Fluxus Editions

Abstract. This article studies how writing has been employed to pass subliminal messages not present in the spoken language, and how readers have searched for such secret messages.
The text illustrates how the intrinsic properties of both open and closed writing systems were used to create a magic of writing. It analyses examples from 1st millennium BC cuneiform acrostics to arcane readings of kanji in contemporary Japanese popular culture to show how writing is used as a non-linguistic system to encode and decipher messages.

References References in BIB How to cite How to cite in BIB

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: Gordon, Cyrus H. (1937). “The Aramaic Incantation in Cuneiform.” In: Archiv für Orientforschung 12, pp. 105–117.
: Idel, Moshe (1988). “Ramon Lull and Ecstatic Kabbalah: A Preliminary Observation.” In: Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 51, pp. 170–174.
: Itamura, Tomoyuki (2009). まよいマイマイ其ノ壹 [Mayoi Snail, Part One].
: Knohl, Israel (2012). “Sacred Architecture: The Numerical Dimensions of Biblical Poems.” In: Vetus Testamentum 62.2, pp. 189–197. url: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41583730.
: Kurzweil, Arthur (2007). Kabbalah for dummies. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley Pub.
: Küster, Marc Wilhelm (2006). Geordnetes Weltbild. Tübingen: Niemeyer.
: _____________ (2019). “Open and Closed Writing Systems. Some Reflections.” In: Proceedings of Graphemics in the 21st Century, Brest 2018. Ed. by Yannis Haralambous. Brest: Fluxus Editions, pp. 17–26.
: Lambert, Wilfred G. (1960). Babylonian Wisdom Literature. 1st ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
: _____________ (1996). Babylonian Wisdom Literature. 2nd ed. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns.
: Le Guin, Ursula (2012). The Earthsea quartet. London: Viking.
: Lieberman, Stephen J. (1987). “A Mesopotamian Background for the So-Called Aggadic ’Measures’ of Biblical Hermeneutics?” In: Hebrew Union College Annual 58, pp. 157–225.
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: Nishio, Ishin (2006). Monster Tale. Vol. 1. Bakemonogatari. Tokyo: Kodansha.
: Nissen, Hans J. (1981). “Bemerkungen zur Listenliteratur Vorderasiens im 3. Jahrtausend (gesehen von den Archaischen Texten von Uruk).” In: La lingua di Ebla. Atti del convegno internazionale (Napoli, 21-23 aprile 1980). Ed. by Luigi Cagni. Napoli, pp. 99–108.
: Pearce, Laurie E. (1996). “The Number-Syllabary Texts.” In: Journal of the American Oriental Society 116.3, pp. 453–474.
: Reader, Ian (1991). “Letters to the Gods: The Form and Meaning of Ema.” In: Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 18.1, pp. 24–50.
: Soll, William Michael (1988). “Babylonian and Biblical Acrostics.” In: Biblica 69.3, pp. 305–323.
: Sweet, R. F. G. (1969). “A pair of Double Acrostics in Akkadian.” In: Orientalia 38.3, pp. 459–460.
: Watson, Wilfred G. E. (1982). “Trends in the development of classical Hebrew poetry. A comparative study.” In: Ugarit-Forschungen 14, pp. 265–277.
: _____________ (1986). Classical Hebrew poetry—a guide to its techniques. Journal for the study of the Old Testament. Sheffield: JSOT Press.
: Whitley, David (2009). Cave paintings and the human spirit: the origin of creativity and belief. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books.

