Re: RAT Re: "Dancing Bear" posts

[Allison Narver <anarver@yahoo.com>]

Amen Nick.
Thanks for that post.
Love,
Allison
--- NOMADMONAD@aol.com wrote:
> At 12:23 PM 11/1/99 -0800, William Houts wrote:
> >
> >Personally, --and I'm certainly guided by my
> current frustration in this-- 
> the Archives should be guided by an allegiance to
> real and immediate rats 
> rather than to a vague and hypothetical posterity.  
> >For the record, I heartily recommend a restoration
> of the ability to search 
> for posts by particular persons by name.  I'm very
> interested in reading past 
> posts by such rat luminaries  as Chris Jeffries,
> Allison Narver,  John 
> Sylvain andd...well, modesty forbids.
> >
> >  
>  
> Bill,
> 
> Who are the real and immediate rats?  For me they
> are at least as vague and 
> hypothetical as posterity is.  I can only say who
> are real and immediate to 
> me. Those with whom I work and laugh and those with
> whom I hope to work and 
> laugh sometime in the future.  I assume we all are
> "the real thing, baby" and 
> I actively promote our ideas and work into the Icons
> that we will present to 
> posterity.  Same same.
> 
> The mechanical archiving of the rat-list began in
> '99, so the RatBase is the 
> only way at the Web site to find pre-1999 posts. 
> But not all the posts from 
> the WildHistory of the rat-list are archived there,
> only the ones that are 
> sources for the "idea quotes" used in the database. 
> 
> 
> Part of the philosophy in creating the RatBase was
> to subvert the paradigm of 
> author/authority. Its prejudice is that RAT and RAT
> ideas have multiple 
> authors and that a good idea is a good idea
> regardless of whether the source 
> is an email listserv or prestigious theater journal
> or newsletter or zine.  
> If the author's name search was enabled, the Wizard
> of Oz would be visible 
> behind the curtain; i.e., the choices of the Editor
> would be revealed.  Ideas 
> generated by Erik and Nick dominate.  So instead of
> idea land, the RatBase 
> would center us in guru land with the paradigm of
> author/authority 
> reinforced. 
> 
> The Editor immerses herself into the disguise of
> ideas. Wise Guise.
> 
> The Web and Internet with its multiple digital
> databases such as the RatBase 
> excite me because of its challenge to the old
> authorities, especially those 
> of print and publishing.  These authorities are of
> course quick to adapt and 
> reassert their power, but now more than ever rebels
> seem able to set up 
> Hakim's Temporary Autonomous Zones at will.  Over
> the five years RAT and RAT 
> ideas have represented such a zone for me. The
> anarch's responsibility to the 
> anarchy is completely different than the monarch's
> responsibility to the 
> monarchy, but both are equally selfish/selfless. So
> no apologies for the 
> author's name search being disabled.  
> 
> Under various pseudonyms, I have written endlessly
> on all this, here on the 
> rat-list and elsewhere. Most recently I have been
> interested in fame and its 
> relationship to identity and image.  Specifically,
> is there a way to attain 
> the power of the Icon elsewhere than in that so
> boring realm of Blockbuster 
> and Brand Name?   
> 
> Theater is one place to initiate such an
> exploration.  But dramaturgy needs 
> to examine every aspect of production and the
> cultural ramifications of 
> theater to be effective, not just the specific
> aesthetics of a certain 
> script. For some the rat-list, the Web site,
> RatBase, the Conferences, and 
> RAT itself has been both the medium and reality of
> this examination. A way to 
> contextualize the struggles of one's individual
> theater and lives into the 
> Big Picture. 
> 
> The ongoing <www.undermain.com> Web project is now
> exploring many of these 
> same ideas. This is the posterity of RAT for those
> involved.  It is real and 
> immediate.  For others BCT in Los Angeles is the
> posterity of RAT.  The 
> <www.edgeoftheworld.org> Fest is real and immediate.
>  I believe other real 
> and immediate RAT progeny exist, are ready to exist.
>  The authors are various 
> and multiple.  A seedy, ratty lot to be sure.  But
> if I had to name names, I 
> couldn't. 
> 
> --nick 
> 


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