A
book, or
rather, an
experiment in text by author
Jeff Noon(
Vurt,
Pollen,
Needle in the Groove).
Cobralingus contains
several pieces of
text by different authors which "have been run through the
cobralingus engine", which seems to be a
procedure similar to what
mixing does with
music. It plucks samples from
classic literature, cuts in
filters or '
gates' such as '
overload', '
ghost' and 'add
virus',
processes which
strip the text to it's bare
bones, or
pump it up to (and often beyond) breaking point.
Noon mixes in more
samples, the
periodic table, the
shipping forecast, keeping the words and meaning
liquid, always
extracting, reducing,
focusing,
distorting, finding new rhythms in the emerging forms,
pushing and
cutting the text forward, into the next
remix.
Some
compare this book with the works of
E. E. Cummings. Full of
strange but
beautiful illustrations and texts
juxtaposed against each other,
Cobralingus seems to be a piece of art that you either love or hate.
The
blurb on the back of the book reads:
"Thank you for reading this
promotional blurb for the
Cobralingus Engine.
Cobralingus allows
language to
partake of a future liquid state of
consciousness. It uses the
Metamorphiction process to
apply the
techniques of
electronic dance music to the
production of
words,
dissolving language. In this mutated, liquid state, words are
manipulated into new forms; borrowed text is sampled and
transformed.
Please note:
Cobralingus uses only
imaginary technologies and the
strangely twisted pathways inside
Jeff Noon’s head.
This
blurb is now complete."
Unusually enough,
cobralingus seems to be available only in a
paperback edition, having never been published in
hardcover.
Amazon.com has no
information on any other
edition.