0312: "With Apologies to Robert Frost"

[ShadowLurker]

Alt-text: "Some say the world will end in fire; some say in segfaults."

Not another segfault reference! this one was pretty... random?
maybe i just didn't get it

i wonder what the background of the poem is supposed to kinda look like

[MissingDividends]

Not another segfault reference! this one was pretty... random?
maybe i just didn't get it

That would be a reference to Fire and Ice (by Robert Frost).
Edit - Wiki Link for Convenience

[Euanthes]

Funny.

If more poetry were like that, I think I would get better grades in english.

[OfficiallyHaphazard]

L L
!!!!!!

[podbaydoor]

Fire and Ice is my favorite (non-humorous) poem ever, hands-down. Nothing Gold Can Stay is pretty cool, too, but Fire and Ice is so simple and clear.

That said, this is a pretty ingenious rewrite.

[The_Toad]

lol we were just arguing over if the universe was written in lisp or perl in IRC... and I came here to find the other one (http://xkcd.com/224/) and saw this... lol'd hard

[MissingDividends]

Fire and Ice is my favorite (non-humorous) poem ever, hands-down. Nothing Gold Can Stay is pretty cool, too, but Fire and Ice is so simple and clear.

That said, this is a pretty ingenious rewrite.

Yeah, Frost is definitely one of the best (if not the best) non-humorous poets.

[mrorange]

i love the subtle close paren at the end of the universe on the lower right of the panel

[Lyra Ngalia]

Fire and Ice is my favorite (non-humorous) poem ever, hands-down. Nothing Gold Can Stay is pretty cool, too, but Fire and Ice is so simple and clear.

That said, this is a pretty ingenious rewrite.

"Fire and Ice" is one of my favorites too, and Randall really got the rhyme scheme down, though I find the use of "myth" as the ending word on that line a little out of place.

Have to admit, I'd be curious to see where he could go with "The Road Not Taken".

[skyo]

I love it! Go Lisp!
(My roommate's in the perl camp though)

[Lemm]

this, as poster = win.

i'd buy a poster of this in a heartbeat.

[Mighty Jalapeno]

Yay, LISP! I always knew it would end the Universe one day...

[Cabhan]

I was a little saddened to see Munroe take such a step backward from "Lisp". Perl will rise again!

On a second note, I did send this to one of my Lisp/Scheme loving professors, who I am sure will love it.

And the presence of that "close-paren" rocked the comic.

[Bakemaster]

I agree with Lemm that this comic is particularly posterizable.

[MissingDividends]

I agree with Lemm that this comic is particularly posterizable.

I'd get one as well, but for now I'll have to settle for 8.5x11.

[jtin]

I haven't been so fond of recent comics, but this one... awesome!

[Solt]

Is it a reference to how much the fact that the universe seems to be infinite confuses us? Because that was hilarious.

[Domovoi]

Fire and Ice is my favorite (non-humorous) poem ever, hands-down. Nothing Gold Can Stay is pretty cool, too, but Fire and Ice is so simple and clear.

That said, this is a pretty ingenious rewrite.

"Fire and Ice" is one of my favorites too, and Randall really got the rhyme scheme down, though I find the use of "myth" as the ending word on that line a little out of place.

For some reason, I don't particularly like Fire and Ice, for the sole reason that the scheme feels so clunky to me. ABAABCBCB. It feels to random for me. I love the meter, though, especially the way it tapers off at the end.

My personal favorite is Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening. For reasons unknown to me, perhaps because it feels sort of uncanny.

[TheKhakinator]

I agree with Lemm that this comic is particularly posterizable.

It's not posterizable at all, as it's already in the minimum number of colours - 2.

I'm referring to the posterising filter in image editing, hehe! I used it to make my avatar, dontchaknow.

[Chromana]

I'm not codewriter or anything so can someone explain the significance of the )? Does it mean that the code or whatever has an end?

[Unforgiven]

Everyone knows that *real* Gods create universes in assembly.

[gambit411]

I'm not codewriter or anything so can someone explain the significance of the )? Does it mean that the code or whatever has an end?

According to Wikipedia, "The use of parentheses is Lisp's most immediately obvious difference from other programming language families. As a result, students have long given Lisp nicknames such as "Lots of Irritating Superfluous Parentheses"


I read it like this: The god of the poem, knowing both Perl and Lisp, wrote the world in Perl, but dislikes the "disappointing founding myth (probably the Parable of the Pearl in Matthew for which, according to Wikipedia, Perl was named)" and should the world need to be rewritten, would do it in Lisp.

The original poem, Fire and Ice, was about how the world would end, but the closing paren isn't causing the end of the world in this poem. Rather, it's the distinctive feature of the language in which the world would be written.

[TheKhakinator]

Everyone knows that *real* Gods create universes in assembly.

Everyone knows that *real* Gods run their universes on the 6502. Sound provided by the ever-loved SID, of course.

[madjo]

just this morning I listened to an interview on Buzz Out Loud with Nick Bostrom on that we might be living in a simulation already. And now we have xkcd surmising that the universe was created in Perl or Lisp.

