- missing characters -


1.Hebrew tradition
Hebrew letters are invested with special meaning in Judaism in general, and the creative power of letters is particularly evident in Sefer Yetzirah, a mystical text that tells a story of the creation which is based on the letters of the Hebrew alphabet, a story which diverges greatly from that in the Book of Genesis. The creative power of letters is also explored in the Talmud and Zohar.

13th-century scholar Nahmanides asserted that the Torah could be read differently through different pronunciation and word divisions. Building on this idea, the author of Sefer ha-Temunah asserted that one Hebrew letter is missing altogether from the Torah, and will be revealed only when the world moves to the next sephira.

According to Lawrence Kushner, author of The Book of Letters: A Mystical Alef-Bait, Sefer ha-Temunah teaches that "every defect in our present universe is mysteriously connected with this unimaginable consonant", and that as soon as the missing letter is given to us, our Universe will be filled with undreamed of new words, the words that will turn repression into loving.

Kushner states that the letter Shin (ש) is of special interest. The letter shin that appears on the small leather cube that holds the tefillin has four prongs rather than the standard three. Some scholars say that this is the missing letter. According to these scholars, the coming revelation of the name and pronunciation of this letter will be what repairs the universe.

2. Greek tradition

Sampi is an archaic letter of the Greek alphabet. It was used in addition to the classical 24 letters of the alphabet to denote some type of a sibilant sound, probably [ss] or [ts], in some eastern Ionic dialects of ancient Greek in the 6th and 5th centuries BC. It remained in use as a numeral symbol for 900 in the alphabetic system of Greek numerals. Its current name, sampi, originally probably meant "san pi", i.e. "like a pi", and is also of medieval origin. The letter's original name in antiquity is not known. It has been proposed that sampi was a reincarnation of the archaic letter san, which was originally shaped like an M and denoted the sound [s] in some other dialects. Besides san, names that have been proposed for sampi include parakyisma and angma, while other historically attested terms for it are enacosis, sincope, and o charaktir.

3. Computers

It is very difficult to define ALT+255 because it is a void of unkown possibilities and endless nothingness. ALT+255 is the last one in set of characters that can be created by pressing ALT and adding some numbers. You can see it below:

- creating a human character -

Humans are made in God's image: "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them." (Genesis 1:27)

The Hebrew word used here for 'created' is bara' = creation out of nothing (ex nihilo). 

So, God created man out of nothing. But in Genesis 2:7 we read that: "The Lord God formed man out of the dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being."

The Hebrew word for 'formed' is yasar = created out of existing substance.

So, this is the difference between creation and form. We cannot create in the material world. We can only form the matter.

So what was actually the item that God created out of nothing? Not a man nor a woman, but his own image, both male and female.

- personification and character of Mona Lisa -

In extreme urge to figure out what is the real meaning behind the character of Mona Lisa, painted by Leonardo,  many different individuals with the backup of science and the media, came up with many different hipothesis.

Most recent one is an attempt to read the letters, possibly written in the eyes of Mona Lisa by the author, letters LV (initials of Leonardo) in right and possible CE (or BS) in her left eye. The idea is to introduce the light (in Italian luce: LV CE) as the entire message of the painting, or to see Mona Lisa as a personification of the light itself.

Although Leonardo was extremely supersticious as a character himself, and his works most certenly include certain secret messages and techniques, it is important to understand that symbolism in art is not there necessarilly to be revealed. Symbols often have certain ambiguity, art works sometimes reconcile meaning and the reality itself. 

Before, there was another theory, a possible reading of Mona Lisa as an autoportait, where the name of the painting stands for mon analyse (my analysis) or analysis of myself.

Other than that, nature does not open the door of the sanctuary to anyone. And in Science and in Goodness, the true wise man must evermore 

keep silent.

- non living objects, things and abstractions as characters -

Personification is an ontological metaphor in which a thing or abstraction is represented as a person. You can personify objects, concepts or animals, with intention to avoid vulgarity of objectification. Authors use personification to make stories more dramatic and interesting and because it is easier for the reader or viewer to relate to something with human attributes, a character. 

This is one of the techniques to express complicated or abstract ideas.

- character and action in "Psalm" by Paul Celan -

No one moulds us again out of earth and clay,

    no one conjures our dust.

    No one.

    Praised be your name, no one.

    For your sake

    we shall flower.

    Towards

    you.

    A nothing

    we were, are, shall

    remain, flowering:

    the nothing-, the no one's rose.

    With

    our pistil soul-bright,

    with our stamen heaven-ravaged,

    our corolla red

    with the crimson word which we sang

    over, O over

    the thorn.

 

- character, symbol, act and reality -

One of the important aspects of the character element in film or drama is the fact that either because of contradictory action or incomplete description the character cannot be viewed as an individual, or the reader is left confused about the character. Every character is, therefore, some sort of Golem, incomplete being.

One method of reconciling this would be to consider characters to be flat, or type-caste, instead of round. This would mean that most of the information about the character centers around one main quality or viewpoint. Comparable to the flat character option, the reader could also view the character as a symbol. 

Another aspect is that there is a component of language, character, and action, and the interactions of these three components; these are fused together throughout the film or a play. Action normally determines the major means of characterization. Another principle is the importance of these three components’ effect on each other; the important repercussion of this being character’s impact on action.

This is the mark of the act: a basic rupture in the weave of reality that opens up new possibilities and creates the space for a reconfiguration of reality itself. Like the miracle, the act is ultimately unsustainable - it cannot be reduced to, or incorporated directly within, the symbolic order. Yet it is through the act that we touch (and are touched by) the Real in such a way that the bonds of our symbolic universe are broken and that an alternative construction is enabled; reality is transformed in a Real sense. (Zizek)