Footnotes

by a cONVENIENCE tENTATIVELY

\"footnotes\" collects 32 years worth of material by the jack-off-of-all-trades known (sometimes) as tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE. It rewrites, comments on, & excerpts from his 1st 9 books - covering everything from concrete essays to mad scientism to practicing promotextuality to scripts to rebuttals of critics to lists to autobiography, etc.. using texts, drawings, photographs, etc.. A MASSIVE compilation relevant to film & video making, performance, experimental language use, neoism, & much, MUCH more..

499 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

Reviews

[Tentatively, Convenience · Rating 5 out of 5]

This bk is a compendium & partial rewrite/expansion of my 1st 9 bks. If you like creativity that thinks outside the box but still fits in a bk, then this one's for you. But, then, that's only if you like that sort of thing, wch, in my experience, most people don't. If you buy a copy of it, let me know so I can lament over my lack of royalties a little further.

[Eddie Watkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 stars for exhausting exhaustiveness, chutzpah, and immaterial mind stimulation.

This book is somewhat inaccurately described by tENT himself as a gathering/expansion of his first 9 books. I say inaccurately because though 7 of them might be previous books of his 2 are most definitely new books riffing on previous books.

1 of these 2 books is Reactionary Muddle America, in which tENT EXHAUSTIVELY critiques student responses to a performance of his with some friends at Johns Hopkins in maybe 1991. Reading through this was VERY trying but ultimately rewarding. Rewarding not necessarily because of the reactionary anger it aroused in tENT but because of the sheer stamina and perserverence it required of tENT to even read all the crappy papers and comment on them. Is this a convenient place to offer a theory of mine? Don't care.

This theory of mine is that the apparent subject and physical manifestation of products of people's minds (poetry, music, theory, paintings, etc.) are not necessarily where the "meaning" resides. Instead these "mind products" are mere vehicles for the immaterial mind to manifest itself, and that this manifestation happens most thoroughly and accurately under conditions of extreme concentration during the production of the products. This extreme concentration can come about in many ways. Some people focus on "narrative content", some on the materials themselves, some can essentially focus on nothing, while others develop elaborate systems to generate their products.

Further explanation available upon request.

But this is just to say that in Reactionary Muddle America the bulk of the "meaning" I gathered from it was due to tENT's extreme concentration and stamina during the apparently marathon production of this book. The book itself was a transparent window into tENT's immaterial mind. And I'm not talking psychologically.

In other books, namely his first book, the "meaning", aka "immaterial mind manifestation", was generated through elaborate structural systems. And now I will move on to my "review" of his riff on this first book of his.

tENT asked me to specifically review the first book in this collection, which is a riff on his first book which I previously reviewed here

http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

In reading this riff I discovered that he indirectly describes me as empty-headed because I didn't discern the arcane structures and coding in the book. To wit, in tENT's own words,

"in one ear/eye & out the other happens easiest when there're no brains between to get in the way"

Thanks tENT! and I thought we were friends. At least GR friends, which obviously signifies nada. But I have an arcane rebuttal/excuse of my own, for within tENT's very coding I found an explanation for my own ignorance. You see... but let me explain a little.

The first section of this book is a thorough explanation of a "dating" system he employed in his first book, the review of which I linked to above. This dating system is an attempt to free himself (and maybe others) from linear time by creating an interlocking backwards/forwards/spiral time frame. He does this by manipulation via letter substitution and ellipses of a dating "formula":

"the even root of a - # &/or 5 &/or the only-present-when?"

I will not explain this letter substitution system, because said explanation is one of the main pleasures of reading the book; but I would like to point out the number "5" in this formula. "5" is a primary numerical basis for this system, signifying for tENT "ignorance as open set ambiguity", which I don't completely understand, but that's OK because "5" is the basis for my own rebuttal/excuse for my alleged brainlessness as regards my reading of his first book.

You see, "5" happens to be a talismanic # for me, and has been for decades. This is based on nothing more than the fact that the first letter of my name "E" is the 5th letter of the alphabet, that my name "Eddie" has 5 letters, and that I was born in May, the 5th month of the year, (also on the 30th day which is a multiple of 5). This simple coincidence of 5's has always given that number special significance for me, the meaning of which significance I have never tried to interpret even to myself, and conveniently explains my ignorance/brainlessness as regards tENT's writing because in tENT's world "5" signifies ignorance. As Sun Ra said - There's far more that we don't know in the universe so it's better to be ignorant than to know (or something like that). I usually side with ignorance.

