Eve's Week 2: Combinatory Poetics
This chapter of Electronic Literature helped me understand the usefulness of combinatory poetry. Rettberg writes, “The goal for the author of a combinatory work is not to produce the best literary expression of an idea, but the most interesting range of possibilities the literary system can produce” (Rettberg 43). Previously I felt unsure about what the value of this type of writing was because a lot of it was computer generated. This had me questioning if computer generated writing had the same value as something written entirely by a person. After reading this chapter, I realized that combinatory poetry is more about the literary system than the content itself. As Marshall McLuhan said, "the medium is the message". The actual content of some of these poems is nonsensical, but the way it’s generated makes it interesting and gives the work meaning. Sometimes it is possible to take meaning from the words too, and the randomly generated content can inspire other ideas and be interpreted in different ways.
I decided to take a closer look at Taroko Gorge. I’ve interacted with this piece before, so I wanted to take another look at it with a new perspective. It is a really interesting piece because it is never ending and each time you restart it the words are rearranged again. This fits the objective that Rettberg highlights about the importance of the range of possibilities the program is capable of. I like that the code can be "hacked" and rewritten with different words, making the possibilities even more endless.
I also struggled with the value of combinatory works before this chapter so I'm glad to see that you had similar thoughts. Beyond just the interesting medium, the way they inspire creativity is particularly interesting to me. One of the biggest roadblocks to creating is coming up with an articulate idea. The randomness of combinatory poetics works as a sort of guideline and can help them form a more complete thought.
ReplyDeleteEve, I also can understand your feelings about the value of literature if generated by a computer. It may not have the emotional connection that can occur by writing in person. But yes, the writing is meaningful because of the random content!
ReplyDeleteGlad you came back to Taroko Gorge, though this is one that Rettberg sees as having more literary meaning. I'm glad you like the "hacking" idea as we're going to do that next week! :)
ReplyDeleteEve, I come from a similar understanding of combinatory pieces, they seemed valuable but hard to distinguish in a literary sense. "The medium is the message" is a quote that also stood out to me, defining the value of this genre. It is interesting to search for meaning in places beside the content itself.
ReplyDeleteThe Taroko Gorge sounds super interesting and fun! I like how you described hacking it, and rewritting it with different words to create a new piece. I feel like to get a better understanding I would need to check it out for myself, but from what you explained it seems very interactive and fun!
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like a wonderful interactive piece! It is certainly something that I am going to check out as I love the idea of human writing mixed with a neverending generation of text, and the idea of being able to hack the writing sounds so cool!
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