John reads his poem “The First March” from his collection The Americans. He also discusses the challenges of protest and the devaluation of language in an age of slogans, algorithms, AI, and big data.
William Burroughs said, "Language is a virus from outer space." Some viruses can be beneficial, most that we are familiar with do harm. Under the current Administration, as under its previous iteration, the language virus is mutating. Up means down and wrong is made to appear right — to those infected.
William Burroughs said, "Language is a virus from outer space." Some viruses can be beneficial, most that we are familiar with do harm. Under the current Administration, as under its previous iteration, the language virus is mutating. Up means down and wrong is made to appear right — to those infected.
Couldn’t agree more. Lots of work for us to do. Especially people who are dedicated to words.