{"id":620300,"date":"2023-03-21T09:49:06","date_gmt":"2023-03-21T14:49:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.sellorbuyhomefast.com\/index.php\/2023\/03\/21\/mits-barry-duncan-demonstrates-the-power-of-writing-in-reverse\/"},"modified":"2023-03-21T09:49:06","modified_gmt":"2023-03-21T14:49:06","slug":"mits-barry-duncan-demonstrates-the-power-of-writing-in-reverse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2023\/03\/21\/mits-barry-duncan-demonstrates-the-power-of-writing-in-reverse\/","title":{"rendered":"MIT\u2019s Barry Duncan demonstrates the power of writing in reverse"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Words have always played a central role in Barry Duncan\u2019s life. He\u2019s worked in bookstores for more than 40 years, reads often, and has tried his hand at writing novels, children\u2019s books, song lyrics, and plays.<\/p>\n

But it wasn\u2019t until he stumbled onto the book \u201cAn Almanac of Words at Play\u201d that Duncan realized words could go backwards. The discovery, which he made in the early 1980s, set him on a course he would follow for decades. For fun, and then out of habit, he began reversing words he saw in print, noticing words that took on new meaning when flipped, and writing sentences that could be read backward and forward \u2014 palindromes.<\/p>\n

Today Duncan, who works as a staff member at the MIT Press Bookstore in Kendall Square, has developed a reputation as a professional palindromist. His creations have been featured in galleries, selected anthologies, and are the subject of an upcoming documentary. He\u2019s written 800-word epics that don\u2019t lose their meaning when flipped. He\u2019s written reversible poems and tributes that were used as auction prizes. And he\u2019s written countless palindromes to serve as gifts for birthdays, anniversaries, and other occasions.<\/p>\n

Mostly, though, Duncan just writes palindromes for fun.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope it gives people an idea of what can be accomplished in two directions,\u201d he says. \u201cOf course, I also hope that people will appreciate them. It\u2019s always better if the person or organization for whom you\u2019ve written a palindrome replies in a positive way. \u201c<\/p>\n

As palindromes have come to define him, Duncan hopes to move the ancient field into the mainstream and show people what\u2019s possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thing I really want to do is establish palindrome writing as a literary form, to show people you can write palindromes that are beautiful and funny and factual and have real literary merit,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\n

Writing in two directions<\/strong><\/p>\n

Duncan discovered a love for words while growing up in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. He began his first job at a bookstore in Philadelphia in 1979, and he\u2019s continued to work in bookstores on and off ever since.<\/p>\n

Before inventory was computerized, Duncan\u2019s sharp memory for titles and authors served him well. Even as memorization became less of a necessity, Duncan grew to love the atmosphere.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always great to work in bookstores,\u201d he says. \u201cYou work with clever, talented people, you meet wonderful customers,\u201d he says. \u201cWhen I left my first bookstore job in 1981 I thought, \u2018I don\u2019t need to do that again,\u2019 and now I\u2019ve done hardly anything but that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Something similar happened to Duncan when he discovered palindromes. He found the writing form interesting, but he didn\u2019t think much else about it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d see a word and maybe reverse it, but it hadn\u2019t occurred to me that you could tell a story or write about something that actually happened,\u201d Duncan says. \u201cOr you could read a headline and say, \u2018I\u2019ll write something about that.\u2019 I just didn\u2019t realize it could be done.\u201d<\/p>\n

Duncan\u2019s passion for palindromes grew gradually. In 2008, he wrote a palindrome about the presidential election. Two years later, friends of his who owned the store Greenward in Cambridge\u2019s Porter Square asked him to write a palindrome in honor of its third birthday. That palindrome ended up in \u201cThe Best American Nonrequired Reading of 2012.<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI suddenly started to see things more clearly in two directions,\u201d he says. \u201cI started to write things that got better and better and more like normal writing, more like speech. I started to see I could do something a little more sophisticated than just putting together some kind of clumsy sentence.\u201d<\/p>\n

