WHOSE KNOT IS IT ANYWAY

**KNOTS is a meta-programmatic NFT project by Emily Segal and Deluge Books**

**Launching February 18, 2022 at [knots.live](https://knots.live)** 

**Public minting begins at 12pm PST**

**For more information check out [INTRODUCING KNOTS](https://emily.mirror.xyz/jsJXdEbAuCom1RWT5NEnZ2bmyGkSNO-63ZWRFlvk1Rk)**

Knots make me question origin and agency. They remind me of a friend’s trip report, from their first time dropping acid, at carnival in Rio. The experience had delivered a single self-contained epiphany that they'd whispered over and over to their friend, perfectly brilliant and perfectly banal: "we are the memes of trees". Like that acid koan, the knots are perfect codes of their own uniqueness, too fundamental for human authorship. Instead, they meme themselves through us, through our DNA (which is knot-like in structure), through folklore and craft, and through stories. After all, the resolution of a plot is the denouement, the unknotting.

Put another way: knots are situation comedies or tragedies, waiting to be sliced through, undone, or tightened. Looping around themselves, knots are symbols or pictograms for stories which don't often go left to right, past to future, as we are taught on the chalkboard in English class. Stories are more like the cycles of the heavenly bodies around the ecliptic or the tangles of proteins in our bodies than they are pure linear vectors. Like poetic language, knot theory quickly reaches the edges of what we are capable of processing, cognitively or computationally.

A  1930 text by the German Jewish historian Solomon Gandz argued that knots were the precursor of human writing systems. For Gandz, there are three phases “in the preservation of old traditions and laws... i) Memory pure and simple; re-petition and transmission by oral tradition to the children; 2) Knots and mnemonic signs, the precursors of writing, and 3) Writing.” He connected the mentions of knotted cords in the bible with the Incan tradition of quipu making – massive knotted registers of history and accounting (the quipu has a particular resonance with blockchains and ledgers, evidenced by the Tezos project quipuswap).

To quote Gandz further:

> *“Knotted cords were the tangible and visible signs and symbols recording the abstract numbers, the facts, poems, and laws of the past, the historical events and traditions. Their purpose was to call up a recollection, to give it a body, to render it active and thereby actual. Knotted cords were the first memory- drawers and registers, they were the primitive tools out of which developed the powerful memory-machine of our modern writing, they were the primitive memory-huts and tents out of which grew up that gigantic structure that we call literature, history, and science.”*

As all this knot-lore accrued in my mind, various Web 3 artworks crossed my desk that used variations on a theme, some with computer-generated or on-chain randomness, in editions of hundreds or thousands. Knots offered themselves gorgeously to this format, as each additional crossing and loop creates a unique situation, opening up various portals to various hyperspaces, as demonstrated by mathematician William Thurston in this video lecture, [Knots to Narnia](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKSrBt2kFD4).

Knots as individual artworks, as pieces of an imaginary proto-language, seemed like perfect tokens of appreciation for the existing supporters of $NOVEL (for whom a polished textual preview of the novel they funded is still a ways away). This method was also an interesting way to continue the experiment in using Web 3 to advance literary publishing through Deluge Books, both as a fundraising tool, and as a way to loop people into the future of my novel-in-progress, by connecting them to the project in general, and to special surprise easter eggs through the metadata in particular (more on that in coming months). As a first step, the opening paragraph of BURN ALPHA (the text supported by $NOVEL) is emb

INTRODUCING KNOTS

**[KNOTS](https://knots.live) – An NFT project by [Emily Segal](https://twitter.com/khole_emily) and [Deluge Books](https://delugebooks.com)**

**Launching Friday, February 18, 2022 at [KNOTS.LIVE](https://knots.live)**

**Follow us on Twitter for updates: [@k_n_o_t_s_](https://twitter.com/k_n_o_t_s_)**

[Knot 6d60e4c4e5509ba71f079d22f687b105](https://view.knots.live/6d60e4c4e5509ba71f079d22f687b105/?display=iframe)

## WHAT IS IT?

***A collection of 720 unique three-dimensional knots, metaphysically activated and created with elements of chaos.***

Each 3D-rendered knot is embedded in a perfect feng shui sphere for maximal holder harmony. A four-directional minting process means each KNOT you get is energetically attuned to your aims. X-Y coordinates on the unknot determine a random seed which grants your knot. Additionally, the smart contract contains ancient formulae from a foundational text of Western magic, as designed by the team’s diviner and ritual specialist.

```
90 Knot Bodies
x Four Directions
x Multiple Qualities
x Two Sects
x Varying Ripenesses
= 720 unique KNOTS
```

*Each KNOT is an NFT represented by a webGL-based interactive 3D rendering, a 350 x 350 .gif, and a 2000 x 2000 .png.*

[Knot 31522129fbc8dd2dbf6a65c372018ede](https://view.knots.live/31522129fbc8dd2dbf6a65c372018ede/?display=iframe)

**KNOTS are a new experiment in literary Web 3.** A portion of each primary sale supports queer, trans, experimental and otherwise undersupported publishing projects via Deluge Books and 100% of secondary sales will go to Deluge Books as well. In addition to this, each KNOT ties you into the BURN ALPHA $NOVEL universe, initially launched in 2021 through a crowdfund on Mirror, becoming the first book to be crowdfunded on-chain. The first paragraph of Segal’s upcoming novel is embedded in the sphere surrounding each knot. Stay tuned for further cryptographic adventures through the KNOTS metadata and into BURN ALPHA.

