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I'm not a forgotten philosophy


plasmid
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I'm born of scholars' toil long

Forsaken, no longer germane

My time has come, my time has gone

Anon it is coming again

My words now few will understand

They're twisted obscuring the truth

And so they spread throughout the land

Discernment requiring a sleuth

In downward spiral, chaos calls

Destroying the orderly life

Until the ruler finally falls

Thus bringing and end to this strife

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This one's not about a revolution or social unrest except perhaps in a very tangential sort of way; I tend to riddle about more tangible stuff. Neither about Revelations, even though it's not a "forgotten" philosophy I would still consider it too close to the title's exclusion. I didn't have a cicada in mind, and am not clearly seeing how to stretch the metaphor that much, although maybe it would be possible. Also not about a yo-yo, I can clearly see how it would fit lines 3-4 and the last stanza, but less so the middle.

It's funny that you should ask if the answer could be history. Well, yes actually. The answer could be history. That's not the answer to the riddle though. This bizarre and perhaps frustrating statement will become clear once the answer is discerned.

I haven't used mobile devices, but I suspect that you could type

[spoiler=" " with a close bracket, then your text, then [/spoiler with a close bracket to make stuff appear inside a spoiler.

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I can understand how a encryption in general and a Caesar cipher in particular would fit much of this well. If the answer were specifically a Caesar cipher, then I'd have trouble explaining the clue about how its time has come again. If the answer were encryption in general, then the last stanza about a downward spiral and ruler falling would be left hanging. Perhaps "wartime encryption" would work, although I tend to avoid stuff so intangible as an answer.

It's also not an epidural or subdural hematoma. The stone age neurosurgeons were remarkable, but craniotomies would involve old blood and possibly clots falling rather than rulers.

Old languages were brought up at one point, but were something I felt was too close to the title's exclusion of a forgotten philosophy to be a satisfying answer.

If it's time for hinting yet

a big step in solving this one is not finding a figurative interpretation in place of a literal statement, it's using a literal interpretation instead of a figurative one

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I like the nucleic acid answers. A double helix and mRNA secondary structure are good literal interpretations of the twisted words. They're not what I had in mind. The part about my time coming and going and coming again is an important clue that doesn't clearly apply to a mutation, unless you're a molecular biologist who understands mismatch repair machinery, something I wouldn't want to have as a requisite background for a riddle answer. It would've been fair game if I asked this to my lab though. mRNA likewise is relatively quickly degraded and resynthesized to fit the first stanza, but would be a tougher fit for the last.

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chain email (i.e u know that ptless mail that everyone gets telling u to pass it on or u get sucked up by alien cows and then die of course-_-'..... u know that nonsense) but i can't see how it would fit everyth which is why i know it's wrong but hey why not

:P
Edited by guppy
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Still nothing barking up the right tree, so it might be time for

The clues that would likely be most helpful in pointing towards what I've got in mind are the one about words being twisted, and to a lesser degree spread around.

The bit about scholars' toil that's no longer germane might also help some.

Less useful would be the clue about a downward spiral (unless the correct interpretation of the phrase is used) and about the ruler falling (unless the correct definition of ruler is used).

The part about its time coming and going and coming again will probably only make sense after you know what the answer is already.

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Not a geometric proof. Perhaps there is one out there that might fit this particularly well, but none come to mind. Neither a top or dradle or such stuff, nor a telephone as the machine would have trouble fitting the last stanza and the game the first stanza. Gravity's time hasn't come and gone and come again; and while that would be true for orbits, the orbits wouldn't have been forsaken and no longer germane.

Will try to add some more hints to those from post 44 when I am not so sleepy from a brutal weekend.

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