Week 3 (word count)

G

1,145

3,122

1,209

L

712

1,090

3,499

A

591

1,987

11,377

M

344

856

19,310

 

 

Interpretation of quantitative data: Overall, there has been a steady increase in the volume of written samples in the three-week period. The one exception would be subject G whose output has fallen off from its peak in W2. subject L's output has increased by roughly 5 times, subject A by roughly 19 times, and subject M at an impressive 60 times. I would caution that these increases may be partially due to the drugs, and also due to an increased comfort level and stability, not to mention boredom.

 

Writing samples

subject G: The man was incorrect to say that he dished it out. The other man was incorrect to use impact as a verb. We are bound by duty never to end the sentence with a preposition on pain of internal punishment. The adverb modifies the verb with the -ly ending. Irregular words should be terminated from the language. We are condemned to sentence fragments. [The subject has been exhibiting some very peculiar behaviour. His writing, once somewhat fanciful and literary, has become stiff and schoolmarmish. There was also an incident of note: subject G caught a grammatical error in the Liability Waiver Update Form I distributed this week. He first responded with sudden onset acute abdominal cramping followed by vomiting. In a related event, the subject found another grammatical error in a piece of writing I had mislaid in the common area. He reacted violently by tearing my notes, tossing a chair, and nearly attacking me in a rage. This rather hostile reaction to an innocent grammatical error is a troublesome side effect at the higher level of dosage].

 

subject L: Trebisconded Yttriatic-convivialiquescene Hispandiculatingly Ad paretum non plustfully generatrix Umbraggadocio Umberyl Bittersnipe Excoriandrictaculata-cacomorphicon...[The effects of the Lexium appear to be inducing an aphasic reaction in the subject. In my attempts to communicate with him in person, he resorts solely to a fantastical lexicon composed of mashed up words. When I pressed him to define these inventions of his, the reply was as equally cryptic and impenetrable as the word he endeavoured to define].

 

subject A: The minute cachinnating, polyphonic, resonant yet irreverent counterpoint undulating and sussurating the tremulous vocal dissonance in the syllable she uttered with the slight vibration of the uvula as fine moisture pregnant with the ferrying of sound emerged with ruddy insouciance: “u”, which was then followed by the lilting yet rubicund notation of a syllable perfused with the softening and colourful scent of spring dandelion with its vividly diffuse yellow resolving to its very tips with the sound of “m”...[subject A's output has increased considerably mostly due to hyper-description, extreme vividness, and an almost obsessive compulsive attention to the minutest detail of the brief twitch of a fly's wing in another of his samples. In wending my way through his work (and I ought to say that the increase in textual production is making it more difficult for me to catch up on a weekly basis), I am detecting some crossmodal confusion reminiscent of synaesthesia in his writings. The subject is freely mixing descriptions of colour with sound, scent with taste, and so forth. This particular description from which this sample has been truncated ran no less than 71 pages and was still incomplete when the writing sample came due (much to the protest and disappointment of the subject). When I interviewed the subject the next day during our weekly "rereading session", he rejected the work as not being focused and detailed enough].

 

subject M: Glittering as the rock undertakes to stand as the sun rests on the cloudbed as the sackcloth slung as upon the hard shoulder of time insinuating itself by confiscating its own remainders as the auditor passes the dossier around that is thick-necked as Being metamorphosing into the blank lack-sparks generating the generations of generation... [Nesting metaphors within metaphors at several degrees. subject M cannot refrain from speaking entirely in indecipherable abstractions. He is visibly frustrated that I cannot understand his meaning or the excessively complex level of metaphor he employs].

...

June 16, 2010

 

Committee Members,

 

There is no doubt that the drugs have demonstrated strong indications of effect upon the subjects. What troubles me is that it took considerable efforts to stave off a potential mutiny of sorts.

An incident of note: Subject M experienced extreme panic and agitation when, in the midst of writing, his pen ran out of ink and I could not acquire another one from the supply cabinet. I lent him my own, but this event underscores the necessity for the supply cabinet at this testing facility to be fully stocked with writing implements at all times. As it stands, the four subjects have used up all six boxes of pens initially supplied. If the Controls Guide did not insist on handwritten samples for handwriting analysis purposes, it would be of some utility to allow the subjects to write via computer.

This brings me to the handwriting analysis. As the trials have progressed, I've noted drastic changes in the penmanship of each of the subjects. Whether this is fueled by decreased fine motor coordination due to the drugs' side effects, or if it is the overwhelming urgency and haste that causes them not to be able to get the words down fast enough, remains to be determined.

