From b9d9b403a8203dd1f1a7d235f5b42c1ff0c7cea8 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: grr <grr@lo2.org>
Date: Mon, 20 May 2024 05:45:59 -0400
Subject: some essays on veramusement letters

---
 essays/letters.tex | 193 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-----------------------
 1 file changed, 110 insertions(+), 83 deletions(-)

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diff --git a/essays/letters.tex b/essays/letters.tex
index fc5db5a..f09b204 100644
--- a/essays/letters.tex
+++ b/essays/letters.tex
@@ -1,25 +1,24 @@
 \chapter{Letters}
 
-\section*{Letter from Terry Riley, Paris, to Henry Flynt, Cambridge, 
-Mass., dated 11/8/62}
+\section*{{\normalsize Letter from Terry Riley, Paris, to Henry Flynt, Cambridge, Mass., \\ dated 11/8/62}}
 
 One day a little boy got up and looked at his toys, appraised them and 
 decided they were of no value to him so he did them in. Seeing that others 
 were blindly and blissfully enjoying theirs he offered them a long and 
-"radical new theory" of "pure recreation" for their enjoyment but before he 
-let them in for this highly secret and "revolutionary theory" they should 
+\enquote{radical new theory} of \enquote{pure recreation} for their enjoyment but before he 
+let them in for this highly secret and \enquote{revolutionary theory} they should 
 follow his example and partake of a little 20th C. iconoclasm. From those 
-that balked he removed the label "avant-garde" and attached the label 
-"traditionalist" or if they were already labeled "traditionalist" he added one 
-more star. If they accepted they got a "hip" rating with gold cluster and if 
+that balked he removed the label \enquote{avant-garde} and attached the label 
+\enquote{traditionalist} or if they were already labeled \enquote{traditionalist} he added one 
+more star. If they accepted they got a \enquote{hip} rating with gold cluster and if 
 they comprehended the worth of his theory well enough to destroy their 
 own art they would be awarded assignments to destroy those works whose 
 designers were no longer around to speak out in their behalf. 
 
 Now about this hip radical new theory of pure recreation.---Well---alor! its 
 simply what people do anyway but don't realize it but it seems that what 
-people "do anyway and don't realize it" will not be fully appreciated until 
-"what people do in the name of art" is eliminated. If art can be relegated to 
+people \enquote{do anyway and don't realize it} will not be fully appreciated until 
+\enquote{what people do in the name of art} is eliminated. If art can be relegated to 
 obscurity, if some one can get John Coltrane to stop blowing, if someone 
 can smash up all the old Art tatum records as well as all the existing pianos, 
 if someone can get all that stuff out of those museums, If someone can only 
@@ -31,24 +30,23 @@ inspiration or any other natural phenomenon that reminds us of the ugly
 scourge art that has preoccupied and plagued man since he can remember 
 then yes then at last Henry Flynt, sorry! 
 
-\img{terry_flynt_name}
+{\centering \includegraphics[width=3in]{terry_flynt_name} \par}
 
 will show us how to really enjoy ourselves. Whooopeeee 
-
+\vfill
 \signoffnote{[Terry Riley's spelling etc. carefully preserved]}
 
 \clearpage
 
-\section*{Letter from Bob Morris to Henry Flynt, dated 8/13/62}
-
-Dear Henry, 
-
-\gap
+\section*{{\normalsize Letter from Bob Morris to Henry Flynt, dated 8/13/62}}
 
