forty-five.com / papers /22 W@r aga1nst the F1lters: Spam as the Inheritor of High Modernism Octavian Esanu For some time, I have been captivated by a form of writing Reviewed by David Gissen that has been captivating my email inbox. Dictionaries define spam as intrusive, internet-mediated a d v e r t i s i n g — a d e fi n i t i o n w h o s e i n t e r e s t l i e s i nits s u g g e s t i o n o f h o w m u c h n o n - i n t r u s i v e a d v e r t i s i n g i s a l r e a d y a r o u n d u s . S p a m i s n o t l i k e t h i s a m b i e n t a d v e r t i s i n g , o f c o u r s e . I t i s p u r e i n t e n t i o n a l i t y . It resembles those bloodthirsty rainforest leeches with s u c k e r s a t b o t h e n d s t h a t w i l l g e t t o y o u r b l o o d n o m a t t e r h o w s a f e y o u m i g h t f e e l b e n e a t h l a y e r s o f p a n t s , s o c k s , a n d s n e a k e r s . T h e “ l o c a l s ” k n o w t h i s v e r y w e l l a n d g o a r o u n d b a r e f o o t o r w e a r i n g o n l y fl i p - fl o p s . A s f o r s p a m , n o m ater w h a t n e w fi l t e r s a r e a v a i l a b l e o n t h e m a r k e t o r w hatnew j u n k - c a t c h i n g r u l e s a r e i n v e n t e d , i t s t i l l m a n a g e s t o g e t t h r o u g h a n d n e s t i n y o u r i n b o x . B u t t h e i s s u e I w o u l d l i k e t o g e t a t i n t h i s s h o r t t e x t i s n o t spam in general but its relation to avant-garde poetry and art, as well as its impact on contemporary poetic and artistic form. For some time I had noticed that certain s p a m m e s s a g e s t h a t h a d m a n a g e d t o f o o l t h e fi l t e r s a n d l a n d i n m y i n b o x b o r e s t r i k i n g r e s e m b l a n c e t o t h e p o e t i c a n d a r t i s t i c t e c h n i q u e s d e v e l o p e d i n t h e e a r l y t w e n t i e t h century by avant-garde artists and poets of various sorts. I n t h e i r f o r m , o r t h o g r a p h y ( i f w e c a n s p e a k o f s u c h ) , a n d s y n t a x , c e r t a i n s p a m m e s s a g e s b r o u g h t t o m i n d t h e Italian Futurists’ parole in libertà and onomatopoeia, Apollinaire’s Calligrammes, D a d a s o u n d p o e t r y , i r r a t i o n a l or “transrational” Russian zaum, a n d t h e c o n c r e t e v i s u a l p o e t r y o f t h e s e c o n d h a l f o f t h e t w e n t i e t h c e n t u r y . T h i s s i m i l a r i t y w a s e s p e c i a l l y s t r i k i n g a f e w y e a r s a g o w h e n s p a m - fi l t e r i n g r u l e s w e r e n o t y e t a s e f fi c i e n t i n d enyig u s t h e p e r v e r s e p l e a s u r e o f r e c e i v i n g s p a m . W h a t k i n d o f relation, if any, can be intuited between the avant-garde r a d i c a l r e f o r m e r s o f l i t e r a t u r e a n d t h e a r t s a n d t h e n o l e s s r a d i c a l s p a m m i n g t e c h n i q u e s o f t o d a y ? T h e i m p a c t o f s p a m o n c e r t a i n c o n t e m p o r a r y a r t s h a s been long acknowledged. Interestingly enough, though, t o d a y t h e i n fl u e n c e o f s p a m i s n o t i c e a b l e p r i m a r ilyn contemporary poetry and literature. But the poets—being poets—remain primarily interested in the phonetic, s e m a n t i c , m e t a p h o r i c a l , o r s y n t a c t i c q u a l i t i e s o f s p a m a n d l e s s i n i t s v i s u a l o r g r a p h i c a s p e c t . F o r t h e p u r p o s e o f m a k i n g t h i s p o i n t m o r e c l e a r , I h a v e a p p r o p r i a t e d a n d reconstructed a few avant-garde calligrammes a n d v i s u a l poems, replacing their original historical content with contemporary spam. S p a m h a s n o t l e f t a s n o t a b l e a m a r k o n c o n t e m p o r a r y a r t i s t i c p r a c t i c e s a s i t h a s o n c o n t e m p o r a r y l i t e r a t u r e a n d p o e t r y . I n l i t e r a t u r e , i t b r o u g h t a b o u t a r a n g e o f twenty first-century literary “movements,” including F l a r f P o e t r y , S p o e t r y , G o o g l i s m , a n d S p a m L i t . B u t t h e relation between spam and contemporary poetry is not that different from the relation between technologies l i k e t e l e g r a p h y o r r a d i o a n d F u t u r i s t a n d D a d a i s t a r t a n d literature.