This is really significant and interesting. I think what we're
seeing here is experimental poets discovering the Semantic Web four
or five years ago. Of course they are horrified and use it to compose disgusting, put-on pseudo-poetry... but the idea of using search engines for Burroughsian cut-up material is hairy.
I'm gonna get some real use out of this.
'Gary shared his poem, the style of which he promptly dubbed "Flarf," with members of the Subpoetics mailing list, and before long a few other participants began posting poems to Poetry.com, including myself, Drew Gardner, Jordan Davis, and a handful of others. Eventually, we formed a separate mailing list.
'The initial aesthetics of Flarf went largely unarticulated, but they can probably be approximated by the following recipe: deliberate shapelessness of content, form, spelling, and thought in general, with liberal borrowing from internet chat-room drivel and spam scripts, often with the intention of achieving a studied blend of the offensive, the sentimental, and the infantile.'
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2006
Flarfy Billboard Hits
TITLE — ARTIST
01. "Take Off Your Mind And Love Me" — Blarp-o
02. "Burnin a Hole in My Panties" —Samanda
03. "Pardon My Walnuts" —Soundtrack
04. "Awwwl Fluffed Up" —Matt Dingle
05. "God, You're Just SOOO Cute!" — Tawni
06. "Same Three Chords" — The Morons
07. "Ritual Desecration" — Destiny's Child
08. "Gruntin' Big" — Potty Mouf
09. "Sick As Snails" — Snails
10. "GrrRRrroOOWRrrrRR!" — Chest2Chest
11. "Porn Town" — King E Jack-Q
12. "Ya Nae Gaen Eout?" — Mick Stupid & the Pappy-de-blars
13. "Polynesian Frenzy!" — Vagina
14. "73 Minutes of Overproduced Crap" — Mardi Los Tan Tan
15. "Force of the Quest" — High Ryder
16. "Innocuous" — The Forgettables
17. "Silkynass" — Various Artichokes
18. "Beaten Up by Fascists" — Destiny's Child
19. "Toppin' It Off" — Grease Monkeys
20. "Ach, Der 12 Pewter Cups" — Konsept Du Jour
etc etc etc
