June 8th, 2012 / 3:51 pm
 Film

“i will write a nature poem about feeling grateful for my mouth” by Gabby Gabby

Gabby Gabby, via Chris Higgs’s new tumblr.

Have a nice weekend everybody.

45 Comments

  1. June 8th, 2012 / 6:43 pm Ben Roylance—

      gabby is famous — massive ice breaker. love you girl ??? :)

  2. June 9th, 2012 / 9:48 am Anonymous—

      oh I get it, if a girl is cute and likes to show her tits then Blake Butler thinks she is a brilliant writer! Amazing!

  3. June 9th, 2012 / 10:33 am Anonymous—
  4. June 9th, 2012 / 11:50 am Christopher Higgs—

      I know, right!  Guy kills it.

  5. June 9th, 2012 / 1:34 pm Trey—

      oh I get it, if someone posts something by a woman on htmlgiant some commenter will dismiss it as only being on here because she has breasts and won’t try to engage with it as art at all! Amazing!

  6. June 9th, 2012 / 1:46 pm Anonymous—

       You’re right, Gabby is really, really cute. :)

  7. June 9th, 2012 / 1:49 pm Blake Butler—

      sad that that’s all you’ve got to say

  8. June 9th, 2012 / 2:20 pm Anonymous—

      nice poem!

  9. June 9th, 2012 / 2:32 pm Zulema Renee Summerfield—

      yeah, but conversely, just cause your boobs are in there doesn’t elevate the art in some way. i really liked this poem and wanted to love it, but kept getting distracted by like “oh god, is this the beginning of an army of marie calloway wannabes?”

  10. June 9th, 2012 / 2:37 pm Blake Butler—

       his tits are also totally beautiful

  11. June 9th, 2012 / 3:23 pm Anonymous—

      a lot of women’s writing is posted on this site without also having to feature the authors’ bodies in any way. I don’t understand why this poem has to be accompanied by a video of the author rolling around in a bed with her cleavage hanging out, trying really hard to be cute. It actually makes it worse in my opinion. Does Blake or Chris or whoever really think that makes this poem better? Will they please post their writings with images of their dicks behind from now on? Thanks!

  12. June 9th, 2012 / 4:19 pm Roxane—

      I understand the point you’re trying to make, and would normally agree because I pay attention to these sorts of things, but… why are you obsessing over her breasts? That might say more about you than the poet. Sure, a lot of women’s writing is posted without featuring the bodies but this is how this poet chose to feature her work. Is she being provocative? Probably, but the rolling around and what not, is kind of beside the point? I’m also thinking about the book trailer for Rachel Eliza Griffith’s Mule & Pear (a gorgeous poetry collection, you can find the trailer somewhere on the site because I posted it), and it has a somewhat similar aesthetic. I don’t know that one informed the other, but this is not… the first time a woman has rolled around in bed reading poetry. 

      Also, just as a frame of reference, similar stuff from guys has been posted here. There was that one kid who tried to pull his dick off and recited a poem (I think) and then some other guy who was completely naked reading a poem who had a massive cock.  And of course, in popular culture, there’s D’Angelo, Untitled and Erykah Badu stripping in Window Seat, and on and on and on. There are all sorts of reasons for displaying the body or expressing sexuality while also performing a creative work. Some of those reasons are organic and some are craven but in this particular instance, I am certain neither Blake nor Chris was sitting around thinking about breasts as some kind of merit for the poem. I watched the video and kind of laughed and thought, OH KIDZ! I also thought the poem was great.  

      (And clearly, I see this as different from what MC does. I don’t know why.)

  13. June 9th, 2012 / 4:24 pm Anonymous—

      Hi, juneww,

      Thank you for your thoughts! In this experimental poem-performance, Gabby Gabby subverts male patriarchy by having her tits hang out of her shirt as she rolls around in patriarchal sheets, in a bed made by men in a patriarchal bed factory. The bed, I should mention, is a symbol of male potency and dominance, particularly the headboard, which, during the act of sex–particularly in the patriarchal missionary position–is violently smacked against the patriarchal wall (walls are patriarchal, too, because they connote domestic enclosure).

      Anyway, in this experimental poem-performance, the male viewer is forced to confront his patriarchal male gaze as he negotiates multiple texts that implicate his own participation in a hegemonic culture that oppresses women. You and others have claimed how “distracting” the poem is–but, aha!–that’s the point! As reader-consumer in a capitalistic, consumer-driven, patriarchal society, you are participating in a meta-narrative, paradigmatic textual shift that implicates your own privilege–a simulacrum of the patriarchal society we live in, one where oppressed women like Gabby Gabby subvert male patriarchy by having their tits hang out their shirts as they roll around in patriarchal sheets, in patriarchal beds made by patriarchal men in patriarchal bed factories.

      cheers,

      -C

  14. June 9th, 2012 / 4:39 pm Christopher Higgs—

      Oh, oh!  I really hope this was written by the Chris Higgs who keeps winning boxing matches in the UK:

      http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/boxing/8536803.stm

      If so, dude I totally follow your matches!  Google Alert tells me how you’re doing, and I’ve been meaning to get in touch with you.

