Thursday, September 30, 2010

E-poetry Blog


    The e-poem “The Best Cigarette” by Billy Collins uses a lot of vivid imagery and while all of the slideshow images play through, a man with a monotone voice recites the poem. In “A Quick Buzz around the Electronic Poetry” by Deena Larsen, she defines e-poetry as poetry that incorporates text and sensory information to convey meaning. Then she defines this ‘sensory information’ as the use of symbols, form, movement, imagery, navigation, and non-linear structure(http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/currents/fall01/buzz.html). In “The Best Cigarette,” Collins creates movement and form with his imagery. The e-poem begins with a moving road and the reader feels as if he/she is traveling down the road. Hence, Collins is able to use imagery in conjunction with motion to put the reader in the position of the main character of the poem. As this image plays out, the narrator recites “There are many that I miss/having sent my last one out a car window/sparking along the road one night, years ago”(Lines 1-3). The image displays the environment that surrounded the character when he smoked his last cigarette. Furthermore, by making the road move, Collins makes the reader feel as if he/she is traveling down this road with the character as he throws his last cigarette away and is moving away from the cigerette with him.
   However, the possibilities that powerpoint poses did provide me with the tools to reveal the true beauty I wanted to communicate through the poem. I was able to use letters that looked classy and elegant- Edwarian Script. Also, I was able to use beautiful images of the fall to show the readers what I was envisioning as I wrote the poem. In addition, being able to control the order, the placement, and the appearing motion of the words helped me create beauty through the words themselves. For example, in my fourth slide I placed the words representing colors with the specific colors in the tree and then was able to make the colors fade into the tree as well. Also, the appearance of the line 'a beautiful tree' placed in white, elegant writing against the bark of the tree is a beautiful image.

  1. In addition, as the road moves away from the reader, Collins plays with the form of the road by making the lines in the middle of it move in a snake-like motion. As the lines begin to take on a new form, they just as quickly fade away into smoke and the road disappears. After the road fades away, only a screen of smoke is left behind and this smoke continues the snake-like movement of the road lines while slowly rising upwards.


    In this rising puff of smoke, a naked woman appears and just as quickly fades away into the smoke. Immediately after she fades away, a new image appears out of the rising smoke, which is the image of a cigarette burning on both sides. The cigarette burns until it is just a pile of ashes in the form of a cigarette and then it fades away into the very same smoke. While the image of the women and the burning cigarette appear and fade, the narrator recites, “after sex, the two glowing tips/now the lights of a single ship;at the end of a long dinner/with more wine to come”(Line 5-8). The quick snapshot of the naked woman in the smoke reveals the memories and thoughts in the mind of the character as he remembers his last sex experience.
 Most importantly, the image of the cigarette that follows the image of the woman displays the association of smoking and sex in the mind of the character. Hence, the way Collins puts these images in order, one after the other, helps highlight how the memories of the character quickly trigger the thought of the cigarette he smoked that was associated with that memory. Therefore, when Collins makes the image of the woman fade into a cigarette, he is communicating that the character relates good times with smoking.

Furthermore, it is hard to imagine a cigarette representing “the lights of a singe ship,” when one simply just reads the text. However, the image of a cigarette burning on both sides and then transforming into one burnt cigarette successfully displays how two glowing tips can truly become “the lights of a single ship.” Therefore, Collins is able to use the imagery of a cigarette while creating the motion of burning on both sides to help the reader see the ‘ship’ the character envisions as his cigarette burns away. The reader most likely would not have been able to create such a vivid and descriptive image in his/her mind by just reading the text.

        The voice of the narrator also could not be recreated on the page and adds so much more to the tone of the poem and the reader’s understanding of the meaning of the poem. The tone of the narrator’s voice is monotone and emotionless, which highlights the characters serious state of mind when he considers his past love and relationship with cigarettes. His tone communicates to the reader that he places great importance on the role cigarettes played in his life and the happiness they brought to him. His lack of emotion or change of pitch throughout the entire narration implicates that he truly does miss the memories he associates with smoking and the happiness it brought him and he is lacking this happy emotion in his life and he yearns for it to return. Hence, Collins is able to use tone of voice to further the reader’s understanding of the character’s state of mind and how he is feeling throughout the poem.


