Unkant Publishing

I think artisanal is pronounced a little less sugg...

2012-06-02T19:10:24.519+01:00

I think artisanal is pronounced a little less suggestively! The stress falls on the 'i'. :0)

In AMM's debate with Andy Croft (ex-CPGB, now ...

2012-05-31T11:30:54.132+01:00

In AMM's debate with Andy Croft (ex-CPGB, now running Smokestack press - slogan: "poems the workers can understand", i.e. in rhyme) at P&R on Sunday, the vitality of plebeian speech was touched on. However, when I made the observation that received pronunciation doesn't work in rock, that Peter Gabriel and Van der Graaf Generator and Rudimentery Peni (even though I love Nick

Rumour has it that this gig is going to be quite p...

2012-05-30T22:27:19.770+01:00

Rumour has it that this gig is going to be quite popular and Blue Posts upstairs won't be able to cope with the numbers. So we're going to run wires down the stairs and relay the upstairs audio to the smokers and excluded in the alley. The usual thing to say in these circumstances is "get there early" but if everyone did that, we'd all be there at lunch time and the same

Andrew C is correct, this text is rather annoying ...

2012-05-30T22:20:02.465+01:00

Andrew C is correct, this text is rather annoying (old OTL rather than AMM to blame), but it also carries some INFORMATION you don't get anywhere else. In this, it's quite like Zappa. On this issue, Monsieur Andrew C, which side are you on?

Best t-shirt at Poetry & Revolution Conference...

2012-05-30T10:14:36.998+01:00

Best t-shirt at Poetry & Revolution Conference for critique of hypocrisy and anti-idealist sexual hygiene: I LOVE PORN/I MASTURBATE ...

I'm looking forward to AMM4 because the AMM in...

2012-05-28T12:48:58.828+01:00

I'm looking forward to AMM4 because the AMM intervention at the Poetry & Revolution Conference was so bad. And Watson was so horrible to everyone we only sold ONE copy of Blake in Cambridge (Keith was much nicer, talking of the left's "retreat" to academia as its organisations crumble, but he hasn't got a book out - yet). A depleted AMM (Andy had a birthday party to run;

At first I didn't get it. "realm of thoug...

2012-05-24T21:06:27.802+01:00

At first I didn't get it. "realm of thought" reminds me of the opening tyrade against the Young Hegelians in the German Ideology. And "no power on earth has the right to silence this" sounds like liberal freedom of thought, which everyone agrees with. I had to go to facebook to accidently stumble over the debate. Andy is right, context is important. But I didn't look

Well, Blake in Cambridge popped up because the AMM...

2012-05-23T21:30:03.588+01:00

Well, Blake in Cambridge popped up because the AMM suddenly provided me with two new friends and comrades (Andy and Keith) who are well versed in revolutionary Marxism, who read Blake, who listen to John Coltrane, but know very little about the poetry scene ... and then I get them to witness Sean Bonney (my favourite poet) and they are wildly excited ... so then I have to tell them how revolution

I originally shared this on facebook along with de...

2012-05-22T22:44:03.977+01:00

I originally shared this on facebook along with derisory remarks about being in the pub for the duration if the titles are anything to go by... but then I flinched and shared it without comment, not knowing who any of these people are bar the odd name or two, and if I actually got into an argument about 'poetics' I'd be fucked. Should have trusted the BS sniffer though.

I

You thought correctly, comrade Lunch

2012-05-22T21:17:19.653+01:00

You thought correctly, comrade Lunch

I wasn't sure we should bother our people with...

2012-05-22T20:52:57.146+01:00

I wasn't sure we should bother our people with news of this conference because (1) despite the word "revolution" and a nice poster, it's pretty academic, look at the way the speakers are explained as derserving of your attention, all "achievements" nails in their coffins as far as I'm concerned (2) it's free but now fully subscribed, so no-one "excited&

Everyone and their boring dog agrees that music is...

2012-05-18T11:53:51.263+01:00

Everyone and their boring dog agrees that music is wonderful and that the Ayatollah banning music in Iran was the most dreadful thing, but the radio-four middleclass chatterers (and too many of our "Marxists") actually CAN'T STAND music because the moralistic cant they think is "being intelligent" would be suspended for a moment - and they'd actually have to consider

I suspect the report on Jakobson will have to wait...

