pymesomake 0.2.2

An implementation of the mesostic generation algorithm Andrew Culver developed for John Cage.

PyMesomake

PyMesomake is a Python 3 implementation of the mesostic generation algorithm Andrew Culver developed for John Cage.

Installation

Windows

I only use Windows for testing in my projects but these instructions work for me on a vanilla Windows 10 VirtualBox virtual machine:

0. If you don't already have Python on your system download and install the current release from python.org.

1. Open a Command Prompt.

2. Run this command.

pip install pymesomake

3. Download the punkt tokenizer from Python's Natural Language Tool Kit.

python -m nltk.downloader punkt

4. Download this file, containing the text of Genesis.

5. Run this command, making sure to provide the correct path to the downloaded Genesis text.

python -m pymesomake --sourcefile=Downloads\genesis.txt --mesostring="these are the times that try men's souls"

You should see a mesostic on your screen. Congratulations.

MacOS

coming soon

Linux

coming soon

Usage

python pymesomake --sourcefile='data/genesis.txt' --mesostring="these are the times that try men's souls"

Acknowledgements & Resources

Andrew Culver

• post to silence mailing list that inspired this code
• compilation of computer programs used by John Cage

The Holy See

• source of Genesis text. HTML source subjected to these minimal edits:
  • removal of page navigation elements
  • removal of chapter headings (e.g., "Chapter 6") and line numbering (e.g., "[1:30]")

Marjorie Perloff contextual essays

• John Cage Conceptualist Poet
• The Music of Verbal Space: John Cage’s “What You Say”

Reminder to Maintainer

Publish thusly:

python setup.py sdist bdist_wheel
twine upload dist/*