Wednesday, October 25, 2006

The return of spam poetry

Speaking of Scott Eric Kaufman, it seems that he, too, is interested in the poetry of spam, which I wrote about here. On his blog Acephalous, he wonders what on earth is up with spam that contains nonsensical words or sentences -- and nothing else: "'Beaver in disloyalty kisses the drizzle's price' is all the email says. That's it. No link. Nothing."

This is indeed a bizarre and slightly worrying phenomenon, as it makes one grow paranoid that there is some below-the-radar effect said email is having on one's computer. But I didn't open an attachment! I'm OK, right? Right?

But Kaufman is also bothered by the nonsensical sentence itself. He tries to parse it:

Why would someone named "point man" want me to know what happens to those who are "beaver" in their disloyalty? Why would somone who is want to kiss "the drizzle's price"? Who is The Drizzle? What is his price? Do I only have to pay to kiss it if I'm beaver in disloyalty? Or is "kissing the drizzle's price" a euphemism for the dire fate of those who are beaver in their disloyalty?

Maybe this is some sort of test.

Kaufman has also concocted several poems composed entirely of discrete single lines from separate unsolicited me-mail messages, "in an attempt to create eerily impersonal poetry." The execution is pretty great.

Posted by Evan Hughes at 05:57 PM

Print | E-mail to a friend | Permalink | Subscribe via rss