Patricia et al.
Miekal And is active on some other lists. I have
to say to Patricia that I wouldn't recommend the
"...Higgins" work if you're interested in
examples of mesostics. A while back, Miekal And
and I had "discussions" about this (more - a
debate). I stated that they weren't mesostics.
Since he's not here to present HIS side, it may
be unfair to bring this up...I'm not sure...Let's
just say that you can't just capitalize ANY
letters that fit what you want to spell out.
Cage created a type of writing (that was later
named "mesostics" ["row down the middle"] with
the help of Norman O. Brown) that spelled out a
name or word down the middle of a paragraph text.
They were often referred to as "spine" letters
or "mesoletters". These letters are distinguished
by the others by being the only ones capitalized.
The two basic types of mesostics are:
50 percent mesostics: between any two
mesoletters, you can't have the second
and
100 percent mesostics: between any two
mesoletters, you can't have either.
On a computer (for me, maybe someone knows) it is
difficult to line up text vertically so that
everyone else will see the same thing. Cage DID,
on occasion, line up text horizontally with the
mesoletters capitalized.
So let's use "PATRICIA" and THIS email text as an
example:
50% mesostic: We look for the first word that has
a "p", but one that is NOT followed by an
"a"...and that would be:
Present
then we keep going thru the text (in a linear
fashion) to find a word with "a" that is not
followed by a "t":
mAy
"t" word without an "r":
To
(and so on..):
suRe
(notice that i didn't use "bring", because an "i"
follows the "r" and you can't have this)
There are also words that can be added that are
known as "wing words", but maybe it's best to
continue this off-list.
I looked at the "Mesostics for Dick Higgins" site
and it's the "kinetic" version of the static text
version that Miekal And posted to our "Fluxlist"
site. It looks pretty. My concerns were with the
static text version. There would be words, for
example, - right off the bat - that would contain
sequential letters.
Anyway, it IS difficult to show someone if you're
not physically right there demonstrating or have
not read some of Cage's texts.
If you have further questions, maybe off-list may
be best.
Rod
=
http://rostasi.8m.com
http://www.forcedexposure.com/labels/bremsstrahlung.html
"I've never had major knee surgery on any other part of my body." - Winston Bennett,
Univ. of KY basketball forward
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