Another Sneak Preview

SEVEN POEMS IN ONE!

“Haikus” by Sara Megan Kay

In a rage, she shot
Fire from her mouth and I
Ran for my dear life.

He undressed close by.
I said I didn’t want to
See, but I had lied.


Clouds burning pink light
Against a busy street.
I feel the cold.


You look at me and
Inside my body quivers.
I despise your youth.


Sitting here alone, I
Await your walking into
My door drunk. Come in.


Moonlight slips on a
Robe of sadness and black
Bearded ladies sing.


Kiss me, Fantasy-
This is why you stay away?
The wait turns me gray.

XXX

More poetry by Sara Megan Kay will arrive soon at our main site.

“The Crow” by Ken Kakareka

(Painting: “Wheatfield with Crows” by Vincent van Gogh, 1890.)

A black crow
blots
a sunflower-soaked
field.
They stare
at him –
his ugliness.
But it
does not
deter him.
He caws
loudly,
it makes
the sunflowers
shrivel.
They squirm
to hide
from him,
to overthrow him,
flustered at
his presence.
But he
does not
relent.
He caws
until the sunflowers
shiver
with hatred.
Suddenly,
another crow
joins him.
And then
another.
Soon,
a whole black mass
of crows,
like an oil spill
in an ocean.
They caw
together
with the
reverberation
of an elephant’s roar.
It folds
the field
of sunflowers
into depletion.
They whimper
at the sight
of the black mass
as it
soars away
towards the sun.

XXXX

Ken Kakareka is a poet, novelist, short story writer, essayist, and editor who lives in Fullerton, California with his lovely wife. He is the author of Late to Bed, Late to Rise (Black Rose Writing, 2013). Ken’s words have appeared or are on their way in a number of rags including Gargoyle Magazine, Route 7 Review, Horror Sleaze Trash, The Beatnik Cowboy and so on. A list of selected publications can be found at kenkakareka.com.

Scott Timberg’s Culture Crash

Scott Timberg’s 2015 book Culture Crash is necessary reading for anyone seeking to understand the trends writers and other artists are living through now, in 2023. One can disagree with some of what Timberg says and still recognize his book as the best examination of today’s cultural crisis– where a handful of writers, musicians, and artists garner a large amount of attention, and make an enormous amount of money, while the rest can scarcely, or can’t, make a living at what they love. In many cases no matter how good they are at their art. Since the book’s publication, the trends Timberg outlined have intensified.

It’s a truth much of the writing community fails to admit– and so there are endless recriminations at publishers and editors, without the recognition that it’s impossible for any literary publication (at least the way things stand now), to be self-sustaining from sales alone. Even the Paris Review is kept going by a large number of sponsors and donors. You’d better have an endowment, a university behind you, or a trust fund to truly make it without treating the writer as a customer, via submission fees as such. (Which we’ve avoided doing.)

In Culture Crash, Scott Timberg makes it plain that there needs to be a new model for cultural creation– talented writers and artists need to collaborate in developing that model.

In our view, the cultural status quo isn’t good enough. The canon promoted by the literary establishment is fine– but the art needs to change. There’s no reason why good creative writing can’t be meaningful and deep yet contain pop elements at the same time.

Writers and editors need new ideas and we need to compete.

-KW

The Problem with AI-Generated Writing and Art



THE PROBLEM with AI-generated writing and art is it’s unnatural and inhuman. It’s a distorted version of human expression which can never be natural because of the way it’s created– akin to Frankenstein’s monster, when the monster’s creator seeks to play god and go beyond the bounds of the naturally possible into some untrod, uncertain, diabolical territory. Hellishness.

Study the ambitious characters pushing the technology and you see the extent to which they wish to bust natural bounds, no matter the consequences, like that character of plays and operas, Faust. They’re ready to make a Faustian deal. Some– like OpenAI CEO Sam Altman who has paid to have his brain uploaded to a computer– have already made the bargain.

THE RESULT for the rest of us is a bombardment of unnatural writing and art. Every bit as fiendish, lost, and rootless as the creature of Mary Shelley’s classic novel, first envisioned by her in a nightmare.


