Three Things: Animal Tracks Edition

Time for another imaginary word from Gershgoren’s The Extended Words. Today’s selection:

MEMEMEM /mə-mem’-əm/ n. 1. Bird prints as written language. “This strange dialect of mememem could be read only after the birds had left the beach for the evening, read by moonlight, forward and backward and forward and backward, monotonously.” Sounds of Moon and Surf. Amity Stills, 1938.  2. Intergalactic shorthand. “It was an obscure mememem, partially effaced through an imperfect transmission and a still more imperfect translation.” Listening for the Beyond. Shaker Lee Manaman. 1980.

I’ve decided to forgo the obvious sandy print images, and instead select three pieces of mememem in the act of being written. Not on a beach, per se, and not solely bird-writers; nevertheless, in each case there will be prints left behind for someone to puzzle over and attempt to narrate. Lots of ’em.

Lori Nix, Dodo, from Unnatural History, 2009. Photograph. www.lorinix.net

Sandy Skoglund, Fox Games, 1989. Photograph. www.sandyskoglund.com

Sarolta Bán, Untitled, 2009. Digitally manipulated photograph. www.saroltaban.com

P.S. Have you checked out the Holiday Sale yet?