The linguist says she doesn’t have time so could this please be quick QUERY The woman says she doesn’t have time either she must learn that machine the telegraph because the virus killed the Internet STOP The virus kills people machines and cyborgs alike and the Internet was in its way and the Internet was people and machines too so the virus killed it STOP The linguist says she wants to send this message to three recipients STOP She has a list here with three names STOP First name God STOP Second name The butterfly of the Butterfly Effect STOP Third name Intension with an S.[1] STOP Is this possible QUERY The woman says of course it’s possible is this a post office or is this a post office QUERY Please write the message here one letter per slot STOP So the linguist writes as neatly as she can:
STOP the virus STOP Please STOP
[1] It is widely believed amongst logicians that Intension with an S is a deity. Its formal definition, “a mapping from possible worlds to extensions” can be translated in plain English as “the actualisation of things and events from mere possibility, at the whim of a higher-order being”.
By Aurelie Herbelot
This story was written at the beginning of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Spring 2020. A friend had proposed to a few of us that we should rewrite the Decameron. Over weeks of lockdown, we were given assignments by the Decameron Master. The assignment for this particular piece was ‘Write a story without adjectives or adverbs’.