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

One of the central tenets of Neoism


is simply that anyone can become Monty Cantsin and perform actions in his name. Cantsin is thus something between an enigma and an institution. He is a being around whom a vast Neoist mythology has accumulated. Nemesis seems powerless to dog his footsteps; retribution is incapable of tracking him down. He's voracious of appetite, prolific of explanation, eternally on the brink of affluence, forever in the slough of debt. He is, moreover, a prince among parasites, a master of optimism and a model of obtuseness. He can achieve more, and at less cost to himself, than a gypsy. He is as ancient as the hills, as genial as the sunshine and as cheerful as an expectant relative at the *death*bedside of wealth. He is unthinkable, unforgettable, unejectable, living on all men for all time. Nations die and rise again; Kings come and go; Emperiors soar and fall. But Monty Cantsin lives on and on and on.
Pete Scott in SMILE No.23, 1987

--> Commentary on the text by Paul Mann