So, it must be true, if two separate entities talk about it, on teh internets no less, it MUST be true!
We are already living in a sort of matrix, but instead of bodies as batteries, we are just 1s, 0s and maybe's (quantum, you know) in someones computer. (I sure hope that the OS won't cras*KERNEL PANIC*

[shinybaby]

Fire and Ice is my favorite (non-humorous) poem ever, hands-down. Nothing Gold Can Stay is pretty cool, too, but Fire and Ice is so simple and clear.

That said, this is a pretty ingenious rewrite.

i couldn't have said this better myself!!
i've always loved Fire and Ice, and now i think i love it more!!!!

i completely squeeeed when i read this!! thank you Randall!!!
that was a world of awesome.

[glitter]

why is it people feel the need to apologize for parodies? it is unfortunately difficult to figure out what Mr. Frost would have thought of this poem; however, i'd give him the benefit of the doubt and assume that he'd be pretty into it. if on the off chance he wasn't into it, then it's all the more reason not to apologize.

[Sprocket]

Good job, good refrence.....still......you code monkies make me nervous with your allusions to Godliness.

I think Randall feels a need to apologize because he feels he is a bit of a two bit hacker when it comes to poetry and song lyrics. It isn't his field. If I tried to write a computer program and copied the frame work of it from...some...famous....computer....guy..... I'd feel the need to apologize for my sloppy workmanship as well, whether it was or not.

Have you all seen the Holy Tango of Literature?

The premiss is, you take an anagram of an authors name to create a title for a poem and then write the poem with that title in that authors style, often blatantly ripping off one of his or her previous works.

an excerpt.

I WILL ALARM ISLAMIC OWLS
WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS

I will be alarming
the Islamic owls
that are in
the barn

and which
you warned me
are very jittery
and susceptible to loud noises

Forgive me
they see so well in the dark
so feathery
and so dedicated to Allah

I was a little saddened to see Munroe take such a step backward from "Lisp". Perl will rise again!

On a second note, I did send this to one of my Lisp/Scheme loving professors, who I am sure will love it.

And the presence of that "close-paren" rocked the comic.

You take the world a wee bit too serious.

[AtomicLlama]

He would have written the universe in Python, but it wasn't invented yet.

[Jorlem]

I wonder, has everyone else here heard the song God Wrote in LISP. If you haven't, give it a listen. Its the first song on the list. (Also, if you were worried, the website I linked to is run Prometheus Music, which also sells the CDs, so it's ok.)

[circumlocuted]

Speaking of Poems, I guess I should include one of my favorites:

Machines of loving grace, by Richard Brautigan

First heard it in the second grade, and it really sparked my imagination.
I love the almost transhumanist feel of it, and the positive pro-technological message.

I like to think (and
the sooner the better!)
of a cybernetic meadow
where mammels and computers
live together in mutually
programming harmony
like pure water
touching clear sky.

I like to think
(right now, please!)
of a cybernetic forest
filled with pines and electronics
where deer stroll peacefully
past computers
as if they were flowers
with spinning blossoms.

I like to think
(it has to be!)
of a cybernetic ecology
where we are free of our labors
and joined back to nature,
returned to our mammal
brothers and sisters,
and all watched over
by machines of loving grace.

[TheKhakinator]

I wonder, has everyone else here heard the song God Wrote in LISP. If you haven't, give it a listen. Its the first song on the list. (Also, if you were worried, the website I linked to is run Prometheus Music, which also sells the CDs, so it's ok.)

Beautiful song.

BUT I LIKE C++.

I once used Scheme to write a script-fu script for the gimp. I felt good.

[space_raptor]

I wish I was more familiar with Perl and Lisp, as this doesn't quite resonate with me as it seems to have with others.

[evilbeanfiend]

He would have written the universe in Python, but it wasn't invented yet.

wouldn't python be the scripting language that lucifer uses to tempt eve into picking an apple (or possibly the apple is a metaphor for trying to intercept secure communications between alice and bob)

[gormster]

God would have wrought the universe in Obj-C, but even He couldn't figure it out.

What the fuck? Object notation using square brackets?

Also my sig is more appropriate than ever.

[jc]

Everyone knows that *real* Gods create universes in assembly.

I've always liked the conjecture that black holes are the places where the universe (or God, aka the processor that runs the universe) divides by zero.

[Leliel]

<3 this comic.
I'm in the PERL camp and lol'd when I hit the alt-text.


This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a ! but a parens?

[bookishbunny]

I love interdisciplinary stuff!

[okvol]

Everyone knows that *real* Gods create universes in assembly.

Everyone knows that *real* Gods run their universes on the 6502. Sound provided by the ever-loved SID, of course.

Those are just micro-deities. Try 36 bit IBM System/370 for a real deity. I've still got a green-card (which is yellow for a 370) in my desk.

[the_nexus_p]

why is it people feel the need to apologize for parodies? it is unfortunately difficult to figure out what Mr. Frost would have thought of this poem; however, i'd give him the benefit of the doubt and assume that he'd be pretty into it. if on the off chance he wasn't into it, then it's all the more reason not to apologize.

It's just a convenient way to point out what the parody is a parody of.

[okvol]

Everyone knows that *real* Gods create universes in assembly.

I've always liked the conjecture that black holes are the places where the universe (or God, aka the processor that runs the universe) divides by zero.

Read the short story "The Last Question" by Asimov.

And, God writes in machine code, in binary, like real programmers once did. For that matter, that is his native language. No wonder we humans have such a hard time understanding God!