Notes on Some Amorphist

Poetry Code: https://replit.com/@ajasr1724/poetry#main.py

This is a form of poetry I would like to call the ‘Free Ghazal’. It employs a lot of features of the Ghazal but lets go of the conventional rhythm scheme. The reader is free to read the shers in any rhythm. The role of the listeners here is dictated by the poet using italicised words. The text also has a visual aspect to it which was inspired by the coding language python. The poet here has given two anagrams for the listener to pinpoint what was the original inspiration for this poem. The poem is

based on a fictional video game (based on the novel Metamorphosis). Through the guise of a video game, the poet is commentating on the modern work culture and the ultimate game of life. The poem works best in its coded version for which you can click the link above.

Some Amorphist is an anagram of Metamorphosis, from where the poet has drawn heavy inspiration. Amorphous means being without definite character. Here the protagonist is someone who is not of the definite character which is prescribed by the world around us.

Kafkaesque: having a nightmarishly complex, bizarre, or illogical quality.

The first line here is one of the two instances where the narrator speaks in the poem. The narrator here is greeting the player into the world(game). In the second line, the player talks about burning down conventions and traditions of the world(reality) which exist in them-self. The crackling fire is imagery used for the zeal in a person who is ready to take on the world. The second couplet is the player reflecting on the nature of the levels and the chaos and how the world’s enemies are

treating him. Here, the poet allows the reader to take the liberty of ending the player's life in the hands of their enemies. If the reader interprets it differently, they have the choice to continue further but hints are given of the eventual end of the player. This is done by employing the optional “//me” and changing the “end” to “end-lessly” (Credit for this idea of separation of words in a poem goes to Siddharth Nair). The third couplet and the following one are the two couplets in which the poet hints most heavily at the inspiration he had from the novel Metamorphosis. Both the lines talk about the character Gregor’s experience in the story. The first line talks about the presence of NPC’s(A non-player character, or non-playable character, is any character in a game that is not controlled by a player) in video games. The fourth couplet talks about how for every person, they are their own worst enemy. As in every video game there is always a final boss or level, in the game of life you yourself are the final boss. The way you succeed in this level is by stepping out of your own comfort zone and pushing yourself further. By doing so, you have virtually won the game and effectively stepped out of the endless loop (gyre). The poet is meaning to say that you are thus truly yourself and what you are meant to be by doing this. The fifth couplet is the second instance of the narrator speaking in the poem. The couplet talks about how death became the one thing that freed the player from the ‘gyre’ of life. The swamp-like life that the player had lived till now, is something that we can see around us today. This is also the end of the game for the player.

If you click this link, you will be led to a more immersive version of the poem. This is the true form of the poem and directly conveys the video game aspect of the poem. You will have to press the green ‘Run’ button once the web page fully loads. If you want to try the game again, just reload the web

page. The video game on which the poet is themed, is based on a fictional video game called Metamorphosis(which is based on the novel of the same name). The reader here becomes the player and gets to decide how and in what way the game ends[the player dies anyway:)]. The player in the code can select yes or no twice in the poem and all answers have an outcome with special messages for each ending. The python version of the poem includes a bunch of easter eggs and references to the novel Metamorphosis. One of the easter eggs in the coded version includes a modified version of the word ‘bug’ to make it look like a computer bug(The idea given by Sangamitra Baskar). All these points contribute to making the poem/game a more immersive and radical form of poetry for the reader.

Themes:

◆ Modern Work Culture

◆ Reinventing Oneself

◆ Going Against The Tide

Some features of the poem that the poet has experimented on are:

● Messages hidden in anagrams

● Immersiveness of the reader

● Concrete choices of interpretations

● Rhyme scheme similar but modified from that of the Ghazal

● Indentation to denote player’s position in the poem/game

● Modifying the form to incorporate the theme(video games)

● Set role for the audience