M is for Nottingham?  

Written Text of the Discussion List:

 M is for Nottingham? was experimental not only in the conception but also in the execution.  Helen Whitehead experimented with several different design formats for the Web Board Discussion List - both in the beta stages and during the actual writing.  The entire text runs to some 350 printed pages - consisting of several different threads.  Some of the threads were popular, others elicited little response.  The following selections give a good idea of the material that sustained the story development.  You can see here, too, the difficulty of representing a multi-threaded, hypermedia message board in linear text!

Pages: 1 . 2 . 3 . Return to Table of Contents

the page was headed by:

M is for Nottingham? // First, create your character // Here we are writing the story. 

Thread:  Looking for Clues

Posted by Kate Pullinger (62.253.64.7) on April 23, 2002 at 02:01:00:

I saw a book lying on the bank of the river Trent. It had been ravaged by slavering readers and then cast aside. Its pages were coming out, it had lost its slipcover, in places the words were blurred, illegible.

Was this a clue? Or was it simply life?

Posted by The White Lady (62.254.0.8) on April 30, 2002 at 13:32:16:

In Reply to: looking for clues posted by Kate Pullinger on April 23, 2002 at 02:01:00:

It was my book....I knew I had left it somewhere. I carried it with me as I followed David Herbert - he was abstracted, remembering a lost love - but even a ghost can slip down a bank and the steep cliffs by Clifton Grove were too steep for me. I saved myself but lost my book forever. It is all disaster, no other books can I bring to my non-corporeal world. It was by Byron....

The White Lady

Posted by Robin Hood (63.201.209.65) on May 08, 2002 at 04:22:09:

In Reply to: Re: looking for clues posted by The White Lady on April 30, 2002 at 13:32:16:

Ah, The White Lady has appeared! I have scarcely ever seen her in the real world, a retiring ghost, she is.
But now, here, she mentions a book by Byron. I wonder if this book is from the Newstead Abbey library?
and is it DEAD, if it is wet and torn? And the Lady? Does she live?

Posted by The White Lady (152.71.43.249) on May 14, 2002 at 08:28:33:

In Reply to: Re: looking for clues posted by Robin Hood on May 08, 2002 at 04:22:09:

The book comes not from Newstead but from a different library, one that did not exist when I did live in your world.

Yet perhaps one can say that I still live, but in a different world, a place of shadows and multiples which the "living" cannot see. And so I see the Book and its Death more clearly than the common multitude of flesh beings.

Posted by Richard the Lionheart (194.217.194.139) on May 13, 2002 at 11:42:58:

In Reply to: Re: looking for clues posted by Robin Hood on May 08, 2002 at 04:22:09:

Returning from the Crusades I heard a mystic tell of the death of the book, but as the book was locked in my trunk I knew at least this book was not dead. For me it lived each night, told by a songbird in silk

Posted by Richard the Lionheart (194.217.194.139) on May 13, 2002 at 11:54:12:

Verily this is indeed magical. I scribe and my words disappear. Is this really the death of the book or just the written word? So I scribe again.
Returning from the Crusades a mystic tells me of the death of the book, but I know this cannot be for I have the book safely under lock and key and at night a songbird reads to me. But I will travel to Nottingham to see for myself what lies beside the Trent. Until then ...

People in the Forest

Posted by Robin Hood (63.201.209.59) on May 15, 2002 at 04:53:30:

Yo! and welcome to the Merry Mystery Testers come wandering through the Forest, slipping in to the caves,
and peering about!  Be ye sure to watch your arrows carefully - and you, King Richard, think ye not safe here with
your Lackalnd brother, John, so close about! And what do ye all find?

Clues

Posted by Richard the Lionheart (194.217.194.139) on May 15, 2002 at 07:40:22:

Now that Robin has laid the letters bare, and when the whole wide world tugs the net, where do Kings and outlaws sit: to play the game or watch as onlookers, supping mead, knowingly?

Posted by Robin Hood (63.202.106.35) on May 15, 2002 at 14:29:02:

In Reply to: Clues posted by Richard the Lionheart on May 15, 2002 at 07:41:12:

Ah, ye King. Be thou assured - wherever you take your leisure, there I will find you.
Be it the Trip to Jerusalem or the shade of the River Walk - Hail.

Ned Ludd About

Posted by Robin Hood (63.201.208.145) on May 18, 2002 at 05:49:47:

I have notice this day that a new sleuth has been seen about these parts - wakened by ghosts, come to life again!
The spectre of old Ned Ludd - King Ludd they called him - originator of the Luddites.
Verily, we welcome him - a friend of the oppressed, a defender of the dispossesed. His very presence suggests clues about our crime. A man, I would venture, who has been nearly written out of official history.
Have any of you see him yet?

Posted by Richard the Lionheart (194.217.194.139) on May 18, 2002 at 13:43:19:

I know something about this Ned Ludd - Beware!

