Coptic Cross with abbreviation Ⲓⲏ̅ⲥ̅ Ⲡⲭ̅ⲥ̅ Ⲡ̀ϣⲏⲣⲓ ⲙ̀ⲪϮ standing for Ⲓⲏⲥⲟⲩⲥ Ⲡⲓⲭ̀ⲣⲓⲥⲧⲟⲥ Ⲡ̀ϣⲏⲣⲓ ⲙ̀Ⲫ̀ⲛⲟⲩϯ,
Iêsous Piekhristos Epshêri Emefnouti, “Jesus Christ, Son of God” (see Wikipedia)
Performativizing Papyrocentricity #78
Papyrocentric Performativity Presents…
• Moist and Marvellous – The Hidden World of Mosses, Neil Bell (Royal Botanical Garden Edinburgh, 2023)
• Mutton Ju: The Balls-Up in Brideshead
• Little Littérateur – Evelyn Waugh: A Life Revisited, Philip Eade (Weidenfeld & Nicolson 2016)
• Vegetarian Villan – Into the Void: From Birth to Black Sabbath and Beyond, Geezer Butler (HarperCollins 2023)
• Blood Triangle – Blood Work, Michael Connelly (1998)
• Haute Coltour – The World According to Colour: A Cultural History, James Fox (Penguin 2021)
• Heil Halitosis! – Bad Breath, David Britton (Savoy Books 2022)
The Number of the Creased
Here’s an idea for a story à la M.R. James. A middle-aged scholar opens some mail one morning and finds nothing inside one envelope but a strip of paper with the numbers 216348597 written on it in sinister red ink. Someone has folded the strip several times so that there are creases between groups of numbers, like this: 216|348|5|97. Wondering what the significance of the creases is, the scholar hits on the step of adding the numbers created by them:
216 + 348 + 5 + 97 = 666
After that… Well, I haven’t written the story yet. But that beginning raises an obvious question. Is there any other way of getting a Number of the Creased from 216348597? That is, can you get 666, the Number of the Beast, by dividing 216348597 in another way? Yes, you can. In fact, there are six ways of creating 666 by dividing-and-summing 216348597:
666 = 2 + 1 + 634 + 8 + 5 + 9 + 7
666 = 2 + 163 + 485 + 9 + 7
666 = 216 + 348 + 5 + 97
666 = 21 + 63 + 485 + 97
666 = 21 + 6 + 34 + 8 + 597
666 = 2 + 16 + 3 + 48 + 597
216348597 is a permutation of 123456789, so does 123456789 yield a Number of the Creased? Yes. Two of them, in fact:
666 = 123 + 456 + 78 + 9
666 = 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 567 + 89
And 987654321 yields another:
666 = 9 + 87 + 6 + 543 + 21
And what about other permutations of 123456789? These are the successive records:
Using 123456789
666 = 123 + 456 + 78 + 9
666 = 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 567 + 89 (c=2)
Using 123564789
666 = 12 + 3 + 564 + 78 + 9
666 = 123 + 56 + 478 + 9
666 = 1 + 2 + 3 + 564 + 7 + 89 (c=3)
Using 125463978
666 = 1 + 2 + 5 + 4 + 639 + 7 + 8
666 = 12 + 546 + 3 + 97 + 8
666 = 1 + 254 + 6 + 397 + 8
666 = 1 + 2 + 546 + 39 + 78 (c=4)
Using 139462578
666 = 13 + 9 + 4 + 625 + 7 + 8
666 = 139 + 462 + 57 + 8
666 = 1 + 394 + 6 + 257 + 8
666 = 1 + 39 + 46 + 2 + 578
666 = 13 + 9 + 4 + 62 + 578 (c=5)
Using 216348597
666 = 2 + 1 + 634 + 8 + 5 + 9 + 7
666 = 2 + 163 + 485 + 9 + 7
666 = 216 + 348 + 5 + 97
666 = 21 + 63 + 485 + 97
666 = 21 + 6 + 34 + 8 + 597
666 = 2 + 16 + 3 + 48 + 597 (c=6)
216348597 is the best of the bestial. No other permutation of 123456789 yields as many as six Numbers of the Creased.
Sanctisonic Symmetry
Holy Fawn, Realms EP (2015)
I like the symmetry and simplicity of this cover, though I think the style and color of the text could be improved on. Here are two variants on the cover:
Cover without text
Cover with mirrored text
Elsewhere Other-Accessible…
• Holy Fawn at Bandcamp
Tiger Time
Kuching bĕrtandok, “When cats have horns” — Malay proverb used in Anthony Burgess’s Time for a Tiger (1956).
Osmic Ways
Post-Performative Post-Scriptum…
osmic adj. Of or relating to the sense of smell. Also: relating to odour. [ancient Greek ὀσμή, osmē, smell, odour + ‑ic suffix] — Oxford English Dictionary
Fair Pairs
You can get a glimpse of the gorgeous very easily. After all, you can work out the following sum in your head: 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 = ?
