Arthur Jafa

[forclosure]

Some of the photos Catalog posted remind me of that Man Ray one Rich posted re: The Black Dahlia.

yeah i can see that, its that stark black and white photo quality that draws the eyes to things you'd otherwise wouldn't notice

 

[catalog]

I found times Square red and blue a bit ploddy really, seemed to take ages to say something worthwhile. Just didn't click at thd time. I had no problem with what he was talking about. There's a concision in the article I linked to that I like. Dhalgren has all these really long descriptions of the body, like feet and toenails is one bit I remember and then also the bit where the sun falls down and is just there in the street.

I've got another book of his on the shelf at the moment, was thinking of starting it soon.

 

[forclosure]

I found times Square red and blue a bit ploddy really, seemed to take ages to say something worthwhile. Just didn't click at thd time. I had no problem with what he was talking about. There's a concision in the article I linked to that I like. Dhalgren has all these really long descriptions of the body, like feet and toenails is one bit I remember and then also the bit where the sun falls down and is just there in the street.

I've got another book of his on the shelf at the moment, was thinking of starting it soon.

i mean honestly all his books have "ploddy" sections in them maybe barring Nova and Babel-17 its just that when the overall picture of his is so rich and full of ideas and empathy you forgive him for those moments and Times Square Red definitly has worthwhile writing in it, i think the 2nd essay more than fills in the gaps and provides insight into the stories he brings in the first one

that article you wrote is good but the format demands that he be more concise essays give you that much more wiggle room

 

[catalog]

I was just thinking about the caravaggio/mapplethorpe pair and how caravaggio was exploring the profane in the sacred and with mapplethorpe it was the sacred in the profane. But the words jafa himself uses, not specifically about these images, but generally, are power/beauty and abjection, which I suppose are a similar duality to sacred and profane, but just in that distinction, he makes it much more about aesthetics and that is why i really like a lot of his images.

 

[catalog]

I did read a few of delaneys other essays, in those collections he's got, but none were as striking to me as that one I posted. But if you've some other examples of his good essays, I'd be interested.

 

[forclosure]

I did read a few of delaneys other essays, in those collections he's got, but none were as striking to me as that one I posted. But if you've some other examples of his good essays, I'd be interested.

this is a classic https://www.nyrsf.com/racism-and-science-fiction-.html

 

[forclosure]

I was just thinking about the caravaggio/mapplethorpe pair and how caravaggio was exploring the profane in the sacred and with mapplethorpe it was the sacred in the profane. But the words jafa himself uses, not specifically about these images, but generally, are power/beauty and abjection, which I suppose are a similar duality to sacred and profane, but just in that distinction, he makes it much more about aesthetics and that is why i really like a lot of his images.

makes me think of Ken Russell tbh

i dunno if it's just the effects of more people reading your boy K-punk after he passed but it feels like more people are all about "aesthetics" these days

 

[forclosure]

which like i get it style is substance in its own right but it still feels like overly complicated discussions about the surface of things and at a certain point i run into a wall and just think yep dunno shit about any of this

 

[catalog]

i just mean that he fixes things a bit more on the level of the image itself so it feels like he's more concerned with that, if you see what i mean, rather than by other things? you could get quite bogged down but it feels to me like that is what he's mainly doing. and of course the arrangement of the images and the pairings, the sequencing. might not be explaining this very well, but the main thing is that i found that video (love is the message...) very striking and on the surface its all stuff i've seen before so you wonder why it's quite so striking.

 

[catalog]

This one's good, good analysis and funny story about MJ. Jafa says jacko was a shape shifter, realised that he was threatening as a black male so presented himself ad arrested child. Also says he is berry gordys frankenstein monster.

Gates, who I've not heard of, talks about how MJ was willing to "monsterise" himself, like Miles, was willing to go through the contortion of self required by genuine creativity.

Later on he says that he has often thought that African people are not black, in the sense that something happened in the middle passage to transform them to something else. Says he gets in trouble for saying it, but it's basically lukes argument about how poor African music is as compared to black music.

Then gates says how when he first met jafa, they ended up hanging out together for a few days, and jafa just came with him to all his meetings, and at one point, they were with the mayor of Chicago or whatever, and someone asked who jafa was and gates, not missing a beat, said "he's my spiritual adviser".