I am particularly distressed over the extended effects these drugs are having on the subjects. The Committee has denied my request from a medical and safety standpoint to reduce the dosages, but I will reiterate my request in writing here, especially on the basis of the increasing incidences of negative consequences. For example:

 

Subject M: We no longer desire to follow current literary fashion, nor do we feel particularly beholden by implicit oath to the staid rules of linguistics. The limitations of grammar and lexical choice are easily overcome if we subsume a program of an extreme morphological nature. I am communicating this to announce my full intention to wage war against language itself - your language and its limitations - to overturn far too many centuries of indolent and complicit rule-binds that have fostered anything but true innovation. Please see my attached appendix for drastic alterations on the existing alphabet to be implemented immediately, especially by way of elementary school curricula. Failure to appreciate and abide by this and future modifications on language will result in a declaration of a total war which promises to be gruesome, cruel, and of an atrocity hitherto unseen in our civilized history. [The militant and uncompromising tone is followed through with a ruthless yet well-conceived analysis of linguistic conventions and his proposed modifications. Further textual analysis reveals a level of perceived persecution and defensiveness. This corresponds with the subject's argumentative tone he has taken with me and others].

 

June 23, 2010

 

Committee Members,

 

Despite my efforts of insisting on regimental discipline and providing a stable environment for these trials, the situation has become more chaotic. Regularly imposed schedules for eating, sleeping, and writing have been ritually flouted by the subjects, some of whom I fear are entering into a state of incomprehensibility, disorientation, and catatonia. Subject L barely seems capable of basic social interaction, and does not seem to register the passage of days. The writing samples they are obligated to provide have not been submitted, yet many of the subjects do nothing else but write. There seems to be an atmosphere of secrecy at the facility, and the subjects are becoming increasingly covetous and secretive over their own productions. What I was able to see in passing being written by subject A has been nothing but glyptolalia. During a rare observance of the regularly scheduled meal times, subject M attempted to spark a dispute with me on linguistic matters I find myself wholly ignorant. And, although I have not seen subject L recover from his vocabulary collapse, he seems to desire to express himself as evidenced by this same mealtime when with a childlike interest began doodling upon my arm with a felt tip pen. Subject L has regressed to a point of having no recognizable language whatsoever, and is seemingly developing a rudimentary sign system to express his thoughts and feelings. Subject G has pushed his own linguistic purification schema to such an extreme that he refuses to speak or write (that I am aware of). I have on many occasions had to intervene to prevent subject M's provocations of subject G on the subject of grammar and its “superfluous archaicism, and structural irrelevance to human expression.” This interventions have been met by hostility, and I nearly avoided subject M's attempt to stab me with a pen.

One of our staff who is responsible for administering the daily dosages has threatened to quit unless conditions improve and more security is available to protect the staff from potential harm. I would strongly urge the Committee to consider the needs of this facility more keenly and give our requests their due diligence.

 

 

June 30, 2010

 

Committee Members,

 

We must abort these trials immediately. I cannot, in good conscience, allow these tests to continue without violating the principles of medical ethics and basic human decency. I have attempted to discontinue treatment as per Emergency Protocols, but this has resulted in a violent reaction. The drugs' effects are completely out of control, and I fear for the mental and physical well-being of the subjects – not to mention the safety and security of myself and the staff of this facility. My repeated requests have been either denied or ignored, and the controls have been so frequently abused that the empirical data has very little consistent reliability to make any substantial conclusions. The experiment itself is in as much jeopardy as the well-being of all involved.

 

July 7, 2010

 

Committee Members,

 

Subject M's conclusions are by far the most interesting this week. It would seem that he has knowledge of the intended effects of the drugs that far exceed expectation. I would like to state for the record that none of the subjects were told which drug they were taking, their effects, and no revealing material has been left unattended to prying eyes. At this facility, I am the only person who has any knowledge of the drugs names and intended effects. I would like to remind the Committee that even the staff only recognize the drugs by their single letter names so that subject G receives pills marked with a “G” and so forth. I have not been remiss in divulging anything.

I paraphrase here what subject M told me:

Too much grammar leads to a zealous pursuit of purity that can only result in silence.

Too much vocabulary eventually becomes its opposite and all language collapses.

Too many descriptive words lead to forgetting the object to be described, lost in bewildering gibberish.

Too much metaphor leads inevitably to violence. This is proven in the history of nations.

 

How could subject M, barring keen or precocious thought, have identified not only the drugs' intended effects but mapped them so seamlessly to the current conditions of each of the research subjects? I cannot suspect that he was the recipient of any sensitive information for all my notes are kept under the strictest security, and I am the only person who has access.

 

July 14, 2010

 

Committee Members,

 

We are in the business of making language monsters. This is the invention of a catastrophic poetry that should never have been invented by our feeble minds. I abjure the whole experiment. I abjure all our creations.

 

July 21, 2010

 

[this section blacked or scratched out; unreadable]

 

August 15, 2010

 

Com/mitSein membrassieres-s-s-s!

