"I could the degrees as I think."

[adelaidesean]

Hmm. What the hell does that mean?

I found this sentence in the first draft of "Cenotaxis", a novella that will slip between the first books of the Astropolis series (due out in standalone form late next year from MonkeyBrain).

What it's supposed to say is a complete mystery to me. Context doesn't help at all. It's like something reached into my head, scrambled up my neurons just long enough for me to write these words--words that look perfectly correct on their own but together, in that order, make no sense at all--then retreated so subtly I never noticed what happened.

I deleted the sentence rather than try to work out what it meant, then I reconsidered and kept it out of curiosity. Now it's here. Perhaps someone can tell me what I was trying to say.

Personally, I'm hoping it's a coded message from the collective unconscious designed to join with other such coded "errors" in order to reveal some deeply profound truth about the universe (cf. the "garbage" text in modern-day spam). That's much more interesting than the assumption that I'm just wearing out.

Comments

[shadowsandice.livejournal.com]

I see a typo; "I count the degrees as I think." Or there could be any number of missing words in there.

[ladnews.livejournal.com]

The typo theory was the first to occur to me, too, only it makes no sense at all in the context. Looking for missing words is a bit like an archaeologist reconstructing a village from a few walls and the odd hearth. I'm usually pretty good at it, but here I'm stumped.

Not that it matters, of course. It's only a minor mystery in the greater scheme of things. I've obviously been editing too long. :-)

[callistra.livejournal.com]

I like count, but court could be an option.
:-)

[haloumi.livejournal.com]

Your use of the word 'coded' in our last paragraph made me think of homophonic substitution (I code[d] the degrees as I think) but that makes as little sense to me. "I could earn the degrees as I think" sounds like someone having so many good ideas that they want instant academic recognition - something which I understand, given that I'm in the "finishing my first draft stage" of PhD thesis.

The missing word, or phrase, is probably somewhere in the washing machine along with any missing socks.

I suspect, sadly, that it is more likely to be the last Coopers Pale molecules leaving your system and flicking some brain cells as they go to throw up such phrases.

(As an aside, I was the chap who discussed a book-for-wine swap with you at brunch the other day. I apologise for not sending e-mail yet - my excuse is my thesis.)

[shadowsandice.livejournal.com]

Then the missing word is, quite clearly, "pony".

[ladnews.livejournal.com]

Ha ha! Yes, of course! It's so obvious. I can't believe I didn't see it before now.

[mireille21.livejournal.com]

Um, I immediately thought that perhaps there is some connection with degrees in a circle, related to cogs turning in your brain "I could hear the degrees turn as I think". Or if it's temperature related (rising due to stress, or atmosphere?) "I could feel the degrees rise as I think."
I don't know. I think it's just proof as we've long suspected that one person cannot really turn out the number of written works you do in a year, and therefore you have a secret stash of monkeys and typewriters somewhere don't you! And this time one of the monkeys got distracted.

[ladnews.livejournal.com]

There are many variations on the mystery c-word that could fit, with varying degrees of inappropriateness. :-)

"I count the dungarees as I sink." That could work...

[ladnews.livejournal.com]

Those damned monkeys. I knew they'd be trouble one day. I barely caught their attempt at titling the Astropolis books in time: "More Bananas" was never going to work, and neither was "Bigger Cages" for "Earth Ascendant". Sheesh. Don't they know anything?

[ladnews.livejournal.com]

Ah, yes! Wine for books. The industry should work this way all the time--although I dread to think what new typos my Shiraz-soaked brain would come up with then. :-)

A friend suggested that the typo might be anagrammatical, and that what I *meant* to write was "A ceded lingerie hot hut kiss." Obvious, really.

[callistra.livejournal.com]

See, that sounds much less cool.
I wouldn't believe you could write something uncool like that.
:-)

[ladnews.livejournal.com]

It's a challenge, now.

"I can't dangle eels in the sink"?
"I court the Debbies in the thick of it"?
"I couldn't degrease *and* think"?

Perhaps I'm better off doing something else. :-)

[gloripebbles.livejournal.com]

Never trust monkeys to do a pony's work is my Monday thought of the day.

Actually Sean, I misread your interesting sentence and saw 'count' rather than 'could' - pesky reading phenomena. Then as I read your post, I re-read with the 'right' word in it (and your post began to make sense *lol*).

I saw degrees as temperature or an accumulating pile of bits of paper procured from higher institutions. The other word I'd play with is the 'the'...what's missing off that one........perhaps.

[col-ki.livejournal.com]

cloud?

[gloripebbles.livejournal.com]

D'oh! I forgot to add the other opinion/comment on the whole shebang. You've commenced channelling Dr Seuss. Dr Seuss space opera, there's a market waiting to be mined.

[ladnews.livejournal.com]

That's one I never thought of...

[ladnews.livejournal.com]

Ha! I can just imagine it.

"I do not like black holes and ham.
I do not like them, Sam-AI-am!"