Adventures with Recursion
The Never Ending Quest - Episode 7815
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This isn't good, Stacy thought. I don't know my last name, and it might
be Jones, and if it is, then I might be the author of this book about
myself, which gives no clues to anything that might jog my memory.
"What do you know about this Stacy Jones?" Stacy asked. "You've heard of Charles Dodgson, right? The mathematician who wrote fiction under the name Lewis Carroll? Well, this lady is apparently the same kind of deal. I've heard she's one of the foremost experts on recursion in the world." Stacy interrupted. "What did she write as Toby Masterson?" "A couple of years ago, Toby Masterson came out with Sir Fred and the Never-Ending Quest, which described the attempts of a knight to find a computer and rewrite episodes of a choose-your-own-adventure type story that he believed was controlling his every move." "Anything recent?" "I've heard rumors of a new book called Missing Pages about a beautiful, rich, yet reclusive female author who loses her memory, but I have yet to see anything." This is quite alarming, thought Stacy. This book hasn't even come out yet. Stacy turned to a page near the end of the book. It was blank. That confirmed things; it wasn't even written yet, and she was its likely author. "Take a look at this, will you?" Stacy showed the executive the book. "A guy in the doughnut shop gave it to me. He said I dropped it somewhere, but I can't remember even being in contact with this book." The executive looked at the book, Missing Pages, and turned to the last page with writing on it. This is what he saw: "The executive looked at the book, Missing Pages, and turned to the last page with writing on it. This is what he saw: 'The executive looked at the book, Missing Pages, and turned to the last page with writing on it. This is what he saw: 'The executive looked at the book, Missing Pages, and turned to the last page with writing on it. This is what he saw: ... "Stop!" yelled Stacy. By now almost three whole pages had been filled with nested quotation marks, each paragraph saying the same thing. "Yup, only someone like Stacy could have pulled off three straight pages of the same paragraph and still have the reader's interest after the horizontal line." "I swear, those pages were blank when I got the book!" Stacy was noticeably agitated now. "Lady, you wouldn't happen to be Stacy Jones, would you? I'd heard rumors that she was doing some interesting research for Missing Pages." "Well, I guess I must be Stacy Jones, since I would assume the 'interesting research' involved a complete memory loss." Stacy opened her book and looked at the next blank page. "I think things are about to get quite recursive again." Stacy thought of how the plot could possibly continue, and jotted down the following: "Amanda opened her book and looked at the next blank page. 'I think things are about to get quite recursive again.' Amanda thought of how the plot could possibly continue, and jotted down the following: 'Amanda opened her book and looked at the next blank page. 'I think things are about to get quite recursive again.' Amanda thought of how the plot could possibly continue, and jotted down the following: 'Amanda opened her book and looked at the next blank page. 'I think things are about to get quite recursive again.' Amanda thought of how the plot could possibly continue, and jotted down the following: ...
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unknown adventurer
3/20/2004 1:47:26 AM
Extending Enabled
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