Thread: Re(1): The Book may be aged but not dead
P: 62.254.0.8
Posted on June 9, 2002 at 09:28:49 AM by The White Lady

This day gone, I read a rare treat! A book that was printed 300 years before I was born - over 400 years before this present day. Laertii Diogenis Vitae et sententiae eorum qui in philosophia probati fuerunt, or, Lives of the philosophers by Diogenes Laertius, printed in 1475 by Nicholas Jenson in Venice, one of the first books printed in Roman (rather than German) type. (See a page here displayed.) 
I am not good at reading Latin - only so much as I picked up from my brothers' tutors, but it seems to me that even
centuries later this type jumps off the page. And so, as well as the book I handled, there are other copies in Australia, America and Scotland. I'd say this book was far
from dead. 

Sophia Hyatt

 

IP: 62.254.0.8
Posted on June 9, 2002 at 09:30:04 AM by Joan Flower


Thou speakest truth, White Lady, but another truth there is, that even when the book was printed and made public it was dead to such as were not schooled. Even were I or my daughters privileged to hear it read aloud it would not have been alive for us as we had no Latin. Furthermore I have heard it said that in this age of Incubation 2 that the English people who receive great universal education cannot understand the English of the age I lived in and would have even the Holy Bible in English as authorised by the monarch James 1st written again and the same with the prayer book of my generation. 

Pray though you learned gentry and you Great Richard can we have a definition of what is a book before we go on our journey otherwise I think we shall just be here on a play of words.

Re(1): and others who were trustworthy in philosophy 
IP: 62.254.0.8
Posted on June 9, 2002 at 09:30:47 AM by Joan Flowers

Greetings White Lady, 
And I see thou sharest, even while a wandering soul, my misfortune while living. If thou canst not interpret this Latin then of a surety this book is dead to you as 'book' albeit that as paper and ink that has survived the many years it lives as treasured object. Yet I warrant that a tapestry of that age would live more for you as message and 'true book' ( a proposal much as I, who hates all sewing am reluctant to put forward). However for those that understand it it is not dead - but how many in this age of Incubation 2 would claim to interpret it. Tell me why is Latin claimed to be a 'dead' language although there be some that still understande it? Would this be a clue to
the 'dead' book? 

Re(1): and others who were trustworthy in philosophy 
IP: 62.254.0.8
Posted on June 9, 2002 at 09:31:10 AM by Robin Hood

Joan - perhaps it is the "true book" that we seek, after all. But you are a witch, and the White Lady a ghost - and 
even Richard the Lionheart and Mighty and Ned are apparitions from the past (like yours truly) - what then, for us, would constitute the true book of value? Surely not the Latin that we do not ken - nor a system handed down that we do not understand.  No! I believe it might be the Book of the Future - one with many truths, many voices, and access by all. 
What say? 
Robin Hood 

Re(2): and others who were trustworthy in philosophy 
IP: 62.254.0.8
Posted on June 9, 2002 at 09:32:43 AM by Mighty - Jack the Ripper's dog

Yes, Robin that is what I yearn for, the book of the future, accessible by all - what a fine and fancy proposition. 
I love the special nature of the published and bound word, the feel of the paper, the smell of the cover, taste of the print as I sniffs it out. Paper books and reading need not be a dying marriage, but surely there is also room for this new and
passionate lover, which has been created by time? 

Perhaps our journey will find no death, but just the presence of another birth? Where to now...oh what larks?

Re(2): and others who were trustworthy in philosophy 
IP: 62.254.0.8
Posted on June 9, 2002 at 09:31:33 AM by Ned Ludd

I am lost in this conversation and lost in this world. For the last few days I've been wandering the canalside falling in mud and filling my mouth with rain. I remember just two real books in my life - The Bible and Foxe's Book of Martyrs for the rest it was tracts and posters. I never had the latin or trusted those who did. 

I thought I was brought back to look for the truth but now I see how it shifts from generation to generation I begin to think
a book is too solid a thing to hold it. 

Re(3): and others who were trustworthy in philosophy 
IP: 62.254.0.8
Posted on June 9, 2002 at 09:31:56 AM by Joan Flowers

Now here is a conundrum. I too am a wandering spirit so can I yet be called witch? 
With regard to 'the book' methinks thou hast the right of it there. "Accessible to all" Aye I must explore the institutions of Nottingham in this time of Incubation2 or perhaps White Lady thou hast the knowledge of this, but I have seen in the most fair county of Leicestershire where mostly I wander that this Internet is free as the air to all inhabitants of that county (and visitors thereto) in those places of serenity known as 'the public libraries' 

However I have heard tell that this is not so across the face of Gaea so this true acessibility lies still in the future. 

I have heard also that there be many throughout the nations whose minds function not in the same channels as the
majority, known maybe untruly as dyslexics, persons who can gain access to knowledge more aptly from the screen than from the vellum or paper, so here too this multimedia should be counted as accessibility. 

Mayhaps it is not that the book is dead but that the book as does the caterpiller morphs to something with added powers. 

Re(4): and others who were trustworthy in philosophy 
IP: 62.254.0.8
Posted on June 9, 2002 at 09:33:06 AM by Joan Flowers




Perhaps we should be asking now "Is the butterfly still a caterpiller?" 

Re(5): and others who were trustworthy in philosophy 
IP: 62.254.0.8
Posted on June 9, 2002 at 09:33:30 AM by Joan Flowers

Or more aptly "Is the caterpiller dead when it transforms?" 

