Five Seven Five: Science fictional examinations of the elusive haiku - Paperback

Two arts, synchronous

Like many of my favorite things, I came upon this project when two interesting ideas crashed together.

First, of course, was the haiku.

Despite paying them little attention, I have always had a quiet admiration of the haiku. Perhaps this is because I admire short fiction, and the haiku is, by definition, about as short as you can get. Well-done haiku feel so ephemeral. Almost magical. Its simple 5-7-5 beat structure can feel barren at times, and, in fact, when in cavalier hands, that barren nature can come off as too slight. In other hands, though, the aura of a haiku leaves one wanting to dwell in the essence of the images it creates.

There's a magical balance in a haiku that may not exist in other forms of poetry, or at least not in quite the same way. I always find them interesting.

Yet, despite this framework, I rarely wrote any.

The second idea was artificial intelligence and its generation of art.

Ron Collins, Introduction