Flarf and Spoetry

Spoetry and in particular Flarf is, in my opinion, the best thing to come out of web 2.0 thus far. The fantastic creativity of the authors in combining their source materials, whether Google searches or other internet tidbits, creates a unique kind of sense out of the internet as a whole, its culture, its dark side and is just plain hilarious. I spend a lot of time on the internet: I surf just for fun, when I’m bored, any time I need to find something out, etc. I am, therefore, quite in tune with the culture of the internet and that makes reading Flarf and Spoetry a kind of sarcastic look at myself and the culture I’m familiar with. It brings to light the kind of things that I take as normal but are in truth very absurd. The emphasis on vulgarity is particularly effective because the internet is so full of it. After a while, a person is desensitized to it and then it loses some of its meaning. However, reading Flarf and Spoetry is a like an antidote for me, something to keep me sane through all of the insanity. In particular, I liked the poem “Truckin’ Poem,” by Chickee Chickston, not necessarily because it has any of the qualities described above, but because it is so light-hearted, effective and hilarious. The repetitiveness truly does bring to mind long hours on the road. The way the lines are mixed furthers this effect by bringing to mind how road travel is just a mix of the same actions (left turn, right turn, honk, stop, go) but in various often different combinations. The lines of the poem act like mile markers, helping me get through the poem’s monotony, and yet, it’s a monotony I love and wish there was more of. Perhaps I also like it that much more because I do love road trips.
I even thoroughly love how Flarf poetry came into being: as a sarcastic bating of Poetry.com. There is perhaps nothing more omnipresent on the internet than sarcasm and disgruntlement towards the real world and even towards the internet itself. This is what produces all of the flame wars and internet memes that are a hallmark of all chat rooms and anywhere else that internet culture is prevalent. Even the way that the original Flarf Collective communicate, through email, is distinctly founded on the internet. This makes Flarf completely and fully rooted in the internet and that makes it particularly suited for the social commentary it provides. In perhaps a similar way that poetry and song-writing in the 1960’s provided society a mirror, Flarf is providing the internet a mirror in a form that can be taken seriously in literary circles and gives the internet a kind of legitimacy at the same time as showing its shortcomings as well. More importantly, it seems to be a warning against taking the internet too seriously and what might happen to a person through overexposure to internet culture’s negative influences.