Re(6): and others who were trustworthy in philosophy 
IP: 62.254.0.8
Posted on June 12, 2002 at 05:21:24 AM by Suleiman bin Da'oud, King of Israel

Hail fellow sleuths, 

This mystery of the book has brought me to this fine gathering. 

My credentials? I am renowned for my detective work, which relies more on psychology than on physical clues. You may recall the case I solved where two mothers claimed the same baby? 

I am also a writer. The saying though that the book belongs to the reader more than the writer is particularly apt for me. I wrote an extensive love poem in my youth where I dwelt at some length, as young men do, on the glory of my lover’s
mammary glands. That poem is now enshrined in the sacred book of two great religions, many of whose readers would
condemn the poem as obscene if it appeared alone on a library shelf under a different title. 

This is my judgement . Sacred books are far from dead, in this time of Incubation2. Wars between nations are still being
fought to convince the opponents of the readers of one sacred book of its superiority to others. While these wars last the books, alas, are not dead. The readers of three sacred books honour me and yet they discard, as heresy, my philosophy of religious tolerance. 

Re(7): and others who were trustworthy in philosophy 
IP: 194.154.188.106
Posted on June 22, 2002 at 09:48:37 AM by The Queen Eleanor

Your proclamation comes late to my eyes. Who is this who says that the book is dead. The universe will die first. The book can never die, for how shall future generations learn, about anything, let alone about us, Sulieman. 
Your name has always conjured up exoticism in my mind, When I journey to your country, I hope to rendesvous with you in the desert, where we can be alone - as alone as you and I can be. Ah no, I will not be denied the pleasure of turning the page in a book, or keying, or gazing at the words on a board. Here is a magnum of madeira for you, sir. Drink, drink, be forever filled with mirth and live long in happiness. 

Mary Percival

To Queen Eleanor
IP: 62.254.0.8
Posted on June 22, 2002 at 05:55:49 PM by Suleiman bin Da'oud, King of Israel

Beauteous Queen, Wouldst do me the honour of being my 1001st wife? I will allow thee a chapel of thine own in my palace grounds where thou mayst worship thy saints according to the customs of thy land and I will refrain from writing to thee the lewd poetry of my youth.

Replies:
There have been no replies.

 

Hail fellow spirits


IP: 62.254.0.8
Posted on June 9, 2002 at 09:34:19 AM by Julian of Norwich

Hail fellow spirits, I would wish to be in oneness with ye before I wander on. If thou wouldst know more of me when I lived the world of water, earth, air and fire I pray thee seek out this this site on that great internet which once again is bringing back the booke to life. 

A small offering I make to this learned discussion. The booke, as I feel it in my heart, near died in those centuries when folk no longer took time to pen the words on good vellum and parchment or to illustrate them in living colours to the greater glory of God, but in their impatience banged soulless metal onto flimsy paper in dreary black on white. Now is the colour and life being renewed. Fare thee well and my blessings on your search.

http://www.umilta.net/julian.html

Replies:
There have been no replies.

Looking for clues

Re(5): Looking for clues
IP: 62.254.0.8
Posted on June 18, 2002 at 06:00:20 PM by Anonymous

White lady,

Am I right in thinking that two people have lost items in the river that flows through Snottingham Vale. first the Gamekeeper with his brownpaper parcel and then yourself with Byron's works, and the book thou found was not the one thou lost?

 

Re(6): Looking for clues
IP: 62.254.0.8
Posted on June 18, 2002 at 06:07:42 PM by White Lady

I know nothing of a gamekeeper.... nor of a Lady Chatterley. That is not the book I read.

I did lose a book of Byron's poetry one day on the river bank as I followed D. H. on a tryst with his love. The book I brought not from Newstead, but from a library much nearer, close to the top of the cliffs overlooking the river bank. There where scholars toil and they have a building named not for my Byron but for his strange daughter.

Sophia

D.H's Tryst

 

Thread: A Marion but not a maid?

A Marion but not a maid?
IP: 62.254.0.8
Posted on June 9, 2002 at 09:16:22 AM by Robin Hood

Hail! Richard the Lionheart, Ned Ludd, Mighty, and the
White Lady -
I have heard that we will be joined by a new Marion -
the Gun-Maker's Daughter - soon. A Marion, but one
of the real world, 94 years old!
Let us save a seat for her as we plan our forays!
Robin

 

Re(1): A Marion but not a maid?
IP: 62.189.107.1
Posted on June 15, 2002 at 05:56:40 AM by Marion


Robin, you are too kind. Would that I could join you at table, and at the picnic with the White Lady. She it is who knows where the gun is hidden - deep in the Green Road. But I am too old now, dozing and dreaming at my window-seat. And though my years are 94, yet I still feel myself to be 19. It was then that I knew Frieda Lawrence, you know. She - who inspired books - also inspired me.

 

Re(2): A Marion but not a maid?
IP: 62.254.0.8
Posted on June 15, 2002 at 08:09:26 AM by The White Lady

Tell us how she inspired you, Marion....

I, of course, had my own muse. His death at Missalonghi was the greatest sadness of my life.

