A Letter from Saatchi Gallery

I got a rather strange email today. From Saatchi Gallery, of all places. Since my website is so astonishing, etc. etc., I am cordially invited to take advantage of free space on Saatchi.com. Of course, it turns out that so is everyone else in the world. Not absolutely everyone is sent an email, but anyone who goes to the site can set up a small gallery for free.

I took advantage of the opportunity, since any link is a good link, as far as I’m concerned. Even Stormfront can link to me if they want, as long as they don’t expect a return of the favor. I disagree with those such as Morgan Weistling, who strongly warns off anyone who wants to connect up with him. I think once you put images up on the web, you have to pretty much expect that people will be borrowing them and stealing them. You just have to hope that they can’t do much with small files except decorate their own little websites and refrigerators. And you certainly shouldn’t prevent them from linking to you. That is the whole point of the internet, seems to me. Anyway, every stolen image makes the original worth more. Even if someone stole all my 4mb original files, they would still just have potential posters, which are nothing compared to the originals. Computer files are not art, not by my definition. They are just PR. My future reputation lives on in the real works, not in the files. If you can’t share your files, you might as well turn off your computer and forget the whole thing.

Anyway, the reason I am here writing this note is that I think it is funny that Saatchi’s web reader did not scroll down past the first images on my site. If she had reached my “Introduction to the Argument against the Avant Garde” she might have skipped sending me an email. Inviting me to be on their site is a bit like inviting a boll weevil into the cotton field. I expect that at some point in the near future they will figure out who I am and formally dis-invite me, but until then we will have some fun. It is also somewhat akin to inviting a Jedi into the Imperial Fortress. If I end up reaching any kind of goal in this mad crusade of mine, it will be fine fodder for future historians, who may find it as rich as I do that the black king should leave unobstructed access to his last row.