The New Fade 7

in the New Fade,
El Dorado breeds eternal,
unicorns were never rhinos,
and Dr. Livingston?
we would never presume!
we would accuse!
J'accuse!

The New Fade 6

how did people remember
back then
when even the written word
did not exist?

how did they trust
the word of mouth?

well, back then
it might have been
more reliable,
I expect

now, all truth fades
to within recent memory,
which distorts quicker,
finds narratives
that were never there,
fades in and fades out,

like a heartbeat,
lonely and strong

the Old Fade counted time
in millennia;
the New Fade counts it
in milliseconds

The New Fade 5

The New Fade is defined
by the shift between
Billy Joel singing
"We didn't start the fire"
to somewhere along the line
a different song saying,
I don't know which,
that we did

The New Fade 4

I find it hugely ironic
that the only thing
that makes the New Fade work
is the notion of fake news
which recently has become a banner
for those who always benefit from it
to use against their enemies

The New Fade 3

When I conjured the New Fade
it felt like Dylan plugging in at Newport
but today it's more like Dylan's voice today
and how it's become the butt of jokes,
getting in the way of people taking him seriously

I mean, Bob Dylan?
Didn't he get his stamp of immortality?

Someone came up with
the Advanced Genius Theory,
where if a genius is discovered
it actually becomes harder
to appreciate their further genius
and maybe that's the New Fade

The modern era, which is to say the New Fade,
has become a cesspool of privilege,
taking all things for granted,
celebrating arbitrary achievements,
imaginary things,
because it's far harder to acknowledge
that Dylan is still Dylan,
that his voice is a choice,
and that it's not really about Quality at all
but Value

We're too focused
on our slings and arrows,
shooting the ladder
out from under us,
clinging to the precipice of history,
convinced of mediocre opinions,
anyone with two fists,
to let good things speak for themselves

We're in the protection business,
shielding inferior things
from the barbs they deserve
and muting praise
for all things that do

And that's a dangerous Fade,
and it endangers the future, too,
lowering expectations so completely
we'll be a bunch of idiots
before long

I mean, yeah, the Red Sox made that look good,
but if you face the truth you'll know
that you'll never be as good
as that miracle 2004 season

Which, more to the point,
is what's really wrong with the New Fade,
because we've destroyed the concept
of miracles

We buy them too cheaply

The New Fade 2

And what is the New Fade, then?
A riddle, dispatches from the past,
sent hurtling into the future,
with the present hardly to be accounted for.

The New Fade 1

I used to think
I understood
what modern times
were all about

I called them
the New Fade
because nothing seems to work
the way it used to,
any way that makes sense
really

But the New Fade
was supposed to be
about rapidity

Not some perverse
entrenchment

No,
not the one
everyone seems
fixated on

But a willful denial
that such a thing as history
still exists

That we actually can know
what happened in the past
and that we can still apply it
today

So maybe
just maybe
the New Fade
has now become
something else

A study of
the information age
in which we seem to know
nothing

How's that for a change?