Date: Fri, 28 Oct 2005 11:57:25 -0700 (PDT)
From: N Lynch <sfbookfan at yahoo.com>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Odd combination...
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>

--- dicconf <dicconf at radix.net> wrote:
> On Thu, 27 Oct 2005, Michael Walsh wrote:
> > Catching up with some back issues of the Times
> Literary Supplement (aka
> > TLS) and there was a letter in the  23 September
> issue regarding women
> > writers using initials, (like C. L. Moore).
> Letter writer mentions "The
> > Undying Monster" by Jessie Douglas Kerruish.
> Calls it a "classic novel
> > of cryptanalysis and lycanthropy."
> >
> > Cryptanalysis and lycanthropy?
> >
> > Able to break codes only at the full moon?
>
> If it's the same one I'm thinking of, it's not
> really cryptanalysis.  The
> clue to the monster's identity is in a line of
> Archaic (Medievel?) French
> that the protagonists have to puzzle out, but it's
> not encrypted -- just
> obscure.  I guess "a classic novel of etymological
> research and
> lycanthropy" doesn't have the same ring.
>
> -- Dick Eney

It wouldn't surprise me if figuring out an archaic
language was considered to be cryptanalysis.  In the
X-FILES, information that was in a language other than
English was routinely considered "encrypted" - which
is totally wrong.

Nicki

"The man who enters a library is in the best society this world affords; the good and the great welcome him, surround him, and humbly ask to be allowed to become his servants."  -Andrew Carnegie
=====
MIMOSA web site: http://www.jophan.org/mimosa

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