Fascism in the Mixtape of Taliesin

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The Mixtape of Taliesin is an Epic Poem by IG Agent 18, composed of a sequence of smaller poems — separated into 4 suits (Spades, Clubs, Hearts, and Diamonds) and interspersed with poems on a tarot theme. In the very center of the book are 4 poems called The Utah Quartets. Affiliate link below:

Like pretty much any epic poem it covers a lot of ground, it has recurring themes of the moon, nighttime, social collapse and rebirth, drugs, sex, rock and roll, youth and age, men and women, rulers and ruled, poetry itself, madness, violence, peace and reason.

One of the themes that come up in the book frequently is authoritarianism and fascism, and so, given the current situation I thought it would be interesting to take a lot at that theme.

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The poems when dealing with authoritarian systems seems to switch perspectives, that is to say the perspective from poem to poem may be anti-authoritarian the way it deals with the problem, the viewpoint in its finer details often differs.

Probably the most “tastes like fascism” poem of the book is the JUDGEMENT tarot poem in the suit of diamonds. It’s pretty pessimistic but also aggressive, it does not seem to think survival and victory are possible, but on the other hand it is not a poem of surrender.

The poem starts with what seems like a terrorist attack on a small restaurant

A chord of angry cursing

explodes

thru the restaurant, the rose

decked tables, linen cloth

& windows

are expanding outward

but then a few lines later the source of the explosion becomes less certain with

Nitrate Flower, Cordite Raven

Powder Rhyme; men labor

for your apotheosis

in strange lab-coated priesthoods

masked & faceless behind the mask

they are pruning a vast & burning Orchid

in the Garden of Violation

The people who are orchestrating this attack on the small and common good of a neighborhood restaurant is not a powerless outsider but rather

Technocrats, from a Star-Chamber

The people, as in the population, turn to the poet, to Taliesin for an explanation of these things — but the problem really is they want a nice soothing and comforting explanation, and Taliesin isn’t having it. The calm, comfortable people are seen by the Poet in times of moral crisis as much an enemy as those who have engineered the crisis.

Confused, you come to me to prophecy

unknowing that every vision

is also condemnation

you should do better to strangle my voice

cripple these hands

& bury my tongue beneath

mountains of indifference.

That would be your clean defense.

Taliesin reads the future, as one might expect of a mythic Poet, and in the pages of the future sees a vision very much of Fascism, related to the typography of the space and time being read

to the young men, proud & ruthless

the old as well, stick-figures

become the supreme art

drawn neatly to the center

for the critic’s timely salute.

Along margins Black Towers

are falling & rising arbitrarily

musical notes are mangled

pyrotechnic flowers spout from the marker

strange rivers & ribbons float all over

plowshares question their purpose?

swords express their excitement!

caps conform to set limits

in infinite undeviate rows…………

People are worn out and scared in this world, they don’t dare fight back

Fear in the eyes

the slouching walk

downcast to their daily

lives people stumble;

dispirited attacks in dissident papers

over flat bread & tea

and

There is nothing to be done today

& the same tomorrow

Taliesin has friends he discusses these things with, comfortable himself, because Taliesin and his friends are cynical intellectuals who can consider themselves somehow above the treacherous and violent fray that has been initiated.

But sometimes the debate gets far from the truths Taliesin has already seen

truth assumes a pliant shape

in arguments between Caffeine Geeks

who hold the sundial’s shadow as their own

thin & empty shadows

They think it is them that mold history, that understand it all, but really Taliesin knows it is time and the times that molds them all. And being the supreme Poet with this knowing he prophecies again, a prophecy of evil conquered

A Judgment I bring the Men of Valour

& the Judgement is Arthur risen

A Judgment I bring the Men of War

& the Judgement is the Prince of Peace

A Judgment I bring the Men of Power

& the Judgment is Arthur Triumphant.

It should be noted that the verse is in this and in some other places full of fascistic impulses, as a response to fascism.

Part of this is I think due to the feel for the Epic requirements, because of Agent 18’s views of the Arthur myth and legend, part of it is because the response to violence of course will often be violent, Agent 18 valorizes Arthur as the symbol of good authority which is of course the same thing that fascists do with their leaders.

