Contra Luis García Montero

 Ok.  I'm almost done with the article taking down LGM one more time. It probably is unpublishable because it takes on significantly powerful people.  

Some important points that gelled in my mind this morning as I showered and had coffee and drove to work:

1. The poetry of experience abandons Marxism very quickly. But it is a Marxist formalism in the first place, without any content. For example, you cannot have Brechtian estrangement just because; it has to be in the service of something concrete. This is why right-wing poets can also write poetry of experience.   

2. It is this abandonment of Marxism that allows them to pursue power in a society which is de-ideologized. They start out in the Communist party, but the PCE loses voters with every election, becoming Izquierda Unida, also abandoning Leninist principles. The PSOE declares itself socialist, but not Marxist, and Spain joins NATO.  They convert poetry, essentially, into an ideological state apparatus (Althusser).  This is not only non-Marxist, but anti-Marxist.  [rimshot].

This group has pursued institutional power relentlessly.  LGM is on every prize committee for 40 years. He gets paid each time, I'm assuming. He is the director of the Cervantes institute. He writes for the El país. He runs for political office. He has imitators and lackeys. The experiencia group has its own publishers (VISOR, Valparaíso).  

3.  A populism without any social commitment is simply a form of mercantilism.  Whatever sells the most copies is the best.  This leads to a sponsorship of the Rupi Kaur type poets.