In Escapism: a 50 word prose poem I presented readers with a prose poem constructed in accordance with a constraint, and invited them to suggest what that constraint might be. Here’s the poem again:
Now. I held a great interview of Eccles cakes and angst, paranoia, demagogic Tamarisk –
Coheasible and, so far, welcomer¡
What theses in excess!
What say you, Rhodites?
All of conduct consigned – crump!
, oh Mestizos, Anableps!
Such a desirable journal, a fungal phantasma
For neophobic guerrilla and vocular chaos, I!
The puzzle above, and the solution below, were first published in Eclecticism. Click the link to see the newsletter and have a browse around.
What I did
I constructed the story according to a constraint, in true Oulipian style. Raymond Queneau, one of the co-founders of the Oulipo movement, described Oulipians as rats who construct the labyrinth from which they then try to escape.
I invited readers to say what they thought the constraint might be, and it left readers stumped. However, I do have to give a shout-out to Beth T (BethOfAus) who made a very valiant attemptat working it out. Valiant, but wrong. 🤭
As a rule I tend to post solutions on a Friday, but I was reminded by Bryn Robinson in her post Pi to 100 places that 14th March is Pi day—ie 3.14. Therefore that seemed a more appropriate day on which to reveal the constraint, for a reason that will soon become obvious.The constraint
The constraint I used was Pi to 49 places. I’ll explain how this works in a minute, but first a bit of background.
Some background
I never understood Pi when I was school, I just used it in maths lessons. But I was always fascinated by it, because the number goes on forever. Here is the Wikipedia entry explaining what Pi is:
“(π) is a mathematical constant that is the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter. This produces a number, and that number is always the same. However, the number is rather strange. The number starts as 3.141592653589793 and continues without end. Numbers like this are called irrational numbers.”
From Pi.
Last week I asked new bot on the block Claude3 to give me the value of Pi to 100 places. Here’s what it said:
“Here is the value of pi (π) to 100 decimal places:
3.1415926535897932384626433832795028841971693993751058209749445923078164062862089986280348253421170679
This value of pi is calculated using mathematical algorithms and is widely accepted as an accurate representation of the constant pi to 100 decimal places.
Pi is a mathematical constant that represents the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter. It is an irrational number, meaning that its decimal representation never repeats or terminates.
The first few digits of pi are well-known, but the decimal representation of pi goes on indefinitely without any discernible pattern. Calculating more decimal places of pi requires increasingly complex mathematical computations and significant computational power.”
I thought a hundred places would be too time-consuming to process, and in any case using 49 places would give me a nice round number: a 50 word story.
How the constraint works
First, here is Pi to 49 places, according to Claude3:
“Here is pi (π) calculated to 49 decimal places:
3.14159265358979323846264338327950288419716939937510”
Can you figure out how the constraint works now? OK then, prepare to be amazed.
All you do is take each number in Pi, and treat it as an instruction for the number of letters in each word.
For example:
Now. I held a great interview of Eccles cakes and angst
corresponds to:
3.1415926535
I used a crossword dictionary to help me find longer words, because the words are arranged in it alphabetically but grouped according to the number of letters. (The idea is that if you’re looking for a solution consisting of, say, nine letters, you can use the crossword dictionary to cheat help.)
And the point of this is…?
Remember that the Oulipo is a workshop of potential literature. Therefore the constraints are used in order to see what texts emerge from applying them. This particular constraint is nice because everyone who tries it will almost certainly come up with something different.
Plus, some interesting ideas can emerge. For example, I like the idea of taking these lines a little further:
Such a desirable journal, a fungal phantasma
For neophobic guerrilla and vocular chaos
I hope you enjoyed this little exercise, and that applying it will help you take your writing in new directions. The comments on this post are quite interesting; you can read them here.
I’ll be running a one-day workshop on writing with constraints in London on 8th June. Details here: Creative writing with constraints.