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Notes and Commentaries

Volume 12, Number 1 (1987)

Of Poets and Hackers: Notes on Canadian Post-Modern Poets

  • Don Precosky
Submitted
May 22, 2008
Published
1987-01-01

Abstract

Post-modern poets have been accused of being writers "who often seem devoted to experiment as an activity so autonomous that its results often pass far beyond the ever-refined precision demanded by modernism into realms of esoteric obscurity the modernists would have found repellent" (Woodcock). However, poets such as Nichol, Bowering, Davey, and Ondaatje do not reach unacceptable heights of esotery, do not ignore content and assess literature solely by form, and do not denigrate traditional literature. Indeed, post-modern poets can be seen as similar to computer hackers who are also interested in creation for creation's sake, as well as in innovation, style, and technical virtuosity. Hackers and post-modern poets enjoy playing games with language and form, and, for both, the ultimate reward is the moment of discovery.