Travesty Generator

by Lillian-Yvonne Bertram

Poetry. African & African American Studies. Longlisted for the 2020 National Book Award in Poetry. Like a ghost in the machine, TRAVESTY GENERATOR remixes programming codes and turns them to ruminate on the intersections of race and gender. Rhythmic, hypnotic, and percussive, the poems are iterative and suggest the infinite recursions of nano data. The poems pay homage to lives taken too soon, those of Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, pulls heroes like Harriet Tubman into the present, and offers the wisdoms spoken by Black mothers to their children. TRAVESTY GENERATOR reminds us that programming languages and computer codes are not neutral. But while oppressive algorithms abound, the poems hack their way into new connections and possibilities for Black life.

Genres: Poetry

75 pages, Paperback

First published December 15, 2019

Reviews

[Daisy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I appreciate what Bertram is doing in this collection, but reading this has really made me realize that I'm not a fan of most experimental poetry

[Dan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Does feel like a one-trick book. The algorithm-driven poems are theoretically interesting, but in practice feel longer and less rewarding than they could be. And the algorithmics used to produce them are almost all recreations of ones written by other experimental poets in the past (all credited). Of course, what's different here is that every technique has been re-purposed to explore the same themes and ideas... but for me that laser-focus only makes the book feel more limited

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

really brilliant poetry collection that uses code to generate poems. most of them are a few pages of the same words rearranged. the stories are from the pain and struggle of being black in america. if i could sum up the thesis of the project in one question, it would seem to be, “how many different ways do i need to say this for you to understand?”

[Caroline Berg · Rating 5 out of 5]

An absolutely fascinating collection of poetry that viscerally drives home how women and people of color are often missing voices in tech.

This collection inspires me to find and play around with the poetry algorithms mentioned in the book.

I truly believe this should be required reading in any class on modern poetry.

[Queer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hauntingly beautiful.

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

These poems often rely on code to create iterations, and it's a little too experimental for me. I appreciate where the poet is coming from and her notes at the end are helpful and interesting. I found the poems that move from seeming nonsense to a coherent idea more powerful than the poems that simply looked like code or repetition. Again, this is cool, just not for me. So, my personal rating is a 3, but a 4 in terms of skill/intrigue.

[S P · Rating 4 out of 5]

from //three_last_words
13 '#run the code
#in this cell
#away

print (list(permutations("can't")))'

15 '#return
#this articulation
#the exhaustion
#we can't stop hearing

print (list(combinations("breathe")))

#this
#last
#voice'

from A NEW SERMON ON THE WARPLAND
54 ‘TO REFUSE ERASURE BY ALGORITHM’

[lauren :) · Rating 2 out of 5]

i always appreciate new and unique forms of writing, but this was just too experimental for me. not my cup of tea, but 3 stars for the content expressed.

[wade · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very innovative and totally unique collection of poetry based in part on systems and patterns of word choices based on computer program randomness. Some of the more traditional poems do deal with tragedies like Emmett Till and Eric Gardner (etc.). The collection really makes you think deeply about many issues like media messaging and the algorithms we run into daily without realizing their effects on us. Very thought provoking.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting and challenging, understated in such a lovely, stark way that the phrases and images really resonate. I love the mix of storytelling and computer programming, and for sure I love a pantoum. The repetition and twists slowly reveal their story in a way that constantly had me rereading sections to enjoy them again.

[Ellie Shively · Rating 2 out of 5]

i can see the vision, i can see why it works for some, and was published, and nba long list.

i just couldn’t really read most of it? i liked the final 4 pages after the book was over that explained how the code was used to write the poems. probably should have been at the start so maybe readers could have a roadmap to understanding? maybe this went way over my head is what i’m thinking

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m not familiar with the history of computational poetics, so I found this book interesting on a number of levels: the code, the resulting poems, the flexibility of language, how the appendix situates these works in multiple different historical contexts. Really fascinating stuff, and I can see why this made the NBA long list.

[Dree · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this poetry collection Bertram addresses both black men and boys being killed by police, and the lack of encouragement for blacks studying STEM, particularly computer science. She uses public-domain programs in different languages to create computer-generated poems and wordplay. It's all very interesting and thought-provoking. Some is unreadable unless you can read code (I can't, but I am assuming the code makes sense).

[bug · Rating 5 out of 5]

fascinating! a look at modern lynchings (and many other topics) through generative processes and code. the ways the poems shift and grow and shrink through selective repetition as you read them really make the reading experience come to life.

[Isla McKetta · Rating 4 out of 5]

I very much appreciate the approach Bertram took here. It does make for poetry that is more difficult to read, but the effect is definitely making me rethink and be more curious about coding.

[DL]

DFN. Too cool for me sorry

[Judith · Rating 4 out of 5]

So very strange.

[in8 · Rating 5 out of 5]

https://5cense.com/24/1128.htm

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Powerfully unique and thought-provoking. I really enjoyed reading this.

[Diya · Rating 4 out of 5]

very very cool concept but went a bit over my head

[Camille Akers · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Black people (much less Black women) are not imagined as readers or authors of texts like programming languages, computer code, and algorithms"
<3

[angela · Rating 4 out of 5]

this made me deeply curious about computational poetry programs and what will be given when you feed the algorithm.

[anon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Terribly redundant and uninspired, despite being somewhat conceptually provocative. Many of the poems execute the same gesture over and over again, often borrowed from other experimental poets. Difficult to get through.

[Roda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sealey Challenge 1

[Ally]

Travesty Generator is a brilliant re-purposing of existing computational poetry algorithms - many of which, in their original form, produced interesting but emotionally shallow results - into a raw commentary on the devastatingly procedural, exhaustingly algorithmic reproduction of violence against Black people. I recommend looking up the histories of the predecessor poems as you read if you're unfamiliar with them - it's a good tour of some classics of the algorithmic poetry canon and the contrasts really illuminate this text. My favorite collection of machine-assisted poetry by a long shot.

This collection inspires me that it's possible for algorithmic poetry to genuinely be *about* something that matters and not just a demonstration of cleverness, that there is poetry that *needs* to be algorithmically generated to say the thing that it says, and that poetry that emerges from tech can be claimed for interesting purposes by people who don't rule the world of tech - unimagined programmers, in Bertram's words.

Check out a great interview with them here: https://thenewriver.us/bertram-interv...

4-stars because not all the programs that generate the texts are available, and inspecting them would be necessary to fully understand everything that's going on and the artistic choices that were made.

[Allison Nicole · Rating 5 out of 5]

Would love to see this work in app form and see how much farther the poet could experiment and push the text. Incredible work.