Near Matches
Ignore Exact
Everything
2
Garamond's Rules
(
idea
)
by
dialectic
Tue May 15 2001 at 4:18:15
The rules
constructed by
Signor Garamond
in
Umberto Eco
's
Foucault's Pendulum
. To create a
Plan of plans
, to
tie it all together
under
one seamless plot
--a
crossword puzzle
not with
word
s, but with
concept
s... seems a scary
thesis
resembling
Everything
.
The Rules
Rule 1
: Concepts are
connected by analogy
. There is no way to decide at once whether an
analogy
is
good or bad
, because to some degree
everything is connected to everything
else. For example,
potato
crosses with apple, because both are
vegetable
and
round
in shape. From
apple
to snake, by
Biblical association
. From
snake
to doughnut, by
formal likeness
. From
doughnut
to life preserver, and from
life preserver
to bathingsuit, then
bathing
to sea,
sea
to ship,
ship
to shit,
shit
to toilet paper,
toilet
to cologne,
cologne
to alcohol,
alcohol
to drugs,
drugs
to syringe,
syringe
to hole,
hole
to ground,
ground
to potato.
Rule 2
: Two says that if
tout se tient
in the end, the connecting works.
From potatoe to potatoe
,
tout se tient
. So it's right.
Rule 3
: The connections must not be
original
. They must have been made before, and
the more often the better
, by others. Only then do the crossings seem true, because
they are obvious
.
Foucault's Pendulum
Garamond
I love it when a plan comes together
O tempora! O mores!
Umberto Eco
Hermetica
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