Moaning In Glorious Epiphanic Pain

by hilzoy

Crispin Sartwell in the LA Times:

"The ads are both a commentary on the emptiness of our political discourse — a parody if you like — and a refutation of that emptiness, or a triumph over it, a reinsertion of brute content, a silent explosion of truth into a world of mere and moronic fiction.

Our politicians are voids or spreading zones of emptiness, a set of focus-grouped phrases and nice outfits, a congeries of cliches, representations of which there is no reality. In the terms of the late theoretician Jean Baudrillard, our politics is a precession of simulacra.

But Gravel's politics reminds us that if someone were to drop an anvil or a piano on you from a tall building, you would amount to a puddle. Gravel's works confront us with our own existences and our deaths, the brute thereness of truth, the skull beneath the $400 haircut, the cellulite under the pants suit. His is neo-existentialist, post-apocalyptic, post-post modern art, a silence that screams and cajoles.

Gravel's politics are a politics of the body and of the physical world, of what is underneath our language and above it, what is broken and beautiful, the real world of human beings.

I suggest to you that a Gravel presidency would lead to an entirely new America, doing to us what cubism did to post-impressionism: dragging us moaning in glorious epiphanic pain into a new world.

It may be that Gravel, like Vincent van Gogh, Friedrich Nietzsche or indeed, Crispin Sartwell, is a premature birth of an astonishing future. He may toil in obscurity, misunderstood or ignored in his own time. And yet, whether we can fully theorize him or not, Mike Gravel, though he may never be president, has brought us all to the very brink of political ecstasy."

If you haven't yet seen the ads he's talking about, here they are. Transcripts are, in the nature of the thing, impossible to provide. Fwiw: yes, something happens in the first, but not much; no, once the camera focusses in on the fire in the second, it just stays there watching it burn down. For seven minutes. I checked.

One might wonder why someone who seems bent on running a campaign as performance art did not take advantage of the debates by, for instance, staring silently into the camera when asked a question, and then, if the moderator tried to move on to someone else, saying: Excuse me, I haven't finished yet. Why, one might ask, this conventional campaign web page? Why, when Gravel recently laid out his domestic agenda at Howard University, did he focus on such merely post-impressionist topics as the war on drugs, Iraq, and health care, rather than doing something truly revolutionary, like spending his allotted time laying out a collection of bottles of preserved vegetables and jellies, pausing every now and again to strike a small cymbal with his thumb; or perhaps vacuuming in silence around the audience's feet?

But that would be to miss the true subversive genius of Gravel. By blending traditional campaign stops and neo-existentialist, post-apocalyptic, post-post modern You-Tubes, Gravel subverts the hegemonic ideal of the unitary subject, a subject who might be expected to have "intentions", to make "points", or to have a coherent "message". By refusing to gratify our longing for this vanished fictive self, Gravel exposes the insubstantiality of its all-too-solid phallologocentric imaginary. The illusory substantial self is tossed aside, like a rock into the sea, leaving only a pair of eyes with nothing behind them, and the evanescent, self-annihilating tongues of fire.

Comments

[Steve]

One might wonder why someone who seems bent on running a campaign as performance art did not take advantage of the debates by, for instance, staring silently into the camera when asked a question, and then, if the moderator tried to move on to someone else, saying: Excuse me, I haven't finished yet.

Ladies and gentlemen, your hilzoy-generated LOL moment of the day.

[Katherine]

Maybe this column is performance art?

One thing I only learned recently about Gravel is his role in making the Pentagon Papers public. For his next series of YouTuby ads, maybe he could start reading more recent gov't documents in front of ponds...

[Jay Jerome]

"By refusing to gratify our longing for this vanished fictive self, Gravel exposes the insubstantiality of its all-too-solid phallologocentric imaginary."

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get it--

[togolosh]

Other than the people who are already big names for other reasons (McCain, Rudy, DA McJowly), who else in the GOP field is getting free publicity from the media? Nobody except Mike "Is he nuts or is he brilliant" Gravel. Imagine him going toe-to-toe with Ahmedinejad - he'd scare the guy shitless without so much as blinking. Not blinking for 10 straight hours, that is.

[Gromit]

Gravel is a Democrat, togolosh.

[Jackmormon]

By blending traditional campaign stops and neo-existentialist, post-apocalyptic, post-post modern You-Tubes, Gravel subverts the hegemonic ideal of the unitary subject, a subject who might be expected to have "intentions", to make "points", or to have a coherent "message".

The sad thing is that I actually agree with you here. But I'd add that the hegemonic ideal of the unitary subject will evitably (even "hegemonically", if you will) reinscribe itself when Gravel's momentary resistance gets overwritten, reduced to an historical "trace".

[cleek]

Gravel is a Democrat, togolosh.

indeed.

here he is at the SF Gay Pride Parade, last week. note the lack of pitchfork.

[Steve T,]

I spent many years, not in academia, but on its fringe. My partner (now retired) was a music professor at UCLA. I have, merely as an exercise, examined quite a bit of high level pretentious academic drivel.

