 Paul Isthmus at 00:37 on 18 March 2006
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Hahaa! Love your note that accompanies this. I often feel like that after writing. Good question to ask.
I've been finding out about computer code recently, CSS and html, and spans and all sorts of gnarly stuff. It's quite amazing. It's basically language that physically describes light in a 3d space, which is sort of what the internet is, xyz axis and all that, a whole picture. I imagine what those chaps from the matrix see in their mind's eye when they look at all that binary.
This has a sort of matrix-like immediacy on the page. You can look at it as a whole and 'get it' - though you also get that it's confused. Like a mix between ascii art and poetry. Perhaps the best response would be in kind. So:
Night(*)
\
\
Remember her too + my/
/
/our |
love?
don't know. But <love>questions</love>=( )
=d(-_-)b=
meditate more.
*..
Paul I
<Added>
Bah! My formatting didn't work. Now it really makes no sense. How'd you get the space? I used spaces. Didn't work.
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DJC at 05:45 on 18 March 2006
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Bob - it reminds me a bit of something by ee cummings. An interesting experiment!
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paul53 [for I am he] at 08:29 on 18 March 2006
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I must confess I scratched my head so much over this that a stray spark nearly caught my hair alight.
I've seen similar to this on WW site [Hailfabio?] and it is certainly different, a bit of fun, and cunningly clever with the computer code.
Whether it is poetry or merely an interesting diversion, I'm at a loss to say. What I DO think is not many will bother to read it out from the brackets as deeply as you obviously worked out putting them in.
Maybe it is one of those pieces that will prove the 85%/15% rule: so 15% will get it and like it, while 85% will scratch their heads. Maybe also more appropriate to PGII that the Seminar?
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 Nell at 14:50 on 18 March 2006
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Hi Paul,
Rather than tip over over into total dottiness trying to work this out I'll just tell you that & n b s p ; (without the spaces between the letters etc.) will give you a tiny little bit of white space, so you'll probably need lots and lots of them. Experiment by using the Preview button to get them right - the only problemm is that they won't show up when you go back to edit, so you'll just have to add rather than subtract. Not sure if that makes sense or not, but hope it helps!
Nell.
<Added>
& n b s p ;
<Added>
Sorry! You're not Paul at all, you're Robert. Welcome to the Poetry Seminar!!
<Added>
Robert, you have space, so the note above was for Paul after all.
I'm afraid I couldn't fathom the poem fully, although I tried, but then I haven't a mobile so am textedly? challenged. As Darren says, it's a little like e e cummings - I thought of the little horse is newlY- somehow the feeling comes across and you wonder how.
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radavies1uk at 15:26 on 18 March 2006
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Hey Guys :)
Thanks, glad u got it :) I write this stuff all day for my day job, and usually have to follow various rules of the language.
Cheers
Bob :)
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DJC at 16:12 on 18 March 2006
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Bob,
Do have a go with the seminar exercises, as I really think they'll help, and you have a fantastic support in Nell.
D.
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Mac AM at 19:07 on 18 March 2006
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Hello, great idea, but I think you have to be kinder to your audience. Some of it is OK to work out, but the non geek might need a little kindness.
As a poem this is very novel, but obscure without a table:
e.g. SQL language / C
=! not equal too
== is a test
% a modulus operator
As a piece of working code, your select statement, as you know is incomplete without declarations!! It is a very very long time since I did SQL and C, but I’m pretty sure you for statement is illegal because for 1 to i is illegal! Your select statement is SQL, but I’m worried because C statements don’t I think end in a ;
But you are absolutely right, there is mathematics and programming languages in poetry and poetry in programming languages and mathematics.
Nice try though!
Mac
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radavies1uk at 19:18 on 18 March 2006
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Hey Mac :)
Glad you noticed the non-functioning of the code :) Like 'they' always say, the more eyeballs the less bugs ;)
Yeah, I took some liberties with the strictness of my compiler on this one :)
I typically write in C# nowadays, although I have also used all the BASIC versions (where I got the "1 to x" loop formatting). I also was going to insert the class definitions and instantiations but it kind of ruined the immediacy :)
I have an idea for an actual story written like this, but I get the feeling it wouldn't really be worth the time.
Cheers :)
Bob
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Mac AM at 19:35 on 18 March 2006
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Everything is worth the time so long as you consider that your although your readership is likely to be very smart, they may not always programming literate and if they are, they will want the code to work. There is always a danger of falling between the gap.
I'm a complete advocate of science in poetry, and though I would expect someone to look up a technical term, we have to be careful of alienating the reader. As a writer of science influenced poetry, I'm looking forward to seeing more. So don't stop!
Mac
<Added>
And I'll try it again so that my language makes sense!!!
Everything is worth the time so long as you consider that although your readership is likely to be very smart, they may not always be programming literate and if they are, they will want the code to work. There is always a danger of falling between the gap.
I'm a complete advocate of science in poetry, and though I would expect someone to look up a technical term, we have to be careful of alienating the reader. As a writer of science influenced poetry, I'm looking forward to seeing more. So don't stop!
Mac
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Mac AM at 20:48 on 18 March 2006
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Have you thought of using Pseudo Code? That way, you silence the crtisism of boring g*ts like me and produce something that a non programmer can follow, or piece together more easily?
I'm always banging on about code being a form poem, so I would love to see where you go with this.
Mac
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radavies1uk at 20:59 on 18 March 2006
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Hey Mac
I have some idiotic code I put together in 2001 that is kind of like this. Never considered it a poem form before but might post it (It's functional code, again minus the class definitions but would work as is with some extra support code).
Cheers :)
Bob
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Mac AM at 21:05 on 18 March 2006
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Good idea - and don't foget that poems can have footnotes, so you could make declarations that way.
Mac
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Mac AM at 11:09 on 20 March 2006
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Hello - well that one would compile and run. But the problem really is whether it is a poem
The concern that I have is that although, as I said earlier, there is mathematics and programming languages in poetry and poetry in programming languages and mathematics, I don't think ALL code is poetry just as all poetry isn't necessarily form.
The poetry audience is quite small as it is, so I think you are in very great danger of limiting your readership to those odd boffins who like both. Be honest - how many geeks do you know that prefer Keats to Asimov?
But I do love the idea, if you can find a more universal way of doing it. Lets see what others in the group might think.
Mac
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radavies1uk at 11:36 on 20 March 2006
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I get ya. I know a lot of developers who would look at it and think 'haha, fun but pointless', and no readers that would understand it, so generally seems pretty fruitless, but who knows :)
Bob
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Xenny at 19:37 on 27 March 2006
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Hey Bob
You appeared here in my absence - nice to meet you.
I've only just seen this - I love the idea! I don't know C or any of its derivatives, but I've been battling trying to get a peice of JavaScript to work today and then I saw this and it lightened my mood tremendously. I'm going back to my script now to turn it into a poem ;) Only joking but I do like the idea. Please please do more.
Glad you noticed the non-functioning of the code :) Like 'they' always say, the more eyeballs the less bugs ;)
Yeah, I took some liberties with the strictness of my compiler on this one :) |
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But it would be great if you wrote one that was also valid as code. I like tidyness ;)
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Xenny at 19:58 on 27 March 2006
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| I have an idea for an actual story written like this, but I get the feeling it wouldn't really be worth the time. |
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That might be taking it just a teeny bit too far.
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