Being Dumb

By Kenneth Goldsmith | July 23,2013

I am a dumb writer, perhaps one of the dumbest thats ever lived. Whenever I have an idea, I
question myself whether it is sufficiently dumb. I ask myself, is it possible that this, in any way,
could be considered smart? If the answer is no, I proceed. I dont write anything new or original.
I copy pre-existing texts and move information from one place to another. A child could do what
I do, but wouldnt dare to fear of being called stupid.
I recently was in a public conversation with my dear friend Christian Bok. If I am the dumbest
poet thats ever lived, the Christian is the smartest. His projects are very complicated, taking
years to complete. During our talk, Christian went on at length about a project hes been working
on for the past decade, one which involved basically giving himself a PhD in genetics. In order
to compose two little poems, he had to learn to write computer programs which went through
something like eight million combinations of possible letters before hitting on the right ones.
And then he injected these poems into a strand of DNA, which was ultimately designed to
outlive the extinguishing of the sun. The whole thing involves working with laboratories and has
cost a hundred of thousands of dollars. Christian is super-articulate really more like a robot
than a person and had the audiences head spinning. When it came my turn to speak, all I
could muster was: and I transcribe traffic reports.
Christian and I deeply admire each others practices, but the truth is that while he easily could do
what I do, I could never do what he does.
Christian is smart. Smart is a star student, flawlessly dotting is and crossing ts. Arriving wellprepared and executing tasks with machinic precision, smart has studied its history and is ready
to wrestle with the canon. Cultivating circumscription, smarts eyes never leave the prize. Smart
is an over-achieving athlete, accomplishing things that mere mortals can only dream of. Complex
and deep, exclusive and elite, smart brims with value. Having sweated for what its
accomplished, smart plays a handsome dividend to those invested. Smart moves ever-forward.
But by playing a high stakes game, smart is always paranoid that it might lose hard-won ground.
Smart is always looking over its shoulder. Success or failure, win or lose, smart trades in
binaries. Smart is exhausting and exhausted.
I am dumb. Dumbs an ill prepared slacker, riding on hunches and intuition, Willfully amnesiac
History, whats that? dumb is tabula rasa, full of emptiness. Caring little for progress or