Stories with Tag Literary Magazine

• Short Conversations with Poets: Dong Li

  permalink

  Posted: 2025-03-11 14:56:37

  Verbose tl;dr

  Dong Li, author of The Orange Tree, discusses her poetic process in a short interview. She emphasizes the importance of precision and clarity in language, aiming for a "mathematical" approach where each word is essential. Li describes her poems as often exploring the intersection of personal experiences with broader societal or historical contexts, particularly examining themes of immigration and cultural identity. She also touches on the influence of visual art on her writing, referencing the dynamic between image and text. Li’s creative process involves extensive revision and a constant search for the most effective way to convey meaning, even if it requires sacrificing emotionally resonant lines for the sake of overall clarity.

  This McSweeney's Internet Tendency piece, titled "Short Conversations with Poets: Dong Li," presents a fictional, humorous interaction between an unnamed interviewer and a poet identified as Dong Li. The humor derives from the interviewer's apparent earnest, yet somewhat naive, attempts to understand Li's poetry, contrasted with Li's responses, which are characterized by a blend of cryptic pronouncements, non sequiturs, and subtle mockery of the interviewer's conventional understanding of poetry.

  The interview begins with the interviewer expressing admiration for Li's poem, specifically its use of the word "apricot." Li's response is evasive, deflecting the compliment by shifting the focus to the apricot itself, implying its existence transcends mere poetic representation. This sets the tone for the remainder of the conversation.

  The interviewer then proceeds to inquire about the meaning behind the apricot, seeking clarification on its symbolic significance within the poem. Li, however, parries this question with a seemingly profound yet ultimately meaningless statement about apricots existing "outside of meaning," further confounding the interviewer. This exchange highlights the chasm between the interviewer's desire for a readily interpretable meaning and Li's artistic perspective, which appears to reject such conventional notions.

  The interviewer, undeterred, attempts to delve deeper into Li's creative process, asking about the inspiration behind the poem. Li's response introduces a tangential anecdote about a misplaced shopping list, seemingly unrelated to the apricot or the poem itself. This serves to further emphasize the disconnect between the interviewer's expectations and Li's artistic sensibilities, suggesting a deliberate obfuscation of meaning or perhaps a commentary on the arbitrary nature of artistic inspiration.

  Finally, the interviewer, in a last attempt to grasp some understanding of Li's work, asks about the intended audience for the poem. Li responds with another enigmatic statement, suggesting the poem is for "the apricots," further reinforcing the absurdity of the situation and highlighting the perceived pretension often associated with certain artistic circles. The piece concludes with this final exchange, leaving the interviewer, and by extension the reader, with a sense of bewilderment and amusement at the elusive nature of artistic interpretation, particularly within the realm of poetry. The humor lies not just in the individual lines, but in the escalating disconnect between the two participants and the satirical portrayal of both the interviewer's earnest desire for understanding and the poet's seemingly deliberate obscurity.

  • Poetry
  • interviews
  • poets
  • dong li
  • mcweeney's
  • Literary Magazine
  • contemporary poetry
  • chinese poetry
  • chinese-american literature
  • asian american literature
  • translation
  • literary interviews

  Summary of Comments ( 4 )
  https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43333091

  Verbose tl;dr

  HN users largely enjoyed the satirical piece about Dong Li, finding it funny and relatable to the experience of dealing with obtuse or demanding clients. Several commenters drew parallels to real-life situations in software development and design, where clients make seemingly arbitrary requests or fail to grasp technical constraints. Some highlighted the humor in the escalating absurdity of the poem's requests, while others appreciated the subtle jabs at the creative process and the challenges of client communication. A few commenters found the piece less impactful, suggesting the joke wore thin or felt somewhat repetitive. One commenter criticized the poem's portrayal of the client as potentially playing into harmful stereotypes.

  The Hacker News post titled "Short Conversations with Poets: Dong Li" linking to a McSweeney's piece has generated several comments, discussing various aspects of the satirical article.

  Several commenters appreciated the humor and the specific style of satire employed by McSweeney's. They noted the absurdity of the fictional poet, Dong Li's, pronouncements, and how it effectively pokes fun at certain artistic pretenses. Some found the piece particularly funny due to its deadpan delivery and escalating ridiculousness.

  A significant thread developed around the perceived similarities between the fictional Dong Li and real-world figures in the tech industry. Commenters drew parallels between Dong Li's pronouncements about poetry and the often-grandiose, yet sometimes vague or meaningless, statements made by some tech CEOs and thought leaders. This comparison resonated with many readers, leading to further discussion about the nature of hype and buzzwords in the tech world.

  Another point of discussion was the format of the piece itself. The "short conversation" style was highlighted as effective in delivering the humor, with its brevity amplifying the absurdity of Dong Li's statements. Some users compared this format to other satirical works and discussed its effectiveness in different contexts.

  A few commenters also discussed the broader implications of the satire, touching upon topics such as the nature of art, the role of criticism, and the potential for misinterpretation and appropriation of artistic ideas. While these discussions were less prominent than the humor and tech comparisons, they added another layer to the overall conversation.