      If, however, this was written by the Chris Higgs who is affiliated with golfing:

      http://www.octagon.com/aboutus/98

      Sorry, dude.  I’m just not that interested in golfing. 

  15. June 9th, 2012 / 4:42 pm Anonymous—

      Ha ha! Too funny. The point is I’m sick of women displaying their bodies next to some weak ass writing, like that makes it somehow interesting or provocative or brave. It seems cowardly and safe and boring.

  16. June 9th, 2012 / 5:03 pm Molly Brodak—

      And yet with the same breath you call for dudes to show their junk alongside their writing, like that is your solution

  17. June 9th, 2012 / 5:10 pm Blake Butler—

      Hi, June. I liked the poem. If the author were not a young normatively attractive female, but an older larger less normatively attractive female (or male), would you be commenting on this poem as “weak ass”? I don’t think you would, though I don’t know you and so won’t be so forward as to attach the words “cowardly safe and boring” to what I perceive from you as some pretty lazy, responsive thinking. Regardless, the writer’s looks are not important to my criteria for posting. If I
      enjoyed the video for her looks alone I would probably play it alone for
      myself in my room and not share it widely on a website primarily about
      books (though yes the bounds of what is discussed here are wide). I also thought the video was interesting in context of people shitting on previous posts regarding the work of a young woman of a very different nature than the one presented here, which is why I chose to post it when I did.

      Now if you’ll excuse me I must get back to bookmarking my recent favs on Youporn.

  18. June 9th, 2012 / 5:23 pm Anonymous—

      It really surprises me that you think this video is “the work of a young woman of a very different nature” than MC. It’s the same shit, just less direct. A girl using her body to get more attention for her “art”, that is lazy. Post something *actually* very different from that, perhaps? 

  19. June 9th, 2012 / 5:25 pm Anonymous—

      And yes I think this poem is weak, whatever the author looks like

  20. June 9th, 2012 / 5:30 pm Anonymous—

      Someone here recently, don’t remember which thread, referenced artist Laurel Nakadate, who said in an interview, “I have the right to make these performances with the body and the face I was given.” It’s a quote that I’ve used in more than one comment thread, including one on Marie Calloway, because it is an issue that seems relevant to a lot of these discussions about art as well as a lot of discussions that are being had outside art, like access to birth control etc. In what ways are assertions of sexuality feminist/anti-feminist? 

  21. June 9th, 2012 / 5:30 pm Molly Brodak—

      dude make your own website & require everyone on it to wear burquas & everyone will take it super seriously

  22. June 9th, 2012 / 5:35 pm Michael Martin—

      Woah. 

      Love you, psuedo-Chris, but this is why I fear obtaining a PHd.

  23. June 9th, 2012 / 5:42 pm Anonymous—

      Jesus I’m not saying a woman doesn’t have the “right” to do something boring and stupid, I’m just saying I’m disheartened by it, and by someone like Blake Butler championing it when normally he posts things that are very creative, surprising, and brilliant. It’s all very fucking depressing. 

  24. June 9th, 2012 / 5:51 pm Anonymous—

      i was raising the question, not saying you were saying anything in particular. but it seems blake does think this is creative etc, and you’re just having a difference of opinion. that’s fine, blake likes some dumb shit [sorry, blake. you do like bad tuba playing], and disagreeing is whatever, awesome, but i believe that he really does like this poem, breasts or not. 

      oh, and i think i do too, though i haven’t made up my mind yet. some things in it were pretty surprising, and good.

  25. June 9th, 2012 / 11:20 pm Pat—

      the main thing i don’t like about this video clip is the music. not only is it cheap and saccharine sounding, but it makes it difficult to focus on the poem.

  26. June 10th, 2012 / 1:49 am dl.flsxzkmrkyrzk—

      and this! of course

  27. June 10th, 2012 / 5:07 pm Don—

      Am I mishearing the beginning or does she say something about taking oxy? That young poets are taking oxy is way more troubling to me than rolling around on a bed (which is not troubling at all).

