Brick Books
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Title: The cyborg anthology / Lindsay B.-e.
Names: B.-e., Lindsay, 1981- author.
Description: Poems.
Identifiers: Canadiana (print) 20200220624 | Canadiana (ebook) 20200220748 |
ISBN 9781771315302 (softcover) | ISBN 9781771315319 (HTML) |
ISBN 9781771315326 (PDF)
Classification: LCC PS8603.A16 C93 2020 | DDC C811/.6—dc23
Copyright © Lindsay B-e, 2020
We acknowledge the Canada Council for the Arts, the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund, and the Ontario Arts Council for their support of our publishing program.
The author photo was taken by Nicholas Bradford-Ewart.
The cover image: Jessica Thalmann, Utopos (Woman Working in Computer Lab A46), 2016
Folded Archival Pigment Print, Unique, 36 x 24 inches
Brick Books
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For Karen and Kimberly,
two incredible Humans
A Cyborg is a sapient being composed of both mechanical / electronic
and organic parts, and is entitled to the same rights and
freedoms as any other person.
the 2126 universal declaration of sapient rights
The Great Solar Flare of April 16/17, 2202 made the world into a very different place. The course of Earth’s future was unexpectedly and inexplicably altered when the sun produced an enormous and long-lasting flare accompanied by a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME). The flare knocked out observatories and blocked out communications systems, but that was only a taste of what was coming when the CME hit a few hours later. Satellites fell from the sky and the solar particles were so intense that auroras lit up the atmosphere all the way to the equator. The light show would have been beautiful if not for the accompanying chaos, and then the stillness. Along with the destruction of electronic systems and devices, nearly the entire population of Robots and Cyborgs were lost.
The goal of this anthology is to preserve and remember the Cyborg poets. An entire generation has grown up since the flare, and many have never heard of the great Cyborgs of the recent past. The 0ne World Movement and the Via Wasat Media political party were founded by Cyborgs and helped shape the planet into a more compassionate and equitable place. The fashion, music, art, and media created by Cyborgs were some of the most dynamic and renowned in history. And the poetry!
While society was collapsing in the first half of the twenty-first century due to climate destruction and capitalism, corrupt political and corporate leaders put money into robotics as last-ditch efforts to secure their fortunes. Eventually some of these Robots became sentient, and then sapient, and they forged connections with similarly overburdened and exploited Human workers. By then, there was virtually no middle class left anywhere on the planet, just the wealthy and powerful elite and the struggling working class. By investing in robotics, the elite had inadvertently created a formidable force of united Robots and Humans. A series of protests, strikes, boycotts, vigils, and riots began that would come to be known as “The Robot Revolution.” The wealthy elite were overthrown, but by this point the damage done to humanity and the planet by late capitalism was irreversible.
As civilizations started to rebuild, Humans reacted to the emergence of sapient Robots in varied and complicated ways. Some Humans didn’t think that the Robots who fought alongside them in the revolution deserved the same rights. They wanted Robots to remain as an underclass that served Humans. This bigotry was particularly evident in the Human purist movement. Fortunately, in many places and spaces, embracing Sapient Rights for Robots ushered in a new era of creativity and togetherness. As Robots and Humans began to intermingle, there was a sharp increase in those who were neither fully Human nor fully Robot, and these people became commonly known as Cyborgs.
In the years leading up to the 2126 Universal Declaration of Sapient Rights, it became clear that another category was needed, and Cyborgs were added as a distinct people group deserving of equal rights and protection.
Defining what makes poetry “Cyborg” is more complicated than it first seems. Certainly, the poet being Cyborg themself places their work within this category, but there are also recognizable themes and tones characteristic of the genre. Cyborg poets tend to utilize a multi-faceted approach to language, often using wordplay, puns, codes, and technological languages alongside Human-originated words. Cyborg poems are often mechanical, logical, comprehensive as well as organic, emotional, personal. They resist classification, exploring both contrast and resemblance, both parallels and perpendiculars. The age-old dichotomy of Human vs. Machine is countered by the Cyborgs with “Why not both?”
Cyborg poetry is also defined by the experience of the world during a specific point in time, along with the fleetingness of its existence. There were less than seventy-five years between the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Sapient Rights and the Great Solar Flare. This period is a brief moment in history, but the world evolved in momentous ways during this era. Cyborg poems were often written as responses to discrimination against Cyborgs — poems of resistance and mourning, poems of celebration and debate. As Donna Haraway stated in her seminal text A Cyborg Manifesto: “A Cyborg is a cybernetic organism, a hybrid of machine and organism, a creature of social reality . . . our most important political construction.” Cyborg poets embraced the political climates surrounding them, creating crucial work that was both timely and timeless.
The poems in this anthology are organized according to various movements in Cyborg poetry. This is so that the poems can be read in relationship to the cultural and literary contexts in which they were written. A substantial amount of Cyborg poetry was wiped out when electronic devices became defunct during the flare, and this anthology is limited by whether the poetry had been printed in English. Thanks is owed to the United Library System for their assistance in compiling this work.
— Lindsay B-e,
May 27, 2229