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WaPo Intern Pokes Poetry, Concludes It Is No Longer Living
On her aptly titled ComPost blog, Harvard grad and erstwhile pundit/humorist Alexandra Petri uses Richard Blanco as a footstool (much as Marlowe‘s Tamburlaine did the Emperor of the Turks) and from that elevation declaims her negative opinion of American poetry.Read More
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Avant-Chunks
“I like the idea of inspiration as regurgitated output. I’m stealing all these ideas from you, I hope you know, so don’t get mad when you see the regurgitated output … uh, I mean ‘inspiration’….” –“Poet” Sharon Mesmer in a Harriet interview with Edwin Torres. Torres prefaces his chat with Mesmer by claiming that her “poem” entitled “This Poem” “shows a fabulous breadth of poetics.” Since the “poem” is a flarf assemblage of stolen phrases, this is like praising a burglar’s storage unit for showing a fabulous breadth of commodities. The comparison of poetics and commodities is appropriate.Read More
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A World of Things
Bill Knott asks some important (to the extent that poetry is important) questions here and here. His focus is Objectivism (the Zukofsky/Williams/Reznikoff/Oppen Objectivism, not the hilariously stupid “philosophy” cooked up by that maven of selfishness, Ayn Rand), one of the root assumptions of which is the notion that content doesn’t matter. In fact, Objectivist poetry exalted a world of things, a world without meaning—except for the significance imposed upon it by the poet.Read More
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Wring Them Hands*
This bit of hand-wringing is amusing, coming as it does from the folks who last year brought us a celebration of Flarf and Conceptual Writing—two “movements” aiming to elevate plagiarism to an art form.Read More
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Heartless Imperialism
In the middle of a fascinating essay on Artificial Intelligence and what the author calls the “cerebral imperialism” that drives it, I came across this: Intelligence co-developed with other processes embedded in the body and designed for evolutionary advancement–love, for example, and empathy. A non-loving and non-empathetic humanlike empathy is a terrifying thing. In fact, we already have non-loving, non-empathetic autonomous creations that function by using humanlike intelligence. They’re powerful and growing, and they operate along perfectly logical lines in order to ensure their own survival and well-being. Here are two of them: British Petroleum and Goldman Sachs.Read More
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A Whisper from the Exobrain
Remember your favorite mantra as a kid during car trips: “Are we there yet?” Dilbert creator Scott Adams thinks so. Technically, you’re already a cyborg. If you keep your cell phone with you most of the time, especially if the earpiece is in place, I think we can call that arrangement an exobrain. Don’t protest that your cellphone isn’t part of your body just because you can leave it in your other pants.Read More
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Skeptic Pens Prose Poem
Professional skeptic Michael Shermer’s 100th column in Scientific American is a terrific piece, partly because it contains—in addition to his usual dose of clear thinking and deft handling of Big Ideas—this passage that amounts to a prose poem. It must be true — I saw it on television, at the movies, on the Internet. The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits, That’s Incredible, The Sixth Sense, Poltergeist, Loose Change, Zeitgeist the Movie. Mysteries, magic, myths and monsters. The occult and the supernatural. Conspiracies and cabals. The face on Mars and aliens on Earth. Bigfoot and Loch Ness. ESP and PSI.Read More
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“Avaunt, malignant enchanters!”
Regarding my just previous post, you can find Kenneth Goldsmith’s introduction to the Flarf/Conceptual Writing section of the latest issue of Poetry here.Read More
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A Blogger’s Notebook 9
THE EXHIBITION After Kenneth Goldsmith* It was clear that the artist had gone mad when he began to mistake his tools for works of art. And yet, as is often the case, there were those willing to indulge his madness. Hangers-on who praised his insight into art’s dependence on mechanical processes. Gallery owners who displayed his palette knives, worn-out brushes, canvas stretchers, rags. Wealthy patrons who relished the adventure of investing in aesthetic futures.Read More
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Cunning v. Clever
I just finished Willis Barnstone‘s intriguing memoir of his friendship with Jorge Luis Borges, With Borges on an Ordinary Evening in Buenos Aires. Barnstone is what I would call a transparent writer: his style is plain, direct, reserved, more interested in accuracy than fancy effects, but always open to Big Questions: Why do I exist? What do my dreams mean? Is there a real difference between dreams and waking experience? How do our creations originate and why? It’s no surprise that he was drawn to Borges, nor is it surprising that he treats Borges with great honesty and respect.Read More
Joseph Hutchison, Colorado Poet Laureate 2014-2019, has published 20 collections of poems and edited or co-edited three poetry anthologies. He currently directs two master’s-level programs for University College at the University of Denver: Professional Creative Writing and Arts & Culture Management. Joe lives with his wife, Melody Madonna, in the mountains southwest of Denver, Colorado, the city where he was born. 
