Comments on: Flash Poem

Flash Poem

srboisvert — Sun, 31 Jul 2005 12:08:15 -0800

By: jmccorm

jmccorm — Sun, 31 Jul 2005 12:16:21 -0800

Nice graphics. Shitty poem.

By: Robot Johnny

Robot Johnny — Sun, 31 Jul 2005 12:18:33 -0800

Ditto... I kept clicking because I wanted to see the visuals, but I soon got tired of the actual poem, so I didn't bother finishing.

By: Balisong

Balisong — Sun, 31 Jul 2005 12:25:14 -0800

jmccorm nailed it. Exactly like I was gonna post.

By: Citizen Premier

Citizen Premier — Sun, 31 Jul 2005 12:26:40 -0800

I went through the whole thing because I suspected it was going to be an add for some brand of alcohol. Personally I don't much respect poems that aren't written in plain font on white paper.

By: boo_radley

boo_radley — Sun, 31 Jul 2005 12:27:25 -0800

excellent.

By: Substrata

Substrata — Sun, 31 Jul 2005 12:33:39 -0800

reminds me of Erik Loyer's Marrow Monkey which is infinitely better.

By: odinsdream

odinsdream — Sun, 31 Jul 2005 12:35:38 -0800

The graphics remind me of the oompah-loompah sections in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The poem - not so entertaining.

By: ackeber

ackeber — Sun, 31 Jul 2005 13:05:17 -0800

i want my money back.

By: QuietDesperation

QuietDesperation — Sun, 31 Jul 2005 13:22:43 -0800

I can see how the flash-ification of poetry could become an art form. But garbage in, garbage out. Let's see some Poe. Or how about Blake?

By: reality

reality — Sun, 31 Jul 2005 13:24:05 -0800

yeah, whatever, but that black goddess in the parade makes me want to move to nantes

By: RichLyon

RichLyon — Sun, 31 Jul 2005 13:35:34 -0800

Maybe it doesn't work in Safari. I'm going to bed (yawn).

By: fungible

fungible — Sun, 31 Jul 2005 13:36:50 -0800

Metafilter: Your #1 source for grumbling curmudgeons with nothing better to do.

By: buzzman

buzzman — Sun, 31 Jul 2005 13:37:15 -0800

I want my time back.

By: all-seeing eye dog

all-seeing eye dog — Sun, 31 Jul 2005 13:56:36 -0800

yeah: cool concept. nice graphics. nice effects. not so much digging the pretentious lyrical poetry. now, if someone did this with a good narrative poem, like cemetery nights by steven dobyns, that might be something.

By: hifiparasol

hifiparasol — Sun, 31 Jul 2005 14:12:04 -0800

Personally I don't much respect poems that aren't written in plain font on white paper. In the same way that some poetry was meant to be read on the page, other poetry is written to be heard. I generally prefer to listen to the poetry of, say, Sekou Sundiata, than to read it. I imagine that's what the poet is going for here. I actually didn't mind the actual poem so much, but the gimmickiness of the whole Flash interaction just made it seem clever to me. I think, like Citizen Premier, I would have preferred this poem on plain white paper.

By: TBoneMcCool

TBoneMcCool — Sun, 31 Jul 2005 14:12:08 -0800

Tough crowd around here today. Forgive me for not being so world-weary, but I enjoyed the whole thing.

By: hifiparasol

hifiparasol — Sun, 31 Jul 2005 14:12:29 -0800

Sorry, meant to italicize that first quote.

By: boo_radley

boo_radley — Sun, 31 Jul 2005 14:28:47 -0800

I think people got caught up in the "cool flash/bad poem" idea because the flash made you click to advance, and became more interesting to interact with than trying to sound out the poem in the mind. Or maybe I like bad poetry.

By: mervin_shnegwood

mervin_shnegwood — Sun, 31 Jul 2005 14:33:16 -0800

I don't get it... A shitty poem with a bunch of bells and whistles attached is still a shitty poem.

By: Wolfdog

Wolfdog — Sun, 31 Jul 2005 14:33:22 -0800

Me, I didn't care for the writing so much but I thought the visuals and the soundtrack were pretty intriguing, sort of like Pink Floyd lightshow stuff. I wonder if that was an intentional use of the CGA palette.

By: cyphill

cyphill — Sun, 31 Jul 2005 14:50:21 -0800

This reminds ME of the Peter Kuper comic adaptation Kafka's Metamorphosis

By: ntk

ntk — Sun, 31 Jul 2005 15:00:07 -0800

I really liked it.

By: hifiparasol

hifiparasol — Sun, 31 Jul 2005 15:16:48 -0800

Forgive me for not being so world-weary I can see how we might come off that way. For my part, despite what I said, I did kind of enjoy the interactivity of it, but only for the first time. I'd like to read the poem again, but to do so would require going through Flash, which I don't feel like doing. Is it possible to separate message from medium here? Or poem from medium?

