Yesterday I just tried to play a bit with GPT-4, the latest version AI of OpenAI released GPT-series language models. And the result turned out to be fun!

I tried to discuss with it about nesting/recursive structures in literature and arts. When I started the topic, I just got something common-known on top of my mind, like Inception, the classical dream in dream movie from Nolan. To my surprise, It actually pointed to me some novels and poems, which I never got a chance to read, from authors I most liked. It really ignited my interest to take a delve. Here is an incomplete list of things it referred to me during the chat.

• Frame narrative (also called a frame story or frame tale): Examples include Geoffrey Chaucer’s “The Canterbury Tales,” where a group of pilgrims tells stories to one another on their journey, and “One Thousand and One Nights,” where Scheherazade tells stories each night to her husband to postpone her execution.
• Chinese boxes: This term is used to describe a recursive organizational structure, where an element contains a smaller version of itself, which in turn contains another smaller version, and so on. In literature, this can be seen in novels like “The Blind Assassin” by Margaret Atwood, where the protagonist’s story is interwoven with the stories she has written.
• Metafiction: This is a form of literature that self-consciously and systematically draws attention to its status as an artifact. It often involves stories within stories or authors who appear as characters in their own works. Examples include “If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler” by Italo Calvino and “The French Lieutenant’s Woman” by John Fowles.
• Mise en abyme: This is a visual technique where an image contains a smaller copy of itself, which in turn contains another smaller copy, and so on. This can be seen in art, such as in the works of M.C. Escher, and in literature, where stories or narratives are nested within each other.

Amazed by its “educated” awareness of broad related knowledge, I urged the AI to write a poem with Time as the theme using similar techniques, and here came its piece.

In Time's Reflection

Upon this page, I etch my story's thread,
A verse entwined with Time's eternal shroud,
With ink, I trace the moments as they fled,
A poem transcending its own mortal bounds.

The hours wane, as shadows rise and fall,
And in these lines, their transient lives depict,
Each verse entwines, a spiral like a thrall,
The hands of Time within each rhyme, restrict.

A fleeting breath, confined within my quill,
I note it down, and then I write once more,
A moment seized within a phrase's thrill,
Encased within, a poem's endless core.

And now, dear reader, as you read my lines,
You join me in this dance through ageless times,
Our thoughts enmeshed within the poet's scheme,
A tapestry of life and endless dreams.

For in these words, recursive though they seem,
We find the truth that lies beneath the theme,
That Time itself is but a grand mirage,
And in this poem, we share its soft collage.

I even asked for the translated Chinese version, which I think might be useful to some of you.

在时间的镜像中

在这一页上，我刻下我的故事线索，
一首与时间永恒帷幕交织的诗篇，
用墨水，我追踪那逝去的时刻，
一首超越自身凡俗边界的诗篇。

时间消逝，影子升起又落下，
在这些诗句中，描绘它们短暂的生命，
每一节诗句都紧密相连，像一个螺旋的枷锁，
时间的手在每一个韵律中束缚。

一个转瞬即逝的呼吸，被困在我的羽毛笔中，
我记下它，然后我再次书写，
一个时刻被捕捉在一个短语的颤栗中，
封存在一首诗篇的无尽核心里。

现在，亲爱的读者，当你阅读我的诗句时，
你和我一起在这无尽的时光中共舞，
我们的思绪交织在诗人的计划中，
一幅生活和无尽梦想的织物。

因为在这些看似递归的词语中，
我们发现了隐藏在主题下的真相，
时间本身只是一个宏伟的幻觉，
而在这首诗中，我们也融入它柔和的拼贴。

I now stopped here and presented the poetry critique enterprise to you, to this work from a dawning era.