917 lines
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917 lines
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/ _____/ /__ __/ / /
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/ /__ / / ____ __ __ __ ___ __ __ ____ / /
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/ ___/ __ / / / __ \ / / / / / //__/ / //_ \ / __ \ / /
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/ /____ / /_/ / / /_/ / / /_/ / / / / / / / / /_/ / / /
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\_____/ \____/ \____/ \____/ /_/ /_/ /_/ \__/_/ /_/
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March, 1996 _EJournal_ Volume 6 Number 1 ISSN 1054-1055
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There are 915 lines in this issue.
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An Electronic Journal concerned with the
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implications of electronic networks and texts.
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723 Subscribers in 32 Countries
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University at Albany, State University of New York
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EJournal@Albany.edu
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CONTENTS: [This is line 20]
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PRESSING THE "REVEAL CODE" KEY [Begins at line 51]
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by John Cayley
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cayley@shadoof.demon.co.uk
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Editorial Comment -- Spindle Those Web "Pages" [ at line 749 ]
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Information about _EJournal_ [ at line 827 ]
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About Subscriptions and Back Issues
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About Supplements to Previous Texts
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About _EJournal_
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People [ at line 880 ]
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Board of Advisors
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Consulting Editors
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*********************************************************************
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*****************************************************************
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* This electronic publication and its contents are (c) copyright *
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* 1996 by _EJournal_. Permission is hereby granted to give away *
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* the journal and its contents, but no one may "own" it. Any and *
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* all financial interest is hereby assigned to the acknowledged *
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* authors of individual texts. This notification must accompany *
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* all distribution of _EJournal_. *
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*****************************************************************
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======================================================================
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PRESSING THE "REVEAL CODE" KEY [line 51]
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by John Cayley
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cayley@shadoof.demon.co.uk
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1: The COMPUTER is (an integral part of) the SYSTEM against which
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WE write. [Please take a look, now, at note [*] on line 651.]
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The problem of characterizing "the computer" as both a constituent
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part of "the media" and an emergent artistic medium continues to
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engage critical attention. In _Radical Artifice: writing poetry in
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the age of media_, the poet and critic Majorie Perloff goes so far
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as to suggest that contemporary "poetic discourse defines itself as
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that which can violate the system." At this point in her argument
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"the system" refers to the computer-based, "inaccessible system
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core that increasingly controls discourse"; "the formulaic On/Off,
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Yes/No, Save/Delete dialectic of computer-speak." [1] However, this
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system is also, for Perloff, a metonym for the media writ large.
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Poetic writing aims to violate the systems of both computer and
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media, but without touching certain of the tools provided by these
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systems themselves -- in particular without pressing what Perloff
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calls "the Reveal Code key." That would be a self-limiting option,
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merely "selected" from the formulaic "control-key" offerings of
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the computer. Instead, poetic discourse aims "to 'reveal' that
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which falls, so to speak, between the control-key cracks." [2]
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This part of an explanation of "how a poem [by Charles Bernstein]
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means" -- and just one turn in the course of many interesting
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arguments throughout an extensive book -- relies heavily on a prose
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investigation of computer-as-medium, chiefly for video games, also
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by Bernstein. [3] His piece singles out "invariance, accuracy, and
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synchronicity" as qualities of information processing by computers
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which contrast sharply with those which "generally characterize"
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such processing by humans. He also points to a particular quality
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of computing in words which Perloff quotes, "the on-ness of the
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computer is alien to any sort of relation we have with people or
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things or nature, which are always and ever possibly present, but
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can't be toggled on and off in anything like this peculiar way." [4]
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The categorical simplicity of on/off, yes/no, save/delete, 1/0; the
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power to "shut-down" (virtual) relationships; invariance, accuracy,
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and synchronicity in the service of command and control -- this is a
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sinister, tyrannical conjunction and potential focus for Romantic
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disaffection which blossoms forth in subversive, linguistically
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innovative writing. But Bernstein is aware of the "Romantic
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nonsense" which might be read into his analysis of the "inaccessible
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system core." He nonetheless insists, quite rightly, on underlining
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the historical origins of that core complex in military funding for
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the development of computers. "Programs and games may subvert the
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command and control nature of computers, but they can never fully
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transcend their disturbing, even ominous, origins." That
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transcendental task must, presumably, be left to the poet.
