
Bad Poems - samclemens
http://blog.bestamericanpoetry.com/the_best_american_poetry/2016/09/bad-poems-by-alan-michael-parker.html
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mundo
> I recently spent a couple of months writing and reading as badly as
> possible, a practice I now recommend.

Reminds me of author Jim Butcher's claim that he wrote the first volume of the
_Dresden Files_, "as if I was some kind of formulaic, genre writing drone,
just to prove to (his writing teacher) how awful it would be".

source: A Conversation With Jim Butcher:
[http://www.sfsite.com/08b/jb182.htm](http://www.sfsite.com/08b/jb182.htm)

~~~
defen
I haven't read any of them, so my questions come from a place of ignorance,
but isn't the _Dresden Files_ series considered good, at least by the
standards of pop sci-fi / fantasy? It's at least popular enough to have
generated 15 books. So I guess my questions are: is it actually considered
good? If so, is the first book bad? How did it become popular if the first
book is bad?

~~~
evmar
I read one in the series because of that good reputation. I can confirm that
it wasn't good -- formulaic and kind of boring. In retrospect it almost felt
like a parody of the genre. (I was reminded of the prolific fantasy author
character in Neal Stephenson's REAMDE.)

~~~
sethammons
I read the first one and thought it was dull. I would not have read the
second, but I had it on hand. It started to perk my attention. Enjoyed it.
After three, I was hooked.

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hprotagonist
[http://www.mcgonagall-online.org.uk/gems/the-tay-bridge-
disa...](http://www.mcgonagall-online.org.uk/gems/the-tay-bridge-disaster)

Beautiful Railway Bridge of the Silv’ry Tay!

Alas! I am very sorry to say

That ninety lives have been taken away

On the last Sabbath day of 1879,

Which will be remember’d for a very long time.

~~~
mrob
How many people would remember it if not for the poem? By that standard the
poem was a success.

"If the events of the 28th December 1879 have indeed been long remembered
outside the ranks of civil engineers and Dundonian rail passengers it is
thanks to McGonagall’s poem."

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cosinetau
how many ways do i love thee

let me count the ways

segmentation fault

(core dumped)

~~~
qwertyuiop924
I almost thought you might reference 1/0.

Now that's a webcomic more people need to read: It's introspective,
philosophical, sometimes quite clever, but also consistently funny.

/shameless-plug

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Kenji
Does that transfer to code? Should I write bad code for a month and seek to
read the worst code samples imaginable? I'm pretty sure whoever will be
confronted with my code will not be happy =)

------
0xdeadbeefbabe
I saw this in Boy's life:

Roses are red

Violets are blue

Some poems rhyme

Some don't

~~~
cousin_it
That's really good though. Similarly, Jim Butcher's "The building was on fire,
and it wasn't my fault" is great prose.

~~~
drostie
Kind of reminds me of:

Train approaching

Whistle squealing

Stop

Avoid that run-down feeling

Burma-Shave

~~~
yojex
And for the uninitiated: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burma-
Shave](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burma-Shave)

------
mozumder
Django is a high-level

Python Web framework

that encourages

rapid development

and clean,

pragmatic design.

Ridiculously fast.

Reassuringly secure.

Exceedingly scalable.

~~~
tthayer
Rewriting Django class-based views

Has caused such pain

Why am I doing this again?

------
eevilspock
Vogon Poetry.

