The limerick is a constrained, minimal form of text constrained to be about a much simpler kind of beauty, so simple as to be, arguably, artless.
75 Funny Limericks, perhaps among the most artless web pages to exist, says of limericks that “The beauty of the limerick is that anyone can write them.” And from that page, I’ve selected this limerick which, to my eye, has no real redeeming qualities aside from the fact that it is a successful limerick.
There was an odd fellow named Gus,
When traveling he made such a fuss.
He was banned from the train,
Not allowed on a plane,
And now travels only by bus.
The limerick form is a rhyming scheme of AABBA (almost like the Swedish pop group, ha ha), where the meter of the B lines are a little shorter than the A lines. There is a satisfying cant to the limerick’s flow, strongly suggesting a setup, a brief diversion, and a punchline.
Initially I wanted to explore “Rhyming Couplet Games”, but limericks are so perfectly self-contained, such a great foil to haiku. So, let’s fence.
HAIKU is a kind of minimal form of text constrained to be about this kind of beauty [“a system that ties the individual pieces of the game (or poem) together. A system of natural beauty that comments on human experience, that feels at once personal and universal”] using only a shortened structure of simple words. It seems these constraints allow for easier analysis[..]
What can we learn from haiku, and the micro dynamics of this kind of poetic experience, in our quest to make games that satisfy us?
— from HAIKU games (Jack)
The concept of English-language haiku is pretty much devoid of the kind of base pleasure delivered by a limerick: whether it’s the old 5-7-5 or the more contemporary loose verse, a successful but artless haiku is not as pleasant as a successful but artless limerick. At least, that’s my argument. When I think of writing a limerick, I can surrender to structure: write a silly opening line that ends in a word that has a few easy rhymes, and it almost writes itself.
"I had to sneeze out of my nose, I had no tissues with which to blows I sneezed real bad and now I'm sad 'cuz now I've got wet toes."
Okay, it’s… silly and kinda gross… but hopefully illustrative of what I mean… A limerick falls together. We can still meticulously construct a limerick if we choose to, but as an art form, it effortlessly produces beauty, though it may be of a repetitive sort (AABBA). And I wonder if that’s what makes it lowbrow in my mind?
By comparison, it’s hard to write a beautiful (contemporary, non-kanji/hànyǔ-based language) haiku, because there is very little natural beauty to it.
"the A/C on the roof of the building next door tells me it's cool"
I would argue this follows the rules of contemporary haiku; when I read it, I think “haiku,” but unlike the limerick I cannot follow along or nod my head to it.
As a result of this difficulty, each haiku which achieves any sort of beauty at all comes as a revelation. Haiku must create a new sort of beauty despite the form which actively prevents it. It is a dare, and the audacity of succeeding despite those odds is what we celebrate when a haiku is beautiful. On the interpretive end, there’s likewise a dare: Can you find the beauty in something so unnatural, something so without flow?
There’s nothing wrong with any of this, of course. This is an “Aside” because I don’t want to distract us from our course but more to help us highlight: what are haiku games in the first place and why is it valuable to explore them? Why is it so difficult to design them? Why as a concept are they so attractive?
In HAIKU games, Jack said he wants to “discover for myself a system that ties the individual pieces of the game (or poem) together”.
By contrast to limerick, does that mean eschewing existing, familiar, and already-beautiful classes of systems in order to better highlight ones which are ever subtler and harder to appreciate?
If so, let’s take a moment to appreciate the difficulty of the task…
When we ask how to make haiku games, are we asking, “How do we make satisfying games without doing any of the things that easily make game experiences satisfying?”
P.S. I’ll be returning to my May through May retrospective soon enough 🙂