The work began to fulfill in him a lifelong passion for writing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhereas before I tried my hand at novels and plays and songs, now this is the thing I do: I write in two directions,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Since hitting his stride, Duncan has taken to carrying a black pen and legal pad with him wherever he goes. To begin, he writes the letters of the alphabet on the top of the page. He\u2019s had ideas on the train, at work, and on walks, but his preferred mode of writing is lying on his couch, his legal pad resting on his head and the letters swirling around in his mind.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I see is the middle of the palindrome first,\u201d Duncan says. \u201cYou also have to think about vocabulary. You want something that sounds as much like normal language as possible, and your middle is important, but you don\u2019t want it to be obvious that that\u2019s where it turns, so you try to create a middle that\u2019s seamless, if possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a palindrome that Duncan wrote to commemorate the recent change of MIT presidents:<\/p>\n

2.<\/p>\n

Dual.<\/p>\n

Is time. Rafael went, so passes.<\/p>\n

Sally\u2019ll assess a post. New leaf.<\/p>\n

Are MIT\u2019s.<\/p>\n

I laud 2.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always tell people if you want to start writing palindromes you should start by reversing every word you say, every word you hear, every word you see, every word you write, then you start to internalize that,\u201d Duncan says.<\/p>\n

Duncan calls anything more than 100 characters a long palindrome. Anything more than 100 words is an epic palindrome. Then there\u2019s the mega palindrome, something Duncan says he\u2019s only done twice \u2014 once with the palindrome about his friend\u2019s store (1,291 characters) and the 800-worder, which served as a dual biography of two colleagues from Harvard University Press bookstore.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like to say that anything anyone can write about in one direction I can write about in two directions,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

At home at MIT<\/strong><\/p>\n

When Duncan came to MIT \u2014 a campus known for its quirky culture \u2014 he says he found a home.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think MIT was a very good place to land,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019m in a fine reversible rhythm, I seem to find a lot to write about, and people seem to appreciate what I do. I love my job and feel like I\u2019m in a very good place.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since coming to the Institute, Duncan has written palindromes for MIT.nano, the MIT Press, the MIT List Visual Arts Center, Tim the Beaver, and the Art, Culture, and Technology program. He\u2019s currently writing a series of palindromes about the MIT Museum.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople don\u2019t see many good palindromes, so it\u2019s a difficult thing to get people interested in,\u201d Duncan says. \u201cI\u2019ll write something and send it to the people I think might appreciate it. I get great joy in writing them. I\u2019ve done things with reversibility that I hope show it to be a little more versatile than you\u2019d think.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some of Duncan\u2019s palindromes have moved people to tears, a reaction he says he\u2019s humbled by.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like that because I\u2019ve always said if I\u2019m reporting facts in a palindrome I want those facts to be accurate and if I\u2019m expressing emotion I want that emotion to be genuine,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

As he advances the craft, Duncan hopes palindromes become a more well-known form of writing \u2014 and maybe more.<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/strong>I\u2019d like people to know that new literary things can be done,\u201d Duncan says. \u201cAnd I think something can be done with reversibility beyond writing palindromes, but I don\u2019t know what exactly. If you could ever solve a problem just with reversible patterns that would be great. But if this is all it is, just writing palindromes, that\u2019s still pretty satisfying to me.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Read More<\/a>
\n Tama Pingree<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Words have always played a central role in Barry Duncan\u2019s life. He\u2019s worked in bookstores for more than 40 years, reads often, and has tried his hand at writing novels, children\u2019s books, song lyrics, and plays. But it wasn\u2019t until he stumbled onto the book \u201cAn Almanac of Words at Play\u201d that Duncan realized words<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":620301,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27397,1124,46],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-620300","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-barry","8":"category-mits","9":"category-technology"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620300","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=620300"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620300\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/620301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=620300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=620300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=620300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}