Overview

A landmark publication in computer-generated poetry drawn from the works of Gertrude Stein. A landmark publication in computer-generated poetry drawn from the works of Gertrude Stein. The Stein poems of Jackson Mac Low (1922-2004) were written between 1998 and 2003. Comprising more than 500 pages of text, this edited series of 161 poems-most of them never published-is the poet's last great work, composed during the final years of a lifetime of prolific creation. The raw material of each poem was produced through Mac Low's diastic text-selection method of reading through passages of either Ulla E. Dydo's A Stein Reader or a corrected version of Gertrude Stein's Tender Buttons. Guided by Charles O. Hartman's 1994 DIASTEX5 computer program, which replicates the diastic method first developed by Mac Low in 1963, the process requires that words be drawn sequentially from the source text in accordance with their rule-driven, algorithmic correspondence with a seed text. Taken as a whole, these poems are a breathtaking invitation to the reader into a space of creative possibilities and unforeseen encounters.

Full Product Details

Author:   Jackson Mac Low ,  Michael O'Driscoll ,  Anne Tardos
Publisher:   MIT Press Ltd
Imprint:   MIT Press
Weight:   0.369kg
ISBN:  

9780262552868

ISBN 10:   0262552868
Pages:   672
Publication Date:   19 August 2025
Audience:   General/trade ,  General
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   To order  
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Table of Contents

Series Foreword Foreword Anne Tardos “This shining makes revision of a string more strange”: An Introduction Michael O’Driscoll A Talk about My Writingways Jackson Mac Low List of Abbreviations Stein 1: Little Beginning Stein 2: Pleasant Regular Neat and Gave That Much More Stein 3: Little Lingering Pudding Stein 4: Little Open Place Stein 5: Father Soils Stein 6: The Big Stay Away Stein 7: Very Pleasant Soiling Stein 8: Big Bites Stein 9: Begin a Piece Of the Whole Stein 10: The Whole Matter Is Better Half-Filled There than Here Stein 11: And Sing More Very Loudly Stein 12: Use and Choose Stein 13: Green Completers So Stein 14: Meaning Was Certainly Always This Him Stein 15: And One That Clear Stein 16: One Completely Stein 17: Always One’s Others’ Stein 18: Time That Something Something Stein 19: Time Be We Going Then Stein 20: Time to Be We Stein 21: Time Pleases Understanding Stein 22: Then What Thing Might Be? Stein 23: Seat That One End Stein 24: Stay There That One Sing Stein 25: Something She Had Was Dancing Stein 26: It Is a Difficult Thing Continuing Stein 27: Enough of Them Who Walk Come Again Stein 28: When He Came Again He Would Say What He Had Just Been Wearing Stein 29: When is Enough? Stein 30: Some Did Not See Who Had Come ..... Stein 142/Titles 37: Hurt Stranger Stein 143/Titles 38: A Blind Cousin? No. Stein 144/Titles 39: Victory’s Saving Bent Was Kind of Green And Very Rudimentary Stein 145/Titles 40: Is of in Obligation Exchange Stein 146/Titles 41: Glass Resembling Yesterday Stein 147/Titles 42: A Different Red Resigning Stein 148/Titles 43: Not a Single Spectacle in That Show Was Quite Visible Stein 149/Titles 44: Ordinary Buttons Hurt the Plates Stein 150/Titles 45: likely difference grinding suggesting Stein 151/Titles 46: What Torches? Stein 152/Titles 47: Scatter the Occasion Stein 153/Titles 48: That Tender Spectacle Is Bitter Stein 154/Titles 49: Groan, Redwood Pressed Together Stein 155/Titles 50: Even Kindness Can Be Distant Noise Stein 156/Titles 51: Mercy No More Stein 157/Titles 52: Hurting Colors Pleasing Crackers Stein 158: Is Has Breakfast The Stein 159/Titles 53: That Orange Stein 160/Titles 54: Is Adventure Feeling Being Connected with Others? Stein 161/Titles 55: Disappointing Not Sweet Redness Editing the Stein Poems By Michael O’Driscoll Notes and Acknowledgements

Reviews

“In his inventive interactions with Gertrude Stein on one side and his computer on the other, Mac Low brought Stein’s modernist word composition into the digital twenty-first century. Michael O’Driscoll’s commendable edition now makes these marvelous works fully accessible to artists and scholars.” —Tyrus Miller, Distinguished Professor of Art History and English, University of California, Irvine “A must for anybody interested in experimental poetry.” —Rosmarie Waldrop, poet, translator, editor “‘What are Masterpieces?’ The Stein Poems are the culminating achievement of Mac Low’s ‘writingways,’ a refunctioning of Stein’s oeuvre by algorithmic and human decisions.” —Barrett Watten, poet and critic, Wayne State University “Jackson Mac Low’s love affair with Gertude Stein’s minimalist language alchemy defies comparison. This collection is a cut-up of echoes with teeth, tenacity, homey wit, and aural revelation. Viva the excesses of the Post Modernism Liberation Experimental Revolution!” —Anne Waldman, Poet, Founder and Artistic Director, Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, Summer Writing Program, Naropa University

Author Information

Jackson Mac Low was a leading member of the Fluxus group, an innovator of procedural poetics and liminal compositional forms, and a progenitor of the Language Poets and other conceptual artists. Michael O'Driscoll is Professor in the Department of English and Film Studies at the University of Alberta. Along with Anne Tardos, he is the coeditor of Jackson Mac Low's The Complete Light Poems.

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