  28. June 10th, 2012 / 8:35 pm Michael Martin—

      Alright, no response to my sorry half-joke so I”ll be more direct myself: this is a sorta half-joke, right? (I’m not the brightest troll in the roll)

  29. June 10th, 2012 / 9:23 pm deadgod—

      This comment contradicts its premises so comprehensively as to qualify it as a master-class in illogic.

      Thesis chapter sounds interesting, though.  Why no forward-slashes, ‘liminality’, or ‘transgression’ in its title?

  30. June 10th, 2012 / 11:14 pm Michael Martin—

      So “haha” or “heh”?

  31. June 11th, 2012 / 1:31 am deadgod—

      suedo-Chris’s work is more coherent than its alethio target, so, sure: ha ha.  (There is scholarship, even in Transgressy Studies.  And they who enable a deserved good-night’s-sleep should own the world, no?)

  32. June 11th, 2012 / 1:53 am Ultra Vegina—

      Totally agree. I couldn’t even listen to the words… that and the cheesy slutty I’ll-suck-your-dick-for-a-dollar expression on her face… I obviously cannot judge the poem, but the video is cheap and ridiculous… If that was the point, it doesn’t make it less cheap and silly.

  33. June 11th, 2012 / 1:58 am J Lorene Sun—

      Okay, I can’t even hear like half the poem over the music so clearly the focus is on that? XD

  34. June 11th, 2012 / 6:22 pm Gabby Gabby—

      i think that’s how it works. unsure.

  35. June 11th, 2012 / 6:45 pm Anonymous—

      talentless hipster

  36. June 11th, 2012 / 10:35 pm Pat—

      it’s interesting that both gabby gabby and marie calloway seem to ‘like’ the most harshly critical comments. i guess those types of comments are potential ‘material’ for them, so it makes sense.

  37. June 12th, 2012 / 1:47 pm Michael Martin—

      What’s alethio?

      And I wonder whether the 9 likes are as bemused as I am. 

      deadgod – so it is indeed a joke, right?

  38. June 12th, 2012 / 1:49 pm Michael Martin—

      Yes, it is a joke. I’m not very bright.

  39. June 12th, 2012 / 2:50 pm deadgod—

      “alethio” = ‘true’, antonym of pseudo[-], fr. Gr. αληθης, -ες, ‘unconcealed, true’, antonym of ψευδης, -ες , ‘false, lying’ (Greek defs from LSJ, standard Gr-Eng dictionary)

      I now see that alethino[-] would have been better, αληθινος being an ancient as well as modern way of saying ‘true’ that’s easily prefixed to other words.

      I like and so repurposed your “psuedo-“.

      I suspect the likers are amused and not much confused.  ??

      ‘Slow’ is not ‘dim’ (I keep telling myself).

      Your handle is Michae Al Martin or Michae AI Martin.  I think that’s an ‘el’ and not a capital ‘eye’ – a misplaced capital ‘ay’ in the word ‘Michael’ – , but it looks like caps MAIM or MAM.  Why haven’t ‘you’ been roasted for a) picking on women, or b) picking on men?

  40. June 13th, 2012 / 7:35 am Oliver Mol—

      Hey Gabby I like this I like how you say the words and I like your poem

  41. June 13th, 2012 / 8:23 am Ultra Vegina—

      Makes me wonder is she really gives good head.

      Maybe this is a new genre (another one): not high literature, but high soft-core pornography. Framed like this, it kind of makes it more palatable.

  42. June 13th, 2012 / 12:01 pm Anonymous—

      By the way, your post about how you show your breasts because you think breasts are just body parts and should not be regarded as sexual (and how men show their breasts all the time and no one has a problem with that!) is really sad. Maybe that might be nice, but that is not our world. Breasts, at this time, in this country, are sexual parts. Showing them is not proving that they are not. In fact it proves the opposite. I don’t think it’s “unfair” that you get extra attention for showing your body alongside your writing–obviously the attention you get for it is not the kind of attention I care about. It’s not a matter of fairness, it’s a matter of the thing you have made. Spend more time reading and writing and less time worrying about your body & making cutesy videos and maybe you’ll get some real attention. Everyone has a body. Girls have boobs. Who cares. Try thinking an original idea with your brain, that seems cooler. 

  43. June 14th, 2012 / 12:13 am About her mouth. « About that Writing thing.—

      […] saw this video first on HTMLGIANT and again I have that feeling about […]

  44. June 14th, 2012 / 7:29 am deadgod—

      Well, I liked “MichaeAlMartin”.

  45. June 14th, 2012 / 9:45 am Anonymous—

      Aw, deadgod. Sometimes typos render things beautifully, but in this case I’d preferred to get closer to my “intention” (har). 

      Are scare-qoutes and a chuckle meta? 

      I look forward to future conversations.