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 Forum index » Diversions » Perplex City Puzzle Cards » PXC Puzzle Cards - Questions, Meta and Sub-puzzles
[New] The Message On The Cards...
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GasparLewis
Unfettered


Joined: 19 Nov 2005
Posts: 474
Location: vicinty of NYC

 		Maybe this is extrapolation out the back and around again, but when I look at under, I think digging it up, and when I think Clap as a location... well, black helicopters, lengthy puzzular excursion, mockery of our ignorance/foolishness by the O# operatives on Earth...

[TIAG]
Spoiler (Rollover to View):
...dramatic "back to where it all began" motif/vibe...

[/TIAG]

If it's actually there, I cry, because I mean, come on!

PostPosted: Mon Jun 12, 2006 7:56 pm
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PerplexHero
Boot


Joined: 16 Jun 2006
Posts: 30

 		Card message
Interesting to note that:

Spoiler (Rollover to View):
COMBED THUNDERCLAP anagrams to:

BOLD CHANCE TRUMPED
OPEN THE MD CLUB CARD
DON THE EMP CLUB CARD
PEN CLUB CARD METHOD
CARD BLEND UP METHOD


PostPosted: Tue Jun 20, 2006 9:43 pm
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ryandrew
Unfettered


Joined: 21 Jan 2005
Posts: 575
Location: Manchester

 		Interesting, or useless?
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PostPosted: Thu Jun 22, 2006 9:47 am
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PerplexHero
Boot


Joined: 16 Jun 2006
Posts: 30
ryandrew wrote:
Interesting, or useless?


Perhaps a little of both, but I found the last one, in particular, interesting Smile

PostPosted: Thu Jun 22, 2006 10:12 pm
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savetheclocktower
Kilroy

Joined: 05 Jul 2006
Posts: 1

 		I've been a long-time fan of "The Library of Babel," so here's my take on the "Combed Thunderclap" theory:

I'm certain that this is a reference to the story. The names of the books that Borges gives are nonsensical enough that there's likely no other usage of the phrase "combed thunderclap" that wasn't inspired by "Babel."

So if this is true, then what does the reference mean? The story is all about the idea that every possible combination of letters and symbols exists somewhere in a book. The librarian speculates that each one of those books has meaning in some language, and most likely has more than one meaning in more than one language.

Thus: for every book there is some language in which its contents make perfect sense. But if we were to happen upon a book that made sense in English, we'd likely fail to consider that it could have a completely sensical but wholly different meaning in another hypothetical language.

Consider:

Quote:
(An n number of possible languages use the same vocabulary; in some of them, the symbol library allows the correct definition a ubiquitous and lasting system of hexagonal galleries, but library is bread or pyramid or anything else, and these seven words which define it have another value. You who read me, are You sure of understanding my language?)


Thus I echo the idea raised a few pages back: I think this message has meaning beyond what is on the surface. I think the implication is that this text has surface "meaning" to us, but means something entirely different in another "language." It could definitely be ciphertext of some sort. What about reading the letters from top-to-bottom, rather than left-to-right? (IOTCELE...)

(Apologies if any of this has been covered already. I'm late to the party and am still combing through backstory.)

PostPosted: Wed Jul 05, 2006 3:25 am
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Scribe
Unfettered


Joined: 09 Jun 2006
Posts: 300
Location: Brighton, UK

 		Borges' Work
Hi all, sorry if this has been covered before - I've been out of this thread until now. But it doesn't seem to have come up. It might not be relevant, but for me the parallels are a little spooky...

The three titles mentioned in the story are "The Combed Thunderclap", "The Plaster Cramp", and "Axaxaxas mlö". According to this page, the last of these is a translation of "Behind the Moon" in a language of "Tlon".

Tlon is a fictional language by the same author. It seems to come from another Borges story called "Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius" - Wikipedia link, from which the quotes below are taken.

To confuse the TIAG/TINAG conundrum yet further, Tlon is an imagined world, created through the imaginations of a (possibly fictional) country called Uqbar in Borges' story:

Quote:
the narrator and the world have learned ... that Uqbar and Tlön are invented places, the work of a "benevolent secret society"


Hmm, secret societies... There's some more stuff there on what it did and how it changed in 1824. Then:

Quote:
Beginning "about 1942", in what at first appears a magical turn, objects from Tlön begin to appear in the real world. While we are later led to see them as forgeries, they still must be the projects of a secret science and technology.


Eep eep?

In a possible nod to ARGs, but also a possible dig at totalitarianism, the "invented" culture of Tlon starts to sweep through and replace Earth culture - "an extreme case of ideas affecting reality"...

I'd need to read the story to work out what this bit means, but it seems oddly relevant:

Quote:
in Tlön there are objects known as hrönir ["Tlön...", p.119] that arise when two different people find the "same" lost object in different places.


Finally, what of the "Orbius Tertius" bit?

Quote:
Latin for "third world", "third circle", or "third territory" does not appear to be a geographic reference ... One possible interpretation is that it is a reference to the Earth's orbit around the Sun, which is third after Mercury and Venus.


Third power? Not sure. Certainly you need three bodies for a syzygy, which would imply 3 orbits (assuming none were in the centre...)

I'll try and get hold of the book. There might be an online version, but I'm not crazy about reading long stuff on screen. (Edit: linky - not too long.)
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PostPosted: Tue Jul 18, 2006 4:25 pm
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arieh
Boot


Joined: 13 Apr 2005
Posts: 35

 		Wave 4
So far, all the Wave 4 cards seem to be confirming "Combed Thunderclap", using the highly accurate "hold up to the screen and squint" method of testing.