+\vfill 
+\noindent
+Dear Henry, \\
 perhaps the desirability of certain kinds of experience in art is not 
 important. The problem has been for some time one of ideas---those most 
 admired are the ones with the biggest, most incisive ideas (e.g. Cage \& 
-Duchamp). The mere exertion in the direction of finding "new" ideas has 
+Duchamp). The mere exertion in the direction of finding \enquote{new} ideas has 
 not shown too much more than that it has become established as a 
 traditional method; not much fruit has appeared on this vine. Also it can't be 
 avoided that this is an academic approach which presupposes a history to 
@@ -58,12 +56,12 @@ somehow be used without so much emotion attached to it). The difficulty
 with new ideas is that they are too hard to manufacture. Even the best have 
 only had a few good ones. (I suppose none of this is very clear and I can't 
 seem to get in the mood to do any more than put it down in an off-hand 
-way---but what I mean by "new ideas" is not only what you might call
-"Concept Art" but rather effecting changes in the structures of art forms 
+way---but what I mean by \enquote{new ideas} is not only what you might call
+\enquote{Concept Art} but rather effecting changes in the structures of art forms 
 more than any specific content or forms) Once one is committed to attempt 
 these efforts---and tries it for a while---one becomes aware that if one wants 
-"experience" one must repeat himself until other new things occur: a 
-position difficult if not impossible to accept with large "idea" ambitions. So 
+\enquote{experience} one must repeat himself until other new things occur: a 
+position difficult if not impossible to accept with large \enquote{idea} ambitions. So 
 one remains idle, repeats things, or finds some form of concentration and 
 duration outside the art---jazz, chess, whatever. I think that today art is a 
 form of art history. 
@@ -71,26 +69,30 @@ form of art history.
 I don't think entertainment solves the problem presented by avant gard art 
 since entertainment has mostly to do with replacing that part of art which is 
 now hard to get---i.e. experience. It seems to me that to be concerned with 
-"just liked" things as you present it is to avoid such things as tradition in art 
+\enquote{just liked} things as you present it is to avoid such things as tradition in art 
 (some body of stuff to react against---to be thought of as opponent or 
 memory or however). As I said before, I for one am not so self-sufficient and 
-when avoiding "given" structures, e.g. art, or even the most tedious and 
+when avoiding \enquote{given} structures, e.g. art, or even the most tedious and 
 decorous forms of social intercourse, I am bored. If I need concentration, 
 which I do, I can't think of anything on my own as good as chess. 
 
 One accepts language, one accepts logic. 
 
+\vfill
+
 \signoff{Best regards,}
 \signoff{Bob Morris}
 
+\clearpage
+
 \section*{}
 
-{ 
-\raggedleft
+{\raggedleft 
+\parbox{2.5in}{
 \textsc{From "Culture" to Veramusement} \\
 Boston--New York \\
 \textsc{Press Release:} for March--April, 1963 \par
-}
+}\vskip 1em}
 
 
 Henry Flynt, Tony Conrad, and Jack Smith braved the cold to demonstrate 
@@ -99,7 +101,7 @@ the Museum of Modern Art at 1:30 p.m., picketing with signs bearing the
 slogans 
 \textsc{Demolish serious culture! / Destroy art!} ; 
 \textsc{Demolish art museums! / No more art!} ;
-\textsc{Demolish concert halls! / Demolish Lincoln Center!} ;
+\textsc{Demolish concert halls! / Demolish Lincoln Center!}
 and handing out announcements of 
 Flynt's lecture the next evening. Benjamin Patterson came up to give 
 encouragement. There was much spontaneous interest among people around 
@@ -143,8 +145,12 @@ disintegrated, and that their retention has become obscurantist. (He showed
 that the purpose of didactic art is better served by documentaries.) Finally, 
 in the most intellectually sophisticated part of the lecture, he showed the 
 superiority of each individual's veramusement (partially defined on the 
-lecture announcement) to institutionalized amusement activities (which 
-impose foreign tastes on the individual) and indeed to all "culture" the 
+lecture announcement\editornote{The comment on the announcement read:
+\begin{quotation}
+	\enquote{\textsc{Veramusement}} is every doing of an individual which is not naturally physiologically necessary (or harmful), is not for the satisfaction of a social demand, is not a means, does not involve competition; is done entirely because he just likes it as he does it, without any consciousness that anything is not-obligated-by-himself; and is not special exertion. (And is done and \enquote{then} turns out to be in the category of \enquote{veramusement})
+\end{quotation}
+}) to institutionalized amusement activities (which 
+impose foreign tastes on the individual) and indeed to all \enquote{culture} the 
 lecture was concerned with. After the lecture, Flynt told how his doctrine 
 was anticipated by little known ideas of Mayakovsky, Dziga Vertov, and 
 their group, as related in Ilya Ehrenburg's memoirs and elsewhere. He 
@@ -153,10 +159,11 @@ touched on the Wednesday demonstrations. He spoke of George Maciunas'
 congratulated Flynt on the clarity of the presentation and logicality of the 
 arguments. Photos were taken. 
 
