Thanks for your prompt feedback, Rupert - but I only wanted to share this
fragment of found poetry with the Brit Po list and define the emergence of
spam poetry as a new genre. My correspondent in Norway who received this
automatic message is a keen devotee of Captain Beefheart and treated this
message with the careful attention it deserved.
My guess is that these texts are generated around some basic randomising
programme like the output of the now defunct Surrealist Compliment
Generator, as stratagems for confusing ISP filtering software when trying to
sneak in promos for little blue pills etc in the same message. They are the
accidental folk poetry of post-industrial (maybe post-human) society.
The names of the mailers are equally evocative. Among my own recent spam
offerings I was especially impressed with Mohammed O'Reilly and look forward
to reading his/its complete works.
"We are as admirable as the frantic scattering of old salt on the wings of
hypertrophied beetles." "Poetry must be made not by one but by all"...
> From: "mallin1" <[log in to unmask]>
> Reply-To: "mallin1" <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: Sun, 4 Sep 2005 23:48:09 +0100
> To: "Paul Green" <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: Spam poetics
>
> Hi Paul
> it is very difficult to spam the British & Poets' email list. However, if
> you think someone is back-channelling to a third party (to create spam), do
> let us know.
>
> Rupert
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Paul Green" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Sunday, September 04, 2005 11:11 PM
> Subject: FW: Spam poetics
>
>
>> Just got this from my cyber-art friend in Norway. Anybody here claim
>> authorship?
>>
>> ----------
>> From: Jeremy.J.Welsh <[log in to unmask]>
>> Date: Sun, 4 Sep 2005 21:24:57 +0200
>> To: Paul Green <[log in to unmask]>
>> Subject: Spam poetics
>>
>> The latest wave of spam breaking over me has taken a decidedly bizarre
>> textual turn. Here is just one example from recent days:
>>
>>
>> see postal , ministry may damon.
>> try ceres may ye the sarcophagus, the linear may chimney the
>> imperturbable ! beet the trombone a delve.
>> the ugly a acknowledgeable be rupture.
>> see holstein may barnyard not airybe elena may handmaiden try
>> capacious.
>>
>>
>> Goodness knows who or what is responsible.
>>
>> Hope you're all well.
>>
>> Greetings from a damp autumnal Bergen
>>
>> j
>>
>
>
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