Re: <nettime> Heise and the truth about LB's seppuku

[Ashley <marash@globalnet.co.uk>]

>The following piece appeared on the latest issue of "Heise"
><http://www.heise.de/tp/> a German on-line magazine covering Internet and
>net-culture phenomena. The author seems to have read a lot of material
>about LB, and yet the piece contains several errors (probably due to such
>bad sources as the Nihil junk-list) and misinterpretations. For the last
>time before my "ritual suicide" as a Luther Blissett name-bearer,
>flag-waver and web-master, I feel I must set the records straight. After
>December 1999, it won't be none of my goddamn business anymore. My comments
>are at the foot of the message.
>Long live Luther Blissett, become Luther Blissett!

I am starting to wonder if LB will have the mental strength for his
announced ritual suicide, or if he will be languishing in one of Italy's
dejected and sorrowful homes/prisons for the old, because senile dementia
does seem to be in the air.

With all honesty, how can Luther Blissett, considering his essence and
intentions, come out and speak THE truth about Luther Blissett. Is it
actually possible to do so?

At the end of the day, is not LB a multiple name, a parasol for those
seeking anonymity, released to whoever wanted/wants it, like a cultural
shareware programme ready to be hacked to one's tastes and desires? Is it
therefore possible to speak of <errors> and <misinterpretations>?

<I feel I must set the records straight>, you say. But doesn't that hint at
some kind of proprietorship, when LB is of public domain? I don't know. It
just doesn't sound like LB very much:

"If you want to tune in to the Net's wave, you need to be initiated to its
culture. It is a spontaneous and natural initiation. You can't be online for
more than two days without finding out what a manga is, who the Simpsons
are, what kind of philosopher's stone Trash promises, who William Burroughs
is, and so on, without end"
(p.27, Luther Blissett, net.gener@tion, Oscar Mondadori 1996)

The above does. Come on, you have always been a brilliant prankster,
throwing any appetizing ingredient (like the recent collaboration with oi!
band Klasse Kriminale) you could find into your hypermodernist cauldron,
while now it is time for the one and only truth! You haven't turned Hegelian
in your old age have you? Forgot, that "there are no facts, only
(mis)interpretations"? Do you desire history or myth?

"Che sara', sara'", Doris Day used to sing. Time will tell if LB will live
or die; even histories and myths have a lifespan. For the time being,
however, he seems very sputtanato (to have lost much credibility). First the
auhtors of Q, now you

>Roberto Bui, aka Fabrizio P. Belletati
>(one of the activists formerly known as "Luther Blissett")

are giving names and identities to someone whose beauty and strength resided
in his complete anomymity. LB was mysterious. Who is he now?


In any case, maximum respect for the work done and looking forward to your
next incarnation.

Ashley Benigno.

p.s. Will the Reverend William Cooper be taking care of your funeral?


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