Encryption

kdnxdr said:

And, here is a link I found very interesting, though long and a bit technical. http://www.c3.hu/scca/butterfly/szmz/project.html

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E.

Norton 360 flagged that site as a threat.

David

kdnxdr said:

One of my fellow AWPoets often brings up the concept of encryption and how it affects a poem or how the encryption is often the "real" poem, a poem within a poem.

So, I thought others might want to weigh in on the subject and offer their thoughts, examples and definitions as to the part encryption plays in their poems or the poems of others.

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This is (almost) dissapointing - I was expecting a poem about encryption or that includes it.

An excellent popular book on the history of cryptography is "The Code Book" by Simon Singh:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0385495323/?tag=absowrit-20

It discussed in depth the Enigma machine used in WWII, and also language and the decoding of the Rosetta Stone. I didn't know what a "phonetic language" is, and these people not only know the words in these dead languages, but that they know how to pronounce them. It also discusses this:

kdnxdr said:

Encryption systems often use two keys, a public key, available to anyone, and a private key that allows only the recipient to decode the message.

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This is (relatively) secure cryptography, which has only been developed in the last few decades. Previous methods used the same private key for both encryption and decryption.

By the way, encode and decode don't imply a secret message, but rather converting a message to a form that might be easier to store or transmit in a special way, such as Morse Code.

Defining encryption is (relatively) easy - I'd really like a definition of a poem.

I find poetry to be a bit like jazz, a musical form I've found fascinating all my life, yet I feel like an outsider to it. The notes and beats often seem random, yet they clearly have meaning to its fans. I don't quite "get it." I'm afraid it's like the old Saturn automobile ads - if I don't get it by now, I'll never understand.

My own poetry has been limited to the forms of limericks and haiku. I guess that's like playing 12-bar blues and calling it jazz...

Poetry is re-jigged language, meant to be reflective on our language and how much it misses if we only speak in prose. Limericks and haiku are completely acceptable and not merely 12-bar blues dressed up as jazz.

I've never heard the term "encryption" applied to poetry. Who is this poet tossing this term around? Is this really an encrypted discussion about metaphors (extended and otherwise)??

Hey, I'm open to new uses of terminology. And I did find a few poetry critics using the term loosely. I felt I had to defend the honor of Madame Defarge. Oh never mind, I'm just annoyed by the clutch of buckeyes rattling around in my shoes!

Probably a better word than encryption is riddle-weaving.

I especially like poems with encryptions within them because I feel that's what a poem should be: thought provoking. An encryption in the poem gives a poem, but when you read it again, you get this whole other understand to it and it I get this feeling off reading it which I can't explain, like I found a lost jewel or something.

I am not unfamiliar with encrypted poems--in more than one idea of the word:

"Though silent and unseen
All do know I'm there
Here for a moment
Too soon I am gone
Creatures born of fear
Beware"

This is one of my more well-memorised ones, and an example of riddle-weaving.

On the other hand,

"Abcdef Ghi
Wivn f adwde-eiod ndftv
Und'u nikkdq ltgp vnd wgtek
Fltfik vg refy ndt rftv"

is literally encrypted--for a reason. That poem is 1) about me and 2) about someone taking the time and effort to figure me out. So, the encryption just makes sure that anyone trying to figure out who I am by reading the poem is also willing to take the time and effort. In the case of people with a talent for decryting stuff, it just makes it more poetic in my opinion.

The key to the code is rather simple, but still meaningful. My personal favorite form of cryptogram (encryption by way of making each letter represent a different letter) involves taking a word or short phrase, and making that the "key phrase"--the letters of that phrase are represented first, and then the gaps are filled in with the rest. For example, if the key phrase is "penguin" then P would be replaced with A, E would be replaced with B, etc, and then the rest of the alphabet gets filled in. There are 7 letters in PENGUIN, and none of them are A, so A would be replaced with the 8th letter of the alphabet (H), BCD by IJK, since E already has an assigned letter, you would skip it, and L replaces F. And so on and so forth.

It takes a lot of time for someone who calls me by my legal name to earn my trust enough to for me to tell them that I am Juvela Obi. If you noticed, the first line of that poem is replaced with "Abcdef Ghi" which means that the first line IS the key phrase. The poem is about who I am. The title is Juvela Obi, and it starts with my name as well. So, the key is the name I don't share with people. It's kind of like...it's another step in learning who I am--they have to untangle the puzzle of Me to know me well enough to have learned my Name, before they can even begin to untangle the puzzle that explains it. Obviously, over the internet it works a bit differently, because I go by my pseudonym all the time, but people knowing that part means nothing if they don't know which legal name to match it with. *shrug*

No worries! Eiji and I had to send coded messages to each other for a few years so that my parents couldn't read them. We got rather good at it, heh. His favorite form was to replace letter with numbers (but in a lot more complex ways than A=1, B=2, etc) and my favorite form, when not on the computer, was to ditch recognizeable letters and numbers altogether. I invented maybe four or five different alphabets in those years, and a couple of them I still use.

And thanks for the welcome, by the way!

Lol! Try reading what I listed as my location; I KNOW I live in a completely different world! Adam S from the Mythbusters put it best: "I reject your reality, and replace it with my own!" It makes life more interesting, among other things. Have you ever scene that list of 101 Things to Do in Wal Mart? I actually made the original version (mine was only 23 long, but still...) I have the fun side, the obnoxious side, the quiet side, and the ultra-serious side. How well I know a person determines which side I show them. My poems are the only place I show my thoughts and emotions to the deepest extent, because I originally hadn't planned on anyone ever reading them. The style and personality with which I write and communicate over this and any other writing forums will likely be rather amorphous until I get the hang of it. PLease bear with me!

There is three types of encryption:

Mnemonic: Encrypted for the sole purpose of it being remembered. Re: hymns, odes, epics.

Riddle: Encrypted for the sole purpose of reflection. Re: ballads, limericks, song.

Cryptogram: Encrypted for the sole purpose of solving or obfuscating. Re: spells, galdors, concrete poem.