The superiority of painting (no 2)

Something in Auckland to go to

An even better quote of the day

Me: 'Fucking philistines.'

Rose's daughter: 'What's a philistine?'

Quote of the day

The dry, repulsive methods of the pointillists, who are already dead to light and art, must be condemned. Coolly and methodically, they apply their dots between their correct, cold outlines without any emotion, and therefore capture only one aspect of light, namely its oscillation, without being able to give it any form at all. The procedure is too limited and does not allow for any kind of development. It is an art of cold calculation and constricted perspective, which has long been outdated, as far as oscillation is concerned!

– James Ensor

Christchurch earthquake

Bloody hell.

I don't really have anything to say. I'm not one for platitudes.

If you're from Christchurch and you'd like a break from what really does look like a horror film, we have a spare room. Click on 'View my complete profile' to the right there to find my email address.

Idle typeravings

I keep on coming back to the graphic novel I did a first draft of several years ago, fruitlessly going round in circles.

Where I left off, we'd caused a revolution in Tenochtitlan and had gone flying off into the sunset in our airship. The next thing to do, of course, would be to nip into the future a bit – say 50 years or so – and see how things were going.

Naturally, the answer is badly.

Now, this requires a Plan B. If we can't nip capitalism in the bud, how about we manipulate another crucial turning point? I reckon one of the main reasons the 20th century went so pear-shaped and fucked us so badly is because the wrong side won World War I.

Speaking very generally, even though both extolled God, King, and Country, you can characterise the German side as the progressive, modernist side and the English as the hidebound, conservative side. I mean, just take a moment to compare the two societies on the eve of the War. One was going off, making radical advances in art, science, and technology. The other was resting on its (admittedly not inconsiderable) laurels.

I reckon, if Germany had won World War I, we would now be sweet. We wouldn't have so completely fucked up space travel. We'd have at least one space elevator, and all our heavy industry up in orbit, using resources extracted from asteroids. We would also be establishing viable space colonies, ending our dependence on the Earth.

Instead, we had a stupid, pointless, go-nowhere moon race between the US and the USSR, purely for short-term political ends, and now have a useless space station and an obsolete space shuttle that's only really good for bombing Earthbound targets.

And the thing is that this was our shot, as a species. It's really hard developing a global high-technology society. We're not going to do it again. We've used up all the easily available mineral resources you need on this one. The 20th century was our shot to get our sorry arses off-planet, so we would no longer be able to be completely wiped out by a comet or asteroid strike.

In a few thousand years, if we'd built a big fuck off linear accelerator somewhere between Mars and Jupiter and fired off robot spacecraft to seed other solar systems, even a supernova would not take us out. Unless we met opposition, there'd be nothing to prevent us from creating a Galactic Empire and living into the deep future.

But, no, we had a sordid political squabble instead.

Fuck I hate politics. Left, right, whatever, you can all go fuck yourselves.

Ahem. Sorry about that. I got a little distracted.

So, Plan B is to intervene in World War I to ensure that the Germans win and develop a decent space programme. This would have to include, among other things, mixing it up with the secret agents, revolutionaries, and dadas in Zurich in 1916. That could be fun, eh?

Black squares and other stories

Easily the worst thing about giving up smoking is regaining your sense of smell.

This is from Robert Fludd's Utriusque Cosmi, Maioris scilicet et Minoris, metaphysica, physica, atque technica Historia (The metaphysical, physical, and technical history of the two worlds, namely the greater and the lesser) from 1617. The text on each side of the black square translates as 'And so on to infinity' (which sounds like it should be the voiceover end to an epic science fiction flick).

Here, the black square is, I understand, the prima materia, the ground on which everything – both the greater and the lesser worlds – is built.

Then there's the black page from Laurence Sterne's The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman:

Rose and I are still recovering from the fucking music festival we went to over the weekend. It was a lot of fun, but, Jesus Motherfuck, it's not like when I went to the things 15-20 years ago. All I did was watch bands and walk around, and I can still barely walk. And fuck it's nice having some quiet and solitude now. Here's a pic of the so-called quiet zone (the party zone was much larger):

There are only a couple of weeks left in which to see the pictures at Te Papa. Sure, there are a lot of minor artists, and minor works by good artists, and they charge a lot, but there are also some things worth seeing. I love the Redon, particularly the way it completely overshadows the Böcklin and the Moreau on either side of it – even though they are perfectly good pictures in their own right. Redon kicks their puny white arses, then pisses all over them just for good measure. (No picture of that though, no, no. You'll have to go see for yourself.)

Rather than list the things worth seeing, which'd be boring for all concerned, I will highlight two.

I really like the Caspar David Friedrich too, despite its appalling condition:

Then there are the Beckmanns. Backstage, left unfinished when he died, was a revelation:

School starts in a couple of weeks. I had an email this arvo informing me who my supervisors are. Yes, there are two of them – as with the two worlds, apparently, you get both the greater and the lesser.

