Combinatory Poetics

  While reading chapter two of Electronic Literature I learned about the different genres of combinatory poetics as well as its long history. Combinatory poetics is a style of literature that generates a strange structure of text. Combinatory poetics takes many forms whether it be in art, music, and digital to name a few. This chapter showed me how embedded combinatory literature is in our culture. One example of combinatory poetics that really resonated with me was Mad-Libs. Mad-Libs is a watered-down example because, “one of the basic principles of many poetry generators is indeed that of substitution, if most often from the arrays of a database rather than on the basis of the whims of a young reader” this is a great example in society today (Rettberg 29). I was amazed at how many computer systems were able to systematically generate poems and novels. I loved that human literature could be reborn into the digital world through procedural operation from a computer. I spent some time on Cent mille milliards de poèmes and created my own interesting combinatory poem which can be found below.

    One reference from this chapter that piqued my interest was Jason Nelson’s this is how you will die (2005). This digital work is set up like a slot machine where the player has five turns to see how you will die. I choose a quote from the passage that best summarized how this work relates to combinatory poetics: “The combinatory element is effective here because the arbitrary nature of the random element is, in fact, no less arbitrary, and no less absurd, than mortality itself” (Rettberg 46). Sadly, when I went to investigate the site, I got a notice stating that “The Electronic Literature Lab could not preserve this flash” however they did say they were planning on preserving it at some point. From the main page I learned that the fictional poem gives you a setting, method on how you are killed, and a post death result with each new spin. Nelsons love for video games really allowed him to generate a digital poem through of a video game.

Comments

  1. Abby T.February 5, 2023 at 12:06 PM

    I was also thinking about looking at "this is how you will die." It's so sad that it's not preserved yet... I also really liked your poem, especially the emphasis you put on reading and the brave man with the one tongue

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