-\section*{Statement of November 1963}
+\vfill
 
+\section*{\normalsize Statement of November 1963}
 
-Back in March 1963, I sent the first \textsc{FCTB Press Release}, about FCTB's 
+Back in March 1963, I sent the first \textsc{FCTB\editornote{From Culture To Brend?} Press Release}, about FCTB's 
 February picketing and lecture, to all the communications media, including 
 the New Yorker. It is so good that the New Yorker wanted to use it, but 
 they didn't want to give FCTB any free publicity; so they finally published 
@@ -165,15 +172,18 @@ changed my last name to Mackie, changed February 27 to September 25, the
 Museum of Modern Art to a church, changed our slogans to particularly 
 idiotic ones (although they got in '\textsc{No More Art/Culture?}', later on), 
 and added incidents; but the general outlines, and the phrases lifted verbatim 
-from the FCTB RELEASE, make the relationship clear.---Henry Fiynt 
+from the \textsc{FCTB Release}, make the relationship clear.---Henry Flynt 
 
-\section*{}
+\clearpage
 
-{ \raggedleft 3/6/63 \par }
+\section*{{\normalsize Letter from Bob Morris to Henry Flynt, dated 3/6/63}}
 
-Henry, 
 
+\vfill 
 
+\noindent
+Henry, \\
+\\
 Received your note this morning. I had written down a few things about the 
 lecture the very night I got home but decided they were not very clear so I 
 didn't send them. Don't know if I can make it any clearer\ldots actually I keep 
@@ -182,13 +192,13 @@ to make seems too obvious. You spend much time and effort locating
 Veramusement, stating clearly wnat it is not, and stating that it is, if I get it, 
 of the essence of an awareness, rather memory, of an experience which 
 cannot be predicted and therefore cannot be located or focused by external 
-activities. And, in fact, as you said, may cut across, or "intersect" one or 
+activities. And, in fact, as you said, may cut across, or \enquote{intersect} one or 
 another or several activities. You have discredited activities---like art, 
 competitive games---as pseudo work or unsatisfactory recreation by employing 
-arguments which are external to "experiencing" these activities (e.g. chess is 
+arguments which are external to \enquote{experiencing} these activities (e.g. chess is 
 bad because why agree to some arbitrary standard of performance which 
 doesn't fit you)\ldots well it seems to me that Veramusement could never replace 
-any cultural form because it has no external "edges" but rather by definition 
+any cultural form because it has no external \enquote{edges} but rather by definition 
 can occur anywhere anytime anyplace (By the way I want to say here that 
 its existence as a past tense or memory I find objectionable---but I can't at the 
 moment really say why.) It seems that you have these two things going: 
@@ -197,22 +207,26 @@ entertainment, that have to do with society and I don't think that the
 exposition of how the two things are related has been very clear. George 
 Herbert Mead, an early Pragmatist (don't shudder at that word, but I can see 
 you throwing up your hands in despair) talked about this relation as a kind 
-of double aspect of the personality (which he called the "me" and the "I" 
+of double aspect of the personality (which he called the \enquote{me} and the \enquote{I} 
 \ldots can't remember his book, something like \booktitle{Mind, Self, and Society}). 
 
-I thought you presented the lecture very weil, but towards the end I was 
+I thought you presented the lecture very well, but towards the end I was 
 getting too tired to listen very carefully and I am sorry because this was the 
 newest writing. I would like very much to read this part, i.e. that which dealt 
 with the evolution of work, automation and the liberation from 
 drudgery---send me a copy if you can. 
 
+\vfill
+
 \signoff{Best regards,}
 \signoff{Bob Morris}
 
-\section*{}
+\clearpage
+\section*{{\normalsize Letter from Walter DeMaria to Henry Flynt, dated 3/12/63}}
+
+\vfill 
 
-{ \raggedleft 3/12/1963 \par }
-Henry 
+\noindent Henry 
 
 \begin{tabular}{ c c c c c }
 	\redact{Jazz} & 
@@ -221,57 +235,72 @@ Henry
 	\redact{Communism} & 
 		\begin{tabular}{ c }
 			(anti-art?) \\
-			------ \\
+			----------------- \\
 			(communism) \\
 		\end{tabular} \\
 \end{tabular}
-
-I've been along this road too. 
+\\
+\noindent
+I've been along this road too. \\
 Yes I certainly do see the harmfullness of serious culture. My favorite movies are plain documentaries. 
 
