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nathaniel dickson, from seizing the means: towards a trans epistemology, from transgender Marxism, edited by joanne gleeson and elle o’rourke, 2021

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Open Letter to Ahmet Zappa and the Zappa Family Trust

Dear Ahmet Zappa and the Zappa Family Trust,

I am writing to you both as a life-long fan of Frank Zappa’s music and a working musician. Recent times have shown many startling changes in the dynamics of live music, some for good, some for bad, and, as Saturday Night Live’s recent musician spotlights, South Park’s satiric commentary on Lorde, and scores of hours of godawful pop songs will show, we now live in an era where any talentless hack can make an immensely lucrative performing career for him or herself simply by looking good and having enough money for a stage crew and convincing lip-synch track. With all that and the recent massacre in Las Vegas, live music as honest, hard-working people know it is in danger of total extinction under the monopoly of fake corporate “music” and it is this that shows the vital role of such figures as Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention and their vision in keeping any notion of honest performance by talented musicians alive.

It has come to my attention that the ZFT has recently put in motion a tour for some of the original members of the Mothers accompanied by the ghostly hologram of Frank Zappa, and it lifts my spirit to know Napoleon Murphy Brock or Ruth Underwood could be on tour again, playing Frank’s music. However, this is only coming to me after what looks to be a years-long struggle between the ZFT and Dweezil Zappa over the right to perform or use the name Zappa in his performances. I never knew Frank and only met Dweezil a couple of times, but I can say, through having listened to Zappa Sr.’s recordings since I was seven years old, that he dedicated his entire life to bringing to the public a real, honest production of amazingly talented musicians beyond any compromise, and the triumph of the human spirit against bean-counting conservatives and corner-cutting industrialists. Bearing the name Zappa, you must also have that commitment, otherwise, why sue a working musician over the right to bear it? What exactly does it mean to you?

My plea is twofold: One, for simple musical integrity; I want the absolute assurance that, on this upcoming tour, the only pre-recorded material will be that of Frank himself and not the remainder of the band. The other half is that, while I cannot know the true facts of the internal, domestic struggle between Dweezil and the rest of the family, y’all have to start playing on the same team. You ARE on the same team, and petty squabbles over recognition or rights to legal names or “piece of the pie” ownership have to stop. This is about the right of a working, honest musician to make living pay, and for the right for intelligent composers to be able to make their own music, however weird or unorthodox it is, without buckling down to industry standards and inane pop-music formulae. You are on the front lines of a battle between great composers and insipid, greedy, glorified strippers who pose as musicians and it is my hope that the Zappa name can continue to survive through it, even if it means swallowing of pride. Frank Zappa’s music is what keeps me alive today, and the same is probably true of most of the people who would pay to see his hologram on stage. I beg you, please let the musicians who are still alive continue to work.

Sincerely,

Nate Dickson P.S.

If you meet Lana Del Rey at some point, tell her to get “bURnt.”

Most trans people are familiar with the difficulties of choosing a name. A trans epistemology doesn't demand fidelity to a given name, but rather to the process of naming itself. A given name should be a gift and not a catechism; kept if it's useful, and given away if it's not. To name yourself is to assert your active participation in shaping our shared reality. To claim a new name is to resist the call to submit to language as a vehicle for carrying (someone else's) objective meaning, and instead insist on meaning as a relationship, in this case made real by imagining and labouring towards a future self.

Nathaniel Dickson, ‘Seizing the Means: Towards a Trans Epistemology’ in Transgender Marxism (p. 207)

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