By: i_cola

i_cola — Sun, 31 Jul 2005 15:35:59 -0800

As we're being picky: Personally I don't much respect poems that aren't written in plain font on white paper. It's either '...set using a plain font...' or '...set in a plain typeface...' or '...set in plain type...' The font is the description that makes the typeface (metal, code, film etc.) and the typeface is the collection of character forms of a certain design or, to quote James Felici, 'the font is the cookie cutter & the typeface is the cookie.' Don't feel bad tho'. Nearly every fucker in the known Univers gets it wrong... [/tedious type nerd]

By: es_de_bah

es_de_bah — Sun, 31 Jul 2005 17:48:48 -0800

The sad thing about digital literature is that (almost) no one with any talent is going to go into it. It's still see as too gimmicky. Which is too bad, because there are some interesting possibilities. The visuals in this were pretty great. I'm with Quietdesperation. Good conversions of classics are the best way to inspire serious poets to take interest in the format.

By: Satapher

Satapher — Sun, 31 Jul 2005 18:43:55 -0800

im a poet and i had no idea

By: Ethereal Bligh

Ethereal Bligh — Sun, 31 Jul 2005 19:00:25 -0800

I thought the poem had promise with the "young poets re-enacting their senses" line (or whatever it was, exactly). Then I was disappointed, then annoyed. Actually, I began to suspect that this was one of those never-ending things and the verses were pulled at random.

By: RedEmma

RedEmma — Sun, 31 Jul 2005 19:08:27 -0800

i guess i'm a sucker for anyone who tries to do something cool. (because sitting on your ass and being a critic isn't exactly my idea of contributing to society. you either make stuff or you complain about the stuff other people make, i guess.) and i think the point is to take the piece of artwork for what it is: interactive, potentially sappy words or not, laced with some nice sounds... i like it. i saved it. so nyah.

By: 517

517 — Sun, 31 Jul 2005 19:17:26 -0800

I've never understood poets, writers and singers who write songs, stories and poems about the process of writing the song, stories or poem you are listening to. If they don't have anything to say, why are they saying it? Self introspective poetry has always seemed misplaced to me. Stories are about thoughts, poems are about experiences.

By: Toecutter

Toecutter — Sun, 31 Jul 2005 19:51:27 -0800

Personally I don't much respect poems that aren't written in plain font on white paper. You should check out an illuminated Blake manuscript. Metafilter: Your #1 source for grumbling curmudgeons with nothing better to do. Grumbling about grumbling is still grumbling. That said, I usually reserve critical comment for stuff I like -- but this was a little, well, eh. Poems about writing poetry are an old cliche and it's fair game, as 517 does, to point out their essential emptiness (although, if 517 is right about poems not being about thoughts, we'd never have had Emily Dickinson or Robert Creeley).

By: Benway

Benway — Sun, 31 Jul 2005 20:38:33 -0800

517 at 7:17 31 Slow green and green to be.

By: shoepal

shoepal — Sun, 31 Jul 2005 20:39:16 -0800

Well said, i_cola.

By: CG

CG — Sun, 31 Jul 2005 22:21:59 -0800

It's not easy being green... I stay up late wondering why I stay up late in the first place.

By: ori

ori — Sun, 31 Jul 2005 22:54:44 -0800

three times as long as it should be, and in bad need of an editor. also, too much style, too little vision. but i think flash poetry is a medium with potential. seven minutes to two a.m., here.

By: weston

weston — Sun, 31 Jul 2005 23:07:36 -0800

Liked it.

By: trinarian

trinarian — Sun, 31 Jul 2005 23:22:48 -0800

dug it.

By: trinarian

trinarian — Sun, 31 Jul 2005 23:25:58 -0800

i didn't even realize it was a full poem till the end... it is what it is, man... late night thoughts put to really cool effect. it would seem pretty half-assed if it was just him doing some flash background to Poe. This is the full thing... watching an artist in full control over a creation.

By: UbuRoivas

UbuRoivas — Mon, 01 Aug 2005 00:09:49 -0800

quite liked it :)

By: OmieWise

OmieWise — Mon, 01 Aug 2005 05:27:45 -0800

EB-That's the line I liked, but then, not so much.

By: OmieWise

OmieWise — Mon, 01 Aug 2005 05:28:11 -0800

Thanks for the link, though.

By: gramschmidt

gramschmidt — Mon, 01 Aug 2005 08:01:01 -0800

The poem is by Marvin Bell, by the way. He was Iowa's first poet laureate (selected in 2000). And I quite liked it.

By: sonofsamiam

sonofsamiam — Mon, 01 Aug 2005 08:08:26 -0800

Burma Shave!

By: gm2

gm2 — Mon, 01 Aug 2005 11:12:20 -0800

One thing I learned a long time ago as both a written and visual artist is that while there is huge potential in combining mediums, there is also the danger of masking the weakness of one with the other element. I think in this case the graphics are an attempt to mask a very weak poem. Just as others have said already.

By: gorgor_balabala

gorgor_balabala — Tue, 02 Aug 2005 10:14:12 -0800

The state of Iowa's poetry aside, however. . . nice graphixxx!!!

By: seitensprung

seitensprung — Fri, 26 Aug 2005 03:46:30 -0800

the artistic point in it is very iteresting. the poem is just not good though... unfortunately!