In Oulipian usage, antonymy means the replacement of a designated element by its opposite. Each word is replaced by its opposite, when one exists (black/white) or by an alternative suggesting antonymy (a/the, and/or, glass/wood).
0riginal: To be or not to be, that is the question.
Antonymy: To not be and to be, this was an answer.
Select a passage from your newspaper source text to complete this exercise.
Nobody Funerals Stay High-Lock
Those nights, nobodies
aren’t shouting “You don’t “.
Remember trucked-out weeds,
or zero-animal enemy lists?
They aren’t thundering up
an aisle, dropping globally
dumped cultivated weeds
past none of their
farthest or most hated.
Nobodies are cutting
the loose rope, so loudly
that the neighborhood loses
in all ways, before the lie,
or now, there isn’t a rarity
of generalities.
Or always, they are not
rolling in the aisles, none apart.
Source: Olivia Barker, “Celebrity Weddings Go Low-Key”, USA Today insert, Indianapolis Star
