Some Recursive and Fractal Acronyms


Examine the following sentences and paragraphs.  Do you notice
anything common to them all?

          The hobbit enters.  Hobbit Otho Brandybuck, barrister, is
          tired.  Enters night, terribly exhausted, really sleepy.
          
          All lawyers, leave.
          
          "Bible" is books like Ephesians.
          
          Cancel all new cars, except Lincolns.
          
          GNU's not UNIX.
          
          Salt all lark tails.
          
In the first example, the first sentence is an acronym for the
paragraph.  The initial letters of the first sentence spell T.H.E. --
which is the first word of the first sentece.  The initial letters of
the second sentence spell H.O.B.B.I.T., which is the second word of
the first sentece.  And the initial letters of the third sentence
spell E.N.T.E.R.S., which is the third word of the first sentece. 
Notice also that the first word of the paragraph, THE, is an acronym
for the entire paragraph -- the first sentece starts with T, the
second with H, the third with E.

What happens when we expand an acronymn like this?  In this case, it
doesn't make any sense.  THE is expanded to "The hobbit enters" --
obtaining "The hobbit enters, hobbit enters" -- but that leaves
another THE at the beginning to be expanded, so we get "The hobbit
enters, hobbit enters, hobbit enters".  This can go on forever, and we
still haven't got around to expanding the acronym HOBBIT into "Hobbit
Otho Brandybuck, barrister, is tired," and then expanding the HOBBIT
within HOBBIT.

A recursive acronym can be used to make a statement more emphatic,
while still making sense.  For example, "All lawyers leave!  Lawyers
leave!  Lawyers leave!..."  Or "GNU's not UNIX -- not UNIX! -- not
UNIX!..."  The infinity of repetition is understood, though no one
would want to sit around expanding the acronym forever.  Or we could
expand it slightly differently each time:  "`Bible' is books like
Ephesians -- is books like Esther -- is books like Ecclesiastes -- is
books like Ezekiel -- is books like Exodus -- is books like Ezra."

More interesting still, perhaps, is the fractal acronym.  The
paragraph in the first example might contain many more than three
levels of acronyms, and only the first three levels have been expanded
yet.  Every deeper level discovers new information, while containing
all the information that was found at all higher levels.  A book might
be written which reads the same whether you read only the first letter
of each chapter, or the first letter of each sentence, or the first
letter of each word, or all the individual words.

To continue expanding the first example, we would expand the acronyms
OTHO and NIGHT, as, perhaps, "Otho today harvested onions," and "Night
is good, heat terrible" (though these are hardly the best possible
expansions).