damn...

[Brian <bmcgow01@wild.vill.edu>]

The horse is not dead...it was never alive.  You aborted it.

I seem to have annoyed several of you to a considerable degree.  I
assure you that this was unintentional.  Since I have been publicly
defamed to all of the subscribers of the list, I feel that I have the
right to publicly defend myself.  After all, even Nazi war criminals
were allowed to have lawyers and a fair trial.  So if you have no
interest, ignore this, I won't lose sleep over it; however, if you are
one of the people who want to have me burned at the stake (there are at
last count, six of you), I suggest you read this.

A few of you have been reasonable, and willing to debate the topic at
hand, but an unsettling number of you have shown no interest in
accepting a new idea.  You have refused to listen to what I have said.
You have accused me a being a "pompous, close, minded moron."  I don't
believe for one moment that I am overly pompous, arrogant or otherwise
elitist.  Sure I have an absurd amount of education, but I don't flaunt
this.  I mentioned my degrees ONCE.  Every other mention was simply to
defend myself.  You are the ones who took this to the extreme.  You
jumped right on the defensive and decided that I thought I was better
than you, which is not true.  You also decided that I thought only MY
opinion mattered, that too is not true.  I won't even dignify the moron
comment with a response.  And now we come to the close-minded comment.
I love the little hypocrisies of people and this a good one.  You are
the people who refuse to listen to new ideas, to accept that there is
something greater than The Who and you are the ones who viciously
attacked me because you didn't like what I was saying.  It is people
like you who sent Galileo to prison.  It is people like you who killed
Socrates, Copernicus and Christ.

Take a note here:  I am not comparing myself to Christ, Copernicus,
Socrates or Galileo.  I am comparing my situation to theirs.  Just
wanted to make sure that you didn't get any more illusions of my
arrogance.

I will also add that your viscous attacks of my career were taken quite
personally.  I hope that was your intention, because it was an
unqualified success.  I happen to think that I'm a pretty damn good
teacher, and most everyone with opinions I take seriously tend to agree
with me.  I take my job very seriously.  As a matter of fact, it may be
the only thing I take seriously.  You need not fear that I am poisoning
the youth of America with these horrible ideas of mine.  Sure I have
very radical thoughts about how history was shaped, but I don't teach
opinions, I teach facts.  I write about opinions.

In case any of you bothered to read this far, I can tell you that I was
never a good speller.  I couldn't spell in kindergarten and I still
can't spell.  I don't use my P. hD. as a serious excuse for this ( I was
being humorous), but rather I use it as a comical reason.  I also find
it insulting to be held to a higher standard than everyone else here.  I
have yet to read a single email of substantial length that doesn't
contain multiple errors, so you can all kiss my ass on this one.   Plus,
half of you can't spell Dickinson and the other half can't spell McGoo.

In case any of you are still reading, I'm still writing.  I just figured
that you might as well get hear me rant some more.  The mere fact that
you assumed I am a poor teacher simply because you dislike ONE of my
theories, and a theory from a subject I don't even teach, is purely
childish.  I decided that I would give you a theory that I have written
about extensively to hate me for.  I decided a few years back, that the
single most important event of the Twentieth Century is the Kerinski
Offensive.  This was a short-lived military offensive lead by Marshal
Foche in order to show the White Army that they the Western powers
supported them during the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917.  It was from
this moment in time that the Russian developed their intense distrust of
the West, so I believe that it was the root cause of the Cold War.
There, burn me at the stake for that one.

I cannot express in words the totally absurd way in which most of you
handled this.  I figured that you would be mature enough to debate a
mature topic, but I guess poetry is still to "girlie" for most of you.
This is truly shameful, your total lack of tolerance reminds me of the
way the Ku Klux Klan works.  I'm not saying that you are racist,
ignorant bigots.  I'm just saying that you are far too insecure to
believe for one second that there might just be something better than
The Who out there.

If I remember correctly I was also called ignorant.  This is another
insult I take very personally.  Once again, I hope this was your
intention because you succeeded.  I'm not sure what to make of this.
Because when it comes to the arts (literature, music etc.) I seem to
know far more than most of you.  I'm probably the only one here who can
explain to you what the hell "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"
(arguably the greatest American poem) is about.  I would hate to even
ask how many of you have even read Erza Pound, Henry James or William
Dean Howells (these are among the best American writers you can find).
I'm sure you have all read Huck Finn, but I doubt seriously that any of
you could tell me why it is totally implausible, let alone explain why
it ends like it does.  Granted music is not my area of expertise, but
that's why I have musicians for friends.  And think I'm the fool because
I like The Who.  They generally believe it to be total crap, but I am
forced to disagree.  I only think that the music is total, non
progressive crap.  I think the lyrics are pretty good, but not the
height of lyrical wonderment.