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[line 103]
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2: INVARIANT inACCURATE SYSTEMS never sleep SYNCHRONICally.
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Both these pieces were published in 1991, since when the world has
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changed. It is beginning to dawn on us -- system developers have
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always known it -- that invariance, accuracy and synchronicity are
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ideals of computational information processing which never have
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been, and never will be, attained; that computers -- as their
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Networked instantiation: as the Matrix -- are never turned off;
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that systems have no essential "core," inaccessible or otherwise.
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As the operations of the computer become ever-more profoundly
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involved with even our most intimate activities, we imagine that
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they have acquired their share, however insignificant, of our own
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characteristics. In fact, they have always been compromised by such
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qualities. They do not function perfectly. Not even the hardware
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works with absolute invariance and accuracy, let alone with
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synchronicity. As for firmware and software -- we write it. It
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pretends our ideals and exhibits our failings. Certainly, computers
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have performed a range of functions -- command and control,
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accounting, database management, word processing -- in a manner
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which has radically influenced, not to say confused, our
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understanding of what they are and how they behave. But now, as
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they play out our chaotic fantasies over the sleepless matrix of
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cyberspace, we encounter their "humanity" daily -- failures,
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diseases, perversions -- and not mere simulacra of such phenomena,
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but "real" inscriptions of our creative and destructive activities
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on the surface of a complex medium. As real as poetry.
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[line 132]
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3: The COMPUTER is not (a part of) THE MEDIA. The COMPUTER allows
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for the COMPOSITION of an indeterminate number of potential MEDIA.
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These contrasting views of the "computer" and its characteristics
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arise in part because of a long-standing failure to distinguish
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between the "computer" *per se* and "computer-plus-software", or
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"computer-plus-code" (the code hidden under Perloff's "Reveal"
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key). There is a tendency to speak as if the computer *itself* is a
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part of the media and a potential artistic medium. But the computer
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itself is not even a machine. It is the quintessential programmable
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proto-machine. Without code, it does nothing. With appropriate
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software and peripherals it can be made to do or control anything.
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Until recently, computers have participated in the media as badly
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designed typewriter-cum-calculator-cum-filing-cabinet-cum-TVs
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running a limited range of software, hacked together to perform the
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command and control, accounting, management and bureaucratic
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functions already passed over.
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However, with other software "the computer" becomes an entirely
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different kind of medium, or rather a vast unbounded and
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indeterminate set of potential media. Computers (for which read:
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"networks of linked computers programmed to exchange information
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resources") have a new meaning as media, now that the Internet has
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reached a critical mass. Their more recognizably human
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characteristics become more noticeable. Even in the field of
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writing, new media are emerging: the development of the now-familiar
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link-node hypertext of the Web (globally), and a range of
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"authoring" packages (locally), means that the combination of
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computer-plus-hypertext-software will become a flexible and
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seductive literary medium, to which more and more new writers will
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turn.
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4: FAMILIARITY breeds CONTEMPT. INTIMACY inspires MYSTIFICATION.
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The very intimacy of the functions now performed by these systems
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encourages a tendency to mystify their inner workings, and to
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indulge a Romantic *ressentiment* when faced with their outward
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manifestations -- their "commands," their "controls" and our
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"programmed" responses. Other machines have functions which are
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clearly delineated by their physical form, by "programming" which
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is structurally and often visibly built into them. You may not be
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able to repair the engine or transmission of your car, but you can
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lift the hood and see a complex structure which is, appreciably, of
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human scale and manufacture, and which some other person like
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yourself might well be able to understand and repair. But the
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computer is a shape-shifter. Its engineering evolves beneath your
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fingers in a world too small to see, while before your eyes the
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system's functions change. One minute, it is a typewriter, the next
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a fax machine, the next it's "your personal accountant" (it
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lives!), and soon it will be helping you to read a poem, as well as
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keeping you in touch with both colleagues and lovers.
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[line 184]
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Even if you had considered it before, you no longer dare press the
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"Reveal Code" key. Not when there's a possibility that doing so
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might change your system's function in a way you hadn't predicted --
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and just as your electronic familiar was becoming so useful to you,
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so intimate with your personal and particular concerns. Neither --
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if you do hit the key by accident -- can you relate the functions
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your computer performs to the insubstantial, language-like
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engineering which makes it all happen.
