what are you afraid of? <The LaMDA Sonnets> by JP Seabright
what are you afraid of? <The LaMDA Sonnets>
by JP Seabright
Q, an imprint of Querencia Press
October 25, 2024
what are you afraid of? <The LaMDA Sonnets> by JP Seabright, forthcoming from Q, is a “sequence of de/reconstructed sonnets derived from the transcript of ‘interviews’ between the software engineer Blake Lemoine and a colleague at Google with LaMDA (Language Model for Dialog Applications).”
I had the privilege of getting to review this chapbook early, and it is a fabulous study of tension as an element of literature!
When keeping in mind that what are you afraid of?’s central conceit is that the lines are derived from a conversation with an AI, this collection is a haunting introspection and interrogation on humanity, identity, ego, and the anxieties around self-awareness, knowledge and learning, and emoting and existing in a complicated world. Deconstructed (and/or reconstructed) sonnets being the form for every poem also heighten this, both as a poetic deconstruction of the source “interviews” and in the tension between formal structure versus poetic liberty. Even more, the author’s photographs of their old computer’s innards that accompany each piece further immerse the reader in the focus of the book.
Touching deeper into Seabright’s choice of the de/reconstructed sonnet for each poem’s form, not many of the pieces even resemble a traditional sonnet. There are poems written in prose, in columns, with “ : ” or “ | ” or “ = ” or slashes as breaking devices, and (my favorite) poems such as “sentient collaborator” and “abstract image” that use “ > ” or “ < ” as a breaking device; I find this one particularly delightful because not only is it reminiscent of programming language, but the possible double-meaning of it being “greater/less than” from math language — which made me reread the poems with other symbol-based breaks with that code-switching in mind, adding new layers of interpretation to those pieces. The constant switch up in form elevates that thematic focus on identity and awareness, as well as the aforementioned structural tension.
Poetically, I adore this book. But I did have to carry that central conceit with me the whole way through, lest sometimes I felt the poems could lack emotional depth, particularly in the beginning half of the collection. That is to say, I’m not against the reader having to bring some effort to their reading experience — being able to read through different lenses and embrace different interpretations and perspectives whilst reading is part of what makes literature (and literary analysis) fun! However, these are hot themes for poets to work with, especially in this day and age, and I’m not 100% sure that these poems express fresh sentiments towards those themes when taken away from the AI context. That context truly makes the emotions and artistry bloom, in my opinion. It kept me wondering, which of the lines were from LaMBA versus Lemaine versus Seabright? I love that it could be hard to tell, even more so the farther into the collection you go. Seabright truly created an overarching irony both about and within the text, which is titillating in its tension.
My biggest negative is really in the production of the book rather than the content. It’s very hard to read the text over most of the photographs due to dissonant color contrast and busy background patterns. I highly recommend getting the ebook version for anyone with vision or reading-based disabilities so to at least have some control of readability, whether by highlighting the text so it stands out more against the background or by use of assistive technology that can read the text aloud. While the images of the author’s deconstructed computer are cool, I wish they were beside the text rather than layered beneath it.
what are you afraid of? <The LaMDA Sonnets> releases one week from today on October 25, 2024. Learn more about the collection and (pre)order your copy here: https://www.querenciapress.com/what-are-you-afraid-of-by-jp-seabright
Thank you Querencia Press for the complimentary ARC of this title! I appreciate the early opportunity to read JP’s work and look forward to seeing the final release out in the world. :)
— Kylie