communication, not because it’s hidden but because the
fisherman’s fucking stupid; so arrogant; so sure o f forever and
a day; so sure he don’t listen and he don’t look and he says it
ain’t anything and he thinks that means it ain’t anything
whereas what it means is that we finally can invent: a new
alphabet first, big letters, proud, new letters from which will
come new words for old things, real things, and the bait says
what they are and what they mean, and then we get new
novels in which the goal is to tell the truth: deep truth. So
make it all up, the whole new thing, to be able to say w hat’s
there; because they are keeping it hidden now. Y o u ’re not
supposed to write something down that happened; yo u ’re
supposed to invent. W e’ll write down what happened and
invent the personhood o f who it happened to; w e’ll make a
language for her so we can tell a story for her in which she will
see what happened and know for sure it happened and it
mattered; and the boys will have to confront a new esthetic
that tells them to go suck eggs. I am for this idea; energized by
it. It’s clear that if you need the fisherman to read the book—
his critical appreciation as it were— this new art ain’t for you. If
he’s got what he did to you written on him or close enough to
him, rude enough near him, is he different, will he know? I say
he’ll have to know; it’s the brilliance o f the medium— he’s it,
the vehicle o f political and cultural transcendence as it were.
It’s a new, forthright communication— they took the words
but they left your arm, your hand, so far at least; it could
change, but for now; he’s the living canvas; he can refuse to
understand but he cannot avoid know ing; it’s your blood, he
spilled it, yo u ’ve used it: on him. It’s a simplicity Artaud
failed, frankly, to achieve. W e’ll make it new;
fuckers. Then he can be human or not; he’s got a choice, which
is more than he ever gave; he can put on the uniform, honest,
literal Nazi, or not. The clue is to see what you don’t have as
the starting place and you look at it straight and you say what
does it give me, not what does it take; you say what do I have
and what don’t I have and am I making certain presumptions
about what I need that are in fact their presumptions, so much
garbage in my way, and if I got rid o f the garbage what then
would I see and could I use it and how; and when. I got hope. I
got faith. I see it falling. I see it ending. I see it bent over and
hitting the ground. And, what’s even better is that because the
fisherman ain’t going to listen as if his life depended on it we
got a system o f secret communication so foolproof no
scoundrel could imagine it, so perfect, so pure; the less we are,
the more we have; the less we matter, the more chance we get;
the less they care, the more freedom is ours; the less, the more,
you see, is the basic principle, it’s like psychological jujitsu
except applied to politics through a shocking esthetic; you use
