Chinese Poetry in Times of Mind, Mayhem and Money (Sinica Leidensia, 86)

292 chapter eight

Figure 8.2. «The Program»: Content and Plot

you, reader of «The Program», take the place of you, protagonist and

reader of the beautifully printed program (1:1), and are drawn into an eerie

if not grotesque and violent event. The play-within-the-play and its

aftermath, for example, show that terrible things befall the audience.

When the poem is next read, the process starts anew. The reader will

become you, you will become he, and he will be ousted. Notably, in a

side street of reality, he might become you, the poem’s next reader. «The

Program»—or, the program—continues endlessly and relentlessly, go-

ing around in circles, cyclical and resonating in itself as poetry does.

The namelessness of the oft-repeated personal pronouns suggests

that they represent ineluctable, inherently repetitive patterns of social

interaction rather than moments that involve individual choice. This

impression is reinforced by emphatic repetition on the level of form,

actor A kills? actor B

(soldier A) (soldier B)

people die

audience

(all those present)

actor

(he)

audience

(you + others)

TWO

THREE

ONE

ousted from the poem

into reality

actor A usurps actor B

(you) (he)

audience (others:

audience, crowd)

audience in reality: reader of
«The Program»

ZERO

possibly becomes