GENE SWENSON
BARBARA ROSE
Written-May 1969
How are we ever going to
the darkness lead into the light 1
always took that to mean we
should get used to the night; but
catch the rhythms of our time
Jill Johnston knows one of
the answers: free association.
automatic writing, total and
post-Freudian (to dot the i)
honesty. Honesty? Who, in this
ern of the wheeler-dealer and his
successor. Mr. Empty Mind
would ever think? See how
catching Jill is? Only, where
stop for punetuation, she goes
perhaps he didn't really mean to
be so pessimistie
You asked me about
memories I have some vivid
memories of you over the years
at parties and lectures and
openings I remember an evening
in Hartford in 1964. Merce was
danding it was one of his rare
appearances in those days and all
the faithful had followed him up-
there. I was at your table at a
dinner party before the onoert
We wereseated with four
daed
o hou th
on.
The poetesswrites for a
newspaper in hard cover The
priestess watches oer the unity
ar higher conoc md
dentitono
he p
he o
or thyth onth
the niht the nt
sirens elea chine Red
Black And pastel
The pastel ving a veel
waiting to be filled
The sex of men has been long
etablished
The Tropic of Cancer Thieves
Journal Caanoa
But Jill Johnston is noti
Emily Dickinon She is no more
Sappho than Genet is Plato
Hers is not ye the wisdom of
age for she still seeks out the
corners of that youthful
excitement as if she were an
eternal 16
or course she is T disagree
For me it i far better to set
aside youth when maturity first
begins its wn lirtation But
here she is, as erotic as a nower
a chryanthemum all fingers and
openings Not wanting me. there
is no disagreement
Yet this is a serious criticism
for the age of woman has not
yet taken her place beside the
heuter and grammatical ages of
man, his age
So still feel superior a
white universalist knowing that
centuries must pass before
libraries in China and the
Library of Congress have almost
as many, African as Europesn
books
The distance is fair enough.
for without her passion my sixth
sensuality would not be empied
as it is of her passion. She is a
point which the compass records
like a blip on a radar screen
And all I can do is dry her
prose, hang it out on a cold day
and hope it does not freeze. For
her sap is of an early summer
mom, hot as bee's wax. Sappho
th
tee bu el
very bods atord
insun utive You were
esplaining he joyof the
bathroom during most of the
main cours When seemed
you were not heing understood
and the general level of
alcoholism had escalated. you
began throwing the silverware at
them They got redder but
seemed froen to their chairs
thought this must be howa
Calture Herolne behaves, if she
is traly free
The Symposium
I abo remember some stories
about your friend Ray Johnson.
We used to live close to his
gallery, and he often passed our
house on his way home. Every
time he oame by, he took our
name plate out of the door and
sabstituted his own 1 didn't
mind this, but I became irritated
when he started sending himself
mail there. When I asked him
what he was doing, he said hel
was living in voluntary poverty
said thought that must be hard
since his collage show had sold
out He sald he put that money
in the band and had continued
to live in voluntary poverty
When he took me off his mailing
list, I realzed wasn't in the art
world any more
Actually the only person
know in the art world these days
is my daughter She knows a lotl
of famous artists, One day her
friend Jasper Johns took her to
the drugstore to buy her al
present He said she could havel
anything she wanted. She picked
out a box of tootsie
rolls-shaped lite a giant tootsie
roll. When they got back home
Jasper asked her if he could have
one. She thought for a mo ment
and then she said: "What, and
was not out of season and hers
waste one?"
I think it's very nice Les is
starting another underground
newspaper I think everyone
should go underground for a
while, just to see what it 's like to
live there. I am going to
California, which is practically
same thing. except it's
warmer and maybe a little les
damp
It s nice to keep your
promises. too. Behaviour is only
an example.
was a world more given than
shared
Brooks Atkinson, that
unchanging face of a Times
sensibility, once elected Dear Jill.
Rosalind Russell President of
this wonderful town, America.
magazine Culture Hero twhy was hopelese, or meaningless or
isn't it called Culture impossible? Or did vou just
Heroine isn't it about you?). begin to think vou were more
should start by sasing I used to interesting than what sou were
As per our New Year's Day
conversation. I am giving you a
Jil Johnston still dreams of piece of my mind as I promised l
queens Something is rotten in always keep promises made at think yuu were a treat Culture ooking at? As I ollowed vour
the state of Denmark s she parties fit is a hangover of Heroine hen I vas stndentia dolorosa out af art and into
ble. i could never quite decide
the
never been able to get rid or and I read your iumawhy 3ou chose t go that say
sometimes this puts me in religiously Y'ou used to, taik Or as Carl Andre used to .
mkes the world an obiect ofs
custure. The castle is empty and
in the meadows of life she tears
surburban Jewish motality T've ou were a glamounius critic i
more about art than abuut and he used to say many things
1ourself in those days Did sou before he too became a Culture
g, surrendering her kingdom situations I were best not in
for the love of a vouth What
Love.
So as for this promise to
write something for Les really finally decide criticism Hero): Not alll the ways out of
Barbara
greater gift?
