[Seven by Nine Squares home page] [Neoist Path] [Monty Cantsin]

Monty Cantsin


The basis of Neoism lies in the idea that anyone can be a particular individual. David Zack appropriated this idea from Berlin Dada, in whose case it was Christ, in Neoism this individual was Monty Cantsin. When Zack came up with the name Monty Cantsin he likened it to the name Santa Claus, revealing where the Berlin dadas probably got the idea of, obscuring where he had taken it from. Like Santa Claus, anybody can become Monty Cantsin, but nobody is Monty Cantsin. Cantsin is a fantasy figure. Neoism disintegrated in 1985 in arguments over exactly who Monty Cantsin was. Istvan Kantor, an important but mentally unbalanced Neoist, had been insisting for some time that he was 'the only and true Monty Cantsin' in the same way that other lunatics might insist that they 'really are' Christ, Santa Claus, or Louis XIV. With Kantor having gone completely gaga, other Neoists left the network in futile attempts to avoid personal communication with him.
Karen Eliot in SMILE 8, 1985