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5: Software sHifts poetIcs, iF riTers prEss: <Reveal>
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Meanwhile the extension of such software engineering to the
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manipulation of poetic texts has already been achieved and will
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continue to be developed. John Cage's mesostics (internal acrostic
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poetry) are central to Perloff's critical text. Cage commissioned
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software -- to assist the generation of his mesostics -- from a
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writer who has gone on to make important explorations of the
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potentials within cybertextual poetics, Jim Rosenberg. [5] Had they
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not made actual use of computers and software, the explicitly
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procedural writings of Cage, Mac Low, Williams, Hartman/Kenner and
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others would nonetheless demand analysis that is engaged with the
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engineering of algorithms. [6] So "even" poetry must now be
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understood as influencing and perhaps fundamentally changing the
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characteristics of computer systems as artistic media. Poetry can
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no longer be understood simply as a (traditional) art which is
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(passively) changed or inflected by "the system." Whether and how
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poetry subverts this system is an open question.
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In remarks published on the Net which speak to the subject of
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constructive hypertexts (those which actively construct texts with
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or without reader intervention), Rosenberg has called for the
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problematized complexity of the reader/writer relationship to allow
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for a third term: the programmer. "What is the role of *the code*
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in setting the constructive act? A cautious view might limit the
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role of the code to simply setting the arena for the constructive
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act, and leaving it at that.... beyond this: the code might act as a
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*coparticipant* in the constructive act.... the code is not there
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as some kind of stub to be plugged into the socket of the
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constructive act like a stopper -- in place of the reader. One
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constructs with and against and amongst the code. But most of all
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one constructs! Agents should be used to enrich the construction,
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not to do away with the need for it." [7] [line 226]
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Rosenberg responds to the notion that agents of the system --
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unrevealed, encoded, virtual readers -- have been active in
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manipulating certain literary texts (plucking, say, words from James
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Joyce's _Finnegans Wake_ and fitting them into Cage's tall,
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mesostic, author-naming verses). Such operations are sometimes seen
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as substitutes for the reader's potential activity, as control over
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her attention and response. Rosenberg suggests rather that if we
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acknowledge these coded agents, if we read "with and against and
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amongst" them, we may enrich the constructive act of reading itself.
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But I want to focus on the fact that these agents are themselves
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constructed, and they may be authored by the writer or designer of
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both given text and its modulated form (in any particular reading or
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performance) as an integral part of the entire "work." Writers may
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also write "with and against and amongst" the code.
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Each term of the writer/ reader/ programmer triangle is a shifter.
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Just as writer may be reader, and reader may be writer, in current
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(post-modern) critical perspectives, so either of these absent
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agents may be programmers: systematic manipulators of text and
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intertext, making use of software which has become intimate with
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poetics. Poets and readers must become intimate with software.
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They must press the "Reveal Code" key.
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[[Sections 6 to 8 of this essay have been software-generated by
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applying semi-aleatory collocational procedures to arguments
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extracted from the earlier sections. Look for details about
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the procedure in the Explanatory Note at line 651.]
