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Thought sparked by a recent exchange w/ @Ted_Underwood: one reason, I think for the success and popularity of image generators over AI text generation is that we have a higher tolerance for what one might (with analogy to the visual arts) term abstract expressionism in pictures./
With the images generators, that which is not strictly photorealistic (not their strong suit) often appears merely stylized: “surreal,” or “like a Monet.” Or else just cool and weird./
By contrast, with text generators, most of us (barring those of us who read LANGUAGE poetry in graduate school) have a relatively low tolerance for prose that deviates from discursive norms. We want normative grammars and normative higher level structures./
Herewith, a thread that is a kind of "reader's guide" to BITSTREAMS. It's a short book, yes, but still: different constituencies might benefit from a better sense of what's in there (and where). Here's the @PennPress catalog page for the general overview: upenn.edu/pennpress/book… 
The book is based on my 2016 Rosenbach Lectures at the University of Pennsylvania. Each "lecture" has been revised and expanded-- there's really only a passing resemblance to the originals. library.upenn.edu/about/exhibits…
Nonetheless, the three original lectures survive in the three main chapters, and each rests on a distinctive discursive formation: the archive, the computer, and the book. (Of course the work of the book is precisely in the dismantling of the definite article that precedes each.)
