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In Days Gone By
Jun. 3rd, 2025 05:35 amI came across my old iPod and charged it up. After more than fifteen years, it still seems to work fine. It has the old audiobooks I put on it to listen to back when I worked at JC Penney, when I really needed them. I kind of need them again these days so walking to and from work yesterday I listened to the entirety of Beowulf translated by Seamus Heaney, read by Heaney himself.
I started asking myself if something like this could've been produced by A.I. There's a line I like from Grendel's attack:
He grabbed and mauled a man on his bench,
Bit into his bone-lappings, bolted down his blood
And gorged on him in lumps, leaving the body
Utterly lifeless, eaten up
Hand and foot.
I love the use of "bolted" as it not only carries on the "b" alliteration but also conjures the impression of speed and discourtesy. Apparently it was a choice of Heaney's. The original text has, "blôd êdrum dranc."
Could A.I. one day devise something like this? Why not? You could reduce the work to the rationale under it. Start on the broadest level; it's a story about a monster attacking people. Then go to details; the violence of the attack, the severity of the injuries. Then go to associations of words. What is the percentage of contexts in which "bolted" is used? What juxtaposition would communicate Grendel's character and the savagery of his actions?
It's beyond A.I. now, I'd think. But maybe after a hundred or two hundred years. Maybe only ten. It's fitting to think about with Beowulf which is so much about the achievement and fame of men. It's the fame Beowulf wins through his deeds that leads him to become king. Praiseworthy feats are fundamental to the fabric of Beowulf's society, of organising humans in some manner useful for survival in the harsh conditions of life in the fifth century or earlier, whenever the story was first conceived as an oral tradition before being transcribed. Do we need that anymore? Do we need ourselves?
X Sonnet 1942
Bewildered monsters grin amid the press.
The fire drive was routed back in pipes.
Abducted veins became the ducted dress.
A lady wears them now as nervous stripes.
The frothing imps were dancing 'midst the crowd.
No shame could tame the venom pulsing round.
She hurries on and clutches tight her shroud.
But soon, by hyper tripping hogs she's found.
Her veil removed, the reavers sing and dance.
The engine underfoot becomes a beat.
With vicious glee they seize her veins for chance.
A hectic day dissolves in ugly heat.
The dream of grace dissolves in humid stench.
The frenzied engine breaks for want of wrench.
I started asking myself if something like this could've been produced by A.I. There's a line I like from Grendel's attack:
He grabbed and mauled a man on his bench,
Bit into his bone-lappings, bolted down his blood
And gorged on him in lumps, leaving the body
Utterly lifeless, eaten up
Hand and foot.
I love the use of "bolted" as it not only carries on the "b" alliteration but also conjures the impression of speed and discourtesy. Apparently it was a choice of Heaney's. The original text has, "blôd êdrum dranc."
Could A.I. one day devise something like this? Why not? You could reduce the work to the rationale under it. Start on the broadest level; it's a story about a monster attacking people. Then go to details; the violence of the attack, the severity of the injuries. Then go to associations of words. What is the percentage of contexts in which "bolted" is used? What juxtaposition would communicate Grendel's character and the savagery of his actions?
It's beyond A.I. now, I'd think. But maybe after a hundred or two hundred years. Maybe only ten. It's fitting to think about with Beowulf which is so much about the achievement and fame of men. It's the fame Beowulf wins through his deeds that leads him to become king. Praiseworthy feats are fundamental to the fabric of Beowulf's society, of organising humans in some manner useful for survival in the harsh conditions of life in the fifth century or earlier, whenever the story was first conceived as an oral tradition before being transcribed. Do we need that anymore? Do we need ourselves?
X Sonnet 1942
Bewildered monsters grin amid the press.
The fire drive was routed back in pipes.
Abducted veins became the ducted dress.
A lady wears them now as nervous stripes.
The frothing imps were dancing 'midst the crowd.
No shame could tame the venom pulsing round.
She hurries on and clutches tight her shroud.
But soon, by hyper tripping hogs she's found.
Her veil removed, the reavers sing and dance.
The engine underfoot becomes a beat.
With vicious glee they seize her veins for chance.
A hectic day dissolves in ugly heat.
The dream of grace dissolves in humid stench.
The frenzied engine breaks for want of wrench.