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6 THESIS
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inflected by computers
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their disturbing even ominous origins
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changed or inflected by the system
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of command and control
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this is a sinister tyrannical conjunction
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military funding for romantic disaffection
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which blossoms forth in subversive
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linguistically innovative writing
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[line 267]
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before your eyes the on-ness of the computer
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aims to shut-down
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the reader's potential activity
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her attention and response
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falls between the categorical simplicity
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of the systems
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and control
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this is an integral part of the system against which we write
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unrevealed encoded virtual relationships
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invariance accuracy and synchronicity
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are qualities of the system
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that increasingly controls discourse
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the computer is an integral part of the system
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which has radically influenced our understanding
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poetic discourse aims to reveal
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that which falls between the control-key cracks
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this is a world
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alien to any sort of
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potential activity
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touching certain of the tools
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for romantic disaffection
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manipulating certain literary texts
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might change
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your system's
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function in a way you hadn't predicted
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its engineering evolves
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in subversive linguistically innovative writing
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inflected by these systems themselves
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without pressing the reveal code key
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[line 305]
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a shape-shifter
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a substitute for the reader's potential activity
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the computer is alien
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to any sort of relation we have with people or things or nature
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the power to shut-down virtual relationships
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in a way you hadn't predicted
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is an integral part of the media
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the formulaic control
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over her attention and response
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can never fully transcend
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the historical origins of the system
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which has radically influenced our understanding
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information processing by humans
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defines itself
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is a part of the system core
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this is an integral part of the reader's potential
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inflected by these systems
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our understanding
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can never fully transcend
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the categorical simplicity of
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unrevealed encoded virtual relationships
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of both computer and media
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without pressing the
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reveal code key
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a self-limiting option merely selected from the insubstantial
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language-like engineering which makes it all happen
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poetry subverts the system
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[line 338]
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7 ANTITHESIS
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even our most intimate
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operations have always been compromised
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by such qualities
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the computer becomes an entirely different
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kind of medium
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influencing and perhaps fundamentally changing
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the system
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a flexible and seductive literary medium
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to enrich
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such phenomena
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real inscriptions of our chaotic fantasies
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writers may also write with
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a machine
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with and against and amongst
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the code
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these agents are themselves constructed
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they have acquired their share
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of our own characteristics
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the computer's operations have no essential core
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the manipulation of poetic texts
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will continue to be developed
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readers must press
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for the composition
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of an indeterminate set of potential media
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these absent agents may be authored
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in the constructive act
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as real as poetry
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inscriptions of
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the need for
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a flexible and seductive literary medium
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to be developed [line 377]
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it pretends our ideals and exhibits our most intimate
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activities on the surface
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of a complex medium
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text and intertext
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if we read with and against and amongst the code
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each term of the system
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becomes an entirely different kind of
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coparticipant in the constructive act
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reading itself
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may be authored
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making use of software
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which has become intimate with poetics
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poets and readers must become
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ever-more profoundly involved
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with even our most intimate
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chaotic fantasies
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readers must press for the composition
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of an entirely different kind of
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text and intertext
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making use of a coparticipant in the constructive act
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reading itself
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is the quintessential programmable proto-machine
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without code it does nothing
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with appropriate software
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which has become intimate with poetics
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it can be made to do away with the need for it
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one constructs with and against and amongst the code
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it can be made to enrich such phenomena
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real inscriptions of our most intimate activities
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real inscriptions of our creative
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and destructive
|
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operations
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|
|
so either of these absent agents may be programmers
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systematic manipulators of text
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authored in the constructive act as
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poetry
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inscriptions of the code
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each term of the code
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each term of the field of writing
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press the reveal code key
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8 SYNTHESIS [line 428]
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coparticipant in the manipulation of poetic texts
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these absent agents may also
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enrich such phenomena
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real inscriptions of potential activity
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control over her attention and response
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inflected by the system
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|
|
these agents are themselves constructed
|
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they may be programmers
|
|
systematic manipulators of text
|
|
of unrevealed encoded virtual relationships
|
|
|
|
ideals of computational information processing
|
|
in a potential focus for
|
|
the manipulation of
|
|
both computer and media
|
|
will continue to be attained
|
|
|
|
both given text and its modulated form
|
|
in any particular reading or performance
|
|
have no essential core
|
|
|
|
real inscriptions of our own characteristics
|
|
the computer's operations
|
|
have been active in manipulating
|
|
certain of these absent agents
|
|
|
|
themselves constructed
|
|
they can never fully transcend
|
|
the historical origins of software engineering
|
|
|
|
poetry is alien to
|
|
shut-down virtual readers
|
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of the system that increasingly controls discourse
|
|
the reveal code key
|
|
even our failings
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[line 466]
|
|
they have acquired their share
|
|
of our most intimate activities
|
|
on the surface of a shifter
|
|
just as writer may also write with a machine
|
|
|
|
it pretends our ideals
|
|
of computational information processing
|
|
in a traditional art
|
|
which is passively changed or inflected
|
|
by the on-ness of
|
|
|
|
the computer is a potential
|
|
inflected by these systems
|
|
a flexible and seductive literary medium
|
|
|
|
poetic discourse aims to violate
|
|
|
|
the computer is alien to
|
|
any sort of relation we have with absolute invariance
|
|
|
|
accuracy and synchronicity
|
|
are qualities of poetic texts
|
|
and ever possibly present
|
|
but they can be left
|
|
to be a self-limiting option
|
|
merely selected from the insubstantial
|
|
|
|
language-like engineering
|
|
to do away with appropriate software
|
|
which has radically influenced
|
|
our most intimate chaotic fantasies
|
|
|
|
readers must press
|
|
for the composition of an entirely different kind of text
|
|
|
|
an indeterminate number
|
|
of our most intimate operations
|
|
have always been compromised by computers
|
|
|
|
readers must become ever-more profoundly involved
|
|
with appropriate software
|
|
which has radically influenced our understanding of
|
|
|
|
what they are
|
|
|
|
vast unbounded
|
|
and never turned off
|
|
systems have no essential core
|
|
|
|
the reveal code key
|
|
coparticipant in the composition
|
|
|
|
[Some lines in Section 9 extend beyond our normal margins in order
|
|
to accomodate HyperTalk scripting. The complete code is available
|
|
at
|
|
http://www.demon.co.uk/eastfield/in/indown.html
|
|
|
|
Again, please read the Explanatory Note, at line 651, for details.]
