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Game

Posted: Tue Sep 16, 2003 8:57 pm
by Artsay
This is an unusual paragraph. I'm curious how quickly you can find out what is so unusual about it. It looks so plain you would think nothing was wrong with it. In fact, nothing is wrong with it! It is unusual though. Study it, and think about it, but you still may not find anything odd. But if you work at it a bit, you might find out! Try to do so without any coaching! You probably won't, at first, find anything particularly odd or unusual or in any way dissimilar to any ordinary composition. That is not at all surprising, for it is no strain to accomplish in so short a paragraph a stunt similar to that which an author did throughout all of his book, without spoiling a good writing job, and it was no small book at that. By studying this paragraph assiduously, you will shortly, I trust, know what is its distinguishing oddity. Upon locating that "mark of distinction," you will probably doubt my story of this author and his book of similar unusuality throughout. It is commonly known among book-conscious folk and proof of it is still around. If you must know, this sort of writing is known as a lipogram, but don't look up that word in any dictionary until you find out what this is all about.

(If you've seen this before don't say what it is! :P )

Posted: Tue Sep 16, 2003 9:06 pm
by Guest
Its like in catch-22, right?

Posted: Tue Sep 16, 2003 9:09 pm
by Artsay
You mean a catch-33?

Posted: Tue Sep 16, 2003 9:09 pm
by loren
no E's?

Posted: Tue Sep 16, 2003 9:11 pm
by Artsay
Bastard!

Posted: Tue Sep 16, 2003 9:12 pm
by loren
I'd never seen it before, you wanted us to answer right?

Posted: Tue Sep 16, 2003 9:12 pm
by Artsay
Just kidding... :)

Good job loren!
Here's the whole answer:
The letter "e," which is the most common letter in the English language, does not appear once in the text of the long paragraph. Nor did the letter "e" appear even once among the over 50,000 words of text in the novel "Gadsby: Champion of Youth" by Ernest Vincent Wright.

Posted: Tue Sep 16, 2003 9:13 pm
by loren
Plus, I can't help it if I'm a fucking genius... give me a harder one!

Posted: Tue Sep 16, 2003 9:14 pm
by loren
Although it appears three times in just his first two names.

Posted: Tue Sep 16, 2003 9:14 pm
by Artsay
The man that builds it, doesn't use it.
The man that buys it, doesn't want it.
The man that uses it, doesn't know it.
What is it?