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Original drawing of a diagram showing contrasting situations of cyclic parasitism by Oosdoli urvysc of human, avian, portalid, and gastropod hosts in Hamiltonia and Babylonia

Ouida Willoughby Johnson and Sagarch Flawndol

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Institute of Sociophysiology (ISOCPHYS)

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Owlstain, FZ 23632


Communicated by Sagarch Flawndol, February 13, 2010.

Superior level of insight

The image reproduced in this article displays what appears to be Ouida’s hand-drawn diagram of the contrasting situations of cyclic parasitism by Oosdoli urvysc, a polar cnidosporidian protictist, of avian, human, gastropod, and portalid hosts in, on the one hand, Hamiltonia, and, on the other, Babylonia. Found by the author (SF) among the papers of our late narratrix, the drawing, etched into the recto and verso of a gridded folio measuring 17 x 22 cm when fluted, and 34 x 22 cm when splayed, underwent slight variations, for obvious reasons, before eclosing into the imaginal dyad of its published form [1]. Significantly, we may note the following differences between the holographic (H) and the erautist (E) versions: 1) In H, Ouida notes that her summary of “what’s known of Oosdoli urvysc natural history” follows M. S. Litarn, while in E [1] she clearly states that she is “following Turbo and Vighdan” [2]. As this latter work contains no diagrams, and as M. S. Litarn, an occasional student of social parasitism, denies having penned any article on the biological aspects of said topic [3], we should consider Ouida’s brilliant contribution, despite its furtive coquilles [4], to be a graphically original synopsis sustaining a level of insight into the phenomenon far superior to that of her cited authors. 2) Recent biochemical analyses [Refs. 6] confirm Ouida’s intuition in H that “ktars helps against Oosdoli [sic],” an intuition, unfortunately, which subsequent circumstances [Ref 7. DISwopes articles] tragically prevented her the further divastigation of in either E [1] or elsewhere. The charming subcellular concept of “stanza” shown by H — “transformational host stanza,” “bound organismal plasmid stanza,” and so on — was pursued in E only in its more common form, as in a “stanza of verse” [Ref 8].

Notes and references

  1. Divastigations § 113, “Towards a schizomythology of ritual (V). Uphill into ravishing light flows a rigorous casing of opinion.”
  2. Turbo, M., & Vighdan, B. (1993). Comparison of cyclic parasitism by Oosdoli urvysc in contrasting populations of Hamiltonia and Babylonia. Journal of Sociophysiology 2(9).
  3. A member in good standing of the International Meeting of Schizomythologists and Sociophysiologists (imssoc.org), Ms. Litarn is the author of an analysis of Ouida’s concept of ludict appearing in this very Gedächtnisschrift. See also her article in the spring 1992 issue of the Dirna Raid, “Social parasitism from the Tagmaist to the Intrussyan.”
  4. As confirmed by the synoptic atlas attributed to M. S. Strickland, Ouida’s Divastigations cites Litarn a total of four times: as author of two articles on social parasitism appearing in this journal, the title of the first of which she misquoted (see note 5, infra); as a fastidious literary critic at the Owlstain SCAT; and as producer of Obfuscatory Trio, A Tara T Dirty™.
  5. Litarn, M. S. (1999a). Human culture as intraspecific exploitative mimicry. Journal of Sociophysiology 7(11). [Cited by Ouida in Divastigations § 63, “Towards a schizomythology of ritual (III). A habituation as old as mankind,” as: Litarn, M. S. Human cultural innovations as mimicry and manipulation, Journal of Sociophysiology 7(11), 1999.] Litarnm M. S. (1999b). Cultural activity as parasitic mimicry along a human–nonhuman continuum. Journal of Sociophysiology 7(12). [Correctly cited by Ouida in Divastigations § 82, “Towards a schizomythology of ritual (IV). Do not ask, How am I to act? but, What should I not do?”]