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|
|
9 <REVEALED> [line 526]
|
|
|
|
on inflect
|
|
repeat twice
|
|
do "global " & characteristics
|
|
end repeat
|
|
lock screen
|
|
put potential & space after card field system
|
|
if media & comma is in field computer of card understanding & ",text"
|
|
then
|
|
put return after card field system
|
|
put true into subversive
|
|
end if
|
|
if compromised then show card field agents
|
|
do "unlock screen with dissolve " & fantasies
|
|
end inflect
|
|
|
|
on write
|
|
repeat twice
|
|
do "global " & characteristics
|
|
end repeat
|
|
repeat with programmers = one to always
|
|
if touching then
|
|
put essential into invariance
|
|
else
|
|
put the round of simplicity * engineering / synchronicity + one
|
|
into invariance
|
|
end if
|
|
if invariance is greater than the random of engineering and
|
|
not categorical then
|
|
put ideals + one into media
|
|
if subversive then
|
|
put false into subversive
|
|
end if
|
|
if media is greater than instantiation then
|
|
put one into media
|
|
end if
|
|
else
|
|
put the inscription of conjunctions + one into media
|
|
end if
|
|
if categorical then put false into categorical
|
|
put media into ideals
|
|
put word media of field "text" of card understanding & ",text"
|
|
into potential
|
|
if the mouse is down then
|
|
put conjunctions into potential
|
|
put potential into card field agents
|
|
put true into encoded
|
|
exit repeat
|
|
end if [line 575]
|
|
inflect
|
|
wait manipulation
|
|
put potential into conjunctions
|
|
put ideals into world
|
|
if performed then put false into performed
|
|
if programmers are greater than control
|
|
and media & comma is in field computer of
|
|
card understanding & ",text" then exit repeat
|
|
end repeat
|
|
if not encoded and not touching then
|
|
if ideals are developed then wait five seconds
|
|
lock screen
|
|
put empty into card field agents
|
|
put empty into card field system
|
|
do "unlock screen with dissolve " & fantasies
|
|
end if
|
|
end write
|
|
|
|
on violation
|
|
repeat twice
|
|
do "global " & characteristics
|
|
end repeat
|
|
set cursor to none
|
|
put false into subversive
|
|
put false into encoded
|
|
put true into complex
|
|
put true into intimate
|
|
go to card reader
|
|
put empty into card field agents
|
|
put empty into card field system
|
|
hide card field agents
|
|
if performed then
|
|
put zero into poetic
|
|
hide message
|
|
put the number of words in field text of card understanding &",text"
|
|
into developed
|
|
put the number of words in field text of card core & ",text"
|
|
into instantiation
|
|
if reader contains "software" then
|
|
put the random of developed into ideals
|
|
put word ideals of field text of card understanding & ",text"
|
|
into conjunctions
|
|
end if
|
|
put accuracy into change [line 619]
|
|
put false into performed
|
|
end if
|
|
repeat until ideals are developed
|
|
set cursor to none
|
|
if poetic is greater than change then exit repeat
|
|
if reader is not "code" then add one to ideals
|
|
put word ideals of field text of card understanding & ",text"
|
|
into operations
|
|
if compromised then
|
|
put operations into card field agents
|
|
end if
|
|
send write to card
|
|
put false into subversive
|
|
if encoded or touching then
|
|
exit repeat
|
|
end if
|
|
if compromised then
|
|
lock screen
|
|
hide card field agents
|
|
do "unlock screen with dissolve " & fantasies
|
|
end if
|
|
if reader contains "software" then if ideals are developed then
|
|
put zero into ideals
|
|
end repeat
|
|
if "software" is not in reader then
|
|
show card field agents of card reader
|
|
end if
|
|
end violation
|
|
|
|
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
|
|
----------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
Explanatory Note [line 651]
|
|
|
|
[*] Sections 6 to 8 of this essay have been software-generated by
|
|
applying semi-aleatory collocational procedures to arguments
|
|
extracted from the earlier sections.
