\input zine.sty

\lline{\hl Dig Our Heroes Out Of The Trash}
\lline{Steve Abbott}

It's no secret to HOMOCORE readers that American education
sucks. Our true history's distorted and denied as we're force-fed
a boring history of our oppressors. No wonder many of us vomit at
the mere mention of ``literature''. The garage band and `zine
movement is a good start in creating our own stories and
identities.

But the punk anarcho-queer `zine movement also has a history. In
fact for as long as there's been an ``official'' history, there's
been a radical opposition -- even if the ruling class has trashed
our punk ancestors out of the school books. Its' tim we fight
back and reclaim our history.

My proposal is this: make a list or ``map'' of your
\underbar{own} influences and heroes. This could include bands,
artists, film makers, `zines, political militants, etc. I've made
several such ``maps'' over the years because I find it gives me
strength. It clarifies my ideas, sparks my creativity, and gives
me solidarity with others on the fight against boredom and
oppression. To know where we've been not only makes me proud, it
also sharpens my ideas about where I want to go.

This ``Hippie Histomap'' (which I did in the early 80's) is more
linear than one I'd do today. Today my map might look more like a
DNA spiral with different size circles to show how much influence
I've taken from different places. But create your own histomap in
whatever way you want. It's \underbar{your} life so be your own
teacher. This said, here's some notes on some of my own fave punk
ancestors.

{\bf Lautramont} (1846 -- 1870) was a tall, skinny nervous kid
with a squeaky voice who died at age 24. Born in Uruguay, he
lived the last couple years of his life in Paris where he wrote
\underbar{Maldoror} and \underbar{The Poesies}. He wrote only at
night, punctuating his sentences with loud chords on the piano as
he declaimed them (a Johnny Rotten before his time). Even by
today's standards, Lautramont's stuff is hardcore.

{\bf Rimbaud} (1854 -- 1891) started writing at age 13. At 17 he
became boyfriends with Verlaine (who was 20 years older) and he
wrote some really hot shit for the next couple years. Snubbed by
Verlaine's wife and the pompous literary scene in Paris, Rimbaud
became as socially obnoxious as possible (he'd put lice in his
hair so he could pick it out at parties; he diddled with Verlaine
under cafe tables as they drank absinthe). \underbar{Season In
Hell} is his classic. Gay Sunshine published some of his and
Verlaine's dirtiest poems in a book called \underbar{A Lover's
Cock}.

The late 1890's was the beginning of the punk `zine movement. In
England {\bf Oscar Wilde} and {\bf Aubrey Beardsley} contributed
to \underbar{The Yellow Book} (Wilde was jailed shortly
thereafter cuz he was fucking a rich dude's kid; Beardsley died
young of consumption). In Germany a similar `zine was
\underbar{Die Yungend} (The Youth). The proto-punk gang in France
included {\bf Baudelaire} (who dyed his hair green), {\bf Nerval}
(who walked lobsters on a leash), {\bf Huysmans} (who praised the
dark and unnatural over the natural), {\bf Raymond Roussel}
(whose weird novels are great) and the painter {\bf Odilon Redon}
(who illustrated a book of poetry for the Belgian Satanist Iwan
Gilkin).

{\bf Edgar Allen Poe} was the only weirdo America could boast of
before 1900. {\bf Walt Whitman} celebrated queer sex in his
poetry but you'd never know it from what you're shown in high
school.

In pre-Nazi Germany there was an anarchist gang of artists,
musicians and writers in Berlin called New Community. One, {\bf
Erich Muhsam} (whose first published essay defended homosexuality
as an innate tendency) did a monthly `zine called
\underbar{Fanal} from 1926 -- 1931. It's first issue proclaimed
as it's goal ``to assist in the preparation for revolution''.
After serving five years in jail for revolutionary activity,
Muhsam published an anthology of agitational song lyrics in 1925
which was so popular that he was taken to court again because his
book ``prepared the way for civil war''. The Nazi SS arrested
Muhsam the night of the Reichstag fire. He was tortured for 15
months and finally beaten to death in the office of the
commandant of Oranienburg concentration camp.

Although thousands of workers attended Muhsam's plays and
performances, this gay anarchist hero has been completely shut
out of official histories of the Weimar Republic. Only recently
has the German anarchist youth  movement revived interest in his
work. Muhsam's spirit can be seen in the Tunix manifesto: ``We're
fed up with it here\dots the beer tastes flat like bourgeois
morality. They've bossed as around long enough inspecting our
ideas, rooms, passports.''

The 1920's and 30's saw some wild stuff in Paris too. The
Dadaists and Surrealists are well known so I'll focus on {\bf
George Bataille}'s circle which is only lately getting attention
in America. Bataille (1897 -- 1962) turned Marx on his head by
arguing that economy is based upon waste, not production. He
defined humans not as workers but as creatures who need to play.
Breton and Sartre hated Bataille because he championed the dirty,
the excessive, the kinky, the useless and the mystical. Start
with \underbar{Story of the Eye} (a porn novel) and
\underbar{Visions of Excess} (Essays). If you dig that, go on to
\underbar{Eroticism}, \underbar{Literature and Evil}, and the
other stuff. Everything the Situationists say derives from
Bataille.

{\bf Laure} (1903 -- 1938) broke with her rich family and flirted
with radical politics in Paris, Berlin and Russia. She belonged
to the secret society {\bf Acephale} with Bataille and Leiris (in
fact, Bataille was her last boyfriend). Laure's best work is the
obscenely poetic \underbar{Histoire D'une Petite Fille} which
still hasn't been translated into English (although Kathy Acker
did a spin-off of it in my \underbar{Soup 3}). If rock'n'roll
existed when Laure was alive, she'd have knocked the socks off
Patti Smith.

{\bf Rene Crevel} (1900 -- 1935) was a fast-lane friend of
Laure's whose open homosexuality and drug taking scandalized
literary bigwigs such as Gide, Breton, Pound and Dali. Two of his
novels are available in English: \underbar{Difficult Death} and
\underbar{Babylon}. Hounded about his lifestyle and torn by
political factionalism of his day, Crevel committed suicide in a
fit of depression.

These writers have left us ideas we can still use as weapons to
plunge into our enemies hearts. Work by Laure, Crevel, Muhsam and
others is available in \underbar{Soup 3} for \$4 (checks to
``Steve Abbott'', 545 Ashbury \#1, San Francisco CA 94117). I'd
like to see some HOMOCORE letters about other readers' fave
ancestors.

{\it Steve is also the author of the radical queer sex novel
\underbar{Holy Terror} (Crossing Press)}

\bye
