict for their power. Who would need these parasites if there were harmony? It is at this point that I begin to despair, knowing that my misanthrope feeds capitalism, but being unable to relate to (commune with) the vast majority of people around me.

I'm not quite sure what to do about that, except try to remain open and not to 'play politics'.

Playing politics is an interesting term. I find it being used by Housing Minister Yvette Cooper, here. There have been quite shocking floods in Britain recently, but Yvette Cooper says that we must not "play politics", by arguing that the floods are a good reason to stop the proposed housing developments on the flood plains. Well, this is interesting. So, tell me again, who is playing politics here, Yvette? Could it be someone with a vested interest like... er... I don't know, the Minister for Housing? Or could it be someone uninterested in politics who happens to notice that if you build houses on a flood plain, they get flooded. Not only that, but development on the flood plain increases flooding, for the same reason that all you folks who pave over the soil of your yard so you can park your massive polluting cars increase flooding - because the water has nowhere to seep away. And it's at this point that I begin to see violence as an attractive option. Anyone who indulges in such Orwellian double-speak has clearly already lost their soul.

The flooding raises another issue - that of climate change. Apparently these recent floods are sparked by the worst rainfall in Britain in living memory. I haven't noticed any speculation or enquiry in the media into how this relates to climate change. The issues focused upon are things like housing - political issues. A recent poll, in fact, found that most of the (British? In keeping with recent sloppy journalism the article I read did not specify the boundaries of the poll) public believe terrorism and graffiti to be greater problems than climate change. I hardly know what to say about such views. I feel as if I am living on a different planet to these people (I certainly wish I was). Of course, terrorism and graffiti are, in a sense, political inventions - they are 'issues' invented by politicians to divide people, to distract them, and to ensure the power of the political class. Climate change should not be such a political issue.

I read an article on the Internet recently, in the wake of Live Earth, giving the point of view of a climate change sceptic. Unfortunately I can't find the link now, so my remarks will have to remain general rather than specific. For one thing, the media prove themselves to be scum once again by angling always for controversy, by overemphasising the idea that there the 'sceptic' interviewed is 'against' the idea of climate change, and is 'challenging' it. The headlines were along the lines of "Save people, not the planet." I don't know if you could find a more moronic slogan, but I suppose it will appeal to someone: "Yeah. Yeah. I've had enough of the fucking planet. Let's get rid of the damned thing, and just have the people." Anyway, the sceptic interviewed was basically saying (unable to deny climate change) that he thought money should be spent on 'more urgent' things. I find the psychology here really curious. What, really, is the motivation of this sceptic? Even if we accept that no one really knows what's going to happen, don't you want to do your best to prepare for the worst when there's at least strong evidence that it's coming? My impression is that the motivation here is political. That is, like the media, those with a political bent feed off contorversy and division. If anything looks like have a truth that transcends politics, they must, at all costs, challenge and politicise that truth, for fear of losing their power. But climate change is not political. We are dealing with forces that are way deeper than your shallow and petty little 'issues'. These waves and winds take no account of left or right. They are not politically motivated. You cannot engage them in political discourse. For once, we will have to rise above politics to survive. I have said it before, in different words, but this may be a chance for the human race to become spontaneously, apolitically communist, or it may all see us drowning in the farcical mire of politics, before we are finally drowned by the deeper waves of nature.

Digital Poetry Ark and Tawara Machi

Back in February, I was invited to take part in a project being carried out at the Southbank Centre. This project was the digitisation of the Poetry Library at the Southbank Centre. I quote from a memorandum from the Department of Culture, Media and Sport:

The Poetry Library magazines archive is a free access site to a full text digital library of 20th and 21st century English poetry magazines from the Poetry Library Collection housed in the South Bank Centre. The archive is part of an ongoing digitisation project at the Library funded by Arts Council England.

My own part in this project was very small. Through the kind intervention and good offices of Mami McGuinness, I was given the opportunity to translate some of the poetry of Tawara Machi into English for the Spring 2006 issue of Magma Magazine. Tawara Machi is a contemporary Japanese poet working in the tanka form - the thirty-one syllable poem from which the seventeen-syallable haiku is derived. I was not really a fan of Tawara Machi when the opportunity was first presented to me, though I knew of her work. However, once I had accepted the task, and sat down with the poems in order to translate them, I discovered what a knack she has for conjuring up subtle and sometimes strong emotions with great precision and economy.

Being called upon by the Soutbank Centre after my translations of Tawara Machi appeared in Magma was something of a surprise. More than anything, it made me feel the thoroughness of the archiving taking place. I believe that Kew Gardens has a kind of domesday seed bank project. This felt like something similar for poetry. They had not even missed me out, that's how thorough they were, though I suppose I should only be modest on my account and not on Tawara Machi-san's account. Anyway, it did feel a little bit as though I was the aye-aye, or, no, perhaps more appropriately, the silverfish, that Noah had not neglected to round up for the Ark.



I went along to the Southbank Centre on the 3rd of May, as instructed, and waited in the lobby until I was called up. I was met there by my friend, who had edited the issue of Magma being recorded, and taken to a room where I was stood in front of a microphone and a reading lectern. I asked for some water, wet my throat, and read the translations in question. I realised that I had not given all the necessary information in my introduction, and we did a second take. The whole thing was over in about ten minutes or so, and then I donned my coat again, and left.

The results are now available on the Internet. You can hear me reading the translations from Salad Anniversary here, and those from Pooh's Nose here. The text may be read here and here.

Destino

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