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The Xenotext
Book 2
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Brief Description
The first work of 'living poetry' in the world, by the author of the bestselling book Eunoia. Christian Bk, in Book 1 of The Xenotext, outlined his plan to encode a poem into the genome of a deathless bacterium, thereby writing a text durable enough to...
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Format: Paperback / softback
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Description
The first work of 'living poetry' in the world, by the author of the bestselling book Eunoia.
Christian Bk, in Book 1 of The Xenotext, outlined his plan to encode a poem into the genome of a deathless bacterium, thereby writing a text durable enough to outlive any apocalypse, surviving until the death of the Sun itself. After more than two decades of effort, Bk has, at last, succeeded at this incredible experiment, and Book 2 of The Xenotext situates his enterprise within the deep time of the cosmos.
Bk rehearses some of the techniques likely to be used in the future to preserve the cultural heritage of our civilisation against a potential planetary disaster (be it thermonuclear warfare or astrophysical barrage); moreover, Bk speculates that, buried within the biochemistry of Life itself, there really does exist an innate beauty, if not a hidden poetry—a literal message that we might read, if we deign to seek it.
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9781552454985
Publisher: Coach House Books
Format: Paperback / softback
Date Published: 17 July 2025
Country: Canada
Imprint: Coach House Books
Illustration: Illustrations
Audience: General / adult
DIMENSIONS
Spine width: 10.0mm
Width: 127.0mm
Height: 203.0mm
Weight: 199g
Pages: 112
About the Author
Christian Bk is the author of Eunoia (Coach House Books, 2001), a bestselling work of experimental literature, which has gone on to win the Griffin Prize for Poetic Excellence (2002). Crystallography (Coach House Press, 1994), his first book of poetry, was nominated for the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award (1995). Nature has interviewed Bk about his work on The Xenotext (making him the first poet ever to appear in this famous journal of science). Bk has also exhibited artworks derived from The Xenotext at galleries around the world; moreover, his poem from this project has hitched a ride, as a digital payload, aboard a number of probes exploring the Solar System (including the InSight lander, now at Elysium Planitia on the surface of Mars). Bk is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and he teaches at Leeds School of Arts in the UK.
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The Xenotext
"Many artists seek to attain immortality through their art, but few would expect their work to outlast the human race and live on for billions of years. As Canadian poet Christian Bök has realised, it all comes down to the durability of your materials." - The Guardian Internationally best-selling poet Christian Bök has spent more than ten years writing what...PaperbackSold Out
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