Codex Seraphinianus: A new edition of the strangest book

[rspeer]

I'd say the Voynich Manuscript (which the article mentions) is still the strangest book in the world.

We can understand how the Codex Seraphinianus came about. Serafini presumably looked at the Voynich Manuscript and said "that looks like fun, I want to write a modern version of that". And he did so, and he made the text look convincingly like language without being decipherable as any known language, which would seem to require applying modern knowledge of linguistics and information theory.

But we don't know how the Voynich author did the same thing, many centuries earlier.

[onosendai]

For those who don't know what the Voynich Manuscript is, this article was on HN a while back (http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2013/07/the-unre...) and you can view the whole thing online (http://brbl-dl.library.yale.edu/vufind/Record/3519597).

Definitely more intriguing than this book, imho.

[angelortega]

Also take a look at Antichthon Universalis (http://triptico.com/artwork/antichthon_universalis.html). The artwork is not as stunning (far from), but at least it's a real cypher with real meaning, still unbroken.

[diminish]

I ll fork voynich, merge them with codex s. if cc, scramble with hegels dialectic and add a mix of brainfuck + plan 9 kernel in obscured form, and sell. is this allowed?

[rspeer]

> For instance, [this group] discovered that the numbering system is base 21, and [this guy] discovered certain grammatical rules governing the script, and even created a sort of transliterator you can use. [This lady] claims to have hallucinated herself into the world of the Codex, even prior to having heard of it.

Clearly the writer of the article is giving equal time to bizarre theories, which I suppose is allowed for such a bizarre book. But I'd say the second [this guy], the one with the transliteration, should have at least been described as "claims to have discovered certain grammatical rules", just like the woman claims to have hallucinated herself into the Codex world.

The stuff you find on his page (http://www.paleoaliens.com/event/seraphinianus/codex/) is not linguistics. In fact, it's not really anything but batshit. He even seems to be losing track of the fact that the "world" of the Codex Seraphinianus is not real.

It's like people who read the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and start seriously looking for the number 42 everywhere, forgetting that it was just a gag, in a work of fiction, written by a human. It's like that except more so.

[Cthulhu_]

> rspeer 42 minutes ago

[pavlov]

I have a copy of C.G. Jung's The Red Book, which is also pretty strange:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Book_(Jung)

I haven't bothered to try to read most of it, but it makes for a good conversation piece, at least. It's very big and, well, red. Jung's drawings are quite beautiful, his medieval-style handwriting is strangely intricate, and of course everybody knows Jung by name, so it has that aura of celebrity genius.

[fsiefken]

Yes, in this case the hidden meaning of the Red Book is the unconsiousness itself. Holding the secrets to the meaning of life. My question is, are the Voynich, Antichthon Universalis of Codex_Seraphinianus manuscripts, Valis (Philp K. Dick), Michael J. Topper's or even Castaneda's work merely artificially constructed fantasies (like Scientology or the Church of Subgenius) or also pointing to or connecting with a deeper layer of reality of archetypes rooted in our biology like in Jung's the Red Book? Is there a deeper meaning?

[Umalu]

In 2007 The Believer ran what I think is the definitive account of the Codex Seraphinianus: http://www.believermag.com/issues/200705/?read=article_taylo...

The Codex was likely inspired by the Borges story "Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius" which involves encyclopedia articles about an imagined world: http://art.yale.edu/file_columns/0000/0066/borges.pdf

[samatman]

Which, in turn, is one of the inspirations for urbit:

http://www.urbit.org/2013/09/25/continuity.html

[kh_hk]

The style reminds me to some of H. Bosch's paintings, which also give you vibes of symbolism and complexity

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Garden_of_Earthly_Delights

http://imgur.com/FaYLjTm,CFxmjNN,flVaZbz#0

[batgaijin]

It's weird... a lot of the stuff around this talks about Borges' story but it's a total misinterpretation. He was talking about memetics and the need for us to bring our fictions into reality through drastic means that blend it with our history.

This is different. Also, can anyone tell if J.P. Harding posted his/her translation anywhere? http://www.codexseraphinianus.org/

[elliptic]

Probably like all books that are meant to be strange and mysterious, it's actually quite boring. The strangest books to me are those the authors meant to be understood. One example (for me) is Valis, by PK Dick.

[samatman]

...no. My copy of the Codex is among my most treasured tomes.

It is so far from boring that I have agreements with myself about when and how I peruse it, to keep the pleasure and wonder of discovery going for as long as possible.

If you're not a fan of incredible, surreal, self-consistent art, then the Codex is not for you. The text is kinda hard to read. ;-)

[Hermel]

I bought it. Quite fun to have it laying around on the coffee table when having guests. Some don't get it at all, some find it hilarious.

[Pitarou]

Leafing through it, I'm kinda' reminded of the first time I had a copy of Knuth's The Art of Computer Programming in my hands.

Just me?

Yes, I thought so.

[teawithcarl]

A book reminding us all that we thought, and all that we think, and that what we create may be underwhelmingly backminded.