"FICTION, ESSAYS, POETRY, POLITICS, ART from FLASHPŘINT"

Exploring with Sue Coe is no gentle stroll through cloistered sanctuaries of art. She makes uncompromising demands. She demands to speak freely. She demands viewers go eye-to-eye with the equivalent of road kill. She demands unflinching openness in full view of painful contradictions. Essentially, Coe demands that we re-examine our assumptions. When reading her books or looking at her images, the natural reaction is to turn away, to shut out horrific truths. One cannot meet her work without encountering resistance. This is inevitable, because this is her intent.
-- Judith Brody, Sue Coe and the Press:
Speaking Out

All essays, poetry, fiction, and artwork are copyrighted in the names of the authors and artists,
to whom all rights revert.

intro . . .

sue coe and the press: speaking out
judith brody
B=A=D L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E:
joe brennan answers his critics
henry gould, mark wallace, and joe brennan
nora's roar
clayton eshleman
apertures
d. n. stuefloten
david jones: the poet's place and
the sleeping lord
brad n. haas
who hired bill moyers to destroy american poetry?
carlo parcelli
and why is parcelli so angry?
joe brennan
gRAMNFD/bUTSTTS
steve katz
a work in progress
joe brennan
a work in regress
carlo parcelli
definitions in process,
definitions as process/
uneasy collaborations:
language and postlanguage poetries
mark wallace
three by mark scroggins

"in praise of sheetrock"
"weather division"
"wee song"
henry dreams of angkor wat
jeff vandermeer
hand stick rock bone spear
my god
kali yuga
david hickman
extreme cases
brian clark
lee harvey oswald:
deep classic american hero
jr foley
l'affaire SOKAL: a modest intro

New confrontations along the frontier where the arts and politics clash ...
     No work exemplifies the tensions along this frontier more than the art of Sue Coe. In the tradition of Daumier, Goya, George Grosz, and Picasso, Coe makes outrageous political satire with imagery always unsettling, and sometimes terrifyingly beautiful. (Witness "The West Meets the Rest" on the title page of the first on-line FlashPøint, as well as the cover of the premier print issue.) Judith Brody in "Sue Coe and the Press: Speaking Out" provides a connoisseur's introduction.
     The first on-line FlashPøint offered a light sampling of art in this tradition, including Amiri Baraka and Andrea Zemel. More of their work will appear in the next FlashPøint. Amiri Baraka -- poet, playwright, and man of all arts -- has also contributed this issue's headline image.
     Joe Brennan's meditation on L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E poetry in the last FlashPøint , "A=R=T M=E=A=N=S", provoked vigorous responses from Henry Gould and Mark Wallace, to which Mr. Brennan as vigorously replies. This is the kind of lively exchange FlashPøint invites. Mark Wallace also gives us his own meditations on L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E and post-L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E poetries in an exploratory self-cross-examination.
     One exemplar of an older poetry, a/k/a High Modernism, receives fresh attention from Brad Haas in "David Jones: The Poet's Place and the Sleeping Lord."
     Founding editors Brennan and Carlo Parcelli fire new shots-across-the-bow in both poetry and prose. Brennan parries Parcelli's "Who Hired Bill Moyers to Destroy American Poetry?" with his own query: "Why is Parcelli So Angry?". A new probe from Brennan's "Work in Progress" also appears beside a further descent into Parcelli's Inferno, "Work in Regress: Deconstruing the Demiurge." Both also make immodest contributions to a modest intro to L'affaire SOKAL.
      FlashPøint is especially devoted to poetry in the Pound-Olson tradition, which is not narrow. Clayton Eshleman, David Hickman, and Mark Scroggins may or may not identify themselves with that tradition, but FlashPøint is very pleased to feature their work in its own celebration of Pound, Olson, and progeny.
     The tradition in fiction FlashPøint celebrates is not only the Rival Tradition championed by Ronald Sukenick -- and in which Steve Katz (Swanny's Ways, Wier & Pouce, The Exagggerations of Peter Prince) and Brian Clark here ambinimbly perform. It's also the modernist tradition in all its variety on the outré margins of the mainstream. Jeff VanderMeer, who favors the dark fantastic (see Dradin, In Love, Buzzcity Press), has located it in the FlashPøint zone with "Henry Dreams of Angkor Wat." D.N. Stuefloten -- whose Mexican Trilogy (FC2) was honored with denunciation by Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-MI) -- mixes media in "Apertures." A portfolio of his "Aperture" photos also appears in this issue's galerie.
     "Lee Harvey Oswald, Deep Classic American Hero" is, by contrast, a study in mainstream American fiction -- discovering Lee Harvey Oswald as quintessentially a creature ficted of words (a few photos and some kinescope footage), who comes straight out of the heart of American imagination.
     We have also engaged in public service this time by providing a modest introduction to the Alan Sokal hoax and fallout which continue to boil many pots, including ours.
     Patrol with us again this illuminated frontier -- and don't forget to ... tell us what you think!
- JR Foley