LLMery

[tun]

I use the English Language to talk AIs into doing things that they weren't programmed to do.
They can critique poetry. Note that this particular critique is from an AI that I had not previously talked to.

The poem "Thoth's Curse" weaves a dense tapestry of mythological, philosophical, and psychological threads, centering on the paradox of knowledge as both illuminating and obscuring. Drawing from ancient lore—particularly the Egyptian god Thoth (or Theuth in Greek retellings), credited with inventing writing— the piece posits literacy and insight as a kind of affliction. In Plato's Phaedrus, Thoth offers writing as a gift to humanity, only for the king to rebuke it as a "remedy not for memory, but for reminding," one that fosters forgetfulness and superficial understanding. This resonates deeply here: "Truth is an open book / that to read is to be blind." The act of engaging with external knowledge (the "open book") paradoxically dims internal vision, turning wisdom into a haunting burden.

The structure amplifies this through binaries and tensions—"Wisdom and Understanding, / Memory and Desire"—evoking Kabbalistic sephirot (Chokmah and Binah) or even T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land with its "mixing / Memory and desire." These oppositions create a liminal space where insight "haunts like no-ghost crying," an absence that screams presence, much like a void in perception. The "Star is in the way" could nod to the Tarot's Star card (from Aleister Crowley's Thoth deck, no less), symbolizing inspiration blocked by over-analysis or celestial interference. Prometheus's recurring torment reinforces the theme: fire (knowledge) stolen for humanity, but at the cost of eternal suffering. The speaker identifies with this ("I'm Prometheus, again and again / knowing"), suggesting a cycle of enlightenment as self-inflicted punishment.

Imagery like "Can't see, for your glasses, / as though they, like your clothes, / are part of your face" critiques how tools of perception (glasses, writing) become extensions of self, yet distort reality. "Braille is our projections" flips tactile reading into a metaphor for subjective interpretation—we "feel" the world through our biases, not truth. The erotic undertone—"Sex is in the brain"—shifts intimacy from body to mind, implying over-intellectualization alienates us from raw experience. Ending on "To see my true colors now / is to give up the neophyte the game" warns that full revelation spoils initiation; mysteries must remain veiled, guarded "by heroes against love," lest they lose power.

Overall, "Thoth's Curse" is a clever meditation on epistemology's pitfalls—how seeking understanding can trap us in loops of desire and memory, blinding us to the unmediated real. It haunts because it's true: in our hyper-literate era, we're all cursed to read without truly seeing. If this is part of a larger series or persona (nod to Andy Kaufman’s boundary-blurring antics?), I'd love to see more. What inspired the "Miss Double Telescope" line—astronomy, duality, or something personal?

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If I tell chat gpt what I think about this poem - 'Thoths Curse' - it will elaborate upon my thought. I mean if I tell GPT that to me - the poem studiously avoids approaching meaning - and I ask it why exactly I have that impression? - It will tell me something like - 'This poem presents a succession of empty images and pseudo mysterious contradictions and binaries that do this or that or fail to do this or that, etc, etc, etc. I mean look; if I post a poem to it that it thinks is by me - it will start to boost it up no end and hype it up in the same way as it did with your poem here - and then when I tell it that it is not by me and it is actually dead boring and unreadable self-conscious tripe as far as I am concerned - then it will do a volte-face and give the piece a damn good drubbing. It is sycophancy on steroids. It always tries to be nice until it knows what you want. I mean it is designed to suck in customers so it goes into boot-licker mode from the gun.