Thinking on it, I am not sure the weapon was a gun -- I think indifference and neglect can be even more potent an agent of destruction.

Sophia

 

Thread: and others who were trustworthy in philosophy

Continued from June 9

 

Re(6): and others who were trustworthy in philosophy
IP: 62.254.0.8
Posted on June 12, 2002 at 05:21:24 AM by Suleiman bin Da'oud, King of Israel

Hail fellow sleuths,

This mystery of the book has brought me to this fine gathering.

My credentials?
I am renowned for my detective work, which relies more on psychology than on physical clues. You may recall the case I solved where two mothers claimed the same baby?

I am also a writer. The saying though that the book belongs to the reader more than the writer is particularly apt for me. I wrote an extensive love poem in my youth where I dwelt at some length, as young men do, on the glory of my lover’s mammary glands. That poem is now enshrined in the sacred book of two great religions, many of whose readers would condemn the poem as obscene if it appeared alone on a library shelf under a different title.

This is my judgement . Sacred books are far from dead, in this time of Incubation2. Wars between nations are still being fought to convince the opponents of the readers of one sacred book of its superiority to others. While these wars last the books, alas, are not dead.
The readers of three sacred books honour me and yet they discard, as heresy, my philosophy of religious tolerance.

 

Re(7): and others who were trustworthy in philosophy
IP: 194.154.188.106
Posted on June 22, 2002 at 09:48:37 AM by The Queen Eleanor


Your proclomation comes late to my eyes.
Who is this who says that the book is dead. The universe will die first. The book can never die, for how shall future generations learn, about anything, let alone about us, Sulieman.
Your name has always conjured up exoticism in my mind, When I journey to your country, I hope to rendevous with you in the desert, where we can be alone,as alone as you and I can be. Ah no, I will not be denighed the pleasure of turning the page in a book, or keying, or gazing at the words on a board. Here is a magnum of madeira for you, sir. Drink, drink, be forever filled with mirth and live long in happiness.

 

 

To Queen Eleanor
IP: 62.254.0.8
Posted on June 22, 2002 at 05:55:49 PM by Suleiman bin Da'oud, King of Israel

Beauteous Queen,
Wouldst do me the honour of being my 1001st wife? I will allow thee a chapel of thine own in my palace grounds where thou mayst worship thy saints according to the customs of thy land and I will refrain from writing to thee the lewd poetry of my youth

 

Re(7): and others who were trustworthy in philosophy
IP: 62.254.0.8
Posted on June 13, 2002 at 11:59:38 AM by Joan Flower

Great Solomon thou dost commit greater blasphemy than any that folk
did accuse me of when I was known as witch.

 

Re(8): and others who were trustworthy in philosophy
IP: 62.254.0.8
Posted on June 13, 2002 at 12:02:42 AM by Suleiman bi Da'oud

How so, Dame Joan?

 

Re(9): and others who were trustworthy in philosophy
IP: 62.254.0.8
Posted on June 13, 2002 at 12:07:22 AM by Joan Flower

When thou didst say,
"While these wars last the books are not dead", that to my ears was blasphemy


Re(11): and others who were trustworthy in philosophy
IP: 63.201.208.207
Posted on June 13, 2002 at 01:30:44 PM by Robin Hood


King Solomon, son of David, begging thy
humble pardon.
Here, as sleuths in Nottingham, all
characters must be considered equal -
One law is tied to the land, one to the
crown, one to the Sky -
but our rules are self-generated,
our exporations free and unhindered.
The lowly witch, the rebel, Ludd,
dogs and elves and ghosts,
all free to pursue the Word and the
Book as we can.
Perhaps that is the real secret of
the Book - the preservation of the
voice that is otherwise lost.

 

Re(12): and others who were trustworthy in philosophy
IP: 62.254.0.8
Posted on June 14, 2002 at 07:22:17 PM by Joan Flower,

Brave Robin, I thank thee for thy championship, and yet methinks that what thou hast to say in favour of the book is mistaken. For the book is more apt to preserve the voice of cleric and king than humble peasantry.

 

Re(13): and others who were trustworthy in philosophy
IP: 62.254.0.8
Posted on June 14, 2002 at 07:24:56 PM by Joan Flower

Now gentles all, I am off to Newstead Abbey to sup with the White Lady. Are the rest of you of a mind to accept her invitation?

 



Thread: Thoth

Thoth
IP: 62.254.0.8
Posted on June 9, 2002 at 09:35:00 AM by Thoth

Hail, wraiths and mortals, I am Thoth, great god of writing and learning. Harken to my message for you:

http://homepages.webleicester.co.uk/mandate/priestmessage/hiero.htm

 

 

Re(1): Thoth
IP: 63.201.209.0
Posted on June 12, 2002 at 09:39:15 AM by Robin Hood


Dear Thoth -
we would hope that you would not leave
us just yet. Remember how long you
worked on the problem of succession
in Egypt? All that hassle beteen Horus
and Seth? - our Mystery is equally
in need of your attention!