Existing [$NOVEL](https://emily.mirror.xyz/0AFENlMKv9amUC1OJIZY26udpISw_raXkoEcvelPvzg) holders mint for free plus gas.

$FWB and $SCAMMER communities (and a handful of select others) are automatically pre-registered for the pre-sale.

## TEAM

[Emily Segal](https://emilysegal.net) – Writer, Artist, Publisher (Deluge Books)

[Violet Office]() – Graphic Design, 3D Rendering

[Wurmhumus Fabrik](https://wurmhumus-fabrik.net) – Web 3 Development

[Nemesis Global](https://nemesis.global) – Strategy and Communications

[Chris Reppucci]() – Divination, Ritual, Research

[Knot d5ff71c876fdd85aba5e68d8b7b6db33](https://view.knots.live/d5ff71c876fdd85aba5e68d8b7b6db33/?display=iframe)

## LAUNCHING FEBRUARY 18, 2022

7AM PT  / 10AM ET ::: $NOVEL HOLDERS FREE MINT OPENS

Special link will be distributed to $NOVEL holders

1 free knot for each existing $NOVEL holder as of Feb 11 (valid till all KNOTS are sold)

9AM PT / 12PM ET ::: PRE-SALE OPENS
Special link will be distributed to $FWB & $SCAMMER communities and select others

10AM PT / 1PM ET ::: KNOTS ON FWB RADIO HOUR

11AM PT / 2PM ET ::: PUBLIC MINTING OPENS

12PM PT / 3PM ET ::: KNOTS ON ZORA TWITTER SPACES

## FIND US

URL: [knots.live](https://knots.live)

Twitter: [@k_n_o_t_s_](https://twitter.com/k_n_o_t_s_)

Mirror: [emily.mirror.xyz](https://emily.mirror.xyz)

[https://discord.gg/9kYjpSMq](https://discord.gg/9kYjpSMq)

[Knot 75963a19bc553401332c3ec717618186](https://view.knots.live/75963a19bc553401332c3ec717618186/?display=iframe)

THREE POETRY NFTs ON FOLIA 

***NOTE: Thank you to everyone who bought these works! Follow me on Twitter at @khole_emily for news on next steps regarding the Deluge Books experiments in Web 3. These works are still available for viewing at [folia.app](https://www.folia.app/works/11)!***

## HELLO AND WELCOME

![](https://images.mirror-media.xyz/publication-images/1c7c81e2-1f3b-4380-bff7-dd22c85c3d77.png?height=1678&width=3030)

Today I’m very excited to launch three new works on [Folia](https://www.folia.app/works/11) – CODE OF HOLES,  PLASTIC BEACH and THE FUTURIST. These three NFT works are generative poems I created with new digital language models and algorithms, plus my own poetic composition. The proceeds from this Folia auction will be completely redistributed to queer, trans, experimental and undersupported writers as the first action of the Deluge Books DAO. [Deluge Books](https://delugebooks.com/) is the mass experimental queer literary press I run with collaborators in New York and Los Angeles (try to say that five times fast). Ever since I [crowdfunded my new book BURN ALPHA as $NOVEL](https://emily.mirror.xyz/0AFENlMKv9amUC1OJIZY26udpISw_raXkoEcvelPvzg) we have been excited about the possibilities of crypto, Mirror, and NFTs for generating new methods for sustaining original literary work. You can read a little more about my thoughts on that in [my interview in Decrypt](https://decrypt.co/68981/emily-segal-novel-crowdfund). Down the road, we are pumped about the possibility of crowdfunding for the Deluge DAO on Mirror and our own social token :) Feel free to reach out to me on Twitter at @khole_emily or at emily@delugebooks.com if you have thoughts or suggestions about that!

## MORE ABOUT THESE POETRY NFTs...

Last summer I started making an experimental series of language works that used AI, cut-ups and word generators as a form of divination. These poems are the product of that process.

I have always been inspired by William Burroughs and Bryon Gysin’s ideas around how cutting up a text could generate visions of the future or flashes of a deeper truth. When a chaos element got introduced by slicing something up and rescrambling it, the deeper meaning of the words could show up on the surface of the new arrangement. This new layer of meaning could be poetic or divinatory. I've always been interested in divination, and especially since my job as "trend forecaster" is a kind of tacky contempo version of divination, it's interesting to me to mix the various spheres where divination goes down: astrology, tarot, cut-ups, data dives, pattern recognition, etc. Introducing randomness in poetic composition has been a persistent theme since Tristan Tzara and Dada, through the Surrealists, hypertext poets and beyond.

