From 0260775124ab117a2e227517dcf8272fc686bb31 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Case Duckworth Date: Mon, 6 Apr 2015 21:44:30 -0700 Subject: Revise about --- about.txt | 318 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++---------------- 1 file changed, 235 insertions(+), 83 deletions(-) (limited to 'about.txt') diff --git a/about.txt b/about.txt index d4fd965..86ebd2a 100644 --- a/about.txt +++ b/about.txt @@ -1,21 +1,14 @@ --- title: Autocento of the breakfast table -id: about subtitle: about this site genre: prose -epigraph: - content: by Case Duckworth +id: about +toc: "_about Autocento_" project: - title: About Autocento - class: meta - next: - - title: Index of common titles - link: common-titles - prev: - - title: Index of first lines - link: first-lines + title: Front matter + css: front-matter ... ## Introduction @@ -23,110 +16,269 @@ project: _Autocento [of the breakfast table][]_ is a hypertextual exploration of the workings of revision across time. Somebody^[[citation needed][]]^ once said that every relationship we have is part of the same relationship; the same is true of authorship. As we write, as we continue writing across our lives, patterns thread themselves through our work: images, certain phrases, preoccupations. -This project attempts to make those threads more apparent, using the technology of hypertext. +This project attempts to make those threads more apparent, using the technology of hypertext and the opposing ideas of the _hapax legomenon_ and the _cento_, held in tension with each other. I'm also an MFA candidate at [Northern Arizona University][NAU]. This is my thesis. +Let me tell you about it. -## Genesis +[of the breakfast table]: http://www.ibiblio.org/eldritch/owh/abt.html +[citation needed]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citing_sources#Dealing_with_unsourced_material +[NAU]: http://nau.edu/CAL/English/Degrees-Programs/Graduate/MFA/ -This project revolves around two sister concepts: the _hapax legomenon_ and the _cento_. +### [Hapax][] legomenon, or _You are special_ _Hapax legomenon_ ([ἅπαξ][] λεγόμενον) is Greek for "something said only once." -It's used in linguistics to describe words that appear only once in a corpus. -If expanded to _n-grams_, it can be used to describe utterances that occur only once, and this is where it gets interesting. -If this line of thinking is taken to its logical conclusion, we can say that all writing, all utterances, are _hapax legomena_, because they appear only once in the world as they are. -In short, everything is individual; everything is differentiated; everything is an island. +It comes from the field of corpus linguistics, where it causes problems for translators of ancient texts. +Because it only happens once in its corpus, a _hapax legmonenon_ is an enigma: there's only one context to guess its meaning from. +This means that many _hapax legomena_ remain untranslated, as in Mayan tablets, or are questionably translated, as in the Bible. + +Given the way we use language every day, treading over the same words and thoughts in a way that is nonetheless comforting, and given the fact that a _hapax legomenon_ is, by its definition, the rarest word in the place it appears, you might think that _hapax legomena_, as phenomena, are rare. +You'd be wrong. +In the Brown Corpus of American English Text, which comprises some fifty thousand words, [about half are _hapax legomena_][]. +In most large corpora, in fact, between forty and sixty per cent of the words occur only once, and another ten to fifteen per cent occur only twice, a fact that I imagine causes translators all sorts of [grief][]. -On the other hand, a _cento_, from the Latin, from the Greek κέντρόνη, meaning "patchwork garment," is a poem composed completely of fragments of other poems. -It's a mash-up that makes up for its lack of originality in utterance with a novelty in arrangement. -Usually, it refers to taking phrases, lines, or stanzas from other authors' works, but I don't see why it couldn't refer to _n-grams_ or individual words. -If _this_ line of thinking is taken to its logical conclusion, we can say that no writing is truly original; that every utterance has, in some scrambled way at least, been uttered before. -In other words, nothing is individual. -We float on an ocean of language which we did nothing to create, and the best we can hope for is to find some combination that hasn't been thought of too many times before. -As Solomon said, "[There is nothing new under the sun][nothing-new]." +This seeming paradox is reminiscent of another in biology, as summed up by this infographic I keep seeing around the Internet[^1]\: +![Really. I see it everywhere.](https://i.imgur.com/Dub8k.png) -_Autocento of the breakfast table_ works within the tension caused by these two concepts. +Apparently, the chances of you, dear Reader, being born is [something][s1] like