If I die unrespected and socially isolated I like the thought of donating my body to medicine while providing a funeral for poets to crash and get their words out. It is an absurd concept, it would be nice if they connected socially before I died and provided the respect they are concerned about. But given the constraints of their own lives it is nice knowing my lonely death could provide social support to probably introverted intelligent thoughtful people who are likely at risk of social isolation themself.
What is the purpose of a funeral is an interesting question. I think it is to help the living to socialise and forge ahead with a cohesive story of the deceased ‘s contribution to their own lives and to navigate the gap and hierarchy left in the modified social network. I’m guessing this process reduces grief and conflict as people feel loved and supported through the process.
If you die alone you leave no gap. I think it’s brilliant that Poets seized this opportunity to get a reading in and strengthen their own social network. They are also attributing value and respect to life, no matter how meaningless, which is another positive. The futility and absurdity of the human condition is a beautiful thing we all wrestle with whether socially connected or not and I think this is the point they are getting across while having someone listen to their poetry.
(1) In any big city in the US, you can easily find poetry workshops/meeting groups. I'm currently in one (Boston), we read each others' poetry and talk about poetry every week. It's absolutely ridiculous to think there is no demand for poetry, poetry is one of the -- if not the -- oldest art forms, I mean yeah there are people who read poetry even in 2024. My generic bookstore still has a poetry section where I pay $$$ to exchange for poetry books. There is even a dedicated poetry book shop in Harvard Sq (i.e. they exclusively sell poetry books) and they pay the same (expensive Boston) rent any other business pays.
(2) LLMs write dogshit poetry. Comparing a "good" poem with a GPT-4 generated poem is like comparing "2001: Space Odyssey" and "The Room". Other than the fact that they're both arguably "movies" the quality difference is extremely obvious to people who are familiar with this art form.