2.5 KiB
are the words "Eternal Golden Braid" an anagram or something?
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Author: u/perverse_milkman_art *
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URL: https://www.reddit.com/r/rational/comments/2zb49g/are_the_words_eternal_golden_braid_an_anagram_or/
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Score: 4
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Created: 2015-03-17T02:41:06
Post:
I see you folks are reading Gödel, Escher, Bach. The book is filled with so many puzzles and self-referential jokes; I remember wondering when I read it years ago why he used that peculiar, specific phrase "an Eternal Golden Braid". Does that have some hidden meaning? An anagram or an encrypted message? I couldn't figure it out.
Comments:
u/None [+8] (9 minutes later)
Well, it also has the initial letters G, E, and B, albeit in different order.
u/perverse_milkman_art [+2] (2 hours later)
Yeah, that's part of what makes it suspicious. Makes it's an anagram in another language?
u/None [+7] (3 hours later)
Douglas Hofstafdter is fluent in French and spent some time translating his book himself. Mr. Tortoise becomes Madame Tortue to better fit the gender of the noun in that language.
u/makemeunsee [+4] Mock turtle (10 hours later)
do you have any more info / reference on that translation bit? He's not listed among the official translators of the French edition.
edit: also there's no evident anagram to "eternal golden braid" or its parts in French
u/None [+6] (24 minutes later)
Abandoned Tree Grill
Long Readable Tinder
Adorable Gender Lint
Alterable Dinner God
Algebra Lined Rodent
Trainable Ogled Nerd
Rational Bred Legend
...I've got nothing.
u/Newfur [+3] Crazy like a fox. Literally. (12 minutes later)
No, just an anag-ac-strapolation.
u/alexanderwales [+9] Time flies like an arrow (22 minutes later)
I mean, it's an anagram for a lot of things. But I don't think that it's an anagram for anything specific. (Douglas Hofstadter took over a column called "Mathematical Games" from Martin Gardner and renamed it as "Metamagical Themas", so he is a fan of anagrams.)
u/chaosmosis [+1] and with strange aeons, even death may die (22 hours later)
Brain, rational, learn, agent. Not getting any good overall results, although these words stuck out to me. Probably coincidence, but on the other hand he is clever.
u/None [+1] (2 days later)
Eternal - Escher
Golden - Godel
Braid - Bach