one in 10^2,685,000^. +The chances of me [being born][] is [something][s2] like one in 10^2,685,000^. +The chances of the guy you stood behind in line [for your coffee][] this morning? +His chance of being born was [something][s3] like one in 10^2,685,000^. +The thing is, a number like one in 10^2,685,000^ stops meaning so much when we take the number of times such a "rare" event occurs. +There are about seven billion (or $7 \times 10^{9}$) people on Earth---and all of them have that same small chance of one in 10^2,685,000^ of being born. +And they all were. + +It stops seeming so special after thinking about it. + +[Hapax]: hapax.html +[ἅπαξ]: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0057:entry=a%28/pac +[about half are _hapax legomena_]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hapax_legomenon#cite_note-6 +[grief]: one-hundred-lines.html +[being born]: about-the-author.html +[for your coffee]: yellow.html +[s1]: music-433.html +[s2]: poetry-time.html +[s3]: dollywood.html + +### _Cento_, or _just like everyone else_ + +_Cento_ is Latin, stolen from the Greek κέντρόνη, which means "patchwork garment." +A _cento_ is a poem composed completely from parts of other poems, a mash-up that makes up for its lack of originality in utterance with a novelty in arrangement. + +If we apply the _cento_ to biology, we can win back some of that uniqueness, we can resolve some of that paradox of the _hapax legomenon_. +Sure, [nothing is new under the sun][], but it can be made new if we say it differently, or if we put it next to something it hasn't met before. +We can become hosts to the parties of our lives, and rub elbows with the same tired celebrities everyone's rubbed elbows with, but make it different. +Because _we_ put the [tables on roller skates][]. +Because _we_ told [the joke][] this time with a Rabbi. +Because _we_ are special [snowflakes][], and it doesn't matter that there's more of us than there is sand on the beaches at Normandy. +Because _we_ are still all different somehow. + +[nothing is new under the sun]: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ecclesiastes+1%3A9&version=NIV +[tables on roller skates]: call-me-aural-pleasure.html +[the joke]: creation-myth.html +[snowflakes]: snow.html + +### On _n_-grams + +What we have so far: +- A _hapax legomenon_ technically refers only to _one word_ in a corpus. +- A _cento_ technically refers to a poem with _whole phrases_ taken from others, patchwork-style. + +These concepts get more interesting as we play with their scopes. +To do that, we need to take a look at the _n_-gram. + +In linguistics and computational probability, an _n_-gram is a [contiguous system of _n_ items from a given sequence of text or speech][ngram-def]. +By looking at _n_-grams, linguists can look at deeper trends in language than with single words alone[^2]. +_N_-grams are also incredibly useful in natural language processing---for example, they're how your phone can guess what you're going to [text your mom][] next[^3]. +They're also the key to fully reconciling the _hapax legomenon_ and the _cento_. + +If the definition of _hapax legomena_ is expanded to include _n_-grams of arbitrary lengths, + including full utterances, complete poems, or the [collected works of, say, Shakespeare][], + then we can say that all writing is a _hapax legomenon_, + because no one else has said the [same words in the same order][]. +In short, everything written or in existence is individual. +Everything is differentiated. +Everything is an [island][]. + +If the definition of what comprises a _cento_ is minimized to individual trigrams, bigrams, or even unigrams (individual words), or even parts of words, we arrive again at Solomon's lament: that no writing is original; that every utterance has, in some [scrambled][] way at least, been uttered before. +To put it another way, [nothing][] is individual. +We're stranded [afloat on an ocean][] of language we did nothing to create, and the best we can hope to accomplish is to find some combination of flotsam and jetsam that hasn't been put together too many times before. + +This project, _Autocento of the breakfast table_, works within the tension caused by _hapax legomena_ and _centi_, between the first and last half of the statement _we are all unique, just like everyone else_. + +[ngram-def]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N-gram +[text your mom]: mountain.html + +[same words in the same order]: http://www.thisdayinquotes.com/2011/07/poetry-best-words-in-best-order.html +[collected works of, say, Shakespeare]: http://shakespeare.mit.edu/ +[island]: island.html + +[scrambled]: howtoread.html +[nothing]: no-nothing.html +[afloat on an ocean]: riptide_memory.html ## Process -In compiling the works that make up this text, I've pulled from a few different projects: +In compiling this text, I've pulled from a few different projects: + +- [Elegies