Tuesday, May 26, 2009

More Thoughts On The Gematria ( The Cabbage Codes )

Wm Jaz sent me some more of his fiddlings with The S:E:G
Plus another rant suggesting highly improbably Biblical Nonsense...
And it included his ideas on Gematria & Poetry in another biddle that i can't seem to locate...

Where did i see that...???


He called this new combination of Poetry & Number Fun : Gemoetry
In Which Lines of Verse would all add up to a given sum...

Likewise: There should be a Class of Haiku called: Gemaiku.
In which each line 5 / 7 / 5 of an Haiku would add up to a given sum.

And this got me to thinking more about The Magick & Silliness of The Gematria.
While i am Amazed at The Results that may be brought forth
From tinkering With The Gematria,
i also believe that i have a shallow enough ( merely sufficient ) understanding
Of how these results can be fabricated without evoking An Actual Cabbage Headed Gawd.

While It is fairly easy to contrive A Cabbage Code
To find Astonishing Messages in Any Book
That one might choose to examine;
A frail comprehension of how The Gematria works
Takes a slight edge off that stupefication.

So i am now proposing...
That in order to write better Geometry & Gemaiku,
Along with Great Long Tracts with Line after Line of Prose
In which Each line equals any sum that you might choose...
...That someone with access to an easy to use Programming Language write a :
Gematria Thesaurus.

It would work something like this:
You would write a long Tract or Sonnet in perfectly ordinary prose
And Ask The Gematria Thesaurus to Analyze it.
The Structure of The Prose may, or may not, be readily adapted to your objective,
So that further pre-processing may be necessary...
But let us just say, for now, that i simply want this very long letter to my mother,
To be arranged in such a way, like The Structure of The Bible—
Into Verses...
So that each Verse Equals 666.

The Gematria Thesaurus would simply determine the actual value of each Verse,
Then suggest that a particular Verse be broken into pieces
Or combined with neighboring Verses.
Then it would find words, terms, phrases, abbreviations &/or such
That might bend the value of any given verse closer to the desired sum ( of 666 ).
The User would then continue this process by fudging the sentences,
While the Gematria Thesaurus might Actively suggest Adverbs, Adjectives & Other Bits
That would bring The Sum Up,
If a Given Sentence were in need of some Padding,
Or suggest Deletions of such if it were too fat.

Such A Project would require; As Envisioned,
To be just nearly as tedious as An Examiner might suspect
The Creation of such a document would be,
But Not quite so much...

Such a Document would indeed seem to The Damp Masses as Severely Miraculous;
While to the mildly informed;
They Would know that it was cheap hokum.

At this point; It should be noted that there are perhaps 3 or 5... ( ??? ) Classes of Examiners...

The Completely UnInformed:
That Would Think that it would be impossible by any human effort.

The Slightly Informed:
That understands the basic premise of The Gematria,
And sees in such a document the Wonder of it...
But is perhaps a little suspicious...?

The Well Informed by means of Media Outlets:
That knows just enough, without having a deeper understanding of what they're looking at;
To think that it's a cheap trick.
This last class of humnaimals make up The Great Coterie of Gullible Skeptics,
Which easily believe whatever pleases them,
And disregard the fine points of understanding anything.

While the Last Group:
Which i include myself.
Are Those that know that our understanding of The Gematria is flawed & fragmented,
But are aware of the two sides of The Gematria simultaneously.
That it's Easily Explained—
As a function of a Rich & Diverse Base Language to Contrive Nonsense From...

And— That it's Still Totally Fawking Wondrous
& Provoking of Deeper ( Genuine ) Insights.

1 comment:

Wm Jas Tychonievich said...

I pretty much agree with your assessment of gematria: totally vacuous and yet, somehow, not totally vacuous.

Since you seem to have lost the link: Gemoetry.