1978. connect-the-alphabet-1 (a,b,c) by tentatively, a convenience
Much of my text work from 1968 to the present has involved experiments in highly compressed ambiguities meant to be readable in multiple ways. This is a type of coding meant to create a more dense & flexible language. This "connect-the-alphabet" series exemplifies some explorations I was making in 1978.
In "connect-the-alphabet-1c" the following sequence can be found when reading from top-to-bottom & left-to-right:
A CB G1 2 B A C02 0 8 U & I M 1 U R A P7 & Y N1 4 I?
tentative translation:
A Seabee* gone to be a carbon dioxide Zero** ate you and I am one you are a P7*** and why none for I?
*Seabees are members of the United States Navy construction battalions. The word Seabee[1] is a proper noun that comes from the initials of Construction Battalion, (CB) of the United States Navy. The Seabees have a history of building bases, bulldozing and paving thousands of miles of roadway and airstrips, and accomplishing a myriad of other construction projects in a wide variety of military theaters dating back to World War II. - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seabee
**The Mitsubishi A6M Zero was a long-range fighter aircraft operated by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service (IJNAS) from 1940 to 1945. The A6M was designated as the Mitsubishi Navy Type 0 Carrier Fighter (óÎéÆäÕè"êÌì¨ã@ rei-shiki-kanjou-sentouki?), and also designated as the Mitsubishi A6M Rei-sen and Mitsubishi Navy 12-shi Carrier Fighter. The A6M was usually referred to by the Allies as the "Zero", from the 'Navy Type 0 Carrier Fighter' designation. The official Allied reporting name was Zeke. - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitsubishi_A6M_Zero
***The Lockheed P-7 was a four turboprop-engined patrol aircraft ordered by the U.S. Navy as a replacement for the P-3 Orion. The external configuration of the aircraft was to be very similar to that of the P-3. Development had not progressed very much before the development was cancelled in early 1990s as a cost-cutting measure following the end of the Cold War. - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_P-7
The PZL P.7 was the Polish fighter aircraft designed in early-1930s in the PZL factory in Warsaw. A state-of-the-art construction, one of the first all-metal monoplane fighters in the world, in 19331935 it was a main fighter of the Polish Air Force. It was replaced in Polish service by its follow-up design, the PZL P.11c. More than 30 P.7 fighters remained in service in the Polish Defensive War of 1939, scoring several kills despite their obsolescence. - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PZL_P.7
The P7 is a German 9mm semi-automatic pistol designed by Helmut Weldle and produced by Heckler & Koch GmbH (H&K) of Oberndorf am Neckar. It was revealed to the public for the first time in 1976 as the PSP (Polizei-Selbstlade-Pistole-"police self-loading pistol"). - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heckler_%26_Koch_P7
Given that this text was created no later than 1978, ie: at least 34 yrs before my attempt to decipher it on this date of June 28, 2012, my memory of it is a bit feeble. Nonetheless, I think the above 'translation' is fairly accurate. Apparently the genesis of the piece was something like this:
I typed a free-form text w/ various playful elements typical of me on a piece of typewriter paper to form the piece now titled under its scanned file name: "connect-the-alphabet-1a". These playful elements included abbreviating the word "gone" as "g1" (g one) & in writing things like:
he urned (t b) = the burned
ore hen (m t) = more then
pen andy (o k) = open kandy
eked 1 (r n) = reked none
These latter 4 units are experiments in multiplicity since they can be interpreted in various ways: the letters in parentheses, of course, can be read as:
t b = tuberculosis
m t = empty or mountain
o k = okay [&, in another system I used, "only kidding"]
r n = registered nurse
Therefore, this sequence can be read variously. Here're possibilities:
He earned the burned Moorhen more than a Kandy Pen of wch he reeked none.
OR
He urned the burned tuberculosis mountain - okay to wreak no registered nurses.
Now, the focus of this piece was to play & experiment. I wasn't trying to create a particularly linear narrative. Hence the 'nonsense'. Nonetheless, there're subtexts buried in the whole thing that aren't immediately obvious.
SO, what I apparently did next was underline certain letters, numbers, & other symbols (specifically: the ampersand & question mark) & drew lines from each end of the underline to other ends of underlines preceding or following the underlined unit in a version of alphabetical order. Hence the 3 "a"s were linked to the 3 "b"s & the 3 "b"s were linked to the 2 "c"s, etc.. Complicating it was the question of how to treat the numbers & the "&" & "?". I decided to make "&" go to "0" go to "1" go to "2" go to "4" go to "7" go to "8" go to "?". There's at least one scratched-out underlining linkage wch is from the "?" to the "7" nearby & above it. This linkage is what created the 'final' text w/ the 'encoded' [anti-]military overtones.
The next step in this series was to then trace over the underlines & linkage lines on a separate piece of paper to isolate just the drawing. This produced what's called here "connect-the-alphabet-1b". The final step was, apparently, to photocopy the drawing & to then put the underlined symbols back in in blue ink capitals in order to make the generating text more obvious. This is what's labeled "connect-the-alphabet-1c".
So, as you can see, there's a sortof morbid encryption that 'explodes' in the careful reader's mind.
- June 28, 2012 explanation frrom tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE
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