Culture Hero
(Page 2 of 2)
September/October 1997
Utne Reader
Brezsny hit on the astrology column as a populist poetic form
while he was living in Santa Cruz in the late 1970s. 'Poetry
proposes that the language you use to render experience helps shape
the experience,' he says, 'that language is crucial to the act of
creating your life.' And so, he believes, is an astrology column
written with the 'Dionysian logic' of ecstasy, paradox, and humor
he favors. Insisting that his work is rooted in a well-grounded
knowledge of the art, Brezsny endorses the 'mythic language' of
astrology. He first studied astrology with a private teacher in
Plainfield, Vermont, in the 1970s but has no use for official
sanction or certification. 'I see everything I do as inherently
astrologically correct,' he says.
RELATED CONTENT
An action figure, a Hollywood blockbuster, and the long, slow death of American triumphalism.......
A review of The Passion of the Hausfrau: Motherhood, Illuminated....
Albert Einstein has become a pop culture icon. But Einstein the man, warts and all, is more interes...
A misplaced prof gets fed up at Texas Tech University, and finds out why easterners don't often end...
As a practitioner of what he calls 'ironic sincerity,' however,
Brezsny doesn't need anyone to debunk the self-canceling concept of
his column. He'll do it himself. 'If I'm not engaged in some sort
of self-mocking, I'm probably taking myself too seriously and
distorting the information,' he says. 'I've always said I believe
in astrology about 70 percent.'
For the record, his own sign is Cancer. But he deflects most
other questions about his personal life and won't even reveal his
age, except for admitting he's in his 40s. 'It's a great blessing
not to be known as a personality,' he says. 'It keeps me humble and
close to the source.'
Among his other component parts, Brezsny is both prankster and
polemicist. His performance art stunts include handing out money on
a freeway exit ramp. His raps on a corporate 'world entertainment
war' with the imaginations of a global audience at stake and 'a
cult of science that propagates the notion that science is more
true than the other myths in our culture' roll out with practiced
smoothness. His latest project is a novel called A Feminist
Man's Guide to Picking Up Women. The hero, he says, is 'a
character somewhat based on me' who encounters a group called the
Menstrual Temple of the Funky Grail. Is Brezsny serious when he
talks about the craft of 'feminist porn' he's perfecting in the
book?
'Everything I do,' he says, 'is both tongue in cheek and
not.'
For more information on Real
Astrology call 415/995-2670 or visit his website at
www.realastrology.com
Page:
<< Previous 1 | 2 |