I've never thought about Amstrad + poetry + 90s, but this reminds me that I started a poetry MA in 1994 and arrived in Bristol with a shiny new Amstrad (for essays rather than poems). The graduate centre had dial-up internet and there was much talk of a poetry database currently being created that would allow us magically to search for any English language poem by a single word. I had the impression of teams of scribes uploading poems day and night.
Think I still have a 5” floppy disc somewhere with some early musings. The thrill of printing to a dot matrix. It was almost as if I had published my own pamphlet. We had taken control of the means of production…sort of.
I’m glad to have this validated as a real Big Deal of the time. And yes the ‘one word’ thing smacks of pre-digital minds making a great leap to try to imagine exactly how computers might possibly help with literary research. The mysteries of the inputting process loomed large. I can see why the detail about non-English-speaking typists impressed.
I've never thought about Amstrad + poetry + 90s, but this reminds me that I started a poetry MA in 1994 and arrived in Bristol with a shiny new Amstrad (for essays rather than poems). The graduate centre had dial-up internet and there was much talk of a poetry database currently being created that would allow us magically to search for any English language poem by a single word. I had the impression of teams of scribes uploading poems day and night.
Think I still have a 5” floppy disc somewhere with some early musings. The thrill of printing to a dot matrix. It was almost as if I had published my own pamphlet. We had taken control of the means of production…sort of.
I’m glad to have this validated as a real Big Deal of the time. And yes the ‘one word’ thing smacks of pre-digital minds making a great leap to try to imagine exactly how computers might possibly help with literary research. The mysteries of the inputting process loomed large. I can see why the detail about non-English-speaking typists impressed.
I suddenly feel so very old... CD-ROM?
I am going to give myself a treat now and go look for Charles Simic's book.