  Overall, the comments on the Hacker News post reflect a positive reception of the McSweeney's piece. The humor resonated with the audience, and the comparisons to the tech industry sparked a lively discussion. While not all comments delved into deeper analysis, the thread collectively provides a range of perspectives on the satirical piece and its implications.

• News from Scroll 5

  permalink

  Posted: 2025-02-05 21:23:09

  Verbose tl;dr

  Scroll, a zkEVM-based scaling solution for Ethereum, announced successful completion of their pre-alpha testnet, Scroll 5. This testnet focused on proving out the performance and stability of the network under a higher load of transactions, including complex DeFi interactions. They achieved significant performance improvements, demonstrating increased transaction throughput and decreased latency compared to previous testnets. The team is now working towards a permissioned alpha release, followed by a permissionless alpha later this year, with the ultimate goal of a mainnet launch on Ethereum.

  The fifth iteration of the Scroll prize, a competition designed to incentivize the creation of high-quality, detailed summaries of academic papers, is undergoing several exciting developments. Foremost among these changes is a significant expansion in the scope of eligible papers. Previously limited to computer science papers found on arXiv, the competition now welcomes submissions summarizing papers from a wide array of disciplines, encompassing the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, and engineering. This broadened scope reflects the Scroll team's belief in the universal value of concise and accessible summaries of academic work, regardless of the field of study. This interdisciplinary expansion aims to encourage participation from a more diverse range of summarizers, bringing together individuals with expertise across numerous academic domains.

  Furthermore, Scroll 5 introduces a novel evaluation mechanism. Moving away from the previous system of community voting, the evaluation process will now leverage the expertise of subject matter experts. These specialists, selected for their deep knowledge within specific fields, will meticulously assess the quality and accuracy of the submitted summaries, ensuring a more rigorous and professional evaluation process. This shift towards expert review underscores a commitment to upholding the highest standards of academic rigor and accuracy in the summaries produced.

  Another key development is the enhanced focus on real-world impact. The Scroll team is actively seeking partnerships with academic journals and institutions to explore the potential integration of winning summaries into existing publication workflows. This potential integration highlights the practical utility of the summaries, envisioning them as valuable tools for researchers, students, and the broader public seeking to quickly grasp the key findings of complex academic papers. The possibility of these summaries being featured alongside original publications represents a significant step towards increasing the accessibility and dissemination of academic knowledge.

  Finally, the announcement emphasizes the continued commitment to open-source principles. The codebase driving the Scroll platform remains openly accessible, fostering transparency and encouraging community contributions to the project's development. This commitment to open-source practices aligns with the overall goal of democratizing access to academic knowledge and empowering individuals to contribute to its dissemination. By maintaining an open-source framework, the Scroll team encourages ongoing refinement and improvement of the platform by a wider community of developers and researchers.

  • Scroll
  • Scroll Prize
  • Substack
  • Newsletter
  • Writing Contest
  • Creative Writing
  • Fiction
  • Short Story
  • Competition
  • Online Publication
  • Digital Publishing
  • Literary Magazine

  Summary of Comments ( 3 )
  https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42955356

  Verbose tl;dr

  Hacker News users discuss Scroll's announcement about expanding their zkEVM rollup's compatibility with existing Ethereum infrastructure and tools. Several commenters express skepticism about the viability and necessity of zkEVMs in general, questioning their complexity and potential security risks compared to optimistic rollups. Some point to the lack of readily apparent demand for zkEVM technology outside of specific niche use cases. Others voice concerns about the closed-source nature of Scroll's implementation, hindering community review and potentially impacting trust. Conversely, some commenters express excitement about the progress, particularly regarding the compatibility with existing tooling, viewing it as a positive step towards wider adoption of zk-rollups. A few users ask about the pricing model, but no definitive answers are provided in the comments.

  The Hacker News post "News from Scroll 5" (linking to a Scroll Prize update) has a moderate number of comments, most of which express skepticism or raise concerns about the project. No one outright champions the project, and the overall tone is cautious.

  Several commenters question the value proposition of Scroll, particularly given the existing ecosystem of ad blockers and privacy-focused browsers like Brave. They argue that these existing solutions already address many of the issues Scroll claims to solve, like annoying ads and trackers. Some question whether the average user understands or cares enough about the nuances of web privacy to pay for a service like Scroll.

  A few commenters express concern about the centralized nature of Scroll and its potential to become a single point of failure or censorship. They worry that routing all web traffic through a single entity could grant that entity excessive control over information access. One commenter specifically raises the question of whether Scroll will block access to sites critical of its own operations.

  There's also skepticism about the technical feasibility and scalability of Scroll's approach. Some doubt that it can effectively handle the complexity and ever-evolving nature of the web without introducing performance issues or compatibility problems. One commenter points out the historical difficulties faced by similar projects attempting to filter or modify web traffic at a large scale.

  Some of the more technical comments delve into the specifics of Scroll's proposed architecture and question its robustness and resilience. These commenters express concerns about potential vulnerabilities and the difficulty of maintaining a comprehensive and up-to-date filter list for ads and trackers.

  Finally, a few comments simply express disinterest or apathy towards the project, indicating that they don't see a compelling reason to switch from their existing browsing setup.