One sort-of-exception. #191 should have the C and P of "thunderclap" on the left-hand top and bottom. The P is fine, but the C has a shape below it in the same discoloration as the letter-part. It sort of looks like a rough triangle. This could be one of the 'countries' mentioned here or part of the word.

PostPosted: Tue Aug 01, 2006 5:17 pm
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drinkmonsters
Veteran


Joined: 31 Jul 2006
Posts: 89

 		I'm sure scribe is on the right track.

what happens to the characters who have lost an object?
how do they find it?

here is supposedly a full transcript of the book:
http://aegis.ateneo.net/fted/tlontext.htm

sounds confusing, but its not very long... and this is a very confusing game. i should be used to it by now...

Drinkmonsters.

PostPosted: Wed Aug 02, 2006 4:27 pm
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Peter Blake
Greenhorn

Joined: 01 Aug 2006
Posts: 9
Location: Brisbane, Australia

 		Re: Wave 4
arieh wrote:
So far, all the Wave 4 cards seem to be confirming "Combed Thunderclap", using the highly accurate "hold up to the screen and squint" method of testing.


Could someone update the wiki with enhanced thumbnails of these Wave 4 cards?

Still needed:

  • #061 Ticket to Ride
  • #127 Card House
  • #223 Secret Location
  • #239 Persian

And, at risk of major troutage, #233 is the 2 of Spades by elimination. It looks like it shouldn't have any silhouettes on it if the last letter is a P.

--
"Fiction can reveal what reality obscures."

PostPosted: Thu Aug 03, 2006 12:26 am
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Noah
Guest


 		Okay... so if COMBED THUNDERCLAP is an anagram for...

BLEND UP CARD METHOD

Then perhaps the first part of the message is also an anagram, or there's another way to arrange the cards. I clicked the link that someone posted earlier, but it was enormous.

PostPosted: Tue Aug 15, 2006 2:31 am
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jazzychad
Veteran

Joined: 03 May 2006
Posts: 74

 		Well... this may not have anything to do with anything... but found this interesting... someone has a blog called "The Combed Thunderclap"..

http://erickb.wordpress.com/

Amusing if nothing else...

PostPosted: Tue Aug 15, 2006 10:41 pm
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rose
...and then Magic happens


Joined: 26 Nov 2003
Posts: 4117

 		random spec
As this phrase seems to be complete ,and the only complete phrase we have so far I have a few ideas;

1. The meaning is important to sorting out the whole META puzzle, with the blobs, the numbers, dice, risk fiugres and card symbols.

2. The passage mentioning the book says:
Quote:
The Combed Thunderclap and another The
Plaster Cramp and another Axaxaxas mlö. These phrases, at first glance
incoherent, can no doubt be justified in a cryptographical or allegorical manner;


Maybe we need to look at the cryptographical justification. Perhaps the playing cards put on the same cards as these letters, all of which are prime numbers is a hint to the cryptographical justification?

3. I found that EDTH is an acronym for Errand Down the Hill.

4. I am wondering how the librarian, or anyone else, on PPC would be familiar with this book? Assuming there was some reason for it, couldn't it just as well be an accusation against the librarian (given by one member of the 3P to another) as much as a plea for help from him?
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PostPosted: Wed Aug 16, 2006 6:58 am
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Scribe
Unfettered


Joined: 09 Jun 2006
Posts: 300
Location: Brighton, UK

 		Re: random spec
rose wrote:
1. The meaning is important to sorting out the whole META puzzle, with the blobs, the numbers, dice, risk fiugres and card symbols.


I think I posted this in another thread, but to me yes, it makes sense that the person who added the letters on the primes is also the person who added the numbers, dice, etc - if MC nor the Academy noticed any of the additions to the cards until recently, then I would assume that one person is in a position to insert things up til then.

Quote:

2. The passage mentioning the book says:
Quote:
The Combed Thunderclap...



Weirdly, my book (Penguin 70 years collection) has it down as "Combed Thunder" - no "The" beforehand, and no "Clap". I assume this is just a different translation then (haven't checked for other differences yet), although the other two "titles" are exactly the same.


Hmm, I also just realised something, but then noticed RockOnFlutterBy hit upon it a few pages back:

RockOnFlutterBy wrote:
proposed idea that "combed thunderclap" is a codename of some kind, perhaps it is the name of the person intened to read the messege rather that the writer?


I like this too - maybe there's someone (else) we're supposed to find here on Earth that can shed some light on the symbols.
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PostPosted: Wed Aug 16, 2006 8:54 am
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mac_monkey
Decorated

Joined: 25 Feb 2006
Posts: 250

 		Urm there's a guy called thunderclap who hangs about in irc...maybe it's him!

He said he knew nothing of this thunderclap thingy, until people randomly started combing him in IRC

On second thoughts, it's probably not him, considering the game he's playing.
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PostPosted: Wed Aug 16, 2006 10:22 am
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ramsfan
Decorated

Joined: 07 Sep 2005
Posts: 232
Location: holmfirth, yorks

 		Could Combed Thunderclap be a keystream or cipher for a message that we might get from the 42 number strings. I did understand how the solitaire cipher worked when I was deep into Shuffled, but I can't remember how to try using it now we have the full pack, and presumably the starting order. Trout me if this has been suggested before.
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PostPosted: Wed Aug 16, 2006 1:26 pm
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