We will not rest until William Shakespeare’s works are banned and banned forever ...

 NONE DARE CALL IT NIHILISM 

Luther Blissett

Neoist aesthetics are characterised by the practice of plagiarism and the use of collective pseudonyms. Plagiarism is a means of attacking private property, while the adoption of the name Luther Blissett by all members of the Neoist Network, is central to the movement's death struggle with capitalism.

Backtracking for a moment to the late sixteenth century, we find that playwrights such as Shakespeare and Marlowe often plagiarised plots and ideas from earlier writers. In this plagiaristic aspect of Elizabethan drama, we can discern a highly advanced form of proto-modernism.

Plagiarism was also particularly well-used by Lautreamont/Ducasse (1846-70). Similarly, the work of William S. Burroughs is heavily dependent on plagiarism in terms of both content and style. This is particularly noticeable in relation to the texts of Tzara and Artaud.

The great advantage of plagiarism as a literary method is that it removes the need for talent, or even much application. All you really have to do is select what to plagiarise. Enthusiastic beginners might like to start by plagiarising this essay. A hard-core nihilist might choose to plagiarise it verbatim; while those individuals who labour under the delusion that they are of a more artistic bent, will probably want to change a word here and there — or even place the paragraphs in a different order!

It should not be forgotten that plagiarism is a highly creative exercise and that with every act of plagiarism a new meaning is brought to the plagiarised work. Unfortunately, this does not alter the fact that the capitalistic forces controlling Western culture have proscribed as illegal the plagiarising of modern texts. However, do not allow this to deter you from plagiarising modern work. A few sensible precautions will protect you from prosecution. The basic rule in avoiding copyright infringement is to take the idea and spirit of a text without actually plagiarising it word for word. One of the best examples of this is Orwell’s 1984 — which is a straight rewrite of Zamyatin’s We. Anyone with a serious interest in neo-plagiarism should spend some time comparing these two texts.

In the area of popular music, a good example of neo-plagiarism is the way in which the chord sequence was lifted from Louie Louie and married to the words of Wild Thing. This is plagiarism at its best, with no redeeming factors such as a clever change of context.

In short, plagiarism saves time and effort, improves results and shows considerable initiative on the part of the individual plagiarist. As a revolutionary tool, it is ideally suited to the demands of the late twentieth-century.

Compiled in the late eighties from texts in three year old issues of Smile magazine.

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BAN MACBETH 

Campaign to Abolish the Complete Works of William Shakespeare.

We call upon the government to take immediate action to ban this evil play and all other works by the depraved author William Shakespeare. It is our desire to see these foul abominations publicly burned as a warning to others. The public will no longer tolerate the vomit that is thrust down our throats that some call culture, art & literature.

It has been revealed that MacBeth, the sadistic work of sixteenth century playwright William Shakespeare, was the favourite book of Stephen Wilkinson, the fucked-up-schizo-psycho-killer who viciously stabbed to death a defenceless 12 year old schoolgirl last March. Schizo-Wilkinson carried a copy of MacBeth with him everywhere and tragically so on that fatal day last March when he marched into Halgarth Comprehensive School in Middlesborough carrying in his holdall three knives, a hatchet, a Colt 45 replica revolver and a copy of MacBeth. It has also been revealed that Wilkinson had pinned a quotation by Jonathan Swift to his bedroom wall, describing humanity as the ‘pernicious race-odious little vermin’. From this evidence we believe that it is not far-fetched to draw the conclusion that Wilkinson’s reading of these black mass-terpieces of the occult led directly to the brutal murder of the innocent young schoolgirl.

This is evidence enough in our eyes that MacBeth and other works by William Shakespeare reported to contain many depraved acts of sex and violence, be removed from the national curriculum forthwith and that the poisoning of our children’s young minds ceases immediately. 

Who knows what other works by Shakespeare (that freak of nature some call a writer) psychos like Wilkinson could have read and what disgusting filth is pillaging our children’s innocent young minds. The works of these shameless authors litter our bookshops, which in some cases are no more than brothels. How can we defend publication and distribution of this noxious material? Those responsible should be prosecuted and punished. We will not rest until William Shakespeare’s works are banned and banned forever, then and only then will we sleep safely in our beds. We await the government’s response.

First issued as a leaflet by Shakespeare Is a Sicko, Campaign to Abolish the Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Glasgow 1996.

Mind Invaders, edited by Stewart Home