Techno-Prosthetic Romantic FuturismwillworthwordsiamWhat do you do with poetry that, as Keats might say, puts its hand in its pocket and expects you to flatter it? William Burroughs would cut it up. Luckily there's a machine on the web for doing just that. [1] I put a few of Wordsworth's lines through Grazulis, and I think they're quite improved: "Five years have passed; hear These waters, rolling from steep and scene impress Thoughts the sky. the length Of mountain-springs With a sweet inland a wild secluded and connect sky. five summers, with again I again Do I behold these of more deep seclusion; of five long winters! and their murmur.--Once lofty cliffs, Which on The landscape with the quiet." Finally, a Wordsworth for our post-modern age![2] Notes1. This link opens a new window: http://web.ukonline.co.uk/gary.leeming/burroughs/cutup_machine.htm. 2. See Jerome McGann, Radiant Textuality: Literature after the World Wide Web (New York: Palgrave, 2001). Navigation |