codex seraphinianus (1 Viewer)

Hi,
I have looked and checked on abe and I don't understand what this is? It looks interesting, but I don't get what it is about.

Bill
 
it's an encyclopedia of a foreign world, written in an indecipherable text. it's worth it for the illustrations (which are on over 50% of the pages in the books, so it's not as if you're getting short changed in that department). each chapter has a different subject: geology, animals, plants, food, history, rituals, education... although you're never quite sure what's going on, since you can't read the book. it's certainly not for everyone, but it's one of my favorite books (even though i don't own it yet). people tend to agree that, although you can't decipher the alphabet, it's more than just random squiggles or something. in my opinion, the point is that he wanted to create a book that would allow the reader to imagine that he had found the book on another planet and brought it back to earth with him. if that sounds interesting to you, it's pretty wild. also, there's the aspect that there isn't a trade edition of the book, so it's hard to find, very expensive, and the paper is really high-quality, so you don't "feel" like you're sitting there with a normal book as you leaf through it. i bet bukowski would have hated the shit out of it (or just found it useless)... but yeah, it's very interesting. i will buy a copy of it sometime soon, and i'll send you a bunch of pictures if you want. i took a couple pictures of the copy i found in Ecuador, but my ftp site is down, so i can't post links.
 
As a piece of art it's certainly interesting. The illustrations are very elaborate. It doesn't surprise me that he wrote/illustrated it in the 70's. You wouldn't see something like this now.
 
the illistration of the crocodile on the bed looks interesting, does this mean that reptiles on this strange planet sleep on beds? I'd be interested to see a copy but unless I have any luck working the streets tonight then I doubt I'll ever be able to afford it :(
 
Man, that seems like a lot of effort to translate what is most likely a lot of backward, dark ages religious nonsense. The 1400s weren't exactly a hotbed of scientific thought, if you know what I mean.

But it's good that we still try to figure everything out.

AI and Machine Learning is pretty rudimentary right now though, just coming out of its infancy, so we should probably be a little hesitant to use it as a tool for anything important.
 

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