 

Me've been/tropic-ome, over thereof! Me-been-over-come by[e]+s THE patientropitropithecus! Clust'r'd 'ronde moi-me soi-se(?) they'verily forcibilized all medicategoricalities down(ershipyard) into THE well of mine-thine gullette! Dose over! ROGER & that! Ten-four flour power trepidemic! Over & Dose! How many incarnations of novelizations must I endure before myfuckingheadofalltotalitiesnevereverbeforeseenandbeenblowoutmycosmicblowassholeofmybleedingeyeorbs??? Mithradates spiked my punch and judy and and the and the(e!). Tricked, fooled, rubed, bagged, rag & tag! Spellendour dour is myne spellending! Spy-psyched my victualry of viktor-ee, foodrink! Lexiadjectimetamax - all of it! Totality dans ma boche bouche! RUn for the halls! - no, no/t hills! Not N.E.More (eutopia is the topic like soup dieu jour+nal narwhals! with whorns on their nipplease! Gahd, I ne'er be'ore fellt-phelt the WORD so meganiloquently!

 

 

This last report was followed by an inter-committee memorandum recommending that this report and any files that remain of the trials be shredded, and that the facility be closed and destroyed.

 

 

Committee Members -

 

With the unfortunate incident involving Dr Ferguson, future trials will be conducted at smaller dosages with more stringent security in a new trial facility to prevent the staff from potential hazards. In the case of Dr Ferguson, the subjects responded negatively to intervention and used force to overpower him and administer high risk dosages of the trial drugs. At this point, it is the recommendation of this Committee that the tests be aborted and a period of disengagement commence for no less than two (2) financial quarters. We have contained the situation adequately. The research subjects were given added remuneration for their participation as well as a month of detoxification from the trial drug regimen, as well as a debriefing by means of our “Arm's Reach” facility, not directly affiliated with our company. Dr Ferguson was placed in immediate psychiatric care and will be given a one time package in excess of stipulated amounts for conducting research. The confidentiality clause has been extended to cover all events that occurred at the facility, and all research has been suppressed. As well, we are moving ahead with an immediate demolition of the facility.

It is on the recommendation of our clinical trials consultant, Dr Fuse Less, that other standards of quantitative evaluation be implemented to assess risk factors according to an Incidence Grid. He has suggested a list of names for the position left vacant by Dr Ferguson. Dr Less has been a reliable consultant in previous drug trials, and has shown the highest regard to discretion. It should be known that Dr Less communicated with me personally with his own investigative field report following Dr Ferguson's final report to this committee. To paraphrase Dr Less, he discovered that the facility was in an abominable state, thoroughly unkempt, with writing on every surface, and the research subjects in a state of extreme distress, shock, and in some cases catatonic.

Despite this minor setback, I am quite confident that our next test group will show the results we desire and that we will be able to put this suite of language drugs on the public market by the end of next year. Our campaign marketing team is very enthusiastic to implement phase one of the promotional materials, and our lobbyist reports that it will be a “clean sweep” with the state regulating office to have the suite of drugs approved pro forma if we can deliver the right test results in a timely fashion. Respectfully submitted, A.G.

 

You found a few other memos, one detailing a pilot project to have paper treated by the drugs in question, activated in a manner similar to LSD, through skin contact and a moisture delivery system. The promotional brochure was recent, but the testing dates and reports were about two years old. Perhaps the extension of the program was most likely abandoned from lack of feasibility.

You did not fancy yourself the type of person who gives any attention to the endless popular stream of new pharmaceuticals advertised on the market since they all essentially make the same utopian promises they can never deliver. The dearth of further information on the pilot paper-treating project was a bit unnerving given that you were such a voluminous consumer of books and other printed materials. Ghastly was the word that came to mind. As did horripilating.

And then you suddenly remembered the night before, just how adept you were at spooling out adjectives in a clever fashion, but eventually falling into a state where you were scrambling for words. There was a slight pain, you recall, which you attributed to the cumulative effects of wine intake. Determined to put this out of your mind for now, glutted as you were with proprietary knowledge not meant for your consumption, you decided to wait this hangover out by declaring the rest of the day a write-off and reading a new book you purchased this week by an author you went to school with.

So there you were on a Sunday afternoon, a great cataract of sunlight exposing all those flying motes of dust, and propped in your chair with a new novel. Not ready to thrust yourself immediately into it, you sipped some coffee and scanned the usually uneventful yet reassuring publishing and editorial front-matter. And there it was, just as you had moistened your index finger to turn the page, in small print below the copyright notice, publisher details, and cataloguing information was the confirmation of that ghastly thought you recently had: Printed on Metapharm(TM) Treated Paper with corresponding ink.