unforum

[Punishinator]

Has anyone actually tried calling June's number? Just curious.

[Sarah B]

Not that I know to, no. I won't be doing it either; I'm terribly phone shy!

[Etta]

I am too chicken to call June during business hours, but I have tried calling the number outside of office hours and it goes straight to an answering machine. There is a message from June saying she can't come to the phone but you can email her...

Just a couple of other thoughts:

1) Has anyone bought First Among Sequels yet? Someone mentioned they saw it at one of the London bookstores I think, and they had a few copies in Whitby today. I didn't buy it b/c I'm buried under reading for work at the minute, but now wish I would have. The book isn't supposed to be available until the 7th of July; in theory that is what all of this is leading up to. I've checked the Hodder website and it isn't available from them yet. So, I'm wondering if it is only for sale from the shops Jasper will be visiting (and which also happen to have the Dupine Classics). Might there be something in it that we're supposed to find. Something on page 49 perhaps??

2) Is there something more to "Niebla"? It is, after all, the title of a book in which the author appears as his fictional self and a character asserts that the author is not in fact in control of the book. It has to be more than coincidence that Ffforde uses this as his pseudonym...

[Canzonett]

[echidna]

Amy's latest blogpost asks us to identify the missing characters from the butchered Dupine Classics. It seems some of the minor characters from the books managed to escape being obliterated by the ffake Ffforde and are currently in hiding. If we can identify them then they might speak to Amy. The pages in the Dupine editions with extracts on all refer to specific characters. So far I've identifed the following and emailed Amy about them:

Alice in Wonderland - I haven't seen the page for this one but I assume Amy's new feline companion is The Cheshire Cat
The Raven - Pauline Dubourg, the laundress from The Murders in the Rue Morgue
Wind in the Willows - Little Portly, the otter
Gulliver's Travels - Alexander the Great
Great Expectations - Georgiana, Mr Pocket's cousin
The Man Who Was Thursday - The Innkeeper

I haven't been able to do any others because I haven't seen transcripts of the extra pages.

So if anyone does find any more of the Dupine books, please record the extracts from the extra pages so that we can find the remaining characters.

[Out and About]

[Out and About]

Having re-read the blog passage it does make it clear about the minor characters escaping and it is these that Amy wants to contact so probably scratch my last post!

[echidna]

Yes, just to make absolutely clear - I'm not talking about the ffake Ffforde's poems which lead us to the next book in the chain. What we need are the pages which contain the remaining brief extracts from the novels themselves.

If you google these quotations, you will find they all directly relate to one specific minor character within each novel.

Out and About - you can always edit your own posts if you think they might be misleading.

[Punishinator]

I would tend to agree with your theory as well as pointing out that these minor characters have information regarding the missing key-word of Mr. Fforde. Also don't forget to look where the footnotes would be for some sort of communication.

[Punishinator]

Samuel Pepys

[Punishinator]

Samuel Pepys

[echidna]

June has also updated her blog - this time with an email from the real Jasper. It seems like our ffake Ffforde started out as a character from an abandoned early work by the real Fforde. He was locked up in one of Jasper's books but seemingly has broken the lock and escaped. We're needed to help find the lockword:

[Jaybird]

I've thought June a BookWoman for a while, since she seems so... out of touch with the world i suppose is the polite way to say it...

Note being unwaware of what certain terms mean, and that Peter and Wendy were on a date, so she couldn't come. This is either childish or simply Old-Fasioned.

[Canzonett]

How about that BookCam thing Jasper mentioned?

[Etta]

Has anyone been able to purchase a pre-released copy of First Among Sequels yet? I've been kicking myself for not doing so yesterday, but Whitby is about 2 hours away and I won't be able to get back there before the 7th.

I have to think that those books are being made available to us (seeing as they are only located in stores that also have Dupine Classics) for a reason. Particularly since the real Jasper said in his email to June that he thinks the keyword is probably in the new book. (Although he said he couldn't find it in the proof...?)

Darn!!! I really wish I would have bought it yesterday! I've checked the webpage for the Whitby Bookshop and they have closed for the day. I might try calling them tomorrow to see if I can buy a copy over the phone and have them post it to me asap.

Another thought as well about Niebla. In Jasper's email he says that there is a mist (i.e. fog) where the character's name should be in his memory.