Fnord
Fnord is the typographic representation of disinformation or irrelevant information intending to misdirect, with the implication of a worldwide conspiracy. The word was coined as a nonsensical term with religious undertones in the Discordian religious text Principia Discordia (1965) by Kerry Thornley and Greg Hill, but was popularized by The Illuminatus! Trilogy (1975) of satirical conspiracy fiction novels by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson.[1]
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[edit] Definition and usage
[edit] The Illuminatus! Trilogy
In these novels, the interjection "fnord" is given hypnotic power over the unenlightened. Under the Illuminati program, children in grade school are taught to be unable to consciously see the word "fnord". For the rest of their lives, every appearance of the word subconsciously generates a feeling of uneasiness and confusion, and prevents rational consideration of the subject. This results in a perpetual low-grade state of fear in the populace. The government acts on the premise that a fearful populace keeps them in power.
In the Shea/Wilson construct, fnords are scattered liberally in the text of newspapers and magazines, causing fear and anxiety in those following current events. However, there are no fnords in the advertisements, encouraging a consumerist society. It is implied in the books that fnord is not the actual word used for this task, but merely a substitute, since most readers would be unable to see the actual word.
To see the fnords means to be unaffected by the supposed hypnotic power of the word or, more loosely, of other fighting words. A more common expression of the concept would be "to read between the lines." The phrase "I have seen the fnords" was famously graffitied on a railway bridge (known locally as Anarchy Bridge) between Earlsdon and Coventry (U.K.) city centre throughout the 1980s and 1990s, until the bridge was upgraded. The bridge and the phrase were mentioned in the novel A Touch of Love by Jonathan Coe.
[edit] Discordianism
"Fnord" is a popular word with followers of Discordianism. Its use in the Principia Discordia predated the Illuminatus! trilogy by several years. It is often used in Usenet and other computer circles to indicate a random or surreal sentence; coercive subtext, or anything jarringly out of context (intentionally or not), can be labelled "fnord".
[edit] Other subcultures
The term is also commonly used by hackers and programmers as a metasyntactic variable. It appears in the SubGenius recruitment film Arise! and has been in use in the SubGenius newsgroup alt.slack.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ FNORD, excerpt from The Illuminatus! Trilogy by Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea. 'Suddenly I saw Hagbard's eyes burning into me and heard his voice: ``Your heart will remain calm. Your adrenalin gland will remain calm. Calm, all-over calm. You will not panic. you will look at the fnord and see it. You will not evade it or black it out. you will stay calm and face it. And further back, way back: my first-grade teacher writing FNORD on the blackboard, while a wheel with a spiral design turned and turned on his desk, turned and turned, and his voice droned on, IF YOU DON'T SEE THE FNORD IT CAN'T EAT YOU, DON'T SEE THE FNORD, DON'T SEE THE FNORD . . .'
[edit] Further reading
- The Illuminatus! Trilogy by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson, ISBN 1-56731-237-3 (Hardback collected edition) & ISBN 1-85487-574-4 (Paperback collected edition)
- The Golden Apple by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson, ISBN 0-440-53981-1
- Schrödinger's Cat by Robert Anton Wilson, ISBN 0-440-50070-2
[edit] External links
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Look up fnord in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
- Steve Jackson Games: Fnorder, a program for generating "fnord" sentences
- "A Short Discourse on the Ancient and Accepted Discordian Practice of Fnording Dollar Bills" Ol' Sam, U:M, PS!, A/B.
- Fnord Finder, a Google Chrome extension for finding fnords hidden in New York Times articles.
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