look here
what you really need to do is shut this thing off
go out
and get some fresh
air
your eyes are red
you look green
take a break
do something for yourself
have a drink
do yourself a favor
then
when you're happy
(at least
for the moment)
go and do something for someone else
[picture of a street person]
because the world
is a hard place
(for you too)
[picture of yourself]
then come back and i'll
tell you a story
and not just any
story
but a pertinent
story
o.k.
are you back?
feeling better?
good
here's the story:
once upon a time
[picture of you sitting at your computer]
{by the way do you realize that this is coming at you at the speed
of light?--minus 9600 bauds maybe--minus whatever it takes to get
through INFOSUPHI--but once it hits the screen--z-o-o-m!}
but to continue:
the world is a hard place
[picture of you carousing with friends around dinner table]
though some people have it better than others
[picture of ethnically cleansed Bosnian Serb]
[picture of Ruandan refugee]
[picture of Nazi camp victim]
so
live it up while you can
right?
you
pick up the phone
you make a sex date with your
girlfriend/boyfriend/dog
whatever you make sex dates with
segue to next day
but
it won't go away
[picture of Cambodian killing fields]
[picture of starving Somalians]
[picture of Liberian children with AK-47's they can barely carry]
[picture of the word DEATH]
and you realize without wanting to it can no longer
be avoided:
something has happened something big
something is different
something has changed
something
something you don't want to think about
something you never needed to think about once
once upon a time
when it was still possible
to believe in make-
believe
once upon a time
in a happy
halloween
before there
were
razors in the apples arsenic in the chocolate
but the one thing about halloween it
has to be real make-
believe you don't dress up as a lady if you're a man unless
it means
something to you or as Batman or The Lone Ranger &
Tonto
whatever unless it's real
to you somehow
real make-believe
so
the question is
how did Sadie Masoschizm get that way?
greenhairleatherchains?
victim rubber nazi whip
starting out as a chiclit ballet student in posh prep school?
ending as masobutch sadomoll?
tutu to tattoo?
it was because
when she had her first affair at the age
of thirteen
which was not so unusual among the little girls in her prep
school
who tended to defloration fast on heels of bosoming i mean
blossoming if
not budding by various busy little bees clustering about the rich
smell of
honey i mean money and who were indulged in
sexually active
pyjama parties by somewhat elder schoolmates that oft as not turned
into
weekend long orgies in overdecorated upper east side apartments of
parents off
on vacation to Palm Beach or Vegas or the Bahamas
e
first word bomb: n v
y
but this affair was a little different because it was with her
uncle
$am was his name and was distinguished by a
longevity unknown among
her flitty friends
$am was a professional deal maker
he was the one who but that's a story in
itself
and has a lot to do with what was gnawing but
let's focus
not get lost on the periphery of
[picture of inner city addict]
what was gnawing $am his pursuit of
happiness
fundamental right excluding nothing
second word bomb:pr
ge
iv e
il
what he knew was $ $am $ was the
way he pursued
happiness $ was the way he got to the top $
was the way he
imposed his will he knew its crude power he
knew its subtle
influences he knew $ was the soul of democracy
he knew it
doesn't matter who you are as long as you have $ and he
knew he wasn't
anybody except that he had it knew how to use it
he
was the one who but you probably know that story
now
it was $am's $ supporting the Masoschizm's restaurant while
it got off
the ground so they didn't think too much
about why he liked to
babysit thirteen year old Sadie they spent a lot of
time at the
track
third word bomb:a p e
r
there was only
one
thrill thrilled $am more than buying people and that
was teaching them
the thrill of being bought
the Masoschizms wondered
what he was doing around the house so much but you can
figure that out
yourself
he called her his
little piggy bank
now so far this is a familiar story and no
news to you
but here's the twist $am
fell in love with
her and he kept coming back he was loyal
loyalty
was one of his virtues so this situation went on
yuck a
couple or three years on and off she got used to it
got
to expect it or even like it in a sickish sort of way
then found
she could have more fun in peer groups acquired the smarts
to kick his
ass out of the house but the more she kicked the
more he loved
she kicked ass he kissed ass she
stopped kicking
no more kicks
the Masoschizms wondered why Uncle $am stopped coming
around meantime
the gnawing on the periphery was getting louder
and closer to the center
while Uncle $am disappointed in love nevertheless
rolled on to pursue his happiness
elsewhere
notably in the Saving & Loans debacle
followed by the
Insurance debacle but you know those stories too
or
should since you're paying for them
the gnawing louder but so what we're just Americans
pursuing
happiness to the hilt
but
the hilt
was exactly what Sadie
was pursuing happiness to except that Sadie walked through
the mirror
and come on out to the other side come on out to the other
side
PLUNK! i mean PUNK! instead of the pursuit of happiness
the
pursuit of crappiness Sadie really got plugged in among other
things to the
World Wide (cob)Web
meanwhile
$am
remember him?
tracking the market made a deal for his
patented O-Punk-No
Nose Rings produced by an insect repellent company
containing a nerve
agent guaranteed to render the bearer i mean wearer
lazy and
docile though subject to infantile rages
f c
fourth word bomb: a t
s t u p
e
i o n
flooded the market
though
some people could smell it some couldn't
those who couldn't soon found themselves with a secret
undetectable
laser chain nose to $am $am to nose
giving rise to a nasal liberation movement in
which Sadie became
a leader as a performance artist in a genre
called
life/art ie. her life was her art
acting out deep
impulses turning them into dark images
whose meaning meant as they might beyond her
control
a sort of sneer i mean seer shuttling between
two sides of a
chasm i mean schism in a kind of spasm of
sexy self
annihilation submission $am still
around in
her face literally
kissass i mean kickass
cr
fifth word bomb: u
ty
el
out of this babel i mean babble a
common speech
maybe
for the unspeakable
"he saw soldiers wearing necklaces of human
eyes and babies' fingers he heard the wailing
of women and children he heard neighbors
smothered alive in wet cement"
unless
it killed
the speaker first
but you know this story serial mass
geno
[picture of 170,000,000]
(people)
this century (so far)
sixth word b o m b
o
o
seventh w r
b b
d
m
h
e i
g t
h
o r
b
w
d
b
m
o
("life/art," first published in the premiere issue of
FlashPØint, appears here on-line, with Ron
Sukenick's permission, courtesy of http://users.quake.ne
t/~jacq/ron.htm.)