288. The Anger Scale. Katie Degentesh (2006)
Here is a classic flarf book, exploiting the inherent surrealism of google search non-sequiturs. I met Katie on a trip to New York. She had studied with Gary Snyder in Davis.
The anger scale is a psychological test. All the poems have titles based on questions in the survey, so "I sometimes tease animals" would be a statement that you would agree with or strongly disagree with, etc... Out of context, these questions also acquire a surreal air. "I believe I am no more nervous than most others."
I was a defender of flarf back in the day, not a member of the group but friends with several who were. I guess I would still defend it, for its wit and fearlessness. This book is a good example of that, along with some Drew Gardner work from about the same time.
I, too, defended Flarf. Degentesh, in some detail.
ReplyDeleteIt feels like the total past now.
Yes, I remember that you were interested in it. After that we had "unoriginal" conceptual poetry, and now maybe we will have AI poetry. Language poetry and flarf seem old hat.
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