“Algorithmancer" is a collection of 31 poems by Lydia Gates, she is an American queer autistic performance poet and writer. Lydia ia also the managing organiser of ‘FlagSlam’ which is a poetry slam in Arizona. She also competes in ‘Poetry Slams’. In this context, her poems do come more to life. She adds intention, emphasis, pauses etc. that are not discernable on the pages in the book.
This short collection of poetry focuses heavily on the experience of being autistic in the age of the internet as well as the author's life in a time of love, loss, and political turmoil that has been accelerating since the start of lockdown of 2020. As she was no longer able to attend events, she started recording her poetry on social media; YouTube, TikTok and Instagram etc. and hence the book title, as she was now reliant on algorithms to spread her work reach or go ‘viral’.
Lydia chose to define Algorithmancer as a noun with 2 meanings:
an entity able to affect the internet algorithm in a way which evokes the feeling of divination.
an individual who goes viral for putting into words that which before had only been experienced.
Some poems encourage the reader to imagine an alternate version of the author, while others are a true experience. Some of the poems are situational i.e. the present day, others are past experiences i.e. growing up, and others are about her wife and their relationship. At times, it’s reminiscent of scrolling through a social media feed. And this is where I struggle with this book. I’ll admit that I am a traditionalist poetry fan. I like rhyme, rhythm and very classical poets like William Blake and Andrew Marvel.
Some of these poems are more reminiscent of short stories, and to be honest, even then, they don’t always make much sense to me, they feel like random screenshots which is how the poem titled ‘Alternate Universe in Which I Win The Triple Crown’ made me feel. I’m a verbal thinker and yet I struggled to read these poems. Or in ‘Too Familiar’ where she talks about how much like cats we are as autistics. I don’t think like that, nor do I agree.
There’s a poem titled ‘Petite Mort’ where she does actually talk about love and death. Except in French, it refers specifically to a post-orgasm sensation as likened to death. Which doesn’t actually fit within this poem.
‘Diagnosis: Theseus’ and “I Won’t Fix It’ do talk about her various diagnosis, including autism, and they do feel like the most raw poems. I liked the visual idea of ‘a jenga tower of symptoms’ and being ‘able to reach through the screen to those who shy away from touch’.
Unfortunately, that’s it. Nothing particularly resonated with me.
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