The Alan Sondheim Mail Archive

Excercise in Breathing:
Literary Twitter Forced from Random Typing:
Phenomenological Waveforms Narrowing the Littoral Zone:

http://www.alansondheim.org/language.jpg
http://www.alansondheim.org/lund25.mp4

ur-text (random typing, eyes closed):

jk osdfk l aook bui oodw jjbook wl sool wlob smoulbur brunmar
candron smargjul brudew *

expansion (aspell choices, semantic cloud enveloping individual
words, in alphabetic order per word):

JFK acidify Aztec aardvark ascetic acidic acetic amok hook Cook
kook book look cook nook gook rook Bi Bud bi bub bu bud bur bug
buy bum ode Odom Dow ow OD OED odor odd pod bode cookbook
workbook jojoba Jacobi logbook Jacob jackboot jujube cashbook
casebook L LL l ll wk awl W owl w AL solo stool soil soul Sol
STOL sol cool spool fool lob glob blob slob smolder Malibu
somber Somali similar slumber smile slobber Smollett smaller
brunt bringer Brynner brinier brunet Brennan Bruno Brianna
Brenner Bruneian Canton cauldron canton cantering andiron
condone Calderon Canadian smugly surgical magical smuggler
smuggle bride rude brute brides bred Brad breed Bret brew Brut

contraction (first and most likely word, replacing original, in
each case):

JFK acidify l amok Bi ode cookbook L solo lob smolder brunt
Canton smugly bride

sensate (attempt to create overall meaning by substitution,
bending or bypassing the suggestions):

JFK acidly looked amok at an ode or cookbook, the letter L alone
lobbed, smoldered, burnt in Canton near a smug bride.

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* Originally I decided to leave the original nonsensical line
out; it would then appear only as ghost or shadow potential to
the process as a whole. In any case, it disappeared when aspell
choices replaced the words, one by one. I then found a saved
copy of the original in my directory (the file was originally
"zz"; the replacements sent zz into "zz.bak"). I thought, why
not, in the interests of complete documentation and aboveboard
display of the entire process, to include zz.bak, in spite of
the fact that doing so reduced the aesthetic content and value
of the piece. It was in the interests of full disclosure that I
do so, especially since there is a reference to the tweets of
the regime, which already implies a far more devious and brutal
subterfuge.

It is at this point of course that the piece splits; on one
hand, there's a desire to retain a sense of the sublime, and on
the other, a desire with full disclosure, to abjure any mystery
that's not based on at least a semblance of truth in the real.
Hence this piece as a whole, accompanied by footnotes and
perhaps even further imaginary and absent apparatus of the work
as a whole.

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And then a question of slippage and the somatic, underlying
everything, an experience of typing itself, before the grand
experiment:

"Testing as I grow older the issue of typing - why are the
letter ouyt of order, misrecognitions, spellings, confusions,
depletions, I'm not surewhat else is going on. But the lag migh
contribute to it, no? Or something beyond my control as I sit
here and type rapidly, not looking at the keyboard or words as
theyappear on the screen, wondering about neural connections and
the constat noise our place is subject to, which sets me on
edge, increases anxiety beyond the boiling point. As if I could
feel the keys slipping out from unde me..."...

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