FLAME WAAAAAAAAR!

There's a tongue-in-cheek law called Godwin's Law which states that "given enough time, all [Internet] discussions —regardless of topic or scope —inevitably wind up being about Hitler and the Nazis." I'd like to offer a further personal observation that given enough time, all Internet discussions will degenerate into a flame war of self-aggrandizing grandstanding and ad hominem attacks.


I offer my prime exhibit, an interesting blog post about the so-called "MFA Generation" and whether or not it has completely ruined American poetry. The comments begin sensibly, but after dozens of comments we start to introduce some choice vulgarity, hopped-up invective, off-topic rants and ramblings and all the other detritus that is the driftwood that gathers on the Internet's farthest shore.


One good thing to come out of it is the author mentioned this poem which I had never read before. It's illuminating...

Teaching the Ape to Write Poems

James Tate

They didn't have much trouble
teaching the ape to write poems:
first they strapped him into the chair,
then tied the pencil around his hand
(the paper had already been nailed down).
Then Dr. Bluespire leaned over his shoulder
and whispered into his ear:
"You look like a god sitting there.
Why don't you try writing something?"