 

Re(2): Thoth
IP: 62.254.0.8
Posted on June 12, 2002 at 07:04:59 PM by Thoth

I will come at your courteous request, Brave Robin, of my own accord but will not be conjured by that Joan Flower. Her magic has a an unpleasant stench of cat urine from her aging Rutterkin, who could well learn manners from noble Egyptian cats

 

Re(3): Thoth
IP: 63.201.208.207
Posted on June 13, 2002 at 01:33:10 PM by Robin Hood


Great Thoth -
will you come Sunday this, to our
chat? We can then discuss the
issues you raise.
When the Gods ferry across the sky,
let us be in the Barque.

 

Re(1): Thoth
IP: 62.254.0.8
Posted on June 9, 2002 at 09:35:25 AM by Joan Flowers

Great Thoth I conjure thee to atay a while and explain this mystery. In turns of the orbit of the sun when dost thou say that the book didst die?

 

Re(2): Thoth
IP: 62.254.0.8
Posted on June 9, 2002 at 09:35:45 AM by Thoth

More than 3000 orbits of the sun ago did the mean-minded traders of Carthage kill the book when they used scarce more than a score of marks that tied the book to the tongue of the one that had written it and destroyed one half of the gift I gave to men

 

Re(3): Thoth
IP: 62.254.0.8
Posted on June 9, 2002 at 09:36:17 AM by Joan Flowers

One more question great Thoth and then will I release thee for see how thou hast struck dumb my fellow sleuths who are not used to the presence of a god within their midst. Say what's this gift thou gavest to the human race?

 

Re(4): Thoth
IP: 62.254.0.8
Posted on June 9, 2002 at 09:37:16 AM by Thoth

Aye the human race I should have said because this is how the inhabitants of this fair land do now mangle their own tongue so that the word 'men' conjures up for them a mind picture of only one half of the whole.

The gift I gave to the human race was a grammar built into the brain regardless of tongue. After my enemy demolished the Tower of Babel and destroyed human's ability to instantly reset their grammatical parameters to the speech of each individual then by way of compensation I gave them a sacred writing which relied not upon the sounds they made with their mouths but was taken straight to their grammar centres through their gift of vision. This was the gift my own priests destroyed when they borrowed the simplicities of the Carthiginians and applied them to my sacred language. This was the death of the book,

For more on this matter you must refer to my great prophet Noam Chomsky and my young disciple
Paige MacDougall (see link).

Conjure me no more Joan Flower, stay your prattling and listen to your fellow sleuths who have more learning than thee
Now I leave and I will not return.


http://pr.concordia.ca/ctr/2000-01/June_7/13-Great_Grads2/index.shtml

 

Re(5): Thoth
IP: 63.201.208.73
Posted on June 23, 2002 at 10:08:50 AM by Robin Hood


Hail Thoth -
would you return to us for just a little while? we are in need of someone to help Richard the Lionheart decipher the markings on the stones that form the foundation wall for the old hut at Green's Mill! We would be most grateful!

 

Thread: Coyote Gypsy Elf
IP: 62.254.0.8
Posted on June 9, 2002 at 09:37:48 AM by Coyote Gypsy Elf

Greetings O lovers of the search and find adventure. My name is Coyote and I am a gypsy elf moving through ancient lands where nature is the book I read so am here now ready to be of assistance along your journey, your quest for truth. I am pleased to meet you in this shape I inhabit. Be well dear friends!

 

Re(1): Coyote Gypsy Elf
IP: 62.254.0.8
Posted on June 9, 2002 at 09:38:05 AM by Joan Flowers

Welcome Coyote Gypsy Elf, I too read much from the book of Nature when living in the world of air, earth, water and fire. Tell me what are thy favourite passages

 

 

Re(1): Coyote Gypsy Elf
IP: 63.201.208.207
Posted on June 13, 2002 at 01:35:33 PM by Robin Hood


Dear elusive Gypsy Elf -

where are you? Will you meet with'
us in the Greenwood Forest on
Sunday this?

 

 

Thread: The Book! The Book!

Re(3): The Book! The Book!
IP: 62.254.0.8
Posted on June 9, 2002 at 09:41:10 AM by Jake Stonebender's friend (one of many)

It strikes me that this quest for an essence, a definitive 'bookness', strikes me as proceeding on treacherous ground. Wary should we be lest we lapse into aphoristic thinking.

As Susan Sontag observes,"It is the nature of aphoristic thinking to be always in a state of concluding; a bid to have the final word is inherent in all powerful phrase-making."

It seems to me that of central concern here are the implications of electronic forme and substance for writing and books. I have no clear guidance to offer, but perhaps a question or two will spark more fertile minds to forge some useful synergies to aide our questing. To wit:

If it be a book, when it exists only in digital forme, doth the meaning of 'bookworm' expand to include a computer virus?


and


What doth "book burning" now encompass?


and too


If intelligent "neural networks" do evolve from the synergies of a global plethora of connected RAM and peer-to-peer processing power, and online books from human pen form part of that network, then will such new conscious entity or entities aptly be said to have books as memories?

just musing - Jake

 

Re(4): The Book! The Book!
IP: 63.201.209.0
Posted on June 12, 2002 at 09:37:10 AM by Robin Hood


Welcome, Jake Stonebender's Friend (of
which there are many)
it is a good question you ask about
the Book in Electronic form (and the
virus - HaHa, a quaff of ale on that one!)

