Did you make copies for me like I asked? I realize that it's not a very pc thing to do, and I'm a bit embarrased about being involved, so do me a favor - send everything to Skip, and he'll hold it for me.

Living my whole life here in California, I can attest to the fact that "Okie" is very much a pejorative word. It may not be at the level of the N word now, but in the 1930's, 40's, and 50's, it came close, I think. It is still understood to be a mean-spirited insult when uttered by non-Oklahomans.

David R.

Nah, don't send it to me, but to some other environmentalist board-member who'll hold that recycled crap at attention for him. When the time comes, however, this unknown individual had better wad the inferior pulpy fiber up as much as possible, lest there is bleed-through.

This is all a bit confusing, because there's a very famous song by Merle Haggard, Okie from Muskogee. The chorus starts, I'm proud to be an Okie from Muskogee. This suggests that it at least at one time, carried a fair bit of local patriotism to me.

You never know when you are from a different state, country, locale how people like to be addressed or what is really a pejorative. We have our Newfies here, Newfoundlanders, people from Newfoundland. We call them Newfies, they proudly call themselves Newfies. We have tons of jokes about our beloved, easy-going, known to love the moonshine, Newfies. They either know all the jokes, and are usually happy to tell you a few more you haven't yet heard.

Just goes to show, you never know. I had such a vague recollection of that song that I first attempted to google it as Okie from Pascokie.

Jeanne

Jeanne--

Haggard is from California, of Oklahoman parentage. His usage of the term has layers of complexity that you probably could understand but don't.

It is a strategy to take over the insulting word and say,"yeah, that's me, you are trying to insult me, but I won't let you." I'm gay and I'm proud, I'm black and I'm beautiful, I'm an Okie and I'm from Muskogee,

But that doesn't cover the whole spectrum of insulting words. All those other words meaning the same thing are still fighting words. Except among factions. People can tell jokes on themselves or call themselves derogatory names, (like Haggard, like Randy Newman singing about a "smart-ass New York Jew") but as someone above pointed out, outsiders can't do the same thing.

But that isn't what this thread is about. The purpose of this thread is to insult the idea of conceptual art, that there is no different between writing a poem and finding a bunch of nuts willing to waste paper and pollute water in a doomed-from-the-start idea to print out the internet. Digitalized storage was supposed to save paper not waste it.

Yes, back to the subject at hand. Goldsmith's project is predictably inflammatory and boring. If there's a point to this pissing, surely Goldsmith has long ago convinced himself of it. What's alarming is how desperately plain he envisions the avant-garde as being.

Nick

Thanks, Nick. Yes, back to the subject at hand, please......
I'm heading for bed. Got a long day tomorrow.

I find it quite amusing, especially the predictable reactions playing straight into its hands.

Nemo

Nemo,

I'm not sure if you're referring to my reaction or not. Anyway, I can't say what's more predictable: praising the emperor or pointing toward his bare ass. You seem to have found a kind of choral middle ground, which might be best.

So, it seems to me that Goldsmith is either taking the piss or mining the academy for whatever stature it's willing to offer. Either way, his "work" strikes me as a purely academic exercise with little to offer [me] in the way of pleasure. The ironic thing is that it'is hardly inventive, uncreatively or otherwise. It's just...meh.

Nick