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I'm not sure why we only consider that this manuscript is either a hoax or a forgotten language. Why can't it be an expression of whimsical fantasy? When I was
by Renaud 13y ago
I'm not sure why we only consider that this manuscript is either a hoax or a forgotten language. Why can't it be an expression of whimsical fantasy?
When I was 12, as an introvert kid with too much imagination, I started inventing my own language. I would make up words, sometimes based off various other languages, sometime simply based on how they sounded.
It had a couple of different writing systems, one was a slightly modified version of Greek alphabet, another, more complex, was made of dots and small squiggles that were fast to write (I was fascinated with the Arabic writing system at the time and took inspiration from it even though it didn't look anything like that).
I would write pages of nonsense in that writing system, just to see how it would flow or change over time, just to find patterns, just to have fun.
I even invented my own calendar, using the 88 day revolution of Mercury around the Sun as the year.
When I look at the Voynich Manuscript, all I see is the product of a fertile imagination that went a lot farther than my early teenage attempts at building a coherent world for myself.
I believe that these unconvincing attempts at finding meaning elsewhere -or degrading the object by calling it a hoax- are distracting us from the real beauty of this work of love and imagination.
- bunderbunder 13y agoPerhaps not unlike the Codex Seraphinianus: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codex_Seraphinianus http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codex_Seraphinianus
- Renaud 13y agoExactly. Imagine if that was written a few centuries ago and was recently discovered without being able to know who wrote it or be able to replace it within its context. I'm pretty sure all sorts of people would speculate wildly about its hidden meaning.
- pavanky 13y agoUnlike late 20th century, Writing in the 15th century was rare and a costly endeavor. It is possible that it is an expression of whimsical fantasy. But it would be highly unlikely for this reason.
- Renaud 13y agoWell, it certainly point toward a rich patron in any case, someone who could afford all this manual labour. But what is more likely? That this is a forgotten language of which only a single mystifying example exists (ignoring the completely unlikely plants being described in the manuscript), or that it is a work of fantasy that has merits of its own?
- indrax 13y agoNow you are making a false dichotomy.
- carbon43 13y agoI just created a user account for the first time to tell you that he is not actually making a false dichotomy. Had he initially presented those two as the only possible options, you would be correct. But in his response what he was in fact doing was asking which of two choices seemed more realistic, in the context of his initial statement being questioned. Sorry.
- wavefunction 13y agoA botanist disagrees with your assessment of the plants described in the Manuscript: http://phys.org/news/2014-02-botanists-voynich-similar-mexico.html http://phys.org/news/2014-02-botanists-voynich-similar-mexic...
- Renaud 13y agoThat out of the 300+ plants described about 12% could match some existing ones doesn't really allow anyone to make definitive conclusion as to whether these plants could be real. I'm sure you could match some of the simple ones to more than one plant and that still 85%+ that are unaccounted for. Beside, that doesn't detract from the fact that the author of the manuscript could still have found inspiration into existing plants, imagination doesn't preclude a basis in reality. Maybe the manuscript was written in Mexico. Maybe it is written in a cypher to obfuscate the fact that some of its content might be believed to be heretical (it contains a fair amount of naked women and appears to have some diagrams and illustrations that may relate to a theory of the origins of life or an animistic explanation of natural phenomena). In an case, it's certainly an interesting subject of research, but I still think that the possibility of it being a work of pure fiction, maybe for the sole amusement of an eccentric rich patron, is a possibility.
- cgore 13y agoI did a similar thing too. I wrote a lot of bad adventure fiction in Runic around that same age, around 10-12. I still have most of it.
- driverdan 13y ago> I'm not sure why we only consider that this manuscript is either a hoax or a forgotten language. Because researchers have spent years studying it and have come to the conclusion that those are the two most likely scenarios. I'm sure they considered and eliminated others.
- klibertp 13y agoToo much imagination? You've since lost too much of it if you think there is such a thing as "too much imagination" :)