Michael Gottlieb (1) (1951–)

This is another bk that Alan Davies gave me when I visited him recently. I've only read one other bk by Gottlieb, "Local Color/Eidetic Deniers", & I just reread my review of that to find some clues of my previous take on Gottlieb.

The 1st thing that strikes me on comparison is that the title "Eidetic Deniers" & "Careering Obloquy" seem to take a similar strategy. They're both 2 words & each pair has an almost common word coupled w/ a more uncommon one. In other words, it's somewhat easy to imagine someone saying "Oh, he's one of the deniers.." or "He's been off careering.." - but how often do you hear someone referring to a person as "eidetic" or as speaking an "obloquy"? Not often. I had to look up the latter word & here's what I got from Merriam-Webster:

Main Entry: ob·lo·quy
Pronunciation: ˈä-blə-kwē
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural ob·lo·quies
Etymology: Middle English obloquie, from Anglo-French, from Late Latin obloquium, from obloqui to speak against, from ob- against loqui to speak
Date: 15th century

1 : a strongly condemnatory utterance : abusive language
2 : the condition of one that is discredited : bad repute

SO, the title sets the mood for me. It's not that I immediately expect poems about a person making a career of abusive language, but I DO imagine Gottlieb as having a sense of humor about how poets might be making a 'career' out of 'distressing' language past its ordinary uses. But that's just my spin. Take eg:

"1. Spinning Up


This smiling resemblance, this is what they dub it -

attended by a mute, iatrogenic demurral at every step.

We have been studying ruination for so long
that a kind of constructive disavowal, like a shot across the bows,
has finally come to redound upon us,

at this place where burn permits
are issued freely,

like refusal simple,

or unassayed samples,

and defiance is sent
to all the crazed finishes.

The way, over the years, we come to resemble our clay.

I wish I still had it,
that certificate of destruction."

"iatrogenic"?:

"resulting from the activity of physicians; said of any adverse condition in a patient resulting from treatment by a physician or surgeon."

It's always nice to read words I'm not familiar w/ - even if, these days, I rarely look them up or retain them anymore..

Is there "abusive language" here? IE: language referencing abuses of various sorts? "iatrogenic demurral at every step" "studying ruination" "constructive disavowal" "like a shot across the bows" "crazed finishes" "certificate of destruction"

Is Gottlieb commenting on a state of poetry? Has that "constructive disavowal" "finally come to redound upon us" making us "resemble our clay"? Or am I just "Spinning Up" from "Careering Obloquy"?… (meer)

I read this w/ mixed feelings - not quite so extreme as love-&-hate - more like like-&-dislike. Much of the "Memoir" part is about people I know, a movement I was involved in, bks & magazines I've read & contributed to, bars I've been to, places where I've read &/or performed.

People like Alan Davies (who sent this to me - Thanks Alan!), James Sherry, Hannah Weiner, Charles Bernstein, Bruce Andrews, etc.. The movement? "language writing". The magazines? "Oculist Witnesses", "Roof", "A Hundred Posters", etc.. The places? Ear Inn, St Marks Poetry Project, etc..

As I've probably written about elsewhere numerous times & skirted in numerous ways, "language writing" was something that I was involved w/ in the late '70s.. but I quickly lost interest (even though my parallel interests have lingered on to this day) b/c I thought the "movement" itself was comprised mostly of academics whose politics were mostly fantasy not likely to accomplish much more than give them 'leftist-cred' at whatever cush job their privilege eventually led them to.

When I think of my friends who do things like start bike co-ops, books-to-prisoners programs, free food programs, info shops, etc, & compare their activities to those of the Marxist academics whose non-transparent writing was thought by some (including me) to be liberatory for the mind, I can't help but critique the impracticality of the intellectual imposture.

& while I was particularly interested in reading about things like Michael & Alan Davies' friendship & "Roof" packing events at James Sherry's, I found most of this memoir to be precisely indicative of what makes most language writers politicos-in-their-own-mind-ONLY: viz: Michaels' life is pretty damned dull b/c it seems that he really didn't do much - &, from my perspective, writing poetry just ISN'T ENUF. Sorry, poet friends.

SO, I read thru this bk, enjoying it b/c of the way it filled in my personal knowledge but wondering: who the fuck wd be interested in this? Are people like Charles Bernstein so 'important' to anyone that someone other than another poet who knows him wd want to read about what a classist dick he was when he didn't share the work to be done? Maybe so. But, then, Gottlieb does address that somewhat when he writes about the ghettoization (not his word choice) of poets.

But, GEE, Michael, did you EVER really do anything revolutionary other than write yr highly abstruse poetry? Don't misunderstand, despite all my writing about how uninterested I am in poetry, I LIKE HIGHLY ABSTRUSE POETRY & write & make movies & music that most people find utterly incomprehensible. So, oh well, for better or worse, I still share some of the theoretical framework that "language writing" grew out of & developed.

BUT, I've also LIVED & struggled in ways that seem almost entirely absent from this memoir.

FORTUNATELY, the "Essay" that concludes the bk: "Jobs of the Poets" at least addresses some basic issues relevant to the practical politics of poets. This begins:

"We sit in our rooms. We write. We try to read. It begins to grow dark. We switch on the light. We wait for the world to come to us. Or, we don't. We start asking ourselves questions. Others arrive unbidden.

One of the questions: what kind of jobs do we, should we, as poets, end up with as we do our real job?"

Gottlieb resisted being drafted in the Vietnam War by enrolling in a CO program; I resisted by refusing to register - potentially punishable by 10 yrs imprisonment as a federal crime. Gottlieb worked as a private investigator catching people stealing from work; I stole (minimally) from one or 2 grossly underpaying jobs. Gottlieb feels no sympathy for the thieves but at least discusses the dubious ethics of his spying on them. In the end, I suspect most "language writers" of being entirely too bourgeois for me & Gottlieb's bk borders on reinforcing this.

BUT NOT COMPLETELY. I'm actually thankful that this ISN'T another memoir of 'how-I-was-a-heroin-addict-in-NYC-aren't-I-cool?'. As such, I actually welcome, at times, the type of details he pays attn to. Anything but heroin & coke, ok?!

As for NYC? I'm extremely glad that I don't live there. Reading "Memoir" made me wish there were similar published recollections from BalTimOre during the same time - b/c I think that writers such as Kirby Malone, Marshall Reese, Chris Mason, cris cheek (honorary BalTimOrean for awhile), Tom DiVenti, & myself were as interesting, if not more so, than anything that was happening in NYC.… (meer)