As far as I'm concerned this justifies my brainless review of tENT's other book with the argument that it doesn't matter that I missed all his coding and structures because through my own concentration on the text that was a product of his intense concentration I perceived directly tENT's immaterial mind (as I in fact mentioned, in so many words, in that review) which is where the meaning resides anyway, and which is the point of all this human production anyway, and it gives me full justification to at the same time plead ignorance and bring this review to an end.

[Spat · Rating 5 out of 5]

intellectual anarcho absurdism. A history of non historys, the best damn book you'll never read

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

21 6 36 E.V. Strictly Speaking

“Sex in space is necessary - evolution demands it” –AAA via tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE
“My 7XL is not yet invented” –Dr. Octagon, “Earth People”
“not horse is exceptional” –tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE
“Summon the queen, spoke the child of eye, it’s time to fly” –WEEN, “Buckingham Green”
“Confused? Good.” –tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE
“I see you in my dreams” –Beyoncé, “Baby Boy”

tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE’s

t he book
t he referent 4 wch consists of
t he non-materialized transparent punch-outs from a letter/whatever stencil

—the copy he sent me says mine might be the only one on which he wrote the title, which I later find out doesn’t include the word “non-materialized,” because the title is not materialized since the method and correct description are not materialized, and therefore my copy does not contain the title—is structured around his Time Spiral dating system that, like Lyn Hejinian’s My Life or Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass, is revised upon each publication; however, unlike those books, t he book adds time, not material, time that is rigorously multiplied into what I might say are warming tentacles and siphoned through what I might wink are throbbing gristles, beginning with the rejection of common religious time controls (THANK YOU, tENT!) and ending with time warp stationary he made for the time travel group he belongs to as well as, of course, an international perpetual calendar, culminating self-reflexively in the beginning of another book, footnotes, through a metatextual exegesis titled, “Dos & Don’ts of Dating,” which “can get you laid,” ending that book by circling “The Story of a Fructiferous Society” that we are told has mutated. Yes, me too….

All week, while moving to the cusp of paradise, on breaks from the heavy lifting and the endless trips up and down the stairs, so many stairs I might as well be in an M.C. Escher painting, I have been laughing my perpetual calendar off thanks to these spirals. I seem to develop soft spots in my hearts for people who invent languages, and tENT is no exception, except

tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE’s languages

remind me of something Michael Palmer said about translation, that the translation translates not just the text but the translator. Like Jerome Rothenberg’s “total translation,” which suggests the translator translate untranslatable concepts by creating novel translations, tENT’s languages (poetry, music, film, theater, experiments, situations, responses) are translated and translate freely, uncensored, performing a special kind of freedom that frees by being free. What’s even more sophisticated is how this freedom in concept ricochets with meticulously patterned formal structures that are multiversal narratives themselves, resulting in a sort of hermeneutical physics, an intersubjective gravity, so the reader-listener-witness-participant is simultaneously weightless in space and crushed on the bottom of the ocean. As reported in footnotes and elsewhere, the reactions and responses to tENT’s experiments are part of the experiment: some take the bluepill, some take the redpill.

“you have a right to resent the perfect cosmic gallery periphery”

I think it all depends on how much practice you have had. My suggestion is to prepare yourself for purple water: when the Doppler effect combines with relativity “…blue turns out to be the color of fire; red, the color of ice” (Leonard Shlain).

In “LAYOUT,” which appears in The L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E Book, Bruce Andrews reviews t he book, which is identified as untitled. In footnotes tENT presents the review and his published response to Bruce Andrews’ criticisms that the book lacks an “overall structure,” the words “become mere tokens of re-arrangement and cleansing conspicuous disruption,” and “we read the detachment, and feel no rapport.” In tENT’s response to this response as well as in his responses to others who have responded to him (for example, in “Rejection,” which responds to rejection letters from publishers that he publishes and in “d Graded Papers,” which responds to responses from hostile college students), he exhibits his avant-agency wares, preening the self through its extreme pleasure, angst, self-destruction, curiosity, play, confidence, experimentation, theory, sexuality, and reasoning, remaking identity like a transhuman Whitman with an omnipresent and empathic eye/I that is really an alien artifact suspiciously recovered from the Titanic, rearing and dissolving and adjusting from its dialogues with itself and others, repurposing the “shipwreck of the singular” out “of being numerous” (George Oppen). tENT’s performance of identity is a great resource as I search for ways to think about my own interest in poetry as a fractal physics for self-organization.

