Scholarly discussion of the music of John Cage.

[Rod Stasick <>]

        On Jan 14, 2019, at 13:17, David Bellows <> 
wrote:

        The other point is that once you have two spine words are the wing
        words chosen randomly from all the valid words between them? Right now
        my software chooses up to 11 words before and after each spine word
        (meeting the mesostic rules) and then, depending on the option chosen,
        randomly chooses from those words.



If I’m reading your comment correctly, this was the idea that Nicki Hoffman 
had, 
at first, implemented incorrectly, so I wouldn’t try doing that hack on your 
software. 
Think of the “wing words” as simply extensions of what has come before the 
mesoletter 
and another extension of what has come after the mesoletter. You can also 
think of the 
words as a branch of the mesotree that is just extended left or right of the 
mesoletter: 
some are short branches, and some are longer ones - each keeping within the 
confines 
of the mesorules. There are no breaks in a branch, for instance, where you 
can cut out 
middle segments and so on.

An example using your words (and only the first two letters of your name):

“...I'm definitely trying to be as accurate to Cage as I can and
especially so once he was using computers to assist the process...”

         i’m Definitely trying
     to be As accurate to cage as i can

[I hope this lines up, but I think you’ll get it].

Anyway, if you look at the second line,
you aren’t allowed to pick and choose which words
you want from the branch. For example you can’t decide to say:

“to be As accurate as i can”

nor can you say:

“to be As cage as i can”

or any variation where you are choosing to jump around.

Also, notice: 
You can extend your branches to varying lengths
as long as the words are connected in a string,
so with the above mini-mesostic you can have
either of these versions

         i’m Definitely trying to be
                As accurate to cage as i can

         i’m Definitely trying
     to be As accurate to cage as i can


My comment concerning the limits of the programming language
was more about how you can’t rely on the random number generator
to decide something that may actually be an aesthetic decision about
“wing word" lengths. Whether there are 7 more words or only one word in 
the "branch” is something that might better be decided by a choice-deciding 
brain.

hope this helps,

Rod




*************
Now Playing:

‌Edward Avis‌ - Evening in Birdland

from:

‌Ecstatic & Wingless: Bird-Imitation on Four Continents, Ca. 1910-44‌