Words of the monster’s creator about what he made:

–a race of devils would be propagated upon the earth, who might make the very existence of the species of man a condition precarious and full of terror. Had I a right, for my own benefit, to inflict this curse upon everlasting generations? . . . I shuddered to think that future ages might curse me as their pest, whose selfishness had not hesitated to buy its own peace at the price perhaps of the existence of the whole human race.

(The novel, incidentally, is a stunning piece of writing, which could never be adequately captured by any film.)

The Save the Writer petition.

The New AI Consumer

Some tech geek out there wannabe startup tech bro is actually selling an AI pen. That’s what he’s advertising it as anyway. I guess it’ll do your handwriting for you, on those rare occasions you need to write anything by hand.

photo of an actual tech geek


Next up: An AI prompter. Having to think about what your AI botbook novel will be about is too mentally stressful. I mean, if the chatbot does all of the writing and most of the thinking for your literary masterpiece, why can’t it do all of it? Makes sense, right? I mean, what are you paying for, or not paying for? You’re using it, aren’t you? Should be enough.

Soon they’ll have AI shopping, done by algorithms. No shopping list required. The bots will know what you need and want. Transport will be provided by AI cars– autonomous, they’re called– which you won’t really need, because everything will be delivered to you by autonomous trucks, manned, I guess, by robots. I’m not making this up. Automakers and tech companies have invested billions in the premise. It’s coming soon. I promise.

When the groceries are delivered, there will be AI stoves to do the cooking for you. And AI dishwashers. Then AI laundry, and AI robots to make your bed and vacuum the carpeting. Modern conveniences, for your own good. So you’ll have more leisure time for, you know. Something. Sitting on the sofa watching television, or smoking pot. Vegging out. Or sleeping. It’s always pleasant to close the blinds on the world and go to sleep. Then in the morning the AI alarm clock will wake you and your coffee will be ready and you’ll be ready for– I don’t know. Another day.

It’s all in the works, believe me.


-KW

“Peeve” by John Zedolik



a poem

(We’ll be running three other poems by John upcoming soon as a feature at the New Pop Lit site.)


Pull that hangnail rising like a flag

flapping in a breeze of non-concern

though catching my eye like a barbed

hook replete with rankling hairs so not

letting my attention go, but racking it

with the thought of tear and blood

—the anxiety in anticipating when it will rip—

and pain the owner—who might then regret

his indolence and indifference when more

raw flesh breathes the new air in crimson

exposure as the finger-end resembles more rag

than bone I silently urged him to not leave alone.


XXX

(We’ll give John’s bio when we run his other three poems. This is a Sneak Preview. We can tell you that John appears in our print zeen, Extreme Zeen Two, still available at the POP SHOP.)

Stop the Tech Zombies!

photo c/o timeinc.net


WHILE we’ve hit our goal of 1,000 with the “Save the Writer!” petition (our initial goal was actually 100), we urge writers, readers, actors, artists, everybody in creative fields– or anyone who simply appreciates human talent– who has not already signed the petition to please do so. All noise made to slow down the tech zombies is good, because they’re appearing everywhere– from gullible wannabe writers and artists to would-be scam artists eager to grab their share of the venture capital big-money pie.

CAN they be slowed down? Or possibly stopped?

I’m not sure. But we need to at least try.

-KW

Sam Altman’s Actual Message to Congress

Getty Images

Remember: when tech hustlers make their pitch for their products, they’re operating on several levels. There’s what their words say, and then there’s the actual meaning conveyed between the lines.

In his May 16, 2023 testimony to a Senate committee, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was sending a message to the senators, when he said AI technology “can go quite wrong.” What he was actually saying: “This technology is dangerous!”

Altman knew they’d be thrilled hearing that. Why? Because of the military-industrial complex, which sustains the nation’s– and by extension, their— power in the world. Thoughts registering in their heads: New weapons with which to stay ahead of the Chinese!

Our politicians are egoistic, narcissistic individuals filled with vanity, on the emotional and mental level of a ten year-old. “Gollee!” they were thinking, wetting their pants with excitement, as Musk-like thoughts of space rockets, killer robots, and other new toys raced across their limited brains.

Sam Altman was taking a page from the Elon Musk playbook and giving the senators science fiction and gadgets. Closing the deal with them, to ensure he has a free hand to keep growing his pyramid scheme business while getting every available sucker– in Washington D.C. and those watching on television– on board.

Making the sale.

-K.W.