I was reminded of that last night at a reading I attended at a Detroit art gallery. The readers were lukewarm at best, the crowd lethargic while the event was going on, yet after it was over there was a pronounced air of self-congratulation. A complacency unneeded in this city, which across the board is not competing well with other cities.
Present were some of the usual suspects, the creme de la creme of Detroit's lit scene, like George and Chris Tysh. When I was co-editing Pop Literary Gazette in 1998, George Tysh mocked our use of ballyhoo in a review he wrote for the local alternative weekly rag. So I went to the east coast and did 100 times the ballyhoo and shook the established literary world there to its foundations.
The ULA has engaged in ballyhoo, yes-- but we've always backed it up. Our writers, like Wred Fright, James Nowlan, and others ARE very good. We DO put on the most exciting lit shows around, which has been remarked upon time and again. After our CBGB's press conference; after our Medusa show; after our "Howl" reading crash; earlier this year at The Underground in Philadelphia, the remarks are the same: "Wow! That was an exciting event." It's not hype if you can back it up.
What's my course in Detroit now? If I use the King Wenclas persona, my voice and my ballyhoo, done here it would be like dropping a jet among a squadron of biplanes. I'd be sure to piss off the locals, and I've already done enough of that time and again, usually with people of higher standing.
If I had sense I'd take the next bus back to Philly, but I don't have bus fare. . . .
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