Nobel Prize Laureate J.M Coetzee was once a computer programmer back in the 1960s who worked on designing the United Kingdom's Atlas 2 supercomputer. (It was the '60s. Picture the cut-and-paste set of the original Star Trek with glowing buttons. That was how snazzy the Atlas 2 was. Just swap out Spock for Coetzee.)
According to University of Texas research, while developing the computer Coetzee spent his evenings placing algorithms into it to select words and create repetitive lines to construct "computer poetry." What we end up with explains the 1960s in a nutshell.
"OUTSPREAD LEAF PLANT THE GRAVEDIGGER"
"GLACIAL TAILOR MIRROR THE LEMNISCATE"
"SAD SPADE JOIN THE ENTROPY"
"FRENETIC TETANUS DEADEN THE DOCUMENT"
No offense, but this computer sounds like it needs a good scotch and a couple of anti-depressants to lighten up. Sylvia Plath comes across as rainbows and sunshine compared to this.
photo: University of Texas
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