for alternate selves][elegies-link] +- [The book of Hezekiah][hez-link] +- [Stark raving][stark-link] +- [Buildings out of air][paul-link] + +as well as [new poems][], written quite recently. +As I've compiled them into this project, I've linked them together based on common images or language, disregarding the order of their compositions. +What I hope to have accomplished with this hypertext is an approximation of my self as it's evolved, but [all at one time][]. +Ultimately, _Autocento of the breakfast table_ is a [long-exposure photograph][] of my mind. + +[new poems]: last-passenger.html +[long-exposure photograph]: building.html +[all at one time]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJjcF2DmFFY + +### A note on terminology + +_Autocento of the breakfast table_ comprises work of multiple genres, including prose, verse, tables, lists, and hybrid forms. +Because of this, and because of my own personal hang-ups with terms like [_poem_][] applying to works that aren't verse (and even some that are[^4]), _piece_ applying to anything, really (it's just annoying, in my opinion---a piece of what?), I've needed to find another word to refer to all the _stuff_ in this project. +While the terms "literary object" and "intertext," à la Kristeva et al., more fully describe the things I've been writing and linking in this text, I'm worried that these terms are either too long or too esoteric for me to refer to them consistently when talking about my work. +I believe I've found a solution in the term _page_, as in a page or [leaf][] of a book, or a page on a website. +After all, the term _page_ is accurate as it refers to the objects herein--each one is a page---and it's short and unassuming. +But it's probably pretty pretentious, too. + +[_poem_]: on-genre-dimension.html +[leaf]: leaf.html + +### The inevitable creep of technology + +Because this project lives online (welcome to the Internet!), I've used a fair amount of technology to get it there. + +First, I typed all of the objects present into a human-readable markup format called [Markdown][] by John Gruber, using a plain-text editor called [Vim][].[^5] +Markdown is a plain-text format that uses unobtrusive mark-up to signal semantic meaning around a text. +A text written with markup can then be passed to a compiler, such as John Gruber's `Markdown.pl` script, to turn it into functioning HTML for viewing in a browser. + +As an example, here's the previous paragraph as I typed it: -* [Elegies for alternate selves][elegies-link] -* [The book of Hezekiah][hez-link] -* [Stark raving][stark-link] -* [Buildings out of air][paul-link] +~~~markdown +First, I typed all of the objects present into a human-readable markup +format called [Markdown][] by John Gruber, using a plain-text editor called +[Vim][].[^5] Markdown is a plain-text format that uses unobtrusive mark-up to +signal semantic meaning around a text. A text written with markup can then be +passed to a compiler, such as John Gruber's original Markdown.pl script, to +turn it into functioning HTML for viewing in a browser. -as well as added new articles, written quite recently. -As I've compiled them into this project, I've linked them together based on common images or language, moving back and forth through time. -This should give the reader a fair idea of what my head looks like on the inside. +[Markdown]: http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/ +[Vim]: http://www.vim.org -## Technology +[^5]: I could've used any text editor for the composition step, including + Notepad, but I personally like Vim for its extensibility, composability, + and honestly its colorschemes. +~~~ -Because this project lives online, I've used a fair amount of technology to get it there. -First, I converted all the articles[^1] present into plain text files, which are viewable from [here][text]. -Then, I used John McFarlane's venerable document preparation system [pandoc][], along with a [makefile][] to compile the text sources to HTML using [this template][]. -The compiled HTML is what you're reading now.[^2] +And here it is as a compiled HTML file: -To host the project, I'm using [Github][], an online code-collaboration tool with the version control system [git][] under the hood. -This enables me (and you, dear Reader!) to explore the path of revision even more, from beginning to end, based on my commits to the repository. -You can view the repository and its changes and files at [my Github profile][].[^3] +~~~html +

First, I typed all of the objects present into a human-readable markup format called Markdown by John Gruber, using a plain-text editor called Vim.1 Markdown is a plain-text format that uses unobtrusive mark-up to signal semantic meaning around a text. A text written with markup can then be passed to a compiler, such as John Gruber's original Markdown.pl script, to turn it into functioning HTML for viewing in a browser.

