Tuesday, February 20, 2007
The Lady or the Machine?
What does it mean for a poem to develop an idea?
Here are two stanzas, one from the poem of a blooded author and the other straight from the machine--zero edits. Quick! Which one is the Machine's and which is “real”?
1.
The winged pen rests.
Cantilevering from the content, the other larger slab.
Accompanied by a dog or standing apart,
he hears it also.
We are at table.
Chronological tables, with rustic setting.
2.
Rusty as a rumour
Rustle because to
represent will be
to retreat
Respectable as a
restraint
Reciting recrudescence
Which then? Which speaks more theoretically—the resting pen or the failure of representation? One of these is real and so one would conclude contains or contributes to an idea. The other is not real. But is that because of the lack of the idea? Is the idea of content as scaffolding a better idea than the idea of deference to the restraint of form? Quick! Which?
I suspect that half of you will say “1” and the other half “2.” Both halves will have good reasons. The only table from which anyone can pick at the food of poetry is the table of time says one half. The only possible recitation is the recitation of recurrence—there is nothing new under the sun says the other.
Perhaps we should vote. That would end the question for once and all wouldn’t it—quality by consensus—and poetics as contest (or politics)?
Is there a politics of intention, then? The cynic’s refuge, everything reduced to dung (or dross), as if any power so acquired could ever be of matter. (Never forget that in Erica's meaning absolutely nothing at all, it is impossible for her to say just what it is she means—and so nothing she says could ever matter either.)
So which is it? 1 or 2? Which is sleight of hand and which is in plain sight, cited plain?
Framed in those terms, the way to tell then is to look for deception. The poem that draws a blanket of deceit up to its chin to disguise its nakedness would be Erica's and the one unashamed of nakedness would be some other, some real woman’s work. She professes a vision of the world. Erica (that little snake) conceals (and so confesses) a lie.
But it all comes down to a guess doesn’t it? And the idea of the poem then is in the guessing. It’s always in the guessing. So guess: 1 or 2? The lady or the Machine?
Comments welcome.
# posted by Jim @ 11:02 AM 
Comments:
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I rarely read poetry, so I have little experience with the variety of devices and nuances that successful poets employ. I have no idea if Erica wrote poem 1 or 2, which is impressive to me. Your system, at least at times, would seem to do well at a Turing Poetry competition.
How fine-grained is the generation of Erica's text? To what extent is Erica repurposing previous writers' writing, a sort of unconscious thinking method? (A completely valid way to write, I'd suggest.)
How fine-grained is the generation of Erica's text? To what extent is Erica repurposing previous writers' writing, a sort of unconscious thinking method? (A completely valid way to write, I'd suggest.)
The Machine text is as fine-grained as its grammar. Etc3's TAG grammar is general enough to include "poetic" language (e.g.: rhythm can be in the grammar).
So Etc3 does not algorithmically repurpose other writers' work. But since its grammar and its grammar's implementation are constrained by my notions of what poetry is, my tastes in what kinds of poetry are valid, and my knowledge and experience with poetry, its "work" is a repurposing. All writing is rewriting, whether with ink and quill or silicon. History's trace is here as much as it is anywhere, maybe more so.
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So Etc3 does not algorithmically repurpose other writers' work. But since its grammar and its grammar's implementation are constrained by my notions of what poetry is, my tastes in what kinds of poetry are valid, and my knowledge and experience with poetry, its "work" is a repurposing. All writing is rewriting, whether with ink and quill or silicon. History's trace is here as much as it is anywhere, maybe more so.
# posted by 
: 7:32 AM
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