You, sir, are a natural.

[Steve T.]

Clarification: Lest there be any doubt, I meant that as a compliment.

[hilzoy]

Steve T: who is this "sir" to whom you speak?

(Thanks.)

[Everett]

I believe you would address hilzoy as "Madam" or, only slightly less formally, "Ma'am", or, in the academic setting, "Professor."

[publius]

well done

[liberal japonicus]

OT, has anyone seen the boingboing thing on Google offering to sell anti Moore ads that would go with search results for his new movie? Interesting, especially the update at the bottom.

[nous]

Hilzoy -- I agree with your point about the putative unitary subject (though that does, obviously problematize the "I" and "you" and render them ironic self-performances of our institutionally constructed roles. Leaving that aside, however, I can't believe that you missed Gravel's obvious allusions to T.S. Eliot's "The Waste Land" -- and specifically the third section: "The Fire Sermon" with its references to both fire and water.

Note how Gravel's candidacy is itself a commentary upon Eliot's veiled Arthurian reference to how "The nymphs are departed" (175 and 179). Rather than simply aligning his own political views with Eliot's jeremiad and noting that America is the Waste Land, he inserts himself into the poem as the "heir" to the American "throne." How else is one supposed to read the references in lines 191 and 192 to "the king my brother's wreck" and "the king my father's death before him." These are clearly references to W. and Bush pere and his "kinship" to them in the sense that he would become their eternal political body upon the "death" of W's political role as sovereign.

The clincher on this is at line 196-198:

But at my back from time to time I hear
The sound of horns and motors, which shall bring
Sweeney to Mrs. Porter in the spring.

Note how these videos use the sound of traffic and trains as a sort of soundtrack. Gravel is clearly appropriating the words of the poem and enacting them, allowing them to replace the popular music lyrics that Eliot uses to signify the emptiness of modern low culture, thus nullifying them entirely. Whether this means that Gravel has other "fragments" to shore against our American ruin, or he is declaring the futility of all rationalistic "solutions" remains for us to interrogate in forthcoming videos.

[hilzoy]

twit twit twit

jug jug jug

-- And for your amusement, I present what you get when you enter "phallologocentric" in the Merriam-Webster dicitonary:

"The word you've entered isn't in the dictionary. Click on a spelling suggestion below or try again using the search bar above.
Suggestions for phallologocentric:
1. flame photometric
2. floriculturist
3. floricultural
4. polychlorinated
5. polar coordinate
6. floriculturists
7. furor loquendi
8. Palos de la Frontera
9. flame photometry
10. plutocratically"

[xanax]

Re: "phallologocentric

So maybe it's not a word but we knew exactly what you meant...

Alright, maybe not exactly ... but pretty much...

Alright not so much but sort of got the gist...

Alright... not a friggin clue...

non datum whatchacallit...

[idlemind]

"Phallologocentric" sounds like a reference to the focus on symbols of manliness by DC's professional punditocracy.

[xanax]

Tho #7, "furor loquendi" vaquely echos Ezra Pound (Tempus Loquendi, Tempus Tacendi) and "Palos de la Frontera" (border trees? = >>> = boder "fences"?) is a definite '08 political issue... so... well, really, "Phallologocentric"?? Who the hell knows?

never mind.

[Hartmut]

Are you sure that it is not about the fixation on phall guys theory (=> Libby-do, the new marital art)?

[heet]

phallologocentric. I love it.

[ajay]

Imagine him going toe-to-toe with Ahmedinejad - he'd scare the guy shitless without so much as blinking. Not blinking for 10 straight hours, that is.

It's the logical extension of Nixon's Madman theory.
Nixon reckoned that, if he appeared irrationally aggressive, it would terrify the other side into concessions; they wouldn't be able to game out quid-pro-quo arrangements, because they wouldn't know which negotiating stances might evoke an irrationally violent over-reaction.

Gravelian Madman theory goes one step further. Not only would his opponent be unable to predict Gravel's potential countermoves, he wouldn't even be able to predict his objectives. A Gravelian stance in negotiating with Iran might be, say, to move a carrier battle group into the Arabian Sea before demanding that Iran cease production of expanded polystyrene, rubber pipe gaskets and canvas deck shoes. When the Iranians protested, Gravel would publicly order the delivery of several tonnes of flounder to the armed forces of Azerbaijan, remove one of his shoes, and go to sleep in front of the world's media for an hour and a half.

[cleek]

does he have a campaign theme song ?

i nominate side 1 of Lou Reed's "Metal Machine Music"

[brent]

Maybe its just me, but I quite liked Sartwell's commentary and I am pretty far removed from that sort of academic jargon. Its been many, many years since Grad School. The ads are interesting to think about as critique of political advertising and I think Sartwell expresses that critique well, if a bit hyperbolically. Again, maybe its just me.

[hilzoy]

I should say that, unfortunately, 'phallologocentrism' is a word that people have used in all seriousness, not something I dreamed up for the occasion.

[Aalitt]

Political ecstasy? Yeah, I though I recognized that twitchy feeling.

