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Aug. 23rd, 2019 10:36 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
seekingferretThe Shakespearean Ciphers Examined by William and Elizabeth Friedman
Apparently a book came out in the past couple years called The Woman Who Smashed Codes, about Elizabeth Friedman's role in the development of American military cryptography. I'd heard of it, but not read it or known anything about it, when I randomly grabbed The Shakespearean Ciphers Examined off the library shelf.
Though Oxfordianism reigns supreme today, that's a relatively recent development. The preeminent Shakespearean conspiracy theory 75 years ago was that Francis Bacon had actually written Shakespeare, and since Bacon was known for the development of the Bacon Cipher for concealing hidden messages in text, many scholars attempted to show that there were hidden ciphers in Shakespeare revealing its true author. William Friedman met his wife, Elizabeth Friedman, when they were being paid to investigate one such hypothesized cipher, which they concluded did not exist. That notwithstanding, the presence of such noted American cryptographers on the project conferred upon it an ill-deserved legitimacy in the eyes of many, to the regret of the Friedmans. The intention of The Shakespearean Ciphers Examined seems to be to pay penance for their sins by conclusively demonstrating the error of those who claimed to have found ciphers in Shakespeare.
Chapter by chapter they demolish foolish ciphers, with wit and humor and clarity, clearing the way to the most personal part of the story, where they discuss their involvement with Colonel Fabyan's cipher investigating team and how they think the public was misled by it.
As part of this effort, they needed to demonstrate whether or not a cipher could be cracked if many of the characters were misinterpreted. They conducted an experiment: William invented a cipher, deliberately distorting a specific percentage of its characters, and gave it to Elizabeth. She then spent the next day trying to decipher it while he watched over her shoulder and occasionally gave hints when asked.
I choose to imagine this sequence with them naked; It is the sexiest passage I've ever read in a work of nonfiction.
Apparently a book came out in the past couple years called The Woman Who Smashed Codes, about Elizabeth Friedman's role in the development of American military cryptography. I'd heard of it, but not read it or known anything about it, when I randomly grabbed The Shakespearean Ciphers Examined off the library shelf.
Though Oxfordianism reigns supreme today, that's a relatively recent development. The preeminent Shakespearean conspiracy theory 75 years ago was that Francis Bacon had actually written Shakespeare, and since Bacon was known for the development of the Bacon Cipher for concealing hidden messages in text, many scholars attempted to show that there were hidden ciphers in Shakespeare revealing its true author. William Friedman met his wife, Elizabeth Friedman, when they were being paid to investigate one such hypothesized cipher, which they concluded did not exist. That notwithstanding, the presence of such noted American cryptographers on the project conferred upon it an ill-deserved legitimacy in the eyes of many, to the regret of the Friedmans. The intention of The Shakespearean Ciphers Examined seems to be to pay penance for their sins by conclusively demonstrating the error of those who claimed to have found ciphers in Shakespeare.
Chapter by chapter they demolish foolish ciphers, with wit and humor and clarity, clearing the way to the most personal part of the story, where they discuss their involvement with Colonel Fabyan's cipher investigating team and how they think the public was misled by it.
As part of this effort, they needed to demonstrate whether or not a cipher could be cracked if many of the characters were misinterpreted. They conducted an experiment: William invented a cipher, deliberately distorting a specific percentage of its characters, and gave it to Elizabeth. She then spent the next day trying to decipher it while he watched over her shoulder and occasionally gave hints when asked.
I choose to imagine this sequence with them naked; It is the sexiest passage I've ever read in a work of nonfiction.
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Date: 2019-08-23 03:31 pm (UTC):DDDD
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Date: 2019-08-23 08:36 pm (UTC)