It’s powerful, but it is also dangerous.

For a more in depth explanation of this connection between Fascism and Arthurian mythos I would recommend

Of course at some point one has to understand that while the response to Fascism comes from some of the same human impulses that feed Fascism there are obvious differences, the violence of the anti-fascist is the violence of self-defense. The othering applied to fascists is othering based on stated goals and actions while the othering fascists apply to their enemies is generally othering based on vague and shifting characteristics opportunely defined, such as race and gender.

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Arthur in The Mixtape Of Taliesin

Arthur of course has numerous references in the Epic, as well as of course some poems that are completely in reference to him

but really the most pertinent in reference to Fascism is this one, from The Spoils of Taliesin (Spoils being both ironic and non ironic in reference to “spoils of war”), which is of course the poem that directly precedes the Tarot Poem “The Emperor”

In the battle for the Law

Arthur, Courage-Giver

Risen like a new sprig

On the blasted Heath

Gathered us, with bare words

Honesty we took the Federal Troops

In ambush

Being desperate not to fail

and

I saw young men, whey-faced & frightened

Stubble-chinned in the Tyrant’s uniform

Surprised at morning light

Afterwards they were pounded meat

Tenderized in a Thresher.

Escaping Fascism

There are various ways that Fascism are escaped in the poem, one is the violent method already outlined, but which of course has the drawback of springing from some of the same impulses as Fascism.

There are basically three other forms of escaping Fascism in the book —

Firstly, one escapes Fascism in ones own world separate and incomprehensible to the Fascist, as is put forward in the poem, The Age of Taliesin, which has in in symbols of the deluge, of a great flood, of a park with some sort of festival that is monitored by the police but not stopped and not entered into.

Leaflets are flying between outstretched hands

like unread white crows

leaflets are being passed between people

like joints of information

inhale this, then process it, internally.

I think the cops are totally stoned

at monitoring the transferal.

The cops, stoned by monitoring the transferal of information, are themselves now infected with the information, a Memetic infection that makes them part of the opposition to the system they represent.

The cops become non-fascist because the fascist thought cannot forever stand against the thoughts of the people in this scenario, which really seems like it would take longer than the violent response where the cops are defeated physically, but not anywhere near as long as our next two scenarios.

The second example of defeating fascism is a Utopian one, The Fortress of Taliesin, which is built up evidently after the military defeat option is enacted against the fascists.

It should be noted that this Fortress in the last suit of the poem, the suit of diamonds is obviously in some poetic way a response to The Tower in the second suit.

But it is also a non-democratic vision, and also very focused on military might as the way to assure the wealth and peace of the nation

A nine-fold Castle climbs on Ninth-Wave

powerful its people in their pleasures

their lives are not damned with disdain

nor is their way to be hard of heart

I was welcomed in my distress

better Dyfed’s Poetry than America’s money

its generous kings, keeping their feast

comprise a force of unmeetable might.

And frankly a bit whiny about getting ones proper due as a poet, which admittedly the historical Taliesin was as well, which probably is one of the main explanations for this poem’s existence, which has always rubbed me slightly wrong as one of the weaker poems in the whole book (although beautifully written) as opposed to some other poems which are more obviously weaker.

This poem seems strong, impressive, but it is a fragile impressiveness, built on crystal that will smash if too much pressure is applied. This, following the aesthetics that Agent 18 has often expressed, is a weaker poem that linking with other poems and moving a theme forward helps to strengthen those other poems while also increasing its own strength. The poem standing alone without the rest of The Mixtape of Taliesin, should probably be skipped, but with the rest becomes good enough that it should be read.

The third solution to Fascism is also Utopian, but it is a Utopia after the fall of Man, a Utopia of cats, prophesied by Taliesin as he considers his own inability to fit into the world of man he sees a world of cats that would welcome and understand him. In the Fourth Quartet of The Utah Quartets

a gray-eyed poet Manx

translates me into the snarls

& purrs of the feline tongue

momentarily troubled by an incongruent line

she pauses in questioning reverie

& is startled to perceive thru the clinging mists

my revenant self gazing out at her.

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This article was written by IG Agent 13.

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