Are Nosotros Running Out Of Poems?
Originally published the Daily Telegraph, the Hope Bourne prize is a prestigious poesy contest whose main requirements are that the each entry live on ‘original’ in addition to ‘inspired past times Exmoor’. Determined to fulfil at to the lowest degree i of these requirements, a chap past times the squall of Christian Ward took a published verse form past times Helen Mort entitled ‘The Deer’ in addition to handed it inward as is ain nether the championship ‘The Deer at Exmoor’. As the Telegraph explains:
I am admiring of Mr Ward’s scheme, which would let someone to localise amongst picayune essay practically whatever locomote of literature – in addition to non but inward Exmoor. But literary types are real sensitive most attribution, in addition to in i trial the affair was lay to him, or then fourth dimension later he won the prize, he didn’t assist matters past times making or then rather feeble excuses:
I tin also disclose that whenever I sit down downwards to write an essay or a spider web log post, I role somebody else’s as a model. Especially if it’s supposed to live on most my personal experiences. Then, as before long as I’ve changed plenty words, I post it or shipping it to my editor. Is at that spot whatever other way? But you lot actually can’t live on then careless as to forget to brand the changes! Now it seems that Mr Ward may receive got been as careless inward the past, in addition to then at that spot he is now, at the forefront of the drive to uncover his ain acts of plagiarism, a occupation for which he seems eminently qualified in addition to tin already boast or then early on success.
H5N1 farther incident final calendar week – involving British ‘poet’ David R Morgan – has prompted the Guardian to come upward up amongst the headline, ‘Another plagiarism scandal hits poesy community’. Apparently this ‘community’ is immediately ‘searching its soul’ in addition to ‘asking itself but how widespread plagiarism is’. I am e'er doubtful when such sharply defined feelings in addition to intentions are attributed to a vast in addition to various grouping of people, but it may live on truthful that the effect of plagiarism is causing a marking of anxiety that is to or then marking peculiar to our times. It’s fifty-fifty got its own, zeitgeisty how-to guide: How to Find Plagiarism inward Poetry.
It is a variation on a classic contemporary paradox. On the i hand, the meshing has greatly increased the human capacity to disseminate texts, including plagiarised ones; on the other, it has given people unprecedented tools for textual matching in addition to analysis over a corpus that – thank you lot to repositories similar Google Books – is approximating the totality of what was published inward impress earlier the meshing came along, summation all the digital content. Obscure books that could in i trial live on trusted to skid farther in addition to farther into oblivion are immediately constantly threatening to resurface as searchable texts. You could practically listen them thumping loudly through the plagiarist’s floorboards, similar the tell-tale midpoint inward that story past times Poe.
I don’t intend to enquire why nosotros fifty-fifty care, nor the marking inward which the thought of authorship is called into enquiry – or then years ago, later i of New Zealand’s inaugural of all writers was caught inward the act, I proposed using the term ‘authoriety’ to depict its electrical current slippages – but rather reverberate on the peculiar grapheme of this anxiety. How it is natural springtime amongst the fearfulness of beingness caught doing what nosotros all must, as nosotros engage inward that cast of series theft otherwise known as culture. How it ultimately points to the exhaustion of our capacity to state in addition to hateful things originally, which is centuries-old in addition to yet e'er poses itself as new. Perhaps it’s a enquiry that each generation has to ask: are nosotros running out of poems?
In 1961 Raymond Queneau tried to respond this question, or rather ensure that humanity would never receive got get to enquire it again. His book, Cent mille milliards de poèmes (sometimes translated as ‘One hundred i thou m million poems’) consisted of 10 14-line sonnets of identical rhyme system in addition to matching delineate endings, amongst each delineate printed on an private strip then as to enable the ‘reader’ to make upward to 10, to the ability of fourteen dissimilar combinations, each i as valid from a formal betoken of view, but probable of dissimilar semantic in addition to aesthetic value.
I never had the pleasance of physically treatment the book, but at that spot are a issue of websites that strive to replicate the experience inward a computational surroundings (including or then in French in addition to English). Ironically, the base-sonnets are protected past times copyright, which all the sites are inward breach of. Wikipedia tells me that a French courtroom has then decreed.
Legalities aside, the work amongst Cent mille milliards de poèmes is that it’s real boring. It may live on a picayune nicer to play amongst the impress book, but I flora shuffling the lines at the impact of a push (or by hovering over the sonnet) then distracting that I had to halt at once. However, this is inward fact a reframing of our media paradox: you lot tin receive got the statistical certainty that the text you lot but composed has never been seen inward this the world before, in addition to it notwithstanding won’t live on your poem, or new, or a slice of fine art (may Dada forgive me). To make poesy the customary means e'er involves retreading somebody else’s ground. And that’s fine. If at that spot actually is such a thing as a ‘community of poets’, it should worry less most running out of words, or most its capacity to grab the strange thief, whose presence should inward fact reassure us that the civilization hasn’t reached a dead end; that our canons aren’t yet then pocket-sized that they tin live on recited past times heart.
Mr Ward is believed to receive got changed only a handful of words from Miss Mort’s poem, replacing ‘father’ for ‘mother’ inward the start line, ‘river Exe’ for ‘Ullapool’ inward the minute verse in addition to changing the reference to a ‘kingfisher’ close Rannoch Moor inward Perthshire, Scotland, to a peregrine falcon on Bossington Beach, Exmoor.