The Catechism of a Revolutionist

The Duties of the Revolutionary toward Himself

1. The revolutionary is a doomed man. He has no personal interests, no business affairs, no emotions, no attachments, no property, and no name. Everything in him is wholly absorbed in the single thought and the single passion for revolution.

2. The revolutionary knows that in the very depths of his being, not only in words but also in deeds, he has broken all the bonds which tie him to the social order and the civilised world with all its laws, moralities, and customs, and with all its generally accepted conventions. He is their implacable enemy, and if he continues to live with them it is only in order to destroy them more speedily.

3. The revolutionary despises all doctrines and refuses to accept the mundane sciences, leaving them for future generations. He knows only one science: the science of destruction. For this reason, but only for this reason, he will study mechanics, physics, chemistry, and perhaps medicine. But all day and all night he studies the vital science of human beings, their characteristics and circumstances, and all the phenomena of the present social order. The object is perpetually the same: the surest and quickest way of destroying the whole filthy order.

4. The revolutionary despises public opinion. He despises and hates the existing social morality in all its manifestations. For him, morality is everything which contributes to the triumph of the revolution. Immoral and criminal is everything that stands in its way.

5. The revolutionary is a dedicated man, merciless toward the State and toward the educated classes; and he can expect no mercy from them. Between him and them there exists, declared or concealed, a relentless and irreconcilable war to the death. He must accustom himself to torture.

6. Tyrannical toward himself, he must be tyrannical toward others. All the gentle and enervating sentiments of kinship, love, friendship, gratitude, and even honour, must be suppressed in him and give place to the cold and single-minded passion for revolution. For him, there exists only one pleasure, one consolation, one reward, one satisfaction – the success of the revolution. Night and day he must have but one thought, one aim – merciless destruction. Striving cold-bloodedly and indefatigably toward this end, he must be prepared to destroy himself and to destroy with his own hands everything that stands in the path of the revolution.

7. The nature of the true revolutionary excludes all sentimentality, romanticism, infatuation, and exaltation. All private hatred and revenge must also be excluded. Revolutionary passion, practiced at every moment of the day until it becomes a habit, is to be employed with cold calculation. At all times, and in all places, the revolutionary must obey not his personal impulses, but only those which serve the cause of the revolution.

The Relations of the Revolutionary toward his Comrades

8. The revolutionary can have no friendship or attachment, except for those who have proved by their actions that they, like him, are dedicated to revolution. The degree of friendship, devotion, and obligation toward such a comrade is determined solely by the degree of his usefulness to the cause of total revolutionary destruction.

9. It is superfluous to speak of solidarity among revolutionaries. The whole strength of revolutionary work lies in this. Comrades who possess the same revolutionary passion and understanding should, as much as possible, deliberate all important matters together and come to unanimous conclusions. When the plan is finally decided upon, then the revolutionary must rely solely on himself. In carrying out acts of destruction, each one should act alone, never running to another for advice and assistance, except when these are necessary for the furtherance of the plan.

10. All revolutionaries should have under them second- or third-degree revolutionaries – i.e., comrades who are not completely initiated. These should be regarded as part of the common revolutionary capital placed at his disposal. This capital should, of course, be spent as economically as possible in order to derive from it the greatest possible profit. The real revolutionary should regard himself as capital consecrated to the triumph of the revolution; however, he may not personally and alone dispose of that capital without the unanimous consent of the fully initiated comrades.

11. When a comrade is in danger and the question arises whether he should be saved or not saved, the decision must not be arrived at on the basis of sentiment, but solely in the interests of the revolutionary cause. Therefore, it is necessary to weigh carefully the usefulness of the comrade against the expenditure of revolutionary forces necessary to save him, and the decision must be made accordingly.

The Relations of the Revolutionary toward Society

12. The new member, having given proof of his loyalty not by words but by deeds, can be received into the society only by the unanimous agreement of all the members.

13. The revolutionary enters the world of the State, of the privileged classes, of the so-called civilisation, and he lives in this world only for the purpose of bringing about its speedy and total destruction. He is not a revolutionary if he has any sympathy for this world. He should not hesitate to destroy any position, any place, or any man in this world. He must hate everyone and everything in it with an equal hatred. All the worse for him if he has any relations with parents, friends, or lovers; he is no longer a revolutionary if he is swayed by these relationships.

14. Aiming at implacable revolution, the revolutionary may and frequently must live within society pretending to be completely different from what he really is, for he must penetrate everywhere, into all the higher and middle-classes, into the houses of commerce, the churches, and the palaces of the aristocracy, and into the worlds of the bureaucracy and literature and the military, and also into the Third Division and the Winter Palace of the Czar.

15. This filthy social order can be split up into several categories. The first category comprises those who must be condemned to death without delay. Comrades should compile a list of those to be condemned according to the relative gravity of their crimes; and the executions should be carried out according to the prepared order.

