I had an extra half-hour of prep-time available today, and so thought I'd try the random poetry thing again, only this time with just one book: my The Annotated Alice, the Definitive Edition. Using only Carroll's words, and randomly generating page, line, and word numbers from which to start my word count for each "phrase."
Here are the parameters and their results, all randomly selected by the generator at random.org:
Here are the parameters and their results, all randomly selected by the generator at random.org:
number of phrases (10-20): 12
words per phrase (3-5): 5
Wonderland (1&3/5); page (7-127); line (1-38); word (1-10)
Looking-Glass (2&4/5); page (133-274); line (1-38); word (1-10)
"Wasp in a Wig" (5/5); page (293-298); line (1-38); word (1-10)
book | page | line | word | phrase | |
1 | 4: LG | 175 | 4 | 5 | body is a crust, and |
2 | 2: LG | 229 | 33 | 6 | a fabulous monster! the Unicorn |
3 | 4: LG | 158 | 14 | 3 | you! cried the Tiger-lily, waving |
4 | 5: WW | 297 | 29 | 10 | Wasp went on: but the |
5 | 1: WL | 62 | 5 | 8 | be listening, so she went |
6 | 5: WW | 294 | 28 | 8 | spread out the paper on |
7 | 2: LG | 198 | 10 | 1 | What is the matter? she said |
8 | 4: LG | 188 | 8 | 2 | he ate as many as |
9 | 3: WL | 9 | 24 | 1 | rabbit with either a waistcoat-pocket |
10 | 1: WL | 113 | 27 | 3 | at the Hatter, who turned |
11 | 3: WL | 23 | 3 | 7 | the great puzzle! And she |
12 | 5: WW | 283 | 23 | 3 | only shook his shoulders, and |
What are you able to come up with if we allow that these phrases be organized in any order, so long as the 5 words for each remain contiguous?
The great puzzle! And she
ReplyDeleteOnly shook his shoulders, and
Spread out the paper on
a fabulous monster! The Unicorn,
he ate as many as
you! cried the Tiger-lily, waving
rabbit with either a waistocat pocket
at the Hatter, who turned
"What is the matter?'" she said.
Waspn went on: "But the
"body is a crust, and
"be listening."
So she went.
Doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but it sort of works!
Ha! That's awesome!
ReplyDeleteIn the long run, though, accidental art is, I think, necessarily accidental, and this isn't accident, but contrivance via random assignments.
I agree.
ReplyDelete