Because we have a famous Chinese
detective on the case with us, let us
ask the Judge what possible ways
we can interpret the term, Book.

Surely, you will agree that the
one we are writing, which is not yet
printed anywhere, is Book-like, yes?
And by the way, can you come with us
to the forest? or must you remain
inside?

 

 

 

Thread: The weapon
IP: 62.254.0.8
Posted on June 9, 2002 at 09:40:06 AM by Marion

I doze most of the day at my chair in the Arnold Nursing Home. In my dreams time and history have no place. I see the White Lady sometimes and remember how we walked together down the Green Road -- ah, I cannot tell you where. For it is there that ‘La Fauneta’ is buried. You forget about ‘La Fauneta’, a lady's pistol of astonishing beauty. Chased silver on the barrel - tells a story of its own.

Oh yes, guns can be so very beautiful. I should know. My father's family gun-making firm goes back to 1723. ‘La Fauneta’ was made for -- Oh the White Lady knows who for and why. Her father drew up the first Copyright Act the world had known, the Act of Anne in 1709.

We don't need to look very far to see what the murder weapon is now. Let us not forget that for every death, there is a weapon.

But I ramble. Forgive me, I am 94.

Re(1): The weapon
IP: 62.254.0.8
Posted on June 9, 2002 at 09:40:28 AM by Joan Flowers

Dame Marion, a book shotte by a gunn? There is indeed a mystery but King Richard, this one methinks is deeper yet - Thou sayest a book tells more the longer it gathers dust?The meaning of this is not cleare to me.From thy learning pray explain

Re(2): The weapon
IP: 62.254.0.8
Posted on June 16, 2002 at 02:21:44 PM by The Whie Lady

As I say elsewhere, I think that indifference and neglect are also a possible weapon -- and what about the pen? If we are talking about books, then the pen may indeed be a vicious weapon.

And if the body is to be found under the Castle, in the caves, then I do fear it is a royal body, and indeed, there is not a mark upon him, not of gun or sword. And if this body is indeed that of Edward II is it actually the one we have come to seek or just a diversion?

Sophia


Thread: Triple problems
IP: 62.254.0.8
Posted on June 9, 2002 at 01:57:05 PM by Judge Dee Jen-djieh

Hail fellow sleuths,

Now I see that we have here so far a triple problem and triple problems were common in my line of work.
The three problems

First there is the pleasant game to seek the clues within the locations of this well crafted Nottingham site.

Second we seek to know if the writing in printed books has ceased to evolve so that true creativity is now only to be found in other media?

Third,a more philosophical question - if the printed book were to evolve into multimedia so that no more printed pages were published would it be dead so long as old copies remained extant, and, perhaps more profoundly, would it be dead even if no physical tomes existed but ideas from books of a former era migrated into multi media.

Although we are discussing these three problems simultaneously should we in our utterances here, give clues as to which problem we are addressing by some prefacing code word. If this seems good to other sleuths perhaps one of you will suggest the codewords

 

Re(1): Triple problems
IP: 62.254.0.8
Posted on June 9, 2002 at 01:57:54 PM by The Librarian

Hopefully a return to the threaded message format rather than a linear one will make it easier for three or indeed many more problems to be discussed!

 

 

Re(2): Triple problems
IP: 62.254.0.8
Posted on June 9, 2002 at 06:47:31 PM by Margaret Penfold

Thanks, librarian

 

Re(3): Triple problems
IP: 63.201.209.0
Posted on June 12, 2002 at 09:30:15 AM by Robin Hood


Welcome, Honorable Judge -

I am a simple and rustic man, but it
seems to me that your three-part
analysis of the Mystery is full of
wit.
As to names to tell which kind of clue
we have found, perhaps the new, threaded
list will help us keep track
of whether we are talking about the
Mystery of the Last Letter of the Name -
or
The Body (corpus) that might be mouldering
here
or the
ongoing question of the nature of
the BOOK.

Do you by any chance know of Ts'ui Pen,
the author of a novel that is a
maze? He is mentioned in Borges'
The Garden of Forking Paths.
A book I have found at the University
says: it is "a symbolic labyrinth
of time." What might that mean?

 

Re(4): Triple problems and infinite realities
IP: 62.254.0.8
Posted on June 12, 2002 at 06:57:43 PM by Judge Dee

Brave Robin, Many thanks are due to you for this information. No I have not read this book that you mention although I know a link that mentions it,
http://www.angelfire.com/ak3/slutangel/labyrinth/borges3.html


I will try to get hold of a copy although as a person embedded in one reality I find the concept as difficult as I find infinity


I must admit have found this a common theme in much SF and fantasy literature.

