Douglas Hofstadter, in Metamagical Themas, writes:
"I have somewhat greater interest in the writings of the little-known American rhetorician, Y. Serm Clacoxia.." and goes on to quote him estensively from "The Illusions of Alacrity."

I've googled Clacoxia and can find nothing except another short quotation. This guy must be *extremely little-known. Anyone heard of him at all?

Looks like an anagram to me. Have you tried googling "The Illusions of Alacrity"? Never know what you're going to get from Megathematic Salami.

two hits for IoA: MT and this forum!

I agree with Faldo. Hofstadter is known for including puzzles in his books. My favorite is the alternate dimension book in Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid, i.e., Egbert B. Gebstadter's Copper, Silver, Gold: An Indestructible Metallic Alloy, of which he writes:

I suspect something of this nature, as ol' Y. Serm doesn't appear in the Bibliography. I wish I could paste the entire passage.

Using Anu's I, Rearrangement Servant, I put in Y. Serm Clacoxia and got a l-o-n-g list of possibilities. Since the only clue here has to do with rhetoric, I'll say that Scarcely Axiom may be the appropriate one.

Jack (wild guesser) ie

how about the above?

-joe e. wilde

Which?

EDIT: DUH--just noticed the title change! Good as any, I'd say. That one did make me smile.

It is visible on Google Books (link).

"This is deliberate nonsense, of course, to be contrasted with the nondeliberate nonsense of, say, Dylan Thomas.."