I like Noodle incidents (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/NoodleIncident),
I like that they allude to something that went on that a whole bunch of people
know nothing about. I like books, and I
like it when you have something that gets your interest because it’s got
layers.
I very much like things like the Grail diary of Henry Jones Junior
because it suggests that someone has put time into it, and rather than wanting
to put all the details in different books and risk losing parts of them, they
put them all in a single book and put notes and clippings and things they find
along the way in the book so that they
won’t lose them.
With this in mind, when I first learned of the book of S, I was
intrigued by the concept that had been put forwards. Here was a book that was first and foremost a
novel by V.M.Straka, but more than that, it is also a set of key notes that
have been handwritten into the book by two students studying it, together with
postcards and notes from what they’ve found of it and how they’re looking at
the different things in it.
The first point to note is that this book is beautiful, and not from an illustration point of view, the writing
that’s been chosen to represent the people writing in the margins of the book
is neat, but it’s been done in such a way that it looks to have been
handwritten (and indeed, the proof for the book may well have been), and it has
the spacing that suggests the mind behind it was organised as well.
Then there’s the colourings of the inks in the margins, each of them
done to denote a different time at which the writings were made. It gives the book and the conspiracy it
represents a weight not apparent in most books, you get the feeling from
looking through it that this book has travelled between people and that
conversations were had at various points in the book despite the idea that to
have so many conversations between so many different people would have had the
book in circulation for years and
would be almost impossible when there would be so many easier ways of
communicating rather than writing down the details of things in a book that
would then have to be passed on to someone else and then back and so on.
The thing is that when you have the finished thing in your hand, you become a part of the conspiracy that
the book represents, and from my own experience of having props like this in
games and events that I’ve played in, I know the fascination for finding out
what has happened with these things and how this astonishing piece of work came
to be in your hands.
The Book itself is sealed, the slip case is secured by a bound seal
that can be cut along the perforations, but I was so excited to get into the
book that I got the knife and went straight down the side of it, such was the
interest I found in this.
Within...
Well...
What can I say...
Clippings, charts, letters, postcards...
Back in the late nineties, someone came up with an idea that they would
set a puzzle so fiendish that none could solve it and called it the Merlin
Mystery. The problem was that all the
puzzles were visual and if you’re no good at them, you might as well count
yourself out of the running straight away.
With this, you’ve got to spend the time reading, you’ve got to put the page time in to get everything out of it
and while I’m sure that the final solution to the book is known only to JJ
Abrams and Doug Dorst, it’s not the actual solution that matters with things like
this, it’s what you get out of them while you’re looking through the book. Those who need a story that hangs together
and reads well in all the different parts of it may be disappointed. The novel isn’t so strong a read as to make
for a good book by itself, but when you tie in all the other parts of it and
start to look at the other things that are presented and the possibilities
therein, it comes into it’s own. I’ve
said it before and I’ll say it again, you have to put the time in on this one,
if you’re just going to pick it up and read it like any other book, you’ll be
disappointed, save yourself the time, leave it.
If you’re willing to put in the time and see what the whole package is
about, rather than just the book or just the side story, you’ll find a lot of
interesting things in there. There’s a number of conclusions written regarding
the book itself, and if you’re planning on getting the book.
Don’t read them...
Because the point of this book isn’t that it’s a novel or a story to be
told, the point of this book is that like any story, it’s a journey that’s being taken, at various
points in time with various places and people involved.
It’s also formed the basis for how adventures are going to be done in my
new game Quest, but more on that later in the week.
For now, a very interesting book, I’ll post more when I’ve had chance
to go over it again and cross confirm all I had thought, but it’s worth it just
for the ideas that are given within the physicality of the book itself.