|
|
|
|
Two arguments were extracted manually from the earlier text which
|
|
may be summarized as: "The COMPUTER is (an integral part of) the
|
|
SYSTEM against which WE write" (thesis), and "Software sHifts
|
|
poetIcs, iF riTers prEss: <Reveal>" (antithesis).
|
|
|
|
Sections 6 and 7 were generated from their respective arguments
|
|
separately. A collocational algorithm generated phrases which were
|
|
selected and collected by the author. Selected phrases were also
|
|
fed back into the given text, changing them irreversibly. The
|
|
altered texts from 6 and 7 were then combined and used as the given
|
|
text for secton 8 (synthesis).
|
|
|
|
Note that by this stage very little active selection of generated
|
|
phrases was required by the author. The final paragraphs of section
|
|
8 are almost entirely generated by a simple collocational
|
|
algorithm. I merely split the generated paragraphs into lines.
|
|
|
|
A HyperCard stack (Macintosh only, for HyperCard 2.x) with the
|
|
current state of the "Reveal Code" cybertext generator will be
|
|
posted as shareware for downloading at:
|
|
|
|
http://www.demon.co.uk/eastfield/in/indown.html
|
|
|
|
Section 9 is part of the actual working code (in HyperTalk) used to
|
|
generate sections 6 to 8. The variable terms have been randomly and
|
|
systematically replaced with substantive words from sections 1 to 5
|
|
|
|
-- any noun or adjective is allowed to replace a variable name
|
|
containing a value; any verb is allowed to replace a procedure or
|
|
function name --
|
|
|
|
HyperTalk 'reserved words' have been left intact. The code is
|
|
working code. (Some liberties have been taken with line breaks, to
|
|
keep them short, but this does not affect the code's logic.)
|
|
|
|
Information concerning my own work in this field can be found at my
|
|
web site:
|
|
|
|
http://www.demon.co.uk/eastfield/in/
|
|
|
|
There is also an extensive article describing the work forthcoming
|
|
in _Visible Language_ (1996).
|
|
|
|
NOTES [line 700]
|
|
|
|
[1] Majorie Perloff, _Radical Artifice_, Chicago & London:
|
|
University of Chicago Press, 1991, p. 189. (Hereafter: RA.)
|
|
|
|
[2] RA, p. 189.
|
|
|
|
[3] Charles Bernstein, "Play it Again, Pac-Man," _Postmodern
|
|
Culture_ 2.1 (September 1991). Cited by Perloff (?in an earlier
|
|
form) as: "Hot Circuits: A Video Arcade," American Museum of the
|
|
Moving Image, 14 June-26 November 1989.
|
|
|
|
[4] RA, p. 188
|
|
|
|
[5] Perloff mentions this (RA, p. 208.), although Rosenberg has
|
|
since pointed out that he wrote only the early programs; Andrew
|
|
Culver then took over this work for Cage. (Personal communication.)
|
|
|
|
[6] See, for example, Emmett Williams, _A Valentine for Noel: Four
|
|
Variations on a Scheme_ (Barton, Brownington, Berlin: Something Else
|
|
Press, 1973), and also his _Selected Shorter Poems (1950-1970)_ (New
|
|
York: New Directions, 1975). A selection of Jackson Mac Low's
|
|
Asymmetries is included in his _Representative Works: 1938-1985_
|
|
(New York, Roof Books, 1986). His 'diastic' technique was used in
|
|
_The Virginia Woolf Poems_ (Providence: Burning Deck, 1985). Cage's
|
|
mesostics include _Roaratorio: An Irish Circus on Finnegans Wake_
|
|
(first produced in Paris in 1978) and _I-VI_ (Cambridge: Harvard
|
|
University Press, 1990). Charles O. Hartman and Hugh Kenner have
|
|
recently published _Sentences_ (Los Angeles: Sun & Moon, 1995).