     By being able to understand the character’s mindset better through sound and imagery, the reader is able to understand the overall meaning of the poem better by putting together all the messages that each of these elements convey. Larsen states that images are necessary elements in some works and that without the images, the words alone would not be able to convey as much of a strong meaning/meanings (http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/currents/fall01/buzz.html). She emphasizes that word and images may highlight and prioritize different meanings and, hence, the more than one or an even greater meaning is able to be communicated through the use of imagery along with word. In “The Best Cigarette,” the narrator recites, “Then I would be my own locomotive,/trailing behind me as I returned to work/little puffs of smoke,/indicators of progress”(Lines 24-27). When I read these lines or hear the narrator recite these lines, I come to the understanding that while he types, smoking a cigarette helps him concentrate. However, when I see the picture of the typewriter blowing smoke out the edge as it is moving across the screen, I understand that he is able to progress with his writing because a cigarette provides him with a sense of hope and energy to move forward like a train.





He needs the temporary happiness the cigarette can provide for him in order to successfully compose literature. Therefore, the imagery and motion of the typewriter adds to/expands the meaning that the words themselves are able to communicate and helps the reader reach a clearer understanding of the theme itself. Furthermore, at the end of the poem the narrator recites “That was the best cigarette,/when I would steam into the study/full of vaporous hope”(Lines 31-33 ). These lines communicate that smoking gives the character a sense of hope while he works. However, the fading transition of one image to the next in a cloud of moving smoke throughout the poem emphasizes that each cigarette is temporary and the hope/happiness it brings fades with it. This is why the narrator has an emotionless voice, because his happiness was temporary with each cigarette he smoked and now he no longer possesses it. For example, the fading of the wine glass into a chandler and then into smoke exemplifies and highlights this theme of temporary happiness/hope that the monotone/emotionless voice also displays.








Therefore, it is clear that one is able to connect the messages the imagery, motion, form, and sound communicate to clarify an overall theme or an image can greater clarify the message a sound communicates.


        The e-poem “Dear E.E.” written by Lori Janis and illustrated by Ingrid Ankerson is more of an interactive poem than “The Best Cigarette.” Memmott states that the poetic emergence or performance of an e-poem requires the participation of a user to unlock the computational processes encoded by the author. He goes on to speak of the playability of e-poems, which means that the reader must interact with the elements of the e-poem in order to unleash the meaning the author created through computational processes (Memmott 294). The first slide reads “dear e.e” and it transitions into the next slide without any user interaction. The second slide is composed of sloppy writing that reads “I dreamt of you last night. “You had snuck into my apartment ( I don’t even have one) to re arrange it all;” There is no proper use of capitalization, the writing is sloppy, and it look like it was composed quickly and without effort.



 The writing fades and transitions into the next slide, which is also composed of scribbled words that read “though there are no recollections of what it may have been before you-” This sentence is a continuation of the first sentence, has the same style of writing, and the ‘you’ is bolded. The sentence fades and flashes in and out while outlines of images (such as a couch) also flash in and out. Furthermore, while these first three slides play a fast paced and upbeat musical beat plays throughout.




When the words and flashing images on the third slide fade out, a moving slide of a stream of household appliances appears. In this lineup there is a table, couch, a window, a refrigerator, and a sink. Also, the previous upbeat music gets overpowered by a louder, more commotional musical beat. The poem becomes interactive because the user must click on the household appliances to unleash the rest of the text of the e-poem. When you click on the couch, the text reveals that the main character does not even remember what the couch looked like but remembers there being one. When you click on the desk, it turns into a bed and the text says that the wooden legs were used as legs for a blue bed.When you click on the refrigerator, the text asks why someone would place the fridge in front of the window and block the sunlight. When you click on the sink, the texts says that the sink is next to the door. The only appliances that really move up and down are the door and the sink as the slide continues moving.



     

Furthermore, the user must interact in order to get to the last slide of the e-poem. The user must click the word ‘wake up’ in the right hand corner of the second to last side to get to the next one. After the reader clicks on this word, a slide of meshed blue, green, and white appears and a peaceful dong sound quickly plays. This last slide describes the characters of both the author and the illustrator of the e-poem. Lori lives a very accomplished and established life while Ankerson’s description is all in one sentence that reveals she is unorganized and is the opposite of Lori. The last side gives the reader the information to put the rest of the slide together.






