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[terrasnow]

CTW as I understand it … for now!

[Sunny du Pree]

oooooooooohhhhhh keeep gooooinnnnnnnn
and WELCOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[terrasnow]

Thanks Sunny! I will!

for number 6, I meant that there are many stories/worlds and an author named Dale for each one … who is really a (copy) of the same person.

7- In CTW, each author is channelled through a previous (bigger) author … right up to the real-life author who becomes a channel (a voice) for each/all of his characters while letting the stories take on a life of their own. The idea of something within something … or of the same pattern getting smaller and smaller gives us fractals. Perhaps there are as many as 10 or 11 layers (stories, worlds) in CTW (the number of circles found in Aglaura?) And these may be doubled (as twin aspects)!

Drawing concentric circles leaves me with the feeling that there could be an infinity of them … and that they could symbolize an infinite number of worlds (macro and micro) existing 'out there' and 'in here'! The 'Codex Seraphinianus' manuscript may be telling us that life (varied and in forms we may not know about yet) and seeds of life are abundant in the cosmos and that each seed is a world of its own (as is each atom, each person, each system, etc…).

8- CTW has a hero who 'falls'! Dale's life, health, marriage, business, house, mind, heart, etc… all 'fall' apart … and he also 'falls' into smaller and smaller worlds. The fall of the hero may represent the passing or the fall of all that grows 'old' and 'dies' (orders, gods, ages, ways, heroes, mankind, generations … the father gives way to the son who someday gives way to his son, etc…).

The fall could be a fall into something smaller or lower, or to pass by inheritance, or to come down from a stock or source (genes, genome). The fall could also refer to Genesis (Incunabula, Flower and Egg of Life, creation … I remember a picture about the 'Hand of Creation'). It could refer to the idea of 'original' sin (the 'fallen' state of man passed down the generations), and/or to Lucifer (light giver, fall of light).

The 'organism' growing between the 2 hands (XY) in the FAQ section of CTW could be a clue for creation/sex, genome and DNA mapping (connected to a map). Hebe, the Goddess who comes out of the computer screen in the CTW video, has 'fallen' or has been displaced in favour of a male cup-bearer (cup holds water of life to revive, rejuvenate … as digitalis' role). Hebe is restored during the Aquarian age.

to be continued if no one objects!
terrasnow

[Myssfitz]

HOLY COW!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What an awesome thing to wake up too. Where have you been? Please do continue.........

Moo Moo Moo, Clop Clop Clop Clop, Moo Moo Moo, Clop Clop Clop Clop (my poor imitation of a cow jumping up and down and clapping )

[Valas]

This will undoubtably seem mean-spirited, but it looks like you're putting people on the wrong foot here with regards to Dale, so I'm going to have to counter some of your arguments.

1)Granted.

2)The proof being?? What does Patrick Dobbs say about the man?? What does Diana Sprague say about her (Diana = Artemis, who was a virgin goddess), what does Angie Shapiro say about her?? What does Wesley Keeler say about him??

3)Possible

4)No evidence of that. The wish occured only once, and I do believe that this occurence is slightly more than a mere variable. Sal's body is the only one found at the Lake of tears, considering the seemig importance of this place, you'd expect a repeat then if it was merely a variable.

5)That's meta-knowledge and therefore inapplicable.

6)No evidence of the many authors known as Dale. Some evidence suggesting that if there are two Dale's, that the other one is dead, due to the carcrash which "our" Dale supposedly survived. That's simply transferring a person from one reality to another.

As for Doc. Kendra.. She made those remarks when she thought him insane, because he talked about visiting an amusement park which upon inspection turned into a graveyard, but which upon secondary inspection was an amusement park again. She now acknowledges that Dale isn't insane, therefore this argument of him being a multiple is also moot.

7)More meta-knowledge, therefor not applicable.

8)Some possible points, yet also more meta-knowledge.

When you are writing a timeline of events, trying to figure out the plot as accurately as you can, then you may NOT use meta-knowledge to explain things. It defies the very point of an ARG, and it would be the equivalent of saying of real life events.. Well.. It's God's Will.. Thereby ignoring factors like the other driver who has hit your car and just killed a loved one, had more alcohol flowing through his veins than he does blood. (slight exaggeration of the imagery to drive home the point.)

You can keep saying it's God's Will when it comes to real life events, but that's not going to do much to stop similar incidents of occuring. Same applies here.. It's the author's intention to tell us a story and Dale is a character in said story. Well D'uh.. But focussing on the author instead of the character and the story, in an event which more closely resembles audience participatory theatre than watching tv.. Well. A waste of your time then.. Especially when trying to write a synopsis of what you're seeing and keep talking aboutt he director and the actors etc.

Does this mean your attempt isn't appreciated.. Nope.. Just means that it requires a lot more work, and less slagging off of the main character.

[MageSteff]

Re: CTW as I understand it … for now!

[terrasnow]

Wow! Glad my postings generated some responses! Lots of food for thought! Thanks!

I will be gone for a few days but will get back to this sometime next week.

terrasnow

[Barbarellany]

I like the idea that Dale is the author of the story. Fits nicely with what he tells us about himself in his diary. It also makes me think of that movie with John Candy, Who is Harry Crumb? I believe it was called, where the writer is typing a story and when he falls asleep the story takes on life. Maybe when Dale disappears he is actually awake and going about his business, playing with meaghan, taking Diana out for dinner etc. When he is back at the computer the story moves on and when he falls asleep he enters the story. His memory maybe shaky because he doesn't recall all that he dreamed, or all that he typed into the story before falling asleep.