[hairshirthedonist]

Hilzoy, you and Crispin (not Glover?) rival the Postmodern Essay Generator:

If one examines Derridaist reading, one is faced with a choice: either accept dialectic subsemioticist theory or conclude that government is capable of truth, given that capitalist presemioticist theory is invalid.

[nous]

"Phallogocentrism" was Derrida playing and once again succumbing to the lure of the pun.

The excesses of those who followed up on it with systems every bit as tortured as the ones Derrida was poking fun at really missed that point.

[someotherdude]

The excesses of those who followed up on it with systems every bit as tortured as the ones Derrida was poking fun at really missed that point.

amen

[Jay Jerome]

if you type phallologocentric in the google search bar, the top choice directes you to this georgetown.edu site, and the following definition at the bottom of the page:

phallologocentric: made up of the words-- penis, words, and centered--phallologocentric is used by feminist critics to indicate language driven by male reasoning; featuring misogynistic logic or argument.

Of course, like most feminist neologisms intended to distort reality by making it incomprehensible (cockcentric would have been more alliterative and tidy) I present as counter-balance a glorious masculine lusty example of a ribald song I coincidentally read this morning in Vic Gatrell's wonderful new book City of Laughter, Sex and Satire In Eighteenth-Century London (in a section discussing the phallocentricity of the artists and bards of the era), celebrating the glorious male implement:

The Tree Of Life

Come prick up your ears, and attend Sirs, a while;
I'll sing ye a song that shall make ye to smile:
'Tis a faithful description of the Tree of Life,
So pleasing to ev'ry maid, widow, and wife!

Tol de rol &c.

… This tree universal most countries produce.
But till eighteen years growth 'tis not much fit for use,
Then nine or ten inches, for it seldom grows higher,
And that's sure as much as the heart can desire.
Tol de rol &c.

… Like a stalk in the autumn if it should seem dead
Or like the willow, hang drooping its head,
If a female's the gardener its nature is such
That it shoots up its length at her delicate touch.
Tol de rol &c.

… Ye ladies who long for a sight of this tree,
Take this invitation - come hither to me;
I have it just now in the height of perfection,
Adapted for handling, and fit for injection…

-Captain Charles Morris 1744-1838

[hairshirthedonist]

What's really funny to me about this Derrida-Phallogocentrism thing is that, before the last hour or so, I had no familiarity with Derrida or Phallogocentrism beyond their being words that I had read. The link to and quote from the PoMo generator was inspired by the tone of the Sartwell quote and Hilzoy's mocking of it. It was pure conincidence that the word "Derridaist" appeared in the computer-generated text I quoted. I had no knowledge of any connection between Phallogocentrism and Derrida.

[Batocchio]

Hilzoy, you rock.

[argo]

hilzoy-

To be honest, I'm not completely sure whether your post is partly sincere in its praise for Gravel's "subversive genius," or if it's meant to mock Gravel (or maybe the LAT interpretation of the Gravel-text, there being nothing in the world but Text after all). That your post can be read to contain both meanings might itself be a sort of performative embrace of the duality you farcically/sincerely attribute to Gravel, with his seemingly self-contradictory blend of the traditional and the avant-garde. Then again, maybe not.

I would just want to say, though, to other commenters on this thread that it's probably a mistake to try to discredit an entire constellation of ideas by mocking the word "phallogocentrism," or just entirely writing-off "postmodernism" or "Derrida" as comically obscure and thus wrong, without engaging with the critique they and others try to level at our political culture.

Often those of us in the "reality-based community" try to outargue the irrationality that seems to pervade the Bush administration and the political culture as a whole, but our arguments are already undermined by all the different media in which this argument takes place.

The MSM takes arguments from the blogosphere and labels them radical because they're from the blogosphere; then, because of time/space constraints in newspapers and TV, it naively parrots an argument from the "right" and an argument from the "left," without expending energy in evaluating whether those arguments hold water--or if they're fundamentally absurd on their face. The present administration is exceptional only in its willingness to cling to facially absurd arguments without any shame whatsoever.

Another way is to confront the unreality-based community with its own absurdity. Whether or not Gravel recognizes it (death of the author and all...), what he's doing does resonate with some of the most powerful critics of the unhinged irrationalism that inheres in contemporary mass political culture--namely, with thinkers who don't want their messages to be co-opted by the culture they critique, and who seem to respond paradoxically with a "silence" which is simultaneously an attempt to confront our current culture with its own absurdity.

Whether this "silence" is also political quietism is an open question. As a philosophy professor, hilzoy is more qualified than I am to talk about the various sides of that debate. I just want to say, though, that after reading that LAT article, the Gravel ads really did speak to me in a way.

Now how are we going to fix Social Security and the war in Iraq and immigration and school integration and ...?

[Steve T.]

Duly noted, Madam.

Isn't there a contest we can submit this thread to?

[Steve T.]

Oh, and by the way, I can't believe that nobody has mentioned that the obvious, obvious theme song for the Gravel campaign just must be John Cage's 4'33"