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It became clear to me that my interlocutor is that kind of writer with a split personality, who cultivates the public persona of the carefully groomed romantic artist, dreadlocks and all – plus a practiced self-indulgent smirk – while in secret he is nothing but a sadistic sociopath. Yes, he made sure to throw his egomaniacal tantrum in secret behind the wall of a private Facebook message and not in public. This dreadlocked nightmare reminded me of Arthur Rimbaud whose schizophrenia was captured in the incongruence of his sublime poetry and his dealing in slaves and gunrunning in Harar, Ethiopia, in the late1800s. The only difference being that Rimbaud’s dissolution was public, not private.
It might seem strange to compare gunrunning and slave-raids – both depraved and criminal in Rimbaud (slavery had been abolished in Europe at the time) – with the devil’s bi-polar behaviour. Nevertheless, the fact is that his meltdown is only the first signs of a more serious pathology and could lead in any direction of future depravity. Rimbaud’s dissolution took time. And the dissimulation (hiding behind a private message) involved in the devil’s behaviour is particularly typical of psychopaths, who are highly intelligent, but usually very cunning, appearing quite harmless and are apparently well-integrated members of society. It is the Dr. Jerkyll and Mr. Hyde syndrome.
Rimbaud’s schizophrenia is the occasion for Henry Miller’s critique in The Time of the Assassins. In the epigraph above from Miller’s critique, the ‘poet’ refers to Rimbaud in the latter’s abdication of his social responsibility as artist when he became degenerate but, more importantly, it recalls a sense of the societal betrayal and a dark, Jekyll-and-Hyde personality in Rimbaud. It is instructive that the devil was first and foremost a poet. But poetry deserted him as it deserted Rimbaud the slaver and gunrunner in the end. Although in reality the devil deals in words, not in slaves or guns, the aggregate lack of social cohesion in those words (those plays and novels) of which his secret Facebook attack is symptom, all point to the same brooding, sociopathic personality Rimbaud needed to deal in slaves or arms. Beyond Miller’s particular reference to Rimbaud, I deploy ‘poet’ here to collectively refer to those – writers, musicians, painters, or artists generally – whose calling requires sensitivity and compassion as a unit of social engagement in their work and in their personal comportment.
For a writer to secretly attack with words on Facebook is to turn it into asocial media; it is to abdicate the social roles of the artist as conscience of society, as example of elevated humanity for the politician, the soldier and the plebeian. The devil’s work, with its “white noise” and empty entertainment value (novel after novel, play after play, story after story) merely adds to the global babble in the world. It leaves the world deaf from that noise, deprives it of the ability to reflect, and makes it incapable of meditating or socially mediating for solutions. While it entertains, a work must remember to elevate, or if it does elevate the writer’s life must not cancel out his work as Rimbaud’ life did his poetry. The devil’s bi-polar personality profoundly complicates any future hope of that empathy which is at the heart of the socially committed writer’s trade. We are indeed “at the last ditch,” as Miller says of Rimbaud, “when the poet no longer speaks for society” but for his own selfish goals – in the devil’s case, that of mere economic survival every theatre season, cheque by royalty cheque and grant for grant.
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Ah, we’ve all been there. The grumpy facebook stalker. I suppose being a target can be flattering. It’ll be interesting to see how the big-name writers of today engage in e-fueding. Can you imagine if Truman Capote had twitter?
In a time where many are quick to adopt a relativist standpoint when considering art, everyone can now call themselves an artist. As you point out, this thinking stultifies art itself. We all know real art when we encounter it because we become inspired. Since art doesn’t become so unless it is viewed by others, art isn’t just expression for its own sake, but rather a socially conscious endeavor to make society reflect on itself. Once an artist negates this duty, as ‘your little ‘devil’ and many have, we are left with uninspiring prose, poetry, paintings and the like. You seem to have captured, quite succinctly, this deontic malaise that has infected the arts as of late. Canada spends millions on the arts, but where are the great Canadian artists? There is something wrong, especially with all that funding, when we cannot think of the Shakespeare or Monet of our time.
Your Henry Miller quotation hit the nail. This individual hides behind a so-called “writer” title but a leopard cannot change his spots. Whatever his insecurities are, he took his anger on you.
Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka complains of the religious extremists: “I’m right; you’re dead!” The social media can indeed be menacing. The joy is that there are writers like our editor who stands his ground against all affronts. Amatoritsero obviously takes no prisoners, and one indeed waits with bated breath if his antagonist should come charging back. A tough slanging match fits well with the literary adrenalin.
I think it timely,this call to all artists to remember the reason why, in these days, we are artists. In the age of instant communication and instant obsolescence of the message,some tropes still matter.
Facebook is life; life is Facebook, darkness, light and all. I would never have ‘met” beautiful spirits like you and virtually all who have commented here without the Internet. Like life, I take Facebook for what it is worth, warts and all. I love Facebook and twitter and everything else on the Internet. Because I met you, my friend that I have never ever met 😉
The act of hiding is revealing….
Spot on Amatoritsero! I think you are a little unfair on Keziah Jones however. No one can compare to Fela or BM, but his music is funky and articulate and full of thought.
Whoever the writer is – they are a full balloon in need of a prick. Perhaps then they will fizzle off into irrelevance..
With the onset of social networking the pillars of our community have no borders. They are no longer divided into mapped territories. There is no space and time continuum. No voyage in the dark. There is no inner or outer space of forgetting. There are records, history and a substantial memory that is only a mouse click away. The country of our tongue no longer has to be framed on cold lines. Facebook if it is a beast is a sexy beast inhabited by the cells of ghosts, celebrity, art and souls.
What we want is information, chemistry even if it is not reality (that is what makes us human – our cumulative progress in the scheme of things). There are no feelings of abandonment, neglect, loneliness, peer pressure and isolation on Facebook. How ‘it’ has survived is not extraordinary but how will we, the fragile human race survive without it, without the potential of advancing technology and for a lot of people it means freedom to express themselves, who they truly are without putting up a masked front and with that element right there, that is the genius of social networking.
to respond to someone like that is wasted energy ! shows no respect for others ! Facebook is social network not to be used for being rude and cras !! Know that u r indeed the Better person !! delete and block such negativity !! karma !!
Ama, as “digital-immigrants,” we have to constantly learn to navigate the crazy world of social media! What an interesting tale. I laughed so hard. I hope it’s ok to laugh. 🙂