Double Helix - By Benj96
I once met a couple, a strange one indeed. Fond of dancing with one another, yet always engaged in intense argument. Such was the attraction, they had a certain gravity for one anothers peculiarities.
His name was Reor and hers Mores. Reor was as straight as an arrow, predictable, discrete, a man of definition, quite particular, black and white. She, on the other hand was a creative, irrational and unpredictable, on a wave of her own, captivated only by possibilities, full of colour. Spectral.
He found her impulsive, endless, ramblings both abhorrent and enticing. Such wonderous imagination. She found his blunt, kurt, overly concise directness stunted, but all while most pragmatic.
She liked to bake Pie for him. He would do the slicing, partitioning it into neat little portions. Fractions.
They would circle their creation together marveling at it as they ate. "The proof is in the pudding" they thought. Then danced some more, revolving around one another.
Evidently, they were a good match. He grounded her in reason, while she kept him entranced with mystique, wonder. It was a love affair.
They cycled together down a straight road, but taking detours. They had all the time in the world.
His name was Reor and hers Mores. Reor was as straight as an arrow, predictable, discrete, a man of definition, quite particular, black and white. She, on the other hand was a creative, irrational and unpredictable, on a wave of her own, captivated only by possibilities, full of colour. Spectral.
He found her impulsive, endless, ramblings both abhorrent and enticing. Such wonderous imagination. She found his blunt, kurt, overly concise directness stunted, but all while most pragmatic.
She liked to bake Pie for him. He would do the slicing, partitioning it into neat little portions. Fractions.
They would circle their creation together marveling at it as they ate. "The proof is in the pudding" they thought. Then danced some more, revolving around one another.
Evidently, they were a good match. He grounded her in reason, while she kept him entranced with mystique, wonder. It was a love affair.
They cycled together down a straight road, but taking detours. They had all the time in the world.
Comments (48)
I personally don't believe in love but if it really exists I guess it should be as the author proposed in this story.
Yes I agree. Its got a semblance of opposition about it. I would say to anyone hazarding a guess to the deeper meaning, investigate the names Mores and Reor and where they stem from. That's the trail of breadcrumbs I followed and it has lead to a lot of insight.
Why do you not believe in love?
I love this but finding it difficult. I've looked up Double Helix. My brain is scientifically challenged.
Shed a little light, please?
Quoting Benj96
I've done that. Reor fits right it but not sure about Mores.
Quoting Benj96
OK. A few more clues, please?
I have a few thoughts obviously on opposites attract and the DNA entwining of strands 'dancing'.
Quoting Caldwell
The final sentence intrigues me.
I see a companionable ride into the sunset. Almost holding hands. Going down the line (of ancestry).
Being adventurous and branching off.
Oh, a family tree!
Am I warm, yet?
Haha warming up. You've already got the idea of DNA, ancestry and a family tree.
Believe it or not the branching tree image - that's one I didn't even consider until you highlighted it but now makes perfect sense. Thank you for finding another piece of the puzzle.
If I'm honest I've read this many times and it is densely packed with metaphor. Almost as if its metaphors built out of metaphors. I'm still decoding it. (excuse the DNA related pun).
Other key words I found useful and might help you also: "time", "cycled", "circle", "pie", "irrational", "rambling", "creation", "partitioning into portions or fractions".
They seem to be very carefully selected for some reason or another. There's more connection there I just haven't quite worked out all of it.
Phew! Glad I got something right in this perplexing puzzle.
You are right. It is PACKED solid.
Some sharp knives are required and I'm afraid I'm too blunt right now.
( sorry metaphors are on my brain - is there a cure for that?)
Quoting Benj96
Indeed.
Time for me to rest up.
Later... :sparkle:
Quoting Caldwell
Funnily enough, I was thinking along the same lines!
Seeing the story as a Pie; each part analysed in a collaborative effort.
Each person bringing their own knife to the table.
It might be that a mix of Reor (R) and Mores (M) is required.
Quoting Benj96
Wordplay: key to unravelling this puzzle.
I'm about to start on this Pie.
My thoughts this morning were to plough my way through, faithful hippo on hand:
https://www.wordhippo.com/
or wiki or google.
But this overwhelms and takes too much time.
If you have made any headway in this, perhaps share and think aloud; brain dump!
It's how I got to the family tree!
Look forward to hearing more...
Quoting Vera Mont
It is damned clever; clearly written by someone wily. A mix of R&M.
So, I conclude that it's not necessary to be scientificky for a full analysis.
But a little of that ingredient would be helpful...
I think I know the writer...don't you :cool:
Yeah when I read that I was like oh wow new imagery! Was really nice. The tree of life, taxonomy, classification and evolution (the mutations- branching points). We can add it to our checklist of topics uncovered.
I think Pie is also a wordplay of Pi. Considering the inclusion of the words "irrational" and "rambling" (running on to infinity) - "they had all the time in the world"
Good thinking. I keep thinking of fractions as fractals.
