the milk and vine saga: curdled convergence

Not confined to its home network, insta-poetry has outgrown square feeds and character limits. Thanks to the genre’s viral appeal, authors amplify their reach on Twitter, Tumblr users re-blog screenshots of their favorite verse, vloggers review the latest releases, and so on. Media convergence, the flow of content across multiple media platforms, the cooperation between media industries, and the migratory behavior of media audiences who will go almost anywhere in search of their desired consumption experience, largely accounts the genre’s sustained popularity. The “three C’s”—computing, communication, and content—increase the speed and spread of digi-poetic tidbits. As content goes mobile, opportunities for creation and engagement increase. Readership is democratized, creating close, more rewarding relations between creator and consumer – who may switch roles at any moment.

Participatory culture, the social aspect of convergence, fuels bottom-up collaborative creative and change-making processes. Crowdfunding, hashtag campaigns, and other cyber-initiatives have significant power to affect “real-world” events. Instapoetry’s most viral and infamous offline appearance does not involve literary analysis or self-publishing. The Milk and Vine fiasco, played out in late 2017, united internet citizens for - then against - two unassuming college students. The premise: to commemorate the demise of Vine, a video-sharing service that built stars in six-second loops,18-year-old Emily Beck and 19-year-old Adam Gasiewski decided to publish a collection of the app’s greatest one-liners. Encouraged by their friends, the enthusiastic satirists quickly slapped together a tumblr-ready Rupi Kaur knockoff. Down to its choppy phrases, shaky line drawings, and seemingly meaningless minimalism, Milk and Vine was a dead ringer for its bestselling counterpart. The couple listed their side project on Amazon, tweeted out a few snapshots, and deemed the side project a success. With their peers were fully amused, and the two teens figured that it was the end of the story. Not so fast.

l - Gasiewski celebrates an unlikely success; r - glowing reviews in the twittersphere

Beck and Gasiewski had underestimated the power of convergence culture. Overnight, the 74-page book garnered thousands of twitter mentions and reached the number one spot on Amazon. It outsold critically acclaimed authors, snatching the top spot from Pete Souza, Obama’s White House photographer. At first, Milk and Vine was hailed as brilliant mockery, with users praising how it effortlessly commemorated their favorite Vines and roasted the insta-poetess everyone loves to hate. But nice things do not last long on the internet.

In their race to self-publish, the two teens had failed to credit the viners. During the ensuing debate over intellectual property, Beck and Gasiewski were accused of profiting off a book of stolen content. Thinkpieces were penned, commentaries composed, and the rage-mob deployed. To make amends, a Youtube user uploaded a compilation of the referenced vines. The comments sections are filled with “lols” and “thank you’s” to the archivist. The debacle, complete in a few days, left Beck and Gasiewski stunned – and appropriately so. They were just two kids who made a joke and pressed post, not stopping to consider the convoluted convergence of Rupi Kaur haters, Vine mourners, Youtube reviewers, ardent re-tweeters, and over-protective content creators, all dedicated in their quest to give credit where credit is due.

An explication of this controversy could go in many directions, exploring internet copyright, the future of writing, or even cyber-bullying. But Milk and Vine’s overnight souring from rich Chunky Monkey to lumpy Yoplait exhibits how the insta-poetry can infinitely mined for memes, collecting internet artifacts as it converges across networks and user groups. This remixing, however, cannot be done one carelessly. Though plagiarism is easier than ever, it is still impermissible. Through their collective intelligence – the collaboration, collective efforts, and competition of that occurs in virtual spaces – the internet quickly righted Beck and Gasiewski’s wrongs. As Rupi Kaur, her peers, and two accidental bestselling authors now know quite well: no matter how much the scrollers on the other side of the screen may “like” you, they will always keep you in check.

(Published in January of this year, Milk and Vine II features 100+ more masterpieces...and a foreword by a vine star).