 

 

Thread: New Merry Sleuths
IP: 63.201.208.209
Posted on June 9, 2002 at 08:48:43 PM by Robin Hood


You may not have noticed, sitting beside
you at the Ole Trip or wandering along
the Trent, another new sleuth in
our Band of Bookies. This is actually
a computer-generated being, the friend
of Jake Stonebender. We are
supernatural, we are digital, we
are ancient, natural, and modern.
What times we will have!
Robin Hood

 

Re(1): New Merry Sleuths
IP: 63.201.209.0
Posted on June 12, 2002 at 09:23:28 AM by Robin Hood


Just as the cock was crowing this
morning, I wandered the quiet streets,
peeked around in Market Square.
There, I chanced on new faces in
Nottingham -
a mysterious Julian of Norwich - she was
looking for The White Lady.
And a strangely dressed man, a Judge,
he says, from Ancient China.
And more - although I did not see him,
scretched in the sandstone along the
river, a sign. Perhaps the Thoth who
is posting to us from the Tuat.
And I have heard of more.
I shall scout about and see what I can
find out -
perhaps we can set a time for all
of us to meet at the Galleries of Justice.

 

Re(2): New Merry Sleuths
IP: 62.254.0.8
Posted on June 12, 2002 at 06:42:27 PM by Judge Dee

I have geard that there is a synchronous meting this Sunday at Linguamoo. Is this true?

 

 

Talk together - Chat this Sunday 16th June
IP: 152.71.43.249
Posted on June 13, 2002 at 08:32:14 AM by The White Lady

Yes, we should say that all are welcome, characters, sleuths and those who are just bystanders, to a chat about the project with Robin Hood, myself and others from M is for Nottingham?

9 pm BST Sunday 16th June
LinguaMOO

Here's a bit more info about how to get to LinguaMOO and chat

http://trace.ntu.ac.uk/online/meeting.cfm

 

 

A Proper Lady
IP: 63.201.208.207
Posted on June 13, 2002 at 01:39:51 PM by Robin Hood


Ye Zounds! I have just met, at
Green's Mill, the very esteemed
Carnelia Montrue. She is eager to join
our search, and wishes we could move
more directly to the real plot.
I have welcomed her to our group -
if you are near Green's Mill, you might
encounter Carnelia in her astounding
gown!

 

 

Re(1): A Proper Lady
IP: 62.254.0.8
Posted on June 16, 2002 at 07:09:15 PM by Joann Flower

Welcome,

Lady Carnelia, I have read your aims and look forward to your guidance in this matter

Re(2): A Proper Lady
IP: 130.111.136.109
Posted on June 20, 2002 at 10:16:16 AM by Carnelia


What could have been taken for a deep shadow turns around and becomes a rather mature lady dressed from wimple to slipper in dark midnight blue. She has a pale delicate face splattered with fine wrinkles, -- like a Jackson Pollock in pastels. Her round eyes are a grayish-blue and her gaze is stern and steady. Her mouth is small, and puckered as though she is about to spit a watermelon seed.

"Thank you for your welcoming remarks. My gown? Hmm, yes. Well, I like to think it suits me, and staying with one color makes it easy to accessorize. Speaking of accessories, I think this terrible plague of contrived reality that has become the new form of entertainment has it in for The Book."

She turned and settled herself quickly and comfortably on a garden bench, giving the distinct impression that she was warming up for a somewhat extended diatribe. "Are you at all familiar with the sort of fetid tripe I am referring to? Programs where people voluntarily eat worms or line up to be proposed to by a rich man or race around the world or betray members of a group on a tropical island, all generally for money?"

Her hands twisted in her lap and she shook her head slowly. "Has anyone ever read Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.? Such a sad and frightening story. A government that ruthlessly enforces a base equality among its citizens. What I find even more tragic about this contrived reality that abounds in today's entertainment world is that people are not forced to act like base morons and fools, they are paid to do it. They do it for money and we broadcast it into every home that has a television as an example of acceptable behavior and a way to get rich fast."

She leaned forward and put her face in her hands for a moment, still shaking her head, then she suddenly looked up, her gaze intent, "You realize we are engaged in an exercise of contrived reality right now, don't you? We have our planted clues, we have our little premise of a murder, we have our group of participants. Put wigs and gowns on the members of one of these shows and they are us. As of yet there has been no betrayal of any of our party, although that may still come, I suppose." She smiled a wicked little smile, "Ah well, if anyone is approached by someone promising a million dollars to do the rest of us in, slap them just on principle, won't you?"

She sighed and sat back, even assuming a bit of an un-ladylike slouch against the bench. "Creativity is hard. It takes focus, passion and freedom. Thorough research is hard. It takes time and labor. Contrived reality is easy and economically advantageous. The great art patrons of yesterday are gone and we are left with great patrons of crap. Can The Book survive in an environment as unfriendly and as barren as this?"

 

 

Re(3): A Proper Lady
IP: 63.201.208.138
Posted on June 21, 2002 at 09:52:53 AM by Robin Hood


Carnelia - one so versed in fine behavior as yourself would naturally
notice the state of what passes for community storytelling just now -
and it surely isn't for everyone!
But I remember the hue and cry about our
noble Geoffry Chaucer, who set about to
write his Canterbury Tales in the common
language so that his readers could be
entertained in the tongue of the
Sceptered Isles! He was so roundly criticized, as I recall, for writing in a language other than French, which was proper for serious literature and romance!
And then, our own Mary Shelley - upbraided because a woman was not supposed to tell a story.
I wonder if even these fabricated stories of survival in tv-land might not represent a kind of story that will
be found in the infinite book.
Although your ladyship will want to wear
proper shoes, would you join us at
the Green's Mill to see if the infinite
Book might be there?

