h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I am curious about this work and the footnote which says:

"To be pedantic, of course, the number of permutations is far smaller than a hundred trillion, because it would (presumably) only be permissible to arrange the lines in such a way that they conformed to one or other of the conventional rhyme schemes for the Petrarchan sonnet - that is to say, ABBA ABBA CDE CDE. Obviously, it wouldn't be a real sonnet - in fact, it wouldn't be much of a poem at all - if it rhymed, say, AABC DAEE BBAE DDD or whatever. But why spoil a good idea..."

I was under the impression that one of the important features of the work is that all ten sonnets use the *same* rhymes, that is, that all the first lines have the same rhyme A, all the second lines have B, and so on, so that even the pedantic will indeed find a hundred trillion Petrarchian sonnets.

However, I've never actually seen a copy, so I'm curious. Can anyone confirm whether the sonnets use the same rhyme scheme or not? If they do, that footnote could be quietly dropped.

Azara

A translation of the poems by Stanley Chapman can be found in the Oulipo Compendium edited by Harry Mathews and Alaistair Brotchie and published by Atlas Press.

The poems all follow the same rhyming scheme. So if you take any of the first lines (10 choices) and any of the second lines (another ten) and ...... and any of the fourteenth lines, you can create a unique sonnet with rhyming scheme ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. Note that this is a Shakespearean sonnet as opposed to a Petrarchian one.

Example:

Don Pedro from his shirt has washed the fleas
Since Elgin left his nostrils in the stone
Her native chauffeur waited in the breeze
One gathers rosebuds or grows old alone

And yet 'twas he the beggar Fate just flings
That metered rhyme alone can souls enslave
Proud death quite il-le-gi-ti-mate-ly stings
Victorious worms grind all into the grave

The wolf devours both sheep and shepherdess
One tongue will do to keep the verse agog
To prove mamma an adult with a tress
No need to cart such treasures from the fog

With Marble souvenirs then fill a slum
And lessors' dates have all too short a sum

The number of unique sonnets is:
10x10x10x10x10x10x10x10x10x10x10x10x10x10 = 10^14 i.e. cent mille milliards.

It seems clear to me that there are no redundant poems as meter and rhyming scheme stay constant through each new sonnet.

deemikay

I only just noticed this answer to my question. (After so many months, I wasn't expecting one!)

I suppose this is something to suggest to the Update Headquarters at some point - the footnote should indeed be dropped.

Thanks, deemikay!

Azara