Chapter 6

In Chapter 6, Rettburg dives into the topic of networking writing, “electronic literature created for and published on the internet” (152). By definition, it seems that any piece we’ve looked at thus far could be considered network writing, and there are many arguments to support that claim, but when I think about network writing I think about collaborative online forums such as social media, blogs, and other forms of technology that allow users to contribute to a collective forum. This chapter talks a lot about how people of today view online forms of literature as comic or satirical. Instead of using the internet to peruse the philosophies of Kant or the works of Shakespeare, most people are writing fanfictions or sharing political memes.

But this isn’t necessarily a bad thing for our society. Rettburg notes that “for all of the negative aspects of network discourse, a greater proportion of people spend more of their time writing and reading now than ever before” (153). Additionally, “Network encounters with network styles can be simultaneously critical and comic as there are few things funnier than recognizing absurdity within our lived present” (154). The online discourse that we are sharing today may not be “advanced” electronic literature, but it is still impactful, thoughtful, and influential. Kenneth Goldsmith argues, “what the world needs now is not more language but reframing and reuse of discourse that already exists” (163). There is so much unique, creative, interesting, and endless content on the internet, and it would benefit people to explore many of the writings that exist within it.

I was intrigued by this idea of “reframing” language, so I took a closer look at Flarf. Flarf is a movement that “make[s] use of the Internet as a text-provision technology,” rearranging search engine entries to make absurd and parodical poems. I found a Flarf generator that generated the following poem:

“The following lines of poetry are generated from word frequency tables of a combination of Andrew WK and Rush lyrics from I Get Wet and Permanent Waves, respectively.

corporation.

 we won't stop.

 because you puke.

 party going.

 you've got to party.

 just between us, i do you that you can feel all coming now my life to direct our loads.

 we'll party til you got.

 because we want.

 we won't stop.

 because you beautiful girl.

 you're everything that fight.

 you you're trying to get off on high never listen to get to die.

 we've got to go because we never kill stab we want.

 we will party going.

 you've got to some for superior cynics who dance we were nothing new.

 it's tight in chains- a red red red red red.

 you want the world out of integrity.

 for one another by such slender threads.

 we take what i say - watch him fall? making wars - we never do what we won't try and it's time coming back i saw you.

 open and have a choice.”

The Flarf poems seem like they could be authentic at first, but fairly quickly turn into absurd and laughable gibberish. Flarf seems to me like a good metaphor for the Internet itself.

Lily