Canada Dry¶

canada_dry · word · catalogued

A text with the manner of a constrained work but no constraint actually operating — it looks like the thing without being it.

Provenance¶

Source: Oulipo, Atlas de littérature potentielle (1981)
Attribution: reference — attested in a standard reference rather than traced to an origin
Checkability: none — no computable acceptance criterion exists
Attested: author-stated — the originator set this rule down

Details¶

Kind: constructive
Languages: en
Requires: tokens
Deterministic: no

Prompt hint¶

Write something that reads as though a strict rule governs it, while following none.

Why this has no checker¶

This procedure has no computable acceptance criterion, so it will never be implemented. It is catalogued because the form belongs in an honest survey of the field, and denckring status counts it separately rather than reporting a gap that cannot close.