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  1. I could've used any text editor for the composition step, including Notepad, but I personally like Vim for its extensibility, composability, and honestly its colorschemes.↩

    2. +
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+~~~ -## Using this site +For these files, I opted to use John McFarlane's [pandoc][] over the original `Markdown.pl` compiler, because it's more consistent with edge cases in formatting, and because it can compile the Markdown source into a wide variety of different formats, including DOCX, ODT, PDF, HTML, and others. +I use an [HTML template][] for `pandoc` to correctly typeset each object in the web browser. +The compiled HTML pages are what you're reading now. -All of the articles on this site are linked together hypertextually (i.e., like a webpage). -This means that all you need to do to explore the creative threads linking these articles together is to start clicking links. -However, if you find you're looping around to a lot of the same articles, you can head back to the [index][] and click through the titles in order---that article contains the titles of all the other works in this project. +Since typing `pandoc [file].txt -t html5 --template=_template.html --filter=trunk/versify.exe --smart --mathml --section-divs -o [file].html` over 130 times is highly tedious, I've written a [GNU][] [Makefile][] that automates the process. +In addition to compiling the HTML files for this project, the Makefile also compiles each page's backlinks (accessible through the φ link at the bottom of each page), and the indexes of [first lines][], [common titles][], and [_hapax legomena_][hapaxleg] of this project. -Alternatively, you can click the lozenge (◊) at the bottom of each page. -It'll take you to a random article in the project, thanks to [this javascript][]. +Finally, this project needs to enter the realm of the Internet. +To do this, I use [Github][], an online code-collaboration tool that uses the version-control system [git][] under the hood. +`git` was originally written to keep track of the source code of the [Linux][] kernel.[^6] +I use it to keep track of the revisions of the text files in _Autocento of the breakfast table_, which means that you, dear Reader, can explore the path of my revision even more deeply by viewing the [Github repository][] for this project online. -If you want to experience the earlier projects in something resembling the original orders, previous and next links are provided at the bottom of each page, next to the lozenge. -Sometimes, there are more than one of each of these, or there are none, dependant on the structure of their original project. +For more information on the process I took while compiling _Autocento of the breakfast table_, see my [Process][] page. -## Things still to do +[Markdown]: http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/ +[Vim]: http://www.vim.org +[pandoc]: http://johnmcfarlane.net/pandoc/ +[HTML template]: https://github.com/duckwork/autocento/blob/gh-pages/template.html +[GNU]: https://www.gnu.org/software/make/ +[Makefile]: https://github.com/duckwork/autocento/blob/gh-pages/makefile +[first lines]: first-lines.html +[common titles]: common-titles.html +[hapaxleg]: hapx.html +[Github]: https://github.com +[git]: http://www.git-scm.com +[Linux]: http://www.linux.org +[Github repository]: https://github.com/duckwork/autocento +[Process]: process.html -_Autocento of the breakfast table_ is a work in progress. -The first draft is completed, but some revision and aesthetic work remains to be done for me to consider it fully "[published][]" -(what does this word mean in 2015?). -You can see the full list of to-dos by visiting the [issues page][issues] of the Github site. +### Motivation -## Contact me +Although `git` and the other tools I use were developed or are mostly used by programmers, engineers, or other kinds of scientists, they're useful in creative writing as well for a few different reasons: -If you'd like to contact me about the state of this work or my writing in general, you can email me at . +1. **Facilitation of revision.** + By using a VCS like `git` and plain text files, I can revise a poem (for example, "[And][]") and keep both the current version and a [much older one][old-and]. + This lets me hold onto every idea I've had, and "throw things away" without _actually_ throwing them away. + They're still there, somewhere, in the source tree. +2. **Future proofness.** + By using a simple text editor to write out my files instead of a proprietary word processor, I've ensured that no matter what may happen to the stocks of Microsoft, Apple, or Google in the following hundred years, my words will stay accessible and editable. + Also, I don't know how to insert links in Word. +3. **Philosophy of intellectual property.