-\gap
-
+\vfill
 
-"Veramusement" 
-questions: the way you set it up it sound like veramusement is \textsc{It}. Some 
-kind of Absolute good state or activity. ---ie) \textsc{Athletics} are out. \\
+\noindent \enquote{Veramusement} \\
+questions: the way you set it up it sound like veramusement is \textsc{it}. Some 
+kind of Absolute good state or activity. ---ie) \textsc{athletics} are out. \\
 ---now my brother is a healthy athelete---he enjoys nothing so much as 
 swimming or playing tennis all day (he likes to use his body---and he likes the 
 form---competition) 
 
-{ \centering
-Is this "wrong" \\
-Should he stop.--- \par
+{ \vskip 1em \raggedleft
+\parbox{3in}{
+Is this \enquote{wrong} \\
+Should he stop.---}\vskip 1em
 }
 
-or wouldn't your "creep theory" which lets each person be himself and 
+\noindent or wouldn't your \enquote{creep theory} which lets each person be himself and 
 relish in himself---by extention from this---shouldn't the atheletic person be 
 alowed to be himself? ---too. \\
 I think you were opening up the world to the people at the lecture---
-
-
 {
-making them move free-- 
-" " ready to be themselves \par
+	\vskip 1em
+	\raggedleft
+	\parbox{3in}{
+	\bgroup
+	\setlength\tabcolsep{0.1em}
+	\begin{tabular}{ c c l }
+		making & them & move free-- \\
+		" & " & ready to be themselves \\
+	\end{tabular}
+	\egroup}\vskip 1em
 }
 
-
-I think you were right in not giving examples! 
-
-
-however \\
+\vfill
+\noindent I think you were right in not giving examples! \\
+\vfill
+\noindent however \\
 your absolute---statements and "come on"---and blend with the communist 
 ideas---(My mind was pretty tired by then and I didn't follow how the 
-veramusement---was tied to communism)---this \textsc{It} kind of talk.---can only shoo 
-people off-and let them wait for the next revision or explication. \\
+veramusement---was tied to communism)---this \textsc{it} kind of talk.---can only shoo 
 people off---and let them wait for the next revision or explication. 
 
+\vfill
+
 \signoff{Walter DeMaria}
 
+\clearpage
+
 \section*{}
 
-Dear Henry, March 18, 1963 
+\section*{{\normalsize Letter from Diane Wakoski to Henry Flynt, dated 3/18/63}}
+
+\vfill
+\vfill
+
+Dear Henry, 
 
+\vfill
 
 As I said before, my main reactions to yr lecture \& ideas is that I'm for 
 Henry Flynt but not for his ideas. I think the spirit you show in carrying on 
@@ -285,29 +314,27 @@ movements.
 
 All best wishes. 
 
-Yours, 
+\vfill
 
-Diane Wakoski 
-
-\section*{}
-
-"Dear Mr. Flynt...Since I may be depending on o-ganized culture for my 
-loot \& livelihood I can wish you only a limited success in your movement... 
-Cornelius Cardew" [froma postcard of June 7, 1963] 
+\signoff{Yours,}
+\signoff{Diane Wakoski}
 
+\vfill
+\vfill
 
 \clearpage
 
-{
-2/22/1963 
-
+\section*{}
 
-Jack Smith and Henry Flynt demonstrate against the 
-February 22, 1963 
+\vfill
 
+"Dear Mr. Flynt\ldots Since I may be depending on o-ganized culture for my 
+loot \& livelihood I can wish you only a limited success in your movement\ldots 
+Cornelius Cardew" 
+\plainbreak{2}
+\signoff{[from a postcard of June 7, 1963]}
 
-(photo by Tony Conrad) 
+\vfill
 
-Museum of Modern Art, 
-}
 \clearpage
+
-- 
cgit v1.2.3