@BOOK{adachi14_norag,
   AUTHOR = {Adachi, Toka},
   TITLE = {Noragami: stray god},
   PUBLISHER = {Kodansha},
   ADDRESS = {New York},
   YEAR = {2014},
}

@ARTICLE{10.5749/mech.9.2014.0217,
   AUTHOR = {Andrews, Dale K.},
   TITLE = {Genesis at the Shrine: The Votive Art of an Anime Pilgrimage},
   JOURNAL = {Mechademia},
   PUBLISHER = {University of Minnesota Press},
   YEAR = {2014},
   VOLUME = {9},
   PAGES = {217--233},
}

@ARTICLE{Brug2010,
   AUTHOR = {Brug, John},
   TITLE = {Near Eastern Acrostics And Biblical Acrostics Biblical Acrostics And Their Relationship To Other Ancient Near Eastern Acrostics},
   YEAR = {2010},
   URL = {https://essays.wls.wels.net/bitstream/handle/123456789/856/BrugAcrostics.pdf},
}

@ARTICLE{10.2307/23294662,
   AUTHOR = {Contenau, G.},
   TITLE = {Notes d'iconographie religieuse assyrienne},
   JOURNAL = {Revue d'assyriologie et d'archéologie orientale},
   PUBLISHER = {Presses Universitaires de France},
   YEAR = {1940},
   VOLUME = {37},
   NUMBER = {4},
   PAGES = {154--170},
   URL = {http://www.jstor.org/stable/23294662},
}

@BOOK{davies09_grimoir,
   AUTHOR = {Davies, Owen},
   TITLE = {Grimoires: a history of magic books},
   PUBLISHER = {Oxford University Press},
   ADDRESS = {Oxford New York},
   YEAR = {2009},
}

@BOOK{englund_lexikalischen_1993,
   AUTHOR = {Englund, R.~K and Nissen, H.~J and Damerow, P. and Baghdad, Deutsches Archäologisches Institut. Abteilung},
   TITLE = {Die lexikalischen Listen der archaischen Texte aus Uruk:},
   SERIES = {Archaische Texte aus Uruk},
   PUBLISHER = {Gebr. Mann},
   YEAR = {1993},
   URL = {http://books.google.com/books?id=q6aFQgAACAAJ},
}

@ARTICLE{Frahm2005,
   AUTHOR = {Frahm, Eckart},
   TITLE = {44 Observations on the Name and Age of Sargon II and on Some Patterns of Assyrian Royal Onomastics},
   JOURNAL = {Nouvelles Assyriologiques Brèves et Utilitaires},
   YEAR = {2005},
   NUMBER = {2},
}

@BOOK{frazer1922,
   AUTHOR = {Frazer, James George},
   TITLE = {The Golden Bough: a study of magic and religion},
   PUBLISHER = {Macmillan and Co.},
   ADDRESS = {London},
   YEAR = {1890},
}

@ARTICLE{10.2307/41680312,
   AUTHOR = {Gordon, Cyrus H.},
   TITLE = {The Aramaic Incantation in Cuneiform},
   JOURNAL = {Archiv für Orientforschung},
   PUBLISHER = {Archiv für Orientforschung (AfO)/Institut für Orientalistik},
   YEAR = {1937},
   VOLUME = {12},
   PAGES = {105--117},
}

@ARTICLE{10.2307/751269,
   AUTHOR = {Idel, Moshe},
   TITLE = {Ramon Lull and Ecstatic Kabbalah: A Preliminary Observation},
   JOURNAL = {Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes},
   PUBLISHER = {Warburg Institute},
   YEAR = {1988},
   VOLUME = {51},
   PAGES = {170--174},
}

@MOVIE{bakemonogatari_03_2009,
   AUTHOR = {Itamura, Tomoyuki},
   AUTHOR_ORIGINAL = {板村智幸},
   AUTHOR_ORIGINAL+AN = {ja-Jpan},
   TITLE = {{\japanese まよいマイマイ 其ノ壹} [Mayoi Snail, Part One]},
   PUBLISHER = {{\japanese 株式会社スタジオジブリ} [Studio Ghibli]},
   YEAR = {2009},
}

