Defining an ambigram...well, one of the most versatile geniuses of our times, Douglas R. Hofstadter describes an ambigram as "a calligraphic design that manages to squeeze two different readings into the selfsame set of curves." Quite a succinct definition, isn't it? But, one which allows the reader to understand, figure, assimilate and imagine absolutely NOTHING about an ambigram. A paradox. An ambiguous answer to an overwhelmingly incomplete question.

Something like 42...wouldn't you say...?

It's like the matrix, you know...you have to see it to believe it.

          "Behold, I tell you a mystery; we shall not all
                sleep, but we shall all be changed."
                                              - I CORINTHIANS 15:51

The same versatile genius, of whom I spoke earlier, once said something that, at least to me, governs the behaviour and forms the core basis of the existence & non-existence of every single entity - known and unknown, including the whole "Uni"-verse as an independent entity (assuming, of course, there is just one)...

"It turns out that an eerie type of chaos can lurk just behind a facade of order - and yet, deep inside the chaos lurks an even eerier type of order."

Simple, beautiful and elemental...TRUTH.

I make ambigrams because they probably exemplify the above statement best (of course, apart from the fact that I LIKE ambigrams). You try to introduce chaos into a system, turn the whole system upside down and lo, the system laughs back at your unprolific efforts while you have no choice but to accept, with awe, the answer.

But, as you would've undoubtedly noticed, with the above explanation, I cater to only the second part of the statement. The first part talks, according to its interpretation that I have w.r.t ambigrams and everything else, about breaking away from convention and tradition...about doing away with superfluous bindings...about discovering the "beauty in change"; (read "order in chaos").

Ambigrammists, such as yours truly, use conventional or unconventional forms of lettering depending on the effect they want the product to have. A century-old way of presenting a particular character would not deter one from writing the same in a different way.

At this juncture, if one might be so bold, extrapolating the above characteristic, as to venture into murky waters, then one would like to draw a parallel, touching upon a subject as sensitive and as debatable as religion. It is only a means...just like the lettering – conventional or otherwise, only as long as it makes the end product look good, have the required effect...inspire good, beauty and humanity, it works.

Though two parts of the statement may seem to lead you back to square one every time you try to follow them, [much like the "Strange Loop" phenomenon wherein, by moving upwards (or downwards) through levels of some hierarchial system, we unexpectedly find ourselves right back where we started], they are actually two curves..converging..trying to drive home one point...not just an art or a fancy calligraphic design, but a philosophy in itself.

One could go on drawing analogies and parallels for as long as one pleases to but what I'm trying to draw here is circles...concentric ones...much rather, spirals...open to interpretation within limitless boundaries. Grunt! And I'm still far from being the best in the trade.

Oh, another small thing...ambigrams are possible for every single existent and non-existent word and word combination, in every single language (again existent and non-existent). It's only a matter of whether you're looking in the right place, at the right time and the right way...and you find the universe unfolding in your palm like a Fleur-de-lis.

Oh, and believe me..there is, indeed, no spoon.

"The universe seems ... to have been
determined and ordered in accordance with
number, by the forethought and the mind of
the creator of all things; for the pattern was
fixed, like a preliminary sketch, by the
domination of number pre-existent in the
mind of the world-creating God."

- NICOMACHUS OF GERASA
Arithmetic I, 6 (ca. A.D. 100)

Hiding in the alternating patterns of digits, deep inside the transcendental number, was a perfect circle, its form traced out by unities in a field of noughts. The universe was made on purpose, the circle said. In whatever galaxy you happen to find yourself, you take the circumference of a circle, divide it by its diameter, measure closely enough, and uncover a miracle--another circle, drawn kilometres downstream of the decimal point. There would be richer messages farther in. It doesn't matter what you look like, or what you're made of, or where you come from. As long as you live in this universe, and have a modest talent for mathematics, sooner or later you'll find it. It's already here. It's inside everything. You don't have to leave your planet to find it. In the fabric of space and in the nature of matter, as in a great work of art, there is, written small, the artist's signature. Standing over humans, gods, and demons, subsuming Caretakers and Tunnel builders, there is an intelligence that antedates the universe. The circle has closed. You will find what you have been searching for.
- Contact, Carl Sagan [But I knew so too ]

"A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools."
- Douglas Noel Adams

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(PEACE)