The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1951-04-20
This Rock
Of Our"
By BILL GLIB

was important Dut II ulQIl l Qly
your entrance into any crowd.
The principle requirement IN the
way of clothes was that they be
clean. Education didn't matter
and atrocious English was as ac-
ceptable as an Oxford accent il
you had something to say.
We played with any child in
the neighborhood. ! can recall
when my grandmother first
stopped me from playing with
the little colored boy on Johnson
lane. He and had quarrelled.
struck him and Dona, as we
called my grandmother, made me
come into the house.
Billy" she lectured, you
mustn't ever strike colored per
son or abuse one. They don't
enjoy the same privileges you do,
and they can't strike back. Only
a coward would take advantage
of them"
She stopped me from playing,
not because of any capital 80
society reasons, but because the
play would be too one-sided. II
was the beginning of contin-
pous lecture that l should always
tight only those who were in a
position TO fight back. The re-
suit is that more often than not,
] get a sound thrashing.
Lately, Key West has been in
vaded by a Bohemian crowd.
They initiate Bette Davis; they
initiate Ernest Hemingway. They
pretend to paint pictures and, as
Old Gold would say, There's not
an artist in a Carload" Their
writing is as false as it is super
fluous-consisting principally OF
fluwery adjectives, n a 10 W
thoughts, and praise of their
own selves and their own kind.
With the added implication that
the rest of the Rock, and the
world in general, is dirt.
Needless to say. I'm somewhat
provoked. Not because these
people are here. If they want
their own Greenwich Village, and
if they want it here on the Rock,
fine and dandy. There's room
enough for all. My only request
is that they let me pass on the
windward side when we meet on
the street.
DADAISM was an aesthetic
movement that became popular
during World War /. In the fields
of art and literature, its purpose
was to destroy, to mock, to per
vert all forms of painting, phil
osophy, music, poetry, etc.
AT typical Dadaistic meeting,
some poet would recite non
sensical words as verse, piano
would bang out discordant sounds,
u philosopher would spout any
thing that crossed his mind, and
ether people would shout and
sing. All Of these activities were
carried out simultaneously and
invariably a riot would end the
meeting.
Probably 70 escape the insane
asylum, Dadaism gradually died
out among its adherents and in
It's place, SURREALISTIc ART
was substituted.
That's the so-called art that
you look at and probably see
twenty different eyes sticking
out of a guys forehead. The
kind that makes you shudder to
imagine that such horrible pic
TIRES can be maintained in a
human mind, much less be given
expression by a painters hand.
Salvador Dali is prime example
Of suErealistic art. If you con-
slider his pictures bad, and re-
member, he is a master draughts-
man, you should see some of the
inexcuSable limitations of self
styled artists here in Key West.
Surrealism of course, extends
! to other fields of art, such as lit
erature, etc. Perhaps that ex-
plains some of the local writers.
Marquis de Sadi, who gave us
the word "Sadism," is claimed
by the surrealiSt as an early ex-
ample.
In its early days, Surrealism
also claimed that it was a rep
resentative of Communism in
art. A claim that must have
given any Self-respecting Com.
munist palpitations of the heart.
They promptly and vigorously
denied the claim. The only sem
sible move / ever heard of a
Russian making.
Outside of Key West, this form
of art quite often creates amuse-
ment because of its eomical and
superficial qualities. Here it cauS-
eS people to swoon.
They exclaim, How beauti-
full and How well-written!"-
etc.
The Hippocrites! They don't
even know what they are looking
at or reading.