Utterly Utter

Same weather -- change may be on the way, though. Kind of iffy.

In rereading the last few posts (and several others), the mistakes don't bother me as much as they used to. One thing does stick out like a zit on the nose -- repetitively repeating myself.

It's one of those things I never catch the first time, hardly ever the second time, and by the time the third time it comes around, it's past time to move on. It's often called "redundancy" -- which (OK, hang on a minute -- yeah, there it is! Thank you, COED.) actually means "superfluous," but is often used to indicate repetitive expressions, like the word "time" in the previous sentence. The word "time" isn't something you can just cut out and still have the above sentence make sense, but it's a word you should replace with a synonym for the second occurrence in a sentence. Using the same word or phrase over and over again is a problem I've always had as a writer, and editors have complained about it to me ever since I handed in my first paper in high school English class.

However, there is one type of so-called "redundancy" that is interesting, though a little subtle. It's called "recursion" -- the actual name of the writing anomaly I'm writing (there I go again) about tonight. But actual recursion can have a symmetry to it that can suggest some underlying (even unconscious) intent. In the Koran, Mohammad recites what I'm calling symmetrical recursion a lot, "Allah calls (God's people) with a call," "(Allah) will help you with a help," "believe as the people believe," etc. It's actually been suggested that this is a part of the inner structure of the Koran: the Arabic words for "In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful" have an element of symmetrical recursion in their syllables.

This recursion is not limited to Islam: think of a Hebrew name for God. Christianity? What's a parable?

A type of recursion also occurs (sorry) in science and mathematics. Recursive algebra is supposed to be the basis for modern computers (a book I've had for years but only recently had the courage to try and dig into is Rosa Peter's Playing with Infinity. She was a pioneer in recursive math. The book is not about that, though. Yet.) Part of the GNU/Linux operating-system platform is also recursive in name: "GNU" is an acronym for "GNU, Not Unix." The Debian Live CD I bought a couple of years back that I've previously mentioned has a neat slide show about fractal geometry -- also recursive (as far as my pathetic math mind can discern, anyway).

In short, repeating words repetitively the way I do is bad. But get a rhythm going, and you might just have something else.

BTW -- The Spoleto Festival I mentioned a few weeks back is now going strong. I try and find the free stuff -- and I've already gotten one event confused. I'm probably not alone in this -- but it still ticks me off! I worked my 'tude down by walking and "judging" more theme windows. More of them now, and some really good ones, too! My new fave uses big portraits "painted" with hundreds of different colored bottle caps (plus lots of classic snapshots of Cohen in the mix). Another one nearby themes Cohen's Book of Longing nicely with the official poster. Yet another superimposes a big red thumbprint over the poster (on glass, get it?). I was wrong about the poster, though. Turns out the artist also used his forefinger's print to make Glass's image. (You think Glass may use recursion? I'm thinkin' it!)


LJ orig.: 05/31/07