Incidentally, I couldn’t believe tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE was on Goodreads—though it makes sense as I think about the anarchistic form this kind of book review medium allows, one I am experimenting with myself. When I saw his Alfred Jarry references, I thought, maybe we could be friends. In our e-mails I am learning about how books can be like heads of lettuce if they are written in invisible ink…

“READ UNDERWATER.”

Check!

“Just that one page!”

Check!

In the last handful of months I have been inspired to write slightly-veiled pornographic poems, so naturally I took an interest in tENT’s “Tender Buttons,” where he “performs cunnilingus” while reciting Gertrude Stein’s “Tender Buttons.” I am not making this up, SO STOP READING NOW IF YOU TOOK THE BLUEPILL. Okay, for those of you accustomed to purple water, all I can say is this has to be one of the great literary experiments—granted, I don’t live in New York City or Paris or San Francisco or Toronto or Los Angeles (though I want to), so who knows what I am missing, but I have the Internet and I travel—and while this might seem kool-kid quotidian to some, to me, tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE’s “Tender Buttons” and his explanation of how and why he performed this experiment has to be one of the most inventive concepts that results in one of the most inventive performances, at least as interesting as sitting across from other people in MOMA—which is inventive, too, like Monet painting the same water lilies at different moments during the day over time. But can we at least agree that tENT’s “Tender Buttons” sets a stimulating standard, not only for performance art but for the performance of poems, and now, when you teach Stein, how can you go back? I heard a portion of “Tender Buttons” yesterday on the “broken whirred” CD he sent me. Apparently there’s also an hour-long video, which I would watch if he sent it to me. The 50-second audio was satisfying…conceptually speaking…if you know what I mean…

If you like the idea of “Tender Buttons” you should listen to his “Telepathy Receptivity Training”—if you haven’t already, because, who knows, you could be an expert in all things tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE, you could be friends with him, you could be a cool academic, maybe a fan, you could also be a naysayer or you could have already dismissed him on the word of someone else, someone you admire, or maybe your belief systems are threatened, or maybe you’ve “just heard things”; I hope you give it a chance and decide for yourself. If your telepathy training is successful you will be ready for the piano-translations of his Po, Li, Ou experiments and his “Brain Waves Goodbye” video, and while you’re at that admire-marvel at his brain tattoo, then watch his microfiche filmstrip, read his books and mark places to return to with ripped out sheets of blank paper, which you will use later to make a poem, pay attention to how and why he programs language and let his language program you, LET HIM!, participate in his neoist experiments if you can, be game!, ask him about the Church of the Subgenius once you finally remember, because that was important to you in your youth, maybe mention your Bob/Van Gogh screensaver at work, no, don’t do that, that’s boring, do reveal that you would like to somehow produce Jarry’s Exploits and Opinions of Doctor Faustroll, Pataphysician: A Neo-Scientific Novel, have a conversation with someone who happens to be his friend at a party last winter while you try to get just-an-okay-non-poetry-job in San Diego and later realize you should have just talked to his friend more because even though he had nothing to do with the job he was intriguing, then pledge to treat future career situations in this manner, be sure to always periodically discuss the time as you look at your imaginary watch, find tENT’s recordings of some of Charles Bernstein’s sound poems from the 70s, listen to his and Darren Wershler’s readings at Segue, write more sexually-explicit poems, some that enact theories in physics, maybe read Lacan, not just books about Lacan, in order to, you know, keep up, keep not having children, keep experimenting with simultaneity, have sex in space if given the opportunity, and start treating your projects as if they were heads of lettuce written in invisible ink that will unfold as books in the refrigerator, because it will make you a better poet.

Translated by the Association of Autonomous Astronauts

P.S. Is it by chance or determinism or something else that in my copy of t he book the only forward facing cut-out letters in the saran wrap are "e" and "t"? Should I release the letters to see what they spell? 26/26?, 62/62, 92/92?

[Adam Grossi]

Finally got my hands on a copy of this dense artist book. barely cracked it open thus far...