Constrained Writing

I've been wanting to post this for quite some time. In fact, such some time that I can't exactly remember whether I actually ever got round to writing a post about constrained writing, but knowing me and my laziness, as well as the latest spate of blog-neglect, I shall assume that I never had.

First: before talking about what it was I think I wanted to talk about, I shall acknowledge the main source of my inspiration for this post: namely the Pilish work Cadaeic Cadenza (starting from the poem "Near A Raven"). It is an epic work of constrained writing, mainly that the number of letters of each word corresponds to digits in pi, i.e. Pilish. As if such an undertaking was not enough, the author (writer? composer?) saw fit to add other constraints into his writing through different parts of his story. Ridiculously, the story is coherent and (somewhat) elegantly written, if a bit awkward due to abuse of synonyms at numerous points. As an illustration, "Books inhabited each table, shelf, and nook.". Inhabited? Interesting use of word, of course with this particular instance of "nook". Also, "A madrigal; tell a marcher," seems a little arcane to me.

So, to the point of this post, which at some point became to evaluate the technical niceness of a piece of constrained writing. This is clearly subjective, but nevertheless, some indicators can be objectively evaluated (somewhat like standard of living indicators pointing to the quality of life).

Firstly, of course, there is the freedom that the constraints allow. For example, a constraint that you may not use the word gneiss is hardly a constraint at all under most normal circumstances, since English grammar does not commonly necessitate the use of such a word under most contexts. Writing without using any forms of the word "be", on the other hand, might be a challenge, since there ARE many situations where such a word IS used in the syntax of English.

Then there is, of course, coherence, where the text has to make sense. "For a dime, I would do proper Maths." is, for example, much more coherent than "Fly a poke: a flail or uneven table", despite that the two share the same constraint of Pilish. This is naturally highly subjective. I AM going to be contradicted... right?

Lastly, there is length. A good length makes any piece of constrained writing more impressive, since the whole idea is sort of a challenge upon yourself, and any lengthy piece could be compared to a marathon instead of a 100-metre race, which would be more than 422 times more impressive if traversed at the same velocity.

And once again, I conclude a post hastily, due to sudden lack of inspiration in the midst of composing (I recall there being a more... uncommon *inimitable is a synonym!* word for it). I would nearly apologise for this, but then that necessitates far more apologies to come, which would get old. 

Anagram a margana

Well, I can't let myself be beaten here. (Despite failing to satisfactorily solve even half of those anagrams ph42 gave...) Here's a fresh sampling of anagram hell.

strobe
sunboule
tacuics (Inaccurate tactics lead to death!)
gneiss (I could've given the other word instead, but nobody knows gneiss...)
cretins
liminiac
shidap
morphias
glintei

All popped into my head while trying to solve those 14 below. So yeah. A response.

Anagram List

May be edited to expand it. But meanwhile...

1. Naruto
2. Sungei (Malay for swamp I believe)
3. SacLose
4. ProBash (Warning: obscur-ish word)
5. NaEight
6. EpicSac
7. Tactics (Ah well...)
8. ProBing (Eh already a word. Too self-evident, apparently)
9. Chariot
10. Minister
11. Positional (Eh whaaaaat?)
12. Rating (Again, may be somewhat obscure)
13. Tortoise
14. Silver (3+ solutions)