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Point of Insertion
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Point of Insertion is a rule-based process (constraints optional) for
generating texts one word at a time.
In the first round of play, multiple authors sit in a circle and
contemplate the perfect two-word title. At this point, a constraint may
be
applied to the generation of the two-word title: for example, the two
words may be anagrams of one another, or they may be homophones. The
title
may be a palindrome, or one word may be made from the other according to
another (as in the verbatim exercise Roussel-O-Grams in which the
second
word could be formed by the addition, subtraction, or replacement of
one
letter, yielding titles like Chance Change ) After all authors have
decided on a two-word title, they may decide to make a global constraint
on their output in the second round of play, but this is optional.
Round Two is a lightning round where the titles are passed around the
circle, either clockwise or anti-clockwise, rapidly. Upon receipt of a
title, the author recopies the two words and adds a third, choosing its
point of insertion. For example, if I picked Chance Change and my
optional hidden constraint led me to add the word plague, the first
line
of the poem could be chance change plague OR chance plague change OR
plague chance change ... whereupon I would pass it IMMEDIATELY to the
next author who would recopy the three words and add another, choosing
its
point of insertion, with four possible placements. As the string gets
longer and more choices are made available, the authors have greater
flexibility. At times, individual lines become surprisingly coherent,
and
at other times, lines of pure and incandescent poetry succumb to the
taint
of the puerile or incoherent, and it is up to the next author to try to
repair the damaged area without erasing any word. Punctuation may be
changed freely, as uppercase letters may be freely changed with their
lowercase counterparts.
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Point Of Insertion: Example
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Delicate Floral
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Delicate yet floral.
Several delicate yet floral.
Offering several delicate yet floral,
came offering. Several, delicate yet floral,
came offering several creamy, delicate yet floral.
Elijah came, offering several creamy, delicate yet floral ...
Elijah came, offering several creamy, delicate yet floral ideologies.
Elijah came! Offering several creamy magicks, delicate yet floral
ideologies, Elijah came! Offering several creamy magicks, delicate yet
formal* ideologies crowding, Elijah came near! Offering several creamy
magicks, delicate yet floral ideologies crowding tables. Elijah came
near,
offering several creamy magicks, delicate! Elviss yet floral ideologies
crowding tables. Elijah came near, offering several creamy delicate
magicks, yet Elviss floral ideologies persisted crowding tables.**
FINAL EDIT:
Elijah came near, offering several creamy, delicate magicks unsavored,
yet
Elviss floral ideologies persisted crowding tables.
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Footnotes:
* someone had difficulty deciphering the handwriting above and
transposed
the word formal for floral ... but the next author corrected it.
** someone broke a rule here by altering the order of words. Probably,
this person was the author of the original two-word title, who was
allowed special editorial privileges when the text completed a lap of
the entire circle of authors. Often, as our string processing nears
completion, we loosen the tourniquet of constraints so that the final
editors can comb some sense into the gibberish weve generated above.
The
other special privilege granted to the original writer on the night in
question was the decision whether to continue passing the text, or to
remove it from play for a final edit. Passing the text again after
this point would also grant expanded final edit privileges to the next
author, who would become the new final editor of your text. Most texts
were removed from play after only one or two final edit rounds.
As you could tell from my last email, Point of Insertion exercises are notoriously cumbersome to transcribe. Therefore, I thought Id skip the part where I demystify the string processing, instead stampeding ahead to the last line of several successful exercises. I recommend following in Adam Tobins shoe prints by anagramming one of these texts using Nmg SrAaa ...
1.) Slick gigolo kids played impractical, improbable games with bicycle thieves. Jokers wild when goats break hearts.
2.) Alas, Mme. Tussaud, Im aghast at Boris, the agriculturalist who never ever wanted feudalism to continue growing, unmasked.
3.) Sugardaddy, add press-on flowers. Her statement: to evaporate on his person. Kitten tails cat onines.
4.) Seeking absolute relativity in Virgin Marys unique forest, while quivering, Mother Nature gets histrionic flashback.
5.) In my circles, crops. I know spherical oceans. Where is sliding domain, or streets of slithering?