Over the summer of 2020, my friend K Allado-Macdowell got their hands on a pilot version of GPT-3, the language model. (Eventually they helped [my project Nemesis write our DOOM! trend report](https://nemesis.global/memos/the-doom-report) using it.) While K started writing an amazing book using GPT-3 at warp speed ([Pharmako-AI, now published by Ignota, here](https://ignota.org/products/pharmako-ai)) they meanwhile indulged me by running fragments of my own poetry and existing poems by writers I loved through the machine, generating text for me to play with. It was all rather astounding and addictive and I looked for a way to work with it directly, since the real thing was only for researchers at the time.

Luckily, that’s when I found out that a game called AI Dungeon, which is a browser-based text roleplaying game, supposedly used GPT-3 as the basis for its premium version, and you could use it to generate texts if you paid the $9/month. So I started making poems using AI dungeon, dodging its role-player-ish verbiage most of the time and trying to get it to present some far-out truths, which it did.

![](https://images.mirror-media.xyz/publication-images/ad9d3716-e893-42e6-9bb7-a0bbf3f5bc11.png?height=1590&width=1588)

One of my early

CROWDFUND A $NOVEL: BURN ALPHA


***NOTE: This crowdfund is now closed! I'm incredibly grateful! In order to keep in touch, reach out to me with your Ethereum address on Twitter at @khole_emily after you've contributed (at this point, I am obsessed with you, which is a plus!)***

### Here we go...

Welcome to a new experiment: using crypto to crowdfund my new novel, working title BURN ALPHA. The supporters of $NOVEL would be the first of their kind, since no other novels have ever been created this way, in the history of literary culture :) 

[BURN ALPHA NOVEL](crowdfund://0x95d0A89943E0e3e05d290Fc07462c148EB6a11Ff?network=homestead)

## BURN ALPHA $NOVEL supporters will receive:  

### TIER ONE: Everyone

- Stake in manuscript excerpt from Act 1 of BURN ALPHA which will be posted on Mirror and minted as an NFT
- Stake in the first edition NFT sale of the full book (this comes later, of course)
- Mention in the book’s acknowledgments, along with my massive gratitude!

### TIER TWO: .5 ETH +

All of the above, plus...

- Special supporter-only limited edition hardcover copy of BURN ALPHA
- Limited edition supporter-only BURN ALPHA merch
- Access to periodic supporter-only readings of manuscript in process


### TIER THREE: 1.5 ETH +

All of the above, plus...

One on one call with me: either a chat about writing, a chat about whatever is on your mind, or a tarot / astrology reading 

Sneak peek of the full finished manuscript before anyone else

### More about this project:


Usually, novelists go to great lengths to fund their own novel-writing process by working other gigs, selling commercial writing, or – in significantly fewer cases – getting an advance from a publishing company. All of these methods have drawbacks, in the forms of limited time or limited creative freedom for the author. On top of that, the process of creating these works of art goes on behind a veil of secrecy, away from the community that will ultimately enjoy the final product. As an author and publisher, I’d like to change all that. This crowdfund will take us one step closer to a better future for writers and readers everywhere. 

I am so stoked to immerse myself more deeply in writing my second book and to share it with all of you.

Phew! Without further ado...



### The Book:

My novel-in-progress BURN ALPHA is a homoerotic teen thriller about a group of three girls at an elite New York City private school who stumble into busting a global sex trafficking ring related to their school and ultimately shut the school down, set in the mid-2000s in NYC. There is also an esoteric/supernatural element that informs how they gather information and fight the power – that part is related to Goetic magic, but it wouldn’t be very occult if I spilled it all here. 

![](https://images.mirror-media.xyz/publication-images/4c4c8322-1fa8-4d91-a8f8-629d56413991.png?height=1630&width=1056)

The book-writing process was inspired by my fascination with the [very strange, real 1973 Sci Fi book Space Relations by Donald Barr](https://www.vice.com/en/article/qvgpm3/epstein-truthers-are-obsessed-with-a-sci-fi-book-about-child-sex-slavery-written-by-bill-barrs-dad) – who was the headmaster of the Dalton School in New York where Jeffrey Epstein got his first gig (incidentally, Epstein was my mom’s high school math teacher). 

![](https://video-images.vice.com/articles/5d56c6ec4d02ea00084d5162/lede/1565968446993-0-5.jpeg)



The vibe of BURN ALPHA is candy critique: Q Anon meets Umberto Eco meets Gossip Girl. My first novel was [Mercury Retrograde (2020)](https://delugebooks.com/collections/books), which was a New York Times New and Notable Book (!) and was released through [Deluge](https://delugebooks.com/), a press I run with collaborators in New York and Los Angeles ([more press links and info here](https://delugebooks.com/pages/links)). 

![](https://images.mirror-media.xyz/publication-images/df270ae5-1111-4265-bf77-4619d1a2213e.png?height=1078&width=1072)


BURN ALPHA would be the second installment in a 