Re: VMs: VM: The great frustration (was VM: Voynich as Divine Comedy)

[Jacques Guy <jguy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

12/10/2004 5:05:06 PM, Leonard Fox <rockandhawk@xxxxxxx> wrote:

>My apologies if this thought has already been discussed at some point.

>In view of the fact that no other manuscript, document, or even fragment has
>ever come to light that uses the same script and, presumably, the same
>language(s) as the VMs, is it not possible that the work could be an example
>of some sort of mental illness

It has been discussed a very few years ago, along with
the Codex Seraphinianus, Helen Smith's "Martian", and 
I others which I have at the tip of my tongue burn darn!
cannot recall just now when I need to.

Although it has some of the features of works (not only
manuscripts) due to (plain English here) nut cases, other
texts, meaningful, and not the work of nut cases, can
present similar features. The repetitions, for instance.

The fact that it is unique does not suggest that it
is the produce of a nut case. When I was a child I used
to keep a sort of "research journal" written phonetically
(in French) in an alphabet of my invention. My pet
theory is that the VMS was such "research notes" by
a Venitian (why not?) written in some distant, obscure
language he had learnt during his travels, in an alphabet
invented ad hoc--a simple-substitution cipher, but
uncrackable, unless you 1) identify the language, 
2) can read it. cv22iiv94 cva ccv4c-8iivaiiv. (That was an 
illustration. What does it say? Hint: I used "Frogguy" to
encipher it)

>Not to be overly pessimistic, but if this suggestion were indeed the case,
>then a decipherment/translation of the VMs would probably never be possible.


The problem boils down to this: can a long text in an unknown
language and an unknown script be deciphered? For theoretical
reasons, I tend to answer "yes". But can it be deciphered
_in practice_? And even back into theory, how long does the
text need to be? To claim that it is psychotic gibberish
just because we cannot decipher it amounts to begging the
question. 




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