of some asemic interest maybe . . .

[Mary Anne]

Last night I found myself watching a Sci-fi film on our (British) TV. 

The film (2016) was named 'Arrival' and the story such as it was concerned the arrival of alien ships and an 'expert's' attempts at understanding their written and spoken language.  It was quite a gentle film and I think maybe anyone on IUOMA interested in asemic writing would find it intriguing . . .

[De Villo Sloan]

Send them to our Yorkshire lass. Wait - weren't you sending 200 a&ps? Paw & pass? "Too many threads," said the needle to the spool.

[Jayne Barket Lyons]

DVS - I wasn’t in the post-literate group at that time because I was not part of the Eternal Network. I was just a lone LION, roaming the earth. 

[De Villo Sloan]

It was in the Post-Literate grope.. Surprised you did n't c.

[Jayne Barket Lyons]

Interesting discussion, Mary Anne! I’ll have to look for that movie. DVS - how funny that a hollywood hustler / influencer infiltrated the FB asemics group! You said apparently ‘a real person.’ Are you sure it wasn’t an alien! Ha Ha!

[De Villo Sloan]

Patricia, probably the asemic interest in "Arrivals" is the artistry of the symbols and not the linguistics. I think that's the most positive spin.

It's pretty well agreed that the term "asemic" was coined in the 90s by Jim Leftwich (an IUOMA member!) and Tim Gaze (Australia). Jim seems to have soured on the whole thing, but he can speak for himself.

People such as Henri Michaux & Brion Gysin were doing asemics before the 90s but no one bothered to explain it.

Unless you are having fun scribbling, which is probably the best approach, asemic writing causes you to confront "nothingness" & "meaninglessness" (like Buddhism, Existentialism, Deconstruction.)

But can language ever be truly meaningless? Can a sign or symbol represent nothing, really?

Hundreds of pages of circular discussions can be found upon this topic including in the leaky basement of IUOMA ancient discussion threads. I think it pushed Moan Lisa over the edge.

Many visual poets just avoid the discussion altogether these days. A few old friendships are no more.

[Mary Anne]

I feel I have inadvertently strayed into the land of egg-enders . . . 

[PATRICIA LANDON]

I love the language in ARRIVAL,music rocks too!

[De Villo Sloan]

Good for you, Maryanne, that you spotted the alien language in "Arrival." I believe it was created by a Canadian linguistic who gave it great thought.

About the time the film was released, a person on Facebook was very vocal in Michael Jacobson's asemic writing group (approx. 14,000 members) about the merits of the alien language in "Arrival" and how all asemic writers would want to see the film.

On the basis of persistence and promotional materials, it became obvious this person was an "influencer" haunting FB to promote the film. He finally admitted he worked for one of the studios. I often hear these "influencers" are on FB. This was one of the first I've observed that was, apparently, a real person.

Things did not go well for the asemic hustler. As it often does in that group, an argument broke out about whether the alien language was asemic, or not. Asemic writing is the La Brea Tarpits of vispo. Mostly, people have bitter arguments about theory.

Anyway, my view of the exchange: Artistically, the alien writing is worth noting BUT I felt the strongest points (and I admit bias) is that the alien writing is NOT asemic in the film.

An artificial language that can be translated or a code that can be cracked is NOT asemic. Asemic writing has no core text or meaning. But this view is the height of "Asemic Correctness.: I'm a lot looser in the IUOMA group, for instance.

But technically, a code cannot be asemic.

Some disagree, notably the late, great Guido Vermeulen believed a code could be asemic.

Anyway, our Hollywood hustler fled the asemic writing group and has not appeared again.