Neoism is as Neoism doesn't
In January, 2019, I was considering writing a book about Neoism - or, more accurately, about Neoists - & I started compiling a list of all the Neoists I could think of & their contact information. Given that Monty Cantsin (Istvan Kantor) has many Neoist connections that I don't I emailed him explaining my plans for the book & asking him for names & contact info for people I don't know. It was common for him to write to me for Neoist information that he didn't know or couldn't remember so such an exchange wasn't unprecedented. He said that he'd just gotten back from Israel & that after he'd recovered from that trip a bit he'd be glad to pass along that information. I got the impression that he was actually upset about my book writing plans because he wanted his upcoming book to be THE ONE & didn't want me competing with him. It wasn't my intention to compete with him, I simply wanted to tell the story in my own way.
There're multiple Neoism groups on Facebook. I've participated in a few, so has Monty. The main one I participate in had the largest membership but almost all of them are lurkers, they never participate. I posted to that group asking how many people there consider themselves to be Neoists & explaining that I wanted to interview those who do for the proposed book. Monty immediately started interfering with this process saying something to the effect that everyone in the world is a Neoist so why sabotage that by implying the opposite?! I, personally, don't think that everyone in the world is a Neoist, nor do I want them to be. For me, such a statement reeks too much of imperialism & the ONE WAY movement of Christianity. We argued about it.
Soon thereafter, Monty decided to organize the 40th anniversary of Neoism in Montréal & decided to not invite me because I might 'fuck things up'. I found out about this because of an email exchange between an ex-Neoist in Montréal & Monty which the ex-Neoist shared with me. As far as I can tell my 'fucking things up' just meant that I might represent a different philosophical position than Istvan, I might not want Neoism to be a cult group in which everyone in the world is claimed to be a member, I might not want to be lorded over by a megalomaniac. How unreasonable of me!
I had some desire to participate in the event but was living in extreme penury at the time & decided that it wasn't financially plausible for me. Nonetheless, I conceived of a few potential actions for the festival, to be called NEOISM 40. One of these was to disguise mywelf as an old woman barely able to walk with a walker that would have a sign on it & to try to sell caps to the NEOISM 40 attendees that had "MAKE NEOISM GREAT AGAIN" printed on them. The ex-Neoist in Montréal has proposed the text as a parody of President Trump's well-known slogan "MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN". We both thought that was funny because we felt that Monty is similarly megalomaniacal to Trump.
I didn't attend the festival but I eventually had the caps made. The festival came & went, I watched footage of it online & found the parts I watched to be essentially an open mic with little or no thought-out content that made any attempt to enrich the concept of Neoism.
I was contacted & told that there would be a NEOISM 40 book & that I was invited to contribute. I had my friend Julie Gonzalez photograph me as I somewhat imagined I would've looked if I'd managed to attend the festival & I wrote the following text.
"Neoism is as Neoism doesn't"
- tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE
- August 20, in the 40th year of Our Lard Neoism
Neoism is NOWHERESVILLE, pettio, babbio, mommio, daddio! "Where is today our fuckoff revolution situated?" Consider this: In January, in the 40th year of Our Lard Neoism, I received this email from a former Neoist who's a friend of mine in Montréal:
"Istvan wants to put together a 40th anniversary of Neoism get-together in Montreal this May.
Of course I proposed to invite YOU. His reply: "Tent is a difficult case as he loves to fuck things up"
and then he asked me to wait before talking to you about it."
Neoism is wherever Neoism isn't. Therefore, if you see the BRAND NAME OF NEOISM shouted at you you can be sure that that's NOT where Neoism's at. If you see a young woman wearing a mini-skirt with Neoism written on it & if she's carrying a megaphone with Neoism written on it, look for Neoism somewhere else. That's just an advertisement meant to further the career of some self-serving CEO.
How does Neoism work "in today's techno-glitterotarian society?" By being everywhere where Neoism isn't. It's long since ceased to work by using a collective identity, by using plagiarism. Neoism doesn't even disguise itself as Neoism anymore, it's ceased to be Neoism in defense of itself. If you find someone declaring themselves to be a Neoist & doing everything in the name of Neoism you can be sure that they are only a distraction.
If you encounter a Neoist who reserves "the rights of editing the contributions" look elsewhere for Neoism because this person is a censor. If a Neoist approaches you who says "And in fact for illustration we want to use strictly/mainly the photos taken in Montreal at Neoism40" be forewarned: this person means you harm & just wants to use you to further their career. The images are meant to historicize the CEO's position as a Puppet Master, look elsewhere for Neoism.
Look for Neoism among the people who won't call themselves Neoists, who won't even talk with you about Neoism. Look for Neoism amongst the activities of people who won't use the brand-name anymore or any of the buzz-words. Look for Neoism amongst the activites of people who didn't just present their usual act at Neoism40 without the slightest concern with whether it meant anything or not. Look for Neoism anywhere but at Neoism40.
Obviously, the text is expressing disgust with my having been essentially excluded from the festival. Censorship is not typically a Neoist thing. Istvan/Monty has only become a censor as he's gotten to be an old man desperate in his last gasp attempt to be a pop star or the Lenin of the Art World. I figured that if Monty/Istvan could be honest enough to include my text then it would go a long way to repairing my damaged perception of the openness of Neoism under his control. Neither text or image were included in the book. I've decided to have nothing further to do with Monty Cantsin AMEN! (Itsvan Kantor) or his coeditor, who I call PNUL. With that in mind, I also dropped out of the Facebook Neoist group, of which I was one of the moderators.
- November 16, 2020 (Vision) notes (revised March 10, 2023) from tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE
idioideo at gmail dot com
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