16. When a list of those who are condemned is made, and the order of execution is prepared, no private sense of outrage should be considered, nor is it necessary to pay attention to the hatred provoked by these people among the comrades or the people. Hatred and the sense of outrage may even be useful insofar as they incite the masses to revolt. It is necessary to be guided only by the relative usefulness of these executions for the sake of revolution. Above all, those who are especially inimical to the revolutionary organization must be destroyed; their violent and sudden deaths will produce the utmost panic in the government, depriving it of its will to action by removing the cleverest and most energetic supporters.

17. The second group comprises those who will be spared for the time being in order that, by a series of monstrous acts, they may drive the people into inevitable revolt.

18. The third category consists of a great many brutes in high positions, distinguished neither by their cleverness nor their energy, while enjoying riches, influence, power, and high positions by virtue of their rank. These must be exploited in every possible way; they must be implicated and embroiled in our affairs, their dirty secrets must be ferreted out, and they must be transformed into slaves. Their power, influence, and connections, their wealth and their energy, will form an inexhaustible treasure and a precious help in all our undertakings.

19. The fourth category comprises ambitious office-holders and liberals of various shades of opinion. The revolutionary must pretend to collaborate with them, blindly following them, while at the same time prying out their secrets until they are completely in his power. They must be so compromised that there is no way out for them, and then they can be used to create disorder in the State.

20. The fifth category consists of those doctrinaires, conspirators, and revolutionists who cut a great figure on paper or in their cliques. They must be constantly driven on to make compromising declarations: as a result, the majority of them will be destroyed, while a minority will become genuine revolutionaries.

21. The sixth category is especially important: women. They can be divided into three main groups. First, those frivolous, thoughtless, and vapid women, whom we shall use as we use the third and fourth category of men. Second, women who are ardent, capable, and devoted, but whom do not belong to us because they have not yet achieved a passionless and austere revolutionary understanding; these must be used like the men of the fifth category. Finally, there are the women who are completely on our side – i.e., those who are wholly dedicated and who have accepted our program in its entirety. We should regard these women as the most valuable or our treasures; without their help, we would never succeed.

The Attitude of the Society toward the People

22. The Society has no aim other than the complete liberation and happiness of the masses – i.e., of the people who live by manual labor. Convinced that their emancipation and the achievement of this happiness can only come about as a result of an all-destroying popular revolt, the Society will use all its resources and energy toward increasing and intensifying the evils and miseries of the people until at last their patience is exhausted and they are driven to a general uprising.

23. By a revolution, the Society does not mean an orderly revolt according to the classic western model – a revolt which always stops short of attacking the rights of property and the traditional social systems of so-called civilisation and morality. Until now, such a revolution has always limited itself to the overthrow of one political form in order to replace it by another, thereby attempting to bring about a so-called revolutionary state. The only form of revolution beneficial to the people is one which destroys the entire State to the roots and exterminates all the State traditions, institutions, and classes in Russia.

24. With this end in view, the Society therefore refuses to impose any new organisation from above. Any future organisation will doubtless work its way through the movement and life of the people; but this is a matter for future generations to decide. Our task is terrible, total, universal, and merciless destruction.

25. Therefore, in drawing closer to the people, we must above all make common cause with those elements of the masses which, since the foundation of the state of Muscovy, have never ceased to protest, not only in words but in deeds, against everything directly or indirectly connected with the State: against the nobility, the bureaucracy, the clergy, the traders, and the parasitic kulaks. We must unite with the adventurous tribes of brigands, who are the only genuine revolutionaries in Russia.

26. To weld the people into one single unconquerable and all-destructive force – this is our aim, our conspiracy, and our task.

– Sergey Nechayev and Mikhail Bakunin, 1869

Quote of the day

But what with the murky light, the botchy print, the tattered cover, the jigjagged page, the fumbling fingers, the fox-trotting fleas, the lie-a-bed lice, the scum on his tongue, the drop in his eye, the lump in his throat, the drink in his pottle, the itch in his palm, the wail of his wind, the grief from his breath, the fog of his brainfag, the tic of his conscience, the height of his rage, the gush of his fundament, the fire in his gorge, the tickle of his tail, the rats in his garret, the hullabaloo and the dust in his ears, since it took him a month to steal a march, he was hard-set to memorise a word a week.

– Henry fucking Miller

Something else in Wellington to go to

I was just going to stick up the invite to Ben Buchanan's show at Hamish's tomorrow, but it's a stupid pdf so I can't. And I'm not going to fuck around any further than that.

Tomorrow, 11am, allegedly. Till 26 Feb.

Collateral damage

An idea

I reckon I should adopt some secret police tactics.

I might start files on members of the New Zealand art world. Each file would start with my own assessment and then have information from external sources added.

Then, once they'd grown big enough, I could anonymise them and publish them on the Internet.

It would be hilarious, even if I do say so myself. People would be very recognisable of course.

And it would probably be fairly easy to do.