English 111 / Comp Lit 115
May 20, 2015 6:20 PM   Subscribe

Experimental Writing Seminar: Constraints & Collaborations. In addition to setting out a few dozen writing exercises, the online syllabus for an introductory course taught by Charles Bernstein (poet and co-editor of L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E) links to a variety of poems, poetry generators, and prose experiments on the web.

Substitution Exercises in Style
  • Raymond Queneau, Exercises in Style (PDF excerpt): 99 variations on "one" story
  • Caroline Bergvall with Ciáran Maher, "Via" (audio only): "a compiled list of translations into English of Dante's opening lines as archived in the British Library up until May 2000"
  • Raymond Queneau, "One Hundred Thousand Billion Poems": a web app implementing Queneau's combinatoric poem
Homophonic & Dialect Translation Without Rules, (K)not!, or Is Free Writing Free?
  • Jack Kerouac, notes on spontaneous bop prosody: guidelines for writing "'without consciousness'"
  • Bernadette Mayer, Studying Hunger: text based on the poet's 365-page journal of her psychoanalysis (more info)
  • Bernadette Mayer, "The Prostitutes At The Eldorado Club" from The Desires Of Mothers To Please Others In Letters: excerpt from a book blurbed "An epistolary text which takes as its formal parameters the nine months of Ms. Mayer's last pregnancy--an augury by bee sting--and writes the reader's psyche to the fences"
  • Hannah Weiner, Clairvoyant Journal: journal of the poet's immediate, literal vision of words "on my forehead IN THE AIR on other people on the typewriter on the page" (more info)
  • Hannah Weiner, "UBLIMINAL": another short piece of clairvoyant experience transcription
  • Clark Coolidge, excerpt from American Ones (full text): prose poetry about American landscapes, jazz, poetry itself, etc. (more info)
Pierre Joris
  • Readings from Poasis and works online: 1, 2, and 3
Bruce Andrews
  • Readings from works online: 1 and 2
Chance Operation & the Aleatoric The Art of Constraint
  • Lewis Carroll's "Jabberwocky" and Robert McNally's "Tablespoons": the classic poem and its re-interpretation by the handwriting recognition software on the Apple Newton
  • Christian Bök, Eunoia (text and Flash versions; also audio): five short lipogrammatic texts akin to Perec's A Void
  • Kenneth Goldsmith, Fidget (text and Java applet versions): "every move Kenneth Goldsmith's body made on June 16, 1997"
  • Several works composed of neologisms / nonsense words: Kurt Schwitters, "Ur Sonata"; P. Inman, Ocker, Platin, and Uneven Development; and David Melnick, Pcoet.
Memory, Novel Forms Short lines/Short Poems ... Flarf / Conceptual Poetry / Web-Generated Poems / Found Poems / Appropriation Digital & Visual Poetry Poets / artists giving public readings or lectures mentioned on the syllabus
posted by Monsieur Caution (4 comments total) 50 users marked this as a favorite
 
Yor killin me here.
No Ron Silliman?
Fantasistssss collection and thus flagged so.
posted by clavdivs at 7:06 PM on May 20, 2015


In the immortal words of the great prophet Keanu: "whoa".
posted by dejah420 at 9:07 PM on May 20, 2015


It's too bad the N+7 machine doesn't let you permalink to your results. Some of their suggested experiments turn out to be quite beautiful, like this pretty familiar one (it mistakes "bear" for a noun and that somehow just makes it even better):
You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour.
N+1
You shall not beard false witticism against your neighbourhood.
N+2
You shall not bearer false wizard against your neologism.
N+3
You shall not bearing false wodge against your neophyte.
N+4
You shall not bearskin false woe against your nephew.
N+5
You shall not beast false wog against your nerve.
N+6
You shall not beat false wok against your nest.
N+7
You shall not beater false wolf against your nestle.
N+8
You shall not beating false wolfhound against your nestling.
N+9
You shall not beatnik false woman against your net.
N+10
You shall not beau false womanizer against your nettle.
N+11
You shall not beaut false womb against your network.
N+12
You shall not beautician false wombat against your neuron.
N+13
You shall not beauty false wonder against your neurosis.
False wonder against your neurosis, indeed. Out of the mouths of machines.
posted by RogerB at 9:57 PM on May 20, 2015 [3 favorites]


In the gaffe, everyone will be famous for fifteen misapprehensions.
posted by larrybob at 10:50 AM on May 21, 2015 [2 favorites]


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