** + I use open-source, or libre, tools like `vim`, `pandoc`, and `make` because information should be free. + This is also the reason why I'm releasing _Autocento of the breakfast table_ under a Creative Commons [license][]. - -[of the breakfast table]: http://www.ibiblio.org/eldritch/owh/abt.html -[citation needed]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citing_sources#Dealing_with_unsourced_material -[NAU]: http://nau.edu/CAL/English/Degrees-Programs/Graduate/MFA/ +[license]: license.html -[ἅπαξ]: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0057:entry=a%28/pac -[nothing-new]: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ecclesiastes+1%3A9&version=NIV +## _Autocento of the breakfast table_ and you + +### Using this site + +Since all of the objects in this project are linked, you can begin from, say, [here][possible-start] and follow the links through everything. +But if you find yourself lost as in a funhouse maze, looping around and around to the same stupid [fountain][] at the entrance, here are a few tips: + +- The ξ link at the bottom of each page leads to a random article. +- The φ link at the bottom of each page leads to its back-link page, which lists the titles of pages that link back to the page you were just on. +- Finally, if you're really desperate, the ◊ link sends you back to the [cover page][], where you can start over. + The cover page links you to the [table of contents][toc], as well as the indexes of [first lines][fl], [common titles][ct], and [_hapax legomena_][hl]. + +[possible-start]: in-bed.html +[fountain]: dollywood.html +[cover page]: index.html +[toc]: _toc.html +[fl]: first-lines.html +[ct]: common-titles.html +[hl]: hapax.html + +### Contact me + +If you'd like to contact me about the state of this work, its history, or its future; or about my writing in general, email me at [case dot duckworth plus autocento at gmail dot com][]. + +[^1]: Which apparently, though not really surprisingly given the nature of the Internet, has its roots in [this][born-blog] blog post. + +[born-blog]: http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/abinazir/2011/06/15/what-are-chances-you-would-be-born/ -[elegies-link]: and.html -[hez-link]: prelude.html -[stark-link]: table_contents.html -[paul-link]: art.html +[^2]: For more fun with _n_-grams, I recommend the curious reader to point their browsers to the [Google Ngram Viewer][], which searches "lots of books" from most of history that matters. -[text]: index-txt.html +[Google Ngram Viewer]: https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=technically+refers&case_insensitive=on&year_start=1600&year_end=2008&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t4%3B%2Ctechnically%20refers%3B%2Cc0%3B%2Cs0%3B%3Btechnically%20refers%3B%2Cc0%3B%3BTechnically%20refers%3B%2Cc0 -[pandoc]: http://johnmacfarlane.net/pandoc/ -[makefile]: https://github.com/duckwork/autocento/blob/gh-pages/makefile -[this template]: https://github.com/duckwork/autocento/blob/gh-pages/template.html -[Github]: https://github.com/ -[git]: http://www.git-scm.com/ -[my Github profile]: https://github.com/duckwork/autocento +[^3]: For fun, try only typing with the suggested words for a while. + At least for me, they start repeating "I'll be a bar of the new York NY and I can be a bar of the new York NY and I can." -[index]: first-lines.html -[this javascript]: https://github.com/duckwork/autocento/blob/gh-pages/trunk/lozenge.js +[^4]: For more discussion of this subject, see "[Ars poetica][ars]," "[How to read this][how-read]," "[A manifesto of poetics][manifesto]," "[On formal poetry][formal-poetry]," and [The third section] of "Statements: a fragment." -[published]: published.html -[issues]: https://github.com/duckwork/autocento/issues +[ars]: arspoetica.html +[how-read]: howtoread.html +[manifesto]: manifesto_poetics.html +[formal-poetry]: onformalpoetry.html +[The third section]: statements-frag.html#declaration-of-poetry -[^1]: I've decided to use the word _article_ instead of _poem_, because not all of the texts included are poems; and instead of _piece_, because _piece_ is vague and, to my mind, pretentious. - I'm aware that the true [etymology](http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=article) of _article_ does not reflect my use of it, namely "a little chunk of art", a la the (personal folk) derivation of _icicle_, _treicle_, etc. +[^5]: I could've used any text editor for the composition step, including Notepad, but I personally like Vim for its extensibility, composability, and honestly its colorschemes. -[^2]: The great thing about `pandoc` is that it can compile to, and convert between, about fifty formats or so. - This means that if, in the future, I choose to convert this project to a printable form (for example PDF, ODT, or even DOCX), I'll be able to with a fairly small amount of work. +[^6]: As it happens, the week I'm writing this (6 April 2015) is `git`'s tenth anniversary. + The folks at Atlassian have made an [interactive timeline][] for the occasion, and Linux.com has an interesting [interview with Linus Torvalds][], `git`'s creator. -[^3]: For more information on the technological aspect of this project, see the [README.md](https://github.com/duckwork/autocento/blob/gh-pages/README.md) file at the root of the github repo. +[interactive timeline]: https://www.atlassian.com/git/articles/10-years-of-git/ +[interview with Linus Torvalds]: http://www.linux.com/news/featured-blogs/185-jennifer-cloer/821541-10-years-of-git-an-interview-with-git-creator-linus-torvalds -- cgit 1.4.1-21-gabe81