Lament from the Sea, New Method! f2r

[bunny]

JKP makes a very good point. Humans want to make sense of things when they are overwhelmed.  This happens when we see MS Beinecke 408, because we don't understand much of it. It happens with images, but also with narratives and interpretations of complex phenomena. This is why conspiracy theories are basically all the same. Why religions are basically all the same. Why a devastating wave of populism is spreading across the western world in these days of economic uncertainty and mass migration.

It's human nature. We look for an explanation, an easy solution. And those solutions are often the same, because we all have the same primate brains in our skulls.

In science, we try to shield ourselves from those biases that are present in all of our minds. We impose upon ourselves rigorous methods and limitations. If we, knowingly or not, cast off the armor of science, we all get exposed to the same human biases. That is why so many Voynich "theories" smell the same. They are reached by following the path of least resistance, and rushing towards the comfort of catch-all solutions.

That is why in so many solutions you get semi-grammatical strings of words that don't really tell much, but still enough to allow one to form some kind of narrative. Research into historical practice, custom and linguistics is not necessary, because the tools of science have been left at the entrance.

Open up an online scan of a "normal" English manuscript from the 15th century. Read it. Translate it. Notice that you get in trouble in the first line, and are not able to do it without consulting other sources.  That is why I have a hard time taking serious all those people who claim that they can translate paragraphs from the VM at a whim.

I'm not it's all on a whim and some have been very esteemed figures and worked for a long time on the manuscript. 

It is true as you explain that it does become hard instantly to translate even a normal manuscript beyond the first line, a word standing alone may not have the context meant understood and some may be the same words with different alternative meanings sending the translator off on the wrong mind set from the start.  This is all agreed on, and that there is no comparative manuscript makes it all the more difficult to follow the process through.  It does not explain how poetry for example rather than semi-grammatical strings of words are part of the findings and the labels which often seem to match the images produced by a consistent method. 

Each to their own though, and it should really not bother anyone who thinks it is not a serious approach.  On the subject of pure science and traditional academic approach though, there does seem to be enough solid plant identifications put forwards that should have made approaching the text in a traditional manner.  Not sure why this has not been seized on more yet and why possible results not put forwards. 

Bunny