Usually when people talk about cut-up, they mean taking a page of text, cutting it into four pieces, and then swapping the second and third piece. Like this:
Original Page ============= ------------------------- | | | | | | | | | | | | | 1 | 2 | | | | | | | | | | | | | |-----------+-----------| | | | | | | | | | | | | | 3 | 4 | | | | | | | | | | | | | ------------------------- Cut-Up Page =========== Notice sections 2 and 3 are swapped. ------------------------- | | | | | | | | | | | | | 1 | 3 | | | | | | | | | | | | | |-----------+-----------| | | | | | | | | | | | | | 2 | 4 | | | | | | | | | | | | | -------------------------
This is easy to do with simple bash scripting.
Use head -n and tail -n to get the top and bottom halves of the page, cut -c to get the first and second halves of those, and then paste to put it all back together.
What kind of results can you expect? Let's do a cut-up together to find out.
First let's get some text to use as an input. I'm going to use something from Standard Ebooks, a great project you should support. They are volunteers who make hand-crafted, open-source, free (as in freedom) ebooks. Let's take a paragraph from Ralph Waldo Emerson's Nature.
There are days which occur in this climate, at almost any season of the year, wherein the world reaches its perfection; when the air, the heavenly bodies and the earth, make a harmony, as if nature would indulge her offspring; when, in these bleak upper sides of the planet, nothing is to desire that we have heard of the happiest latitudes, and we bask in the shining hours of Florida and Cuba; when everything that has life gives sign of satisfaction, and the cattle that lie on the ground seem to have great and tranquil thoughts. These halcyons may be looked for with a little more assurance in that pure October weather which we distinguish by the name of the Indian summer.
This gets us:
There are days which occu ask in the shining hours ost any season of the yea everything that has life hes its perfection; when on, and the cattle that l ies and the earth, make a have great and tranquil t uld indulge her offspring ay be looked for with a l per sides of the planet, hat pure October weather we have heard of the hap he name of the Indian sum r in this climate, at alm of Florida and Cuba; when r, wherein the world reac gives sign of satisfacti the air, the heavenly bod ie on the ground seem to harmony, as if nature wo houghts. These halcyons m ; when, in these bleak up ittle more assurance in t nothing is to desire that which we distinguish by t piest latitudes, and we b mer.
It's up to you to go looking in the result for bits of language that are useful to you. You don't have to read it strictly. Miss out a word, read down one side, change a letter here and there — do whatever you want.
In our example I see:
- "Everything that has life has its perfection"
- "And the cattle that lies, and the earth, make an offspring"
- "That pure October weather we have heard of"
- "Wherein the world gives sign of satisfaction"
- "The air, the heavenly body on the ground, seems to harmony as if nature"
- "These bleak little assurances"