Assignment # 2

Write a program that reads in and creatively re-arranges the content of one or more source texts. What is the unit of your cut-up technique? (the word, the line, the character? something else?) How does your procedure relate (if at all) to your choice of source text? Feel free to build on your assignment from last week. Your program must make use of at least one set, dictionary, or list.

Idea

Since next class we'll be talking about OuLiPo, I decided to write a python program that randomly grabs sentences from a dictionary that has 14 lists comprised by 10 lines each. This is the basis of the book Cent mille milliards de poèmes (A Hundred Thousand Billion Poems) by French poet and novelist, Raymond Queneau.

Process

The program displays 14 sentences out of 140 lines. From a mathematical perspective, if we multiply 14 times 10 (10x10x10x10x10x10x10x10x10x10x10x10x10x10) we'll obtain a beautiful large number: 100.000.000.000.000 (one hunded billion). In short,  10¹⁴ 
After a tedious search, I found a couple of english translations of Queneau's sentences. One of the versions looked like it was translated using an old french-english computer translator. I employed  Google Translator  to translate and verify the last group of lines. The differences were remarkable.
Additionally, I assigned a number to each line of each list. Hence, when running the program the user will recognize not only the selected random sentences, but also the number of the outputted    combination.

Code
Results

9 One's left with only sorrow and disease
4 He's cast out like a snobby Romeo
5 He'd much to learn despite his four degrees
0 So stink the rotting skins from long ago
1 The Parthenon horse is shivering in the bise
7 The mob demands that verse be comme il faut
8 Mixing broom with chives shows expertise
8 But offering kids a sweetie that's no-no
2 The inspired poet isn't polyglot
8 In his brain one tongue is all he's got
2 While coming home we find the wind turned mean
1 Its famous sculptures founder on a rock
0 The Spanish language tickles the ear baroque
1 If Europe wants Europe or its fate

Combination: 94.501.788.282.101

10 One's left with only sorrow and disease
5 Enough to spur on any picaro
6 It's finding out that's likely to displease
0 So stink the rotting skins from long ago
8 The Papuan sucks his friend's apophyses
0 The gauchos waving flags bravissimo
6 A brother even low is the proportion undecided
7 Most people like to read the words they know
6 Milord has lisped from Malibar to Swat
3 The shark is smoked on beds of bergamot
4 You can't quote Virgil in a limousine
8 We've all downed plonk from Calais to Bangkok
8 At meetings nibble nuts and watch the clock
1 If Europe wants Europe or its fate

Combination: 105.608.067.634.881

Further experimentation

By typing
python randomize_queneau.py | tr aeiou uoiae
you can get  "gracious" outputs such as

1 King Curlas terns his caut far bottor foos
0 And sloovos uro wruppod raend harns af beffula
2 Tho chason freit  is heod u bright coriso
2 All dering Lont ano freit's tho rutia
9 Yae got liko dirty gaads an besy qeuys
0 Tho guechas wuving flugs bruvissima
1 Tho flunks pratoctod by chovuex do friso
0 Ta puss tho timo wo stugo u littlo shaw
2 Tho inspirod paot isn't palyglat
4 At Chundrigur tho pousunt sniffs tho pat
5 Munero nat slesh bosmirchod his guburdino
1 Its fumaes scelpteros faendor an u rack
6 I qeito fargivo yae whon yae ren umak
2 Sa wo uro caesins naw ta king buloon 

Resources

http://www.bevrowe.info/Queneau/
http://math.child.ru/otdohni/chitalka/TBO/Queneau.htm
http://www.growndodo.com/wordplay/oulipo/10%5e14sonnets.html
http://x42.com/active/queneau.html
http://www.decontextualize.com/teaching/rwet/functions-and-modules/

Printed version (in Spanish)

#python few constrains, endless permutations