The answer is… 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 = 15. So that sum is example of this pattern: n1:n2 = sum(n1..n2). A simple computer program will soon supply other sums of consecutive numbers following the same pattern. I think these patterns based on the pair n1 and n2 are beautiful, so I’d call them fair pairs:
15 = sum(1..5)
27 = sum(2..7)
429 = sum(4..29)
1353 = sum(13..53)
1863 = sum(18..63)
3388 = sum(33..88)
3591 = sum(35..91)
7119 = sum(7..119)
78403 = sum(78..403)
133533 = sum(133..533)
178623 = sum(178..623)
2282148 = sum(228..2148)
2732353 = sum(273..2353)
3882813 = sum(388..2813)
7103835 = sum(710..3835)
13335333 = sum(1333..5333)
17016076 = sum(1701..6076)
17786223 = sum(1778..6223)
I went looking for variants on that pattern. If the function rev(n) reverses the digits of n, here’s n1:rev(n2) = sum(n1..n2):
155975 = sum(155..579)
223407 = sum(223..704)
4957813 = sum(495..3187)
I like that pattern, but it doesn’t seem beautiful like n1:n2 = sum(n1..n2). Nor does rev(n1):n2 = sum(n1..n2):
1575 = sum(51..75)
96444 = sum(69..444)
304878 = sum(403..878)
392933 = sum(293..933)
3162588 = sum(613..2588)
3252603 = sum(523..2603)
3642738 = sum(463..2738)
3772853 = sum(773..2853)
6653691 = sum(566..3691)
8714178 = sum(178..4178)
But rev(n1):rev(n2) = sum(n1..n2) is beautiful again, in a twisted kind of way:
97944 = sum(79..449)
452489 = sum(254..984)
3914082 = sum(193..2804)
6097063 = sum(906..3607)
6552663 = sum(556..3662)
Now try swapping n1 and n2. Here’s n2:n1 = sum(n1..n2):
204 = sum(4..20)
216 = sum(6..21)
20328 = sum(28..203)
21252 = sum(52..212)
21762 = sum(62..217)
23287 = sum(87..232)
23490 = sum(90..234)
2006118 = sum(118..2006)
2077402 = sum(402..2077)
2132532 = sum(532..2132)
2177622 = sum(622..2177)
Do I find the pattern beautiful? Yes, but it’s not as beautiful as n1:n2 = sum(n1..n2). The beauty disappears in n2:rev(n1) = sum(n1..n2):
21074 = sum(47..210)
21465 = sum(56..214)
22797 = sum(79..227)
2013561 = sum(165..2013)
2046803 = sum(308..2046)
2099754 = sum(457..2099)
2145065 = sum(560..2145)
And rev(n2):n1 = sum(n1..n2):
638 = sum(8..36)
2952 = sum(52..92)
21252 = sum(52..212)
23287 = sum(87..232)
66341 = sum(41..366)
208477 = sum(477..802)
2522172 = sum(172..2252)
2852982 = sum(982..2582)
7493772 = sum(772..3947)
8714178 = sum(178..4178)
Finally, and fairly again, rev(n2):rev(n1) = sum(n1..n2):
638 = sum(8..36)
125541 = sum(145..521)
207972 = sum(279..702)
158046 = sum(640..851)
9434322 = sum(223..4349)
The beauty’s back. And it has almost become self-aware. In rev(n2):rev(n1) = sum(n1..n2), each side of the equation seems to be looking at the other half as those it’s looking into a mirror.
Previously Pre-Posted (Please Peruse)…
• Nuts for Numbers — looking at patterns like 2772 = sum(22..77)
2 < 1
«У Менделеева две жены, но Менделеев-то у меня один!» — Царь Алекса́ндр II
• “Yes, Mendeleev has two wives, but I have only one Mendeleev!” — Tsar Alexander II responds to a complaint about Mendeleev’s bigamy
Arch Gratia Artis
A surreal arch by the German artist Markus Vesper
(click for larger)
Snow No
XXXI
On Wenlock Edge the wood’s in trouble;
His forest fleece the Wrekin heaves;
The gale, it plies the saplings double,
And thick on Severn strew the leaves.
’Twould blow like this through holt and hanger
When Uricon the city stood:
’Tis the old wind in the old anger,
But then it threshed another wood.
Then, ’twas before my time, the Roman
At yonder heaving hill would stare:
The blood that warms an English yeoman,
The thoughts that hurt him, they were there.
There, like the wind through woods in riot,
Through him the gale of life blew high;
The tree of man was never quiet:
Then ’twas the Roman, now ’tis I.
The gale, it plies the saplings double,
It blows so hard, ’twill soon be gone:
To-day the Roman and his trouble
Are ashes under Uricon. — from A.E. Housman’s A Shropshire Lad (1896)
Post-Performative Post-Scriptum
If you were already familiar with the poem, you may have noticed that I replaced “snow” with “strew” in line four. I don’t think the original “snow” works, because leaves don’t fall like snow or look anything like snow. Plus, leaves don’t melt like snowflakes when they land on water. Plus plus, the consonant-cluster of “strew” works well with the idea of leaves coating the water.
Overlord In Terms of Core Issues Around Maximal Engagement with Key Notions of the Über-Feral 