2012-05-02T13:03:51.397+01:00

I suspect the report on Jakobson will have to wait until I've written my defence of Thomist realism. I was mainly interested in the quote because I was interested in different ways of looking at the contrast between scholarship and journalism and whether there was any basis to it. Not because I was (particularly) interested in structuralism. Aquinas on the other hand...

It's from the essay 1960 "Linguistics and...

2012-05-02T12:25:54.463+01:00

It's from the essay 1960 "Linguistics and Poetics", apparently, Dave can't be more specific, the book's at his sister's. I hope that helps. Dave also pointed out that he was attempting to CONTRAST Jakobson's fact/value distinction to Adorno's (much better) mass/high culture dissatisfaction, so perhaps I was a bit hasty in calling him a prattler. I was reading

So that's a no then. If any comrades can help ...

2012-04-30T19:16:02.012+01:00

So that's a no then. If any comrades can help I'd be grateful.

It's typical of the BLURRING aspect of profess...

2012-04-30T11:29:51.117+01:00

It's typical of the BLURRING aspect of professional prattlers like David Cunningham that they should first of all distract us from concrete CLASS positions by bringing in flawed thinkers whose ideas "sound like" what we are talking about but in fact only serve to muddy the water. Jakobson's distinction between "news/opinion" and "scientific objectivity" is

In the kind of heroic missing of the point for whi...

2012-04-30T08:45:11.819+01:00

In the kind of heroic missing of the point for which I am justly famous I'd very much like the reference for Roman Jakobson. Is it the essay on communication?

Thanks for putting this on the table, Grand Erecto...

2012-04-26T22:34:22.013+01:00

Thanks for putting this on the table, Grand Erector, I laughed and cried. It's all so true! The Chicago Surrealists were saying what we were saying (in blurted, hesitant, suppressed, separated ways) throughout the 80s and 90s. Suddenly the great weight of "theory" is exposed as wool pulled over our eyes: something to stop us talking to one another. David Schanoes says "Marxism

This dog looks so cute. How on earth he have purpl...

2012-04-26T13:20:55.658+01:00

This dog looks so cute. How on earth he have purple, yellow, pink, and orange fur all at the same time?

I know that this may seem attractive to most peopl...

2012-04-23T03:08:34.956+01:00

I know that this may seem attractive to most people, but that dog looks very uncomfortable. Or maybe that's just me.

Viv Bolus says: It sounds truly awful, but if anyo...

2012-04-18T15:08:36.885+01:00

Viv Bolus says:
It sounds truly awful, but if anyone can pdf me the spicy oral bit of the book I'll read it:
"Birchall does not go into the lurid happenings which created pockets of lesbianism among miners' wives (the miners went down to defeat but the fight had revolutionary moments.")

In any case before I close this discussion (and I ...

2012-04-15T20:35:42.975+01:00

In any case before I close this discussion (and I think it should be closed) I'd just like to say that, really, its all been inward looking and undemocratic. If 3000 people had gathered in a room its doubtful that they would have wanted to discuss this sort of thing, or indeed approved of otherwise financially talented comrades wasting their time on it: Especially not at a time like this. I

Yes. Although I'm not sure that Birchall '...

2012-04-15T20:17:08.796+01:00

Yes. Although I'm not sure that Birchall 'fudges' that, so much as wouldn't really agree. The thing I missed was a more detailed account of the faction fight of the '70s which I think would have been useful.

I'm unclear myself how much Cliff's reading of Leninism is to blame although I agree that *simply* talking about objective circumstances is not enough.

"things got WORSE". Oh, no doubt :-) Bi...

2012-04-15T14:13:28.455+01:00

"things got WORSE". Oh, no doubt :-)

Birchall's biography is very good (and could never have been published by the party until recently, which does indeed show progress), but it does tend to fudge that the SWP's conception of Leninism - derived mostly from Cliff's reading - was pretty bolloxed from the start, and the party's internal structures and political

Incidently I think you should re-form the ISG agai...

2012-04-15T10:48:26.049+01:00

Incidently I think you should re-form the ISG again. Aside from anything else it would confuse the heck out of people. You'd get invited to all the wrong conferences....