This program automates some of the tedious sort of play that Brian Gyson and William S. Burroughs used to indulge in with "cut-ups", physically cutting up text into various sized chunks, and randomly rearranging them.

Okay, I'll admit it: I had only known three people in my entire life who had any sort of interest in the ol' Burroughs-n-Gyson cut-ups. But then I got a wonderful email from a fella named Frank Rust who has been enjoying the program for some time, and who encouraged me to make this latest version.

Here's a portion of one of his emails from a couple weeks ago:

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Recently I've been taking text on various subjects and saving them all in one document. Then I "puree" that to get interesting 2 or 3 word combinations. The results can often spark an idea. Never an end in itself, but a means to an end.

Some interesting ones I've come across recently are:

smile performance

we're growing information

trying machine

radio virus

generation tapeworm

a TV consciousness

soft pile of secrets

neon white media

as slow as God's cold voice

Some prove surprisingly appropriate - such as "smile performance." I would never think to put those two words together. But I found myself at a party the other day, feeling a bit uncomfortable as I was introduced to a bunch of people I didn't really feel like talking to. I remembered "smile performance" and I thought, "What a perfect description of what I'm doing right now!"

- Frank
frank@frankrust.com

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After corresponding with him I decided to devote a page to this odd little toy, to encourage others to send in their jumbled text snippets they'd like to share.

Just drop me a note at TextBlender@FourthWorld.com and I'll post it here.

 

Yep, the raw power and unmatched excitement of blending text and random can be yours with these free downloads:

TextBlenderProSC.hqx (27k) - a Mc OS file for SuperCard 3.0

TxBlndPro.mc.hqx (73k) - a Windows file for MetaCard 2.x

 

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