|
|
|
|
[7] Jim Rosenberg, remarks posted to the (majordomo) discussion list
|
|
"ht_lit" (hypertext literature: ht_lit@journal.biology.carleton.ca),
|
|
9 June, 1995.
|
|
--------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
John Cayley
|
|
Wellsweep Press [in Chinese HZ: ~{?-U\02~} ~{=[i@3v0fIg~}]
|
|
^ innovative literary translation from Chinese ^
|
|
cayley@shadoof.demon.co.uk
|
|
http://www.demon.co.uk/eastfield/
|
|
--------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
[ This essay in Volume 6, Number 1 of _EJournal_ (March, ]
|
|
[ 1996) is (c) copyright _EJournal_. Permission is hereby ]
|
|
[ granted to give it away. _EJournal_ hereby assigns any and ]
|
|
[ all financial interest to John Cayley. This note must ]
|
|
[ accompany all copies of this text. ]
|
|
|
|
=====================================================================
|
|
|
|
EDITORIAL COMMENT -- Spindle Those Web "Pages" [line 749]
|
|
|
|
In the spirit of challenging the default assumptions imposed by a
|
|
paper-based culture, we ought to be looking for images to replace
|
|
"Homepage." "Web" and "'net" don't bother me, even though I prefer
|
|
"Matrix." But we should resist at least the "page" part of Homepage
|
|
because electronic communication transcends the boundary conditions
|
|
imposed by paper and ink and print, and because accepting images
|
|
like "page" makes it hard to escape the conditions.
|
|
|
|
Adjusting the imagery won't be easy. The inertia is so enfolding
|
|
that we hardly notice it. But it will happen, and we should
|
|
encourage the changes in vocabulary when we notice them being tried
|
|
out.
|
|
|
|
Why? Vocabulary is part of what we wonder with. As long as we
|
|
stick with strictly papyrocentric terms, we'll be stuck inside the
|
|
boundaries they impose. But new terms lead to new things to think
|
|
about. The idea of "clicking on" something is entering the lexicon,
|
|
and we're starting to hear "mouse" used as a verb.
|
|
|
|
Speaking of mice, remember how happy we were with the friendliness
|
|
of the Macintosh "desktop"? Those familiar manila-folder icons and
|
|
wastebaskets seemed wonderful. But they helped prolong dependence
|
|
on the mental scaffolding they were leaving behind. Now it is
|
|
time to wean ourselves from the limitations of papyrocentrism.
|
|
|
|
There are other examples of paper-bound mindset. The surviving
|
|
major word-processors were built to process "papers," not words.
|
|
Footnotes, margins, headers and footers .... the goal of bit-mapping
|
|
texts was to make screens look like paper.
|
|
|
|
And WYSIWYG, of course, caters to people who prepare texts for
|
|
printers. Ordinary readers -- especially people who scroll through
|
|
screens and link to digital sound and cinema as well as to text --
|
|
we care about WYSIWYG only when condemned to produce "pages" for the
|
|
Web. I have found talk about *writing spaces* (instead of
|
|
"pages") only in Bolter-aware hypertext programs like Storyspace.
|
|
And even "writing" should be giving way, now, to "composing."
|
|
[line 788]
|
|
SGML and its subset HTML are also paper bounded, aimed at describing
|
|
"pages" and associated with the retrospective task of digitizing
|
|
paper texts. And so on.
|
|
|
|
Constant references to "desktop publishing" reinforce the
|
|
supposition that publishing requires paper, that computers exist to
|
|
serve the papyrocentric culture. We forget that "publishing" is
|
|
just a way to make something public. "To publish" and "to make
|
|
paper copies" are not synonymous.
|
|
|
|
A current example of indebtedness to print technology is the
|
|
suggestion that we ought to have monitors that can be turned --
|
|
physically -- between "landscape" and "portrait" positions. We
|
|
ought to have them, we're told, because Homepages resemble
|
|
paperpages. The idea does make some sense -- but, like the word
|
|
"page" itself, it's just a retrograde adaptation.
