Comments on: Half Rigid Half Verse

By: Jim K.

Jim K. — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 03:25:32 +0000

Ah
shadow of Schwitters
still, still expanding.
concrete puppy
woolen hard
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By: Vivek Narayanan

Vivek Narayanan — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 03:06:04 +0000

Linh– it’s great fun to catch up on all the little parcel bombs you’ve been leaving on this site.
I like your examples a lot here, the way each one of them busts out of its little language game, but I don’t know if I agree with the little side swipe against rhymed / symmetrical poems– which, when good, are all about ruining expectation, breaking rules, keeping the reader on his guard. As I recently heard George Szirtes say, good rhymes are about strangeness, not familiarity. It’s a particular challenge to show that even in the gridded world life will spring some nasty surprises, that even if you know when the stoplight’s coming, even if that end is inevitable as death, you still don’t know what exactly is waiting for you there. I thought it was the quick, straight way, you know, but when I finally got to the Walmart, 300 years had passed, and all traces of human life had vanished.
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By: Don Share

Don Share — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 20:16:07 +0000

A John Donne type, or maybe an Empson type (anybody remember his essay, “Donne the Space Man?”)…
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By: Simon DeDeo

Simon DeDeo — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 18:51:51 +0000

String theory is not over (I am a non-combatant, but have friends in the game.) But actually the analogy works very well:
Loop Quantum Gravity: in some ways a more “traditional” approach to quantizing gravity. Retains, on the surface at least, many of the features that people considered aesthetically good about general relativity. Appears to be a “natural” development from the earlier part of the century. Some people who do LQG like to discuss these facets quite a bit, to the annoyance of string theorists who claim that just following the rules won’t give you something as great as the past. Complaints of being ignored, oppressed, etc.
String Theory: crazy free-for-all, can do it even if you have no idea how to solve a grad-level problem in classical quantum mechanics. Anything you do is right because nothing, so far, is wrong. Amazing results appear occasionally but people complain it’s just fashion-driven and that the bulk is just repetitive and sterile, or at least deeply out of touch with the needs of the larger community.
As for poems about string theory: sort of like poems about alchemy? I think a John Donne type could do it best.
Yours,
John Dee
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By: Linh Dinh

Linh Dinh — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 18:39:17 +0000

I actually love straight streets. It gets me to the Walmart quicker.
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By: Don Share

Don Share — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 18:24:41 +0000

Simon, Time magazine, which is all-knowing, has declared String Theory to be over.
Can you tell me 1.) if, as a physicist, you agree; 2.) if so, how this affects the above syllogism; and 3.) what you think will happen to all those poems about String Theory, e.g.:
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/18996
http://www.missourireview.org/content/features/2007/weeklypoem/2007-03-20_hicok.php
Welcome back!
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By: Simon DeDeo

Simon DeDeo — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 16:10:12 +0000

Oh no! Formal verse flamewars coming! Let me join in –
accentual-syllabic : free verse :: Macintosh : Linux
Honda Prius : Hum-Vee?
Hilary Clinton : Barack Obama?
Loop Quantum Gravity : String Theory?
Small Town in France : Small Town in Wisconsin?
MBTA : MTA?
Thanks folks, I’m here all week.
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