@ARTICLE{10.2307/41583730,
   AUTHOR = {Knohl, Israel},
   TITLE = {Sacred Architecture: The Numerical Dimensions of Biblical Poems},
   JOURNAL = {Vetus Testamentum},
   PUBLISHER = {BRILL},
   YEAR = {2012},
   VOLUME = {62},
   NUMBER = {2},
   PAGES = {189--197},
   URL = {http://www.jstor.org/stable/41583730},
}

@BOOK{kurzweil07_kabbal,
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}

@BOOK{kuester_geordnetes_2006,
   AUTHOR = {Küster, Marc Wilhelm},
   TITLE = {Geordnetes Weltbild},
   PUBLISHER = {Niemeyer},
   ADDRESS = {Tübingen},
   YEAR = {2006},
}

@INPROCEEDINGS{gla1-kues,
   AUTHOR = {Küster, Marc Wilhelm},
   EDITOR = {Haralambous, Yannis},
   TITLE = {Open and Closed Writing Systems. Some Reflections},
   BOOKTITLE = {{Proceedings of Graphemics in the 21st Century, Brest 2018}},
   PUBLISHER = {Fluxus Editions},
   ADDRESS = {Brest},
   YEAR = {2019},
   PAGES = {17--26},
}

@BOOK{Lambert1960,
   AUTHOR = {Lambert, Wilfred G.},
   TITLE = {Babylonian Wisdom Literature},
   EDITION = {1},
   PUBLISHER = {Clarendon Press},
   ADDRESS = {Oxford},
   YEAR = {1960},
}

@BOOK{Lambert1996,
   AUTHOR = {Lambert, Wilfred G.},
   TITLE = {Babylonian Wisdom Literature},
   EDITION = {2},
   PUBLISHER = {Eisenbrauns},
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   YEAR = {1996},
}

@BOOK{guin2012the,
   AUTHOR = {Le Guin, Ursula},
   TITLE = {The Earthsea quartet},
   PUBLISHER = {Viking},
   ADDRESS = {London},
   YEAR = {2012},
}

@ARTICLE{10.2307/23508256,
   AUTHOR = {Lieberman, Stephen J.},
   TITLE = {A Mesopotamian Background for the So-Called Aggadic 'Measures' of Biblical Hermeneutics?},
   JOURNAL = {Hebrew Union College Annual},
   PUBLISHER = {Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion},
   YEAR = {1987},
   VOLUME = {58},
   PAGES = {157--225},
}

@BOOK{lyon1883cylinder,
   AUTHOR = {Lyon, David Gordon},
   TITLE = {Die Cylinder-Inschrift Sargons II in transscribirtem assyrischem Grundtext mit {Ü}bersetzung und Commentar},
   PUBLISHER = {Hundertstund \& Pries},
   YEAR = {1882},
}

@BOOK{Lyon1883,
   AUTHOR = {Lyon, David Gordon},
   TITLE = {Keilschrifttexte Sargon's Königs von Assyrien (722-705 v. CHR.), nach den Originalen neu hrsg., umschrieben, übersetzt und erklärt},
   PUBLISHER = {Hinrichs},
   YEAR = {1883},
}

@BOOK{spirited_away_2001,
   AUTHOR = {Miyazaki, Hayao},
   AUTHOR_ORIGINAL = {宮崎駿},
   AUTHOR_ORIGINAL+AN = {ja-Jpan},
   TITLE = {{\japanese 千と千尋の神隠し} [Spirited Away]},
   PUBLISHER = {{\japanese 株式会社スタジオジブリ} [Studio Ghibli]},
   YEAR = {2001},
}

@BOOK{nishio06_bakem,
   AUTHOR = {Nishio, Ishin},
   TITLE = {Monster Tale},
   SERIES = {Bakemonogatari},
   PUBLISHER = {Kodansha},
   ADDRESS = {Tokyo},
   YEAR = {2006},
   VOLUME = {1},
}