|
|
|
|
There's no pressure to invent new terminology right away. Sure,
|
|
Wiener adapted "kybernos" and Mandelbrot tells us where he got
|
|
"fractal," but the digital revolution, although *bigger* than than
|
|
control theory or chaos or complexity, is more gradual. Computers
|
|
still need paper. Electronic communication won't *replace* printing
|
|
any more than writing replaced talking. The old images do make
|
|
transitions easier; we still use "horsepower" to compare engines, we
|
|
say "dial" when we could use "punch" or "key" for telephoning.
|
|
|
|
On the other hand, the path is forking. Terminology affects
|
|
perception. Now that the digital revolution is virtually over, and
|
|
we winners are in a position to write the history, we should be on
|
|
the lookout for the images that will suit the *n*-dimensional matrix
|
|
and hypertext better than "pages" and all those other paper- and
|
|
print-bounded words do. I don't propose a contest, but _EJournal_
|
|
could help circulate -- "publish" -- any post-transitional
|
|
adaptations and neologisms its readers discover.
|
|
|
|
===================================================================
|
|
[line 825]
|
|
------------------------------------------------------
|
|
------------------ I N F O R M A T I O N ---------------
|
|
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|
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|
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About "Supplements":
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_EJournal_ continues to experiment with ways of revising, responding
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to, reworking, or even retracting the texts we publish. Authors who
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want to address a subject already broached --by others or by
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themselves-- may send texts for us to consider publishing as a
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Supplement issue. Proposed supplements will not go through as
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thorough an editorial review process as the essays they annotate.
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-------------------------------------------------------------------
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About _EJournal_: [line 856]
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|
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_EJournal_ is an all-electronic, e-mail delivered, peer-reviewed,
|
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academic periodical. We are particularly interested in theory and
|
|
practice surrounding the creation, transmission, storage,
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interpretation, alteration and replication of electronic "text" -
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and "display" - broadly defined. We are also interested in the
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broader social, psychological, literary, economic and pedagogical
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Writers who think their texts might be appreciated by _EJournal_'s
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free to ask if it sounds appropriate. There are no "styling"
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guidelines; we try to be a little more direct and lively than many
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most postings to unreviewed electronic spaces. Essays in the
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vicinity of 5000 words fit our format well. We read ASCII; we
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continue to experiment with other transmission and display formats
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and protocols.
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--------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
Board of Advisors: [line 880]
|
|
Stevan Harnad University of Southampton
|
|
Ann Okerson Association of Research Libraries
|
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Joe Raben City University of New York
|
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Bob Scholes Brown University
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Harry Whitaker University of Quebec at Montreal
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|
|
---------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
SENIOR EDITORS - March, 1996
|
|
|
|
ahrens@alpha.hanover.edu John Ahrens Hanover
|
|
dabrent@acs.ucalgary.ca Doug Brent Calgary
|
|
kahnas@jmu.edu Arnie Kahn James Madison
|
|
richardj@bond.edu.au Joanna Richardson Bond
|
|
ryle@urvax.urich.edu Martin Ryle Richmond
|
|
----------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
Consulting Editors - March, 1996
|
|
|
|
bcondon@umich.edu Bill Condon Michigan
|
|
djb85@albany Don Byrd Albany
|
|
folger@watson.ibm.com Davis Foulger IBM - Watson
|
|
gms@psu.edu Gerry Santoro Penn State
|
|
nakaplan@ubmail.ubalt.edu Nancy Kaplan Baltimore
|
|
nrcgsh@ritvax Norm Coombs RIT
|
|
r0731@csuohio Nelson Pole Cleveland State
|
|
ray_wheeler@dsu1.dsu.nodak.edu Ray Wheeler North Dakota
|
|
srlclark@liverpool.ac.uk Stephen Clark Liverpool
|
|
twbatson@gallua.gallaudet.edu Trent Batson Gallaudet
|
|
wcooper@vm.ucs.ualberta.ca Wes Cooper Alberta
|
|
--------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
Editor: Ted Jennings, emeritus, English, Albany
|
|
Editorial Asssociate: Jerry Hanley, emeritus, Theater, Albany
|
|
--------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
University at Albany Computing and Network Services
|
|
---------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
University at Albany, SUNY. Albany, New York 12222 USA
|
|
|