If any of you are not the close minded moron that I have accused of
being, you will pick up a copy of "Leaves of Grass," or "The Waste
Land."  Somehow, I doubt that will happen though.  Because you are truly
the defensive, close minded ones around here.

If anyone has continued this far I will now lay down my definition of
art.  I will take extra care so as not to brow beat this into your heads
in an arrogant, pompous, close minded manner:

Art is something created by humans, with an aesthetic goal that has a
natural progression from its crudest beginnings to the highest point of
the medium.

Why Rock is not art:  A)It has no aesthetic goal.  B)The music has no
progression.
Rock is the same music today that it was in 1958.  The drummer plays the
same pattern, the guitarist plays the same cords and the singer sings
about the same damn things.  There have been a couple of people who
sought to change this (Mr. Townshend, Mr. Zappa), but they ultimately
failed.  Their dreams of turning rock into a viable artistic medium died
with their careers.  As I said before, rock lost all chance of becoming
an artistic medium when The Beatles appeared.

Well enough for that, I have decided to address a few of your points.

Greg:

> You aren't an artistic or creative person are you?
>
Not artistic, but I would say I'm fairly creative.

> Think about how
> Townshend or Dickinson impacts your life.
>
All over that one.  I don't have a great appreciation for conventions of
literature, which is a reason I like Ms. Dickinson so much.  She ignored
them all.  Her technical ability was of a totally unconventional ability
that has not been seen before or since.  She was also able to convey a
certain sense of emotion that I think only Eliot has been able to come
close to.  For a good example take a look at "Love- is anterior to Life"
#917.  Don't read it looking for anything, just read it.  See what it
says about love, how she defines love.  Look at the words, look at their
simplicity, look at how they convey emotions of inordinate complexity.
This is a poem that no ordinary person could write.

> I sincerely hope you consider *why* you like Emily.
>
I hope I answered that above.


> Think about what
> moves you about your favorite artist.  Write it down...sit for ten minutes
> and do nothing but write whatever comes into your head.  When you are done,
> you can say, you are an artist.
>
This is where we disagree.  I just hope that you see my point, and give
it more of thought than most of the others around here.  It doesn't
bother me if you disagree with me, it will; however, infuriate me if you
ignore it.

Yellow:

> I wouldn't call that the truth, unless you are working from a
> definition of "truth" as twisted as the ones you use for "art" and
> "musician".
>
I don't recall ever having defined what I think a musician is.  As for
my opinion of art, it is no more twisted than yours.

Mark:

> Right...it's an intelligence test, and your friends failed.
>
Hmmm, now we are insulting my poor friends.  Among other things, that is
truly immature.  I'm disappointed.


> OK, historian...name one single solitary period when "society as a
> whole" was unified.
>
I never said that such a time existed, because it hasn't happened yet.
I did say that in the 60's it was not unified, so I am right and you are
wrong. Ha Ha Ha Ha...you lose!!  Oh, wait a minute, I appear to have
slipped down to the maturity level of an eight year old again.  I hate
it when that happens.


> Look up when it became the dominant
> form of popular music, and then you'll know something.
>
You need to stop with the childish insults here.  I can email you a list
of everything I know, if you wish.

> Your statement here proves beyond any argument by you that you are
> utterly unqualified to say a thing about music other than what you might
> enjoy listening to. Your "musician friends" shoulda toldya.
>
I think you have a point.  I am no expert, but that is why I have
musicians for friends.  They think you are wrong.  I am inclined to
believe them, primarily because one of them is a highly trained
(graduated from the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music) professional
(plays in the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra).  He agrees with me, I
believe his opinion is more accurate than yours.  He also is unbiased
towards The Who, something you are clearly not.

> You must be a Republican, because you think if you say something enough
> times it will become so.
>
This was the biggest insult of them all.  I'm a Democrat.

> Maybe I'll have to do what
> Garp's mother did and sit in on the classes to make sure they aren't
> teaching my daughter a bunch of bullshit like your "Rock isn't Art"
> argument.
>
Prior to this email, I can distinctly recall THREE times when I said
that I don't teach literature.  You need to learn to read, pal.  I guess
you saw the movie.  Not bad, but not good either.  If you are going to
respond to this email, I suggest you read it first.

Someone whose name I have forgotten:


> Well, you said your
> musician friend told you
> that music didn't evolve very much.
>
No, I said ROCK didn't evolve.  Hence, a reason it is not art.  Don't
put words in my mouth, or twist my words to fit your agenda.

Keep in mind folks, it is people like most of you who have no tolerance
for different ideas who killed some of the greatest minds who ever
graced this planet.  I guess you have fought for the South to preserve
its "peculiar institution."

To all of those who want me burned, hanged, committed or otherwise
injured, I have only one more thing to say.  I will leave you with a
quote from former Mississippi Attorney General Baxter when he was
writing to a group of Ku Klux Klan members who threatened his life:
"Kiss my ass."

-McGoo