"But during the long intervals in which each of us collected evidence to produce at the plenary meetings, and with the clear conscience of those who accumulate material for a medley of burlesques, our brains grew accustomed to connecting, connecting, connecting everything with everything else, until we did it automatically, out of habit.... I was becoming addicted, Diotallevi was becoming corrupted, Belbo was becoming converted."

The Rules

• Rule 1: Concepts are connected by analogy. There is no way to decide at once whether an analogy is good or bad, because to some degree everything is connected to everything else.
• Rule 2: Two says that if tout se tient in the end, the connecting works.
• Rule 3: The connections must not be original. They must have been made before, and the more often the better, by others. Only then do the crossings seem true, because they are obvious.

a la . . . Saint Jean
36 p charrete de fein
6 . . . entiers avec saiel
p . . . les blancs mantiax
r . . . s . . . chevaliers de Pruins pour la . . . j.nc.
6 foiz 6 en 6 places
chascune foiz 20 a . . . 120 a . . .
iceste est l'ordonation
al donjon li premiers
it li secunz joste iceus qui . . . pans
it al refuge
it a Nostre Dame de l'altre part de l'iau
it a l'ostel des popelicans
it a la pierre
3 foiz 6 avant la feste . . . la Grant Pute.