Experiments in style: Reversed words
Greetings!
One of the things I’ve been trying out is reworking a piece of text into a completely different style. A full exposition and explanation are given here:
For today’s experiment I used my (patent-pending) interdimensional travelator (which I invented last weekend). It had the effect of reversing the letter order in all the words.
First, though, here is the original text on which these experiments or transformations are based:
The original (template) text
In the middle of the night, I woke up (if you can call being semi-conscious being awake), walked purposefully towards the door to go to the bathroom — and almost knocked myself out.
The reason was that in the twin states of entire darkness and semi-somnambulance I was facing in a different direction from the one I thought I was facing. As a result, instead of walking through the door, I tried to walk through the wall.
The next few days brought nausea and headaches. After much prevarication I went to Accident and Emergency, where I waited petrified among people for whom “social distancing” means not quite touching you, and who wore their masks as a chin-warmer.
An hour and a half later I emerged into the twilight, secure in the knowledge that I had nothing more serious than mild concussion. I failed to do much writing, but I was pleased to have read a further 17% of my book.
Reversed words
nI eht elddim fo eht thgin, I ekow pu (fi uoy nac llac gnieb suoicsnoc-imes gnieb ekawa), deklaw yllufesoprup sdrawot eht rood ot og ot eht moorhtab — dna tsomla dekconk flesym tuo.
ehT nosaer saw taht ni eht niwt setats fo eritne ssenkrad dna ecnalubmanmos-imes I saw gnicaf ni a tnereffid noitcerid morf eht eno I thguoht I saw gnicaf. sA a tluser, daetsni fo gniklaw hguorht eht rood, I deirt ot klaw hguorht eht llaw.
ehT txen wef syad thguorb aesuan dna sehcadaeh. retfA hcum noitaciraverp I tnew ot tnediccA dna ycnegremE, erehw I detiaw deifirtep gnoma elpoep rof mohw “laicos gnicnatsid” snaem ton etiuq gnihcuot uoy, dna ohw erow rieht sksam sa a remraw-nihc.
nA ruoh dna a flah retal I degreme otni eht thgiliwt, eruces ni eht egdelwonk taht I dah gnihton erom suoires naht dlim noissucnoc. I deliaf ot od hcum gnitirw, tub I saw desaelp ot evah daer a rehtruf 71% fo ym koob.
Some comments
I don’t think this exercise affects the original story, but it does generate some interesting words that could be used as a starting point of a different story.
For example, it seems to me that this is a tale about the Elddim, who gathered to partake in the yllufesoprup sdrawot before dekconking the flesym tuo.
Anyway, what do you think?
For a different kind of reversing, see this version.
I hope you enjoyed this version. If you’d like to dig deeper, I often write an ‘Experiments in style extra’ post to explain how a version came about, or how I did it. That’s for paid subscribers.
If you’re new to the series, you can see the index of my experiments here: Index.
As always, I’d love to hear your comments.
I prefer your October 8 reversed order story. It had a true sense and purpose to it. In fact, I often look at a story I have completed, and then scramble the paragraphs around to place the ending at the front. Starting a story at the end, I find, can be an irresistible hook for fiction. Interesting excercise, Terry. I always look forward to seeing what you come up with. How many more of these revisions could you possibly devise. M'Lord?
ginzama.