Therefore, the interaction of the words, music, and images of the e-poem is important in order to make sense of the entire poem because they all add a little more detail to the message being established. Memmott states that alone elements may lack poetic capability but in relationship with one another harmonics emerge (302). For example, at the end of the poem the peaceful ending dong sound combined with the serene mix of blue, white, and green along with the text work together in harmony to communicate a message. The message is that one must take life slow, establish peace, look at the serene beauty of the world, and these suggestions are exemplified by Lori, which the text reveals is an inspiring Buddhist. In addition, all of these elements interact with the other texts, sounds, and images in the poem to create a contrast between a fast paced, stressful life and a peaceful, slow paced life. The fast moving objects, sloppy writing, combined with the loud and overly commotional music can give the user a headache. This greater interaction between the last elements of the last slide and all the elements of the previous slides adds to the overall theme. Furthermore, it clearly creates a contrast between the two lifestyles so that the reader can better understand why one lifestyle is more preferable to the other.

     The poem is about Ankerson’s fast paced, unorganized, and messy life. Hence, the writing in the first two slides is sloppy and looks as if it was scribbled quickly, because it represents Ankerson’s lack of effort and lack of time to write a proper sentence. Furthermore, the fast musical beat represents the rapid pace her life moves at. In addition, the moving slide of appliances best represents her lifestyle and characterization. The music becomes full of different tones and sounds like a big commotion, yet still is fast beat. This tone represents that clutter in her life, all the daily activities and duties and how little time she has to complete all of them in a single day. In combination with this tone, the pace at which the appliances move coordinates with the rapidity of the musical beat. Furthermore, the appliances are not organized properly- the sink is next to the door and the fridge in front of the window.





     The hidden texts that one must click to discover, in addition to the images and music that automatically appear, are just as an important of an element in piecing together the overall meaning of the e-poem. Interaction is key to unlocking the hidden message of the poem and Memmott is correct- one must play an e-poem to discover its meaning as a musician plays an instrument to reveal a song (294).The fact that the text asks why someone would block the sunlight with the fridge indicates a greater message. The message is that there is so much commotion in Ankerson’s life that she never takes the time to truly enjoy something like the sunlight shining through her window. In addition, the text reveals that she had to take apart her desk to fix her bed that was falling apart, which reveals that she had no time to fix it properly and now has no desk as a result. Hence, the text that is revealed by clicking on the household appliance reveals a lot about Ankerson’s character and the message being communicated through the poem. Memmott emphasizes that one must interact with the collection of ideas presented through the various applications in an e-poem in order to understand the contents of the poem (300).


   When writing my own poem "The Impulse," I found it very difficult making it into an electronic poem. At first, I found it enjoyable finding backround images for each slide that reflected the thematic imagery of fall within the poem. However, it was difficult adding text over these beautiful backround images, because sometimes there were no fonts that did not clash with the backround and, as a result, the font ended up difficult to read. For example, in my last slide I wanted to do one color text, which was black but the text did not show up well against the backround image.








As a result, I had to use both black and white in order for all of the text to be readable.



Also, I found it very irritating when I had to continuously enter words in seperate text boxes in order to give each a different entrance path/or effect. For example, in the image above I had to put the word 'follows' in a different text box so that it would appear before the other words in order to emphasize its importance in the stanza. In addition, I had to seperate the word 'together' into different text boxes in order to get it to move in seperate directions in order to show the contrast of seperation of the colors in comparision to the combination of the colors in one entity, as shown in the intitial appearance of the word 'seperation' before it splits in different directions.



Therefore, even though finding the right color texts and having to open a million text boxes while creating my e-poem, there were advantages to not writing on paper. For example, I did enjoy the fact that I had the tools a create beauty through motion, font, and placement of the text in order to exemplify the theme of pure beauty throughout my poem. Personally, I think I was more inspired when I wrote the poem down on paper and read the words outloud. However, I do think it is amazing how I was able to bring the words to life without reading them aloud but instead through electronic elements and beautiful imagery. Yet, I do prefer poetry on the paper because it gives the reader the option to create his or her own images, sounds, and other associations and has the ability to be more creative. When reading an e-poem, the user already has all of the freedom to create taken away from them mostly, even though it is enjoyable for the e-poem creator. It is truly fun thinking of ways to make what you imagine in your mind come to life on powerpoint as the creator and you have all the tools right infront of you. However, I think literature is a gift given to the reader to open onhis/her own not to already have been opended for them.

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