Issue 1.2 Preview & Call for Submissions
» Special Topic: The Voynich Manuscript & Other "Cryptotexts"
SCRIPT 1.2 will feature a special section concerned with the Voynich manuscript and other "cryptotexts."
While almost certainly undecipherable semantically (various master WWII code-breakers and modern computers have tried), the Voynich manuscript -- a.k.a, the Beinecke Library's "MS 408" -- has arguably more value in abstraction than it would in translation. A word-filled but language-less text; a collection of empty signs; a simulacra of simulacra -- one can accept that texts like this may forever remain origin-less and undeciphered. But as such, they offer textual culture something unique: words and text abstracted from the weight of functional representation, semantics, and the other duties language routinely performs. As such, these cryptotexts can be seen as a form of literary abstraction that, like other forms of asemic art, puts a great deal of tension on the graphic/text binary and challenges readers to reevaluate their relationship, and conception of, each.
Articles on, and artistic treatments of, the Voynich manuscript itself are welcome as are those concerned with other failures of cryptanalysis and other texts/language systems that remain undeciphered and/or untranslated.
The following links will help interested parties get started as will some of the entries in the master SCRIPT resources section.
» http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Uncracked_codes_and_ciphers
» http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Undeciphered_writing_systems
» Standard SCRIPT Pitch
As always, SCRIPT invites artwork, literature, and articles aligned with our core editorial interests.
Primarily interested in the history, theory, interpretation, and literary alterity of filmscripts and teleplays, SCRIPT invites +/- 5,000 word articles concerned with the same. SCRIPT also solicits close readings of and critical investigations into other abject textual forms including: code arrays, asemic writing, graffiti, tattoos, and any other marginal(ized) scripted utterance.
A popular-academic hybrid, SCRIPT publishes belletristic work that blends academic rigor with the style of (new) journalism. Submissions should be jargon light, intellectually stimulating, and written for an educated lay audience.
SCRIPT also publishes:
- interviews with film and television writers, code poets, asemic and tattoo artists & graffiti writers
- excerpts from works of code literature & (un)produced/soon-to-be-produced/recently (re)discovered film and television scripts
- images/video of asemic art, tattoos & graffiti (master)pieces
- reviews of/responses to recently published scripts & (un/official) art installations
As a web-based journal, SCRIPT can publish all manner of (hyper)media including: images, sounds, animations, and videos. Such things can support written articles or serve as "essays" in their own rights.