They're spelled very similarly. Perhaps they have the same etymology. Maybe they're cousins on the evolving language tree.
Yep so "fractus" in Latin means broken. And is the origin of both fraction, fracture and fractal.
OK. This bittiness is fine but it will not do the job effectively or efficiently.
We need to be systematic. Cue John Travolta:
Go, Greased Lightning!
:fire:
Where all the rest of the smarty pants mechanics round here?
@Jamal @Baden @Benkei @Tobias @180 Proof - other authors. Who can help out?
True. I need a break from this one for a while however so I can come back with fresh eyes. Have to follow up on some of the other stories, I missed out on a few that were reported to be very good so.
:up:
I'm going offline now. It's all too much for my little brain :yawn:
Thank you. That was a most substantive and helpful post.
Love the going all out with philosophical concepts :up:
Quoting Tobias
Yes, I thought of that too.
But perhaps it is deliberate and not a trap.
That was indeed the traditional view. As are the gender classifications: male and female.
But we've moved on some.
Quoting How many genders are there?
Quoting Caldwell
Partitioning into neat little portions - dancing some more - revolving (or evolving).
I'm thinking of chromosomes and sex determination.
Quoting Wiki - Chromosome
Then:
Quoting Caldwell
'Taking detours' - I had thought of branching off and family trees but...
Branches are not all 'straight' and strange can be queer.
Quoting Caldwell
It's a very intelligent piece with symbolism that isn't much further away than a google-search and the information density is high as a result of all these symbolical associations. I happen to like that. It's a little puzzle you can spend your time on disentangling and then start wondering whether you're overinterpreting it all.
Quoting Benkei
Guilty as charged :nerd:
So, what have you made of it? This particular Pie?
Any more hints re symbols? How are we doing so far?
So with the title, this is obviously about DNA. They're dancing but arguing: I read that as the interchange of information coded in DNA. "Peculiarities" can be a synonym for something specific, and with base pairing only specific nucleobases bond with other nucleobases. Reading base as "ground", the choice of gravity is another fun detail (or so I imagine, but usually writers are not as smart as interpreters think!).
I can't place Reor or Mores, at least not in the way that the writer suggest them so I'm a bit at a loss there. Mores in its latin meaning would be something akin to the written and unwritten rules and rituals of a (close-knit) society. So yes, Mores likes tradition and rules - but not necessarily straight or black and white. Reor I could only find as a conjugation to think or imagine. Not close enough to how she's described for me to think I have the right idea there.
I'm also wondering about that singular word "spectral" but I have no clue of any spectrographic representation of DNA that could explain that.
This describes a bit more what was already in the previous paragraph, so it doesn't make me add anything.
The helix diameter and circumference are still in the "pi" ratio. So as the helix climbs, they are baking pies. The base pairings cross from one strand to the other, creating "slices". Not sure why it's eaten though.
The cycling describes the two-dimensional view of a helix.
That they had all the time in the world reflects the fact that DNA will be passed along to the next generation. So while discrete persons will die, the DNA lives on. Although, in a manner of speaking, when DNA gets copied I think the strands are split? Not sure.
Reor v. Mores in Latin is along the lines of thinking v. behaviour/custom. This is in line with the characters.
Thanks. That's most helpful.
Quoting Benkei
My confusion lies with Mores, the colourful, wavy female.
Reor is the straight male with black and white thinking:
Quoting Caldwell
But yes, now I think of it...and after reading from etymology online:
[ what is a PIE root?! - Oh, this story is also about the roots of language and how words and meaning have evolved! Yes?! ]
If the rules (mores) are basic and 'unwritten', then she has more freedom, more possibilities for change.
She has an irrational, changeable, 'moody' disposition. Attracted to the fundamental 'gravity' or grounding of Reor for balance. He likewise needs his dancing partner, even if at apparent 'odds'.
As in the Ying and Yang of Chinese philosophy.
Quoting Wiki - Yin and Yang
The symbol of Yin and Yang - a circular pie shape.
Getting there...with a little help from friends :sparkle:
No, has nothing to do with wokeness. It is just interesting that the parable reiterates one of these tacit assumptions in philosophy that are under scrutiny right now. I also wonder about the harmony. The whole pomo movement railed against the idea that Western philosophy is essentially a story about an infinite harmony. I think they had a point. That exact motive of harmony is found in this story. It is a good story, I do not think I am over interpreting it, I also think there is no such thing. I just contrast it, commenting through the thoughts it elicited in me.
The spectrum of colour and Mores' 'wave':
Quoting Colour spectrum
Also:
Quoting Wiki - Spectral analysis
Properties of matter (male and female bodies) with magnetic attraction :hearts:
Ah, so it does. Genius :clap:
The cycle is the turning of the helix, once every ten nucleotides.
Quoting Biology dictionary - Double Helix
Quoting Biology dictionary - Nucleotide
I find this difficult to envisage. How does a rising helix create a pie?
