Lullingdrome

[squirmelia]

Tube Walk 36 & 37 Collage

Lull, the last story in Magic for Beginners has a scene in which the characters are listening to music with palindromic lyrics, so I began to wonder if palindromes were worth listening to.

Wikipedia lists different kinds of palindrome and briefly mentions music - crab canons, Bob, etc. The playlist of songs with palindromic titles and the palindromic peptide music, didn't make me yearn to listen to them, so gevurah got out his Sigur Rós CD and played Starálfur for me, in which the strings are apparently palindromic. Then I went back to listening to NON and read more about palindromic computer programs.

I purposefully ate some naan bread and then remembered the OuLiPo Compendium was the obvious place to look for palindromes. I also read about OuCuiPo - "Workshop for potential cooking", but then found myself drawn to algol poetry again, and then read A Box, Darkly: Obfuscation, Weird Languages, and Code Aesthetics, which mentions amongst other strange programming languages, Chef, but I have no intention to eat a "Hello World Soufflé".

Before I quit my palindrome obsession, I searched for palindromic graffiti and only managed to find won't lovers revolt now? and lived as a devil. Last Saturday's tube walks (Caledonian Road to Holloway Road and Camden Town to Euston) didn't contain much graffiti either, but did contain delicious tube line coloured cupcakes made by several_bees.

I am now reading Richard Beard's X20 (A Novel of Not Smoking), which is also quite OuLiPian.

Anyway, in Magic for Beginners, that Lull story contains stories within stories and one of the stories goes backwards and that made me sad. Every ending was actually a beginning, so for example, at that point where if you were going forward in time, you would say farewell to someone, in this story, you would instead first meet them.

That book was creepy, but good, (thanks remotepush!) and somehow, in my mind, I tied in the zombies and the rabbits in it with Inland Empire, and that made the film make more sense.

I don't think I'll have time this weekend to go to the pillow fight or to see Mr Sole Abode, who lives in a fridge, but I am going to the Coldcut and Alan Moore tribute to Robert Anton Wilson event on Sunday.

Comments

[pgd.livejournal.com]

The palindromic text (http://www.palindromelist.com/longest.htm) linked to from Wikipedia is great... it flows, and almost makes sense... it's like a computer that's been programmed with some rules of grammar and narration, and then left to spew out random words.

[laslandes.livejournal.com]

That's just genius. I'm uncertain whether to be delighted or appalled!

Time's Arrow by Martin Amis is a good example of a story that happens in reverse. Without wanting to spoil it, it works well because it also has the effect of reversing morality. Good deeds become bad and vice versa.

sounds so fun.

[bickichick.livejournal.com]

I know a lady who named her daughter a palandrome
Saegeas Sage-us

I think that is how she spelt her name

plandromic song titles soung quite fun.

did you get a parcel I sent to you bot your b-day??

Re: sounds so fun.

[squirmelia.livejournal.com]

That's an odd name!

I picked up the parcel from the delivery office yesterday.. thanks for that! I already ate the chocolate and stuck the magnets on my fridge. :)

[strawberryfrog.livejournal.com]

The "Box, Darkly" essay is great. I draw your attention to the programming languages Ook (http://www.dangermouse.net/esoteric/ook.html) and whitespace (http://compsoc.dur.ac.uk/whitespace/)

[squirmelia.livejournal.com]

Whitespace is indeed cool!

[laslandes.livejournal.com]

Hello! Apparently I've invited people for palindromes on Facebook today. I want to see what people put in before I jump in two-footed. But I do remember when I first read this post in your diary being led to a link to a story, of sorts, that was one very long palindrome.

I've had a quick scan, but can't seem to locate it. Any ideas?

S.

[laslandes.livejournal.com]

D'oh! Just spotted it in the comments above... Do drop by though, I shall probably be name-checking you ;-)