I am admiring of Mr Ward’s scheme, which would let someone to localise amongst picayune essay practically whatever locomote of literature – in addition to non but inward Exmoor. But literary types are real sensitive most attribution, in addition to in i trial the affair was lay to him, or then fourth dimension later he won the prize, he didn’t assist matters past times making or then rather feeble excuses:
I was working on a verse form most my childhood experiences inward Exmoor in addition to was careless. I used Helen Mort’s verse form as a model for my ain but rushed in addition to ended upward submitting a draft that wasn’t solely my ain work. I had no intention of deliberately plagiarising her work. I receive got begun to examine my published poems to brand certainly at that spot are no similar mistakes. Already I receive got discovered a 2009 verse form called The Neighbour is real similar to Tim Dooley’s After Neruda in addition to acknowledge that a fault has been made. I am notwithstanding earthworks in addition to desire a fresh start.
I tin also disclose that whenever I sit down downwards to write an essay or a spider web log post, I role somebody else’s as a model. Especially if it’s supposed to live on most my personal experiences. Then, as before long as I’ve changed plenty words, I post it or shipping it to my editor. Is at that spot whatever other way? But you lot actually can’t live on then careless as to forget to brand the changes! Now it seems that Mr Ward may receive got been as careless inward the past, in addition to then at that spot he is now, at the forefront of the drive to uncover his ain acts of plagiarism, a occupation for which he seems eminently qualified in addition to tin already boast or then early on success.
H5N1 farther incident final calendar week – involving British ‘poet’ David R Morgan – has prompted the Guardian to come upward up amongst the headline, ‘Another plagiarism scandal hits poesy community’. Apparently this ‘community’ is immediately ‘searching its soul’ in addition to ‘asking itself but how widespread plagiarism is’. I am e'er doubtful when such sharply defined feelings in addition to intentions are attributed to a vast in addition to various grouping of people, but it may live on truthful that the effect of plagiarism is causing a marking of anxiety that is to or then marking peculiar to our times. It’s fifty-fifty got its own, zeitgeisty how-to guide: How to Find Plagiarism inward Poetry.
It is a variation on a classic contemporary paradox. On the i hand, the meshing has greatly increased the human capacity to disseminate texts, including plagiarised ones; on the other, it has given people unprecedented tools for textual matching in addition to analysis over a corpus that – thank you lot to repositories similar Google Books – is approximating the totality of what was published inward impress earlier the meshing came along, summation all the digital content. Obscure books that could in i trial live on trusted to skid farther in addition to farther into oblivion are immediately constantly threatening to resurface as searchable texts. You could practically listen them thumping loudly through the plagiarist’s floorboards, similar the tell-tale midpoint inward that story past times Poe.
I don’t intend to enquire why nosotros fifty-fifty care, nor the marking inward which the thought of authorship is called into enquiry – or then years ago, later i of New Zealand’s inaugural of all writers was caught inward the act, I proposed using the term ‘authoriety’ to depict its electrical current slippages – but rather reverberate on the peculiar grapheme of this anxiety. How it is natural springtime amongst the fearfulness of beingness caught doing what nosotros all must, as nosotros engage inward that cast of series theft otherwise known as culture. How it ultimately points to the exhaustion of our capacity to state in addition to hateful things originally, which is centuries-old in addition to yet e'er poses itself as new. Perhaps it’s a enquiry that each generation has to ask: are nosotros running out of poems?
In 1961 Raymond Queneau tried to respond this question, or rather ensure that humanity would never receive got get to enquire it again. His book, Cent mille milliards de poèmes (sometimes translated as ‘One hundred i thou m million poems’) consisted of 10 14-line sonnets of identical rhyme system in addition to matching delineate endings, amongst each delineate printed on an private strip then as to enable the ‘reader’ to make upward to 10, to the ability of fourteen dissimilar combinations, each i as valid from a formal betoken of view, but probable of dissimilar semantic in addition to aesthetic value.
I never had the pleasance of physically treatment the book, but at that spot are a issue of websites that strive to replicate the experience inward a computational surroundings (including or then in French in addition to English). Ironically, the base-sonnets are protected past times copyright, which all the sites are inward breach of. Wikipedia tells me that a French courtroom has then decreed.
Legalities aside, the work amongst Cent mille milliards de poèmes is that it’s real boring. It may live on a picayune nicer to play amongst the impress book, but I flora shuffling the lines at the impact of a push (or by hovering over the sonnet) then distracting that I had to halt at once. However, this is inward fact a reframing of our media paradox: you lot tin receive got the statistical certainty that the text you lot but composed has never been seen inward this the world before, in addition to it notwithstanding won’t live on your poem, or new, or a slice of fine art (may Dada forgive me). To make poesy the customary means e'er involves retreading somebody else’s ground. And that’s fine. If at that spot actually is such a thing as a ‘community of poets’, it should worry less most running out of words, or most its capacity to grab the strange thief, whose presence should inward fact reassure us that the civilization hasn’t reached a dead end; that our canons aren’t yet then pocket-sized that they tin live on recited past times heart.
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