Robert (gurdonark) wrote,
Robert
gurdonark

The Mata Hari Project

I salute, applaud and linger over the latest LiveJournal exercise, the Johari, along with its not-quite-polar not-quite-opposite Nohari.

I have filled out several in the past few days, and it's amazing how many nice things I could say about each of you, if only they had boxes for the things I want to say and not boxes for the things they want to say. I am amazed at how no matter how many I fill out, I find I neglected to do 10 more.

I lost my snob factor about polls, quizes and commonplaces about the same time I realized that it's okay to think about what went on at in the land of Oz after the books came to an end, and even okay to remember the good old days when sitcoms were funny and the networks ran the news as journalism.

Still, I propose that if any of you are interested, you might participate in a meme variant called the Mata Hari
Project. I've always found the historical Mata Hari rather a drab study in drab studiousness. She's rather a sad story, I think, and a bit overdone. I constantly note that the one out of 25 LiveJournal posts contains more intrigue, smoldering smolderousness and rampant slithy tovishness than any dozen wine-stained lives of debauchery drawn from the pages of history--and that's true even though I find that I tend to read the tamer journals.

But I like the idea of mystery--of spy stuff, of personal ads which make no sense to anyone but the sender, and perhaps a recipient. I like the idea of coded messages which are in fact grocery lists, and grocery lists which are in fact hieroglyphics from ancient Abysinnia.

Would you like to join the Mata Hari Project? Here's how.

Type in five words or phrases with reference to me in the comment space. But here are the Secret Spy Rules:

1. No adjectives.
2. No simple praise or denigration
3. Be cryptic
4. speak in a code only you and I might understand--if you must choose between me and a third party understanding and nobody understanding, then choose nobody
5. Make your words and phrases seem entirely like non-sequiturs, but if I did understand them--which I probably won't--then they'd be really cool.

Like all Great Science, the Mata Hari Project has a grand design. Unlike the Ohari and the Nohari, which test how well the subject perceives himself/herself as compared to the opinions of others, the Mata Hari Project seeks to
create a new identity for the subject (who would, by the way, be me) comprised entirely of the inscrutable, the
odd, and the oddly delightful. The idea is that the subject (again, me) is entirely clueless, and you are leaving impossible to decipher clues. It's not really an exercise in Dada. It's more like Elmer's Glue for the soul.

Try not to read others' answers as you compose your own. Thank you for playing.

Do you have the secret code?
Subscribe

  • Al Stewart Friday

    Friday night we drove to Dallas to see the Al Stewart concert. We arrived early enough to be able to park in its 8 dollar parking lot. The Grenada…

  • Change of Weather

    After a day or two of record high temperatures, we got some chilly, breezy and wet weather. Tonight after work we go to the Grenada Theater. I hope…

  • Paging Spencer Atwill

    I had a dream in which I was driving on a superhighway in the American South. I stopped when I saw some boxes off the road. They turned out to be…

  • Post a new comment

    Error

    Anonymous comments are disabled in this journal

    default userpic

    Your reply will be screened

    Your IP address will be recorded 

  • 18 comments

  • Al Stewart Friday

    Friday night we drove to Dallas to see the Al Stewart concert. We arrived early enough to be able to park in its 8 dollar parking lot. The Grenada…

  • Change of Weather

    After a day or two of record high temperatures, we got some chilly, breezy and wet weather. Tonight after work we go to the Grenada Theater. I hope…

  • Paging Spencer Atwill

    I had a dream in which I was driving on a superhighway in the American South. I stopped when I saw some boxes off the road. They turned out to be…