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1. Máquinas Pensantes: Aforismos Gerados por Computador

   Barbosa’s theoretical-practical trilogy closes with Máquinas Pensantes: Aforismos Gerados por Computador [Thinking Machines: Computer-Generated Aphorisms] (1988), as it can be understood as the third volume of A Literatura Cibernética. Here, the author presents a long series of literary aphorisms, in which the generation of texts is said to be “computer-assisted” (Computer-Assisted Literature) in BASIC language. The “A” series (Re-text program) deals with combinatorial “re-textualizações” [re-textualizations] (1988: 59) of a fragment (“matrix-text”) by Nietzsche and the “B” series (Acaso program), which had been partially published in the Jornal de Notícias (1984), draws upon the conceptual model created by Melo e Castro’s poem “Tudo Pode Ser Dito Num Poema” [Everything Can Be Said in a Poem], included in Álea e Vazio [Chance and Void] (1971). Finally, the “C” series (Afor-A and Afor-B programs) comprises reformulations of traditional Portuguese aphorisms, which result in new interpretations, sometimes ironic, sometimes surreal.

   Alvaro Seica - 19.11.2013 - 14:22

2. Empire of the Senseless

   Set in the near future, in a Paris devastated by revolution and disease, Empire of the Senseless is narrated by two terrorists and occasional lovers, Thivai, a pirate, and Abhor, part robot, part human. Together and apart, the two undertake an odyssey of carnage, a holocaust of the erotic. “An elegy for the world of our fathers,” as Kathy Acker calls it, where the terrorists and the wretched of the earth are in command, marching down a road charted by Genet to a Marseillaise composed by Sade.

   (Source: Grove Atlantic catalog copy)

   Scott Rettberg - 02.10.2018 - 18:05

3. Wittgenstein’s Mistress

   Wittgenstein’s Mistress (1988) is Markson’s most critically acclaimed and well-known novel. Taking the style of Springer’s Progress even further, this novel is made of the one or two sentence paragraph thoughts of Kate (whose name also appears later in Reader’s Block), a painter who is, or believes herself to be, the last woman (or man, or animal) on earth. Amongst recollections of her travels (in search of any other people) and her life in a beach house, Kate struggles with the concept of language and how it can adequately represent our thoughts. The novel is brimming with references to art historical figures (more about the artists themselves, than their work), Greek drama, philosophers, writers, and the connections between (some real, some made up by the narrator), as Kate recalls things she has read or learned, sometimes inaccurately (though she does not always realize this). Throughout, an element of despair and loneliness pervades the text. Wittgenstein’s Mistress is a novel unlike any other, vast in its erudition and touching in its sadness.

   Ana Castello - 03.10.2018 - 13:32

4. Poem 21

   Poem 21 is based on a 1986 William Barton program (in English) called “The Mad Poet,” published in Commodore Power/Play but later redone with different Spanish words by Amìlcar Romaro. His Spanish version, Poema 21, was published in 1988 in the magazine K64. This is the first of two alternative sets of data given in that issue. The following are available: The original (Spanish) BASIC program, the translated (English) BASIC program, the original program as a PRG file, and the translated program as a PRG file. The PRG files can be run on Commodore 64 emulators; an in-browser emulator (VICE.js) is provided in the current publication. Translation to English by Nick Montfort.

   Magnus Knustad - 08.11.2016 - 17:31