Posted by Dr. Amrit Chadwallah 
"Writing helps me suspend disbelief in persistent community," Mr. Ray Davis, writing of Montaigne, 2003. So, here at Wealth Bondage we, like a work of art, have no purpose. For all art, as Wilde wrote, "is perfectly useless." That makes sense, because clearly Wealth Bondage is a work of art in the Augustan Tradition - and the Augustans like Montaigne were all about the art of conversation, whether in coffee houses, bars, the public gardens, the theater, or in clubs and salons. Such talk, which flowed over into pamphleteering and privately run newspapers, came to nothing, really, unless you count the American Revolution and the French Revolution as something. Where did Montaigne pick up the conversational style? Maybe Horace's Epistle's, and his Satires? Makes me think of the Author Function, really. Horace and Montaigne were inside/outsiders. Ray understands that there is no perfect community since we are always at the door, where inside and outside meet, and Janus, Loki, Prometheus, Hermes - whatever Trickster brings fire, wisdom, laughter, grace, merchandise, lies, war and peace. Hmm. John Gay wrote a poem about London, called "Trivia, Or, the Art of Walking the Streets of London," in which the language of the street crosses the language of high culture, and what is Trivia, but a three way crossroads ("tri via") - where Hermes, the messenger of the gods, holds sway as the patron of messengers, merchants, thieves, pickpockets, and prostitutes? At the crossroads is the tavern and the brothel. Hmm, and then Gay went on to write "The Beggar's Opera," likening her Majesty's Government to pickpockets, fencers of stolen goods, and doxies? Also at the cross-roads in the Roman Empire were statues of Hecate, goddess welcoming us to death. Well, I digress, but the point is that Wealth Bondage is at a crossroads. Surely, we can agree on that. Cue the soundtrack, Bob, if you please. The Happy Tutor went down to the corssroads where he sold his soul to the devil to learn how to fiddle the old dance tunes, and Mr. Ray Davis plays barrel-house all night long. We Pimps and Beggars, we defrocked Scholars, we ambiguous figures at the crossroads have an honorable lineage. Some of us have honest jobs by day. Others don't. But at night we all do our patriotic duty here in Bordello we call Wealth Bondage, having a good time at one another's expense. Welcome to our party. Tutor has authorized me to stand you all a round.
"Well, I digress"? For shame, Dr. Chadwallah! Surely you meant to say that you envaginate and displace significance.
Posted by: Ray Davis | November 07, 2006 at 07:38 AM
That would be Dick Minim, Mr, Davis. I merely leave a track, a trace, a spoor, a Spur - see what I mean?
Posted by: Tutor | November 07, 2006 at 07:14 PM