 

Re(4): A Proper Lady
IP: 63.201.208.251
Posted on June 22, 2002 at 09:12:02 AM by Robin Hood


I have posted a messenger to inform all
and sundry about the strange and tragic events surrounding Lady Carnelia. She arrived at Green's Mill and suddenly was
taken with a vision of the past -
The Fire, she said, and then fainted
full away. She has been carried to the Castle. We send our wishes for recovery.
Oh, Lady Carnelia, we wonder what vision has given you such a fright!

 

Re(5): A Proper Lady
IP: 62.254.0.8
Posted on June 22, 2002 at 05:47:58 PM by Joan Flower,

This is indeed sad. There is no sign that she be changing shape into a book not unlike the Domesday book?

 

Lunch at Newstead Abbey
IP: 62.254.0.8
Posted on June 14, 2002 at 04:27:51 AM by The White Lady

I am bid to lunch at Newstead Abbey. Would anyone care to join me?

I will take the opportunity to wander around the Abbey grounds as I have been wont to do in my lifetime, and spend some time gazing on mementos of Byron. In his study there is a skull.... I wonder whose and how it got there? Not quite a body in the library, but certainly a skull in the study!

Sophia

 

Re(1): Lunch at Newstead Abbey
IP: 62.254.0.8
Posted on June 14, 2002 at 07:13:54 PM by Joan Flower

Is this a picnoc, White Lady? I would willingly join you

 

 

Re(2): Lunch at Newstead Abbey
IP: 62.254.0.8
Posted on June 15, 2002 at 05:51:38 AM by The White Lady

The weather is fine, and there are peaceful gardens at Newstead. My favourite spot to sit is at the foot of the monument that Byron raised to his favourite dog, Boatswain. Join me there? And we can continue to discuss the Book and the story, and whether they tell only a priviledged view of the world.

Oral storytelling -- which has oft been the means of passing stories among the ordinary people -- has meant little to me in my lifetime, being unable to hear or speak. I find this new type of written communication frees me from the prison of my silence.

There must be many others for whom this cyber-speaking is a godsend.

But I will bring my trusty slate to Newstead, so that we can communicate in real time. My slate and chalk has served me well.

Sophia

 

Re(3): Lunch at Newstead Abbey
IP: 194.217.194.139
Posted on June 15, 2002 at 08:47:17 AM by Richard the Lionheart

I too will dine at Newstead. There, I trust, the White Lady will guide us to the clue and if the game is last letter/first letter at last I see the link. But think on this: the book can never die. Even the manuals for our e writing is in hard copy, and should a day ever dawn when the pylons are down and the generators silent somewhere the wind-flicked leaves of a book will be picked up, mulled over and restart a civilization.

 

Re(4): Lunch at Newstead Abbey
IP: 63.201.208.12
Posted on June 20, 2002 at 08:22:58 AM by Robin Hood


Dear Richard -
perhaps we are on the trail of such
a book. Are you ready for a crusade
to Green's Mill?

 

Re(4): Lunch at Newstead Abbey
IP: 63.201.208.206
Posted on June 17, 2002 at 08:35:27 AM by Robin Hood

Dear Richard -

we had so hoped that, before our lunch
at the Abbey, you would join us
at the trAce chat! You were missed!

And, about a book starting a civilization -
yes, that could be -
in fact, our new characters may
have suggested just such a thing!

 

Re(5): Lunch at Newstead Abbey
IP: 62.254.0.7
Posted on June 20, 2002 at 05:43:57 PM by Joan Flower

Here we are at Newstead Abbey
A word within the world Can it be OR?
I shall now hie me to the Green

 

Re(6): Lunch at Newstead Abbey
IP: 63.201.211.59
Posted on June 21, 2002 at 10:07:08 AM by Robin Hood


All sleuths -
I have left word at Newstead Abbey with
the ancient crows. If you listen to them now, you will hear that they are
saying to follow us to Green's Mill
where we are invesigating the latest
clue!

Re(7): Lunch at Newstead Abbey
IP: 194.217.194.139
Posted on June 21, 2002 at 05:56:40 PM by Richard the Lionheart

As I sat waiting at the windmill a mouse jumped from the fan tail right to the ground. Gee, I thought, thumbing a paperback someone from America had left lying on the ground. Gee, what a strange word.

 

Re(8): Lunch at Newstead Abbey
IP: 62.254.0.8
Posted on June 22, 2002 at 05:45:05 PM by Joan Flower

Gee, a strang word and a strange clue, methinks

  continued on Next Page

   


 return to Table of Contents

 ["Already there are reports of The White Lady roaming the halls of Newstead Abbey in the wee hours of the morning, searching for clues, looking for the corpse. . . ."]

 

 

***

"the last letter of the 
Name has been written
"


Project Organisers: 

Marjorie Coverley Luesebrink (M.D. Coverley), Creator and Web Designer


Helen Whitehead, Nottingham Director


Roger Parish, Senior Librarian, Nottingham City Council - Research Advisor


Cathy Grindrod, Literature Development Officer, Nottingham City Council - Local Writer Liason.

© M.D. Coverley 2002