{"id":21986,"date":"2023-03-06T09:15:17","date_gmt":"2023-03-06T14:15:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lawrencecconnolly.com\/archive\/?p=21986"},"modified":"2023-07-07T22:43:21","modified_gmt":"2023-07-08T02:43:21","slug":"this-week-on-mystery-theatrecracking-the-code","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lawrencecconnolly.com\/archive\/2023\/03\/06\/this-week-on-mystery-theatrecracking-the-code\/","title":{"rendered":"This Week on Mystery Theatre:
Cracking the Code<\/i><\/br>"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The irregular tapping came from the other side of the sheet-metal wall that separated Paul\u2019s and Harold\u2019s cell from the totally enclosed tank for desperados next door.<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Experimentally, Paul tapped on his side.<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cTwenty-three\u2014eight-fifteen,\u201d came the reply. Paul recognized the schoolboy\u2019s code: one for A, two for B \u2026 twenty-three\u2014eight-fifteen\u201d was \u201cWho?\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s a rudimentary version of tap code (also known as knock<\/em> code) depicted in Kurt Vonnegut\u2019s Player Piano<\/em><\/a>, a novel that a recent report on NPR<\/a> called prescient in its anticipation of \u201cthe current state of AI and automation.\u201d You\u2019ll find it on page 306 of the Dial Press Trade Paperback<\/a> edition, and it\u2019s just one of a number of literary accounts of a code system introduced in this week\u2019s installment of Prime Stage Mystery Theatre<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A more sophisticated version of the code system is depicted in Arthur Koestler\u2019s Darkness at Noon<\/em><\/a>, \u00a0a novel that The Modern Library ranked in the top ten of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century<\/a>. The passage below is from page 24 of Scribner\u2019s hardcover edition<\/a>. Like the scene in Vonnegut\u2019s book, it takes place in a prison cell. The image below is from a 1955 NBC production starring Claude Rains, which aired on Producers Showcase<\/em><\/a> in 1955.<\/p>\n

\"\"The wall was thick, with poor resonance; he had to put his head close to it to hear clearly and at the same time he had to watch the spy hole. No. 402 had obviously had a lot of practice; he tapped distinctly and unhurriedly, probably with some hard object such as a pencil. While Rubashov was memorizing the numbers, he tried, being out of practice, to visualize the square of letters with the 25 compartments\u2014five horizontal rows with five letters in each.\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The novels were first published in 1952 and 1941 respectively, but knock codes have been around for centuries, first developed in Ancient Greece<\/a> and often used by prisoners (as noted in the above passages).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/em>In English, the tap-code grid consists of 25 squares arranged evenly into five stacked rows, in which all but one of the squares contains a single letter, starting with A in the upper left and continuing through to Z in the lower right. The one exception, the middle square of the top row, contains both C and K, thus enabling the grid of 25 squares to accommodate the entire 26 letters of our Latin-based alphabet. This is the same grid described in Koestler’s book, as well as in the novel The Ash in \u00c6lf Mystery<\/em> that August LaFleur sites in this week’s installment of Mystery Theatre<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The graphic above is from<\/em><\/span> Wikipedia.com.<\/a><\/p>\n

Tap codes and the better-known dot-dash system Morse Code (click here<\/a> for a chart) were among the topics that folks discussed at last weekend\u2019s Mystery Theatre<\/em> display in the lobby of The New Hazlett Theatre, where theatergoers attending the opening of The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe<\/em><\/a> gathered to examine some of the clues presented in this month\u2019s mystery.<\/p>\n

\"\"Theatergoers and mystery fans attempt to crack the code at the <\/em>Mystery Theatre Display in the New Hazlett Theatre.<\/em>>>>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But will either Morse or knock code decipher the sounds from Act I<\/a> of \u201cThe \u00c6lf in the Wardrobe\u201d? Is it possible that some other tap code variation is being employed? Or could it be that the sounds aren\u2019t codes at all?<\/p>\n

Those are some of the questions we\u2019ll be pondering this week. So keep your code charts handy, and get ready for some surprises when Mystery Theatre<\/em><\/a> returns this Thursday with the second installment of \u201cThe \u00c6lf in the Wardrobe.\u201d<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll meet you there!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The irregular tapping came from the other side of the sheet-metal wall that separated Paul\u2019s and Harold\u2019s cell from the totally enclosed tank for desperados next door. Experimentally, Paul tapped on his side. \u201cTwenty-three\u2014eight-fifteen,\u201d came the reply. Paul recognized the schoolboy\u2019s code: one for A, two for B \u2026 twenty-three\u2014eight-fifteen\u201d was \u201cWho?\u201d That\u2019s a rudimentary […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"single-cat-21st-centuryscop","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[1422,6,1424,1420,127,1421,1126,1168,1423],"class_list":["post-21986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-21st-centuryscop","tag-darkness-at-noon","tag-fantasy","tag-knock-code","tag-kurt-vonnegut","tag-mystery","tag-player-piano","tag-prime-stage-mystery-theatre","tag-radio-theatre","tag-tap-code"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t