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Flarf style

Style
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

A deliberately awkward, internet-influenced style using found and banal language.

Detailed Definition
Flarf style embraces bad taste, randomness, and digital detritus, often sourced from online searches. It challenges notions of poetic refinement. This style appears in poetry to question authorship, sincerity, and aesthetic value in the digital age.
Example
Example in poetry:
Flarf poets such as Gary Sullivan and Sharon Mesmer transform web searches, chat-room language, and commercial clichés into comic collage; A Flarf line might read, “my horoscope owes money to the laser printer,” deliberately embracing awkwardness; The style’s bad taste is often strategic, exposing how online language commodifies desire and identity; Unlike random cut-up alone, Flarf frequently selects and arranges found text for satire, surprise, and social critique
Additional Notes
Flarf style uses awkwardness as method: found internet language, bad taste, absurd juxtapositions, and a deliberate refusal of “good poetry” manners. It is useful for teaching contemporary questions of authorship, curation, and sincerity. Students should look for tonal whiplash, banal phrases turned uncanny, and critique of consumer culture. In practice, collect text from search results, spam, comment threads, or product reviews; then curate rather than polish, arranging lines to expose hidden ideologies. The craft lies in selection and framing: the poem’s intelligence emerges from what it chooses to keep and how it collides materials.
Also Known As
Flarf Poetry Flarf Poetics Google Poetics
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