@INPROCEEDINGS{Nissen81,
   AUTHOR = {Nissen, Hans J.},
   EDITOR = {Cagni, Luigi},
   TITLE = {Bemerkungen zur Listenliteratur Vorderasiens im 3. Jahrtausend (gesehen von den Archaischen Texten von Uruk)},
   BOOKTITLE = {La lingua di Ebla. Atti del convegno internazionale (Napoli, 21-23 aprile 1980)},
   ADDRESS = {Napoli},
   YEAR = {1981},
   PAGES = {99--108},
}

@ARTICLE{10.2307/605148,
   AUTHOR = {Pearce, Laurie E.},
   TITLE = {The Number-Syllabary Texts},
   JOURNAL = {Journal of the American Oriental Society},
   PUBLISHER = {American Oriental Society},
   YEAR = {1996},
   VOLUME = {116},
   NUMBER = {3},
   PAGES = {453--474},
}

@ARTICLE{10.2307/30233428,
   AUTHOR = {Reader, Ian},
   TITLE = {Letters to the Gods: The Form and Meaning of Ema},
   JOURNAL = {Japanese Journal of Religious Studies},
   PUBLISHER = {Nanzan University},
   YEAR = {1991},
   VOLUME = {18},
   NUMBER = {1},
   PAGES = {24--50},
}

@ARTICLE{10.2307/42707419,
   AUTHOR = {Soll, William Michael},
   TITLE = {Babylonian and Biblical Acrostics},
   JOURNAL = {Biblica},
   PUBLISHER = {GBPress- Gregorian Biblical Press},
   YEAR = {1988},
   VOLUME = {69},
   NUMBER = {3},
   PAGES = {305--323},
}

@ARTICLE{10.2307/43074300,
   AUTHOR = {Sweet, R.~F. G.},
   TITLE = {A pair of Double Acrostics in Akkadian},
   JOURNAL = {Orientalia},
   PUBLISHER = {GBPress- Gregorian Biblical Press},
   YEAR = {1969},
   VOLUME = {38},
   NUMBER = {3},
   PAGES = {459--460},
}

@ARTICLE{watson_1982,
   AUTHOR = {Watson, Wilfred G.~E.},
   TITLE = {Trends in the development of classical Hebrew poetry},
   JOURNAL = {Ugarit-Forschungen},
   YEAR = {1982},
   VOLUME = {14},
   PAGES = {265--277},
}

@BOOK{Watson1986,
   AUTHOR = {Watson, Wilfred G.E.},
   TITLE = {Classical Hebrew poetry---a guide to its techniques},
   SERIES = {Journal for the study of the Old Testament},
   PUBLISHER = {JSOT Press},
   ADDRESS = {Sheffield},
   YEAR = {1986},
}

@BOOK{whitley09_cave,
   AUTHOR = {Whitley, David},
   TITLE = {Cave paintings and the human spirit: the origin of creativity and belief},
   PUBLISHER = {Prometheus Books},
   ADDRESS = {Amherst, NY},
   YEAR = {2009},
}

Marc Wilhelm Küster (2020), “Mystic Messages—The Magic of Writing,” in Proceedings of Grapholinguistics in the 21st Century, 2020 (Yannis Haralambous, Ed.), Grapholinguistics and Its Applications, Vol. 5, Brest: Fluxus Editions, 1107–1120.


@INPROCEEDINGS{gla5-kues,
   AUTHOR = {Marc Wilhelm Küster},
   EDITOR = {Haralambous, Yannis},
   TITLE = {{Mystic Messages---The Magic of Writing}},
   BOOKTITLE = {{Proceedings of Grapholinguistics in the 21st Century, 2020}},
   SERIES = {{Grapholinguistics and Its Applications}},
   VOLUME = {5},
   PUBLISHER = {Fluxus Editions},
   ADDRESS = {Brest},
   YEAR = {2020},
   PAGES = {1107--1120},
   DOI = {https://doi.org/10.36824/2020-graf-kues},
}