We have named ourselves jesters, appropriating the "foolish" mask of
advisement. While you may or may not consider yourself particularly
silly, we have found "play" in all shapes, forms, and guises to be one of the
most important features of MOO.
Speaking of the role of the poet in
relation to government, Gunter Grass said in "Writers as Poets":
When I consider the fools of Shakespeare and Velasquez, or let us say
the dwarfish power components of the baroque age -- for there is a
connection between fools and power, although seldom between writers
and power -- I wish the literary court jester existed; and as we shall see,
I know a number of writers who are well fitted for this political service.
Except that they are far too touchy. Just as a housekeeper dislikes to be
called a "cleaning woman," they object to being called fools. "Fool" is
not enough. They want to be known to the Bureau of Internal Revenue
as "writers"; nor do they wish to be ennobled by the title of poet. This
self chosen middle -- or middle class--position enables them to turn up
their noses at the disreputable, asocial element, the fools and the poets.
Is it then reasonable to call ourselves fools? Is it wise or indeed
foolhardy to appropriate the voice Grass speaks to here, the actions of
jester in Mikhail Bakhtin's carnival? Grass exhorts writers to come to
terms with the power of the fool, to use the fool as a powerful advisory
tool:
When helplessness lacks wit, it begins to snivel. And yet there is a great
deal to do, more than can be expressed in manifestos and protests. But
there are also a great many writers, known and unknown, who, far from
presuming to be the "conscience of a nation" occasionally bolt from their
desks and busy themselves with the trivia of democracy. Which implies
a readiness to compromise. Something we must get through our heads is
this: a poem knows no compromise, but men live by compromise. The
individual who can stand up under this contradiction and act is a fool
and will change the world. (CITE #)
Are we serious? Are we fools? Are we fooling ourselves in all
seriousness?
No Snivelers Here
Considering Play: Some Serious Studies
MOO Forum Logs
Purpose, Serendipity and the Buddha