Where do you see the 'slices'? I think I need an animation...
Quoting Caldwell
Mores was the baker. Perhaps not following any recipe to the letter.
Quoting Caldwell
Why do they eat it? "The proof is in the pudding".
If Mores tells Reor that her pie recipe is the best in the world, then how else is to be judged?
With all the senses, not just reason...
That's the ordinary meaning.
Not sure why a helix would need to be proved or approved...
Maybe to check it is on the right path?
Every full rotation of the strand circumscribes a circle. Each full circle has its circumference and diameter and results in a correct ratio, pi. The more circles you get, the more pi.
You are my new hero :starstruck:
Damn Amity, opening my eyes to new trains of thought as per usual. You're really getting into the thick of things. Proto-indo-european (PIE). Damn, the cleverness!
Quoting Amity
Wow. Yin and yang - defined as the feminine and masculine qualities of existence, tangled, intertwined, mutually circling one another, symbiotic, comrades in the formulation of existents.
Quoting Amity
She is the ambiguity, he is the discernment. We use language both discreetly as Reor would have it - mathematics. Formal logic. But we also use language figuratively - as analogy, parable, metaphor, creatively - poetry, song, as Mores would have it.
Their combination as a "double helix" - a circle that advances (a spiral) - never quite the same reiteration as before, never stagnant and unchanging. Mutated. Dynamic.
DNA appears as a language here. A code, symbolic of instruction, written for interpretation, an evolving one. Where words (nucleotide sequences or "genes"), the code, the symbolism (meaning) underlying the physical outcome (words or physical proteins) is ever shifting, and emerging anew. A new product advanced from predecessors.
Evolution.
Just call me obsessive :wink:
I love the way you take what I write and run with it.
It becomes better in the expansion and evolution.
Let's Dance :cool:
Thanks to @Benkei and @Tobias:fire:
or perhaps even better...one couple (Reor and Mores) stepping off to a sequence of dances.
Why wouldnt I? Its relevant and perceptive. Astute.
Of course.
I meant what you added to it.
Adding spicier and yummy ingredients...filling the pie :smile:
I like how you linked two examples of music here. Because I consider again, that the lyrics and rhythm are defined and particular, predictable, repetitive (Reor) and the melody and instrumentals/riffs are creative, imaginative and flowing, interpretative - like Mores. A combination of the discreet and the open to interpretation - the mood/general ambiance. An Interplay.
Music is a collection of waveforms and a discrete set of particular repetitions and words.
Congratulations @Benj96 :clap:
'Double Helix' was my greatest challenge. Thank you for all your tips and hints.
So damned clever :100: :cool:
Quoting Amity
If I'm honest, you guys read way more deeply into it than I could have ever imagined or done so myself.
You pulled out all sorts of clever and profound relationships and dynamics. They were reasonable and well articulated appreciations and I'm very glad to have read them, seeming to just spiral outwards and involve more and more ideas and imagery.
It was designed to utilise the broad applicability of very basic, simple and fundamental concepts like "circularity or frequency" , "couples/opposites", "reason vs irrationality and imagination".. The most explicit thing about it was the title. A nugget of concrete info from which to extrapolate thr story.
The rest was constructed out of those basics by you guys with your keen eye for pattern seeking and to my amazement out came linguistics/languages, the tree of life, evolution, geometry etc.
The most difficult thing to do was play the interlocutor, encouraging thought but not interfering too much with the free flow of your conversation.
Yes. I noticed the circularity, imagination and intelligence in your other wonderful story.
Quoting Benj96
Sparks flying from the collaborative spirit. Fascinating to see the story unfold.
Quoting Benj96
You did that very well. I think most authors like to keep their distance and not be part of the analysis.
A careful balancing act :sparkle:
I may perhaps in the future completely ignore my story and not contribute to the comments at all to see where it goes from a purely passive observation alone.
I enjoyed the rouse of anonymity and pretending to be another critic passing by. I realised in time the need to back off and focus on the wonderful pieces contributed by the others. I'm amazed at the variety of what we produced.
Amity will you submit another in the second round?
Yes exactly, it's so enjoyable to have the premise rehashed, mixed around, shuffled and brought to light in new ways. Very fruitful.
Thanks for that. I hope you are intending to write another in the second round. I really enjoyed astronauts. And I thought getting ChatGPT to write one was so clever, I find it interesting that people saw through it as of a different flavour to the rest in general.
Seems for now AI doesn't quite have the edge on organic intelligence.
You have a sensitivity as to what is required. Keep up the good work.
Reading, commenting and discussing stories in the first round was a pleasure.
Even exhilarating at times. Perhaps it was the full moon.
But it exhausts me.
I need to take time out. There's so much else going on.
Not sure that I'm up for a second round. We will see.
Thanks for asking :sparkle:
You're born to do this, Amity. Everybody would be disappointed if you didn't show up.