I also think that CTW is based on the classical compnents of myth. James used the same formula as did Star Wars and other Epics. It probably doesn't matter which myth or epic we use, it's the formula of the stories that is important. This is probably why in the begining we were pointed to Strauss.Aglaura works like Avalon but isn't Avalon. It's its own place. A player can use Avalon or Star Wars to understand the characters and the battle, it probably doesn't matter. The force runs through it all and the force is out of balance.

Hmmm... how do I tell Phyllis not to worry, she is just a figment of a dream so nothing that happens to her could really hurt. LOL.

I wonder if TP is Dale's word processor trying to tell us what Dale has written and his notes for future parts of the story? lol

[tartanwolf]

Just to clarify the movie was "Delirious"

[terrasnow]

Back home! Not a good August! It may be too late to continue what I began but still … I will try to write about what I still see in CTW.

Just to clarify some of the points made above (using letters because I still hope to finish the numbered section above):

a- I believe that some things happen because it is 'God's will' and some things happen due to our own and other people's 'free will'. (We, each, may control what we do in time or how we influence certain things, etc. but we don't control the existence of time, death, the stars, DNA, etc). My DNA will dictate certain things that make me the person I am but it will never control 'the person' I choose to become (perhaps 'star' power, one's horoscope, does the same thing)! Some things are handed down to us through family lines … I did not choose the language, the religion, etc… I was born into (although some people believe we did). The child who is abused (like I believe Sarah was by Hamilton) did not choose to be abused! There is God's will, our DNA's 'will', horoscope 'will', a 'tribal' will, our individual will, and other people's will to deal with in life! I do not believe that 'everything' that happens is God's will. Sorry if something I said seemed to reflect that.

b- I agree that my attempt to present any part of my 'case' requires a lot more work (and rewording) but if I waited until it was 'perfect' enough to satisfy other peoples' requirements, the game would be ended long before I could share my viewpoint (in fact, I may be hopelessly late anyway). It would be easier to be quiet but I wasn't when I thought I had something to share … and I find it difficult to write about what I 'see' in my mind. It is my first attempt at a collective-immersive ARG (it is the story that primarily interests me) and I do apologize for my mistakes and for my weak writing abilities. Please disregard this thread if it offends you!

c- What I write is my viewpoint only! I do not know the puppetmaster/author's thoughts about CTW. I cannot get into another person's mind and I cannot know the secrets that lie there, except as a person reveals him/herself through their words and actions. I know only my thoughts and I thought that the title of this thread said it all "CTW as I understand it …", not as the author understands it. If I speculate or generalize I am only showing how I think, not how the author/puppetmaster thinks!

d- I like a good discussion too and I will try to deal with the wide range of responses … though I may leave some difficult sections out! I am terribly 'average' … not 'mensa' as I suspect many of the players for this type of game are! I could never have solved the puzzles presented in CTW. I simply want to see how everything will 'tie' together in the end … and a 'picture' is forming in my mind as to how I would do it (not necessarily how it will be done).

e- I like the idea that it does not matter which story one compares CTW to … that it is something that works like something else but has its own place! I saw many things in many places that would explain CTW but one site: http://www.themodernword.com/joyce/joyce_works_fw.html, about Finnegans Wake seemed to 'nail' it for me (as did a site on Alchemy). I was merely comparing CTW to observations made about Finnegans Wake and trying to make connections (of things that struck me) between the two 'works', that's why I started my numbered section with 'Like Finnegans Wake, CTW …'.

f- I know that CTW is more than a story but I think I read somewhere that it was primarily a story … crossed with a collective/immersive ARG. I know that CTW invites each and all (collective) players to enter into the story/play/game (that's the immersive part of the collective) and that each person thereby becomes a co-author and a co-Dale (pen-name). I believe that Dale is the original author's alter ego … and also ours if/when we enter into the game/story/play.

g- In both stories, Finnegans and CTW, there is only one dreamer … the author! Since CTW has co-authors (ghostwriters) it also has co-dreamers … all named 'Dale' (pen-name; together we are 'one'). Yet each one will dream his/her own dream of CTW in his/her own head (a place where others cannot go). No matter how many characters there are in the dream/play, there is still only one dreamer … the one who dreams the dream … each 'me', each 'I am'. Each person is also the 'artist' of the picture/play that forms in each mind as the story unfolds. Our own wishes seem to merge with CTW (the story as we wish to understand it) and we each chase our own wish and put into the chase what we wish! We chase the wish and the wish chases us … like Diana, the huntress who becomes the hunted! If I am 'the author of' and 'the artist of' my dream perhaps I am also the 'star' (I 'become' the character I most sympathize with or most resemble) of my dream and the puppetmaster of my play … yet this, my dream, has been fed into me by the dream (the thought or the basic plan) of an original author/puppermaster.

In a nutshell, in CTW, I don't 'see' a play on a stage, I only see words (written by co-authors) that evoke a play in my mind as the story unfolds and, in that way, I am the dreamer of the dream (the play in my mind) generated by the master-plan of the original dreamer/author and by the words of each co-author … and I am the artist who paints the dream in my mind (a place you cannot go, a secret you cannot know, except as I reveal it through my words and actions).

[terrasnow]

clarifying (and adding to) my viewpoint